A Wee Tale for You: Holiday with the Bridgers - Day 3 – Hairy Coos, More Whisky, Wool, Water, More Water and an Abbey

One of mom’s top must see things for the trip was a hairy coo (highland cow). I hear you saying “Why would she want to see a cow? Can’t she see those at home every day?” And I say “Yes, she can see cows, but not hairy coos!” Highland cattle have long, shaggy hair that makes them exceptionally cute – when it comes to cows. When we were on the Speyside Whisky Trip we came across some hairy coos at the Cardhu Distillery. So of course I knew that we would have to bring mom to see them. And the distillery is a part of the Classic Malts Whisky Passport – bonus!

So we started our day with a drive along the River Spey to see the hairy coos. Steve later said that drive was one of his favourite parts of the trip. Steve is a fly fisherman and the River Spey is excellent for catching salmon. (I don’t know anything about all the ins and outs of fly fishing, but I agree that the drive was beautiful.) We stopped a couple of times along to short trek to take pictures. Once not on the river but instead to capture some pheasants in a field.

When we got to the distillery and saw the coos, mom was super excited. The cows are very tame and come right up to the fence to let you pet them. They’ll also eat right out of your hand which is fun, even though it’s a little slimy. After a few minutes with the coos, we headed to the distillery for our tour and tasting. The whisky that we got to taste was the Cardhu Special Cask Reserve. It was very good. So good that Steve bought a bottle to take home with him. Cardhu mainly exports to Spain so his could be one of the only bottles of this specific bottling in the US. Pretty cool.

After our tasting, we drove down the road a few minutes to the Knockandoo Wool Mill. There’s not much there but it was nice to walk around for a bit.

By the time we finished up at the mill we decided it was time for lunch. Our next official stop was Spey Bay in hopes of seeing a few dolphins. But we decided to stop at Glen Grant Distillery to visit the gardens and have a picnic. We went to the gardens on the fall whisky trip and they are splendid. We got lucky and just finished our lunch before it started to rain. We decided to push through and walk the paths a bit before leaving. They have built a bridge over the stream that runs to the distillery and it is really beautiful. Definitely worth getting a little bit wet.

And then it decided to hail on us! Mom and Steve definitely got to experience all spectrums of Scottish weather.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any dolphins in the bay but it was beautiful nonetheless. And Luther had quite a fun time swimming in the pools.

I loved the way the waves sounded on the rocks so much that I decided it was worth sharing.

We chose to follow the coastal trail as we headed back to our cabin. It wound through small towns along the coast – one of which was Kinloss. There we found an abbey ruin and kirkyard. It was a very interesting kirkyard with a mix of old and new. I’ve added a few pictures below.