This morning Daito discovered pheasants outside the kitchen window, just in front of a field full of ponies. It’s like a TV cooking show for dogs.
We headed over to Laggan today, our favourite part of Scotland. The last year and a half we have been raising Daito and this would be his first time visiting where we married. We have been here often enough now that I didn’t even need to use Satnav to get from the cottage where we are staying to the base of Dun da Lamh.
Last time we were here I was driving a Landover Defender, a far more capable vehicle for the forest roads. But the good old van managed the short section of minor offroading needed to get to the bottom carpark. We had used the Landover to drive 90% of the way to the top carpark last time, up a beautifully rugged track. It covered ground that I think the van could just about have managed but would have been treacherous. It’s a tough nugget of gold that van. Getting ever more gold with the amount of rust blossoming across it’s bodywork.
So from the bottom we walked, enjoying the forest that has noticeable jumped up in height. There are fun interactive marker posts topped with stainless brackets, dotted thru the Scottish countryside. They are for you to stand your phone on and capture a historic landscape image. Unfortunately, the trees had jumped up so far, all you get from this one any more, is pine needles.
We climbed the steep footpath to the top and the short rocky section onto the fort to reach our view. This place is so special. I held Aimi here as we said our vows (hers better than mine) and became husband and wife. On this spot, among the beautiful mountains with weather closing in, just like today. It was lovely to relive that day and see in person again, the photo on our hallway landing of us walking thru the heather.
Back at the van and we had timed it perfectly to drop into the Coffee Bothy for lunch. Walking in Sonya had her back to us so when I said her name she span round and gave us a huge hug hello. We immediately started gabbling away about all the places we went on honeymoon and their news about to coming marriages and the country shows where their cattle had done so well. Sonya and Kevin made our day so incredible it was lovely to see her again. Unfortunately for us, Kevin was off on a shoot this time, but I know we will be back to the best Coffee Shop in Scotland again.
We had amazing food all afternoon. Turkey, bacon, cranberry and stuffing panini for me and Aimi had a smoked salmon, tomato and cream cheese open sandwich. They are such good cooks there. Daito and Kayto loved it too because they were spoiled with huge slices of turkey and lots of fuss. I think they will remember next time we are back. Hopefully at least once again before we leave for home.
A brief geocache later and the last stop of the day was the old Ruthven Barracks. This is a small hill near the river where a castle was built and fought over for 500 years by various Scottish clans. Fought over until in the British government erected a barracks to house troops to police the new military roads through the highlands. Of course during the Jacobite risings this barracks was surrendered and then ruined so as not to be used again.
We had a good look around at the stone walls standing now for over 300 years. The main barracks were 3 stories tall and housed over 120 men, with a bake house and stables, it’s still a very impressive structure. And I can’t help but wonder, for all the advancement in technology and energy efficiency, will the cardboard plonk houses now infecting the country stand for even half that length of time?
I call them “plonk” houses because they look like they have just been plonked down in a field or on a flattened section of hillside, without regard for integration into the landscape. They are usually very rectangular, wooden clad, grey boxes with zero aesthetic references to local historical architecture… they frustrate me. Whereas the “castle” we stayed in when we got married, was actually not a castle or very old at all. But it was authentic in that it was built for it’s purpose. Using wonderful craftsmanship it managed to be modern and in keeping with the estate’s historic architecture. That was such a great house and I’ve no doubt it will last 300 years.