Day 33: Collieston

Got my comeuppance for being smug about Gloria with top down in sunshine yesterday. Cold, mizzling and very windy today.

As I drove once more through Aberdeen on my way north,  I was anticipating oil rigs off shore, then  became aware of several helicopters flying toward the city from the sea. Appears that the rigs are too far out to be seen from the land.

Judith had suggested I stop off at a Scottish National Trust house called Haddon near Tarves but sadly it only opens on Sundays and Mondays. Today being Thursday it was closed.

The representative explained that with so many National trust and Scottish heritage places to visit, there aren't enough visitors to make it viable to open more often. It was a very interesting house as the family over many years had a keen interest in the arts and had built a 250 seating theatre in the grounds, sorted rehearsal rooms in the peat store and started their own choral society.

 

I did however, manage to get a cuppa and a gluten free brownie from Mrs.Smith At Haddo,  a small cafe in the grounds.

Inside I met a young archeology graduate from Aberdeen University who was busy painting sugar paste flowers  - 800 of them. Why? The cafe were taking part in a Food Festival celebrating Taste of Grampian on Saturday. Mrs Smith, a real person, was busy making hundreds of cakes these flowers were intended to adorn.

Never mind archaeology, this young woman and her colleague could earn a living hand painting china! She told me she was planning on her Ph.D on pictish houses and suggested I went in search of the Maiden stone.

I found it.

The organisation responsible for looking after it, cover it with a metal case during the winter to protect it from the worst ravages of winter. Today it was not covered but one could see it needed protection as the markings were weathering badly.

It's a single slab of pink granite and may date from the ninth century. The pictures on the information board show what it once looked like.

Seeing these very ancient markers makes me wonder what markers we will be leaving to future generations. I fear they may not be cause for pride.

My new host Vishnu has just lent me a book of Pict legends, and the story behind the Maiden Stone

and her brush with the devil will keep me up `til the small wee hours.

The weather continued to be cold and dank and the staff at Haddo sent me to Leith Hall a country house in Kennethmont. That was open.

Like lots of other Scottish houses I  have visited, it was guided tours only. I could see the problem

facing the Scottish National Trust. I was the only person on the tour. The guide, a wonderful knowledgeable lady called Violet, did a great job.

Dear C.E.O of the Scottish National Trust, I have a great idea to attract tourists to your flagging properties. Create a Stone Circle then advertise widely that this is probably the very circle used by Claire in Outlanders. You will get coach loads wearing tartan tam o` shanters and  'I  love Jamie' t-shirts flocking.  Job done.

When I have mentioned to people that my next hosts live in Collieston they have all responded the same way. `Oh my goodness - the ice-cream.' Apparently this tiny hamlet has just one shop. An ice cream maker. I could hardly wait. Supper in some nice little pub  and ice cream. Bliss.

I found Collieston. No shops, no pubs, no supper and certainly no ice cream. Was it the wrong Collieston?

No time to find out. Had to get to my Airbnb.

That turned out to be a mission. Down an unmade road full of ruts and rubble. Thought Gloria and her rather fine chassis would not make it and I would have to get a tractor from somewhere. Unruly Sat Nav led me to a deserted farm yard in the middle of absolutely nowhere and announced 'you have reached your destination!'

I don't think so.

No mobile signal of course,  so no way I could phone my hosts for directions. Fortunately a man pulled up in the farm yard and he pointed me to what appeared to be the very edge of the cliff.

And oh wow! Here I am in the most extraordinary place on the very edge of a steep sided rocky promontory that projects into the North sea.

It's like being on a ship. I have the sea on three sides of me, a castle ruin 20 feet away, a puffin nesting site on a rock face in front. The house is a wooden A frame and there are birds and flowers all over my ensuite.

How totally marvellous!