From Lighthouses to Castles - Join us in Moray Speyside, Scotland - Part 1 - The ROAMies Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Muddy.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
So it turns out we've been pronouncing the name of
this area incorrectly, so wehave an official Scott with us
here.
Not from.
Muddy, that's right, tell usyour name.
Richard.
Richard.
All right, richard, I'm Rory,this is Alexa, and so we've been
saying Moray Speyside, I wouldsay.
Muddy Speyside.
Muddy Speyside yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
But you're best asking somebody who's figure I
would say if I was coming up toMurray, I'm coming to Murray,
all right.
No, moray, moray.
Yeah.
I think it looks like it'sMoray with a Y at the end, but I
would say Moray, Moray Wellthat's Chris.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
What would you?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
say Moray, murray, murray, right, and Speyside,
speyside, yeah, yeah, but Murray, I would say Murray, murray,
more like his than you do.

Speaker 6 (00:50):
Hi, I'm Alexa.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
And I'm Rory, and together we are the Romies.

Speaker 6 (00:57):
We are married To each other Right.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
We are a touring musical duo.

Speaker 6 (01:02):
And our music has taken us to all kinds of places
all around the world and keepsus always on the go.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to keepall your plates spinning.

Speaker 6 (01:13):
And we hope, to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
Hi everyone, we are so excitedto share this episode with you.
It is chock full of so many funadventures.
Oh, my goodness, I'm not surehow we're going to get through
it in a timely fashion.
We're going to do our best.
We just want you to buckle up,sit back and enjoy Unless you're

(01:38):
just one of those people whowork out while you listen to
podcasts.
In that case, we say faster,faster, faster, push harder.
You can do it, you're strong,you're powerful.
All that wonderful stuff wehave been doing throughout this
year.
Our dumb little world triviaquestions.
Normally we just pull randomones out of the hat, but these
are a little specific because,in case you don't have a clue

(01:59):
already, we're going to startwith these trivia questions and
maybe you'll get a clue of whatwe're going to be talking about
in today's episode.
So the first trivia questionand you're going to have to
listen all the way through untilthe end, because we don't tell
the answer until the end Numberone is what city is the host of
the Fringe, the world's largestarts festival?

(02:20):
All right, okay.
That's question number one,rory.
Question number two go ArtsFestival.
All right, okay, that'squestion number one, rory
question number two go.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
The thistle is the national flower of which country
?
The thistle, the painful plant.

Speaker 6 (02:39):
Okay, Rory, I think on this one we'll cheat.
Why don't you go ahead and givethe answer?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
The answer to the question of the thistle is the
national flower.
Of which country is Scotland?

Speaker 6 (02:54):
Yay, so we are going to be focusing on Scotland today
, but specifically in the regionof Murray Speaceside.
Yes, murray Spaceside.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Many Americans would say Murray Spaceside because of
the Murray Eel, of which we arevery familiar.

Speaker 6 (03:13):
However, the Scots do not say I've never heard of the
Murray Eel.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
They've never heard of Murray Spaceside.
For that matter.

Speaker 6 (03:21):
So, Rory, where is Murray Spaceside?

Speaker 2 (03:28):
for that matter.
So, rory, where is Murray MuddySpaceside?
Muddy Spaceside is in the northof Scotland, located between
two international airports,aberdeen and Inverness, and they
do say them those way, thoseways like that.

Speaker 6 (03:36):
Yeah, we're going to get into how they say things
just in a little bit.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, regular rail and bus services operate between
inverness and aberdeen withstops in okay, if we're
americans.
I'll pronounce them this way.

Speaker 6 (03:51):
Yeah, this is the american way stops in for us
elgin and keith we just madeeveryone in muddy space side
cringe the way we said that.
We'll explain why in just alittle bit.
We want want to thank VisitMuddy Spaceside for sponsoring
this episode and making us anamazing itinerary.
David and Gemma were amazing towork with.

(04:13):
David did so much work prepping, working with us and we thought
we would share our awesomeitinerary with you, and so we're
just going to kind of walkthrough in the order of the
itinerary and tell you about ourexperiences at each place.
Muddy space side is known forits whiskey production and its
whiskey trail I mean, there's somany of them that we have to

(04:35):
sort of.

Speaker 9 (04:36):
I have to just every day just go on the website and
refresh.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
There's 50 others that are like running towards or
whatever, and they're in yourregion that you cover?

Speaker 9 (04:44):
yeah we've got 60 working distilleries, all within
a 50 mile radius we've gotthree distilleries this year
celebrating the 200 yearanniversary just in our region.
It's like generations of familythat work within there and own
them yeah, so it is, it's veryit is.
It's fascinating part of ourregion.

Speaker 6 (05:02):
Lots of pride we're so glad we got to meet David and
Jim and you're going to hearfrom them throughout this
episode.
You can go to the VisitMediSpaceside website for all
things whiskey and anything youneed for that but our itinerary
is off the beaten path.
We wanted to find all of theother fun things that you can do

(05:22):
and experience outside of whatyou might typically do if you
were just going to go visitMediSpaceside.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
We like to do things that typical tourists typical
tourists, that's nice don'talways do, but those are the
things that are so fun when yougo visit a place, to get in with
the locals and find out what'sreally up.
So we did a little bit of that.

Speaker 11 (05:43):
We did a little bit of that.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Thanks to David and Gemma.

Speaker 10 (05:48):
We've got Johnston's .
I don't know if you've heard ofJohnston's Kashmir, so it's a
global brand as well.
Walker's Shortbread.
Yes, so that's here as well.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Seriously.
Yes, so that's based here aswell.
Is there like a factory?
That's what we get in theStates.

Speaker 10 (06:02):
Is it?
Yeah, yeah, so that's basedhere.
So you've got the factory here,but you've also got two shops.
So you've got one in the townof Abelower and you've also got
one in Elgin, which is just 15minutes from here in the town
centre.
So that's like a little shopwith just shortbread, definitely
go there so.
Velcol is at 4, maybe VelcolSorry.

Speaker 6 (06:20):
Velcol, is it four?

Speaker 9 (06:22):
No, they'll close.

Speaker 8 (06:24):
They'll close.
Yeah, so this is the accent.

Speaker 10 (06:28):
They will close at four she was still speaking
English, I know I was stillEnglish Bell call.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
But also the cathedral or whatever is the
Algonquin Cathedral right, thatis right, yeah, so the Algonquin
Cathedral.

Speaker 9 (06:40):
So it was, yeah, it's not the Elgin Cathedral.

