|
British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
|
Home Copyright
© |
In
Queen Victoria's Parlour by Andy Farrell Last June, I was given the opportunity for a slightly different view of Scotland. A friend in Mensa works as a member of the Royal Household, and one of the job’s perks is the facility to rent some cottages on the Royal Estates as holiday homes. She’d booked one at Balmoral, and a dozen of us had managed to bag places for the week... The Balmoral Estate is a vast tract of land stretching back from the banks of the River Dee up into the Cairngorms. Lots of heather, trees and deer. The lodge which was to be home for the next week was at the “back” of the estate, over a mountain range from Balmoral Castle itself. Head out of the small town of Ballater down a winding track for nine miles into Glen Muick (pronounced Mick) and you find a ranger post and car park at the pleasantly named Spittal of Glen Muick. The hikers heading for the mountain Lochnagar start from here, but for us it was on through a padlocked gate onto the estate and another mile or so to the lodge, perched on a bank above Loch Muick. The lodge has the unpronounceable name of Allt-na-guibsaich. The best written approximation I can give is Allt Na Jew Sack, but it needs more phlegm than that. Most of my companions enjoyed a week having an old fashioned house party. The lodge lends itself to this - lots of real fires to play board games in front of, Landseer pictures hanging on cords from the old fashioned picture rails, the loch a mile away to saunter down to at sunset, and Queen Victoria’s parlour in which to sit and read. Victoria and Albert used to stay here, calling it “the Hut”, until Albert’s death, whereupon Victoria couldn’t bear to come back to a place with so many memories of him. Instead, she had a house further down the loch - Glas Allt Shiel - bought and rebuilt for her holidays. To an extent, I bought into the house party idea. The house did indeed have a fine setting. A couple of times I walked down to the boathouse on the loch shore. On the path, there was a fenced-off sequoia sapling - the plaque revealed it was a recently planted memorial to Princess Diana from the estate workers. I found this far more touching, hidden away here as it was, than the public displays of emotion after her death. I had one real objective while staying on the estate: Lochnagar. It’s one of Scotland’s larger mountains, and with the Scottish weather being what it is, even in summer, I figured that in the course of a week here I would be able to pick one day in which I could hope for good weather and fine views from the summit. I wasn’t disappointed - after a couple of cloudy days the forecast was good, and I set off bright and early up the track. The estate has a fair few landrover tracks - this one spent a couple of miles rising to a broad pass, with Lochnagar high up on the left. Carrying straight on would take me down the other side and to Balmoral Castle. Instead of going for a chat with Special Branch, I decided to stick to my original plan; I turned off left and ascended the mountain. From the “top” were great views for miles. I say top reservedly - it’s a big U shape about a mile round. Even in June there were cornices filled with snow. Still not tired out, I made a triangle route by descending to Victoria’s other highland home, the Glas Allt Shiel. There’s a great waterfall behind and above the house, which sits among trees in a parklike setting on the lakeshore. All the windows were shuttered up with wooden panels, so I was denied the opportunity of a nosey inside. I trudged four miles back along the landrover track on the lakeshore, after which I was certainly tired out! Balmoral Castle itself is very grand, just what you’d expect. Albert had it rebuilt and expanded from an older castle, and it looks like it could have been done yesterday. Very enduring stuff, this granite. Tourists are allowed to walk on marked paths in the woods, in the grounds, and into a couple of exhibitions in side areas of the castle itself, and then emerge into the coffee and gift shops. The whole area is an entertaining mix of scenery & sights and royal links. Standing on the bridge at Braemar you get an instant view of a craggy waterfall right beneath you. All the hotels are very baroque, with tartan carpets and stags’ heads adorning the walls. One even had a wedding reception on, complete with bagpiper. Ouch. They’re lovely instruments when they have airspace around them to diminish the volume. I’d
always been a fan of the West Highlands - camping in Glencoe and shopping
in Fort William, etc - but after this visit I could easily fall in love
with Royal Deeside. |