Goodbye to Old Slains Castle. In terms of interesting, both place and people will be tough to beat.
Its claim to fame? Here’s a clue...
The Bill Forsyth film Local Hero was made there in the 1980’s. No idea how any location manager managed to find it or how they got film crew trucks anywhere near the harbour down such a very steep and winding single track road. In fact this is probably not the iconic phone box in the film either. There wasn’t one according to the locals. It was a film prop but so many tourists came looking for THE phonebox, the town hastily got one.
The next few miles were all tiny coves and small harbours. Some of these coastal fishing villages are very picturesque. Others have nothing to prove, and no intention of prettifying.
Crovie is believed to be one of the best preserved fishing villages in Europe, possibly because it is difficult to reach. No cars are allowed because there are no roads! The houses are set on a remarkably narrow bit of land, all end on like the houses in a game of monopoly in order to give them some element of protection from the sea. I saw this arrangement in lots more of the fishing villages.
In Gardentown I came upon a little primary school that had created a green house from plastic bottles. What a brilliant idea.
Aberdeenshire council have an eco school initiative going, and this was evidence of it.
MacDuff and Banff had wonderfully barbered green velvet golf courses. They are separate towns on the banks of the river Deveron. MacDuff is one side of the river and Banff is the other.
Banff boasts another of William Adams architectural creations - Duff House.
It has a collection of fine art on loan from the Scottish National Art Gallery and sits in lovely green recreational grounds. Its car park was in a woodland and just half a mile walking distance from Banff Town Centre.
It was Sunday afternoon and very quiet. The harbour was full of leisure craft. People were happy to just sit in the sun and do the crossword.
Banff has some very imposing Georgian buildings many of which are now offices of Aberdeen council. Even the Sheriff's Court and the police station look as though they are managed by the Scottish National Trust.
There are plaques denoting the rich and famous who have lived there and visited in the past, including Lord Byron who spent holidays in Banff as a child.
There are plaques denoting the rich and famous who have lived there and visited in the past, including Lord Byron who spent holidays in Banff as a child.
Some buildings are even older. The preservation Society has noted these with plaques and tiny markers set into the pavements. Once I spotted them it was like a treasure hunt and I had an interesting couple of hours looking for them..
Banff also has a medieval cemetery. Not somewhere I would normally be attracted to, but there was a bit of a dearth of anywhere else to visit in the neighbourhood and to be fair it was fascinatingly macabre.
Portsoy was the nearest town to my next Airbnb. I parked up in the harbour area.
Beside the harbour is Portsoy Marble, actually not marble at all but polished red and green serpentine. It does look like marble when its polished and has been used in grand houses all over the world.
It’s a pretty little harbour town and I had a wonderful surprise in the harbour cafe. I went in for tea and cake, and in the garden came upon a serious jamming session. Not raspberry or strawberry jamming – blue grass and folk.
I had unknowingly gate crashed the last knockings of the three day Haal – an annual folk festival in the town, now in its 7th year.
I love music. It was a quite magical afternoon. Just me sitting in the sun in a tiny garden, amongst a crowd of accomplished folk musicians jamming together with their guitars, mandolins, violins, some bodhrans, an irish bouzouki and all joined by wonderful whistle player. What a gift... and there was more to come... They suggested I continue to tag along with them and adjourn to The Boyne Hotel where there was a two hour session of Scottish and Irish traditional folk singing, mostly unaccompanied. I am proud to say I understood at least 76% of the words.
Four miles into the countryside outside Portsoy, I found my new home for the next three nights, a farm with the wonderful title – Milton of Tillynaught. Milton is Mill Town but this is hardly a town – just three houses.
Rod and Janet greeted me with the words – “Hope you’re hungry. We are doing a venison barbecue.”
After the feast, they showed me into The Bothy, a gorgeous self contained little home in their yard.
Bliss and chill out time ahead
I've not seen Local Hero but your description of Pennan reminded me of Plockton, which we visited some years ago. It's on the west coast near Kyle of Lochalsh and was the setting for the TV series Hamish Macbeth. Like Pennan, not easy to get to but very picturesque (I suggest you have a look at it on your way down the other side). The only disappointment was that they'd changed so many of the shop fronts and houses for the series that I couldn't recognise anything.
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