Cairngorms...kind of

On Wednesday, we decided that we would head up to the Cairngorms National Park. The Cairngorms are a mountain range in the highlands of Scotland. There was a lot to do--train trips, a reindeer herd, and a wildlife range. We headed out early that morning, excited to see the park.

The view from the top of the Cairngorms. We stopped just long enough to snap a few pictures before we huddled up in the car again. It was too cold for us! And I can't believe there was so much snow (it wasn't just on top of the mountains!)

To start, we headed to the top of the mountains where there was a train that ran from the visitor's lodge to the summit of the mountain. Even just stepping out of the car, I was freezing, and I'm pretty sure the rest of my family was too. None of us were dressed for winter weather, and that was precisely what we had emerged into. There were a few inches of snow coating the ground, the wind was just as biting as it had been in Edinburgh the day before, and I was eager to find some warmth. Realizing that at the top of the mountain it would be even colder and windier--not to mention that it was cloudy enough that we would have been in the midst of the clouds, unable to see any of the views--we decided to just head further down the mountain to see some of the other attractions in Cairngorm. We took a few pictures from the top, but quickly headed back to the car to go to the reindeer paddock.

Probably the most exciting shot of the sleepy reindeer. 

The reindeer paddock was decent. We had missed the morning walk up the hill to see the reindeer in a more natural environment (even though reindeer aren't natural to Scotland). Instead, we got tickets to see the reindeer in the paddock. After their busy morning, all the reindeer were just sitting toward the back of the paddock, not really doing anything too exciting. Since the reindeer weren't so exciting, I chose to do the little kids' activity where you had to find pictures of six elves that were "hidden" around the paddock. When we left the paddock, I had my sister take the list of the elves into the lodge, where she got a sticker for it. We left the reindeer paddock, laughing that we had been so easily sucked into a tourists trap.

At this point, we'd been in the Cairngorms for about an hour, with little to show for it. We decided to drive back down to Aviemore, the town at the base of the mountains. There was a rail station in town, and the train that ran out of it around 3:00 served tea and biscuits on the ride. We decided that would be a good way to get some good views of the Cairngorms and also to have a snack so we weren't all so hungry. We passed a few attractions on the way down to the train station, but most were just more tourist traps. They had pottery painting, clay pigeon shooting, and another wildlife section. When we got to the rail station, we asked about getting tickets for the ride that served tea and biscuits. The man at the ticket station explained that tickets for the ride had to be booked online, otherwise we could ride the train, but there wouldn't be any tea and biscuits for us. Since we had hoped to take the train ride for the views and the snacks, we decided just to find a cafe or somewhere else to eat in town. As we walked to the car, Mom asked "So, what's Plan F?" By that point, we had burned through all of our lightly laid plans for the day.

For some reason, there was a telephone booth out here. This
was pretty much the middle of nowhere!

We ended up going to a restaurant with the 'original' dumplings, which I assume are a dessert that's more popular in Scotland. The dumplings weren't bad, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. I ordered the strawberry dumpling, which was dumplings with strawberry jam and ice cream. I was assuming that the dumplings were similar to apple dumplings, but obviously without the apple, depending on what you ordered. Instead, it was more like a thick pancake with raisins and nuts in it, with ice cream and strawberry jam on top.

The day was looking like a flop, but our luck turned after we left the dumpling restaurant. On our way back to the A9, which is the highway that goes back to Stirling, I saw a 'heeland coo' in a field on the side of the road. 'Heeland coos' are the highland cows, which usually have rust-coloured, long hair. The pictures I've seen most often are of the males, so they have long horns like we see on bulls in the States. This was the first time I'd seen one of the coos, so I was pretty excited, as were the rest of my family. Finally, here was some authentic Scottish wildlife! We had seen sheep the whole way to the Cairngorms, but coos are much more specific to Scotland. Like the picture of foreign tourists, Mom parked the car, and all four of us headed down the sidewalk with our cameras out. The coos weren't very close to the road, so we all stood at the fence and zoomed in with our cameras to try to see them better. Again, Alyssa got the best pictures, so I'll be borrowing her photography skills again for this blog.

My first look at one of the famous 'heeland coos' of the highlands of Scotland. I personally think they're adorable.

After the coos, we decided we would just head back to Stirling. But Alyssa mentioned that she had seen some ruins of the A9 on the way to the Cairngorms, so we decided to stop and check them out. The ruins turned out to be the remains of the Ruthven Barracks, which were built early in the 1700s. The site itself has a rich history dating back to the early 1200s, when the first castle was believed to have been built there. It was fascinating to see the barracks, and hear about the history. It was obvious that the ruins were in disrepair--parts of it were boarded up, and many of the plaques that described the barracks said things like "here, there would have been two levels," where it looked like it was just one, big hall. Without even intending to, we had come across fascinating Scottish history.

The ruins of the Ruthven Barracks. You can't tell, but the person coming out of the doorway in the middle of the picture is my Mom! There was a tour there that day, so I think they're having a snowball fight over on the left.

Once we had seen the ruins, we headed back to Stirling. For dinner this time, we went to Nicky Tam's, a bar/restaurant in Stirling. Both Alyssa and I got the not-so traditional Scottish burgers. (Just regular burgers with Scottish beef!). Mom and Dad got much more traditional Scottish meals. Dad got haggis, neeps, and tatties, or haggis, turnips, and mashed potatoes. Mom got a steak and ale pie, also a much more traditional meal.

With our not so great trip to the Cairngorms behind us, we finished the day on a much better note than I would've thought earlier in the day. We might not have been able to see what we had planned on seeing, but the day turned out all the better for it.

A tout a l'heure!