Speaker 6 (06:45):
Oh, no, cathedral, so it was.
It's not the Elgin Cathedral.
So visit muddy space.
I'd put together about a twoand a half day itinerary for us,
chock-full of fun and adventurethere's so much we didn't get
to because two and a half dayswasn't nearly enough we so have
a bucket list for when we goback, because we definitely want
to go back.
We got to experience, though,first the first thing like I

(07:06):
don't know how we were going tobeat the first thing because we
got a tour of a lighthouse.
I've never been in a lighthousebefore, like we were in the
lighthouse, so that was superfun and we got a little history
before.
And then we had to hike up likeI don't know 150 200 stairs,

(07:26):
somewhere between like 120 200stairs something like that
between 120 and 2 000 stairs.
Yes, that's what it felt likeyeah, this is what we sounded
like after we I wish I had fivepounds of oil.

Speaker 8 (07:50):
I think he wants us to stop at the ladder, yeah.

Speaker 6 (07:54):
We had a great tour guide who shared a bunch of
stories and I thought it waspretty interesting when he
shared about the job of alighthouse worker.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
So it's nice, pretty much a job for life, a
lighthouse keeper, as long asyou didn't do anything wrong.
We spent the light, let thelight go out or missing the time
.
It's your every calendar behindyou, Time off and time on to
the minute.
Every day of the year you missthat time.
You lost your job, lost yourhouse, lost your accommodation,
your livelihood and noindustrial tribunals there.
And we only just noticed theother day, at the centre of the

(08:26):
bottom, if it's particularlyfoggy or low visibility, the
extra half hour on each end ofthe day as well, so it could be
an 18 hour shift.
You do it.
When we picked that little lensup from Fraserburgh, they asked
.
They were telling us about anincident out on one of the rock
stations offshore where thewinding cabinet broke and they
had to wait six days due toweather for a boat to come out
to fix it.
So with that incentive, the twokeepers stood at the top of the

(08:51):
tower every night for sixnights, turned it by hand at the
right rotational speed, andnobody knew it was not working,
apart from them two.
Oh nice.

Speaker 6 (08:58):
When we got up to the top and we got a little bit
more history, then there wasanother door that took us to
another level.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, I made the mistake of asking him what's
that?
Oh well, we went up through ahatch, yeah, through a hatch.
So we got to go up to where thelight actually lives right, and
then it spins around and upthere was a door in the side of
the wall and I made the mistakeit was like a small door that
you have to crawl through and Imade made the mistake of saying
where does that go?

Speaker 6 (09:27):
And he said well, you're about to see.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
About to find out, but I was really proud of myself
.
He opened the door and it ledoutside to walk around the top
of the lighthouse wherebasically the balcony around
where the light comes out.

Speaker 6 (09:41):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yep, so we all piled out there and I was actually
brave enough.
Yeah, nobody else cared, rorydid so good.

Speaker 6 (09:50):
I have video of him walking around and like being
able to catch his breath andlike be you know I was awesome.
He was all brave and everything.
Yeah, not that he's ever scaredof heights or anything.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
No, my butt was puckered, but still, it was just
so much fun, yeah when we wereoutside.

Speaker 6 (10:10):
We got a much clearer view right because we're not
having to look through windows.
You can just look out and yeah,beautiful view, yeah everything
around us.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Because it's 360 degrees, you can walk all the
way around it.
So you've got the beach and theocean, which is so gorgeous.
Yes, and you can see way, wayaway.
As a matter of fact, on a clearday, you can see way, way, way
a long ways.
On a clear day, you can see theland where it juts out yeah,
like miles and miles and milesaway yeah, the peninsula of

(10:38):
scotland, peninsula of scotland,it's really cool.
And then when you walk aroundthe other side, there is a royal
air force base and you andpeople come there just to watch
the fighters take off and landand do their maneuvers.
It's pretty awesome.
Our lighthouse tour guide was aformer military man and he

(10:59):
started telling us all about it,and then some locals also, when
we were talking to them,started telling us all about
four squadrons of typhoonfighters on there.

Speaker 5 (11:14):
They're probably knocked off for tea and tiffin
now fighter jockeys sort of nineto five under the friday
geezers, but they do hold 24hour standby.
Quick reaction alert forunidentified incoming aircraft.
Two squads of Poseidon plus nowthe training unit, the tight
conversion unit P8 Poseidon'sthere.
That's replaced with a Nimrod,which I was on the
anti-submarine you were the.
Nimrod pilot.
No, I had a driver.
We were the clever guys downthe back, but they're the

(11:38):
anti-submarine guys.
But we had 38 Nimrods.
They've only got nine P-8s.
So submarine tracking is quitelabor intensive.
No no, that's why they need help.
That's why you've got to coverthe American ex-colonials.
You stopped flying when theNimrods stopped.
No, just before you know.
You say a big organizationwon't miss you when they've gone

(11:58):
, but within a year they've lostmy best man on one of the
aircraft and cut the rest up infive years man on one of the
aircraft and cut the rest up infive years, but yeah, so we
needed help.
The Americans work on differentbudgets than we do.
They build that shed just towash their aircraft when they're
visiting.
Seriously, seriously.
Yeah, there is a taxiway washbut they don't like it because
they're so over-manned.
They need somebody with a brushto go and do it.

(12:19):
I remember the first time inAmerica I saw the Galaxy and
right were right round the otherside of the airfield taxiing
around and I thought it was abird on top of the tail fin and
by the time we got closer wefound this bird was sweeping it
down with a brush, seriously.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
And that's a big aeroplane.
Yeah, it's in the Galaxy.

Speaker 9 (12:37):
I don't suppose you saw any planes yesterday at all,
did you?

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Today.
Yeah, the fighters were out.

Speaker 10 (12:42):
Yep, they fly all the time yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
They were circling around the bay and over the base
so we just missed.
Like she was telling us, theycome right over the fort and do
touch-and-go landings, so I gotsome distant video.

Speaker 9 (12:57):
If you're out playing golf on Murray Golf Course,
which is the one in Lossie.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
I can imagine You're just right here, it's just the
it comes over.

Speaker 9 (13:05):
It must be about 200 feet, because they're about to
land.

Speaker 10 (13:10):
Yeah, exactly that would be so amazing.

Speaker 9 (13:15):
And loud, but it's special.
There's special places here,yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
But some of the people staying at the lighthouse
said they come like four timesa year because the wife likes to
watch the planes, so they comehere just for that.
Yeah, and then on the way tothe ruins there were several
cars parked near one of therunways just with their cameras
and everything.
It's waiting.
You know, it's a thing.

Speaker 10 (13:38):
Oh yeah, and I mean they quite often post like on
their social media channels tosay, like the Red Arrows will be
out today and stuff, so thatpeople all, like you know,
gather to see them and stuffyeah so yeah, it's a big thing
and I think people areappreciative that we've got that
here.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
It's quite special to have it Absolutely yes, take
advantage of that.

