Posts for October, 2023

Unfortunately due to the weather forecast for tomorrow Friday 20th October, this event has been cancelled.

The Autumn Festival will take place outside the Farm Shop at Rothiemurchus near Aviemore, and all are welcome to come along!

Lots of wonderful stallholders are confirmed so far including Pixel Spirits, Angus Grant Art, Coast Candle Co, Elchies and Rising Roots Microgreens.

Please make sure to follow our Facebook page and we’ll keep you updated with more news coming soon.

So for now make sure you put the date in your diary, Friday 20th October, for what promises to be a wonderful celebration of local food, drink and crafts.

Come along to our friendly craft group on a Thursday. Bring your own portable craft project, or use some of our donated materials for a small donation. Want to learn a new craft? Our members are happy to share their skills. Refreshments available and chat with fellow crafters.

Takes place almost every Thursday – check our facebook page for updates!

Join Cairngorms Astronomy Group and Tomintoul & Glenlivet Development Trust for a night of introductory stargazing and star stories during the new moon at Inveraven Church & Pictish Stones. Where do we get our stories of the night sky? What did the Celts see in the night sky? Come along to find out more and have a go trying out our community telescope.

Access to Inveraven Church is off the A95 about half a mile north of the entrance to Ballindalloch Castle, and can be found by following the brown tourist sign directing visitors down the single track road to the Inveraven Pictish Stones.

Parking is available at the bottom of the drive before you arrive at the church or in front of the church building. We will be meeting in the foyer inside the church building before walking up to field above to access the telescope.

As we will be outside, please dress appropriately for cold and changeable weather.

Suggested donation £5 on the night.

Funded by Foundation Scotland from the Dorenell Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund.

Visit Grantown during the first weekend of December to celebrate Christmas.

Shop in the outdoor Christmas Market, High Street full of independent stores and an art and craft fair at the Museum.

Vote for your favourite Christmas tree at the Christmas Tree Festival – always a very popular activity!

This year the event goes into the early evening when the Christmas lights light up the town.

Come and enjoy our annual Halloween Trail around the Museum!

See if you can spot ten pesky pumpkins who have taken root in some of our buildings!

£1.50 per trail, including a prize.

No need to book, just turn up and join in the fun!

The Autumn Festival in the Braes of Glenlivet offers something for everyone. Explore the fascinating history of Scalan Mills & Seminary, which will be open from 1:00pm- 4:00pm and then join us at the hall from 4:00pm for apple pressing and apple games, spooky crafts, soup and home baking. Mark Johnston, Head Ranger at Glenlivet Estate will lead a easy family friendly wildlife dusk walk at 4:30pm where you can learn all about the animals that live on Glenlivet Estate.

Storyteller Nana Tumova will enchant us with seasonal and celestial stories around a campfire from 5:30pm and again at 6:30 pm. Nana is an acclaimed Traditional Oral Storyteller and a nature connection guide. She loves stories of the wild, and her favourite place to tell them is out on the land. She is the creator of the Story Apothecary Podcast, where she dispenses stories as medicine. If you would like to attend the storytelling, please arrive a few minutes before each session.

As day turns to night, our local astronomy group will host telescope and stargazing sessions for all ages and abilities. Come along for an introduction to the constellations, enjoy a laser guided sky tour or try out our community telescope. If it is cloudy on the night there will be an indoor presentation in the hall.
All events are free and are on a drop-in basis and are open to all (apart from the wildlife dusk walk) that can be pre-booked in advance for free at Eventbrite.

“Glenlivet it has castles three, Drumin, Blairfindy and Deskie”. This Heritage Ranger led castle walk will take us to the 16th century tower house of Blairfindy and begins outside the iconic Glenlivet Distillery. On the walk in we’ll enjoy fantastic views over the glen. You’ll learn a bit about Glenlivet’s rich history and some whisky history too.

Blairfindy Castle was completed in 1564 by John Gordon. In 1586 Blairfindy passed to the Earls of Huntly, another branch of the family, who used it as a hunting seat. A panel above the arched doorway bears the Gordon arms and this date. In its heyday Blairfindy was a fine example of a three storey L-plan tower house and even today shows a remarkable degree of preservation.

Research has shown that the castle was probably burned by troops after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and it was never repaired or occupied after this time. A project to stabilise Blairfindy Castle took place in 2019, funded through the Tomintoul & Glenlivet Landscape Partnership, a programme supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The castle is now open to visitors for the first time in decades and has been specially adapted to encourage nesting birds and pollinators.

Please park at the The Glenlivet Distillery car park. The walk will start from outside the stillhouse under the green signpost marked ‘Blairfindy Castle 1/2 mile’ (see last photo).

Access is by foot along a dedicated track. Please wear appropriate footwear and clothing for changeable weather.

Toilets are available inside The Glenlivet Distillery Visitor Centre.

Children are very welcome to attend.

Well behaved dogs are welcome.

Funded by Foundation Scotland from the Dorenell Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund.

Join Glenlivet & Inveravon Heritage Ranger Lydia for an introduction to Pictish art and symbol stones. We will be looking at four Pictish Stones discovered in the churchyard of Inveraven, which has been a site of spiritual practice and pilgrimage for centuries. This tour will provide an overview to Pictish art and culture and will show how the Picts contributed to the shaping of modern Scotland.

Access to Inveraven Church is off the A95 about half a mile north of the entrance to Ballindalloch Castle, and can be found by following the brown tourist sign directing visitors down the single track road to the Inveraven Pictish Stones.

Parking is available at the bottom of the drive before you arrive at the church or in front of the church building.

As we will be outside, please dress appropriately for changeable weather.

Children are very welcome to attend. Please note that toilet facilities are not available on site.

Well behaved dogs may attend but must be leashed.

Funded by Foundation Scotland from the Dorenell Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund.

“Dark Nights, Dark Deeds… Death in Grantown”… The Wee Crime Festival is back in Grantown-On-Spey for its 9th year! It will run from Friday the 27th of October to Sunday the 29th. We have a brilliant line up of authors – some familiar faces, and some new. We have Douglas Skelton, Caro Ramsay, Michael J. Malone, S. G. MacLean, Olga Wojtas, James Oswald, Lesley Kelly, and Mark Leggatt.

On the Friday night we do “Pie, Pint and a Play” with the authors, followed on the Saturday by a day packed with author sessions with “The Great Big Crime Fiction Quiz” in the evening. On Sunday morning there will be “The Morning After the Crime Before”, a morning of bacon rolls, tea and coffee, which is followed by our final author session, “Thrills and Spills”.

Tickets available from The Bookmark and subject to availability

Moray’s earliest surviving tower house is reputed to have been built for Scotland’s vilest man- Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch.

Drumin Castle is an impressive medieval fortification standing on a commanding bluff overlooking the confluence of the River Livet and the River Avon.

Once we get to the castle, you’ll learn a bit about the architecture, history, and the notorious Wolf, whose evil deeds continue to cast a long shadow in Moray’s history.

This castle has recently reopened after masonry repairs. Access to the first floor is once again possible via a narrow, stone staircase. Sensible footwear is recommended.

Toilets are not available on site.

Children are very welcome to attend.

Well behaved dogs are welcome.

Funded by Foundation Scotland from the Dorenell Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund.