Ruined Castle Roy near Nethy Bridge in the Cairngorms National Park

Castle Roy, or Redcastle, is a stark thing, all chipped and dented bones. But it remains on an emerald hillock just outside Nethy Bridge in the Cairngorms National Park. Some 700 years have quietly passed over and around its rubble-filled wall. Yet, the people of the region have left it unmolested, like the ember of a memory that nurtures you through your bleakest moments. Pastures and moors, the provinces of livestock and pheasants, are held at bay from Castle Roy by a flimsy fence with a typically kind British warning sign.

Walking back to our rental home in the brisk evening air, castles filled my mind. There are ecstatic moments during travel that burn with a light so fierce they’ll forever leave a ghost image in my mind. The other night: a dinner party in a foreign country in a temporary home with foreign and temporary friends. It was a blaze – a Castle Roy – an enduring monument to the memory. May it last forever, chipped and dented and fenced off though it may become. 

And a wish for the faerie pools: may friends met on the road not always be foreign or temporary.

Article Comments

  1. Ken May 20, 2011 at 5:57 am

    Nice. May the faeries grant your wish.

    1. Keith Savage May 23, 2011 at 2:14 pm

      We journeyed through the Faerie Glen outside Rosemarkie on Black Isle earlier today, doubling down.

  2. Heather in Lapland May 22, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    Beautiful words for a beautiful picture. I’ve only been up to the Cairngorms once but I can still close my eyes and see the landscape. Magnificent area.

    1. Keith Savage May 23, 2011 at 2:21 pm

      It is, very stark in places but a unique beauty in them. Many views from the west side of the park are spectacular.

  3. Sophie May 23, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    The place looks gorgeous! I wish I can be on the faerie pool.

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