Speaker 11 (13:55):
On exercise.
I think they're practicingbecause they come down and
they're usually in groups ofthree and they circle, come down
to land back again.
Yes, oh yeah, right, so at theback of the hut here they're

(14:22):
just so low.
Come in, it's great.
Lots of people are wowed bythem.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
One of the coolest things for me was when we pulled
up to the lighthouse, like wehad the GPS taking us to get
there.
We pulled up and we startedgetting out and then guess what
Alexa said to me.
What did you say?

Speaker 6 (14:47):
That's my cue, yeah, that's your cue Rory, go get
your luggage.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, why don't you go ahead and get the luggage out
of the car?
And he's like but we're goingto go on a tour.

Speaker 6 (14:58):
We're just going on a tour, why would I get my
luggage?

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, and she said because we're staying at the
lighthouse tonight.

Speaker 6 (15:06):
how cool is that we got to sleep in a lighthouse
building so cool thank you visitmuddy space side, for even like
making us aware of the wholeexperience yep, as a matter of
fact, they, they rent them outand so people can.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
People regularly stay there.
It's the covesa is, is that howthey say it?
Covese, covese, covesea, that'smy Finnish coming out the
covese lighthouse cottage Ofcourse we're probably saying
covese wrong too.
Yeah, probably so, yeah,probably so.

Speaker 6 (15:35):
It's just a super neat experience.
We didn't sleep directly rightin the lighthouse, we slept at
the lighthouse.

Speaker 8 (15:41):
Yeah, lighthouse building.

Speaker 6 (15:43):
There are separate quarters and where we slept we
step out of our door and there'sthe lighthouse.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
And the sunset from up there is absolutely
spectacular, that's a good word,Rory.
Spectacular.
Yeah, that's fabulous andspectacular, spectacular that
was good.

Speaker 6 (16:00):
Anyway, we highly recommend staying at the Cve sea
lighthouse cottage, because whywould you not?
You can stay at a lighthousewhy would you?
Amazing.
So once we had our tour, weactually then, like, went into
our lodging and we put on all ofthe layers of clothing that we

(16:21):
owned and brought with us.
So this was the kind of towardsthe end of our tour.
We'd been in Europe for twomonths and, because we had gone
to Europe in July, we had a likesummer clothes right warm yep,
so we knew that it'd be a littlemore chilly in Scotland, so and
it was so we had some layersand we just put all of them on.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Chilly and rainy oftentimes.

Speaker 6 (16:45):
But it was still wonderful.
So we layered up, and then webraved the weather and went down
to the beach.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah, the beach is just a short walk.
I mean the lighthouse is up ona hill.
And then the hill ends andthere's the beach.
So we took the little traildown to the beach.

Speaker 6 (17:01):
It was so cool.
It was like a private beach.
It is a gorgeous beach bothways yeah, gorgeous, the sunset
was amazing hidden caves, yeah,so we went in the caves, we
walked the beach it was.
It was a beautiful, beautifulbeach, but it was really
interesting.
I look over into the water andthere are three women in bathing

(17:23):
suits three insane women justlike not not wet suits, people
bathing suits, the water andthey were in the water and their
whole bodies were in the waterthe air was cold, the wind.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Did I tell you I had?

Speaker 6 (17:38):
60 layers on and they are in bathing suits in the
water, and people do this yeah,even crazy people do this, like
jemma, so I've been going forsea dips.

Speaker 10 (17:49):
I go for sea dips after work seriously yeah, even
in this weather yep, I went.
I haven't actually been thisweek, but I was about three
times last week, and then, onceyou're in about five minutes,
you then go.
Oh, this is okay five minutes toget to, okay, yeah and then you
can start swimming and movingaround, but until then you're
kind yeah, and then you canstart swimming and moving around
, but until then you're kind oflike, but then you can start
swimming, and then you're likethis is fine, this is great.
And then you come out andyou're all energized and

(18:11):
revitalized and you get a greatnight's sleep.
Really.

Speaker 9 (18:14):
People help you sleep .
Oh yeah, you come out and youfeel really tired, but you're
like I could also go and dothings go and do things.
That's a lot of work for yourbody to understand.
What about the people on NewYear's that go out and do it?
So in December, yeah, no, noway, I'm a seasonal swimmer.

Speaker 10 (18:28):
My partner keeps trying to get me to do it.
He's like we need to keep doingit every week and I'm like no
way.
I'm like I will do it to theend of September, maybe into
October.

Speaker 9 (18:53):
But I'm not doing.

Speaker 10 (18:53):
it's potentially snowing Wear like Santa hats and
stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Santa hats, so it's a thing.

Speaker 6 (18:59):
So that was Gemma.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Gemma and.

Speaker 6 (19:01):
David of Visit Mary Spearside.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yes, the infamous David and Gemma and David of
Visit Murray Spearside.
Yes, the infamous David andGemma.

Speaker 6 (19:05):
Who set up this whole ?
Thing?

Speaker 2 (19:06):
And that was the insane Gemma, who swims in the
cold water like those women wesaw.

Speaker 10 (19:10):
Absolutely.
I mean, los Amigos is a reallypretty town, it's beautiful.
It's called the Jewel of Murray.
Yeah, it's beautiful, yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
The water on both sides.

Speaker 10 (19:21):
No, it's just kind of on one side.
Okay, the sides.
No, it's just kind of on oneside.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
The way we kept turning.
I was getting turned around.
I was like wait, that's we just, yeah.

Speaker 10 (19:27):
So there's like the beach, and then you come round
and then you've got the harbourand then you go like the other
side of the beach as well, whereyou've been at the lighthouse.
So you've got the two beaches,west Beach and East.
Beach.
Big beaches, big beaches yeah,sand dunes are sadly on the East
Beach.
They're sadly dying Are theyreally yeah, which is a shame,
but quite an interesting fact isthat it's actually old railway

(19:49):
carriages that are underneaththat have built up the sand
dunes.

Speaker 12 (19:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (19:53):
So they actually filled them with the old railway
carriages.

Speaker 9 (19:55):
Come on, yeah Wow.

Speaker 10 (19:58):
That was how the sand dunes were initially made
in the first place, so I'mwondering if we're going gonna
see a real cottage sometime soon.

Speaker 6 (20:04):
Yeah, I was gonna say Maybe Along the water you can
find a ton of differentrestaurants.
We ate at the Salt Cellar,which is like inside this super
cool like cave thing.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, nice, really cool, like stone and brick cave
sort of a thing.
It was really cool.

Speaker 6 (20:22):
Other restaurants that have been recommended are
the Golf View Hotel, the MuddyGolf Club, Catch 79, Fountain
Juice Bar, the Stottfield Hotel.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
There are plenty of options to choose from places to
eat, and when we got out of thecar, guess what we saw?
We parked right next to Gelato.
Yeah, that they make rightthere in the building.

