Slains Castle
Wow! was this castle ever difficult to get to! I was travelling with my husband and sister-in-law and Slain's was one of the castles on my 'must see'
list for that day... We drove into Cruden Bay and thought we would see signs telling us how to get to the castle, which we had seen off in the distance, but there were none to be seen- we drove through Cruden Bay and ultimately, past the castle, and decided to go back into Cruden Bay and check again... 'wouldn't it have been wiser to just ask someone?' you might be thinking? well, yes, but that wasn't half as adventurous. We ended up searching for access to the castle from the Bay/Harbour- the wind was incredible- so much for doing my hair that morning!! We had no luck, other than the fact that both my husband and his sister are avid golfers and we came across Cruden Bay Golf course...yup, we had to sit in the car and admire it for several minutes and take pictures to show everyone back 'ome.
Finally we were off again, and this time we decided to stop and ask someone...we stopped at the local post office and were told that there were two ways to get to the castle (oh really?!)... the first was via a footpath from the Bay area that we had just come from...but not at all reccomended due to the windy conditions (no worries there- it was waaay too windy for us...remember my hair?! after being out in that wind- no matter how briefly, I had doubts that I'd ever be able to convince it to lie flat again!).
The other alternative was to take the road that led out of town and park at a little car park and then walk up to the castle... again, we were told that it wasn't a good idea to go to the castle that day- too dangerous because of the wind and the previous day's rain. Phhhhfff!! ok, so I wasn't going to walk on a precarious path along the coast to get to it, but now that there actually was another way to it, forget the hair and let's go!!
What a shock we got when we saw how far we had to walk to get to the castle- that bloody car park was at least a couple of miles away from the darned thing! But let me tell you- well worth it!
More to come soon!!