1

59 | Spring 2017Yours to keepYours to keep

EASTERN AIRWAYS IN-FLIGHT

SPRING TIMEDaffodils on the North York Moors

ALSO IN THIS MAGAZINE:HEBRIDEAN HOLIDAYFURNITURE FROM A FIELDABERDEEN AND ABERDEENSHIRE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

WE

LCO

ME

FÀILTETha Eastern Airways a’ cur fàilte air ar luchd-cleachdaidh gu lèir bho Bhreatainn agus an Roinn Eòrp.

Tha Eastern Airways am measg prìomh làn-sheirbheisean adhair clàraichte na RA. Tha sinn an dòchas gum meas sibh ar seirbheis, an dà chuid, cùramach agus beagan eadar-dhealaichte – tha sinn an-còmhnaidh toilichte ur beachdan mun t-seirbheis againn, is mu ar n-iris, a chluinntinn.

SGIOBA EASTERN

CROESOCroeso gan Eastern Airways magazine, i bob un o’n cwsmeriaid ym mhob rhan o Brydain Fawr ac Ewrop.

Mae Eastern Airways ymhlith y prif gwmnïau awyrennau yn y DU sy’n cynnig amserlen lawn o wasanaethau. Gobeithio y gwelwch chi fod ein gwasanaeth yn un gofalus ac ychydig bach yn wahanol – rydyn ni bob amser yn falch o gael eich sylwadau am ein gwasanaeth ac am ein cylchgrawn.

TÎM EASTERN

VELKOMMENEastern Airways magasinet ønsker våre kunder i Storbritannia og Europa velkommen.

Eastern Airways er et av Storbritannias ledende ruteflyselskap. Vi håper at du vil være fornøyd med servicen vår – og at den tilbyr deg det lille ekstra som er prikken over i-en. Vi setter alltid pris på å motta dine kommentarer om både servicen og magasinet.

EASTERN-TEAMET

BIENVENUEBienvenue à tous nos clients de Grande-Bretagne et d’Europe de la part de Eastern Airways magazine.

Eastern Airways figure parmi les principales compagnies aériennes britan niques offrant un service de vols réguliers. Nous espérons que vous nous trouverez attentifs à vos besoins, avec ce petit plus qui fait la différence, et sommes toujours heureux de recevoir vos comment aires sur notre service et notre magazine.

L’ÉQUIPE EASTERN

Welcome on board your Eastern Airways flight and welcome to this Spring issue of Eastern Airways Magazine.

Our special focus this issue is on our main base city of Aberdeen and we’re pleased to cooperate with Visit Aberdeenshire to bring you a special eight-page special supplement on the area.

Still in Scotland, Janice Hopper gets to try the local Aberdeenshire rum and Stan Abbott visits the Isles of Lewis, Harris and Skye and uncovers a rich entrepreneurial spirit bubbling away on Harris.

Kevin Pilley is also on the trail of an entrepreneur: this one makes furniture out of living trees that are custom-grown to shape.

In our news pages you can find out all about new Eastern Airways routes serving the Isle of Man, Belfast City, Glasgow

and Anglesey, as well as a new summer service from Southampton to Rodez, in south west France.

Olly Davy faces a battle for survival on the South Downs, while Vicki Trott samples hospitality in the foodie town of Abergavenny.

Exploration Express this issue finds out all about the 20th century forgotten heroine, Gertrude Bell, who helped shape the state of Iraq.

Closer to home, our Essential Guide visits some of the locations featured in the new Arthurian cinema epic.

We hope you enjoy your flight with Eastern Airways and encourage you to take your magazine home for family and friends to read.

THE EASTERN TEAM

Welcome to Eastern Airways Magazine!

24 SURVIVAL SKILL 39 ARTHUR WAS HERE?16 ROOM WITH A VIEW

CO

NTE

NTS

CONTENTS

REGULARS

07 NEWS What’s happening around Eastern

Airways destinations

08 HOSPITALITY NEWS What's happening in the world of

food, drink and hotels

10 MOTORING Norman Burr reviews driverless cars

28 EXPLORATION EXPRESS Stan Abbott visits Redcar and the

North York Moors

30 BARE ESSENTIALS Eastern Airways’ network map, passenger information, essential goings-on and destination guides

39 ESSENTIAL GUIDE: LAND OF LEGEND

Locations associated with the legend of King Arthur

42 THE LAST WORD Harry Pearson champions the highland sport of shinty

COMPETITION

27 TASTE THE HIGH LIFE WIN a fantastic break at

Highland Apartments in Inverness plus a round of golf at one of the world’s oldest courses

FEATURES

12 GROWTH INDUSTRY Kevin Pilley finds fantastic furniture growing in a field

16 HEBRIDEAN HOLIDAY Stan Abbott enjoys an out-of-

season trip to the isles of Lewis, Harris and Skye

21 HARRIS IS HOT The entrepreneurial spirit is alive

and well on the Hebridean isle

23 TIME FOR TEA Victoria Trott stays at the award-

winning Angel Hotel, in Abergavenny

24 SURVIVING THE COURSE Olly Davy has a go at backwoods

living

Eastern Airways in-flight magazine is published for Eastern Airways by Gravity Magazines, Arch Workspace, Abbey Road, Pity Me, Durham, DH1 5JZ www.gravity-consulting.com e-mail: e-magazine@gravity-consulting.com Tel: +44 (0)191 383 2838

Publisher: Stan AbbottDesign: Barbara Allen Print: Buxton Press

© March 2017. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced by any means, without prior written permission of the copyright owners.Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this magazine, neither the publisher, nor Eastern Airways can accept any liability for errors or omissions.

ISSN: 2044-7124Previously known as e-magazine, ISSN 1477-3031.

Eastern Airways, Schiphol House, Humberside International Airport, Kirmington, North Lincolnshire DN39 6YH

Communications Manager: Darren Roberts

Telephone: + 44 (0)8703 669669 Reservations: + 44 (0)8703 669100 www.easternairways.com For magazine comments: e-magazine@gravity-consulting.com

To advertise in Eastern Airways Magazine, call Liz Reekie on +44 (0) 7563 796103 / +44 (0) 1434 240947 or email advertising@gravitymagazines.com

iFly easternairways.com

AWAY FROM IT ALLInspirational escapes and

urban delights in Scotland’s wonderful North East

ABERDEENAN EASTERN AIRWAYS MAGAZINE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH VisitAberdeenshire

& A B E R D E E N S H I R E

Fron

t cov

er: D

affo

dils

at F

arnd

ale

© N

orth

Yor

k M

oors

Nat

iona

l Par

k. P

hoto

Mik

e N

icho

las.

Top

rig

ht im

age:

Aln

wic

k C

astle

, © V

isitB

ritai

n /

Brit

ain

on V

iew

.

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT ABERDEEN AND ABERDEENSHIRE

Book your place for just £299+VAT Drinks reception tickets £79+VAT

www.the-eic.com/eicconnect | Telephone +44 (0) 1642 379 975

Regional & international business opportunities23 May • Dusit Thani, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Oil & Gas UAE2017

Why participate? > Conference sessions to assess future market conditions> Supplier briefings will explore business

opportunities on key projects> Meet the purchasing teams from the region’s

oil companies and contractors> Make one-to-one appointments to meet privately

with buyers

> Showcase your products and services at the exhibition

> Network with new and existing customers and partners at the exclusive drinks reception

> Strengthen or establish your regional presence> Attracts targeted audience of more than

300 oil and gas industry businesses

For sponsorship

and exhibiting options or to book your place please

contact us

Daily fl

ights f

rom Manc

hester

and Lo

nDon d

irect to

abu Dh

abi

Your platform to success in the Middle East

113887-Oil and Gas UAE 2017 Ad_180mm W x 122mm H_D4.indd 1 20/02/2017 10:40

NE

WS

FR

OM

EA

STE

RN

AIR

WAY

S D

ES

TIN

ATIO

NS

NEW DESTINATIONS FROM EASTERN AIRWAYS

7

Eastern Airways has added four new destinations to its portfolio of UK domestic routes.

The airline began operating services from the Isle of Man to Belfast City and Newcastle, and from Anglesey to Cardiff, in March, following the liquidation of Isle of Man-based Citywing.

Eastern Airways moved quickly to secure both Isle of Man routes while, following separate negotiations, the airline also took over the twice-daily service between Anglesey and Cardiff, which is supported by the Welsh Government.

The airline subsequently announced a new service from the Isle of Man to Glasgow, due to start on May 2. In a further move, a weekend service on Saturdays and Sundays will link Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast with the Isle of Man during the TT racing season. Services will operate on May 27 and 28, and June 3, 4, 10 and 11.

The new routes mark a return to both the

Isle of Man and to Glasgow for Eastern Airways. The airline previously operated services to and from the Isle of Man from 2004 to 2009.

Mathew Herzberg, Head of Commercial for Eastern Airways, said: “Our aim has been to protect vital routes from the Isle of Man and we are now pleased to be back in Glasgow again, and we will also explore further opportunities.”

The Welsh Government’s Economy Secretary, Ken Skates, announced that Eastern Airways would take over the subsidised service linking Anglesey Airport (Valley) and Cardiff. Prior to his announcement, all services had been cancelled following the closure of CityWing.

Mr Skates said: “I am grateful to Eastern Airways, the Civil Aviation Authority, Cardiff and Anglesey airports and the RAF at Valley for their support and help in making sure this necessary transition between providers has happened so quickly.”

NEWSSunderland sets out its stall for 2021The city of Sunderland – aspiring to be the UK’s next City of Culture, in 2021– is working hard to ensure it has the infrastructure in place.

As the new bridge over the River Wear, to the west of the city centre, edges towards completion, the Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture Trust in February announced a £6 million Arts Council grant that will enable the next phase in the creation of a new cultural quarter.

With work already underway on the £3million transformation of the Old Fire Station – near the Empire Theatre – into a restaurant, café, heritage centre and dance and drama studio – the grant will enable the creation of an adjacent 450-seat mid-scale arts venue.

The award-winning architect behind the design of the auditorium is Jason Flanagan, who was project director for the iconic Sage Gateshead, and his previous work includes the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in Cardiff.

Meanwhile, the city centre could acquire two new hotels. Newcastle-headquartered hospitality operator. The Cairn Group has submitted a proposal for the development of a four-star hotel at Keel Square.

And Sanguine Hospitality has plans to convert the first to third floors of the city’s former Joplings department store.

n The winner of a winter break at Blue Reef Cottages in our competition in our New Year issue was Stuart Anderson, from Anstruther, Fife.

Artist’s impression of the Auditorium

Snaefell Mountain Railway, Isle of Man

Eastern Airways will operate a twice-weekly summer service from Southampton to Rodez, in the south west of France, from June 2.

Rodez is the capital of the Aveyron department, which is one of France’s best kept picturesque secrets. Flights

take 90 minutes and leave Southampton at 0820 on Fridays and 1130 on Mondays. Services depart Rodez at 1120 on Fridays and 1515 on Mondays. 

Aveyron is rich in medieval history and the nearby village of Conques is a candidate Unesco World Heritage Site.

Rodez is also home to the highly acclaimed Musée Soulages, which opened recently and is dedicated to the

work of Pierre Soulages, one of France’s most celebrated contemporary artists.

Eastern Airways operates a frequent service between Rodez and Paris Orly and is also offering a summer service from Rodez to Milan, in addition to Southampton. There are also connections at Southampton to and from Leeds Bradford, while the airport is just an hour by train from Waterloo Station, London.

FRENCH CONNECTIONS

FOO

D A

ND

DR

INK

8

Wine tourism specialist Arblaster & Clarke is featuring an English holiday in its 2017 brochure.

“The Romans were the first to bring the grapevine to England’s shores and today the English wine scene is an exciting emerging area of the wine world, producing award-winning sparkling wines,” says the company, which has

been running wine holidays all over the world for more than 30 years.

The three-day tour of Sussex and Kent vineyards will run from April 27-29 and includes two nights in a four-star boutique guest house, most meals, wine, visits and tastings, along with an expert wine guide.

www.winetours.co.uk

‘SPARKLING’ SINGLE MALT

What the Romans did for us…

n Raise a glass to the booming UK rare whisky auction market, which enjoyed an “exceptional year” in 2016, according to a report by whisky analyst, broker and investment expert, Rare Whisky 101.

Both the volume and value of rare Scotch whisky sold at auction increased by record amounts – the former by 48.64 per cent to a record £14.21m, while the number of bottles of single malt sold at auction increased by 35.21 per cent to 58,758.

The most expensive bottle to sell at auction in the UK was a 50-year-old Yamazaki, which went for £62,600.

The report identifies a number of factors behind this increased liquidity, including volatile market conditions, favourable forex rate (for overseas buyers), low interest rates, and the uncertainty of geopolitical change.

Whisky investment analyst and co-founder of Rare Whisky 101, Andy Simpson commented: “2016 has been another exceptional year for rare Scotch and we’re beginning to see signs of maturity within the market. The continued growth in both volume and value has added further liquidity, making rare whisky a more popular and more accessible passion investment.”

n Newcastle-based Wylam Brewery – which recently moved into the former Palace of Arts in the city’s Exhibition Park – has been crowned Best Independent Brewery in the People’s Choice vote at The Independent Beer Awards. Voting was by a Twitter Poll and Wylam saw off competition from Beavertown, in London, Cloudwater, in Manchester, and Northern Monk, in Leeds, to take more than 40 per cent of the thousands of votes.

There’s nothing like a 50-year-old malt whisky to mark a golden anniversary… And, just for good measure, why not embellish it with a hint of champagne?

The Dalmore, which calls itself the “definitive luxury malt” has released the exceptionally rare Domaine Henri Giraud champagne-finished 50-year-old single malt to mark Master Distiller Richard Paterson’s half century in the whisky industry.

The limited edition whisky has been meticulously crafted at the Dalmore Highland distillery in Alness as a tribute to each year of his illustrious career.

With up to 50 specially crafted decanters released, hand-filled on order, The Dalmore 50 has been matured in American white oak Matusalem oloroso

sherry casks, from the renowned Gonzalez Byass Bodega and port Colheita pipes from the Douro region of Portugal, before undertaking a final finesse for 50 days in rare champagne casks from Domaine Henri Giraud. 

Domaine Henri Giraud family estate is one of the only champagne houses to still mature its wines in casks and these casks gave Paterson the final flourish of wood needed to create the whisky’s exceptional expression.

“This is a special year for me so I chose to finesse this whisky in a champagne cask, as this magnificent drink is synonymous with celebratory occasions,” said Richard.

How much, did I hear you ask? To you? A mere £50,000.

The Palace of Arts, Wylam Brewery

HOSPITALITY NEWSD

avid

Par

ry

GOING OVER TO THE DARK SIDEhole but without every atom in your body being crushed to an infinitely small point”. 

Dark Matter’s brand identity stands out. Instead of Country of Origin or Produce Of the packaging proudly states Molecular Engineering – Scotland. On the side of the bottle the company’s Logic is written up for consumers to consider. “Our curiosity drives us, while science inspires us.” The brothers have gone for a scientific approach, with labelling that harks back to the chemistry class and oozes geek chic.

Since its launch, Dark Matter has become a familiar sight on the local beer festival scene; the distillery exported Scottish rum for the first time to Germany in October 2015; it won a gold medal at the prestigious 2016 Rum Masters awards; and it’s currently gracing the shelves of specialist stockists, selected Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s stores in Scotland, and of Majestic Wines across the UK. But what about its flavour?  

In terms of taste Dark Matter is a molasses-based rum with notes of long pepper, allspice, ginger and green peppercorns. Spiced rums are often sweet, but Dark Matter isn’t cloying. It’s spicy though, so provides a warming tipple. And the million dollar question? Why on earth did it take so long to establish rum production in a country renowned for distillation?  

Jim Ewen concludes: “It’s bizarre that a country like Scotland which has traded in sugar and molasses, or treacle as we know it, since the 1600s hasn’t produced a rum until now. It baffles me that no-one else has done it. Perhaps we have a mental block that says rum can only come from Caribbean islands. Having said that, we at Dark Matter are happy to be the only Scottish rum producers!”

For Dark Matter the future may very well be bright.

www.darkmatterdistillers.com

Janice Hopper gives herself over to the Dark Side as she visits Scotland’s first and only rum distillery…Jim and John Ewen spend their time mulling over Dark Matter in the north east of Scotland. While this may have Lord of the Rings undertones, the two brothers have successfully established Scotland’s first rum distillery.

