Not long enough in Angus and Aberdeenshire Part One

Dunnattor Castle

After a few weeks resting at home, it was time to get Ruby out and head up north again.  This time, we decided to head up to Aberdeenshire and do the Aberdeenshire Coastal Trail. I don’t think we have planned enough days to accomplish this, but time will tell and it is not like we can’t go back and do what we missed. So I am looking at this trip in a similar was as when we did the North Coast 500 - scouting for the future!

To be perfectly honest, I tried to squeeze in a fair amount of at home time and lots of lunching and dining with friends, and we had visitors from The Netherlands and Stornaway and Falkirk the weekend before, so I might not have been as committed as I should have been for this trip!  Oh, and then I scheduled lunch with a good friend of mine on the day we intended to leave!  Uh oh!  I actually thought we weren’t going.  

Lunch was fab and it was great to catch up. Then a mad rush home, only to find our daughter dropped in to pick up some things she needed. Looking back, I am afraid she wanted a visit and we were so focused on heading out…..I hope she drops in on us again and we drop everything and just enjoy her company.

But enough worrying about guilt like a parent always does, and more about this amazing part of Scotland! 

We didn’t leave our home until around 3 and were lucky to get out of Glasgow before rush hour hit.  The drive was uneventful and we made it to our planned but unknown campsite- Woodlands Caravan Park in Carnoustie. It was almost dark by the time we got there, mainly due to weather, not the shortness of days. Days are still fairly long here  with sunset around 7:45pm.  But that drops about 5 minutes a day this time of year.

We got the key to the mens and ladies toilets and the code to use the gate into the park for a shortcut into Carnoustie.  Never found the pub that was supposed to be 5 minutes away, but did spy an interesting statue in a charity shop that we both felt was worthy of further inspection the next day.  

As we passed Spar, I remembered, I never put dishes in Ruby and all Spar had left were paper bowls, so for the past 2 days, we have been eating breakfast, lunch and dinner from tiny paper bowls.  One priority tomorrow is to stop and buy something decent to eat off of! 

The Woodlands Campsite was like the Taj Mahal of campsites. I certainly didn’t expect such a great place and wish we could have stayed longer just to enjoy being there. The site was immaculate and so close to Carnoustie -about a 5 minute walk through a lovely park, the wifi was superb and free, the ladies toilets were like something you would find in a nice department store, the laundry room was fabulously equipped and had a library of books you could trade if you needed to.  Oh, and there was a rec room, complete with a tv. If only Alan had known that the night before. He had to watch the Scotland game on his phone! 

The next morning, today actually, the wind was about 40 mph so we were concerned how Ruby would fare on the roads, but she did ok.  Before leaving Carnoustie, we walked to the golf course where the last British Open was held.  Not a fun walk with me having to hold onto my hat the whole time.

We did stop by and look at the statue from last night and we bought it!  Not sure where it will go in our house, but we will find a place for it!  

Arbroath Harbour

Our next stop was Arbroath!  This is a fishing village on the north east coast of Scotland, on the North Sea.  The only thing I knew about Arbroath was the Arbroath Smokie! This is a specially smoked haddock which is very popular.  My goal was to find a local fishery and buy one. My pleasures can be quite simple. We parked our camper along the shore and walked into town, first stopping at the Signal Tower Museum.  Neither one of us are really into museums and, since Kenzie was not allowed in, we just went in in turns, not expecting to stay long.  I went in first.  Well, I was in much longer than Alan expected, and when it was his turn, he was in even longer!

Signal Tower Museum

The Bell Rock Lighthouse is just barely visible in
the middle of this photo.  It looks like a
matchstick!  It is 11 miles away and this is
what Signal Tower was meant to communicate with.

We may not enjoy museums as a rule, but some can just grab us and this was one of them.  It was all about local history but mainly focused on the interaction between the Signal Tower and the Bell Rock Lighthouse 11 miles away.  They explained how the signal tower with the ball on top was used to communicate with the lighthouse with this ball.  If visibility was poor, they would try later in the day.


