Our Wedding day, May 28th 2012, was the most beautiful sunny day filled with love from our family and close ones.
We had planned to go on a trip to the Highlands in Scotland for our Honeymoon. So after my family left to their various destinations (France, Luxembourg and Belgium) our Honeymoon started and what a wonderful one!
We left Helensburgh Friday June 1st at 9:10 in the morning by train to Golspie, in the Sutherland area, north of Scotland.
The train journey was lovely with beautiful scenery to admire from the window. After calling at about 30 stations we arrived in Golspie at 16:08.
We had booked a few nights at a guesthouse in Golspie and we had arranged prior to our arrival that the owner, Jane Campbell, would collect us from the train station. When we arrived Leon gave a quick call to Jane who was there after a few seconds and drove us to the Granite Villa, she showed us to our room and explained a few details.
The Granite Villa was a beautiful looking house surrounded by a spacious and established garden. Since it was still early we decided to go for a walk around the village. We discovered that the Stonework shop and exhibition was on the Main street, on the A9, not very far from where we were staying so we paid this place a visit.
We were surprised and delighted to find the exhibition and shop were very interesting, we didn't have much time because the place was closing at 5:30 but had a look at the items we might want to buy before we were leaving Golspie.
The next morning we went back to the Orcadian because the previous evening we didn't have the time to visit the exhibition. It was a lovely sunny day and I took a few photos of the garden and exhibition.
There are three parts to the exhibition, which was free despite their website saying otherwise.
www.orcadianstone.co.uk/
A section covering geology, a room with minerals, and another with fossils. The collection and exhibits cover a wide range for anyone interested in geology, minerals or fossils it's definitely worth a visit.
The gift shop is quite large with a range of clocks, candle holders, jewellery, crystals, books and gift items for sale. We ended up spending about 2 hours there and bought a few gifts.
That evening we bought some chinese take away, at the "Mei's Food" take away restaurant to eat in our room. We had chicken in lemon sauce and duck curry, and we really enjoyed that! The previous night we had an average dinner at "The Trawler" while sitting in and we weren't too impressed.
On Saturday June 2nd, after spending hours at the Orcadian we carried on walking on the same side of the street and discovered a "postcard looking" kind of place next to the Sutherland Stonework shop's parking. There was a sign indicating a walk.
It was the entrance of the Big Burn Falls walk.
Leon had a look on Trip Advisor for things to do in Golspie but this attraction wasn't listed, what a shame because it was the best walk we had in ages!
He found a website though http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ and it was a good guidance once walking inside the woods on what path to take next sort of thing, avowing getting lost.
The entrance of the woods was spectacular and inviting, so we decided to go in!
We thought we were so fortunate to have seen the sign, imagine if we had walked on the other side of the road... we would have missed it!
This scenic attraction was the Big Burn Walk! A waterfall at the rocky entrance to the Big Burn gorge and along the seafront through mixed deciduous woodland, rich in flora and fauna. The flowers in June were a spectacular mix of primroses, bluebells, celandines, wood sorrel, campion and wild garlic.
After a while, after crossing a few bridges you will discover the stunning falls. You will hear the water from afar and walk with expectations but nothing will prepare you for the beautiful surprise. We both screamed with joy! The Falls!!!!
We took about 100 photos and spent more than 2 hours inside the woods without seeing anybody else on a Saturday afternoon. It was like stepping into another dimension and enjoying a wonderful time with nature alone. What a beautiful and enriching experience!!!
Once back in Golspie centre, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations were about to start so we went to the marquees where a gala party was supposed to be dancing to local bands. Nothing of the sort, it was very quiet, apart from a few girls dressed like princesses dancing and running on the dance floor.
We went to the Ben Bhraggie hotel's restaurant and had a nice meal. We also used the wi-fi on our iPhones after dinner. When Leon inquired to get the password for the internet connection and the barmaid said "money" I thought she was joking only to realised that Leon was surfing already after typing the word money.
In our room we watched Her Majesty's Jubilee celebrations on tv and there were fireworks in the distance on the top of the Ben Bhraggie so we looked outside our window but the sky wasn't dark enough opposed to the pitched dark sky we could see in London on tv.
