Cycle Route EuroVelo: Atlantic Coast Route - Part Scotland - Ireland - Wales

Elgin is the county town of Moray in north-east Scotland, best known for its ruined cathedral which made it a "city". Together with nearby Lossiemouth it's the service town for two nearby RAF bases.

The "Elgin Marbles" have only the most tenuous connection with this place. It was the 7th Earl of Elgin who in the early 19th century removed (or looted or legally purchased or rescued from destruction, take your pick) many friezes and sculptures from the Acropolis in Athens - they're now in the British Museum. But the family residences were in Fife and elsewhere, and none of the Earls of Elgin lived here.

See

• ⊙Elgin Cathedral. Apr - Sep: Daily, 9.30am to 5.30pm; Oct - Mar: Daily 10am to 4pm. Ruins of a cathedral dating from 1224. £5.50. (updated Nov 2016)
• ⊙Elgin Museum, 1 High Street, IV30 1EQ, ☎ +44 1343 543675. Apr - Oct: Mon - Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat 11am - 4pm. Contains local history, archaeology, fossils and watercolours. donation.  
• ⊙Spynie Palace (2 miles north of Elgin). Apr - Sep: Daily 9:30 - 17:30. Bishop's palace from the late 12th century. (updated Nov 2016)

Do

• ⊙The Glen Moray Distillery, Bruceland Road (West of town, Soth of the A96), ☎ +44 1343 550900. Tours Mon - Fri 9:30 , 11:00 , 12:30 , 14:00 and 15:30 Sat (May-Sep) 10:30 , 12:00 , 13:30 and 15:00. Whisky distillery just west of town. £5 (Inc, Tour and Tasting).  

Brodie Castle is a well-preserved Z plan castle located about 3 ¹⁄₂ miles (5.5 kilometres) west of Forres , in Moray, Scotland. The castle is a Category A listed building and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.

The Brodie family

The original Z-plan castle was built in 1567 by Clan Brodie but was destroyed by fire in 1645 by Lewis Gordon of Clan Gordon, the 3rd Marquis of Huntly. In 1824, architect William Burn was commissioned to convert it into a large mansion house in the Scots Baronial style, but these additions were never completed and were later remodelled by James Wylson (c. 1845).

The Brodie family called the castle home until the early 21st century. It is widely accepted that the Brodies have been associated with the land on which the castle is built since around 1160, when it is believed that King Malcolm IV gave the land to the family.

Ninian Brodie of Brodie (The Brodie of Brodie), the castle's last resident member of the family, died in 2003. The former family wing is being^{[when? ]} prepared for holiday letting.

The castle today

Architecturally, the castle has a very well-preserved 16th-century central keep with two 5-storey towers on opposing corners. The interior of the castle is also well preserved, containing fine antique furniture, oriental artifacts and painted ceilings, largely dating from the 17th–19th centuries.

Today the castle and surrounding policies, including a national daffodil collection, are owned by the National Trust for Scotland and are open to the public to visit throughout the year. The castle may be hired for weddings and indoor or outdoor events. An ancient Pictish monument known as Rodney's Stone can be seen in the castle grounds.

Castle
Guided tours only
2 Jan–29 Feb 2020, Thurs–Sun, 10.00–16.00
1 Mar–19 Mar, daily, 10.00–17.00
20 Mar–31 Dec, closed.

Playful Garden
1 Aug–15 Sep, Wed–Sun, 10.00–17.00
16 Sep–25 Oct, Wed–Sun, 10.00–16.00
26 Oct–31 Dec, Sat & Sun, 10.00–16.00

Garden and grounds
6 Jul–31 Dec, open daily

Detailed walking, hiking, climbing and cycling information, tours and transport reservations. An Accommodation booking service throughout Scotland is also provided. Booking Citylink Bus Tickets, Calmac Ferry Tickets, booking a cruise on Loch Ness and funicular railway tickets for the Cairngorm Mountain.

27 Mar 2017 - 28 May 2017:
Monday to Saturday 09:00 - 17:00, Sunday 10:00 - 17:00

29 May 2017 - 25 Jun 2017:
Monday to Saturday 09:00 - 18:00, Sunday 09:30 - 17:00

26 Jun 2017 - 3 Sep 2017:
Monday to Saturday 09:00 - 18:30, Sunday 09:30 - 18:00

4 Sep 2017 - 17 Sep 2017:
Monday to Saturday 09:00 - 18:00, Sunday 10:00 - 17:00

18 Sep 2017 - 31 Mar 2018:
Monday to Saturday 09:00 - 17:00, Sunday 10:00 - 16:00

The Highland Folk Museum is an open-air museum in Kingussie , Scotland. The museum, said to be Britain’s first mainland open-air museum, was opened in 1944. It was founded by Dr. Isabel F. Grant on a small site in Kingussie to house her collection of Highland life artefacts. Over the following years the museum was developed to include replica buildings such as the Lewis Blackhouse.

In the early 1980s, the museum, by then owned by the Highland Council, acquired a much larger site in Newtonmore . On the new site the open-air living history site was created. The new site was divided into four distinct areas: a 1930s themed working farm, a collection of re-located historical buildings, the Pinewoods and a reproduction of an early 1700s Highland township.

In 2013 the remainder of the collection in Kingussie was moved to the new site, which by then had developed to include a conservation laboratory, research areas, library, meeting rooms and offices.

The Museum now houses a variety of reconstructed buildings raging from an 18th-century highland township, traditional 1930s croft, tin school originally from Knockbain, corrugated church from Culloden, and various trades buildings such as joiners, tailors and clockmakers. Buildings are added on an annual basis to ensure that the traditional highland culture and heritage is preserved.

April – August 10.30 – 17.30
September – October 11.00 – 16.30

Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland. It is the ancestral home of the Clan Murray, and was historically the seat of their chief, the Duke of Atholl, though the current (12th) Duke, Bruce Murray, lives in South Africa. The castle stands in Glen Garry, and commands a strategic position on the main route (now the A9 road) through the central Scottish Highlands.

The castle is a category A listed building,^[1] and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.

Blair Castle is said to have been started in 1269 by John I Comyn, Lord of Badenoch.

The castle and gardens

The oldest part of the castle is the six-storey Cummings or Comyn's Tower, which may retain some 13th-century fabric, though it was largely built in the 15th century. The extensions which now form the central part of the castle were first added in the 16th century. The apartments to the south were added in the mid-18th century to designs by architects John Douglas and James Winter. The south-east range, incorporating the clock tower, was rebuilt by Archibald Elliot after a fire in 1814. Finally, the castle arrived at its present form in the 1870s, when David Bryce remodelled the whole building in a Scots Baronial style, and added the ballroom. It was further remodelled in 1885 when a new ballroom wing was added by James Campbell Walker.

The castle has been open to the public since 1936. Its many rooms feature important collections of weapons, hunting trophies, souvenirs of the Murray clan, ethnographica, paintings, furniture, and needlework collected by the Murray family over many generations.

The castle also provides the garrison for the Atholl Highlanders , the private army of the Duke of Atholl, noted as the only legal private army in Europe.

Blair Castle is open every day from Saturday 1^st April until Tuesday 31st October (excluding Saturday 28th October).

Our daily opening hours are 9.30am – 5.30pm with last admission at 4.30pm.