Dark Matter Rum is produced in the Royal Deeside town of Banchory, just outside Aberdeen. With a background in the oil industry, as a petroleum economist, Jim was inspired to create Scottish rum while on holiday in the Dominican Republic in 2011. Having unsuccessfully phoned three

rum distillers in an attempt to visit them, as you would perhaps visit a whisky distillery in Scotland, Jim ruefully commented that it might just be easier to build one himself. This was the spark that illuminated Dark Matter.  

“During the two weeks on holiday the idea rumbled around in my head,” says Jim. “Rum is made from dark, sticky molasses. I have a great interest in all things scientific and the two concepts came together one night in the form of Dark Matter. I wrote it down immediately so I’d remember it.”

Having successfully pitched the idea to his brother, John, laboratory tests, recipe tests and fundraising were pursued before the pair risked everything to start construction of their distillery in May 2014.

The first rum produced in April 2015 and the finished product is described as “the taste equivalent of warping into a liquid black

The Palace of Arts, Wylam Brewery

10

MO

TOR

ING

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION

We all know autonomous cars are coming. All the major manufacturers are developing them, and tech giants like Apple and Google have made major investments in the field. So far though, the cars are best described as automated rather than autonomous, because true autonomy is where the driver is not required – perhaps not allowed – to do anything other than input the destination and press Go, after which he or she can be taken anywhere in the world regardless of the type of road. This is a long way off.

The challenges are as much human as technical. Who will be liable when an accident occurs – the software developer or the driver? Will one manufacturer’s car talk seamlessly to another’s? Will all countries use the same technical standards? What happens if disruption of the GPS system – by unusual sunspot activity or hacking, say – sends the system haywire? The ultimate stag night prank suggests itself: hack into the groom’s car and send him to the local house of ill repute instead of the church. Result! High fives all round!

But enough whimsy.

We have got used to active cruise control, lane deviation warnings, sleep detection systems, automatic parking, route planning. The next stage will be to integrate these so that, on certain roads at least, the driver can simply sit back. However, the driver’s functions will be automated, not removed. In this netherworld, where the driver is in control but not in control, surely the biggest single challenge is going to be how to maintain attention? Software can prevent illegal phone activity by disabling the device, cameras can detect sleepiness by monitoring eye movement, but merely being alert is not enough: how do you tell if he, or she, is actually concentrating on the road? The software would have to permit them to delve into the centre armrest for a sweet, but it would have to be very clever indeed to detect that a hand had strayed a little further across onto their partner’s thigh… Thus distracted, but notionally still in charge of a tonne and a half of metal travelling at 70mph, our driver is probably more of a danger than one with no aids at all.

Most incidents will be dealt with seamlessly

by the software, but when something untoward happens and the car demands human intervention, precious time will be lost while the driver refocuses on the job in hand. It may only be a second or two, but a car can travel a long way in a second. At the very moment when decisive action is needed, the driver’s mind will likely be elsewhere, lulled into a false sense of security.

Consider also the effect of a large number of automated cars on those of us who are still driving without such “aids”. The reckless would soon learn that there is no need to be safe or considerate around an automated car because it will always take avoiding action. Its occupants would of course be frightened and infuriated by such behaviour, so cameras would be installed on automated cars to record bad driving and automatically report it to the police. This raises a potent civil liberties issue, because a simple software change is all that would be needed for the recording to be switched on permanently, not just at moments of danger. Such a change could be made centrally and online without drivers even being aware – and hey presto, Big Brother has arrived without telling us, and we are doing his work for him.

Conversely, the police’s presence on the road would probably be considerably reduced. When most traffic is automated anyway, there is no need to police it. Speed cameras would catch so few drivers that they would become uneconomic to maintain, while speed-calming in cities

would become unnecessary. Is the end of the speed hump in sight?

For those irresponsible enough to explore their Lamborghini’s top speed on the public road, these changes would open a window of opportunity. Choose a time when there are no automated cars around to record the fact – very early on a summer morning perhaps – and go for it. You might very well stay out of jail.

No-one knows how all this will pan out. But at some stage along the way, when true autonomy has been achieved, we all know that two poor schumcks at a crossroads with no defined right of way will find themselves stranded, their autonomous cars each endlessly and politely asking each other to cross first. It’s dark, cold, miles from anywhere, the batteries are failing, the system won’t reboot and the doors are of course locked for safety reasons.

I think I’ll let someone else get the bugs out of the system first.

LEFT and ABOVE Ford showed what it calls its “next-generation autonomous development vehicle” at the 2017 North American International Auto Show, in Detroit in January. It uses the current US market Ford Fusion Hybrid as a platform, “but ups the processing power with new computer hardware. Electrical controls are closer to production-ready, and adjustments to the sensor technology allow the car to better see what is around it,” the company says.

There have been a few bumps and even the death of one ‘driver’ in the USA, but driverless, or autonomous, cars are likely to be coming to a junction near you before too long. Our motoring correspondent, Norman Burr, looks wryly at the implications…

SP

EC

IAL

FEAT

UR

E

12

13

Furniture farming is all about team-work. And Gavin Munro has surrounded himself with hands willing to go out in all weathers and at all times of year to harvest a full range of top-quality chairs and round up a herd of bespoke tables.

His might not be the most expensive in the world. Eileen Gray’s $27.8m Dragon Chair is easily that. But the chairs made by Leeds furniture graduate Gavin Munro are one-offs. They are grown in a field in the Derbyshire Dales.

The 40-year-old furniture designer’s showroom and open-air factory is in Wirksworth,15 miles from Derby. He has 40 chairs currently planted and growing well. They will be ready for harvesting in six to ten years’ time.

The former web designer has orders stretching into 2022. You might say he has stumbled on a growth industry. His individually home-grown chairs cost £3,000 each. His field-grown pendant lamps, £1,000. The tree artist also grows his own tables and mirror frames.

“I test-trialled early prototypes in my mother-in-law’s back garden. Then I got myself a plot of land and grew my chairs there. Until some cows squashed them flat.

“A frame only takes two years to grow. But I learned patience when I was laid up in hospital after spine-straightening surgery.”

While working as a gardener in California, Munro honed his organic

vision on driftwood picked up from Ocean Beach, in the Sunset district of San Francisco. He has a degree in Furniture Design from Leeds Met University.

“It’s really very simple and straightforward. And not cruel. We merely guide, encourage, coax, persuade and tweak the young shoots and tree limbs into the direction and shape we require to form a bespoke pieces of fully functional, ergonomic, very durable furniture every time. Humans have been moulding wood to their own requirements for ages. Through coppicing, pollarding, pleaching, espaliering and, of course, topiary.”

Gavin’s wife Alice used to publish prospectuses and teach English. She is also a former VSO volunteer. “Since I met Gavin, a large part of my life is made up of him shouting ‘I’ve got it!’, and then frantically trying to explain his latest eureka moment.

“Sticks play a large part – sometimes for kindling and sometimes I’ve burnt the wrong bits. His experiments also constantly invade our home life quite extensively. I lost my bath to a willow chair for about two weeks, as he wanted to soak off the bark. The random recycling of objects and moments of inspiration can come from anywhere. Trees have fully taken over my life.”

Then there’s Ed Loud, 24, who studied Criminology at the University of York. “Growing furniture was not an obvious career path,” he says. “I got involved pretty much on a whim. It was a cool concept. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with the idea and almost three

Kevin Pilley goes window-shopping for furniture – grown in a field harvested by a team that includes a designer from Leeds and a criminologist from York…

years later I’m still here. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of such an amazing thing.”

Qualified acupuncturist Gus Sevier says she heads up “the really fiddly technical side”.

“A big part of it is the grafting process that we use to make our joints. I’ve also been involved in organising new shoot paths. We’re refining the whole process all the time.”

Richard “Fash” Ashley – the owner of three lurchers – is weed-man, general gardener and electrician. Dom Foulds (who used to work as a ceramics lamp producer and is now pest-control officer and in charge of companion planting) and sander Chris J Robinson complete the team.

“I saw it as an opportunity to do something that nobody else was doing,” says Chris. “And as a chance to create our own art form and set the parameters ourselves.”

Main man Munro adds: “We are very ecologically and sustainability

aware, and very friendly towards our models. Why chop down a tree to make furniture when you can wrap a mould around it and customise it? Mass-manufactured furniture is hard on the environment. It wastes wood and uses a great deal of energy on vehicles, chainsaws and so forth. Growing furniture also avoids the pollutants in laminating, gluing and machining.

“We’re developing an elegant, simple art form that emits oxygen, absorbs carbon dioxide and whose by-products sustain the birds, the bees and other wildlife.”

He calls it “botanical manufacturing”, but does not take credit for the technique. The Greeks and Egyptians grew their own stools and, apparently, the Chinese dug holes and filled them with chair-shaped rocks and grew tree roots through the gaps. The ancient hand-made War-Khasi living rope bridges in Assam were formed from the roots of banyan fig trees. In the Middle East living trees were used to make garden houses.

“It’s hard graft,” says Gavin. But as well as avoiding the need for nails, fixings and machinery, our designs should last longer than traditionally-made chairs as they don’t have the weak points around the joints. In the same ways as a broken bone will be a lot stronger where it heals, the points where the wood is grafted are extremely strong.”

“For every 100 trees we grow there are 1,000 branches and more than 10,000 shoots to keep your eye on, and prune at the right time in the right way. Mother Nature might do all the hard work, but it’s all about being cooperative with the natural world.”

In the future, Full Grown hopes to harvest bookshelves and a crop of chests of drawers. “We have heard all the puns in the book. But people are sitting up and taking notice, so we can’t afford to sit back on our laurels.”

Gavin dreams of a day when furniture factories will be replaced by furniture fields. Even parks.

Eastern Airways flies to Leeds Bradford and Humberside

The Nelson armchair, designed by Munro, takes five to six years of nurturing and training into shape before harvest, followed by another year to season and dry the wood before being hand finished.

Gavin Munro with a prototype seat

14

15

The Furniture Orchard where chairs, tables, lamps and

sculptures grow into shape and mature.

16

THE

HE

BR

IDE

S

A few doubting Thomases had cocked an eyebrow or two when we told them we were heading to Scotland’s north-western extremities for a post-Christmas break. They suggested the Canaries or the Caribbean might be a better bet. But, hey, Stornoway had been consistently posting double-figure temperatures through much of the winter and was currently double digits ahead of the South of England.

A slick connection at Aberdeen and we were at Stornoway Airport for early afternoon – in good time to find our Isle of Harris car hire Kia in the airport car park and make our Isle of Harris destination before the light faded.

The lure was a holiday cottage that you might call a destination in its own right – Taigh Iain is one of two turf-roofed cottages created by Rhoda and Neil Campbell on land that gazes out to the Atlantic on the western shore of the Isle of Harris.

I think it’s safe to call a holiday cottage a destination when it acquires a solid reputation of its own that starts to make it synonymous with its location. That’s what the two Taighs (houses) have acquired since they opened in 2003.

So what’s so special about Taigh Iain and its near neighbour, Taigh Sheumais? Well, you could be forgiven for thinking that these unusual cottages were inspired by a traditional Hebridean croft or black house. But, in reality, the concept created by architect Stuart Bagshaw is more Neolithic than Celtic – the living area is spanned by a vast arched roof, supported by huge laminated oak beams, its west-facing wall

comprising a magnificent picture window looking out across the sand dunes to the ocean. Much of the structure is below ground and this, combined with sturdy stone walls, deliver a

clear statement of intent in the face of the wildest Hebridean storm.

“We had a clear vision,” says Rhoda Campbell, who – with husband Neil, from Skye – saw in the 22-acre family croft a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something special. “There was no four or five-star accommodation at the time in the Western isles, except for one on North Uist. We had the croft land anyway and we thought we would do something different that would sit in the landscape, but traditional.

“We said we didn’t want a blackhouse and Stuart came up with a Neolithic design.”

Other features of the structure include hefty larch pillars, salvaged after a storm, while the stone was recycled from a derelict blackhouse.

“The cost of building the houses was cheap compared with what it would cost now – I don’t think we’d be building them now, as prices shot up about six months after we completed them.”

So, did they feel that they were embarked on a risky project, given that rentals on the cottages would be significantly higher than the then going rate in the area? Neil: “We were quietly confident that we would get plenty of bookings from May to August, but people were sceptical as to whether people would

16

The Hebrides may not seem like the most obvious choice for a January mini-break, but Stan Abbott finds plenty of reasons to be cheerful on a trip to the isles of Lewis, Harris and Skye…

Rhoda and Neil Campbell

FEATURES OF THE STRUCTURE INCLUDE HEFTY LARCH PILLARS, SALVAGED AFTER A STORM, WHILE THE STONE WAS RECYCLED FROM A

DERELICT BLACKHOUSE.

pay the price we were asking. In fact, the local people were shocked, although we only heard about it afterwards!

“In the event, the whole thing has far exceeded our expectations and it has also meant that lots of other people have since had the confidence to do something more special on Harris.”

Indeed, Stuart’s distinctive architectural style has clearly influenced other holiday homes that have been built on the island, though – it has to be said – none can boast quite the view enjoyed by Neil and Rhoda’s two Taighs.

Neil brought to the project the proceeds of the sale of a fish farm on Skye and now offers a business planning service. He is also involved wth the West Harris Community Trust, dedicated to providing homes and employment for local people, and is delighted to witness signs that ensuring there are homes for young families can halt the aging population trend.

But Neil and Rhoda did not just challenge conventional local wisdom with their pricing: they believed from Day One that there was the potential to attract visitors all year round. And so, Neil launched

the Winter Harris Campaign. Vindication of the strategy came with occupancy figures that peaked at 98 per cent year-round, though those figures have fallen back slightly with the arrival of other quality venues.

So what makes the houses so very… “five star”? Well, they are very generously sized for two people. And two people is precisely what they are designed for. In fact, young children are not encouraged at all, as there could be issues around the ease with which they might clamber onto the roof! Besides the large living space, there’s a well equipped kitchen, generous bedroom and a fully equipped office for the busy professional who still needs to be on line.

The bathroom boasts a large whirlpool bath and a sauna, while the “shed” at the back of the house stables G-Tech electric bikes at no extra cost. The Taighs benefit from a wind turbine and air source heat pump, both of which – alongside other ways in which guests are encouraged to behave “greenly” – help ensure the properties retain their Green Tourism Gold standard. They are the only properties to hold the badge in the Hebrides.

The list of summer activities ranges from beach-combing and

Scarista Beach, a short walk from Taigh Iain

Taigh Iain

hill-walking to fishing and kite surfing, but the sheer strength of the wind limited our walking excursions to a short trip to the pristine white sands of the beach, marvelling en route at the challenges posed by the links golf course.

South Harris is joined to its northern neighbour – which shares the larger, more northerly land mass with the Isle of Lewis – by a narrow isthmus at Tarbert. You can drive right round South Harris in a few hours with plenty of time to stop and admire the art galleries and craft workers. In January, you need to ring ahead as most are formally closed.

It was lovely to see Harris again and to enjoy the landscape beneath a different, winter, light. But the real treat was getting back inside lovely Taigh Iain and shutting the elements out and just watching the day go by through the window, like a cinema screen. Fittingly, as we loaded the little stove with peat, we found a locally-set DVD – The Rocket Post. Set on the isle of Scarp, off Harris, it tells the tragic story of the German rocket scientist, Gerhard Zucker, who fell in love with a local girl while developing a zany scheme to send letters to and from the mainland by rocket. This 2006 drama may be a little short on big names, and hasn’t even made it to Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s well worth a watch.

Rhoda and Neil offer a variety of ways in which guests can ensure they can get their feet up quickly on arrival, including local supplies of fresh seafood and a home delivery gourmet meals service. We opted for home massage but, sadly, the masseuse turned out to be laid low by flu. Well, you just have to adapt to changing circumstances when you head for the Hebrides in winter!

OVER THE SEA TO SKYEConventional wisdom has it that you visit the Isle of Skye by driving across the new bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh. And while you can, of course, still catch the boat “over the sea to Skye” from Mallaig, a far more exciting way to arrive is west-to-east on the boat from Harris.

Fears that we might not make it to Skye – the previous day’s sailings had been lost to gale-force winds – disappeared as the ferry docked at Tarbert, just a little late.

