When your holiday companion is a screen-dependent 13-year-old, a nature-inspired mini-break in the north-east of Scotland, with unpredictable weather and wi-fi, is a tough sell.
For me, the prospect of exploring rural and urban Aberdeenshire was a welcome opportunity to switch up our unadventurous lazing-by-the-pool getaway inclination. As for my daughter Amelia… well, let’s just say the excess baggage as we set off was measured in adolescent apathy.
At Farm Stop in Portlethen, the opening excursion on our itinerary, the icebreakers hit different. “Would you like a chicken on your head, sir?”
My first thought is that I’m about to become the unsuspecting victim of a TikTok trend, but not so. I was in fact being encouraged by farm staff to use my beanie-hatted head as a poultry resting place. Amelia found herself in an even more ridiculous pose after agreeing to get down on all fours to let one of the goats stand on her back. Seriously, they love it.
This is an unabashedly hands-on visitor experience. Piglets and ducks eagerly nibble an endless supply of treats from Amelia’s cupped palms, before we take turns brushing the guinea pigs and petting the lambs, donkeys, rabbits, alpacas and mini Shetland ponies. I can tell Amelia’s having way more fun than she expected as she doesn’t once ask how much time is left in the hour-long slot. Our tour group’s walk to the exit echoes to the chitter-chatter of children league-tabling their favourite farm animals and dads enthusing about the ample free parking (OK, just me).
We travel seven miles north to Aberdeen, Scotland’s third largest city, famed for its granite architecture and busy seaport, arriving at Aberdeen Science Centre.
Despite Amelia enduring an enforced digital detox when the wi-fi password fails, the dozens of exhibits keep her immersed as we flit between zones featuring stop-motion animation, calorie-calculating cycling, football target practice, spacecraft piloting and a humanoid robot. Just like Farm Stop, the Science Centre has sussed out that maximum interactivity is the key to holding any kid’s attention.
The BrewDog Kennels mini-hotel apartments at Castlegate is the base for our first night and, to Amelia’s tacit approval, our suite is kitted out like a cool teenage bedroom with LED slogans, a turntable to play a boxful of vinyl and an acoustic guitar perched in the corner. Amelia chastises me for taking a photo of her strumming it in landscape mode rather than portrait, which I’m informed is a prehistoric practice that doesn’t complement her social media posting needs.
BrewDog became one of Aberdeenshire’s most famous exports by being nonconformists and mavericks in the craft beer field.
It’s an ideology more typically found in the street art scene, another sector in which the region’s embrace of creative ambition is helping to attract new audiences.
Ross Grant, from local business improvement body Aberdeen Inspired, took us on a walking tour of their most eye-catching installations, from murals spanning entire sidewalls to tiny sculptures hidden in plain sight, a civic secret for those in the know.
These are cultural legacies from Nuart Aberdeen, an annual street festival that has been inviting global artists to transform the city centre since 2017. Maximising space and amenities to encourage more people to linger and boost the local economy takes imagination.
Also rising to the challenge is Greyhope Bay Centre, an elevated dolphin-spotting enclosure at Torry Battery offering a cosy, all-weather hangout with panoramic coastal vistas and a cafe serving tea and butteries – Aberdeen’s iconic pastry morning roll.
The glass-fronted building is a repurposed shipping container and operates off-grid thanks to a rainwater treatment system. Binoculars are free to borrow and it took less than five minutes to catch our first glimpse of dolphins and seals bopping over the North Sea waves next to Aberdeen Harbour. With the city expecting 400,000 visitors from July19-22 for the Tall Ships Races – Europe’s largest free family event – there’ll be few better spots to watch.
Leaving behind the city’s maritime soundtrack of heavy industry and shrieking gulls, we drive 35 minutes south for a bucolic change of scenery and accommodation.
Our destination is Cowden Farm in Drumlithie. Situated at the end of a half-mile single-track stretch lined by livestock who stare inquisitively as you pass, we are greeted by gregarious owner Liz Phillips. She brings warmth both figurative and literal, having pre-lit the self-catering farmhouse’s two log-burning stoves in anticipation of our arrival.
It is a haven of serene seclusion with four bedrooms, three lounge areas, a vast kitchen and suntrap dining room, all painted in rich, vibrant hues. The decor is wonderfully quirky, with Liz a dab hand at upcycling furniture and handcrafting feather-based art pieces.
Meadow grass and undulating hills extending to the horizon deliver postcard-worthy views, while the garden boasts a barbecue, fire pit, hammocks and swings to make the most of mild days. We aren’t so fortunate with the elements, but the upside of the broadband coverage being decidedly sketchy is that Amelia and I enjoy precious quality time over unplugged recreational activities.
In the farmhouse grounds we embark on a riddle-based treasure hunt – meticulously coordinated by Liz – then say hello to our friendly neighbours, a remarkably docile flock of sheep. At sundown we head indoors to browse the DVDs, board games and novels filling the bookcase, playing Scrabble and the Yes/No card game until the last embers of the stove cast a glow on our cheeks.
If ever there was a place to have an offline epiphany, this is it.
The farm also serves as a gateway to tourist-wowing attractions. Little more than half an hour’s drive takes us to the picturesque town of Banchory, where we savour a three-course lunch at Banchory Lodge Hotel on the tranquil banks of the River Dee. And 11 miles east of Cowden, near Stonehaven, is the extraordinary Dunnottar Castle.
Daringly built on top of 160ft of sheer rock and surrounded on three sides by the untamed North Sea, this ruined medieval fortress is arguably Aberdeenshire’s most spectacular must-see.
Even Amelia can’t feign indifference, her audible gasp prompting a kind stranger to offer to take our photo with the castle behind us. He holds up the camera phone horizontally. Amelia and I both shake our heads and smile at each other.
Book the holiday
Rooms at BrewDog Kennels in Aberdeen start at £100 a night brewdog.com
Cowden Farmhouse near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, offers a three-night stay for up to eight people from £720. cowdenfarm.co.uk
More info at visitabdn.com