Just spent the most magical week-end at Kennels Cottage in Dollarbeg, with a yellow e-type Jaguar for the whole of Saturday to play with! We set off on Saturday morning at 8am, and arrived to pick up our car at 9am in Dollarbeg, not the easiest place to find, but we found it eventually, almost by default! Once the paperwork was out of the way, and James had his handover from Alex Stewart, the owner, we headed off towards Arbroath. James was like a dog with two tails driving, and we even bought some swanky driving gloves to look the part - how cheesy is that! The smell inside the car, brought back many memories for both of us, James from his TR4 days, and me from my Triumph Spitfire days, it is fab how these classic cars all seem to smell the same. The Jag sat beautifully at 60mph, purring along like a kitten. After the motorway, we took the coastal road via Carnoustie and arrived in Arbroath at 11am, and parked up at the Harbour. By then, the rain was chucking it down so we ran to the Boatyard Inn on the Harbour for a coffee and then decided to have an early lunch of Smokies (of course, you cannot go to Arbroath without having Smokies!)which James proclaimed were mouth-wateringly good, I had some pan fried trout fillet with Smokie dauphinoise, which was just as tasty. We split a dessert which I gave up on and James finished and then took some photos of the harbour, bought a beautiful print in the Art shop on the pier, and then off we headed towards Crail - a place we had always wanted to see as we have a framed oil painting in our lounge in France of the harbour there.
We stuck to the coastal route which was very hard work with the driving, as the steering was so heavy, but worth it for the views (through the bloody rain!!). When we arrived at Crail at 2pm, it was straight into the Harbour tea-room for a pee and some refreshments, before heading to the Harbour for some pictures, almost getting blown away in the process. Crail is stunning, if only the sun had come out when we were there..... After Crail, we headed to Elie, through lovely little fishing villages and then we headed back via the Tay Bridge, to Dollarbeg, with an hour up our sleeve before cut-off time for the car return.
A fantastic trip, great fun and pretty exhausting. We checked into our room within the ground floor of the Cottage and took a nap, before heading out to the Kings Seat in Dollar for some pub grub. The food was exceptionally good, the fillet steak James had was one of the best he had eaten for a while, and my thai green chicken curry was delicious too. After dinner, we headed back to the Cottage to chill out and relax and after a very comfortable overnight stay, and a yummy breakfast, we headed back via Tillicoultry and the shopping outlets (more money spent..) to Cumbernauld and a quick bite of lunch with Mum, then home. Phew - very full, but worthwhile week-end. We would highly recommend Alex and Tanya's classic car hire and accommodation, the website is www.caledonianclassics.co.uk.
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