The Isles of Harris and Skye seem worlds apart these days. The first difference that strikes you is the trees: Harris has so few,

while regular copses and plantations give Skye’s landscape an altogether gentler feel.

Gentler, that is, until you travel to Glen Brittle for a close-up view of the magnificent Cuillin mountains.

That, however, would be for tomorrow as, on arrival, we had time only to head for the Skeabost House Hotel.

Skeabost House is the newest addition to the Skye hotels portfolio owned by the family business of Anne Gracie and Ken Gunn.

Anne was formerly a quality inspector for VisitScotland and is Skye born and bred. Her daughter Jen was a clinical psychologist until she took over as General Manager at Skeabost House Hotel when Anne and Ken bought it in April 2015.

Ken Gunn’s grandparents lived on the remote islands of St Kilda, evacuated in the 1930s when the community there became unsustainable. He was formerly master

of container ships plying between Europe and the Far East, Captain of Caledonian MacBrayne ferries on the west coast of Scotland, and Captain of the five-star cruise ship, Hebridean Princess, a favourite of the Queen.

His son, Ally, is a manager at Skeabost House’s sister hotel in the south of Skye, Duisdale House, having gained experience at one of Edinburgh’s leading hotels.

Anne and Ken were named Scottish Hoteliers of the Year in 2013 because of their successes with Toravaig, their first hotel, and Duisdale. 

We were immediately impressed by Skeabost House, which achieves a commendable level of intimacy, despite being a quite substantial building.

The room was generous, four-posted, and with a very large bathroom. The hotel has enjoyed a complete makeover since its acquisition and this strikes a good balance

18

New rooms at Skeabost

Champagne and fresh seafood at Skeabost

View towards Raasay

I OPT FOR A WALK TO THE FAIRY POOLS – A SERIES OF ENCHANTING PONDS AND WATERFALLS NEAR THE HEAD OF THE GLEN

between modern and the kind of rustic you come to expect on a trip to the Highlands.

Dinner was prefaced by a choice from the extensive gin collection. It turned out to be an appropriate prelude to the salmon three ways starter, which featured poached, smoked and gin and thyme cured. “Eating local” delivered a 28-day aged Isle of Skye fillet steak, which was quite sumptuous; as too was the egg nogg crème brulée to round things off. An impressive wine list and equally memorable single malt collection – the latter enjoyed in the large lounge, with its big sofas and generous log fire – confirmed our judgement that Skeabost House really does tick all the boxes. Indeed, even in the depths of winter it was drawing an international clientèle and we were happy to recommend it to a friend bound for Skye later in the year.

Most roads on Skye lead, ultimately, to Portree, and on exiting the cosy little capital, we chanced upon the Aros Centre, boasting

an exhibition about St Kilda. Having enjoyed a long fascination for these abandoned islands, I’m always up for an exhibition that promises new insights into the challenging life endured by their inhabitants. Sadly, while the centre’s shop, restaurant and cinema were open, the exhibition was going to remain shut till March… I do think that more places need to catch up with the reality of year-round domestic tourism.

GOING WESTWe headed instead for the western fringes of the island, passing the Talisker distillery en route to Talisker Bay, then down the narrow road to the little church at Loch Eynort.

But no glen on Skye compares with Glen Brittle. I first camped here during a heatwave in the 1970s and climbed Sgurr na Banachdich – it’s described as “probably the easiest of the Cuillin range”, but that doesn’t mean it’s a stroll in the park, for the Cuillins as a whole offer mountaineers – not just plain

hill-walkers – the most serious challenge in the whole of the UK.

Specialist guiding companies offer to take you on the 23-peak Cuillin traverse. It may be only 12 kms long but it’s usually a three-day expedition, including a night’s bivvy on the mountains. It combines razor sharp ridges and the infamous Inaccessible Pinnacle, probably the most challenging of all Scotland’s Munros, of which there are 12 in the Black Cuillin.

The blogs written by people undertaking the challenge make for good reading if you are into this kind of challenge from the safety of your own armchair. Or take a look on YouTube at stunt rider Danny Macaskill’s heart-stopping traverse of the ridge by mountain bike. Sheer terror, but one of the best things you’ll find on the Internet!

Today, however, is not for scaling mountains, and I opt for a shorter walk from the Forestry Commission car park (ram-packed, even in January) to the Fairy Pools – a series of

19

Fairy pools at Glen Brittle

Scallops at Duisdale

20

Sunset over North Uist

Four poster luxury at Duisdale

Duisdale House from the woods

enchanting ponds and waterfalls near the head of the glen.

Tonight we are staying at Duisdale House, overlooking the Scottish mainland from the luxuriant peninsula of Sleat, in the south of the island. Although a little more modest than its larger, more northerly, cousin, Duisdale House replicates the excellence of its cuisine and the dining room – on a winter weekend in January – was packed; mostly by local people, I’d guess. I wondered if my twice-dived scallops might just possibly have come from “the plankton-rich waters of Loch Sligachan” beneath the Cuillins. After all, Sconser Scallops claims to supply the best hotels on Skye, Duisdale House among them.

Having made a mental note to return to

Duisdale House in summer, when trips on its own yacht would be available, we journeyed back to Uig via some of the celebrated sights of Skye. On an island that didn’t also boast the Cuillins, any one of the dramatic rock follies of Trotternish, the Quiraing and Kilt Rock would be destinations in their own right.

Hire car by Isle of Harris Car Hire www.isleofharris-carhire.com

Blue Reef Cottages (Taigh Iain and Taigh Sheumais) – www.stay-hebrides.com

Skeabost House Hotel www.skeabosthotel.com

Duisdale House Hotel www.duisdale.com

Eastern Airways flies every weekday from Aberdeen to Stornoway. Connecting flights from throughout the airline’s network

HA

RR

IS

BUTH BHEAGWhen two Glaswegians arrived on Harris in 2010, neither expected to be there more than a few months. Much less did they expect that they would meet and fall for local women, or that they would become trailblazing entrepreneurs.

Jamie McGowan and George Lavery were working on short-term contracts respectively as Manager and Chef at the Hotel Hebrides, a recently refurbished boutique hotel near the ferry terminal at Tarbert, Harris. Just three years later they are pillars of the local business community. (See next page.)

Jamie met partner Deenie Macleod and needed a new source of income after his hotel work ended. He noticed that local businesses were struggling to find window cleaners and stepped into the breach. The business soon grew into a window cleaning management concern, with contracts the length and breadth of Harris and Lewis.

Then he and Deenie saw another gap in the market and added a car hire business, with two Kia vehicles – Isle of Harris Car Hire.

They opened a small high-quality gift shop on the main street in Tarbert, to also provide office space. They called it Buth Bheag – wee shop – and the name then inspired their newest and most ambitious venture.

With support from Business Gateway Western Isles, Buth Bheag Candle Co moved into a small industrial unit on the edge of Tarbert and hopes soon to move into even larger premises.

The idea was to establish a business that was unlike anything else on Harris and so they set about learning how to make candles on the kitchen table.

Buth Bheag’s USP is that it employs 100 per cent natural products. Using soy wax and a cotton wick, says Jamie, gives a cleaner burn, avoiding black smoke and unpleasant emissions.

“We experimented for a few months and then we put a few candles in the shop.” The candles quickly caught on and were

soon being stocked in outlets across the islands.

Now their ever widening range draws firmly on the Harris landscape – through its Heritage and Beach ranges, for example – and the candles can increasingly be found on the Scottish mainland.

Buth Bheag can produce up to four or five hundred candles a day and, says Jamie, “It’s all about getting the product as good as it possibly can be.”

Jamie is currently experimenting with what he hopes may be a Guinness record-breaking candle…

Of entrepreneurship he says: “There are opportunities in the Highlands and Islands. You have to identify what the opportunities are and work to realise them. And you have got to be reliable.”

buthbheagcandleco.uk

PROSPECT’S BRIGHT ON HARRISIf the lifeblood of an island lies in the creativity of its people then entrepreneurs on Harris are ensuring a positive future

GEORGE’S NORTH HARBOUR BISTROA few miles down the road – across the modern bridge that leads to the island of Scalpay – George Lavery has made best use of his expertise as a chef.

The island has enjoyed better days and its harbour is not as busy as it once was. But overlooking it is George’s North Harbour Bistro, and on our visit – on a late January lunchtime – it was all action in a way that seemed to defy conventional thoughts on island backwaters.

“The way we looked at it was my mother-in-law said ‘you can’t even get a bacon roll here in the morning’,” says George.

“We noticed that, in winter, there weren’t a lot of people going out. But that was because there wasn’t much choice.”

George took a gamble that there should be enough business in winter to keep things ticking over and then enough in summer to do quite well.

“I started the business with £138 in the bank. They asked if I knew how to run a business and I said No. But I know how not to run a business and I’m not going to go out and buy a Range Rover.”

Such has been the success of his bistro that George is exploring with Highlands and Islands Enterprise ways in which

Jamie and Deenie

the community-owned building might be extended, ideally to provide a glazed room overlooking the harbour.

Such is the quality of George’s fare that guests are turning up from as far afield as South Africa and he is already the second largest employer on the island.

The more success George enjoys, the better things will be for the island’s craftspeople – people like the weaver and the lamp-maker in the old school over the road. For North Harbour Bistro has become a destination in its own right,

thanks to George’s highly creative menu, elegantly served the way you’d expect to find in a big city, not on a tiny island.

The menu leans heavily on locally sourced seafood – scallops, muscles, calamari, squid, white fish – and meat, including Harris-reared venison and beef. Many of the ingredients enjoy an exotic interpretation and George already has his sights set on the modern chef’s must-have of a water bath and the chance to experiment with molecular cooking.

en-gb.facebook.com/NorthHarbourBistro

ISLE OF HARRIS DISTILLERY In Tarbert, probably the largest single new enterprise is the Isle of Harris Distillery, opened two years ago. The £10 million venture is the brainchild of US-born chairman and founder Anderson Bakewell, the owner of the island of Scarp (of Rocket Post fame).

Bakewell decided he wanted to put something back in to the local economy and so the idea of the distillery was born.

He said: “It is on this special island that condi-tions prevail for the production and maturation of a unique and exceedingly fine malt whisky. As if that was not enough, we have every expectation that it should inspire creative initiatives – entre-preneurial, cultural and social – for the benefit of the island’s future, helping to retain those here and attract back those who left.”

The project is backed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and is currently producing its own gin, pending the maturation of its single malt. Unusually, the gin features kelp among its botanicals, giving it a very distinctive taste.

As the distillery’s Guest Team Manager Shona Macleod proudly proclaims, every one of the distillery’s workforce has been recruited locally and trained from scratch.

www.harrisdistillery.com

HOTEL HEBRIDESIn 2011, we featured the Hotel Hebrides, at Tarbert. It was the product of a bold venture by Angus and Chirsty Macleod and the realisation of a vision that combined a passion for the Hebrides with a wider world vision.

Originally built in the 70s as a motel by Angus’s father, it was transformed to meet the aspirations of the 21st century’s more sophisticated guest. “I was abroad for some years all over the world and came home with an ambition to transform the place,” said Angus.

With Chirsty, who has a degree in marketing, Angus came up with a concept and design detail that makes Hotel Hebrides very much

boutique in style and presentation. The couple drove the project through in the teeth of the banking crisis, closing for the whole of 2008 to achieve the increased bedroom count and better facilities demanded.

The hotel now boasts not only an award-winning restaurant but also a bigger bar that means it can double as an important facility for local people as well as hotel guests.

And such has been its success that a completely new development of self-contained suites has been added, across the road. The four Kirklea Island suites offer luxury designer apartments, with a terrace overlooking the harbour. Guests can choose whether to self-cater or plug in to the hotel’s own offer.

www.hotel-hebrides.com

Shona Macleod

George Lavery

Kirklea Island Suite

22

AB

ER

GA

VE

NN

Y HOT TEA AND ANGEL CAKE…

23

Victoria Trott lets her hair down and gets the cakes in, in Abergavenny

Eastern Airways flies to Cardiff from Anglesey, Newcastle and Aberdeen

“Taking a trip up to Abergavenny, hoping the weather is fine,” sang Marty Wilde in 1968. In those days, most people probably didn’t even know where the place was, but now – thanks to its nationally-renowned food festival each September, and to having arguably the best restaurant in Wales – this classy Welsh market town on the south-eastern side of the Brecon Beacons National Park is well and truly on the map.

There’s another very good reason to visit Abergavenny: the Angel Hotel, in the town centre, has been named AA Wales Hotel of the Year 2016/17. And that’s not its only accolade: since 2008 it’s held an Award of Excellence from the UK Tea Guild, which promotes the best places in the UK to enjoy afternoon tea, and won its Top City and Country Hotel Tea Award 2011. No-one who considers him or herself a foodie should miss it.

Luckily, it was indeed a fine (albeit chilly) day when I walked from the railway station on the outskirts of town, past swish Homes of Elegance furniture shop and couture milliner Alison Tod, and arrived at the 19th century former coaching inn. The welcome was as warm as the fire burning in the hotel’s cosy Foxhunter Bar. It was just before Christmas and, once ensconced in my room, a knock on the door brought a couple of delicious homemade mince pies and a glass of mulled wine.

Afternoon tea was a couple of hours away so I made the most of my comfortable accommodation and had a bath using Aromatherapy Associates toiletries, followed by lounging around in a luxurious white dressing gown on the squashy pastel-coloured sofa. The Angel has been renovated in recent years and the quality throughout is impressive for a three-star hotel. I particularly liked the specially commissioned black-and-white artwork by Alexis Snell, whose lino-cuts can be found in the Art Shop, a few doors up.

The food was definitely worth the wait. Usually served in the elegant Wedgewood Room, where the à la carte breakfast is also taken, my friends and I decided to book the intimate private dining space, the Cellar. Tiers of finger-

narrow sandwiches, tiny quiche squares, several different kinds of cake and light-as-air mini-scones filled the table; each accompanied by its recommended tea blend and what seemed to be bottomless glasses of champagne.

The only downside was that we were too full to head to the Walnut Tree, probably the most highly regarded of the seven Michelin-starred restaurants in Wales. The upside was that we finished the evening knocking back beer while listening to piped oompah music in the pop-up festive Après Ski Bar in the courtyard; there was even a cheese

fondue for those that could manage it.

With so much delicious food around it’s just as well there are so many activities available in the surrounding area. We ended our stay with a walk up nearby Sugar Loaf mountain, accompanied by a guide from local walking and cycling company, Drover Holidays. Alas, whatever calories we burned were quickly replaced, thanks to a final gourmet sandwich at the Chapel Gallery. I can’t wait to go back.

angelabergavenny.comartshopandgallery.co.uk

Sugar Loaf mountain

SU

RV

IVA

L S

KIL

LS

24

Olly Davy dons his camouflage fatigues and tries his hand at backwoods living…

I stalked the bank, lying in wait among brambles and tree roots. I strained my ears to catch activity in the shallow stream but instead my calorie-starved brain was mesmerised by the noises of the wood. Again and again I cast the monofilament line from the small plastic tub that served as a reel. Again and again I pulled the lure through the water to re-veal… nothing. Not a sausage. Or even a fish. I would have settled for either.

Fishing requires a good deal of skill and luck. I had neither. On a bushcraft survival experience in the wilds of Sus-sex, one measly perch would have made the difference between finger-licking contentment and root-nibbling dismay. My companions and I were doomed to the latter.

But this is what I wanted, wasn’t it?

Sometimes, when I watch Bear Grylls devouring a live salmon or Ray Mears dancing with badgers, I wonder what liv-ing off the land is really like. So I decided

to act on this curiosity and booked a course for an introduction to skills like shelter building, foraging, wildlife tracking and game preparation.

The exciting thing about this particular course, I thought, was the survival bit. Meaning, apart from a little supplemen-tary food at the beginning, I’d eat only what I could find or catch. Bring on the salmon.

I arrived at the course site, a private wood near Haywards Heath, on a Friday in July to spend four days under the guidance of Leon Durbin, founder and chief instructor of Wildwood Bushcraft. Leon’s courses – covering survival skills, ecology and wildlife study, with a healthy sprinkling of adventure – aim to “reawak-en a connection with the natural world” so that people “value it more and want to protect it”.