Speaker 6 (20:44):
And next to that was another ice cream place, and
next to that there was anotherice cream place.
So you can get lots, plenty ofice cream and gelato on the
water oh yeah and so we actuallyate dessert first before, of
course, and the restaurants facethe waterfront and you can walk
along and just enjoy thebeautiful scenery yeah, the nice

(21:07):
beaches there and the marina isjust right there soak it all in
the coastal experience.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
It's absolutely beautiful and the lady the
harbor master.
I spoke with her at lossy mouthand she said that lots of
people will winter their boatshere.
If they're traveling up thecoast, the weather changes, they
have slots they can rent forthe winter and things like that,
that's.
That's cool for travelers toknow that things are available
like that, you know, in the areait's just all the good feels

(21:33):
right there at the coast inlossy mouth all the good feet.
Dinner and dessert right therealong the waterfront was a
wonderful way to end our firsthalf day there in Lossiemouth.

Speaker 6 (21:45):
Then the next day we had even more adventures, even
more adventures.
So between the locals we metthrough the lighthouse tour and
then our adventures for thissecond day.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
The next morning even .

Speaker 6 (21:59):
We got some tutoring on how to pronounce all the
places that we were going to go,so we're going to share that
with you so you can be aseducated as we now are.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah, because they were doing some educating of us.
Main cities in Scotland.
Seasons no cities.

Speaker 6 (22:18):
Cities.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, one of the two biggest in central Scotland.
Okay, what are they called?
They?

Speaker 2 (22:24):
called.
Well, first of all, what's asetting city?
We don't know what that is acity?
Exactly city city get lost intranslation already.
Okay, there are two big cities,yeah in central scotland in
central scotland.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
So you guys glasgow, glasgow and then um we have
aberdeen and edinburgh Incentral Scotland, glasgow,
glasgow.

Speaker 6 (22:45):
And then we have Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
So, there we go, edinburgh,edinburgh, edinburgh.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's spelled E-M-B-R-A.
Edinburgh, edinburgh.
I say Edinburgh and thenGlasgow.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
But I think there was a historian in Scotland's
National Museum and he saysEdinburgh, see, because it is
Edinburgh, it's for the tourists.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
That's how you say it .
I love the accents.
The accents are awesome.

Speaker 9 (23:17):
Yeah, that's interesting as well, because
we've obviously got quitedifferent accents, and I'm from
Forrest, which is two minutesalong that way, and Gemma's like
45 minutes towards Aberdeen.

Speaker 10 (23:28):
So we've got like total different accents.

Speaker 9 (23:30):
Yeah do you make?

Speaker 8 (23:33):
fun of each other because of that.

Speaker 9 (23:34):
Well, you make fun of me, so she's the one who talks
funny you don't talk funny, justshe does I think I would be
considered posh Scottish oh nicebut when you're from Keith, you
just sound like Keith, I thinkI would be, considered posh
Scottish, oh nice.

Speaker 10 (23:49):
But when you're from Keith, you just sound like
Keith.
I know I put on my posh accentfor work.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
This isn't how I normally speak when I'm in the
office.
I'm like what.

Speaker 10 (23:56):
I don't even care what that says, that's how I
would speak.

Speaker 6 (24:00):
Translation is what.
I don't even know what this is.

Speaker 9 (24:04):
But you're Keith, so where Gemma's from, Keith is
known as the home of the Scotstongue.
Yeah, Scots tongue, Scotslanguage.

Speaker 10 (24:12):
Yeah, I own it.
That's me Scots toon, as you'dcall it, because that's where we
speak, the Scots language.
And Scots language is basicallyjust its own language.
So it's like a dialect of Iwouldn't even say it's a dialect
of English, because it's not.
It's completely its ownlanguage.
But if you google Scotslanguage, you'll get like more

(24:33):
information on it.
But that is how we kind ofspeak around here.
So it's things like fit you inthe day, so that means what are
you doing today?
Or fit like is how are you?
Or far you gone is where areyou going.

Speaker 8 (24:48):
So that's like the Scots language yeah, yeah, yeah,
okay, say the castle again,duffus castle.
How do you pronounce Elgin,elgin, elgin.
And how do you pronounce Murray, speyside, murray yeah, yeah,
murray Speyside, you got thatone.
Okay.
And then where else are wegoing?
Forest, you would name a place.

Speaker 11 (25:09):
Forest.
No, the forest you've got Okay.
The usual one that people getwrong is Craigellachie Okay, say
it again.
Craigellachie, craigellachie.
That's one that people getwrong and that, and that's more,
the whiskey part of it.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Well obviously pronouncing it Doofus.
I thought there's no way thatcan be right, definitely no.

Speaker 11 (25:28):
Doofuses here.
No Duffus, duffus Castle.

Speaker 6 (25:32):
So, as you now know, we visited first the Duffus
Castle.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
As she was quick to correct me there was nothing
called Doofus.

Speaker 6 (25:42):
So, Rory, what did you think of Duffus Castle?
What are your impressions?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
My impression.
It was really cool.
I'm a big fan of history, lovehistory and walking through
there.
It's really great to imaginethat you're back in time and
what was life like?
You know, as you're walking upto it, walking through it,
thinking this is how thesepeople lived.

Speaker 6 (26:01):
Now, duffus Castle is castle ruins, so it's not one
of those that is currently livedin or are all furnished up.
This is castle remains andruins.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, it was really, it was originally made out of
wood and they built a big thingof dirt to build yeah, a big
dirt mound to build the woodencastle on top of.
But they decided, for defense,it would be better to use stone.
So they built this really heavystone castle in place of the
wood one.
The problem is there's theirdirt mound wouldn't support it
and after after many years, thewalls began falling down the

(26:34):
hill, so the castle waseventually so it's like the
three little pigs that builttheir house on sand yeah, kind
of like that, so that.
So the castle was eventuallyabandoned.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
Abandoned, yeah but even abandoned and in ruins.
It was gorgeous and the groundswere absolutely gorgeous and I
got to meet someone who was fromthe area and she shared a story
with me like, my mom stayedhere during the war.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
She was about eight or nine at the time and she
stayed in a house on a hill thatlooped out onto the sea and she
used to watch all the airplanesgoing out during the war and
then she used to count themcoming back again, and it's very
sad because obviously sometimesthere was a lot less planes
came back than my town.

