Gilmore House Bed and Breakfast Blairgowrie

A beautiful circular drive

2012-01-28T20:21:00.000Z

Another crisp cold sunny day today in Perthshire so took the children out on a circular trip. From Blairgowrie head up to Bridge of Cally and take the A924 which takes you over to Pitlochry passing through Kirkmichael which I have blogged about recently. Couldn't have asked for a better day and we completed a trail of geocaches along the route, 19 today, very impressed with daughter No 2's GPS reading skills. You don't have to be in the slightest bit interested in geocaching to enjoy this fabulous driving route. You will drop down past the famous Moulin Inn before coming into Pitlochry and it is an easy drive back to Blairgowrie down the A9 and back across the A923.

On your way out of Pitlochry stop off for a wee dram at the Blair Athol Distillery.

Out for a meal

2012-01-27T20:18:00.000Z

On Wednesday evening we went out to celebrate our eldest daughters birthday. We went to a place in Perth called Breizh, we have been a few times before and it is always excellent and the children like it as well. Of course Wednesday was the 25th which is traditionally the day we should all eat haggis, but not this year! We dined quite early, but the restaurant soon filled up and any other time we have been it is always busy, which is a good sign.

World Snow Day

2012-01-22T19:50:00.000Z

Today was World Snow Day and many of the ski centres had extra activities on like ski/snowboard taster sessions, demonstrations, ski races etc. We had a few hours up the road and had lots of fun making a snowman.

Scenes around Kirkmichael, Perthshire

2012-01-18T20:59:00.000Z

As you can probably tell from all my jaunts out the B&B is quite quiet at the moment, but that's the time of year for you, although last week was quite busy. The last two winters there seemed to be constant snow and ice on the ground for months, so it is nice to get out and about walking as I don't get the opportunity as much in the summer. Still plenty time for more snow though - it's only the middle of January after all.

Kirkmichael is about 20 minutes up the road, take the turn off onto the A924 at Bridge of Cally. The River Ardle runs through the pretty village and there are a couple of hotels and an excellent shop. More information about the area can be found here.

A hidden monument

Fabulous scenery in this area

The remains of Whitefiled Castle on the distant hills (I zoomed in on this)

The Strathardle Highland Gathering is held every August in Kirkmichael, a great example of traditional highland games.

A walk into the mist

2012-01-17T21:30:00.002Z

Today I went up to Enochdhu to do part of the Cateran Trail walk which I did last year in torrential rain, here is last years blog, this year the general theme was mist so hopefully next time the sun will be splitting the sky and I will get some great photos. This time I did a loop which took me about 3 hours 45 minutes.

Some beautiful blackface rams

Instead of heading left at this sign directing you to Glenshee take the path straight ahead past the fire tower and keep following it and it will bring you around in a loop at the Upper Lunch Hut.

The mist soon descended but luckily the footpath was easy to navigate along and the only sounds were the occasional startled grouse flying out of the heather.

Made it to the Upper Lunch Hut, the door was a bit stiff and I thought it was locked, but a heavy push and it opened and I signed the visitors book and left my calling card, I noticed our local Blairgowrie shop All Things Fair had done the same thing.

Great tally of geocaches today, 15 in total and I did a bit of subtle marketing by leaving a QR sticker in the log book :-)

Not far to go now and the dog will sleep well tonight and me too no doubt.

Walking and Geocaching at Deuchny Wood

2012-01-15T22:36:00.000Z

A lovely but cold day today with the mist hanging low in the sky. Daughter No.1 and I took a jaunt down to Perth to Deuchny Wood to do a bit of geocaching. We logged an impressive 10 geocaches, well impressive for us! I think the 'world and his wife and dogs' were out enjoying the sunny winter day today. We parked at the Jubilee Car park and started off through Jim Aitken's Arboretum. We seemed to end up going the opposite way from what was intended and got a bit lost in an area of fallen trees but soon got back on track and completed which was in essence a circular walk with a couple of detours.

Many geocaches have 'trackables' in them which you move onto other geocaches, I don't venture far so not really much point in taking them.

Great place for mountain biking

Quite a bit of storm damage

Another 'trackable'

Views over the Carse of Gowrie

Curling Pond

More information about the woodlands can be found here

After the Storm

2012-01-12T19:05:00.000Z

We have recently had some very severe gales in Scotland and a place that was badly hit was The Hermitage at Dunkeld with many trees coming down, huge about down around the walks in Craigvinean Forest which made for an interesting walk. There was no way I would have got up to the Pine Cone Viewpoint today, could hardly even see the path. No doubt they will have it cleared up in no time. It was lovely to stroll around the forest today as there was hardly a soul around and I even had Ossian's Hall all to myself. When I went to the airport on Monday one of my children came with me and accidentally dropped my camera all the way down an escalator!, lucky it still works.

