Kingussie August 2025

I went on a Cairngorm Travel coach holiday based in the Duke of Gordon hotel, Kingussie with Leyland u3a. There were thirty-seven of members on the Kingussie holiday so the coach was allocated just to our group. For both outward and return journeys we stopped at Moffat for lunch with an additional stop at the Falkirk Wheel for the return journey.

Our driver was Yorkshireman Paul and although I did not catch his surname, I assume it is Hume as he explained about his Scottish ancestral name – Hume – and he wore the Hume tartan waistcoat throughout. Eventually he dressed in his full Hume tartan kilt and highland dress compete with sgian-dubh – a small, single-edged knife worn in the sock as part of his traditional Scottish Highland dress.

The Duke of Gordon Hotel in Kingussie, was originally constructed in 1836 as a stopover for passengers travelling by stagecoach along the old A9 to Inverness and the North of Scotland, with extensions being added at later dates. The hotel has enchanted royalty for many years. Queen Victoria was so impressed by the hotel during her visit in 1861, that she referred to it in her diaries. The hotel suffered massive fire damage in 1996 and after a £2.5 million restoration, it was reopened in 1998. The hotel acts as a base for annual gatherings of the clan MacPherson. We had entertainment provided in the Ballroom every evening and on our last evening we were ‘piped’ into the Restaurant, tables with tartan mats and candelabra, and then the coach load of Danes staying were then piped into the restaurant a half hour later – so we had it twice!