Eclectic Links
Links related to Recent News Stories
- Some of Scotland's webcams
- Loganair will provide services between Shetland and Bergen
- Salmon season opens on the Dee.
- Mountain biking in Scotland
Tourism
If you care about the weather, you only need to know that in Scotland you can get all the seasons in one day. There are so many sources of weather reports. Try:
Important news re cabin baggage restrictions. But check with your airline!
For a quick and easy exchange rate calculator go to www.xe.com
To find distances by road in the UK, go to www.theaa.com. It's really simple, fast and effective.
Slovakia
Scotland
- Hogmanay 2007/2008 has been and gone but believe it or not, it's not too early to be thinking about 2008/2009. Hotels such as the Dalmunzie Hotel (see below) are booked in January so get your name on their waiting list.
- Travel Scotland
- Scottish Tourist Board
- The main government sponsored tourist site for Scotland is VisitScotland. It has recently been relaunched (April 2008). The opening page is clean and most importantly loads quickly. It offers a contact number and two chapters - Visiting Scotland and Book your Holiday. Entering Visiting Scotland brings up information on different parts of Scotland and places to go, things to do, a fact file and "Inspire me!". Book your Holiday takes you into accommodation, tickets, vouchers, insurance. The site is well worth a visit. VisitScotland.com.
- Fishing in Scotland. There many sites offering information on fishing in Scotland. For the Dee, go to FishDee. One of the best laid out is FishScotland. From there you can go to FishSalmon. From there you can choose a river. For good, if personal, information try the Salmon Fishing Blog Spot
- Thistle Award Winner, Rabbie's Trail Burners offer luxury coach travel with no more than 16 passengers. Tel: 0131 226 3133
- For events in and around Aberdeen, go to the Aberdeen City events website.
- A lot of Scotland's castles are "fortified houses" but you need to see:
- And talking of castles why not take a tour of Scotland's battlefields?
- Whisky, the Spirit of Scotland. Two useful sites:
- The Scotch Whisky site. Excellent and very informative. This has a useful list of distilleries - it's worth visiting one or two.
- The International Wine and Spirit Competition. Tells you which brands are rated the best, but if you find one you like then ignore the results from the judges.
Airlines and airports related to Kosice and NE Scotland
Festivals
The best international festival in the world, the Edinburgh International Festival, www.eif.co.uk
- The Tattoo, www.edintattoo.co.uk
- The Fringe, www.edfringe.com
- Jazz and Blues, www.edinburghjazzfestival.co.uk
- Book Festival, www.edbookfest.co.uk
- Film Festival, www.edfilmfest.org.uk
- Mela, www.edinburgh-mela.co.uk
- Spirituality, www.festivalofspirituality.org.uk
- Politics, www.festivalofpolitics.co.uk
- Art, www.edinburghartfestival.org
- Up Helly Aa, the last tuesday in January has been and gone but if you want to go next year then you need to start planning now.
Kezmarok, the best International Craft Festival in Slovakia
Accommodation
- Hotels and Penzions in Košice
- Flats to rent in Košice
- Culloden House Hotel, near Inverness. Our reviewers had a perfect three-day Hogmanay Special break between December 30th 2007 and January 2nd 2008. Well led by Stephen and by Pat, the service, hospitality and food were hard to fault. A very good selection of whiskies too, including many of the less well known editions. The fillet steak on Hogmanay was the best our reviewer had ever tasted. Two Scottish Country Dance bands on the 30th and the 31st. (one grumble - the dance floor was small but it didn't hold the dancers back.) A private tour of the Culloden battlefield and an entertaining lecture by a Jacobite soldier put the 1745 uprising into perspective. It's dog friendly too.
- Dalmunzie: An Australian Hotel in Scotland See the article about it on the Tourism page.
- Not really the North East, central. The Killiecrankie Hotel. Good food, good selection of malt whisky. Not perhaps the warmest feeling but nothing to complain about.
- Over on the West. The Poolewe Hotel, Poolewe, near Gairloch. Very good food, dinner and breakfast terrific. Efficient (but not in fixing lightbulbs) but definitely lacking in a warm feeling. Good for dogs with a bit of shore-front right outside the door. Residents' lounge lacks comfort.
- For a touch of 5-star luxury in the North East, visit the Marcliffe Hotel just on the outskirts of Aberdeen.
- Just an hour or so from Edinburgh is Gleneagles. Certainly one of the best hotels in the UK, if not Europe and possibly in the world. If you have to ask how much, don't go. That being said, there are always special offers and if you golf (3 courses!) then with golf included it's a fair price. It's luxurious, they look after you and it's worth it.
- In Stonehaven, there's a small hotel on the harbour which is enjoying a rising reputation. The Ship Inn has 6 bedrooms, two of which have Four Poster beds.
- The Craigellachie Hotel houses the world famous Quaich Bar which boasts a selection of about 700 whiskies. Some are very rare and therefore very expensive. Tel 01340 881204
- If you want to fish, there are hundreds of hotels. A current offer (January 08) which looks good value is at the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry. £149 for two nights DB&B and fishing.
- Haven't got a personal report but it won a 2007 Scottish Thistle Award. Millness Croft Luxury Cottages, Inverness. Tel: 01456 476 761
Restaurants
- Silver Darling, the best fish restaurant in Aberdeen
- The Old Mill Inn on the South Deeside Road is excellent. Good service, friendly atmosphere, good food. Try the Cullen Skink. (A traditional Scottish fish soup.)