Snowdrops already out

View from inside Ossian's Hall

Falls of Braan

Perthshire Big Tree Country

Ossian's Cave

Geocaching in Perthshire

Torryvold Folly

Trip to Edinburgh Airport

2012-01-12T18:14:00.001Z

On Monday my mother in law flew home so I had the task of taking her to the airport in Edinburgh. The airport itself is only an hour and fifteen minutes from us and that was going at a steady pace as their were quite a few roadworks en-route. Edinburgh airport is many of my guests first glimpse of Scotland and thankfully it is very straight forward to find and get around. Coming out of Edinburgh you will also cross over the magnificent Forth Road Bridge and see the architectural wonder of the Forth Rail Bridge.

A Sunday Drive

2012-01-08T20:58:00.000Z

Today we took a trip over to Comrie to visit dead relations, as you do, and we took the scenic route over the A822 from Dunkeld which brings you out just before Crieff. Great road to drive and a suggested driving tour if you are in the area.

Dunkeld from the War Memorial

War memorial at Birnam

Found a few geocaches today

River Braan

Red Squirrel

River Braan at Rumbling Bridge

Have passed by the above Court Knoll at Comrie many times but this is the first time I have noticed it, very interesting, it is next to Comrie Graveyard.

Jack and the Beanstalk

2012-01-07T19:56:00.000Z

Today we had our annual visit to the pantomime at Perth Theatre. Once again it was a tremendous performance in the small and intimate theatre. The pantomime at Perth never use the 'lure' of so called celebrity's in their pantomimes just fabulous actors and actresses. The voice of the giant was provided by Martyn James who very recently passed away. He had appeared in 140 productions at Perth theatre and did 23 seasons at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

Another Year

2012-01-06T19:18:00.000Z

I trust you all had a lovely time over the holidays, can't believe it's the 6th of January already. I haven't really been up to much, had family over Christmas and guests between and over New Year and my mother in law has been staying for a while and goes home next week. The year in Blairgowrie started with the annual fun run and by all accounts they had their biggest turnout yet and we have managed to get up to the ski slopes at Glenshee. They had quite a bit of snow in December then it went very mild so they lost most of it but they had another good snowfall this week. Compared to the past two winters it is quite warm at the moment but we have had some horrendous stormy weather that has caused quite a bit of upset over the country. People are starting to think about their holidays now so bookings are starting to come in. Fingers crossed for a good year despite all the doom and gloom in the economy.

Some work on the house

2011-12-22T15:25:00.000Z

I have been busy the past week re-painting our hallway and stairwell. It was a green and red colour but I have opted for a lighter colour on the top half which has brightened it up no end. We also had some of the wooden sprockets replaced outside as they were totally rotten.

Mandarin Duck

2011-12-22T15:15:00.001Z

Across the bridge in Blairgowrie in Rattray there is a park called Davie Park and in the park there is a duck pond and recently spotted has been this splendid lone Mandarin duck, so I got a few photographs.

Scenes around Dunkeld

2011-12-22T15:11:00.001Z

Behind with my blogging again. Here are a few photos taken in Dunkeld on Santa Day, a couple of weeks ago, unfortunately we were a bit early for the parade, maybe next year.

Some more Perthshire Produce available in the Deli in Dunkeld.

December at Loch of Lowes

2011-12-04T19:27:00.001Z

We had a dusting of snow last night and a few heavy flurries this morning but didn't really amount to much but the roads and pavements were very icy today. The children had stayed overnight in Edinburgh with their Aunt and Uncle so I nipped along to Loch of Lowes to watch the birdies. The squirrel event I mentioned a few blogs ago had been cancelled due to the weather.

The goldeneye duck is a diving duck and is a winter visitor

Cheeky red squirrel

Woodpecker

Red poll

Jay

A brambling and finches

I've said it before but you can easily lose track of time just sitting and watching the wildlife at Loch of the Lowes.

Edinburgh Outing

2011-12-04T19:10:00.001Z

Yesterday the children and I and my mum went through to Edinburgh to meet my youngest brother and his wife as we were going to see the 'Nutcracker' at the Festival Theatre and very enjoyable it was as well. Here are just a few random photos taken on our day out.

Perthshire Chamber of Commerce Star Awards 2011

2011-11-26T19:35:00.001Z

Yesterday evening we attended the Perthshire Chamber of Commerce Star Awards at Crieff Hydro Hotel. The B&B had made it through to the final four nominations in the Royal Bank of Scotland Customer Service Award - to cut to the chase we didn't win. The other three businesses in the Customer Service Category were a beauty salon, a tyre business and a ready-made meals food delivery company - a totally diverse mix. It is very difficult therefore for us to benchmark the B&B against the other businesses customer service as we are all so different, even though customer service is our main objective. We had a very enjoyable evening and delighted that the B&B made it through to the awards. Congratulations to everyone that won.