This tower was also used to inform the lighthouse keeper when his wife had a baby by flying a pair of trousers or a dress on the tower.  Bell Rock Lighthouse was built by Robert Stevenson - grandfather to Robert Louis Stevenson.  Many lighthouses on the East Coast of Scotland were built by Robert Stevenson, or his son, Thomas Stevenson.  father of Robert Louis Stevenson!  On another trip we did to Bass Rock (also on the East Coast of Scotland), we learned that young Robert Louis Stevenson used to travel with his father to jobs and the expectation was that he would follow in his father’s footsteps.  Unfortunately, he did not enjoy good health and this sort of role would not be in his best interest.   So it was very fortunate for him that he could write a great story! 

Example of traditional clothing
of the fishwives.  The patterns may
vary but it was usually the blue
striped skirt, plaid shawl and
flowered blouse.  

This museum also displayed stories of life in Arbroath and how the fishwives worked so hard, from baiting 4 thousands hooks a day, team effort of course, to carrying their husbands to the fishing boats on their backs to prevent the men’s feet from getting wet. They also travelled far and wide selling the Smokies.  Strong and formidable women in my opinion!  

The process to preserving a Haddock and creating a Smokie looks similar to how they dry cod in Norway. The haddock is cleaned but not skinned, cut open and put on racks over a smoky fire. It has been a long time since the process was explained to me, but I believe the smoking helped with long term storage of the fish and enabled them to have food during the winter.  They are also regularly sprinkled with salt water so they have a lovely smoke and salty taste.  

In our walk along the harbour, I found one fishmonger that intrigued me because it looked impossible to buy their Smokies because I could only see the shop from across the Brothock Burn. This area was the traditional location of these fishers and there are quite a few backyard smokehouses where Smokies are produced.

I got to choose which one I wanted.
They are really big!

Looking across the Burn to the smokehouse

Those things that look like little packages
are the Haddock being smoked.

What the other side looked like!

As we continued walking, we discovered a bridge that took us over the canal this business, and many other similar smokehouses, was located on and then to the door.  I went in and bought my lunch!  The business name was M & M Spink and, as we walked along the older parts of Arbroath, where there are many Smokies on offer, many of the business names were similar but not exact, many "Spinks" with different initials.    I would love to know the genealogy of this and find out if, many years ago, they were once just one family….

We then headed back to the camper and realised we had been in Arbroath for over 2 hours.  It was just a lovely place to wander and observe.  

It is nice travelling in a campervan.  Although I prefer eating in restaurants and experiencing local food when someone else cooks it, there is also something so convenient when we end up in our own kitchen and make what we want. So this lunchtime in Arbroath, I had the pleasure of an Arbroath Smokie while Alan had his usual ham sandwich. Perfect and saved precious time to head north and find another fabulous stop - Dunnottar Castle!

Dunnattor Castle

I have seen photos of this castle for years but had no idea where it was.  So nice that the real thing lives up to the drama of the photos I have seen.  It is easy to park there and even a coffee stall - yippee.  Yes, travelling with a kitchen is alright, but so is buying a gorgeous cup of coffee!  

We headed up and down and around and up and down again, until we arrived - not at the castle - but at the perfect viewpoint of the castle.  Spent a bit of time enjoying the views from all kinds of angles.  Yes, you can also walk down and up very steep steps and paths to get closer to Dunnotter Castle and the entry fee is not too high (too bad it isn’t National Trust so I could mention once again the benefits of joining, even for a two week visit in Scotland…)  But I was not in the mood for steepness and up hill climbs and Alan was happy with the distant shots.  The sun was not at its best but we made do and when we were done, went back to the camper van. Then the sun reappeared! Alan went back and retook all his photos, but I was happy with what I got.  So I relaxed and read my book until he came back - bliss.

Kenzie patiently waiting for Alan to come  back!

After leaving Dunnotter Castle, we had hoped to camp in Stonehaven at a site that sounded amazing. When we arrived there, the location and the site looked perfect.  In fact it was so perfect, it was full and we were given a list of other campsites both heading north and south. We were heading north so chose the Deeside Holiday Park in Marycoulter. This took us inland a bit and messed our timing up a bit the next day, but it was a really nice site and it was time to stop driving. 

This trip has found us eating all our meals in the camper van!  Never my first choice, but I had not been convinced we were actually doing this trip and had stocked my real kitchen. So I just took my planned meals on the road!  It has worked very well since nothing has been wasted, dinners have been simple and there has been no wasted time searching for somewhere to eat. And the campsites we keep finding ourselves on have not been close to any food establishments.  So this was also very lucky.






"Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting."  Joyce Meyer