a bookshop, the whisky fungus, the angels’ share

On our second morning we were out for a walk (air chuairt in Scottish Gaelic) in whisky country, Speyside, Moray, but first we dropped into a little wonder of a book shop and café, Beinn Books, in Dufftown (dogs allowed). (Beinn is Scottish Gaelic for a mountain). There is something about a smaller selection that allows the eye to hold onto things, and I found four books too interesting to pass over. And we had a nice chat with Jaqueline, the owner, who is the twin sister of Kim, Lucy’s husband’s colleague at ST A Uni library, someone I quite often meet looking for otters or ospreys to photograph in and around our home town of Cupar.

Our walk started in the old train station, some old diesel trains standing around

belonging to the Keith and Dufftown railways association where you can travel the eleven miles to Keith and back

and probably drink a lot of whisky while you do it. https://keith-dufftown-railway.co.uk/

The part of the line that was taken up is a biking and walking path

past the massive distilleries

and then into wooded hills

stitchwort and plenty of other wild flowers

no bluebells though

burns running under little bridges

sweet cecily our early umbelifer in Scotland

and bird cherry in flower over the bird’s eye speedwell …

we had our packed lunch here, where there are plank seats set into a bridge, and then walked back to the station to do a loop around the distilleries.

Where we discovered a strange phenomenon – whisky fungus. There is so much ethanol seeping out of the whisky maturation storage in the valley that the black fungus develops on the surface of bark and wooden fences and stone too – I presume it lives on/eats the ethanol. This seep is romantically named “the angels’ share” and it is omnipresent around these big distilleries. One notes no smoking signs.

crossing the burn

to walk along a meadow and then on roads around town

past the huge Glenfiddich complex

and more trees with blackened branches and trunks.

The next day was wet, and we were leaving this beautiful little haven. I quickly snapped this shot from the living room window with the ash tree and the raindrops on the glass.

Walk number four in the rain around Lumphanan, a village with connections to the real Macbeth and Macduff.

into some pretty woods. Aberdeenshire trees were a little behind those further south and still at the new bright, light green leaf stage.

especially the beech trees.

oaks being a bit slower

Nonna not so interested in the paddling possibilities

Back into the village and then we passed this – supposed to be where Macbeth had his last drink

and this, later than Macbeth, who was eleventh century, a fortified mound

it would have had pallisades, buildings and a moat.

There is still some water, and stones to prevent it becoming a bog where visitors cross.

Nonna saw a roe deer suddenly

hardly any sign of the buildings, but stone markers.

So that was an interesting visit. There is a local tradition that Macbeth was beheaded on a nearby stone, dismissed as a legend.

Slightly damp we got back into the car and headed for home, but not without a nice lunch in Banchory at the Potarch cafe instagram account here, another café Lucy had been to before …. harissa roasted carrots with all sorts of nice bits and bobs, crunchy or creamy ..

we went over this pass in low cloud, a small wiggly road, visibility down to less than  100 metres. A shame, as the views stretch to the sea, said Lucy.