White Tailed Eagles and other Perthshire Wildlife

2011-11-24T20:33:00.001Z

On Tuesday evening I attended another great event entitled 'White Tailed Eagles and other brilliant Perthshire Wildlife' at the Birnam Hotel in Birnam, by Dunkeld.

There were three great presentations the first was about White Tailed Sea eagles and their re-introduction to the East Coast of Scotland. The sea eagles are establishing well on the West Coast with Mull being a popular viewing destination. They are huge birds and I have never seen one, but they have been sighted overhead very close by and I now know another local place to spot them, which is a nice wee run out even if you don't spot an eagle.They are not yet breeding on the east as the birds are not yet mature enough but I think they have hopes for next year.

The next presentation was by RSPB Vane Farm just down the road at Kinross. I'm ashamed to say I haven't been down to the reserve for years although I was down at Loch Leven at Easter. It really is a brilliant place to visit and is great for children. At this time of year the loch is visited by thousands of geese which overnight on Loch Leven, bit of a goose B&B! Vane Farm is open all year with plenty of events and there are great walks around Loch Leven. Hot of the press is that Vane Farm will be re-naming themselves as RSPB Loch Leven, as Vane Farm gives the impression it is a farm.

The final presentation was by our very local Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes talking about the Ospreys, red squirrels and all the birdlife the centre attracts, always a popular place for my guests to visit. The centre is currently on Winter opening hours until the 29th February from 10.30am -4.00pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday 4th December there will be a red squirrel event at the centre and you can learn all about the little beauties with Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels. I would also encourage you to report your squirrel sightings on their website.

The evening finished with a lovely local produce buffet. Big thanks again to Fiona and Sarah from Perth and Kinross Council rural development programme for arranging another super evening - look forward to the next one :-)

Tree Felling along the Riverbank

2011-11-22T15:09:00.001Z

They are currently busy felling sycamore trees along the riverside in blairgowrie with the aim to improve the whole area and it will open up the vistas and you will get a superb view of two amazing ancient trees, a fir and a monkey puzzle. I met a couple who were also admiring the trees and the old mill ruins along this great local walk.

Falls of Bruar

2011-11-20T22:16:00.001Z

Next to the House of Bruar is a woodland walk called the Falls of Bruar along a river gorge with terrific views of trees and rocks and waterfalls. The children managed right to the top no problem and I kept the dog on the lead as there are some pretty steep falls if he decided to bound over the edge. A beautiful walk for a mild November day.

The House of Bruar

2011-11-20T21:53:00.001Z

After returning from my wee photo journey around the town Mr M thought it would be nice to have a trip up the road to the House of Bruar.

The House of Bruar is an amazing place filled with many lovely things, clothes, interiors, kitchen, garden, things for dogs, paintings, children's toys, restaurant, lots of tweed, waxed jackets etc and a fantastic food hall.

It is located just off the A9 north of Blair Atholl and is always a pretty busy place, well worth a visit.

Blairgowrie Town Centre

2011-11-20T21:01:00.001Z

Took some photos in Blairgowrie this morning, probably the best day of the week to get clear views of shop windows. We are very fortunate in blairgowrie to have a great range of independent shops, restaurants, a beautiful park in the centre and a river running through the town. The pictures are just a small selection of what the town has to offer.

Drumore Loch

2011-11-20T20:00:00.001Z

Further along the road from the Ecocamp is Drumore Loch with the most fantastic old boathouse sadly neglected by the shore.

This is a great place to sit and take in the scenery and you can easily walk right around the loch. If you continue to drive along this road you will come out at Kirkton of Glenisla.

Ecocamp Glenshee

2011-11-20T19:37:00.001Z

Up the road from Blairgowrie at Blacklunans there is a new accommodation provider which goes by the name of Ecocamp Glenshee. Yesterday they held an open day and had their official opening in the morning, so we made a little trip up in the early afternoon.

There are 6 pods at the moment and they are all insulated with lighting and heating and provide giant tuffies beds with fleeces so all you need is your sleeping bag.

There is a stone bothy with a warming fire, seating and facilities to dry clothes make hot drinks etc. The owners will happily provide breakfast, packed lunches and dinner. The ecocamp is perfectly situated if you are walking The Cateran Trail, so why not give it a try and hopefully you will be staying with us on your first and maybe last night of the walk as well!

Arts & Crafts in Blairgowrie

2011-11-12T19:25:00.001Z

Yesterday I went along to have a look at the Arts and Crafts Extravaganza which was held in Blairgowrie. One of the artists exhibiting was a lovely lady called Karen Hartnell. Through twitter I had sent her some of my Osprey photographs taken in March and was delighted that she had used one for one of her drawings. It will take pride of place on one of my walls once I get it framed along with half a dozen other pictures I still need to get framed!