The reunion

Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Tue 16 Jun 2015 18:19
We had a lovely few days meeting up with friends with whom we have a reunion every year —this was the 32nd reunion of the 1983 three week farming course at Wye College sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Farmers. There were 20 farmers, one bank manager and one land agent on the course.
This year it was the turn of Ian Blois a (ex) farmer in Scotland to host the event and he and his wife, Clare, decided that rather than staying in a hotel they would take a house. So we all convened at Kyllachy on Thursday evening.  
This was an ideal place to stay between Aviemore and Inverness about 5 miles off the A9. The owner was refurbishing the house and most of the bedrooms had been ‘done up’ with new bathrooms etc

We ended up in the pigeon loft, an unimproved part of the house sharing a bathroom and loo. Twin narrow beds, a bath that could only be run when others were not running and a thunder box of a loo.

It was dry, warm and not rocking !
We had some lovely visits including
Balindalloch Castle 
The estate is owned by the Macpherson-Grant family and is the founding home of the Aberdeen Angus breed
a new distillery, and although no malt whisky is available until 2025 one could buy a cask (200 litres) for £5,000 with the duty and bottling charges as an extra later

A visit to Logie Steading on Saturday——a lovely garden and buildings converted to retail units with art galleries, coffee shops, plant nursery etc etc. This appeared to be in the middle of nowhere but apparently is well frequented

Then to a cheese maker——Connage Organic Cheese who make 14 different cheese including Cheddar, Gouda, Brie and it is sold locally and as far away as the niche supermarket business Cold Storage in Singapore .

and then to Fort St George the home of the Highland Regiment. This is still used by the regiment but also open to the public. A vast Georgian barracks with a very good museum—for anyone interested in Scottish regimental history!
Jane, the cook, produced some lovely dinners 
On Sunday morning we dispersed and Helen looked longingly at the cars setting off on their journeys south as we returned to Marita in Oban. Hugh and Lesley very kindly drove us to Oban as they were going to their house not that far away. A visit to Tesco to reprovision, lunch and a ferry found us back on board (it was very cold) and planning our return south. The forecast said that the high pressure area over northern England was about to “topple” south with fresh winds crossing all northern areas!!