Perthshire cottage break

I’m sharing some photos today from a wee trip up to Perthshire after the new year. That time after New year and before the schools go back always drags a bit so I thought we'd book something. We stayed in this nicely designed cottage near Crieff. We were extremely lucky with the weather, it was freezing but sunny. Lots of snow left over, and it snowed a bit more the day we left.

apart from a tiny wee bit along the river, the cottage doesn't have any walking routes nearby, not without walking along the roadside for a long time anyway. It would have been nice to have been able to go out in the evening without having to drive somewhere. But you cant have it all!

We did two 5 mile-ish walks, one in Crieff itself, this 'St. Mary's Walk and Laggan Hill circular' which started as wooded bit along the river, passed the Glenturret distillery and then went through some fields where we ended up getting a bit lost so we didn't do the Laggan Hill bit as written. Thank god for google maps! Some lovely views and you’re close to the town at all times so easy to cut it short if that was ever needed.

The other walk we did was my fave. Deil's Cauldron, starting and ending in Comrie. It starts as a woodland walk with a built walkway with several waterfalls, and then a hilly section. We (accidentally) omitted quite a bit of the loop, because I thought the path up to the monument was up and down again, but actually was part of the circular route. So we had to find our way onto the route again after walking along the road a bit. It was probably enough distance wise anyway, because there was a lot of ice and mud and storm destruction which made it pretty hardgoing at times. Some the bits by the waterfall were closed because of fallen trees over the walkway, but the group in front of us climbed through the trees so we did that too. Some of the light on the open sections was too beautiful! The photos don't do it justice. I've made the main picture for this blog poist my teams background for work.

One thing that was a bit unfortunate was that lots of stuff was closed for post Christmas season staff holidays, especially Comrie, which was basically completely shut down. We only had one meal out, in the Craobh Restaurant in Crieff, which was very nice!

But we've already booked to go back in August when we can see these hills when they're greener and try out more cafes and shops