Scotland day 6

Today, Wednesday, we drove back up to the Moray Firth (the sea) to play on the beach and perhaps see some animals. The day was sunny and warm, with the possibility of rain in the afternoon. Kate and I dropped Geoff and the kids off at the beach outside of Banff and went back into the town to see what was there. We strolled down to the harbour and got some good photos of a long curving sandy beach with the town of MacDuff high on the other side. We strolled through the gardens of what used to be Banff castle and then drove up to MacDuff to see what it was like. That town had very little to recommend it to tourists – very few stores of any sort. We eventually made our way to Duff House where we enjoyed tea and snacks. We didn’t have time then to go into the house itself, as we had promised to meet the rest of the family around noon. When we got to the beach, the kids were on the playground. We ate our picnic lunch on the grass, overlooking the sea and then packed up for a drive along the Coast Road. The sea was dark blue and the sky was light blue and dotted with clouds. A beautiful sight.

We decided to visit a wildlife centre at the mouth of the Spey River. As we were driving along, near Portsoy, Geoff shouted, ‘Look, there are seals!’ And there they were – both brown and grey seals, lying on rocks at the edge of the water. Unfortunately, we had neglected to bring our binoculars, but the seals were close enough to be seen very clearly with the naked eye. According to the information plaque, the seals swim in at low tide and allow themselves to be stranded on the rocks where they rest until the tide comes back in.

We continued on to the wildlife centre where we walked out on a long peninsula covered with stones. Didn’t see any wildlife, but the variety of stones was amazing and it was good to be outside. We admired the mosaics that had been created on the grass by school children using the many-colored stones.