The days immediately after Christmas brought a proper, thick layer of snow. On one day, we walked around Loch Morlich as snow fell, then enjoyed a tasty lunch at the Cafe in the Glenmore Visitor Centre. ![]() On the following day, we walked from our cottage toward Laggan and stopped for lunch at the Pottery Bunkhouse (aka Caoldair Coffee and Craft Shop). In addition to the friendly welcome, we also loved their seriously cheesey cheese scones and delicious carrot cake. ![]() En route to Laggan, we met our next door neighbour ('next door' being a loose term, as the house is a 10 mins walk away!). Despite never having met us before, she generously offered us the use of their toboggans and when we arrived back at our cottage, we found them propped up by our fence. As we dragged the toboggans up the road looking for a suitable slope, our cottage owner, Cathy, spied us and dashed out to suggest we play on the hillside in one of her fields (she's a sheep farmer). It was a brilliant hill for sliding down, except for some of the rocks hiding under the snow. Unfortunately, Simon slid over one of those and broke one of the toboggans - oops! We felt really bad and offered to pay to replace it, although they kindly declined. The people we've met on our travels have generally been incredibly friendly, helpful and generous, for which we are very grateful.
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Christmas Eve Two of the key elements of Christmas were ticked off our list when we attended the Christmas Parade in Kingussie on Christmas Eve: reindeer and Santa. They seem to take Christmas Eve seriously here, with mini parades taking place in the evening in Aviemore, Kingussie and Newtonmore. The reindeer (from the Cairngorm herd) and Santa do a little trip through the towns to hand out sweets to the children. ![]() We had planned to spend Christmas Eve in Aviemore as they also put on a fireworks display but since our cottage owner mentioned she always attends the Kingussie one, we thought it best to take the advice of a local. Also, we were running a little late with dinner and weren't sure we would make it to Aviemore in time to find somewhere to park. Having said that, we turned up in Kingussie half an hour early to find...nothing. No people, no music, no sign that Santa was on his way. It was a little disconcerting, given we are used to the entire street shutting for half a day in advice of events back home and there is no where to park unless you turn up early. We were not convinced we were in the right place! But people arrived to set up bang on time and by the time Santa was due, the locals were out in force and spilling out on to the streets. A committee of locals handed out free mince pies, shortbread Christmas tree biscuits and mulled wine, and we were warmly invited to join them. The informality of it - no barriers, signs or information online in advance - was a clue to it being an event put on for the locals, not something to draw in the tourists. Any unsuspecting visitors will have been surprised to find themselves in a traffic jam behind Santa's sleigh, reindeer and the band of pipers! ![]() As soon as the parade was over, the crowd quickly dissipated. We went back to our Cottage to set up the kids' stockings (plus a carrot for Rudolph, and wine and a mini chocolate eclair for Santa - we are non-traditional!). The stockings were a last minute purchase on our way up to Scotland. Five hours into our drive up here, we realised we had left the kids' original ones at home. Oops... Christmas Day I think one of the things I haven't quite got used to is how short the days are here. We have about an hour less daylight than back home and, although the sun is only setting about 15 mins before it does in Essex, it feels much earlier because of how dark it is once it's gone. The mountains raise the horizon so once the sun has gone behind them, it gets dark very quickly, and there is not a lot of street lighting out in this rural, isolated part of the country. We love that but it does mean that we have to be very careful about what time we set out for a walk and when we think we will finish. We are mostly used to spending time outdoors in the summer when the days are longer, so it has been a bit of a surprise to worry over whether we would be back before dark when we are only setting out in the early afternoon. ![]() All that preamble is to explain why we only undertook a short section of the 10km Wildcat Trail from Newtonmore on Christmas Day. After the opening of many presents and the eating of much food, there were not many daylight hours left when we set out to stretch our legs. Starting our walk at 2.30pm only gave us about an hour before the sun set and given we were in unfamiliar territory, we were not wildly keen on being lost in the dark. We walked along the banks of the River Spey, which is said to be inhabited by herons, sandpipers, otters and much more. Sadly we didn't manage to spot any wildlife. I suspect we were too noisy! I imagine this is quite an interesting walk to undertake a few times over the year. The Spey's river bed is very mobile and the positioning of its banks and pools changes after periods of high river flow. It's worth revisiting again in future to see how it's changed. It is quite boggy in places though, so best to wear wellies! Boxing Day ![]() We had no proper snow on Christmas Day (snowcapped mountains in the distance don't count in my book) so we decided to seek it out on Boxing Day. We went for a short walk from the Sugarbowl carpark in Glenmore. The original plan had been to walk up to the base station of the Cairngorm Funicular Railway from here and to catch the funicular to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately the path up there was cut off due to a landslide so we detoured along the Chalamain Gap path, where there was a pretty dusting of snow. It was partly the same route we'd taken a few days previously to see the reindeer, so it was nice to return and see it looking different. ![]() We only went a short way - far enough to see the base station on the other side of the valley - then returned to our car to drive up to the funicular. Our earlier trip to see the Cairngorm Reindeers gave us a discount voucher for the funicular trip. If I'm honest, it felt a little over-priced, even with the discount (£36 for the family). It's an 8 minute trip up to the top, where you can visit a small exhibition about the mountain, the restaurant and the gift shop. You aren't allowed out on the mountain in order to protect the delicate wildlife, although you can get an outdoor view from the viewing platform. Whilst travelling up and down in the packed funicular, I watched the hikers with envy, feeling rather as though we should have (and could have) been one of them. Next time, we'll walk! Our 14th National Park is the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. It's huge on many levels, from being the largest National Park in the UK (you can fit two Lake Districts into the Cairngorms) to having the tallest mountains in the UK (Ben Nevis at 1,345m). It has dramatic, snowy mountain landscapes, ancient pine forests and peaceful lochs, all of which are teeming with wildlife. We're staying at the Creag-na-Sanais holiday cottage in Laggan. On arrival we spied a hare dashing away from our car and a short distance away we came across two small deer. From comments written by past visitors in the Visitor Book, they are not rare sightings, so I have high hopes for spotting more wildlife around our cottage soon. Being late December, the days are short and we have been out during the daylight hours, so we haven't had much opportunity to look for wildlife yet but I'm sure we will do soon. Top of our list for our time here in the Cairngorms was to visit the reindeer. Once native to the UK, they died out about 800 years ago and were reintroduced in 1952 by Mikel Utsi from Sweden. There are currently about 150 Cairngorm reindeer in the herd and they roam freely on the hills near Aviemore. We paid to do the Hill Trip, which involved hiking 20-30 minutes out to the huge enclosure to meet, stroke and hand feed these lovely, gentle creatures. The experience was relatively expensive (£44 for the family) but I think it was worth it. It's rare to be able to get so close and to feed them. They were lovely and soft, both when eating out of our hands and to stroke, and the walk to the enclosure was pretty - albeit it very, very windy!
This was actually the second time we've done this trip - we came once before, when Eve was three and before Jay was born. It was nice to visit again with both kids and at an age when they can both remember it! |
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