I have just realised that this blog is all about life in the Cairngorms & I have given you no real facts about this wonderful area of the U.K. So be ready to be bored with all the following facts & figures.
The Cairngorm National Park is the biggest in the whole of the U.K. covering an area of 1748 square miles, which to put that in proportion is twice the size of the Lake District Park & bigger than Luxemburg. Going from Granton on Spey in the North, Balleter in the East, Kingussie in the West & good old Blair Atholl in the South.
It has 43 Munros (that is mountains over 3000 ft) of which 5 out of the 6 are the highest in Britain. More important it has 8 working distilleries within it, so need to venture any further than here.
We of course have Balmoral Castle one of the Queens residences, plus even more important we have here in our village Blair Castle, the home of Britain’s only allowed private army. This status being granted by Queen Victoria when she visited the castle & was escorted by The Highlanders (as they are known) on her way to Balmoral. Also in our village is the Folk Museum covering the rural life of ordinary village folk local to this area. Plus of course the one of only a handful of fully functioning watermills in Scotland (don’t forget to watch Nadia’s tv programme coming on soon to see it in action).
For all you film buff’s 10 films & T.V. programmes have been made here :-
Outlander, Mrs Brown (Queen Victoria’s film, no relation to Mrs Brown the comedy), Centurion, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman, of course Brave, The Crown, Victoria & Abdul, Monarch of the Glen & The Queen. I can exclusively reveal to those outside the village that for a couple of months ago we had a film crew here in Blair Atholl filming up Glen Tilt & around the castle The Queen part two. They took over the village hall for two weeks ,storing all the costumes required in there, had a huge marque in the car park for out door props like fences & trees & loads of trucks & people carriers everywhere. Put a good amount of money into the local economy including money towards the village hall restoration fund.
One funny story, which must have annoyed the film crews. When they were filming the horse & carriage around the castle, one of our many low flying military jets we get coming through the glen, kept circling the area, which must have interrupted the schedule some what for that day.
So you see this area is a haven for us locals & also holiday makers from all around the world. On another occasion I will discuss how that affects our lives.