Sleep was minimal on the first night as I unwisely chose to bed down in an old shelter whose primary construction ma-

terial was bugs. Emerging like a zombie, I joined the group of 12 men and two women to set rabbit snares. The snare (a wire loop attached to a stake) will catch a bunny silly enough to hop through it, but it won’t finish one off. That would be our job. Breakfast was bannocks made from flour and water and cooked over the fire, washed down with wild mint tea.

The course was broken into blocks of learning and foraging. Leon shared his knowledge in an engaging style without being dogmatic. He provided some rab-bits (shot by a local gamekeeper) so we could try game preparation even if we didn’t snare anything. Once the rabbit stew was bubbling over a fire started with gathered tinder and sparks from a fire steel, we set off to identify plants we could eat or use.

We learned not to confuse burdock (ed-ible) with hemlock (highly poisonous); to brew teas from agrimony (liver detox) and meadowsweet (soothes sore throats); make fishing hooks from hawthorn tree

HUNGRY FOR KNOWLEDGE

I UNWISELY CHOSE TO BED DOWN IN AN OLD SHELTER WHOSE PRIMARY CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL WAS BUGS.

Contemplating life (and food) outside my A-frame shelter

EX

PLO

RAT

ION

EX

PR

ES

S

25

Rainbow trout gutted and sizzling over the fire

26

spikes, and gather artist’s bracket fungus (ganoderma applanatum) for firelighting.

Leon pointed out plants with health benefits and explained the suffix “wort” denotes me-dicinal properties, as in, for example, ragwort and liverwort.

“Hogwarts!” someone shouted.

After my horrible night bunking with earwigs, I had to fashion my own shelter. I cannibal-ised the ramshackle remains dotted about for sticks to make the A-frame and cut swathes of bracken for weatherproofing. I was determined, as if my survival really did depend on it.

On Sunday morning Leon had a treat for us – an entire rainbow trout each, to gut and cook over the flames. A rumble (my new collective noun) of famished foragers ringed the fire pit while the rich scent of fish oils seasoned the air. The flesh fell from the bone into my

grubby fingers. The skin, the eyes, the brain – all good calories. One tiny fish felt like a decadent feast. How quickly one’s sense of sufficiency can change.

With full bellies we waved off the eight softies who were only signed up for the two-day course. Hedgerows became far more interesting in the knowledge that there would be no more extra food. At one point I hal-lucinated a log into a plump rabbit. Tragically, our snares were empty.

The highlight of the day was wading through deep, stinking mud to yank out reedmace roots. This distinctive plant is recognisable by its brown, sausage-shaped seed heads. Roasted and peeled that evening, the roots had a pleasant starchy sweetness. Our main course was pendulous sedge seeds fried with wild garlic and nettles: a tasty, if meagre, snack.

I felt weak on Monday morning. The mas-

sively reduced diet (perhaps a couple of hundred calories per day) was taking its toll. Although the absence of alcohol, caffeine and sugar had a purifying effect and I felt incredibly clear-headed. I walked slowly and thought twice about doing things that required much effort.

Digging burdock roots from hard-packed earth was exhausting. Hobo fishing was physically easier, but ultimately unsuccessful. In desperation we gathered unripe blackber-ries, normally ignored but delightful in the circumstances.

My shelter resisted overnight rain and I emerged for the final group breakfast of roots and nettle tea. Somehow we sum-moned up the energy to carve throwing sticks and spent a happy half hour hurling them. A metal bucket stood in for the rabbit we wished it was. This provoked fierce com-petition and shouts of the “the bunny shot!” when someone nailed it.

We had survived. Even after only four days away from civilisation, the bustle of Hay-wards Heath and the choice in Londis were overwhelming. The smell of the steak slice I inhaled was like ambrosia.

As I headed for home, I reflected on the ex-perience. Bushcraft, I now know for certain, is harder than the pros make it look. Lack of food is something most of us in rich coun-tries are simply not used to. And there was the crux of it: getting out of my comfort zone and discovering how little I really need made me more appreciative of the plenty I have.

Thank you, nature.

Olly Davy completed his bushcraft course at Wildwood Bushcraft in Sussex, but the com-pany also offers courses in Scotland, as well as in Arctic Sweden, Canada and Africa.

Other companies that run similar courses include:

Woodland Ways – Oxfordshire, Derbyshire and Scotland. www.woodland-ways.co.uk

Woodsmoke – English Lake District. www.woodsmoke.uk.com

Natural Pathways (family bushcraft weekend) – Kent. www.natural-pathways.co.uk

Trueways – Somerset, Yorkshire, Gloucester-shire, Hampshire, Staffordshire and Surrey. truewayssurvival.com

THE ABSENCE OF ALCOHOL, CAFFEINE AND SUGAR HAD A PURIFYING EFFECT AND I FELT INCREDIBLY CLEAR-HEADED.

26

Leon demonstrates the effectiveness of a fire steel

Eastern Airways flies to Southampton from Aberdeen and Leeds Bradford

Eastern Airways flies to Aberdeen from Bergen, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Stavanger, Stornoway, and Wick

WIN a luxury golfing break in InvernessInverness, capital of the Highlands, is the perfect base for exploring some of Scotland’s most spectacular scenery, thrilling history and vibrant culture.

The city is equidistant between Aberdeen and Wick John O’ Groats airports, both served by frequent Eastern Airways flights.

Eastern Airways Magazine has teamed up with Highland Apartments to offer one lucky reader a luxury free stay for two – plus a round of golf on one of the world’s oldest courses. Included in the prize are return flights for two to Aberdeen plus preferential car hire from our partner Europcar if required.

Highland Apartments are part of the Mansley Group, which also has top-of-the-range properties in London and Edinburgh. Enjoying some of the finest views in the city they’re perfect for a short break or business trip to Inverness and as a base for touring the Highlands.

You can put your feet up in your home-from-home overlooking the River Ness on the corner of the High Street, near Inverness Castle. Shops, restaurants, cafés, pubs and bars are all just a short stroll away.

The one and two-bedroom apartments offer all the flexibility of self-catering accommodation, but with the added benefits of a daily housekeeping service and services including breakfast hampers, discounted dining, and free parking and Wi-Fi.

Many feature designer interiors, balconies and terraces overlooking the river, as well as well appointed kitchens, a secure video entry system, lift access to all floors, flat screen TVs with Freeview, radio or CD player with iPod docks, and DVD players.

Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club links are on the Black Isle, near Inverness, and enjoy wonderful views over the Moray Firth. The club dates from 1793, and is the 15th oldest recorded golf club in the world. It was redesigned in 1932 by five-times Open champion, James Braid.

There’s much more to do in Inverness and the surrounding area. Eden Court Theatre, the largest arts venue in Scotland, is just across the river and Loch Ness is only six miles away. You can go dolphin spotting on the Moray Firth, at North Kessock, or take the kids to the Landmark Forest Adventure Park, at Carrbridge, or the Inverness Aquadrome.

For your chance to twin a two-night break for two at Highland Apartments, just answer this easy question and send it by June 30, 2017, to competitions@gravity-consulting.com

Which river do Highland Apartments overlook?

The winner will be the sender of the first correct entry drawn at random and will receive a two-night stay for two in a one-bedroom apartment, return flights for two to Aberdeen (if required), two days’ car hire at best possible rates (subject to availability) plus a voucher for £110 for use at Fortrose Golf Club. Accommodation and tee times are subject to availability and the prize must be taken by November 30, 2017.

Please note that the prize does not include meals.

For information on Highland Apartments and luxury serviced accommodation in Edinburgh or London, visit www.bymansley.com

Fortrose and Rosemarkie Golf Club – www.fortrosegolfclub.co.ukemail: secretary@fortrosegolfclub.co.uk

www.europcar.co.uk

EX

PLO

RAT

ION

EX

PR

ES

S

28 Brew-dog Aberdeen

When Stan Abbott sets out to explore Redcar and Cleveland and the borough’s hinterland in the North York Moors National Park he finds himself sidetracked by a lesson in social history…

REDCAR AND CLEVELAND

A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

It should be remembered that discovery does not necessarily come with a roadmap. Indeed, my most recent “discovery” didn’t really feel like a discovery at all and I hadn’t envisaged that I would have to travel to Redcar to make it.

In fact, in finding out about the life of Gertrude Bell, my overwhelming sensation was that I really should have been aware of it all many years ago.

Why? Because not only was Gertrude Bell one of the most significant 20th century women to have come out of North East England, but also her contribution to the way in which British actions in the 20th century shaped world history is of supreme importance.

Born in Washington, then in County Durham, in 1868, she was raised in Redcar before being schooled in London and then gaining a First at Oxford. But – as a hugely informative exhibition at the wonderful free-to-enter Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar, explains – it was as an adviser to Winston Churchill and the UK Government after the First World War that she really made her name.

Except that it wasn’t terribly well made, to the extent that the writers of 20th century history saw fit subsequently to pretty much airbrush her out of the picture. It is only now, in our more enlightened and less misogynistic age (well, on this side of the Atlantic at least), that her contribution is more properly recognised. A contribution that was more significant than that of her friend, the much more widely renowned Lawrence

of Arabia. Perhaps if she had been called Florence, like her stepmother, she’d have done better – Florence of Arabia, in case you didn’t get it.

Gertrude Bell travelled widely in what was then called Mesopotamia, winning the trust of the many nomadic Arab tribes, and it was on her advice that the boundaries of modern Iraq were drawn. Indeed she was effectively a kingmaker, choosing the first monarchs of both Iraq and Jordan.

In modern eyes, Gertrude Bell may seem a rather paradoxical character: a highly emancipated woman who nonetheless opposed the suffragettes; politically progressive, yet a staunch defender of Empire. She was at least twice unlucky in love – once through the unwise intervention of her father, a socially progressive industrialist and Liberal MP, and once through falling for a married man. Her bad

luck continued after her death: as a passionate archaeologist, she created the first collection for the new national museum of Iraq. As Newcastle University Professor, Peter Stone – Unesco Chair of Cultural Property, Protection and Peace – explains in a video at the exhibition, the fruits of her labour were tragically plundered in the wake of the destruction of the most recent Iraq war.

Newcastle University now holds Gertrude Bell’s extensive archive, much of which is available for study on-line and, as part of the process of assuring her correct place in history, she is the subject of two recent films.

Enthused by this exhibition, we discovered that Werner Herzog had made a film of her life, starring Nicole Kidman as Gertrude and featuring a number of other A-listers, as recently as 2015. It scored only ten per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and had more or less B

eaco

n im

age

by J

ohn

Yead

on (O

wn

wor

k) [C

C B

Y-S

A 4

.0 (h

ttp:

//cr

eativ

ecom

mon

s.or

g/lic

ense

s/by

-sa/

4.0)

], vi

a W

ikim

edia

Com

mon

s

ABOVE Kirkleatham Museum. TOP Exhibition images: Gertrude outside her tent in Babylon and a portrait, taken about 12 years later in 1921, when she was 53.

vanished without trace. Indeed we had to buy one of a small number of Italian DVDs of the movie still available to watch it all.

Unfortunately, Herzog is so focussed on Bell’s love life that there’s scarcely time to cover her historical and political contribution other than in a note on the screen at the end. Better to look at Tilda Swinton’s 2016 documentary, Letters from Baghdad.

Kirkleatham Museum, housed in the former school that was known as the Old Hall, is just part of the remaining legacy of Sir William Turner’s original estate. Take the trouble to also have a look at the almshouses, across the road and next to the huge walled garden, which is in line for restoration. Also take a quick look at the fine Georgian terraced houses, tucked between the gardens of the Old Hall and the church, and among the most desirable residential addresses in the borough.

From Kirkleatham we headed into town to find Red Barns, the Arts and Crafts former home of Gertrude Bell’s family. Saved from demolition, it is currently being repaired ahead of full restoration.

Redcar’s rejuvenated sea front is now graced by the town’s “vertical pier”, which looks as though it should have a helter-skelter round the outside, like the ArcelorMittal Orbit, at

London’s Olympic Park. Don’t miss the excellent Palace Hub commercial gallery nearby.

The North York Moors National Park encroaches here and there into Redcar, most notably at the summit of the iconic Roseberry Topping, and the Park’s Inspired

by… Gallery is marking its tenth anniversary with an exhibition of works inspired by the local landscape. I loved Peter Kicks’s impressionistic landscape of the Esk Valley but couldn’t quite afford the £4,000 asking price. Ian Scott Massie’s evocative little water colours of the now redundant Redcar steelworks were more affordable.

We drove back across the Moors on either side of the Esk and beneath an eternal grey sky that seemed to emphasise the immense horizon, and then over the top towards Guisborough. A visit to the priory there would have to wait till another day, as would one to the mining museum at Skinningrove, not to mention a return to the Victorian splendours of Saltburn.

We stayed at Crathorne Hall, just south of Yarm at the foot of the Cleveland Hills. With super-friendly staff, a vast bedroom suite, fine dining and a cosy lounge, we felt like lord and lady of the manor. What’s not to like!

The Extraordinary Gertrude Bell is at Kirkleatham Museum until May 14

The Gertrude Bell archive can be found at gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk

Past and Present is at the Inspired by… Gallery to mid-March

Redcar’s ‘vertical pier’

Roseberry Topping in the North York Moors. © VisitEngland/NYMNPA/Colin Carter

Eastern Airways flies from Aberdeen to Durham Tees Valley

OUR DESTINATIONS

Scheduled routes

Charter routes

Codeshare services operated by Widerøe

WELCOME TO OUR BARE ESSENTIALSInformation on our routes, fleet, passenger experience and suggestions for what to do when you arrive at your destination.

BA

RE

ES

SE

NTI

ALS

30

SCATSTA

STORNOWAY

CARDIFF

FI

HUMBERSIDE

NORWICH

ALLEY

ANGEAVST R

NEWCASTLE

ABERDEEN

DURHAM TEES V

EMBRAER ERJ135Two aircraft Seats 37 passengers Two turbofan engines Wingspan, 20m (65ft)

Length 26m (86ft) Typical cruising speed, 450 knots, at 35,000ft

JETSTREAM 41

Seventeen aircraft Seats 29 passengers Two turboprop engines Wingspan 19m (60ft)

Length 20m (63ft) Typical cruising speed,280 knots, at 20,000ft

SAAB 2000

Nine aircraft Seats 50 passengers Two jetprop engines Wingspan 24.3m (81ft)

Length 26.7m (89ft) Typical cruising speed, 370 knots, at 28,000ft

EMBRAER ERJ145Three aircraft Seats 50 passengers Two turbofan engines Wingspan, 20m (65ft)

Length 30m (98ft) Typical cruising speed, 450 knots, at 35,000ft

THE FLEET

WICK JOHN O’GROATS

SUMBURGH

FRENCH NETWORK

PARIS ORLY

SOUTHAMPTON

BERGEN

Besides the airline’s scheduled service network in the UK and Norway, Eastern Airways also operates domestic services within France from Paris Orly to Rodez, in the department of Aveyron, in the south.

EMBRAER E170

Two aircraft Seats 76 passengers Two General Electric CF34-BE turbofan engines

Wingspan 26m (85ft 4in)Length 30m (98ft) Typical cruising speed, 481 knots, at 41,000ft

CHESTER

BRISTOL

LEEDSBRADFORD

summer service to Milan

RODEZ

ISLE OF MAN

BELFAST CITY

ANGLESEY

TOULOUSE

summer service

GLASGOW

Our customers choose Eastern Airways because they want their journey to be as convenient, speedy and hassle-free as possible.

We aim to satisfy these key requirements by offering frequent services (up to four weekday departures, plus Sunday services), same day returns on most routes, and free hand lug-gage and hold baggage allowance.

Our highly trained cabin attendants also offer a fully complimentary in-flight drinks and branded snacks service, while customers with fully flexible tickets can enjoy complimentary lounge access at selected airports.

Our 30-minute check-in time, along with fast track security at selected airports, are a big plus when time is of the essence and queues at both will be short, enabling you to make the most of your ticketless travel, pioneered by Eastern Airways a decade ago.

Fast Track is currently available at Aberdeen,

Cardiff, Leeds Bradford, Southampton and Newcastle, and is a dedicated security channel for Eastern Airways passengers to use and avoid busy airport terminal security queues.

With Eastern Airways operating the largest number of scheduled services from Aber-deen, we offer exclusive use of our dedicated business lounge, located next to our depar-ture gates. Executive lounge access is also offered at Cardiff, Leeds Bradford, Norwich and Southampton for passengers travelling on fully flexible tickets.

