The day started off wet and rainy and didn’t improve til about 5.30pm, when we were walking around the Aberdeen University in the evening.
We left at 10.30am, heading for some castles. First stop was Craigievar Castle. It wasn’t going to open til 12pm, so we just walked around and photographed the outside. It’s only just been renovated on the outside because of some problem with cement being used in the first renovation in the 1970’s:
Next stop was Kinkardine O’Neil. A pretty little town and ruined church. Unfortunately it was still raining, and there wasn’t a cafe in town to sit it out:
We intended to stop at Crathes Castle, but changed our mind when we found out it was 2 GBP to park plus 10.50 GBP for the castle and gardens (it was pouring rain, so there’s not much point looking at gardens). We just took a photo of the castle and left!:
We headed to Drum Castle next. It was still raining, but this one was only 8.50 GBP and I decided to join the National Trust, so I could see all their properties in Scotland as well as England, for free. It costs 46 GBP per year, but I figured it should be worthwhile for me. Hopefully.
Drum castle was only viewable with a guided tour, but there was one running in 15 minutes, giving us just enough time for a quick coffee. The tour was quite nice. Of course there’s no photos inside, as per every place we’d been:
Next destination was Aberdeen. We looked for accommodation but found nothing available – at least nobody that had vacancy signs answered the door. We drove around some more and happened near the university and Kings College, so we parked and I went to photograph it. It had finally stopped pouring down rain, at least!
We ended up heading out of town again after eating something, and we stopped at this place on the road to Stonehaven. We got the twin room for 69 GBP and had a great time in the bar, listening in to the locals and strangers hanging at the bar. One fellow sounded like Richard Burton. I found out he was Welsh, so I suppose that explained it!
