Happy New Year

On impulse we decided to go away to see in the New Year. By a stroke of luck we found a vacancy in a hotel in Aberlour about 50 miles from Aberdeen. We arrived in Aberlour shortly after lunch, and after a short walk went to the Mash Tun, a well known whisky pub in the village.

As it was early I stayed away from the whisky, but tried a local beer, Winter Flurry! Pleasant enough. Returned to the hotel to check in and get ready for dinner. The hotel, "Dowans" is under new ownership since the last time I was there in May, in fact the new owners only took it over on the 18th December. I did wonder if we would run into any early teething issues, but all seemed in order.

The hotel has been a little neglected in the recent past and it is in need of some refurbishment. We got the impression the new owners were quite likely to make a go of it, and bring the hotel up to date. Dinner was good, and at midnight we received complimentary drinks. There were quite a few locals in the hotel in the evening as well as residents. Hope it works out for the new owners.

At 12:30am we watched the firework display in Aberlour and then retired for the night. the bed was comfortable and the room warm and pleasant. And so goodnight and a Happy New Year!

The photograph shows the gate house of the Aberlour Distillery which is just on the outskirts of the village. The distillery was closed to visitors until early January so we could not visit, though I did have a couple of drams in the evening. The orange sky was just for fun!