Snow Roads

We set out to drive the Snow Roads route today.  When I was little I lived in Aberdeen, and my grandparents lived in Inverness.  We used to drive across the Tomintoul road fairly regularly, and thought it would be nice to revisit that area as well as discover some of the further south roads we don't know so well.

Our first stopping point was the Connecting Contours installation at what used to be the Devil's Elbow viewpoint - a notorious steep double hairpin now bypassed by the new road.  The sun was shining on the beautiful view, and CyclopsJnr enjoyed learning about contours.

We continued over the Cairn Pass to Braemar, where we visited the Highland Games Centre and it's exhibition, and had some lunch.

We popped into Ballater next, to visit the old railway station which is mentioned in a book CyclopsJnr has just enjoyed, and is also home to Queen Victoria's royal carriage (which she used to travel from London to Balmoral) and the rather grand Royal Waiting Room.

After lunch we continued on our way, quickly joining the Cock Bridge to Tomintoul road.  Most people in Scotland will know of this obscure road even if they have never visited the area, as if there is snow it's one of the first to close so features heavily on traffic reports!

We stopped at The Watchers installation and the "Moment in Time" stone which is a monolith with carvings, and with holes through it to view particular parts of the landscape including Corgarff Castle (see extra).

Next we stopped at Well of Lecht to walk along to the Lecht Mine, used to extract iron in the 1730s and Manganese in the 1840s (see CyclopsJnr's blip too).  It's a lovely little walk along a good path so Mum was able to come too.  CyclopsJnr found some rocks with rusty traces of Iron Ore which we was pleased with, and which he plans to show his science teacher.

Tomintoul was our last stop on the road.  When I was wee we often stopped there for ice-creams.  Mum and Dad often had Rum and Raisin, and my favourite was Mint Choc Chip.  The ice cream counter in the village shop is long gone, so we had Magnum's from the freezer as a stand in.

The final part of the route took us to Grantown on Spey, then we went along to Boat of Garten and our hotel for the night.  We were pleased to sit outside in the sunshine with a refreshing cold lager before dinner, and dinner was fabulous when we got to it too!