- The Lairhillock Inn is an old coach stop on the Portlethen - Durris road. It also houses the Crynoch Restaurant. The Pork and Black Pudding sausage was excellent. One of the other dishes wasn't.
- The Ship Inn in Stonehaven is enjoying a rising reputation.
- A good Chinese restaurant in Aberdeen, Yu
- Excellent food in an art deco building, the Carron in Stonehaven. Phone ahead and ask for some home-made sausages.
- We haven't got a personal report but it was a 2007 Scottish Thistle Award winner. Every item at The Captain's Galley Seafood Restaurant in Scrabster has its provenance noted. That's different. Tel: 01847 894 999
- Chinatown in Newcastle
Government
Think Tanks
INESS, the Institute of Social and Economic Studies. Interesting ideas if somewhat extreme.
Services
Fishing
Golf
Slovakia
Scotland (mainly North East)
We cover the North East of Scotland but we can point to a company which does a super job in arranging golf tours over on the West of Scotland. They are Golf Made Simple in Scotland and they arrange golf tours, including transport, golf and accommodation. The courses they cover include, but are certainly not limited to Royal Troon, Turnberry and Old Prestwick. They have excellent transport links to Glasgow Airport.
There's too many clubs to list them all here. For an easy-to-use means of finding a course near you, go to Golf Central but take a look at the ones listed below. All have been played by our Golf Correspondent who makes up for a depressing lack of skill with boundless enthusiasm for the game. Most of the websites list the Opens - that's a great way to get a round of golf at a heavily subsidised price. Most clubs and courses have a variety of prices; we've shown the basic course for one round on a weekday and a weekend (2007 prices). Go to the site for all the offers; parties, day tickets etc.
- Aboyne Golf Club Great, with two different 9s - front and back are very different. Weekday £25, Saturdays £28.
- Alford Golf Club. Very flat, very enjoyable, not too demanding. Scenery is great. Weekday £20, weekend £25.
- Archerfield Links - see also Renaissance Club. East Lothian, opening soon if you can afford it.
- Ballater Golf Club Lift your eyes from the turf and look around at the scenery. Weekday £24, weekend £28.
- Banchory Golf Club Alongside the River Dee. Weekday £26, weekend £35.
- Blairgowrie Golf Club. (It's not exactly in the North East but it's a great course with a very comfortable club-house and good food. Lansdowne course £30, Rosemount £40 - but check the site for times.)
- Brechin Golf and Squash Club. Noteworthy for the A90 running through it. Weekday £28, Weekend £30.
- Castle Stuart Golf Club. A new development 6 miles east of Inverness
- Cruden Bay Golf Club Magnificent links course with a huge elevation on the 10th. Just belt the ball into the wide blue yonder. Two courses - prices are for the main course. Weekdays £60, weekends £70. But check the site.
- A famous and very old (dating from the 15th Century) links course is the Golf House Club. The Golf House Club in Elie, Fife, is one of the oldest courses with golf having been played on the links since the 15th Century. Gentlemen only in sections of the Clubhouse. Worth a visit just for the submarine's periscope which the starter uses. Weekday £60, Weekend £70.
- Duff House Royal Golf Club. Parkland course in Banff. Very highly rated, a couple of long par 3s and the 18th runs beside the road to Fraserburgh .... so don't slice your drive. Weekday £28, weekend £33.
- Fraserburgh Golf Club. A super links course, just east of the town and an hour or less north of Aberdeen. Weekday £30, weekend £35.
- Gairloch Golf Club A very tight 9-hole course. (On the West Coast, not the North East) £16 for a round.
- Huntly Golf Club Very little trouble on the right, so relax. Weekday £16, weekend £20.
- Inchmarlo Golf Club Fairly new course - demanding 18 hole and challenging 9 hole course. Weekday £32, weekend £37.
- Kemnay Golf Club Very pretty, but the 18th is a pity. Weekday £26, weekend £30.
- Machrihanish Golf Club - with the best opening hole in the world. And how often does the Captain's message make it to the site far less the first page. Don't miss it! And check the Loganair site for packages.
- Machrihanish, The Dunes - a new development opening in Autumn 2008
- Montrose Medal Links - a very old course, rated a hidden gem.
- Murcar Links Golf Club Tough links course, proved too difficult for our correspondent. Weekday £65, weekend £85.
- Newmachar Golf Club Great course. Some visitors take 6 off the first tee. Weekday £35, weekend £55. There's two courses so check which one you want to play.
- The Renaissance Club at Archerfield Links. New development in East Lothian.
- Tarland Golf Club is a very enjoyable 9 hole course lying in a beautiful part of Scotland. Weekday £18, weekend £24. These are for "all day".
- Ury Estates, a new development next to Stonehaven.
- To enjoy reduced green fees, try Open Fairways. There's a joining fee, but they have a list of over 900 golf courses in the UK on which members get discounts.
Skiing
Skiing in Scotland is very hit and miss because of the weather. Winters have been mild recently but if they're not mild they can be ferocious. We like to boast that if you can ski Glenshee, you can ski anywhere. The main resorts are
Glenshee,
Aviemore,
Lecht,
Nevis,
Glencoe.
Slovakia has many, many places to ski but most of them are small.
A good one for conditions is at
ski.sk.
For accommodation, try the ski link at
skislovakia.
There's a good write up on
Jasna, which misses out one main problem. A lot of skiers from Poland and Russia go there so get ready to have your skis trodden on, your ribs jabbed with an elbow and perhaps simply a good old shoving match.
Slovakia resorts
web cams.
News