As you board your aircraft you will see our liveried valet baggage cart for you to place larger items of hand luggage by the aircraft steps. Your hand luggage will be there for you on the valet baggage cart at your destination.

Once again our aim is to make your travel as pleasant an experience as possible and we wish you a most enjoyable trip.

…we'll make your journey easier and more enjoyable

FLY FOR LESSThe Eastern Airways 4-4-3 Route Pass offers savings for frequent flyers of up to 25 per cent when you buy four return tickets for the price of three.

The 4-4-3 Route Pass offers maximum flexibility, lounge access and fee-free changes, and is available on all Eastern Airways UK domestic services – as is our Zonal Route Pass, which offers even bigger savings of up to 40 per cent.

The Zonal Route Pass is for customers buying six return flights, or 12 one-way sectors, on the same route. You can pick and choose your flights, making as many changes as you need (subject to availability). The Zonal Route Pass is available on all domestic Eastern Airways routes and also comes with complimentary lounge access, where available.

The Air Discount Scheme (ADS) was brought in by the Scottish Government for the benefit of the remotest communi-ties in the Highlands and Islands and provides a discount of 50 per cent on the core air fare on eligible routes. Routes eligible with Eastern Airways are Stornoway to Aberdeen and Wick to Aberdeen.

For more information on flying for less, see www.easternairways.com, or contact your travel agent or our reservations team on 08703 669100.

LASER DEVICESA safety issue that has been raised in the airline industry and which has attracted some wider publicity recently is the number of laser attacks against aircraft. It is a matter about which the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is very concerned.

Targeting an aircraft with a laser is reckless, dangerous and also illegal. Just a microsec-ond of laser energy from a powerful laser source is enough to permanently damage the eye.

If you do happen to see a laser beam from the cabin or if it enters the cabin, you may be tempted to look at it. However, you should not look at the beam or try to locate its source. Just look away or look down towards the floor of the cabin. Do report the incident to your cabin crew.

Thanks for your attention.

SAFETY AND SECURITYAbove all else, we want you to enjoy flying with us and we’re confident that in the overwhelming majority of cases you will do so. However, while the vast majority of passengers flying in the world today behave impeccably, there is a greater awareness of isolated incidents of disruptive behaviour, sometimes dubbed “air rage”. While this isn’t a major problem at Eastern Airways, the safety and security of our passengers and crew is our number one priority and we don’t want our customers to experience any behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable, or to be put in a situation that compromises safety.

Our Zero Tolerance policy is directed at disruptive behaviour, which might include smoking, drunkenness, aggression or abusive language towards a customer or a member of crew.

Our crews are fully trained to deal with this kind of incident and therefore we remind customers that to disobey a lawful com-mand given by a crew member is to commit an offence under the UK Air Navigation Or-der. Offenders who persistently misbehave on a flight will be handed to the appropriate

authorities on arrival and may face arrest and a heavy fine – or up to two years in jail. Severe restrictions will also be placed on their future travel with Eastern Airways.

Similarly, we remind customers that there is a strict No Smoking policy on board all of our aircraft and in all of our lounges. This includes the use of electronic cigarettes or any cigarette substitute device that emits a vapour or has a power source or produces heat and or a light. We do not permit electronic cigarettes to be charged in our lounges. Electronic cigarettes may be carried on board subject to the following conditions:• Carried on the person only • No refills • Strictly not permitted for use

ESSENTIAL TRAVEL

WHEN YOU FLY WITH US…

ESSENTIAL GOINGS ON…B

AR

E E

SS

EN

TIA

LS: W

HAT

’S G

OIN

G O

N

In their golden age from the 1920s to the 1950s, ocean liners were the lifeblood of Southampton, bringing employment, industry and glamour to the city.

Port Out, Southampton Home, running until June 4, is a major exhibition telling the story of these great ships from the early days in the 1890s to modern day cruiseliners, and evokes the romance of sea travel and life on board. The exhibition includes a wide range of rarely seen items from the city’s maritime collection, including ship models, posters, photographs and ephemera such as menu cards and souvenirs.

Visitors can see furniture from some of the famous ships that called Southampton home such as the Mauretania, Queen Mary and QE2, and learn about the people who travelled and worked the oceans aboard these iconic vessels – through letters, diaries and oral history interviews with passengers and crew.

There will also be opportunities to have a go at deck quoits, try on a captain’s or steward’s uniform and find out what was served for a meal in First Class on the Queen Mary.

seacitymuseum.co.uk

n Yorkshire’s favourite sons Kaiser Chiefs are heading home for what promises to be an explosive night at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Fresh from their first UK arena tour in two years, the multiple Brit Award-winning and platinum-selling, indie-rock band will headline Europe's largest open air theatre on Saturday May 27.

n Turn the page, an international book art and design fair, has announced that its sixth annual event themed Home will be held on May 26 and 27 at The Forum, Norwich. Alongside more than 60 artists and printmakers, ttp organisers have revealed that international artist Anna Yevtukh, now based in the UK, will be creating the centre piece for the fair.

n Storyhouse, a £37 million development bringing a theatre and cinema back to Chester after a decade long absence, will accommodate a state-of-the-art theatre, library and cinema in the dramatic, art-deco conversion of the city's Odeon.

FESTIVAL TIMEAberdeenshire’s Scottish Traditional Boat Festival in Portsoy, pictured right, celebrates the North East of Scotland’s rich cultural and maritime heritage with a range of events taking place over two days from June 24.

Other events in the area include Run Balmoral, from April 22-23. Set within the grounds of Balmoral Castle, the run attracts around 5,000 competitors and 5,000 spectators each year. Events over the weekend include a 5K and a 10K run, and family entertainment.

Aberdeen’s Look Again Festival from April 27-May 1, celebrates contemporary visual art and design, showcasing local and internationally acclaimed talent. During the festival, architectural and urban features in the city will be turned into new artworks.

www.visitabdn.com

THE GOLDEN AGE OF OCEAN LINERS

32

PLAYING HOST TO QUEEN VICTORIAHarewood House, near Leeds, was recently used as a major set for ITV’s Victoria series. To celebrate the success of the programme, the opulent rooms on Harewood’s State Floor will come to life with costumes from the production.

Outfits worn by Jenna Coleman who played Queen Victoria will be displayed throughout the 2017 season. Alongside the costumes, the exhibition will present a behind-the-scenes look at filming in a place like Harewood including how the team prepares and manages the house and transforms its rooms into sets.

The exhibition runs until October 29.

www.harewood.org

GET ON YOUR BIKE AT HOLKHA M HALLFamily friendly cycling festival, Pedal Norfolk, returns to Holkham Hall from May 27-29 working with charity partner Walking with the Wounded.

Over 2,500 cyclists and more than 8,500 visitors are expected so there will be a number of individual cycling events and activities on offer aimed at all ages and levels of ability. There will also be a rare opportunity to camp in the grounds of the Hall.

Festival-goers will have the opportunity to ride 20, 50 or 100 mile signposted safe and supported routes along north Norfolk’s scenic country and coastal roads with feed

stations along the way. There will also be a closed road race.

For children there will be an ultra-safe seven-mile car free cycle route, cycle academy, grass track training and a mountain bike course through the woods.

Activities include Holkham's Field to Fork exhibition, an interactive and educational experience for children and their parents, live music, a children's woodland adventure play area, Holkham beach, games and rides, talks in the Adnam's beer tent as well as competitions and food.

www.pedalnorfolk.co.uk

NORDIC FLUXA four-day music festival celebrating the best in Nordic creativity and influence will take place across Hull city centre between April 28 and May 1.

Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter John Grant, pictured, will curate the brand new, experimental music festival – North Atlantic Flux: Sounds From Smoky Bay – celebrating Hull’s Nordic and international links, while exploring the best in sonic creativity as part of Hull UK City of Culture 2017.

A host of Nordic and international artists will feature over May Day bank holiday weekend, including Icelandic electronic dance collective GusGus, Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, DJ and producer Lindstrøm and Wrangler, a project that brings together Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire fame, Phil Winter from Tunng and John Foxx collaborator Benge.

www.hull2017.co.uk

Pat

rick

Mat

eer

Har

ewoo

d H

ouse

Tru

st

Airport 0844 481 6666 www.aberdeenairport.com

Eastern Airways flights to Bergen, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick

Tourist/Local Info 01224 269180 www.visitabdn.com

ABERDEEN

WHERESeven miles north-west of the city centre, off the A96. Regular buses into the city centre. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT The Winter Gardens, Duthie Park, Polmuir Rd; Gordon Highlanders Museum, Viewfield Rd.

STAY AT The Chester Hotel, Queen’s Rd; Atholl Hotel, King’s Gate; The Village Hotel, Kingswells; Banchory Lodge Hotel; Skene House Apartments, various city locations; Bauhaus Hotel, Langstane Place.

SHOP AT Aberdeen Whisky Shop, Union St; Annie Mo’s, Union St (interiors); Granite Reef, the Green (skate, surf, snow).

DRINK AT Brewdog, Gallowgate; Eclectic Fizz, Union St; CASC, Stirling St; Under the Hammer, North Silver St.

EAT AT Granite Park, Golden Sq; Foodstory Cafe, Thistle St; Yorokobi by CJ, Huntly St; Rishi’s, George St; Aperitivo, Bon Accord St; Sand Dollar Cafe & Bistro, Beach Esplanade.

WHAT’S ON Look Again visual art and design festival, Aberdeen, Apr 27-May 1; Taste of Grampian food festival, Inverurie, Jun 3; Aberdeen Highland Games, Jun 18.

Taste of Grampian

WHEREOne mile from the centre of Wick, half an hour’s drive from Thurso. Main bus and rail stations are near to Wick centre serving most places in Caithness. Trains to Thurso and Inverness. Post bus operates Thurso-Wick-Airport. Car hire: Dunnets offers airport pick-up and drop-off, 01955 602103.

VISIT Wick Heritage Museum; St Fergus Gallery, Sinclair Terr; Pulteney Distillery, Huddart St.

STAY AT Ackergill Tower, Wick; Mackays Hotel, Wick; The Brown Trout Hotel, Station Rd, Watten, near Wick.

SHOP AT John O’Groats (pottery, knitwear); Rotterdam St, Thurso (20 miles).

DRINK AT Cocktail Bar, Mackay’s Hotel, Wick; the Alexander Bain Wetherspoons, Wick.

EAT AT Bord de l’Eau, Market St, Wick; Le Bistro, Thurso; Captain’s Galley, Scrabster (22 miles).

WHAT’S ON Katy Dove memorial exhibition, Thurso Art Gallery & St Fergus Gallery, until Apr 15; Annual Fiddle Rally, The Royal British Legion Thurso, Jun 10.

Airport 01955 602215 www.hial.co.uk/wick-airport.html

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen. Onward connections to Bergen, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, Stavanger, Stornoway

Tourist/Local Info 0845 22 55 121 www.wicktown.co.uk

WICK JOHN O’GROATS

Katy Dove memorial exhibition

Airport 01851 702256 www.hial.co.uk/stornoway-airport

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen. Onward connections to Bergen, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, Stavanger, Wick

Tourist/Local Info 01851 703088 www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk

STORNOWAY

WHERETo the east of the town. Taxis and car hire are available at the airport. Car hire: Isle of Harris Car Hire – see above.

VISIT Lews Castle and grounds; Stornoway Fish Smokers, Shell St; An Lanntair Arts Centre, Kenneth Street, Stornoway.

STAY AT Hotel Hebrides, Tarbert; Royal Hotel, Cromwell St, Stornoway; Scarista House, west Harris.

SHOP AT Callanish Jewellery, Point St; Borgh Pottery, Borgh (20 miles); Buth Bheag, Tarbert (36 miles).

DRINK AT Chili Chili cocktail and vodka bar, Era, South Beach; The Carlton Lounge, Francis St. (Both in Stornoway)

EAT AT Digby Chick, Bank St; Golden Ocean, Cromwell St; Thai, Church St; Stornoway Balti House, South Beach. (All in Stornoway). North Harbour Bistro, Scalpay.

WHAT’S ON Stornoway Half Marathon 2017, May 27, start Lews Castle College, May 27; Grinneas nan Eilean: The Islands Open Exhibition, An Lanntair, Jun 17-Jul 29.

BAR

E ES

SEN

TIA

LS: D

EST

INAT

ION

SSponsored by

Isle of Harris Car Hire

isleofharris-carhire.com

34

Airport 0844 481 5555 www.glasgowairport.com

Eastern Airways flights direct to Isle of Man

Tourist/Local Info 0141 204 4400 www.peoplemakeglasgow.com

GLASGOW

WHERE About eight miles from the centre of Glasgow. Regular shuttle service to centre Nearest rail station Paisley Gilmour St, one mile. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT The Burrell Collection, Pollock Country Park; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Argyle St; the Mackintosh House at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University Avenue.

STAY AT Radisson Blu, Argyle St; Grasshoppers Penthouse Hotel, Union St; Saint Judes, Bath St.

SHOP AT Starry Starry Night (retro), Downside Lane; Relics antiques, Dowanside Lane; I J Mellis (cheeses), Great Western Rd.

DRINK AT The Bier Halle, Gordon St; Òran Mór, Byres Road; Rio Café, Hyndland St.

EAT AT Balbir’s (Indian), Church St; Ubiquitous Chip, Brel (Belgian), Tchai-Ovna (tea house), all Ashton Lane.

WHAT’S ON Poppies, Gallery of Modern Art, to Jun 11; Clyde Life – exhibition of historic photographs, Riverside Museum, to Dec; The Art of Comics – Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Apr to Sep.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

Airport 0871 882 1121 www.newcastleinternational.co.uk

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen, Belfast, Cardiff, Isle of Man. Onward connections to Bergen, Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick

Tourist/Local Info 0191 277 8000 / 0191 478 4222 www.visitnewcastlegateshead.com

NEWCASTLE

WHERESeven miles north-west of the city centre. Metro rail link every few minutes to the city, Gateshead, the coast and Sunderland. Half-hourly bus service. Taxi fare to city, approx £12. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT Great North Museum, Centre for Life, Newcastle; Gateshead Quays for the Baltic and Sage Gateshead.

STAY AT Sandman Signature, Hotel Indigo, Jesmond Dene House, all Newcastle; Hilton, Gateshead.

SHOP AT Jules B, Jesmond; Cruise, Princess Square, Newcastle; Van Mildert, MetroCentre and Durham.

DRINK AT Crown Posada, Side; The Forth, Pink Lane; Bridge Hotel, Castle Garth – all Newcastle.

EAT AT House of Tides, Quayside; Blackfriars; Caffè Vivo (Live Theatre); Red Mezze, Leazes Park Rd; Peace and Loaf, Jesmond – all Newcastle.

WHAT’S ON North East LEGO® Landmarks at Life Science Centre, Newcastle, until May 14; BBC Radio3 Free Thinking Festival 2017, Sage Gateshead, Mar 17-19.

North East LEGO® Landmarks

Airport 01325 332811 www.durhamteesvalleyairport.com

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen. Onward connections to Bergen, Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick

Tourist/Local Info01642 729700 / 264957 www.discoverteesvalley.co.ukwww.teesvalley-ca.gov.uk

DURHAM TEES VALLEY

Raby Hunt

Airport 0844 887 7747 www.humbersideairport.com

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen. Onward connections to Bergen, Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick

Tourist/Local Info 01482 486600 www.visithullandeastyorkshire.com www.visitlincolnshire.comwww.yorkshire.com

HUMBERSIDE

WHEREFifteen miles east of Scun-thorpe, 20 miles south of Hull, 16 miles west of Grimsby, 30 miles north of Lincoln. Regular bus services to major towns. Barnetby Station three miles from airport with Intercity con-nections via Don caster. Approx taxi fare to Hull £26. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT Museums Quarter, Hull; The Deep, Hull; Lincoln Castle and Cathedral; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.

STAY AT Forest Pines Hotel, Broughton; Cave Castle Hotel, Brough; Willerby Manor, Willerby; The White Hart, Lincoln.

SHOP AT Bailgate and Steep Hill area, Lincoln; Henri Beene, Abbeygate, Grimsby.

DRINK AT The Wig & Mitre, Steep Hill, Lincoln; Ye Olde Black Boy, High St, Hull.