Speaker 6 (27:21):
Yeah, I found it so interesting and such a deep,
rich story that she was able tocome back and visit something so
important to her family historyand roots.
So, rory, as we leave and as wekind of walk the grounds of the

(27:41):
duffus castle, right next to itis the Kula Coffee Hut.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Mm-hmm, a little coffee hut that has well coffee.
Thank you so much, bye.
Hello, our friend, hello, whatcan I get you?
But not only coffee.
They also have tea, which yougot, yes, and they have food
items.
They have sweet food items.
It was my first time to see inperson this is big, because we

(28:09):
watch a lot of British TV andwe've heard it said so many
times a Jammy Dodger, first timeI'd ever seen one.
It's basically two cookies withjelly between them, right,
that's how we'd see it as anAmerican.
So we had to get, of course, wehad to taste the Jammy Dodger.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
Of course.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
And for my breakfast, because that's the safe
gluten-free vegan thing thatactually tastes good, unlike
what she's trying to imply isthat my breakfast wasn't as
yummy, but it was way betterthan the old Jammy Dodger in my
opinion, see, because she alsointroduced us to two very
Scottish things that we had yetto try.

Speaker 11 (28:49):
You have to come to Scotland and try iron brew.
It's more Scottish thanScotland.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Original and best.
And you said it's like juice.

Speaker 11 (29:00):
And you like this with haggis?

Speaker 8 (29:02):
Yeah, it's aio oh no, she just likes it haggis is
good, haggis is good okay, she'sjust saying if you're going to
be scottish, you have to dohaggis and you have to do iron
brew if you come to scotland youhave to try iron brew all right
, we'll have to try our brewbasically just like is it orange

(29:22):
flavored, or is just the canorange?

Speaker 11 (29:26):
No, it is orange, it's a soft drink with sugar and
sweeteners.
They nickname it ginger.
Okay, like it kind of sentabout Glasgow, it's nicknamed
ginger, so it's like a redhead,not like the spice ginger.
Yeah, mmm.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
All right, so are you going to have a pork and haggis
?
Oh okay, this is our breakfastand it's it's referred to me
lunch in an hour and a half soyou it's refrigerated, so it's
not warm, right, it'srefrigerated, so cold haggis
haggis roll breakfast at leastit's mixed with pork yeah, well,
so it's, it'll be, I'm sure,better than straight.

Speaker 8 (30:09):
I'm sure there are pork parts in haggis you're such
a brave man now, did you eatjust the bread, or did you get
some haggis in there?
Okay see proof.
Okay, z proof.
Want more proof?
No, you're gonna throw it upnow.
No, I'll show it to you.

Speaker 7 (30:32):
Mmm, seasoned well, it's salty, that's good.

Speaker 8 (30:38):
Everybody eats haggis .

Speaker 7 (30:43):
Tastes good.

Speaker 8 (30:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (30:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (30:46):
Is it like super good , or is it just like it's okay?
No, I can see it's good.
Like if it's hot.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
It makes me think if I lived here, this could sort of
be like a not boudin, but kindof that same vibe, because, as a
, like I said, it's wellseasoned, not spicy, it's just
well seasoned, it's good.

Speaker 7 (31:04):
So if I need a snack, I just grab a little haggis
roll.

Speaker 12 (31:11):
Haggis?
How do they say it?
I don't know, haggis.

Speaker 8 (31:16):
This is a jammy Dodger.
This is a jammy Dodger, so thisis gluten-free and vegan.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
We've heard the name so many times and it's gotta
taste so much better than haggis, for sure no, try it together.
On our way from Kula coffee toour next stop, which was
burghead, we cracked open theold iron brew.

Speaker 8 (31:38):
Yeah, that's bubblegum total totes bubblegum.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
I feel like I'm a boy , a little boy, and I just went
to the drive-thru with my mom atthe bank and they gave me a
little twist up, you know theold bubble gum with the twisty
package that you pull it and itopens whatever.
You know the individual pieces,man sugar pieces, man Sugar.

Speaker 8 (32:11):
We're approaching the coast again at Burghead.
So we were at the coast atLossiemouth and now we're
approaching the coast atBurghead.
It's probably not Burghead,it's probably not.
I'm sure we say everythingwrong.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
Our first stop in the Burghead area was the Burghead
Pictish Fort, and Well, ourguide was very cool and very
Scottish, oh yeah.

Speaker 7 (32:30):
It used to be a Coast Guard.
Lookout, okay, coast Guardlookout, there was a shed in the
top wood and we used to do birdby their watches there in the
winter, and then the Headlandtook it over and opened this up
and then pulled the bit out thefront here.
This is the old piece andthat's the new bit okay and then
the 10 number since has beentaken off and that's how it used

(32:53):
to be okay I just speak in thatgentleman.
Everybody's a different ideaabout the picks.
There's nobody who can puttheir fingers on them.
If you read this bit, the lostpeople have heard of it, that's
what they call them, becausethey have no idea where they
came from, they think.
But I spoke to a gentleman inhere one time and he thought

(33:15):
they came from East Germany andI said why?
What are you thinking of?
Because the horses.
If you see another stone one,they've all got horses.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Well, in New Lland, that's where they go.

Speaker 7 (33:27):
My dad goes, but the Vikings came here.
They were definitely here.

Speaker 8 (33:31):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 7 (33:34):
Because Macbeth, the proper Macbeth, neither one on
the play.
Okay, he came for cross thewater here and his stepbrother
was a Viking chief in Orkney andthey had a place here.
Okay, and his stepbrother was aViking chief who knows me, and
they're a place here.
Okay, but I think the pigs arebolted.
I think they bolted and nobodyI've met can be 100% safe where

(33:57):
they came from.
There's nothing doing it rightin Seymour.

Speaker 6 (34:02):
And he told us about the current archaeological digs
that are going on around thearea.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Oh, right, there at Burkhead.

Speaker 7 (34:08):
And I've been digging out here for the last 70,.
I'm 77,.
I've been digging here since Iwas this size, wow and so far
I've only found a ring.

Speaker 8 (34:17):
A ring.
That's it.
A wee bits and pieces, nothing.

Speaker 7 (34:21):
Yeah, now they dug up here last year, okay okay, and
they found where the originalwall had been.
Hey, and that's where thatheather's growing up, that
rubbish there, and the firstthing found the original wall.
So I don't know what they'relooking for over here.

Speaker 6 (34:40):
It must be the same thing but there that's an
archaeological dig going onright there, yeah there's one
there and there's one doing hereokay and there's two doing the
bottom wow and you can walk upto the roof of the fort and get
a 360 degree lookout.
I thought it was super fun tobe able to look out and have

(35:00):
water on both sides of land andlike it just was a really neat
view from the roof area and whatis there to look at?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
you say well yes, they.
Well, I said it oh whales.
They get whales in here, whalesat the well, yes, at the
Pictish Fort and well and well,excuse me, not whale.
Well, yeah, when we drove upand parked to go up to the
Pictish Fort, and Well, theBurkhead Pictish Fort, and Well,

(35:28):
there were some people parkedout there with binoculars and
cameras and we thought, hmm, Iwonder what that's about.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
So once we went into the fort they had not only on
the roof can you just lookaround, but they also have a
section with binoculars thatthey provide you.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
It's just a really neat place to look out for the
marine life, yeah, to learn allabout the marine life in the
area.
And then, as we were leaving,we walked down the hill.

