Your cottage getaway in the heart of Scotland
Less than 3 weeks until the inaugural Women’s Tour of Scotland !
Very exciting development to see a permanent UCI event being established that will bring the best of women’s cycling to Scotland. Stage 1 commences in Dundee on Fri 9th and tackles some of the hills behind the cottage en route to Dunfermline. Brilliant opportunity to see top rated cyclists!
The Fife Pilgrim Way long distance path opened last Friday, July 5th.
Fife Coast and Countryside Trust secured funding in 2017 to create a new and inspiring long-distance route through beautiful inland Fife.
Starting at Culross and North Queensferry, the 104 km/64 mile path takes in spectacular views of the Highlands, the Coast, Forth and Tay Estuaries and the Lomond Hills. It passes medieval landmarks, industrial landscapes and historic picturesque villages on its way to St. Andrews.
The route uses Fife’s existing network of rights of way, paths and tracks to offer varied opportunities for long distance, multi-day route supplemented by shorter walks and circular routes.
As you progress along the route look out for the 8 orientation panels and nine cast iron footstep features and four stone rest points along the route.
Given the route is close to us, you can use the cottage as a base and complete a section (or several sections) during your stay. Grab a Thermos from the cupboard and enjoy the ramble!

Uisge Beatha.
Aqua Vitae.
The Water of Life.
Whisky.
Had the opportunity to visit Glen Turret distillery over near Crieff last week. It was a warm, wet, overcast day. The mist was down for the afternoon. Everything was green and leafy.
It was quite fitting then to visit a distillery located beside a burn in spate and fed from the waters of Loch Turret. We had an excellent tour, taking us through the entire process from beginning to end. The distillery is the oldest in Scotland – 1775 – and is currently moving away from supplying into whisky blending (Famous Grouse) and into building its own brand as a single malt. We got to sample a dram or two as part of the tour. Don’t worry if you are driving, you can put your samples into a wee container so you can enjoy them when it is safe.
Glen Turret is located at Crieff and is approximately a 25 mile drive from our cottage.
Tòiseach Úr : Fresh Start; New beginnings.
Beautiful day on Friday. Kids were awesome too. 5 hours hiking, 3 up, 2 down, 900m / 3000feet of ascent.
Could see across the Highlands for miles and miles and miles!
Planning a yomp up a hill given the fine weather. It’ll be Munro number x for the pair of us, the 3rd for the kids. For the uninitiated, a Munro is a Scottish mountain over 3000 feet high. There are 282 or 3 of them now. When I started there were 285 but survey technology has improved over the years and some have been declassified. Still, Hugh Munro, the person who set about classifying them, didn’t do too bad. I wonder what he would have thought of his legacy? Would people still be as keen to climb them if they were just hills on the skyline and not Munro’s?
Anyway… key to get the kids up one now their legs are strong enough is to distract them… And keep drip feeding them chocolate!
This is a handy link –