Today was a circuitous route around and then through Cairngorms National Park. I’d driven through part of the park last year, and so I decided to do the rest of it and see what I’d missed. Sadly I screwed up the route at one point and so I missed my chance to go through Cock Bridge and get a photo of that bridge. Because. I mean. Come on 🙂
Omne Lumen Attingit
The first thing I encountered was this ancient Roman fort and barracks that sat upon the highest hill in the area, commanding a view over the surrounding countryside for the Roman legion stationed here however many millennia ago. It’s a pretty impressive installation for a two-thousand year old ruin that’s in the middle of nowhere with just a placard to let you know what’s up.
Hobbiton
Randomly around a corner on a side road in the park is this adorable double bridge that looks straight out of a Lord Of The Rings movie. It apparently used to be a triple bridge but the third hump collapsed at some point. I’m still not sure how it’s a good idea to have these semi-circular lumps for the bridge, but who knows.
Hello Old Friend
I ended up doubling back on a part of road that I first drove on a year ago. It was the first time I’d driven off of a main highway in the UK, and it immediately went from a two-lane country road to this barely-paved single-lane road in the middle of nowhere. I was terrified and quickly encountered a large truck barreling towards me. I hadn’t yet learned that the turn-outs on your side of the road were for you, and the turn-outs on the other side were for them. I saw a turn-out and just pulled over. The driver looked at me like I was crazy and drove on.
Soon I realized how the whole system worked, and I thought it was the coolest thing, driving this crazy one-lane road in the middle of a random part of Scotland. It was also my first encounter with the Courtesy Wave: as you passed another vehicle, you waved at the other person for pulling over to let you pass. Everyone was so nice! It was the first time I really felt like I was on an adventure.
A year later and I am much more comfortable driving on these one-lane roads. I’ve become a bit of an expert, to be honest (to the point of exclaiming in exasperation when someone with a local British plate on their car doesn’t seem to understand how the whole thing works). So it was really cool to traverse this original path I’d first traveled down, only this time in reverse, from the opposite direction. Everything looked simultaneously familiar and new. I loved it.
Saddest Royal Baby Shower
Last year I had missed the turn off onto the brand new experience of a one-lane road, and so I had driven up the road looking for a place to make a u-turn. I found that place in the Balmoral Castle parking lot. I was intrigued, but still had six hours of driving ahead of me, so I made my turn and headed on.
This time, I had the time to stop and see the castle. You park across the bridge and walk into the castle grounds and purchase a ticket to enter. As soon as you’re on the grounds it feels like another world. It is immediately quiet, the only sound the chirping of the birds in the woods. It’s a short walk up a tree-lined drive to the castle itself, which looks somehow modern and old at the same time? Like a Disney castle that wants to ~feel like a castle, but clearly wasn’t built a thousand years ago.
There might have been a tour of part of the residences inside, but I don’t know, I didn’t feel like I would get much out of that? It just looked like a really fancy house? Eh. Plus it started to rain and I decided to head back to the car and move on.
On my way back to the car, the visitor center attendant was hanging a little “Baby Shower” sign and putting up like two balloons since the new Will & Cate baby had just been born. It was… sad. Really, really, sad. Sorry guy, I know you were just trying your best. But woof.
Top Of The World
On the way back to Edinburgh, my route took me out of Cairngorms park along a winding road up into some mountains (hills). At the crest of the road was a parking area and an incredible view of all of the surrounding countryside. No Roman fort though.
But there was a cairn. It apparently used to be a prehistoric marker for a burial site, but has turned into a tourist attraction. I risked the curse of the dead and added a stone to the top of the cairn, making Scotland just a few inches taller.
