"I love the Wee Cottage! My husband joined me for the first 4 days and I stayed for another 10. The cottage is SO cute and just what everyone wants for a writer's retreat! My husband and I did the Duff House walk & Banff history walk (there is a WalkHighlands website that has a ton of walks). For dinner we went to a lovely restaurant at the top of the hill in MacDuff, Knowles Hotel. We also grabbed groceries as there is no shop in Pennan!We went to Macallan for tastings and dinner at Time:Spirit (you’ll need reservations for both). I would recommend lunch versus dinner (6 vs. 10-courses) or head to The Craigellachie Hotel pub, we had an excellent lunch. In Aberlour, there is a lovely butcher, great fancy foods store, Walker Biscuit factory and store, and the walk up to the Linn waterfall is fun. Keith also looks great, but we didn’t have time!Johnson of Elgin has a full factory tour that was very worthwhile. Seeing the full operation was one of my favorite things and we then had a full tea there. They only do the full tea with 24-hours notice so make a reservation. We enjoyed walking around Elgin as well and did stop at a few of the small towns on the way. Without a car, Pennan means a bunch of walking which was just what I was looking for! Gardenstown and Cullen are great!I spent lots of days just hanging out, walking the Pennan beach head, enjoying Coastal Cuppie and Pennan Inn, and sitting in my cashmere socks (Johnson of Elgin).I’ll be back for two weeks again!"
