We awoke to a lovely sunrise over the river opposite our accommodation this morning and had a terrific brekky, including Stornaway black pudding and square sausage (Lorne)! Our host was full of great recommendations about possible places to visit during the day exploring, including Dunnottar Castle at Stonehaven and a seal colony at Newburgh as two great sites. Mid-breakfast though, she came in and suggested that she wouldn't charge us for the second night but there was a severe storm Eowyn approaching from the west that had just been categorised as red warning (the highest they have in the UK) where risk of death is real...through the area we were due to drive through on 24th and that she thought it might be a better idea to head south today instead.

So, we made the decision on her recommendation for a location, to travel to Kendal, only 75 miles or so outside of Manchester during the day (about 350miles away), after first visiting Dunnottar Castle but giving a miss to the north of Aberdeen areas. A real shame but necessary.

On the drive to Stonehaven, it became apparent that with the grit residue and wet roads that spray from other vehicles means it is essential to have a working windscreen wiper washer system. Ours was not. So, a check at the BP revealed that the cap on the washer bottle was missing. So, $10 for roaming later, I spoke to Alamo on the phone. They said that we could take the car to any Alamo and they would either swap cars or fix the issue for us. We were on the walk from Stonehaven harbour (gorgeous...see photos) to Dunnottar castle, also epic, at the time. Given it was only 20 minutes from Aberdeen airport, we decided to return there after the castle visit to sort the car.

Stonehaven and Dunnottar were beautiful. Coastal scenery, gull calling, gentle breeze with castle in the background was brilliant. The site of the castle had been used for a long time, back at least to the Picts in the 5th century, but more famously was a period of time in the 1500-1600s where some considerable unrest existed in the area. William Wallace in the 1200s also allegedly sheltered there too! Of particular note was that the Royal Jewels of Scotland were taken there in the 1600s, but due to the possibility of raiders thieving them, the Earl of Marischal's wife secreted them away, hid them under the boards at her house, then returned them in secret to the castle before they were eventually taken to Edinburgh Castle where they have been ever since.

Another infamous incident surrounded 200 presbyterians who refused to acknowledge the King of Scotland as head of the church who were arrested for holding a public service. They were walked on foot from Edinburgh to the castle, with only 167 of them surviving the winter walk. They were then placed in the Whig at Dunnottar, a arch shaped sloping floor room at the edge of the castle grounds but ironically not far from the dining hall for the castle. They were left there for 6 weeks with no sanitation and were only able to obtain small amounts of food from guards. 25 men escaped during that time, of whom 2 fell to their death. 15 were returned to the castle and were tortured terribly. At the end of the 6 weeks, they were loaded onto ships and transported to the West Indies (New England), but 70 died en route. All because one Christian religion couldn't agree over the total sovereignty of Christ or a living appointed human???

Anyway, after a great stroll and explore, we headed back to the airport via the famous Carron fish shop (famous for being the first place of the deep fried mars bar). Haddock is yummy. We had our car upgraded to an MG SUV...good outcome...and onto the road for the drive to Kendal.

Freeways are not for the faint hearted. Plenty of lovely Scottish scenery en route until dark at about 4:45pm, but we eventually made it to our accommodation in time to find a decent place for a feed. Of note was that at about 5:25pm, both our phones started with a very loud (and startling) beeping alarm to say that a red alert for damaging and life threatening wind was in place for Friday. We stayed south of the red zone (Kendal) in an amber zone and will be hoping to get the last 75 miles into Manchester so we can make it to Foden's band at 7:30pm Friday. The news is full of this unprecedented storm warning! A little unsettled but nonetheless, bed was welcome tonight!