Saturday afternoon in Pitlochry

The cafeteria at the Killiecrankie Visitor Centre was closed so we decided to head a few miles up the road to Blair Castle for coffee. The gates were open but there was a sign saying the castle was closed at this time of year. Naturally we assumed that this meant we could have access to the grounds only, but we were to discover that the restaurant and shop were both open as well, which was very convenient for us.

Tea/coffee and a nibble - I had mincemeat crumble - and very nice it was too. This was what the castle looked like when we arrived:

By the time we'd had our coffee, they were hustling us out of the building and the coaches had gone:

We discovered that they had only opened the castle gates and the restaurant and shop for the coach parties, and that we had just crept in under the radar. By the time we left, the main castle gates were closed again and we had to leave by the tradesmens' exit.

We just had time for Jo to pose on the bridge of the burn:

We didn't have time to do the walk up to Hercules Gardens:

We timed our departure nicely - just in time to drive down to Linn of Tummel to watch the idiots scheduled to bungee jump at 1:30 pm. We'd never seen this crazy act live before so it was interesting to watch. The set-up is very professional and there's been a substantial investment made in the platforms and walkways etc:

I hadn't charged my camera battery and I was starting to get warning messages, but I managed to get this distant shot of the first bungee jumper:

As we left Linn of Tummel, we spotted a sign with some lyrics from a well-known tune on it:

Time now for a beer or two, so we headed off to one of our favourite places - the Moulin Inn, where we managed to see the second half of the Italy - Scotland match. Then it was back to our hotel for an hour or so before heading out again, down the hill to the Auld Smiddy for a quick beer then to the Prince of India for a curry. We left it a bit late and had to scamper along to the theatre again to get in seconds before Neil Oliver took the stage:

On Sunday, we had planned to have a little walk around Dunkeld, but it was very wet so we parked the car quickly and had a quick look at the Dunkeld Ell, the National Trust property in the town square:

So that was our weekend over. We drove home via Perth and stopped at the Glendoick Garden Centre for coffee and a scone and were still home well before 2 pm - in plenty of time for Lucy's weekly FaceTime call later in the afternoon.