Our Scotland adventures began on Friday 6th September at 6am as we got Max and Millie into the car, packed the last of our bags and headed for the M1 motorway!
The journey was a total of 434 miles, taking roughly 8 hours, so a few stops was definitely needed. Not only for us but for the doggos as well.
Our first stop was at a services just after Birmingham for a brief 5 minute toilet break, and then we carried on up north to Tebay services. This is known as arguably one of the UKs most famous service stations and is family run. It is situated in one of the more scenic sections of the M6 and has a great little dog walking route, so is much better than the usual strip of grass you get at most service stations!
We stopped at Tebay services for some lunch, and just a word of warning it is quite expensive. Jonathan was not amused at paying over £4 for a slice of lemon loaf...
Back on the road, we left England and entered Scotland (queue the obligatory 'we're in Scotland' as we drove past the sign). We then started to see signs for the scenic route to Edinburgh, after checking the sat nav we saw this would add another 40 mins to our journey but it was such a lovely day we decided to go that way instead. And was so glad we did! The sun was shining and the views were incredible, our first taste of Scotland was amazing, and a little tease as to what the next 2 weeks would bring for us!
Along the route we saw signs for the 'wee crook cafe' so we decided to stop off for a drink and a sit down in the sun. It wasn't until after we got home that we found out this was actually one of Scotland's oldest pubs, gaining its first license in 1604. It had closed in 2006 after more than 400 years of continous operation and had only opened to the public again in 2023. If you're travelling past I would definitely recommend stopping off!
After a few more hours we stopped off at Tesco in Blairgowrie, just a 10 minute drive from our accomodation. We then finally pulled up to our lovely lodge at 'Greengairs Highland Bothies' at about 4pm. We were staying in the Dalmore bothy which sleeps 4 and is lovely and private. Max and Millie loved having a good explore and we took them out on a little walk to stretch their legs. The sun was starting to set and the combine harvesters were out in the fields, was the perfect welcome!
