Old Friends, Highland Games and Stone Circles

Our Swedish friends Asa and Olof decided to come over to Scotland for a weekend to meet up with us, very exciting! We met for dinner on Friday night in Dundee, at our B&B - Fiona, the B&B hostess is a chef and does dinners as well, so we had arranged for her to cook us a meal. We had  lovely evening sitting around her dining table and catching up.

On Saturday, our friends played golf while Graham and I went to the Braemar Highland Gathering - finally a chance for Graham to wear the kilt outfit we've been carrying around! A bit chilly in the morning but it turned into a sunny warm day, we were very lucky. We met lots of Anderson's - the first tent we went into had an Anderson Clan table, and also a local Rotary Club table, so Graham had a great welcome. The tiered seating around a central oval at Braemar means you get a clear view of all the sporting events. There are very few commercial exhibitors other than food vendors (which were excellent); but of course you can stroll into Braemar Village which has a great array of shops selling Scottish wares, plus pubs, cafes etc.

On Sunday we met up with our friends again at Arbroath, home of the famous "Arbroath Smokie", which we had for lunch, wandered round the harbour then off to view a grand Georgian mansion, the House of Dun. Beautiful plaster work, art, furnishings and gardens. Then they left for the airport and we were off to Forfar.

We've had a few more business calls, but lots of sightseeing - including more castles, both ruined and intact, and a number of fishing villages like Crail, Anstruther and Pittenween. We had a lovely stay at Aboyne -  the Boat Inn on the banks of the River Dee. Still having mostly good weather, just the occasional drizzly patch. We also visited the Whitehills Stone Circle which dates from the Neolithic period, a walk of about a mile off the road - there are only 3 stones still standing with others fallen over, but a large circle is clearly visible.

Aberdeen is our next stop.