Day 5 - Along Royal Deeside

Crathis Castle
This morning we woke to, yes, more rain. I know this sounds bad, but truly, the rain is somewhat of an annoyance but has not been an impediment in any way. The biggest problem is that Barry insists that we wipe our feet before entering the coach. All in all, a reasonable request.

After breakfast with my fellow travelers, we are off to visit Crathes Castle. But first, let me introduce a few more of my companions. Jim Thompson and Laurie Dempsey are another father/daughter pair on this trip. Jim is the Drum Major for the Atlanta Pipes and Drums. He is one of those gentlemen that my sister, Cissy, refers to as “The Pope of Scotland”. This is due to the regalia he wears when in uniform. Alex introduced me to Jim and Laurie at the Grandfather Mountain Games in July. Betsy Pashcall is a retired teacher from Inverness, FL, and she travels with a companion stuffed sheep named BaBa. The night we had lamb on the carvery in Edinburgh, she had us all swear not to tell BaBa. Freya Olson, obviously of Norse descent (but then, so are many Scotsmen), keeps to herself somewhat but is very knowledgeable of the Scottish history and is a delight to talk to. I am sorry that I have not taken more time and that there is so little time left.

As I said, this was a day to visit Crathis Castle, which I have done on two previous occasions. However, this third time I seemed to find items of interest that I had not seen previously and this made for a most interesting tour. I also toured most of the gardens, for which Crathes is well known. Crathis is a 16th century castle in the The Banchory Lodge – my Room is the Highest Windows (Facing Right) Crathis Castle from the Gardens tower house style. It was made primarily for living in though it has many features to make it easily defensible in case of an attack. I found it's great hall with it's wood paneled walls and ceilings adorned with coats of arms to be quite extraordinary.

Crathie Kirk
From Crathis, we drove along the banks of the River Dee until we came to Crathie Kirk. Crathie Kirk is the church where the royal family worships when in residence in Balmoral Castle. This area is referred to as “Royal Deeside” precisely because it is used by the royal family for much of the year when getting away from London. Here I must relate a sad incident. As I walked down the drive from Crathie, I stopped to photograph a thistle along the side of the drive. As I turned to make my way on down the, I tried to close the screen on the camera as I walked and I caught my toe on the edge of the raised pavement. Skipping the details, the next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky. As a result, I banged up my knee pretty badly on the pavement and received an awful abrasion on my right hand. (I realized afterwards that I had scraped my hand as I flipped it so as to protect my camera, a marvelous feat given the time to react.) The sore knee would prove to be an annoyance getting up and down the stairs to the Tower Room. But of greater injury was my badly bruised ego caused by the sight of my large self literally rolling down the drive, camera tucked away in one had and umbrella in the other. The knee continues to give me problem, but not near as bad as I anticipated and I will say no more of it.

Town of Ballater
On leaving Crathie Kirk, we limped (oops, I said no more) into the little town of Balleter for shopping and lunch. In the heyday of train travel, Queen Victoria had the railroad extended to Ballater but no further. She did not want the railway to interfere with the tranquility of Balmoral. However, not wishing to be without her creature comforts The Royall Loo whilst awaiting the train, she had “royal” waiting room constructed at he station complete with a “royal” WC. As you might guess, the “royal” tusche does not set on just any old throne. This one is constructed of cherry wood with the best of hand painted china for a bowl. I'm sure that Her Majesty wiled away many hours perched here with a fine book!

The Royal Loo having been the highlight of the day, we returned to the fine Banchory Lodge where we were served a fine dinner and had a bit of entertainment by Alex. Then off to bed as we were to once more hit the road on the morrow.