On Sunday, we walk up at 9am and after spending ages at our breakfast table, this was becoming more and more of an issue now. We walked to Dunrobin castles exit, and walked towards the entrance.
The sight of Dunrobin Castle was impressive and a very inviting entrance with a young bagpiper was welcoming. There was no queue because the busses who delivered the visitors seemed to have been parked a while. So we bought our tickets (£9.50 each) and hurried our way to the edge of the garden where the falconry display was about to start at 11:30.
The very knowledgable falconer and the beautiful birds of prey made the visit worthwhile already and we still had to visit the castle!
We walked all the way back and visited the castle inside. I personally found that the silvery and the paintings were better that in any museum we have visited in Scotland.
After are visit we exited via the gisftshop and spend another half hour selecting the goods and gifts we were buying. I was charmed by a beautiful 100% wool / leather handbag branded Country Cognac which I could not leave without so I bought it on my credit card ;-)
We had a hot chocolate, coffee and some cakes before we decide to go to the beach at the end of the gardens. There was a pebbled/dirt path next to the cable all the way to the shore and unfortunately started to rain so we decided to go after spending a sunny and beautiful day there!
Luckily on Monday morning there were other guests at our B&B so that we could escape from our table as quickly as we could to take the train to Lairg to visit the Falls of Shin.
We were told it was "the attraction" of the Sutherland but we were disappointed to find that it was almost impossible to get there without a car :-(
We took the train at Golspie station (which was 12 min late) and when we arrived at Lairg train station to take the bus to the Falls of Shin, we found out that the bus stop was 1mile and a half away from the train station!!!
Luckily a gentleman at the station gave us a lift to the bus stop and we made it just on time since we only had 6min spare. When we arrived at the Falls of Shin we noticed the gift shop had no Harrods items anymore (the leaflets printed in 2009 stated Harrods and no other leaflets were to be found) and when Leon ordered a coffee, the coffee was so scalding hot that he burnt his mouth and tongue. This wasn't an isolated incident since we heard later another couple had a coffee that was too hot to drink and they just threw in the bin.
The falls were a short distance away from the shop and we didn't see any salmon swimming or leaping at all. There was a walk into the woods but wasn't a very interesting one, nothing like the Big Burn walk we had experienced the day before!
The children seem to have fun though at the various playground activities. We used the free wi-fi (password: coffeecup)but wasn't a very fast connection since I couldn't upload a 30sec short video on my iPhone's Facebook app.
Not all was bad, we found the information on the boards about the salmon and how it helps the local area a very interesting one.
When we were back in Golspie we decided to check the Pier and walked that way with our camera to take a few photos. We discovered the Golf Links Hotel and decided to refresh ourselves and go back for dinner there.
We were welcomed by Richard Walton who showed us to the bar. There was free wi-fi (without password) in this elegant looking bar with a huge LCD tv display.
Once our order was ready we were shown to our table in the most beautiful dining room. Leon suggested that after dinner we should ask to see the bedrooms. My choice was delicious and Leon had Salmon Supreme which was one of the most delicious dishes I have every tasted.
After our dinner in that beautiful dining room overlooking the shore on one side and the gardens and Ben Bhraggie mountain on the other side we requested to see the bedrooms.
We were shown 2 different beautiful rooms and we thought we should stay at the Golf Links Hotel next time. The rooms shown were £72/night and cheaper from the room at The Granite Villa (£80/night).
Tuesday June 5th was our last day in Golspie and decided to walk to the beach at Dunrobin Castle. It was a lovely sunny day and sat on the pebbles at the beach for a while.
We walked back to the Granite Villa in the sunshine and later on we noticed we had a tan from being in the sunshine.
We had a quick lunch (bought at Co-op) on the bench in the Granite villa's garden and Jane gave us a lift to the station just before at half past two.
We left Golspie at 14:42 as expected and had a long journey back to Helensburgh.
When we were home we unpacked and admired all the little presents we had bought. We also imported the 200 odd photos into the iMac to check them the following day.
The days that followed we wrote a few good reviews on TripAdvisor and generally enjoyed our memories of that beautiful Honeymoon we had experienced.
Most of all, we rested as we never did before, we slept so well thanks to the fresh air, no doubt.
Most of all, we rested as we never did before, we slept so well thanks to the fresh air, no doubt.