Speaker 6 (35:52):
Back to our car.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Boy, my English.
Since I've been to Scotlandit's gotten worse.
We walked down the hill to ourcar and the people were still
there with their cameras andstuff like that, and so one of
the guys we we started chattinghim up.
He was super nice and he toldus what they were all doing down
there.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
Well, it's been basking shots here for a couple
of days, oh, okay, yeah, no,there's been basking shots out
here.
What is that?
Um, the long, the long mouthedshots.
Oh, basking sharks yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah okay yeah, yeah,
they've been out here for acouple of days.
I ain't seen any today.
Are you from the area?

Speaker 2 (36:26):
uh, yeah yes, the uh harbour master at lossy mouth.
Yeah, told us.
Sometimes you guys have whaleseven yeah, yeah yeah, wow, and
dolphins are here are theydolphins come here, yeah, yeah,
and seals, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
Yeah, we've had two out here today.
They don don't so much jump out, but they pop their legs up.
Yeah, they do that.
They have to be quick.
Yeah, they probably stay up fora minute or two.
That'll be cool.
Is that orcas sometimes?
You can often see them aroundhere, yeah, wow that is so cool.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Well, good luck.
Yeah, thank you.
And then, as we were leaving,he yelled at us and ran back
over to the car and said hey,look over there, a seal just
poked its head above the water.

Speaker 6 (37:09):
So I didn't see it at first, but I eventually saw a
seal pop his head up, so we bothgot to see a seal before we
headed out to our nextdestination.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, it was super cool of him to come and grab us
and show us that.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
So we got in our car and then headed to the Cable
Cafe.
Grab us and show us that.
So we got in our car and thenheaded to the Cable Cafe.
It's a newer, small cafe andtheir specialties are more like
coffee and little snackies.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Yeah, snack items.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
So they had like the sausage rolls and things like
that.
And then they also had thesemuffins, and she said that the
Speculoos muffins were to diefor.
So we got one of those and wegot you something with meat, so
you could, you know, have yourmeat fix again.
And that fueled us up for ournext adventure, which was to
head to the Bergie house andArboretum.
We started out at the Arboretumand we got a personal tour from

(37:59):
the Arboretum's curator, hamish.
He was awesome.
He's in his 80s, he is full ofenergy.
He is so passionate about treesand greenery and taking care of
his land.
And hamish himself, for me, wasa highlight just getting to
meet him.

(38:19):
He was so amazing, full of life.
He knows all the scientificnames for all of the things.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Yeah, and sometimes he knows all the scientific
names but not the common names.

Speaker 6 (38:30):
He has to sit and think about that.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
What would?

Speaker 6 (38:32):
Common Joe call it.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, what would I call that?
And he'd look at me and he'dsay the scientific name and I
would say, no, not the Latin.
What do normal people call thistree?

Speaker 6 (38:41):
So his mind was super sharp.
But he's also just so active,getting out of the cart, opening
gates, running around likeplanting trees.
He's just so active and soinspiring and you know he's
investing in all of these trees.
They're very young treesrelative to what they're gonna
be and he doesn't feel like he'swasting his time right, yeah,

(39:04):
he's looking for generations.
Future generations.
They are going to be enjoyingthis and he is so thrilled and
happy about that.
He knows he's investing in thefuture and he's so passionate
about it.
His energy and his excitementare super contagious.
So here is Hamish and hisarboretum.

Speaker 12 (39:21):
And the story of the arboretum was it's always been
policy woodlands for the bighouse, but it was started as an
Arboretum in about 2008.
So all the rare trees thatyou're looking at are fairly
small and they are.
98% of them are grown from seedwhich I collect around

(39:45):
different parts of Europe orAmerica or whatever.
Oh, how fun, but I've never beento China or Japan yet, which is
where I'd love to go.
We start off here and justinside the gate we have that
tree there, the tall.
That's it.
You've got it in the picture.
That is a thing calledMetasequoia, which is the

(40:05):
Chinese redwood, and we've gotwe've now got pretty much all
the redwoods.
We've got Cryptomera japonica,which is the Japanese one, and
we've got the two Americans ones, zempervirens and Giganticum.
So we've got a big collectionof trees here now, but nothing

(40:26):
like what they have at the bigarboretums at Kew or Westonbert
and these places.
But we're making a start.
We've only been at it for 11,12 years or something.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Wow, it's gigantic.
In 600 years, people will becoming to see your tree Exactly.

Speaker 12 (40:43):
And we've got a long avenue of them, not in the
arboretum've got a long avenueof them not in the operation,
but I planted an avenue of halfa kilometer.
We have I don't think it'sabout over 100 giganticums in in
that avenue.
That would be amazing.
Well, it will be in a hundredyears time have you been to see
them in california?

Speaker 2 (41:00):
no, I haven't.

Speaker 12 (41:00):
No, no, it's absolutely stunning.
But a little story about thatone there Metasequoia, that was
thought to be extinct in theworld until about 1926, round
about there.
And one of the Britishexplorers went out to China and
he found one of those trees in avillage in China and it had a

(41:23):
seat all the way around it, sothe deer and the bears and
things hadn't been able todamage it too much and from that
one tree you can find that allover Britain now, but not in
large quantities.
But when the Chinese were toldabout this there was one rich
Chinese gentleman who thought itwas pretty cool, so he wanted

(41:46):
to plant an avenue.
Like I do my giganticums, I'vedone 500 meters, he'd 160
kilometers.
I think it must be one of thelongest avenues ever created.
They're all, with Metasequoia,longest avenues ever created and
they're all with Metasequoia.

(42:07):
Wow, that's hardly an avenue, along avenue.
Yeah, we will go on then now.
Yes, sounds good.
Those larch trees, for example.
They were given to me by afriend and he collected those as

(42:28):
seed in Tibet.
Wow, so, um, you got the wordout.
Yeah, um, we're quite seriousabout it.
Yeah, that's really cool.

Speaker 6 (42:41):
Now, who are these people up here?

Speaker 12 (42:42):
These are wolfers, these are wolfers, these are
wolfers, so wolfers.

Speaker 8 (42:45):
These are wolfers Two .

