Aberdeen (2nd Wedding Anniversary Weekend)

We recently had out second wedding anniversary (hard to believe, I know) and to celebrate we went to Aberdeen (or rather I flew to Aberdeen and Sarah stayed there rather than coming home).

Raemoir House, as we arrived

We stayed at the very lovely Raemoir House Hotel at Banchory, about half an hour out of Aberdeen itself. It is a manor house which had been converted into a hotel, and was a very romantic place to be.

Sarah had some work to do on Saturday, so after checking out the 'Tyrebagger Wood Sculpture Walk' Stephen caught up with Nikki Baggaley (a good friend from Uni who is now working as a post-doc researcher at the McCauley Institute in Aberdeen).

A sculpture in the Tyrebagger forest

After a cup of tea and a tour of her house, they went for a drive along Deeside (one of the rivers that runs out of town), and headed up Scolty Hill to get a 360 degree view back across the city, up to the snow covered mountains and out across the fields - there is a tower at the top (a memorial to General William Burnett) which gives an even better view.

Nikki climbing up toward Scolty tower - that is actually ice, not a river in the foreground

A view across the plains to the snow-capped peaks from the top of Scolty Hill

The Falls of Feugh, near Banchory - apparently sometimes the salmon swim up here - it had been raining too much for that to happen here, though

That night, after dropping off Nikki, we had a fantastic romantic dinner, champagne starter, wine from Bordeaux, French-style food topped off with desert wine - even better we were in the hotel restaurant so could just stumble upstairs to bed.

The following morning (after a good sleep in and a fry-up breakfast) we headed on to Crathes Castle where we had a personalised tour of the castle (there was nobody else there when we arrived). Our guide knew the current Lord of the castle, and knew more than enough history of the previous lords to keep us fascinated.

Since it was a special occasion we splashed out on the car...so very nice to drive...

Crathes Castle, near Aberdeen

From there it was on to Stonehaven (a nice little town by the coast), where we ran into someone Sarah has been working with, and had a nice lunch while watching the swell roll in. Our final stop was Dunnottar Castle, a castle from 1392, ruined now but very stunning as dusk fell and a storm rolled in.

Dunnottar Castle - and yes it was as bleak as it looks!

Unfortunately, dusk rolling in was a sign that the weekend was over and that Stephen had to go back to London and back to work. There were only 20 people on the plane, so that was probably not good for the carbon footprint, but presumably the plane was on the return journey from shuttling consultants north, which made us feel less bad...so another weekend over, but a fantastic one and a wonderful way to spend our anniversary...