Mainly rainy weather for our final day in Ballater, but we managed a couple of walks – the first this morning down a path we had noticed leading off Golf Road and signposted to Old Line Road. As it turned out, this led on to the golf course, and we failed to find the continuation of it, eventually emerging through someone’s garden on to the riverside path. Further research from that end revealed another unknown path leading back on to the golf course but not including so much of it. And avoiding people’s gardens.

Following this discovery we returned to the main road, called at a holiday cottage for two and were shown round it (not bad), then found Larks Gallery open at last and bought two small items. We continued to the chemist, where I left Dot and returned home feeling very hot (too many clothes on). She meanwhile called in at the Deeside Inn, recently reopened under new management, and was quietly impressed. Maybe next time…

We drove down the South Deeside road to my favourite riverside spot with a view down the river to Morven. The river was quite high again, and it started raining, so we went back to the cottage for lunch, then drove to the Crathie-Gairnshiel road, where we took advantage of a small break in the clouds to walk a half mile or so down the hill track. We had intended to reach some ruins in the valley, but the sky was very ominous, so we turned back. But we probably could have made it – just.

After a bit of reading we returned home by the back road and are now in the process of packing – a slightly difficult process because Dot has two P4C events to take in before reaching home, and so she needs smart clothes to be available. We are also stopping tomorrow night at Killington Lake.  Before that however we have booked a final meal at the Glen Lui, scheduled for 7pm.