Highland Perthshire

It is said that "A man's home is his castle."  In Scotland a man's home sometimes is a castle, and for those without a hereditary pile or title, the next best thing is to build a home resembling a castle.  Castles lined the road out of Pitlochry as we passed by the Linn of Tummel Trail at the bridge over the River Garry.

Having heard big wraps about The Queen's View, we stopped en-route to wherever we were headed, and parked at the spot where Queen Victoria once took tea in 1866.  Being The Queen, Victoria assumed the scenic spot was named for her.  Pity help the poor underling who may have had the temerity to suggest the title was named after a previous queen, Isabella the first wife of Robert the Bruce.  The walls of the tea room were inscribed with other historical facts and numerous musings, with one being a silhouette of QV entering the WC facilities and labelled "One might want to go."  Outside another silhouette pictured QV posting a letter under the protection of an umbrella held by good and faithful servant John Brown.

Massive lichen covered trees, that rarely felt the sun's rays, grew up out of the steep slopes next to our road to Tummel Bridge which presented another of those interminable Highland photo opportunities. We drove along the roller coaster B847 past fat sheep and more faux stone castles complete with twiddly bits on gables, until passing under a massive stone bridge and autumnal canopy of larch and oak at Struan.  We now know where many of the names of Australian towns originated.

We bypassed The House of Bruan  with its' high priced fashion statements and tour buses and lunched nearby at The Atholl Arms at Blair Atholl.  Seated near the raging fire, I enjoyed a lentil and vegetable soup that now ranks in my top ten potages.  Hearty, and full of flavour and flatulance.  We have only once broken the unbroken rule ~ "Never drink at the first pub you see" ~ once!  To our detriment, the pub lunch yesterday at McKenzies Hotel was not up to the Scottish standard we have come to expect.  Still it was cheap and the walls around the faded pool table featured album covers by Scots hit makers.

As you travel rounds Scotland , the difference between the Shires is striking.  The denuded mountain tops and cliff-lined lochs of the West Highlands, the stark bare mountains of the Isles and The Cairngormes, and the autumnal splendour of Perthshire.  Another continuing feature of Northern Perthshire are the dead pheasants littering the roads.  Bloody pheasants!  Still, if we can't find a pub we could survive on road kill.