Lovely Visit to Nairn

We have had a lovely time visiting Alison and Hugh for the past few days in Nairn. On Thursday afternoon, we all walked along nearby Nairn beach which was absolutely beautiful in the low, late autumn sunlight. Our four shadows stretched long and thin across the sand. The next day, James and Alison climbed Ben Rinnes, while Hugh and I explored nearby Dufftown in order to find a suitable café for lunch. We also visited Glenfiddich Distillery, which is situated in a very picturesque group of old buildings just on the edge of town, and has a nice shop where I purchased a jigger for Kevin and Jenny‘s Christmas. For those who don’t know, a jigger is a measure for whisky; the one I bought is decorated with a stag’s head and measures 50 ml, which is two shots. The hill didn’t take our intrepid hillwalkers very long, and in due course we picked them up from the Ben Rinnes car park and headed to the Keith and Dufftown Heritage Railway for lunch.  It has a disused railway carriage which has been set up as a wee restaurant for soup, sandwiches and cake. It was a lovely lunch. After a bit of a rest back at the house, we went out for dinner to the delightful Ozzy’s, which we have visited before. The meal was splendid. On Saturday we decided to head into the Black Isle, an area which James and I don’t know very well. We were pleasantly surprised as we went along the coast through some beautiful villages. The village of Avoch for example, which Alison, explained to me is pronounced Och. The prettiest of them all is called Rosemarkie. We went for a walk up the Fairy Glen there, which looked absolutely gorgeous with its paths all covered in autumn leaves of gold, brown and red, and it had several very pretty waterfalls. We then walked to the beach from where we could see Fort George across the water. We could see that the locals were preparing for their annual bonfire. The little beach café was closed, but we walked along to the Crofters café which was really lovely and we had a very nice late lunch. When looking at the cake counter I foolishly left my bag on the floor, which meant a 45 minute drive to retrieve it later, but that didn’t spoil the day. By the time I got back to the house to join the others, it was time for pre-dinner drinks and another lovely meal made by Alison. We set off home at about 10 and made good time arriving just after 1 a.m. The advantage of driving home in the evening was that there was almost no traffic until Perth. The disadvantage was it was distinctly frosty and perhaps even icy in places on the small roads south of Nairn, however, all went well and we arrived home to be greeted by two very surprised cats.