Speaker 12 (42:46):
Americans and American.
We've got one American, okay.
Yeah, we've got three quarriesin the Arboretum.
Wow, and they're allgeologically different.
Where the waterfall was, that'sa sandstone quarry.
Okay, this one here is whatthey call a conglomerate quarry

(43:06):
and the next one is a windstonequarry.
Now, I had a professor ofgeology from Aberdeen University
out about five, six years agoand she was amazed that we had
three such different types ofrock in such a small congested
area.
It's only 200 meters betweeneach.

(43:27):
Qually, wow.
And that sandstone is probablythe oldest one.
The conglomerate is, they think, glacial and the whinstone is
volcanic.
The blossom season.
In Japan they have a nationalholiday for the blossom.

(43:48):
Well, this is not all going tobe cherry blossom, but this
avenue here is all blossom, butit's apples, pears, cherry and a
wild cherry, so it will all beblossom, yeah, but not nothing.
Two of flowers.
These two of flowers, you get alot of them in england, but not

(44:11):
not many in scotland.
So why I'm doing this isbecause we've got this micro
climate here and you can grow alot of trees that you won't be
able to grow elsewhere inscotland.

Speaker 6 (44:22):
And if you can grow a lot of trees, then you won't be
able to grow it elsewhere inScotland We'll take a quick
departure from our golf carttour and have Gemma kind of dive
into this microclimate conceptreal quick.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Much snow.
Someone was telling us there'ssort of a microclimate in this
area compared to we do so.

Speaker 10 (44:42):
We always tend to be like one degree warmer.
It's only a degree, but then,like the highlands of
Aberdeenshire, like we're alwayslike that slightly bit warmer.
We also actually get lessrainfall than the rest of the
places.
We still get quite a lot ofrain, but we don't get as much
as the other places, and it'slike the southerly wind that
comes off of Lossie Mouth, soapparently it comes from like

(45:02):
basically your side of the worldand it comes round and comes
into like from Lossie and thenthat's why the base is based
there so the base is actuallybased there, but there's
something to do with when theplanes take off yeah, of course
they have to take off into thewind yeah, so yeah, it's quite
interesting.

Speaker 6 (45:17):
Hamish mentioned that the Bergey Arboretum is part of
the Bergey house and the Bergeyhouse is a huge estate that
Hamish actually grew up in, andso it's super neat that we get
to meet like the OG guy, right.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
His ancestral home.
If you will, it's really cool.
Hundreds and hundreds of acres.

Speaker 6 (45:38):
He no longer lives there.
He's passed it down to his sonsand they have now made it
available to the public forfolks to rent for.
Family events or groups canstay there and enjoy the
property.
We got a private tour.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
From the farm and estate manager herself Vary.
Welcome to Berkey House.
Come on in.

Speaker 11 (46:09):
Welcome to Berkey House.
Come on in.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
So this is all the original house on your right,
and then we'll go left first.
So this is into one of the newwings.

Speaker 6 (46:20):
Okay, so that wall hanging of four gongs yes Would
that have been tea time and allthat exactly, yes, wow, this
house keeps going amazing okay,so akali is traditional school
dancing.

Speaker 11 (46:36):
Oh my god so if we have weddings, we get married in
here.
If we have yogurt, to use thisroom as a party room.
We had a group of guests lasttime and had a lot of teenage
children, so they set a table inhere and it turned into their
poker room.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
So multi-purpose, whatever your imagination can
come up with.
Yep, yep, use this room.

Speaker 6 (47:03):
After our awesome tour of the Bergie house, we
were escorted to our lodging forthe evening.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yeah, we didn't stay in the Bergie house itself.

Speaker 6 (47:12):
We stayed in the Bergie Woodland Lodges.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Yeah, totally cool, super fun.

Speaker 6 (47:16):
They're new with all the modern amenities.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Including a hot tub.

Speaker 6 (47:21):
Which was already heated and ready for us to just
dive on in and enjoy.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Yeah so it was so great we enjoyed the hot tub
before our dinner excursion thatnight which took us to the
crown and anchor inn in findhornit basically sits right on the
water across.
It was so cool.
When the tide goes out, all theboats are sitting on dry ground
in so many places in scotland.
It's really interesting.
So we arrived there are allthese pleasure craft and most of
them are sitting on dry groundin so many places in Scotland.
It's really interesting.

(47:45):
So we arrived there are allthese pleasure craft and most of
them are sitting on dry ground.
Well, very wet ground but thetide had gone out, but it was
beautiful setting for dinnerthat night.

Speaker 6 (47:56):
What's really fun is that they have a lot of vegan
and gluten-free options, so ifyou eat weird, like me, there
are, they can accommodate you.
And for me, and for me, yeah,yeah, and and actually we found
that through our wholeexperience I was like they even
have vegan haggis on menus andyou know things like that
possible um?
Mac and cheese was on prettymuch every menu I think um yeah,

(48:18):
every day mac and cheese is abig thing in Scotland.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
it's not just on the menu, it's.
It's like a main course on allthe menus, right, really
impressive menu as a main courseon all the menus, right, really
impressive.

Speaker 6 (48:26):
It's on the menu as a main course.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
My kind of place.

Speaker 6 (48:27):
Right, so between the two of us.
Our whole time in Scotland wehad mac and cheese every night,
every day, every day at somepoint.
Oh yeah, and we found that theScottish food portions are super
big.
Yeah, oh, yeah Like super bigportions.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Did not finish.

Speaker 6 (48:42):
So if you like to eat a lot, then Scotland is a
really good place for you tocome.
That's a really good choice.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
They have very large portions If you like to eat a
lot and you really like mac andcheese.
Yeah, no, actually the foodthere was really good.

Speaker 6 (48:56):
The food was really good and of course I got my
whole like vegan options andstuff for dinner.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Mine was delicious, of course.
Well, and I was excited aboutthe seafood options that night
at the crown and anchor, andthere's a dish I'd been seeing
on all the menus in the areawith a really funny name and you
know, since rory is ourresident cajun, who is the guy
who's like, willing to just tryeverything give it to mike hey
rory likes it.
It the dish is called CullenSkink.

(49:26):
I mean it doesn't.
I mean, okay, it sounds reallystrange.
It makes me think of skunk andstink combined.
Right, that's skink.
That is so skanky, skinky,cullen.
But let me tell you, it's likea chowder, but made with fish.
A really good chowder, reallygood chowder.
A non-stinky sk.

Speaker 6 (49:45):
really good chowder, really good chowder.
A non-stinky skanky chowder,yeah no the name.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
It turns out we learned that it is actually a
dish that is native to the area.
It's from the area, so you knowI've gotta try it Right and it
was awesome.
I ordered the starter size andit was enough for a meal.

Speaker 6 (50:02):
Because you know you're in Scotland.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Yeah Right, a meal, of course, of course.