EAT AT Figs Restaurant, Cleethorpes; Brackenborough Hotel & Restaurant, Louth; Wintering-ham Field, Winteringham; Pipe and Glass, South Dalton.

WHAT’S ON Francis Bacon: Nervous System, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, until May 1; Beverley Races, April 19 & 27.

Francis Bacon: Nervous System* England v South Africa

WHERENine miles north-west of Leeds centre, seven miles from Bradford. Regular Airlink 757 bus from bus and rail stations to terminal. Taxi time 25 mins. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT Royal Armouries, Leeds; Leeds City Museum, Millennium Square; National Media Museum, Bradford; Salts Mill, Saltaire.

STAY AT DoubleTree by Hilton, Leeds; Radisson Blu, The Headrow, Leeds; the New Ellington, Leeds; Dubrovnik boutique hotel, Oak Avenue, Bradford.

SHOP AT Retro Boutique, Headingley Lane, Leeds; Harvey Nichols, Briggate, Leeds; Victoria Quarter, Leeds.

DRINK AT Baby Jupiter, York Place, Leeds; Haigys, Lumb Lane, Bradford.

EAT AT Chandelier by Mumtaz, Clarence Dock, Leeds; Brasserie Blanc, Sovereign St, Leeds.

WHAT’S ON Women, Work & War, Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills, until Sep 24; Live at Leeds music festival, various venues, Apr 29 weekend; Leeds Indie Food Festival, May 11-28; International cricket - England v South Africa, Headingley, May 24.

Airport 0871 288 2288 www.leedsbradfordairport.co.uk

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen and Southampton. Onward connections to Bergen, Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick

Tourist/Local Info 0113 242 5242 www.visitleeds.co.ukwww.yorkshire.com

LEEDS BRADFORDB

AR

E E

SS

EN

TIA

LS:

DE

STI

NAT

ION

S

WHEREFive miles east of Darlington and ten miles west of Middlesbrough. Taxi fare to Darlington approx £8. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) Centre Square; Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon; Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience, Historic Quay.

STAY AT Rockliffe Hall, Hurworth on Tees; Headlam Hall, near Darlington; Crathorne Hall Hotel, Yarm; Wynyard Hall.

SHOP AT Psyche, Linthorpe Rd, Middles brough; The House, Yarm High Street; Leggs, Skinnergate, Darlington.

DRINK AT George and Dragon, Yarm; Black Bull, Frosterley.

EAT AT Raby Hunt, Summerhouse; Sardis, Northgate, Darlington; Dun Cow Inn, Sedgefield; The Orangery, Rockliffe Hall.

WHAT’S ON Teesside Festival, Middlesbrough, Apr 21-24; Stockton Duathlon. Apr 23; Distinctly Delicious Food Festival, Darlington, May 13-14.

* Fr

anci

s B

acon

's H

ead

VI,

1949

, Art

s C

ounc

il C

olle

ctio

n, S

outh

bank

Cen

tre,

Lon

don

© T

he E

stat

e of

Fra

ncis

Bac

on. A

ll R

ight

s R

eser

ved.

36

Airport 028 9093 9093www.belfastcityairport.com

Eastern Airways flights to Isle of Man and Newcastle

Tourist/Local Info028 9024 6609www.visitbelfast.com

BELFAST

Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

Airport 01624 821600www.gov.im/categories/travel-traffic-and-motoring/isle-of-man-airport

Eastern Airways flights to Belfast and Newcastle

Tourist/Local Infowww.visitisleofman.com

ISLE OF MAN

WHEREOne mile from Castletown, nine miles south west of Douglas. Regular buses to Port Erin and Port St Mary, via Castletown, and to Douglas via Ballasalla. Taxi information in terminal. Europcar info from www.europcar.co.uk

VISIT Peel Castle; Manx Museum, Douglas; Laxey Wheel, Laxey; Cregneash museum of Manx history and culture, overlooking Calf of Man.

STAY AT Mount Murray Hotel and Country Club; Hilton, Douglas; Sefton, Douglas.

SHOP AT George Devereau and Son for all your kippery needs; Tower House shopping centre, Douglas.

DRINK AT The Bay, Port Erin; Liverpool Arms, Baldrine; Creek Inn, Dalby.

EAT AT L’Experience, Douglas; North Restaurant, by harbour, Douglas; Jean-Pierre’s Bistro, Ramsey.

WHAT’S ON Valhalla – Life and Death in Viking Britain, House of Manannan, Peel, to April 21; Isle of Man TT, May 22-Jun 9.

Laxey Wheel

WHERESix miles south east of Holyhead and 20 miles north west of Bangor. There are no car hire facilities on airport but this can be arranged with Europcar.

VISIT Caernafon Castle; Beaumaris Castle; Anglesey Sea Zoo, Brynsiencyn; Oriel Ynys Môn – local cultural history, with art galleries dedicated to Charles Tunnicliffe and Kyffin Williams.

STAY AT Treaddur Bay Hotel, beside the sea, near airport; Bull Hotel, Llangefni.

SHOP AT Crafty T’Arts, Cemaes Bay; The Little Chilli Shop, Beaumaris; James Pringle Weavers, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.

DRINK AT Britannia Inn and Paddlers Return, both Holyhead; Ship Inn, Pentraeth.

EAT AT Tavern on the Bay, Red Wharf Bay; Oyster Catcher, Rhosneigr; The White Eagle, Rhoscolyn.

WHAT’S ON Vintage car rally, Anglesey Showground, May 20-21; Beaumaris 30th anniversary festival, May 23-29.

Airport 01407 878056www.anglesey.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/public-transport/anglesey-airport/

Eastern Airways flights to Cardiff

Tourist/Local Infowww.visitanglesey.co.ukwww.discoveranglesey.com

ANGLESEYB

AR

E E

SS

EN

TIA

LS:

DE

STI

NAT

ION

S

WHERECity Airport is three miles east of Belfast City Centre. Shuttle bus to Sydenham Station. Taxis to city centre, approx. £10. Europcar info from www.europcar.co.uk

VISIT Titanic Experience, Belfast; Belfast Zoo; Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

STAY AT Europa Hotel, Great Victoria St; Bullitt boutique hotel, Church Lane; Malmaison, Victoria St.

SHOP AT Co Couture, Chichester St; No Alibis bookstore; Victoria Square shopping centre.

DRINK AT Crown Bar liquor saloon, Victoria St; Duke of York, Commercial Court; Kitchen Bar, Victoria Square.

EAT AT Mourne Seafood Bar, Bank St; Barking Dog, Malone Road; Coco, Linenhall St.

WHAT’S ON Crafted: Fine Art of Furniture, Ulster Museum, to June 4; 2017 Ice Hockey World Championship, SSE Arena, Apr 23-29.

Airport 01446 711111 www.cardiff-airport.com

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen, Anglesey, Newcastle. Onward connections to Bergen, Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick

Tourist/Local Info 02920 873573 www.visitcardiff.com www.southernwales.com

CARDIFF

WHERETwelve miles west of Cardiff, ten miles from Junction 33 on M4. Rail link, every hour, connects airport to Cardiff Central and Bridg end. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT Cardiff Castle; Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay; Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay; Dr Who Experience, Cardiff Bay.

STAY AT Peterstone Court, in the Usk Valley; St David’s Hotel & Spa, Havannah St, Cardiff Bay.

SHOP AT St Mary Street for specialist shops; Splott Market (weekends), SE of city centre.

DRINK AT Pen and Wig, Park Grove; Park Vaults, Park Place.

EAT AT The Potted Pig, High St; ffresh, Wales Millennium Centre; Purple Poppadom, Cowbridge Rd East.

WHAT’S ON Cardiff Dragon Boat Festival, Atlantic Wharf, May 14; Vale of Glamorgan Festival – classical music festival dedicated to the music of living composers, May 19-26; BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2017, St David’s Hall, June 11-18.

Cardiff Castle

Beaumaris Castle

Uls

ter

Mus

eum

imag

e co

pyrig

ht N

orth

ern

Irela

nd T

ouris

t Boa

rd. B

eaum

aris

Cas

tle im

age

© C

row

n co

pyrig

ht (V

isit

Wal

es).

Airport 0870 040 0009 www.southamptonairport.com

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen, Leeds Bradford, Rodez.

Tourist/Local Info 023 8083 3333 www.discoversouthampton.co.uk

SOUTHAMPTON

WHEREFive miles north of city. Parkway Station beside terminal, three trains hourly to Southam pton and London Waterloo. Buses hourly to the city. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT SeaCity Museum, Havelock Rd; Tudor House & Garden, Bugle St; Solent Sky, Hall of Aviation, Gilbert Rd South.

STAY AT The White Star Tavern and Dining Rooms, Oxford St; Grand Harbour Hotel, West Quay Rd; Best Western Chilworth Manor.

SHOP AT WestQuay Shopping Centre, city centre; Antiques Quarter, Old Northam Rd; The Marlands Shopping Centre, Civic Centre Rd.

DRINK AT The Cellar, West Marland Rd; The Duke of Wellington, Bugle St; The Pig in the Wall, Western Esplanade.

EAT AT Olive Tree, Oxford St; SeaCity Museum café, Havelock Road; Coriander Lounge, Below Bar.

WHAT’S ON Port Out, Southampton Home: The Age of the Ocean Liner, SeaCity Museum, until Jun 4; Southampton Sailing Week, May 24-29; Common People festival, Southampton Common, May 27-28.

The Bargate

B

AR

E E

SS

EN

TIA

LS: D

ES

TIN

ATIO

NS

Airport +33 (0)5 65 75 76 77www.aeroport-rodez.fr

Eastern Airways flights to Paris Orly. Seasonal services to Southampton from June 2 and Milan, July 7. Onward connections to Leeds Bradford.

Tourist/Local Info+33 (0)5 65 75 76 77www.tourisme.grande-rodez.comwww.tourisme-aveyron.com

RODEZ

WHERESix miles north-west of Rodez. Taxis to the centre of town cost about €25. For car hire see Europcar.com

VISIT Musée Soulages gallery; Musée Fenaille (archaeology and history); Rodez Cathedral.

STAY AT Mercure Cathédrale, on Avenue Victor Hugo; La Ferme de Bourran (four star city centre); Aux Berges de l’Aveyron at Onet-le-Château.

SHOP AT Open-air markets at Place du Bourg, Wed morning, or in Place du Sacré Coeur, Fri and Sat afternoons; speciality shops in lanes behind Cathedral; Chocolaterie Agnès et Pierre, place de la Cité; Maison du Livre, Passage des Maçons.

DRINK AT Le Divan, rue Bétaille; Le Café de la Paix, place Jean Jaurès; Au Bureau, esplanade des Rutènes.

EAT AT Les Jardins de l’Acropolis, rue d’Athènes; restaurant Isabelle Auguy, place Carrière.

WHAT’S ON Architectural Treasures of the Spa Towns of the Massif Central, all year at Parc Thermal, Cransac; Grand Falconer’s Medieval Festival, Cordes-sur-Ciel, July 14-15.

Rodez Cathedral

NORWAY

STAVANGERNorway’s fourth largest city lies on the country’s south-west coast. The airport is just nine miles out of town.

VISIT Pulpit Rock – a natural rock formation that overlooks the Lysefjord.

STAY AT The Clarion, Myrhegaarden, Skagen Brygge, all in the city centre; Sola Strand Hotel, on the beach, near the airport.

WHAT’S ON Sola Airshow 2017, Stavanger Airport Sola celebrates 80 years, Jun 10-11.

BERGENBergen airport Flesland is approximately 12 miles south-west of the centre of Bergen.

VISIT Troldhaugen, the home of composer Edvard Grieg. Norway in a Nutshell – a short tour (ideally three days) of some the dramatic scenery nearby, including the Breathtaking Flam Railway.

STAY AT Radisson Blu Royal or the mid-market Thon Bergen Brygge, both on the old quayside.

WHAT’S ON Bergen city marathon, Apr 29.

Sola Strand Hotel

Stavanger Airport + 47 67 03 10 00 www.avinor.no/en/airport/stavanger

Bergen Airport + 47 67 03 15 55 www.avinor.no/en/airport/bergen

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen, Newcastle. Onward connections to Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Norwich, Southampton, Stornoway, Wick

Airport 01603 411923 www.norwichairport.co.uk

Eastern Airways flights to Aberdeen. Onward connections to Bergen, Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick

Tourist/Local Info 01603 213999 www.visitnorwich.co.uk

NORWICH

Norwich Castle

WHEREThree miles north of the city. Hourly bus service into the city centre. Approx taxi fare to Norwich £7. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk

VISIT Norwich Cathedral, The Close; Norwich Castle, Elm Hill; Sandringham Estate, Norfolk; Norwich Puppet Theatre, Whitefriars, Norwich.

STAY AT The Maids Head Hotel, Tombland; De Vere Dunston Hall Hotel & Golf Club, Ipswich Rd; Marriott Sprowston Manor Hotel & Country Club; Barnham Broom Hotel & Spa, Honingham Rd; Norfolk Mead Hotel, Coltishall.

SHOP AT Jarrold’s, London St; Ginger Ladies Wear, Timberhill.

DRINK AT The Fat Cat, West End St; The Adam & Eve, Bishopgate; The Wine Press, Woburn Court, Guildhall Hill; The Last Wine Bar, St Georges St.

EAT AT Tatlers, Tombland; Mambo Jambo, Lower Goat Lane; Umberto’s Trattoria Italia, St Benedicts St.

WHAT’S ON Norfolk and Norwich Festival, May 12-28; Norwich City of Ale 2017, May 25-Jun 5; Norwich Gaming Festival, The Forum, May 29-Jun 3.

CH

- v

isitn

orw

ay.c

om

EX

PLO

RAT

ION

EX

PR

ES

S

38

B

AR

E E

SS

EN

TIA

LS:

DE

STI

NAT

ION

S CORPORATE ROUTES

www.bustahouse.com

SHETLANDEastern Airways operates under contract for the oil industry to both Scatsta and Sumburgh Airports. Scatsta is 24 miles north-west of Lerwick, a few miles from the Sullom Voe oil terminal. Sumburgh is the islands’ commercial airport, located at the southern tip of Mainland, and also 24 miles from Lerwick. For hire car visit www.boltscarhire.co.uk or call 01595 693 636 (note that there are no on-airport facilities at Scatsta).

VISIT Mareel, Lerwick; Muckle Flugga, Unst, the northernmost tip of Britain; Shetland Museum, Lerwick; Jarlshof, Grutness (both Mainland).

STAY AT Busta House Hotel, Brae; Saxa Vord Resort, Unst; Scalloway Hotel, Central mainland.

SHOP AT Shetland Fudge, Lerwick; Jamieson & Son Knitwear, Lerwick; Valhalla Brewery, Saxa Vord.

DRINK AT Mid Brae Inn, Brae; The Lounge Bar, Lerwick; Kiln Bar, Scalloway.

EAT AT Busta House Hotel, Brae; Saxa Vord Resort, Unst.

WHAT’S ON Toby Paterson exhibition, Bonhoga Gallery, until Apr 23; Shetland Folk Festival, Apr 27-30; Bergen to Sheltand race, Jun 22-24; Unstfest, Jul 8-16.

Sumburgh Airport 01950 460 905www.hial.co.uk/sumburgh-airport/

Frequent daily charter services to Aberdeen, operated by Eastern Airways for the oil industry.

Tourist/Local Info 01595 693434 www.shetland.org

Sponsored by

M Shed

BRISTOLEight miles south-west of Bristol. Coach service approx half-hourly to city centre, journey time 30 mins. £7 single. Also local services to Weston-super-Mare. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk.

VISIT M Shed, Harbourside; Arnolfini, Narrow Quay; SS Great Britain, Great Western Dock yard.

STAY AT Aztec Hotel & Spa, Aztec West, Almondsbury; No 38 Clifton, Georgian merchant’s house in Clifton.

SHOP AT Clifton Village and Park St; St Nicholas Markets and Broadmead; Mall Galleries at Cribbs Causeway; Cabot Circus.

DRINK AT Zero Degrees award-winning micro-brewery, Colston St; The Elbow Room Pool and Lounge Bar, Park St.

EAT AT Pieminister, Stokes Croft; Michael Caines, College Green; Lido Bristol, Clifton.

