Highland Wildlife Park, Dalwhinnie Distillery and Grantown

Unfortunately time did not allow for a detour to Glencoe or to make our way up ‘The Road to the Isles’ towards Skye. And just when we had been hoping for good views of Ben Nevis the weather ‘closed in’ and although we had made our first stop at Banavie and Neptune’s Steps to see the mountain, the top was enveloped in cloud.

We had wanted to see the locks and craft on the Caledonian Canal and to take a walk along the canal. We did the former, and talked to some of the yachtsmen coming through the locks, but it had started to rain a bit by then so we abandoned the walk and travelled on to Spean Bridge to see the Grade 1 listed Commando Memorial. This is not only a wonderful piece of sculpture, commemorating the British Commando Forces in the area where they undertook their training before World War II, but stands in the most stunning of settings. The fact that the weather was ‘threatening’ intensified its dramatic effect.
We were still heading north eastwards and had originally thought to go up the Great Glen and see Loch Ness, but decided instead to take the A86 route running alongside Loch Laggan. We stopped to see the dam, where the water level seemed quite low supporting the fact that the west of Scotland had been far drier than the rest of the UK this year.

As the Dalwhinnie distillery lay close to our route and we had heard good reports of the tour there, we booked ahead. There was just time beforehand for a quick lunch at the delightful Pottery Café and Bunkhouse at Laggan Bridge (close to the Ardverikie estate, used as ‘Glenbogle’ for the filming of ‘Monarch of the Glen’). In fact they sold far more than pottery, including some very attractive Scottish knitwear. We all found the Dalwhinnie distillery tour informative and enjoyed our ‘tasting’ afterwards, especially as it came with complimentary hand-made Highland chocolate.
Continuing northwards in sunshine, we stopped at the Highland Wildlife Park and enjoyed seeing all the animals but, in particular, the two polar bears ‘playing’ in their small lake, the two Amur tigers, the snow monkeys and the wildcats and their kittens. We were surprised by the size of the capercaillie and disappointed not to see the polecats or red squirrels (though we got sightings of the latter the following morning in the hotel grounds).

We stayed overnight at the Tigh na Sgiath Hotel, a small country house hotel at Dunain Bridge near Grantown on Spey. This was a very attractive and comfortable place and we had a respectable five course dinner there, followed by birthday cake with Terri Douglas and her husband from America. This was very entertaining as Terri not only provides children’s voices in animations, but is also a voice-casting director and runs a loop group known as the Loop Troop, providing voice-over artists and voice matching. She was thrilled at having just traced her family roots in Scotland (Jameson) – with help from the Edinburgh Register Office – and had obtained her coat of arms.


Terri Douglas Demo