Speaker 6 (50:09):
Because we have to try as much as we can.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Yeah that's right.
And of course the meal camewith chips, you know.

Speaker 6 (50:15):
And, of course, mac and cheese and fries.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Yeah, mac and cheese, sure Chips meaning.

Speaker 6 (50:18):
That I had.
I had mac and cheese too.

Speaker 8 (50:19):
Fries, for you know us Americans Came with fries, oh
right, right Chips and MuddySpeyside you've got to have the
Cullen Skink.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
It's really good.
I highly highly recommend itRight there at the Crown and
Anchor in Fendhorn and, ofcourse, after dinner back to our
private Bergie Woodland Lodge.

Speaker 6 (50:42):
And the hot tub.
Yeah, All right, y'all.
We have so much more to sharewith you.
We have one more day that wasjam-packed full, but we are
going to wrap up our first twodays on this episode and we are
going to share day three withyou, on part two.

(51:04):
And thanks to VisitMorispaceside for sponsoring
this episode and for introducingus to so many new wonderful
experiences.
Thanks for joining us on thisepisode and for introducing us
to so many new wonderfulexperiences.
Thanks for joining us on thisepisode and we'll see you on the
next one.
We hope we've inspired you thisepisode.

(51:30):
So join us next time, pleasesubscribe to rate and share our
podcast with your friends or youknow whomever?
And please like and follow uson Instagram, youtube and
Facebook.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
We're also on X and on all social platforms.
We are at TheRomies that'sT-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our
main hub is our website.

Speaker 6 (51:51):
At wwwtheromyscom, that's right, that's D-H-E.
R-o-a-m.
I-e-s dot com.
We'll be there until next time.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Yeah, thanks for listening no-transcript

(01:12:44):
no-transcript it was my favoritefood day.

(01:33:27):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 6 (01:33:27):
Like every meal was.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
all the food was good , right, didn't we, Rory?
It was my favorite food day.

Speaker 6 (01:33:29):
Yeah, it was Like every meal was all the food was
good, right, that we had, butlike this day especially, just
had some magic to it, I think.
Yeah.
And to top it off with yourvery, very, very favorite, the
Old Mill Inn.
Yeah, my favorite meal it wasthe Old Mill Inn had really good
food they care highly abouttheir food and the Scottish

(01:33:50):
would think that they hadsmaller portions, but we kind of
felt like they were just right.

Speaker 2 (01:33:54):
It was plenty.
Yeah, it was plenty.
I got the venison steak.
Amazing, they get their ownvenison, they prepare it their
own way, they age it and allthis kind of stuff all right
there in house.
It was fabulous, just I mean,you could cut it with a fork
almost and I had this reallyunique dish and they were so

(01:34:15):
accommodating.

Speaker 6 (01:34:15):
it was already kind of a vegetarian dish, but they
still also, like, tailored it tosome of my weird taste and left
, you know, customized it and itwas so, so Everything was just
pristine and I want to say likefancy.

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
And it was a little bit more of a fancy restaurant
than the other ones we had beento.

Speaker 6 (01:34:40):
Right, it still kind of has like a pub vibe, but like
an elegant pub.
It's not uptight yeah it's notuptight.

Speaker 2 (01:34:47):
You go in and it's a little more of an elegant
atmosphere and you have greatfood.
So if you're looking for aquiet night, right and sort of
it's, and they put it into anold pub.
So if you're looking for aquiet night in a more of an
elegant pub atmosphere.

Speaker 6 (01:35:01):
Right, oh, and we had dessert.
Oh y'all like we were Scottishagain, Apparently, you know
there was no haggis involvedwith the dessert.
There was no haggis with thedessert, but apparently it's
super Scottish to have thissticky toffee, I think is what
they called it.
Yeah, sticky toffee pudding orsomething, and so they do a
gluten-free version, whichgenerally makes it more moist,

(01:35:23):
depending on your approach togluten-free cooking, which
theirs is spot on.
Man, they've thought abouteverything they do.
I even liked it better than thechocolate that we also tried,
and I love chocolate and thechocolate was amazing and so,
like the sticky toffee was even,in our opinion, both even
better, and we just felt soproud that, again, we were so

(01:35:45):
scottish yeah, they work theirrecipes until they have them
exactly like.

Speaker 2 (01:35:50):
Yes, they take a lot of pride in their menu.

Speaker 6 (01:35:53):
Yeah for sure, and that was such a great ending to
have such a nice meal on a verylast night in muddy space side.
We had to catch a train toengland the next morning.
Uh, we stayed again at thebergy woodlandodges and enjoyed
the hot tub one more time.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
Yeah, it's great it's out in the countryside, it's
quiet, such peaceful sleep.
Plus, you know, like you said,they got the hot tub.

Speaker 6 (01:36:18):
Yeah, so we hope you enjoyed hearing about our
itinerary as much as we enjoyedexperiencing it and when you
book your next trip to scotlandyou must visit muddy space side,

(01:36:39):
and so we are going to have allof the contact info that you
need on our show notes for allof these things that we talked
about.
But you definitely want tovisit muddyspacesidecom, so it
is m-o-r-a-y-s-p-e-y-s-i-d-ecomfor us americans it looks like

(01:37:02):
wwwmorayspacesidecom and again.
We will have all of that in theshow notes.
So please visit the show notesso that you can go to all of the
social links for each of theplaces we visited before we go,
we have to answer our traveltrivia questions.

Speaker 2 (01:37:19):
We already answered the one which is the thistle is
the national flower of whichcountry?
The answer to that was scotland, but we have yet to answer
yours, which is what city is thehost of the Fringe, the world's
largest arts festival?
The world's largest artsfestival?
That's a big one.
The answer Edinburgh, or, as wesay, edinburgh, and as it

(01:37:45):
sounds like you hear them sayEdinburgh, edinburgh, edinburgh,
edinburgh.

Speaker 6 (01:37:52):
We hope that we have inspired you to go visit
Scotland.
Experience something brand new,go off the beaten path.

Speaker 2 (01:37:59):
You will not regret it.
And, like we said, there is somuch we didn't get to do, so
much more to see and experienceand do there.

Speaker 6 (01:38:08):
We got our bucket list for next time.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
Make sure you book your trip.
As a matter of fact, right nowyou should go to
MuddySpacesidecom and getstarted planning and booking
your adventure in MuddySpaceside, muddy Spaceside,
muddy Spaceside, muddy Muddy,muddy, muddy Spaceside, muddy
Spaceside, muddy Murray.
Murray.

(01:38:35):
Murray, murray, murray, murray,murray, murray, murray, Murray,
murray Murray.

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From Lighthouses to Castles - Join us in Moray Speyside, Scotland - Part 1

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Lighthouses to Castles - Join us in Moray Speyside, Scotland - Part 1