WHAT’S ON Warrior Treasures: Saxon Gold from the Staffordshire Hoard, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery until April 23; Adela Breton: Ancient Mexico in Colour, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, until May 17.

Airport 0871 334 4444  www.bristolairport.co.uk 

Eastern Airways charter flights to Chester and Toulouse

Tourist/Local Info 0333 321 0101  www.visitbristol.co.uk

CHESTER Four miles south-west of Chester. For car hire see Europcar.co.uk.

VISIT Chester Zoo; roman amphitheatre; Grosvenor Museum; Chester Races –starts May 4; Chester Cathedral.

STAY AT ABode, Grosvenor Rd; Chester Grosvenor, Eastgate St; Carden Park, Broxton Rd.

SHOP AT The Rows; Grosvenor Centre.

DRINK AT The Botanist, Werburgh St; Dublin Packet, Northgate St; The Brewery Tap, Lower Bridge St; Number 15, Foregate St.

EAT AT Simon Radley at the Chester Grosvenor, Eastgate St; Chez Jules, Northgate St; Chef’s Table, Music Hall Passage.

WHAT’S ON Chester Food and Drink Festival, Apr 15-17, Chester Racecourse; Chester Races: Roman Day 2017, racing plus family friendly, Roman-themed events, May 27; Bolesworth CSI**** International 2017, world-class equestrian sport, Bolesworth Castle, Jun 15-18.

Eastgate River Garonne, Toulouse

TOULOUSE Five miles west of the city. Shuttle bus every 20 minutes, €5. Taxi from €25. For car hire see Europcar.com

VISIT Place du Capitole and Quai de la Daurade; St Étienne’s Cathedral; Space City.

STAY AT Grand Hôtel de l’Opéra; Côté Carmes; Le Père Léon.

SHOP AT Marché Victor Hugo; rue des Arts; rue Croix Baragnon.

DRINK AT Le Ramier; Le 7 Discoteca; Péniche Le Cri de la Mouette.

EAT AT L’Amphitryon, Colomiers; La Maison du Cassoulet.

WHAT’S ON Windows onto Courtyards, how artists have portrayed inner courtyards from 16th to 20th centuries, Augustins Museum – Toulouse Museum of Fine-Arts, until Apr 17; Astronauts, the Exhibition, Space City, to December 2018.

Airport +33 825 38 00 00 www.toulouse.aeroport.fr/en

Eastern Airways charter flights to Bristol and Chester

Tourist info 33 892 18 01 80 www.toulouse-tourisme.com

Airport 01244 538568www.aviationparkgroup.co.uk

Eastern Airways charter flights to Bristol and Toulouse

Tourist/Local Info 0845 647 7868; www.visitchester.com

Chr

is B

ahn

38

EX

PLO

RAT

ION

EX

PR

ES

S

39

ES

SE

NTI

AL

GU

IDE LANDS OF LEGENDS

ESSENTIAL GUIDELocations associated with the legendary King Arthur

The Quiraing, Isle of Skye

Sky

e im

age:

© V

isitS

cotla

nd /

Ken

ny L

am, a

ll rig

hts

rese

rved

Guy Ritchie’s new film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword comes to UK cinemas in March 2017. It stars Charlie Hunnam as Arthur, alongside Jude Law, Eric Bana, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey as Guinevere, and David Beckham – yes David Beckham – as leader of the Blacklegs. 

Filmed on location in Scotland and Wales (Conwy and Snowdonia) and in Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, it provides another opportunity to remind ourselves of the Arthurian legend and some of the places associated with the heroic king…

SCOTLANDNot only does the extraordinary landscape of the Quiraing, on the Isle of Skye, serve as a location in the new film, but also Scotland boasts many connections to the Arthurian legend.

Legend has it that a grave in the churchyard at Meigle, north of Perth, houses the remains of Arthur’s flighty wife, Guinevere. Apparently she changed her name to Vanora, meaning wanderer, and wound up at Meigle. However, local people didn’t take to her morals and slew her. A plaque, entitled Vanora’s Mound, marks the spot, while a Pictish stone found at Meigle is said to depict an alternative view: that Arthur had his wife killed by wild animals for being unfaithful while held captive by the otherwise unknown Pictish king, Mordred.

The King’s Knot, a geometrical earthwork in the former royal

40

gardens at Stirling Castle, had already been associated with the Legend of King Arthur for more than 600 years, when archaeologists struck legendary gold in summer 2011.

The team from Glasgow University and local archaeological groups found a “circular feature” beneath the 17th century mound, casting new light on a tradition that the Round Table itself had been located.

The 14th century Scots poet John Barbour said the round table was south of Stirling Castle, and 100 years later, William of Worcester told how “King Arthur kept the Round Table at Stirling Castle”. Others claim the iconic Arthur’s Seat, in Edinburgh, is the real location.

Various castles in and around Glasgow have been cited as seats of the man himself, including Dumbarton (known as Al Cluith or Castrum Arthuri). Welsh sources have St Mungo as Arthur’s chief bishop at his Dumbarton headquarters. Arthur’s enemies were heathen Scots to the west, Picts to the north, and Angles to the east and he is reputed to have fought many battles across lowland Scotland, small wonder then that members of the Campbell clan maintain belief in their descent from such a warrior.Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Aberdeen and Glasgow

A few years ago, archaeologist Damian Bullen published his claim that Arthur’s grave is at the Yarrow Stone, near Selkirk, and not at Glastonbury as tradition holds.

Mr Bullen believes monks at Glastonbury spread the rumour King Arthur was buried in Somerset to save their abbey from financial ruin, whereas a Latin inscription on the Yarrow Stone, discovered near the Borders town 400 years ago, suggests this is the legendary king’s last place of rest.

Furthermore, he suggests, a nearby pond could hold the king’s infamous weapon, Excalibur.

Other claims have Arthur buried in the Eildon Hills, near Melrose, and Merlin at Drumelzier, near the hamlet of Merlindale, on the River Tweed.Nearest Eastern Airways airports – Newcastle

NORTH OF ENGLANDIn Cumbria lies the rumoured site of King Arthur’s Round Table, a Neolithic earthwork henge, dating from about 2000 BC, but much later believed to be King Arthur’s jousting arena.

Legend has it that Carlisle was King Arthur’s Camelot, with Arthur and his adviser Merlin most likely making use of the Roman fortifications, most particularly at Birdoswald, east of the city. A more likely Arthurian connection here is Arthur’s final Battle of Camlann, which is said to have been fought nearby.

Alnwick Castle (more recently famous as Harry Potter’s Hogwarts), is cited in medieval writings as the castle of Lancelot, King Arthur’s Knight, while Pendragon Castle, in Cumbria’s Eden Valley, is said to have been the seat of Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon.Nearest Eastern Airways airports – Newcastle and Durham Tees Valley

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Vanora’s Mound in Meigle Parish Churchyard, Perthshire; Carlisle Castle; King Arthur’s Round Table, Winchester; Glastonbury Tor, Somerset; King Arthur’s Labyrinth, near Machynlleth; Arthur's Stone, Cefn Bryn; King Arthur’s Round Table, Cumbria.

© V

isitS

cotla

nd /

Pau

l Tom

kins

, all

right

s re

serv

ed

SOUTH OF ENGLANDAlthough it actually dates from somewhat later, it’s well worth visiting the Great Hall at Winchester to see the marvellous “Round Table”, adorning a wall in the splendid 13th century aisled building.

Windsor Great Park will play its part in the film. No stranger to a film crew, the Park has formed a backdrop for films ranging from Harry Potter and Snow White and the Huntsman, to World War Z. The 4,800 acres of parkland are shrouded in myths and legends, and said to be visited by the ghost of Herne the Hunter on a phantom stallion.Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Southampton

Of course it is in the South West where the strongest links with the Arthurian legend can be found. Cornwall boasts the iconic clifftop ruin of Tintagel Castle, which claims to be where Arthur was conceived.

The town of Glastonbury is home to the ruins of a 2,000-year-old Abbey, said to be the final resting place of King Arthur in the mystical Isle of Avalon, and where Lancelot brought Guinevere’s body after she was said to have died at nearby Amesbury Abbey (if she didn’t die in Scotland, that is!).Nearest Eastern Airways airports – Bristol and Southampton

WALESWales lays claim to many haunts associated with the legend of King Arthur, his mighty Excalibur and the fabled magician, Merlin.

The first known reference to him was in a Welsh poem written in about AD 594, and Arthur’s tale is deeply engrained in Welsh folklore and recalled in many place names. Indeed, almost every region of Wales has its own set of myths, connect-ing Arthur and his court to the land.

Maen Huail, in the North Wales town of

Ruthin, is said to have been the chopping block Arthur used to slay a love-rival, Huail. Carn March Arthur, near Aberdovey, in mid-Wales, bears what is alleged to be the hoof-print of Arthur’s horse Llamrai, imprinted during a hectic monster-slaying session. Legend also has it that Arthur killed off Snowdon’s resident giant, Rhita, and his men supposedly covered the corpse in stones at the summit of the country’s peak.

Two Welsh lakes, Llyn Llydaw and Llyn Ogwen, claim to be the watery resting place of Arthur’s sword, Excalibur in English and Caledfwlch in Welsh. Both are in the Snowdonia National Park, and while Llydaw is inaccessible, Llyn Ogwen is popular with walkers heading up dramatic Tryfan.

At the Corris Craft Village, near Machynlleth, King Arthur’s Labyrinth is a specially created visitor attraction, which takes you by boat, through a “magical waterfall” and deep into old mineworkings beneath the

mountains of Snowdonia. There are no records of genuine Arthurian connections here – but then what’s new about that!

You could, however, head for the Preseli Hills, in Pembrokeshire, and pay homage to the warrior at Bedd Arthur, a set of standing stones said to mark Arthur’s final resting place. Now where have we heard that before?

Just north of the ridge summit of Cefn Bryn, near Reynoldston on the Gower Peninsula, there is a Neolithic burial ground, Maen Ceti – Arthur's Stone in English. Legend has it that Arthur threw a stone from Llanelli, which landed on this spot…

Beautiful Bardsey Island – off the Llyn Peninsula, is believed by some to be the Isle of Avalon from Arthurian legend; apparently Arthur sleeps in a cave there, waiting to rise up and save Wales in its direst hour of need. Nearest Eastern Airways airports – Cardiff and Anglesey

© V

isitB

ritai

n /

Brit

ain

on V

iew

© Crown copyright (2011) Visit Wales, all rights reserved

© V

isitB

ritai

n /

Brit

ain

on V

iew

Nearly two decades ago I travelled up to the Cairngorms to watch a game of shinty. It was December and so cold even the air had goose bumps. Shinty is a swashbuckling sport, the Errol Flynn version of hockey. It is the sport of the Scottish Highlands, played between clubs with evocative names – Glenurquhart, Caberfeidh, Lochaber – at poetically monikered venues, like Parc na Laoch or Eilean Bheannchair, with spectacular views of snow-capped mountains and glimmering lochs.

For some reason that I have never quite fathomed I had played the sport at my primary school outside Middlesbrough, a place with altogether less romantic scenery, unless you go all misty-eyed at the sight of a chemical plant. Giving 22 kids from Teesside sticks and encouraging them to swing them through the air was a bold decision from our teacher, the sturdy Miss Thompson, but it paid off – we loved the game, and I believe that if you ever get a chance to watch a match you will love it too.

Twenty years ago, shinty was still played in the winter – in 2003 it was moved to the summer months to howls of outrage from traditionalists, who saw it as a clear indication that everyone had gone soft.

I stayed the night in Kingussie. Kingussie is the home of the self-styled Kings of Shinty. The Kings were in the middle of a four-year unbeaten run and well on their way to the eighth of 20 consecutive league titles (a world record for any sport). I had chosen not to watch them and their star forward Ronald Ross, whose 1,000-goal career had earned him the nickname, the Ronaldo of the Glens (after the original goofy Brazilian, Ronaldo, not the current preening Portuguese version) and instead travelled a few miles by bus to Newtonmore.

I had made this decision partly because Newtonmore were playing the splendidly named Ballachulish, but mainly because the president of the club, Sir Thomas Macpherson had once escaped from a Nazi PoW camp

on a motorcycle, thus unwittingly becoming the inspiration for Steve McQueen’s character in The Great Escape and one of my childhood idols.

The game was terrific. The ball was blasted about and the curved wooden sticks cleaved the heavy atmosphere like claymores.

“Do a lot of people get injured playing this?” I said to the bundle of clothes standing next to me.

“Not at all, not at all,” the man inside them replied in a Highland accent that wasn’t so much lilting as capering o’er hill and dale.

“For yourself now, it would be dangerous, naturally. But these lads have played since they left the cradle. They can anticipate the flight of the ball and the movement of the sticks as surely as…” At which point our conversation was interrupted by the dull thunk of wood on skull, and cries of “Doctor, Doctor!” from the pitch.

After the wounded player had been sent off to hospital in Inverness, the gash above his eye flapping like a second mouth, I said to the man: “So that doesn’t happen very often, then?”

“Oh no,” he replied cheerily. “Very rarely. Hardly ever more than once or twice a game.”

Just as when the dentist tells you that “this won’t hurt a bit” you know to brace yourself, so it is with sport. The more violent and dangerous it is, the more people talk up its safety. The opposite holds true. Football, for instance, is constantly marred by horrific and shameful brawls, brutal fracas and mass fights from which, mysteriously, everyone emerges without a nick or a scratch to their moisturised skin.

Shinty is tough and skilful. The season now runs from March till the end of September. Get along to a game. You won’t be disappointed.

THE LAST WORD with Harry Pearson

42

A HARD HITTING HIGHLAND GAME

“ THE BALL WAS BLASTED ABOUT AND THE CURVED WOODEN STICKS CLEAVED THE HEAVY ATMOSPHERE LIKE CLAYMORES…”

AN EASTERN AIRWAYS MAGAZINE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH VISITABERDEENSHIRE

43Fly easternairways.com

BEYOND WORDS BUT NOT BEYOND REACH

True Majesty. True North. True Scotland

ABERDEENAN EASTERN AIRWAYS MAGAZINE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH VISITABERDEENSHIRE

& A B E R D E E N S H I R E

ABDN VisitAberdeenshire

44

Eastern Airways Magazine is delighted to work in partnership with VisitAberdeenshire to bring you this special supplement.Inside we offer a taste of some of the great reasons to visit the city of Aberdeen and the countryside of Aberdeenshire – from the region’s rich ancient and more recent history, to its distinctive culture and customs, and the magnificent vistas of its mountains, moorlands and coastline.

With more than 300 castles, 55 golf courses, eight distilleries and five ski resorts, there’s just so much to see and do!

Eastern Airways offers more flights daily

to Aberdeen International Airport than any other airline, thanks to its comprehensive network of links to UK cities with interests in the offshore and energy sectors.

In addition to the airline’s scheduled service network, it offers frequent flights from Stavanger and Bergen, and further afield from destinations throughout Norway, thanks to a codeshare partnership with leading Norwegian airline Widerøe. Eastern Airways also provides high frequency dedicated oil industry support services from Scatsta and Sumburgh, in Shetland.

This supplement also highlights some of the great events and festivals planned for the region this year, as well as its exciting food and drink menu. We hope you enjoy reading this supplement and that it encourages you to enjoy more – and longer – visits to Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire!

For more information on Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire visit www.visitabdn.com

THE EASTERN AIRWAYS TEAM

This publication is produced as a supplement to Eastern Airways Magazine. Eastern Airways is Europe’s leading provider of fixed-wing air services for the oil and gas industry and, thanks to its strategic connections from Aberdeen and Stavanger, an important player in the offshore energy sector.

Copies of this supplement have been produced as a stand-alone publication, distributed by VisitAberdeenshire, the destination management organisation for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

www.easternairways.comwww.visitabdn.com

Published for Eastern Airways by Gravity Magazines, Abbey Business Centre, Pity Me, Durham, DH1 5JZ. www.gravity-consulting.com Tel: +44 (0)191 383 2838.

