Well, that was a weekend with a difference. On Friday morning we began the long journey from Fife up to Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, the north-east of Scotland. It was snowing heavily by the time we got the car loaded up for the journey, so I decided that it would be a good idea to be ready for all eventualities – such as getting stuck in snow, so I added a duvet, blanket, lots to eat and flasks of coffee. Jack went out to the shed and got a spade, just in case we had to dig ourselves out of a snowdrift. The forecast further north was for no snow at all though so we knew if we got out of Fife safely we would be fine.

Neither of us had ever been to Peterhead before and as the football team that Jack supports (Dumbarton) was playing Peterhead FC it seemed like a good time to go up there. He has visited almost all of the football grounds in Scotland, but not Peterhead. He was keen to tick that one off too but sadly the match was called off! It would seem mainly because the police had said that nobody should travel in the west of Scotland if it wasn’t absolutely necessary and Dumbarton is in the west of Scotland. So annoying as they would have got there fine I’m sure.

Anyway – every cloud and all that, we were staying overnight in Peterhead so we had plenty of time to explore the area and visit places we had never been before such as Laurencekirk, Ellon, Fraserburgh, Cruden Bay and also Slains Castle. To be honest I wasn’t too enamoured of any of the towns, but at least now I know what they look like. Being that far north is just too far from Glasgow and Edinburgh for my liking.

Slains Castle was the most interesting place we visited. It’s a ruin now as the owner had the roof removed in 1925 to avoid tax, but when it was still habitable the author Bram Stoker had been a guest in the castle and apparently it inspired him to use the castle location as Count Dracula’s castle. We took a lot of photos, but I’ll keep them for another blogpost. Meanwhile have a look here if you’re interested.