The Road to Ullapool Scotland

From Braemar, we followed the most ‘direct route’ as selected by our in-auto navigation system.  FYI…she was very ‘polite’…very ‘British’ as compared to our in-car system at home.  She never said ‘recalculating’ or told me to make a legal ‘u turn’ as soon as possible.  The 'lady' would just patiently set a new course for our journey...

As we learned on several occasions during our trip, the most direct routes can be very interesting and also very challenging.  In this case, she took us north and west from near Balmoral Castle along routes B976, A939 and other narrow roads through the highlands toward Inverness.  The scenery was stark but beautiful…

Laurie and Bonnie were very happy to see heather in bloom close up.  We stopped several times and they debated whether or not they could take a twig of heather home with them…

During most of this portion of the drive, we were still finding our way through Cairngorms National Park.  It is a beautiful place…

Thankfully we encountered very little traffic on this portion of the route and we were always able to pull off if we needed to make room for another vehicle.  Other drivers were invariably courteous in this regard.  Yes…those white dots in the middle of the photo are sheep!

Stone walls abound throughout Scotland as do the occasional big old stone home…

The roads through the area were mostly semi 2-lane but they occasionally narrowed to single lane, especially when bridges were encountered.  By now, I had fully regained my ability to drive on the left…

That is a huge stone barn at the center right of the photo. 

FYI, we passed several ski slopes with chair lifts as we drove north through the park.   The Grampian Range, which includes Cairngorms, has an average of 100 days of snowfall with 50 plus days of snow on the ground.  At the higher elevation near mountain peaks, snow can linger on for 6 months or longer.

As we neared the northwest boundary of Cairngorms National Park we came to the town of Carrbridge, a village in Badenoch and Strathspey in the Scottish Highlands.  

I loved the look of the Carrbridge Hotel!  It was originally established in 1803 and the same family has operated it for the past 3 decades.  The various hotel review sites rate it rather well.  To learn more, go to http://www.carrbridgehotel.com/.

Carrbridge is well located, just about a half-hour drive from Aberdeen, the capital of the Scottish Highlands.

A major event has been held in Carrbridge every year for the last 23 years.  It is the Annual Golden Spurtle…the World Porridge Making Championship!   This cook-off draws competitors from around the world and if oats, water and salt alone just don’t interest you, there are specialty trophies as well.  Past awards have been given out for sticky toffee porridge, fruity date porridge and pinhead risotto with Lemon and Thyme and Parmesan.  

Note:

·        A spurtle is a wooden Scottish kitchen tool that dates back to the 15^th century and its used to stir porridge, soups, stews and broths.  We actually have two in our kitchen…but I didn’t know their origins or what they were called.

The River Dulnain passes through Carrbridge and it provides a variety of scenic photos!  This river is a major tributary of the River Spey which drains into Moray Firth and the North Sea.

This old stone bridge across the Dulnain gives the village of Carrbridge its name.  This ancient packhorse bridge, built in 1717, is Carrbridge’s most famous landmark.  I took this photo…

At the beginning of the 17^th century there weren’t any points where the river could be crossed when it was in flood, (Scottish ‘spate’), and burials at the Church of Duthil were often delayed.  This bridge allowed the coffins to be packed over the river…

But Laurie took this photo…and I like it better than mine!  Smart Phone trumps camera...

Jumping off the bridge into the river had been a popular pastime for younger locals and more adventurous tourists but after years of local flooding, the bridge is now unstable…  

Not a bad stop when you consider that we just needed to gas up our SUV!

Moving northwest past Inverness along A835, the scenery was a little more pastoral but still very beautiful…and then I tripped across a building, many of which have been the subject of several of my blog posts!  

This is the railroad station at Garve right off of A835.  Scotrail is the name given to passenger rail service throughout Scotland.  Garve is on the rail line that operates between Inverness in the east to Kyle of Lochalsh just across from the Isle of Skye on the west coast.

The Garve Depot opened in 1870.  In 2016, 4,676 passengers used this station. From Monday to Saturday, there are 4 daily trains in both directions.  On Sunday, there is only 1 train in either direction with a second train added during the summer months only.

Note:

·         The rail trip along the Kyle Line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh is one of the much heralded “Great Train Journeys of the World”.   Check it out at https://www.greatrail.com/us/trains/kyle-line/.

  

I really like this photo… What sights are just down the tracks?  What great scenery awaits Scotrail’s passengers? 

Note:

·        Measured by individual trips, a total of 93,200,000 passengers utilized Scotrail in fiscal year 2105 – 2016.  By contrast, Amtrak’s ridership in 2015 totaled only 30,800,000 passengers… In fairness however, local commuter trains in the USA move many additional millions of passenger each year.

·         To learn more about Scotrail and its many varied routes, just go to https://www.scotrail.co.uk/.

I’d forgotten about it, but Laurie and I had been to Garve on a previous trip to Scotland…back in late September/early October of 1986…31 years ago!  On that occasion we stayed at the Strathgarve Lodge.  That’s yours truly standing next to our rental car…

Laurie posed for this photo in the garden area of Strathgarve Lodge.  There were still a few flowers in bloom despite the fact that we’d driven through snow in the Highlands.

Note:

·        We were literally the last tourists to stay in this historic hunting lodge.  It was early October and we were the only guests in the lodge.  We were told that it was closing and would reopen as a senior care facility.  It was originally constructed in 1877.

As we neared Ullapool, we drove along A835 and the upper reaches of Loch Broom.  Laurie took this photo of the bucolic little community on the other side of the Loch.  Scottish scenery is just eye candy at its best!

Loch Broom (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Bhraoin, ‘loch of rain showers’) is a sea loch located in northwestern Ross and Cromarty Scotland. 

Next stop…Ullapool our overnight destination! 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! 

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave