Tuesday 5th June

Left Aberdeen on our way to Inverness, following the east coast. First stop was at Cruden Bay where we walked about 2k to Slains a huge ruined castle on top of high cliffs without any apparent owner as it is quite open. Originally built as a tower in the late 1500s it has been extensively revised 3 times but has fallen into ruin. We were surprised to see it in such a state but apparently plans for its restoration have been around since 2009.

Going north we visited Peterhead, apparently Scotland's busiest fishing port. Here we had terrible coffee & walked down to the quay to see the trawlers before moving on to Fraserburgh. Here we again drove down to the quayside where d*** took photos of some huge fishing vessels. 2 were nearly 80m in length of 2300 tons, both built in the last few years, so there must be fish out there somewhere.

We came along the north coast of the Firth & for the first time saw medium size waves rolling into some lovely sandy beaches before visiting Brodie Castle, yet another of the tower type added to in the 1800s. The amazing aspect was the paintings which had been collected by the family including 2 Van Dykes & according to the guide it holds 2 Carravagios & 2 Rembrandts which we didn't see amongst 200 not on display.

Then on to our stop for the next 2 nights, Beauly about 15 km north of Inverness. As we move west accommodation prices rise steeply so this place is a good compromise.