Thanks to the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Group, my husband Niall and I spent a lovely couple of nights at Ballathie House in the beautiful Perthshire countryside.  We won this great trip at The Game Fair.

We live in Lincolnshire, so we took the early morning train from Peterborough up to Edinburgh, which is a lovely quick, easy and very scenic route.  It is also so easy to pick up the hire car from the car park next to the Station.

The drive up to Ballathie is a treat whichever way you go, either over the Forth via the stunning new bridge, or the longer way round past Bannockburn and up the A9.  The weather could not have been better, and we arrived at the Hotel in spring sunshine, so we took a walk along the River Tay, which borders the grounds.

And this wonderful view we were also treated to from our room.

That evening we had a superb meal in the restaurant, which prides itself on the use of local game and fish, which was a real treat. 

Niall has an aversion to banana; one of the desserts contained a banana sauce and Niall pointed out to our waitress that this sounded stunning if it were not for the banana. She confessed she also disliked this fruit – the next night it was presented to him with the banana replaced by rhubarb – much to our amusement, and a very acceptable replacement.

After a great night’s sleep, and a very hearty breakfast, we headed off to Pitlochry, then on to the incredible ‘Queens View’; we continued on down Loch Tummel and then Loch Rannoch, finally reaching the remote and beautiful Rannoch Station for lunch.  When we arrived the cloud was low, providing added atmosphere to the sparse moor.  We decided to start along the 20 mile hike to Glen Coe, deciding to go to where the main track is replaced by a more vague path across the moor.  At the start some obliging deer posed for the ‘Monarch of the Glen’ shot.

The walk passes up through the forest, before emerging up onto the Moor after about 5 miles, to reveal the perfect combination of hill, lochs and moorland – the classic Scottish view.

On the drive back a beautiful black grouse just sat watching us from the side of the road.

Having built up a hearty appetite we headed back to Ballathie House for another great meal.

We are definitely planning our next visit; next time we hope to fit in some fishing on the Tay, and to do some more walking. Thank you to the Scottish County Sports Tourism Group and Ballathie House Hotel for a much needed short break, and for introducing us to the stunning part of Scotland.