Publisher: Stan Abbott Design: Barbara Allen

Advertising: Liz Reekie Tel: +44 (0) 7563 796103 / +44 (0) 1434 240947 e-mail: advertising@gravitymagazines.com

Print: Buxton Press

ISSN: 1477-3031 © March 2017 ABDN VisitAberdeenshire

Cover: Buchan Ness lighthouse on the Aberdeenshire coast

Marischal College, Aberdeen

AB

DN

VisitAbe

rdee

nshire

WE

LCO

ME

44

NE

WS

45

AB

DN

VisitAbe

rdee

nshire

BRAEMAR CASTLE

Open from 10am–5pm April to end of October – Wednesday to Sunday 7 days, July and AugustQuote EA for 10% discount

Braemar AB35 5XR www.braemarcastle.co.uk

Seat of Clan Farquharson • Experience Highland history with stories of Jacobites, soldiers and ghosts • Audio English/French/German or Guided Tours of 12 furnished rooms

Fairytale 17th century Castle in the heart of Cairngorms National Park

Celebrating 10 years of community operation, a warm welcome is guaranteed

An ancient tradition honoured for centuries, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire’s internationally famous Highland Games are important dates in the region’s events calendar.

Attending one of the many Highland Games during your stay will give you a feel for the rich Scottish culture, with Highland dancing, the caber toss, tug-o-war, and many other long standing traditional sports celebrated.

There are plenty of Highland Games taking place this summer. Highlights include:

• Aberdeen Highland Games – June 18

• Lonach Highland Gathering and Games – August 26

• The Braemar Gathering – September 2

A tiny community in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park has saved a historic landmark for future generations. Ten years ago, the 17th century Braemar Castle was taken over by the community to operate as a visitor attraction. The Castle now employs six staff and, last year, attracted 12,000 visitors.

Local volunteers have already raised £0.5 million to repair the roof and – with the roof now watertight – the community is embarking on another ambitious round of fundraising to repair the exterior of the castle and develop the grounds.

The volunteers also guide visitors round the castle, as well as looking after the courtyard garden and running a series of events throughout the year. The community will celebrate a decade of running the castle with the Braemar

Highland Fling, in the grounds of the Castle on Saturday July 23.

Braemar Community Ltd took over Braemar Castle from Invercauld estate in 2007 on a “repairing 50-year lease”, which means the community is responsible for ensuring all the extensive repairs required for the Grade A listed building. The 400-strong community, of whom more than ten per cent are volunteers at the castle, now needs to raise another £1 million to bring the castle up to the standard needed for a 21st century visitor attraction.

The success of the castle has been the spur for a raft of other projects in the village, including the conversion of a disused church into an Arts Hub, plans for a Highland Games Centre, and new Mountain and Creative Arts Festivals.

NEWS UPDATE

VISIT THE HIGHLAND GAMES FOR A TRUE TASTE OF SCOTLAND

VOLUNTEERS HELP SAVE HISTORIC BRAEMAR CASTLE

Her Majesty the Queen at the Braemar

Gathering

For information on all Highland Games visit visitabdn.com/what-to-do/festivals-and-events/highland-games

AB

OU

T TH

E A

RE

A

46

Aberdeenshire stretches from “one of the last great places on Earth” to “one of the world’s top-rated coastlines” (National Geographic). Aberdeen, Scotland’s third largest city – where impressive ships dock right up against the city centre streets and dolphins leap in the working North Sea harbour – is “one of the most architecturally distinctive in Europe” (The Scotsman).

The area is set between the mountains of Royal Deeside and the 165 miles of Aberdeenshire’s golden coastline. You can roam for miles across great estates, expanses of moorland, ancient Caledonian forests, rolling farmland, vast dunes, wide sandy beaches and expansive coastlines. It’s an destination admired by even some of the biggest thrill-seekers, with Munros to bag, championship golf courses to tee off from, waves to surf, slopes to ski and mountains to cycle.

History is writ large too. Ancient sites

and symbols mark Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire as a heartland of the ancient Picts. In the millennia that followed, no fewer than 300 castles were planted in Aberdeenshire, making it treasured by history buffs, those searching for striking scenery and –understandably – countless famous film-makers and writers. Aberdeenshire has long been loved by monarchs too – the Royal Family’s summer residence, Balmoral Castle, is in majestic Royal Deeside.

A long-standing deep-seated culture still exists in the warp and weft of the region. You can still hear words from an original Scots language – Doric – and feel its distinctive culture alive in its rich traditions of fiddle-playing, bothy ballads and Highland games.

Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are places with big skies and wide horizons, loved for their fresh clear air and quality of light. In summer, days are near endless and

sunsets linger long. In winter, nights are deep, long and starry – and on occasion spectacularly lit by the Northern Lights. Here, mainland Scotland sees its first light of each new day. Trillions of tiny crystals glint in the city’s famous granite walls. And 99 stone circles exude their own romance as moonlight gives way to dawn. No matter the time of year, you are sure to be awe-inspired by the true majesty of this area.

The region is used to being off the tourist track, known rather as a seat of learning and for its natural resources – its granite, its oil, its fish, its beef, and its whisky. Now, its authentic Scottish feel is making it one of the most appealing destinations to visit this year.

The best news is that discovering all of this for yourself has never been easier thanks to direct flights from 50 destinations worldwide. Aberdeen is less than an hour’s flight from Newcastle; just over an hour’s flight from Norwich, Bergen and Stavanger, a two-hour flight from Cardiff; and if you’re planning a Scotland-round trip it’s only a two-and-a-half hour drive from Edinburgh or Glasgow. Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are well within your reach.

And when you arrive, you won’t have to worry about where to stay – five-star hotels, exclusive-use castles, glamping, or cosy B & Bs – the choice is yours.

True Majesty. True North. True Scotland.

AB

DN

VisitAbe

rdee

nshire

Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire

CA

STL

ES

, FE

STI

VALS

AN

D E

VE

NTS

47

More than 300 castles in ancient and spectacular surroundings

Deep in an ancient pine forest, beside a fast-flowing river, on a high snowbound mountain pass, among rich rolling farmland, and perched on cliffs’ edges. These are some of the spectacular settings for Aberdeenshire’s 300 castles: there are more here per acre than anywhere else in the British Isles. Most you can see, many you can visit – and some you can even stay in.

This corner of Scotland has been a place of strategic importance throughout centuries of turbulent history – invasions and war, rebellion, uprising, independence and occupation. The evidence still exists and is waiting to be explored, in the remains of Iron Age hillforts, in ancient clifftop ruins, medieval fortresses, Scottish

baronial castles, Jacobean mansions, and fortifications added in the 18th century.

In the centuries since, many of Aberdeen-shire’s castles have become famous in their own right. Of course Aberdeenshire’s most well-known castle is Balmoral – the summer residence of the Royal Family since the 19th century, famously described by Queen Victoria as “my dear paradise in the Highlands”.

Dunnottar Castle, perched on the edge of a clifftop, was at one time so mysterious that it hid the Scottish crown jewels. Today, it’s an awe-inspiring ruin, looking over the roaring North Sea, making it one of Aber-deenshire’s most treasured viewpoints.

In more recent years some of our other extraordinary castles have inspired famous storytellers across the world, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Walt Disney and Franco Zeffirelli.

More than 12 major festivals. Highland Games. West End theatre productions. Outdoor concerts. Famous comedians and artists. Championship golf events. Locally produced food and drink markets. These are just some examples of the entertainment on offer in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

It’s true to say that the events have their own distinctive twist – they’re proudly rooted in the people and their distinctive Doric culture, and are uniquely

celebrated in style, whether that’s traditional, contemporary or of world-wide significance.

Events and festivals are held in their own unique setting; along the dramatic coast, among the farmland and glens, or bang in the centre of the cosmopolitan city. Some are held in the open air, using the special quality of light in both summer and winter to dramatic effect. Others take place inside atmospheric venues including the Salmon Bothy, Wooden Barn or the Blue Lamp.

The city is well known for hosting events in its two “national treasures” – the opulent His Majesty’s Theatre, once described by Billy Connolly as “like playing a gig inside a wedding cake”, and the two centuries old A-listed Aberdeen Music Hall, all dressed and showing off the finest polished granite.

This is a part of the world where communi-ties still come together to continue ancient traditions or spark new ones. Join in with an event while you’re here, and then you’ll really start to understand this special place!

Events and festivals are deeply rooted in the people and in the culture

AB

DN

VisitAbe

rdee

nshire

Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire

Aberdeen Highland Games

Get into the ‘spirit’ of Scotland’s ancient art of whisky production at some of the world’s best-known distilleries.Nature provides the wherewithal for Aberdeenshire’s “water of life”. Whether it’s the toasted barley from the fertile farmlands, the ice-clear mountain water from burns and springs, the smoky peats and heather honey from heath and moorland, or simply the sparkling fresh air – the whisky distilleries are busy bottling the essence of this beautiful place.

Aberdeenshire is near to Moray, the birthplace of global whisky brands, including Glenfiddich, the Glenlivet, Chivas Regal and McCallan; these brands have been lovingly created here for years. Even though the methods of distilling are almost identical, each whisky has its own unique flavour, smell, strength and texture.

For those looking for something off the tourist track “The Secret Malts

of Aberdeenshire” is produced by a cluster of distilleries dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Here visitors can get right up close to traditional skills in rural settings among picturesque villages, wooded hills and rolling fields. Distilleries include Ardmore, Fettercairn, GlenDronach or Knockdhu. On the coast you will also find Glenglassaugh (its fans say you can taste the sea) and if you venture into the Cairngorm National Park you will come across Royal Lochnagar.

Many of these distilleries will let you pay an informal visit; some ask you to make an appointment. Others offer regular guided tours and tutored tastings. Whenever you visit you won’t leave disappointed – guided tours and tutored tastings at Aberdeenshire’s world-famous distilleries are a real way to experience this part of Scotland.

Full-flavoured, hearty and comforting world-famous food and drinkIt’s no coincidence that Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are the producers of so many world-class favourites – this region is acclaimed for its home-grown produce. It’s known for the quality and scale of its arable land and rich pastures, which are home to a wealth of venison and game. For seafood, Peterhead is Europe’s largest white fish seaport and Fraserburgh is the biggest for shellfish – and there are fishing harbours and markets all round these 165 miles of coast. The region’s two rivers are well stocked too, with some of the best salmon and trout, and the clean,

clear springs and moorland peat in this area help to produce the perfect dram of whisky.

The full-flavoured, hearty and comforting original Cullen Skink packs a powerful punch, and the Aberdeen Angus beef is much-prized. Dean’s rich traditional shortbread is made in Aberdeenshire and the area is also home to craft beer revolutionaries, BrewDog. The flagship bar is also here and you can even get a tour of BrewDog’s distillery, in Ellon.

For visitors there’s every chance to taste

the place. A traditional fisherman’s rowie or buttery – the local breakfast roll – flat, flaky and rich. A succulent steak. The freshest sea food, from fine dining at the harbour mouth to fish and chips on a prom.

Contemporary and creative menus, and local produce can all be found here in quirky or coastal city cafés, fine-dining restaurants and country houses – not to mention that Aberdeenshire’s “water of life” (whisky) can be sampled at many stylish city bars as well as coastal and traditional pubs.

FOO

D A

ND

DR

INK

48

AB

DN

VisitAbe

rdee

nshire

GO

LF A

ND

OU

TDO

OR

AD

VE

NTU

RE

49

AB

DN

VisitAbe

rdee

nshire

Scotland is famous as the birthplace of golf and for its spectacular golf courses – and two of the top ten oldest courses in the world can be found in Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire.

Great dunes stretch along Aberdeenshire’s coast – some of them said to tower 100 feet high. In this extraordinary sandscape are some of the world’s most challenging links courses, designed by top names in golf architecture, such as Old Tom Morris, James Braid and Dr Martin Hawtree. The skies are vast, the light clear and the fresh air and the panoramic views, and the

elemental power of the courses can take a golfer’s breath away.

Designed to perfection by renowned architects, the three championship golf courses are some of the most scenic, and best known, in the world. Many of Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire’s famous golf courses have been created to host top international competitions. In 2014, Royal Aberdeen was host to the Scottish Open.

Inland, in the city and vast countryside, are dozens of parkland courses in splendid settings suitable for golfers of all

abilities. The UK’s highest golf course is at Braemar, in the upper reaches of Royal Deeside, where Aberdeenshire meets the Cairngorms National Park. Nearby there’s a nine-hole course in the grounds of the Queen’s summer retreat at Balmoral – it’s usually reserved for the royals and staff, but is now open to fortunate corporate bookers during the months when days are longest.

Indeed, summer days this far north are almost endless: fortunate for golfers, who find they can play to their hearts’ content from early morning through to late evening.

Panoramic views and the elemental power of Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire’s golf courses will take your breath away

For more information about the city of Aberdeen and surrounding area of Aberdeenshire go to www.visitabdn.com

If Royals get to be themselves in Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire, imagine how you will feel when you’re out in the crisp fresh air, with views for miles across great estates and heathery moors… Exploring ancient forests. Bagging Munros (a mountain over 3,000 feet high). Hopping onto a ski lift. Or striding out along the wide expansive sands.

There are legends to be scaled – Lochnagar, or Bennachie, that holds such sway in Aberdonians’ hearts – and endless countryside just waiting to be discovered by walkers and cyclists. Be

stirred by the Deeside Way, take on hilly forests, or sandy dunes – no matter which you choose, you won’t miss remarkable mountainous and coastal views.

Royal Deeside, where Aberdeenshire meets the Cairngorms National Park, is a popular spot for winter sports enthusiasts, with two ski resorts, Glenshee and Lecht 2090. And not far from the city centre lies Aberdeen’s dry-ski slope.

With “one of the world’s outstanding coastlines” as well as a city-centre beach, it’s no surprise that water sports are a favourite with local people and visitors

alike. Watch the surfers, divers and sailors take on the waves, or enjoy seeing rowers glide up the central river. Of course there is the option for novices to try some of these sports too.

People are getting out and active all year round in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. This part of Scotland is colder, drier, and fresher, and winter days bring their own reward. First, a bracing dive into raw and elemental nature. Then the warming pleasures of a dram by a roaring fire – or one of BrewDog’s craft beers in a chic city pub.

Venture out in the crisp, clear fresh air with views for miles

Cruden Bay Golf Club, Aberdeenshire

– Up to 4 daily departures*†

– Same day return journeys*

– Complimentary on board drinks & snacks

– Express check-in service

– Fast track security channel*

– Executive airport lounges*

easternairways.comwhy fl y any other way?

* At selected airports † Except Saturdays

E A S T E R N A I R W AY S A S U P E R I O R M O D E L

FD8813_EA_Inflight Ad_March 2015.indd 1 09/03/2015 13:14

GO

LF A

ND

OU

TDO

OR

AD

VE

NTU

RE

– Up to 4 daily departures*†

– Same day return journeys*

– Complimentary on board drinks & snacks

– Express check-in service

– Fast track security channel*

– Executive airport lounges*

easternairways.comwhy fl y any other way?

* At selected airports † Except Saturdays

E A S T E R N A I R W AY S A S U P E R I O R M O D E L

FD8813_EA_Inflight Ad_March 2015.indd 1 09/03/2015 13:14

STAUFF CONNECT

STAINLESS STEEL COMPRESSION

CLAMPS

TEST COMPONENTS

HOSE

HOSE PROTECTION

HOSE CONNECTORS

ADAPTORS

STAINLESS STEEL ADAPTORS

SUPERLOK®

TUBE

HYDRAULIC ACCESSORIES

FILTRATION

SAE FLANGES & SOCKET WELD

VALVES

QUICK RELEASE COUPLINGS

ULTRA HIGH PRESSURE RANGE

PYPLOK®

ALSO AVAILABLE IN STAINLESS STEEL

Our products are predominantly utilised for the delivery of fluid power and renowned worldwide for quality and longevity of service. Through decades of investment to research and development, many products in the STAUFF range are now specified for other none hydraulic applications too.

The product portfolio is unrivalled by any other manufacturer and this combined with the dedication to Service makes the company a “one-stop-shop” when considering your next design, development or service of a hydraulic system.

DIN 2353 Compression Fittings

UK-EPA-OTH-IS-010317-V1

www.stauff.co.ukwww.stauffwebshop.co.uk

Aberdeen Tel: 01224 786166 sales@stauffscotland.co.uk

Ireland Tel: 02892 606900 sales@stauffireland.com

Sheffield Tel: 0114 251 8518 sales@stauff.co.uk

Southampton Tel: 023 8069 8700 sales@stauffsouthampton.co.uk

STAUFF is a leading manufacturer of hydraulic pipework, assembled hose, components and accessories. The corporation spans the globe in over 23 countries, servicing a multitude of industries.