A weekend in Angus

For the past two years around the time of Remembrance Day, Elizabeth has competed in the Forfar Highland Dancing competition. We make a weekend of it and spend a couple of nights in Angus and that’s what we did this weekend for the 3rd year running. The competition is always on a Sunday and takes most of the day but nevertheless they set aside 2 minutes at 11am to remember all those who fell in war. The competition and our weekend away have become a nice ritual and this weekend was no exception.

Saturday was spent exploring some places we haven’t been before including Reekie Linn, a spectacular waterfall in a deep gorge with cliffs as high as 150 feet. The waterfall is formed where hard volcanic rock that’s resistant to erosion meets with softer sandstone that has weathered and collapsed away. I was not expecting anything so spectacular but it really was. Reekie comes from the word reek meaning smoke or mist.

It’s hard to get a feel of scale from photos but the drop behind us was 150 feet and there were warning signs everywhere to take care not to fall over the edge.

Not far from Reekie Linn is an RSPB nature reserve and Loch Kinnordy. There are apparently otters and beavers here although we didn’t see any.

We stopped in the village of Kirriemuir which was the birthplace of J.M Barrie, author of Peter Pan. You can visit the house he was born in but it’s shut over the winter so we could only see it from the outside.

Humans used to be shorter in those days as you can see in this photo of Daniel standing in front of the door.

We stayed at a lovely holiday house on an organic farm. They had two pigs that we fed as well as some chickens.

The owners assured us the pigs are pets now and not for eating. They are old and have poor eyesight. They are Spotted Hampshires.

This is Logie House, a 16th century tower house that once belonged to the Wishart family who were important supporters of an independent Scotland in the 13th century and of Robert the Bruce in particular.

The grounds on the estate are wonderful with lots of walks. They even have beavers. The owner is lovely and gave us a tour to see some beaver activity. We think beavers are delightful but they do create challenges for farmers with their dams which can flood farmland. Trees are also at risk and the beavers have had a go at some of the very old beech trees which they’ve had to protect with chicken wire. You can see in the photo below that the bark has been completely removed from the part of the base of this tree that isn’t protected with wire.

Some photos from our wanderings.

And now for the whole purpose of our weekend which was the highland dance competition. It was Elizabeth’s first competition at intermediate level as she recently levelled-up and was not expecting to win anything as the competition is tougher. It was also her first dancing the jig and hornpipe. But she had an excellent day, coming 1st in the sword dance and coming home with a trophy for 3rd overall. She was really pleased.