Niel Gow's Oak - Dunkeld

Today I went to have a look at Niel Gow's Oak an ancient Oak tree at Dunkeld which I heard had been damaged in recent storms.  Niel Gow was a famous 18th Century fiddler who used to sit under this tree and compose his works, more info about him here   I parked at the Douglas Fir Wood car park and took the path under the Railway and A9 down to the side of the Tay and followed the walk heading towards Dunkeld.  You can do a whole loop if you wish, I walked the other side last November 

Sign at the moment says Trail closed, but it is fine.

Views up the River Tay

 The next six pictures show the famous oak tree.  A couple of big limbs appear to have come off it and the delightful seat is well and truly trashed, I assume the large limb fell on top of it.

 I continued along the path a little further admiring the trees before retracing back to the car park.

The Den of Alyth (again)

Think I'm becoming a bit of a geocaching addict, sorry!, but it gets you out and about.  I haven't been along to the Den of Alyth since last June when I resurrected my geocaching interest, I only found one that day as I had mucked up putting the co-ordinates in.  I had a successful 'hunt' and once again left the trackables for someone else to enjoy finding and moving on.  Great but muddy walk today and saw plenty of wildlife, birds, deer and red squirrels.  There seems to be a lot of new signage for all the walks as well,  guests who stayed a couple of weeks ago also enjoyed a walk here.  Have had a number of guests this month who have been walking, of course has been great weather for it.  An icy blast is forecast though and their has been more snow at Glenshee.

A beautiful circular drive

Another crisp cold sunny day today in Perthshire so took the children out on a circular trip.  From Blairgowrie head up to Bridge of Cally and take the A924 which takes you over to Pitlochry passing through Kirkmichael which I have blogged about recently.  Couldn't have asked for a better day and we completed a trail of geocaches along the route, 19 today, very impressed with daughter No 2's GPS reading skills.  You don't have to be in the slightest bit interested in geocaching to enjoy this fabulous driving route.  You will drop down past the famous Moulin Inn before coming into Pitlochry and it is an easy drive back to Blairgowrie down the A9 and back across the A923.

On your way out of Pitlochry stop off for a wee dram at the Blair Athol Distillery.

Out for a meal

On Wednesday evening we went out to celebrate our eldest daughters birthday.  We went to a place in Perth called Breizh, we have been a few times before and it is always excellent and the children like it as well.  Of course Wednesday was the 25th which is traditionally the day we should all eat haggis, but not this year!  We dined quite early, but the restaurant soon filled up and any other time we have been it is always busy, which is a good sign.

World Snow Day

Today was World Snow Day and many of the ski centres had extra activities on like ski/snowboard taster sessions, demonstrations, ski races etc.  We had a few hours up the road and had lots of fun making a snowman.