Snow Roads

We set out to drive the Snow Roads route today.  

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.  CyclopsJnr tried picking up the Hammer and some of the other weights used in competition - they were heavy!

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.  

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.

Next we stopped at Well of Lecht to walk along to the Lecht Mine (pictured), used to extract iron in the 1730s and Manganese in the 1840s.  It's a lovely little walk along a good path so Granny 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, for an ice-cream in the sunshine!

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 drink before dinner, and dinner was fabulous when we got to it too!