Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
cooking up a storm at the edge of the world
Read about our epic West Coast of Scotland adventure on a liveaboard renovated 1961 wooden fishing boat built for Scottish waters. A West Coast of Scotland Boat Tour In June 2019, I joined Shetland skipper Ewan Anderson of Agnes Kay Charters and a motley crew of other passengers for an epic West Coast Scotland tour. …
I recently spent a rather beautiful summer’s day in Aberdeen, on the east coast of Scotland, exploring the city on foot. These are the adventures I got up to. With thanks to Visit Aberdeenshire and Mackie’s of Scotland for sponsoring this trip, although all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. How to Spend a …
Meet Grace Noble, a solo female entrepreneur in the beautiful Scottish countryside of Deeside, in rural Aberdeenshire. She is on a mission to put a second local beef product on the map alongside Aberdeen Angus – Aberdeenshire Highland Beef. This post was written in collaboration with Visit Aberdeenshire. A Visit to Aberdeenshire Highland Beef What are …
This seven-story castle with its pink-tinted facade, finely sculpted multiple turrets, ornate corbels and carved stonework is said to have been an inspiration for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle. It is currently run by the National Trust for Scotland. This post is in collaboration with Visit Aberdeenshire. Nestled on a picturesque hillside in the eastern …
The Scottish city of Aberdeen, to me, has always been a place you pass through en route to more interesting holiday destinations, or the place you reach and heave a sigh a relief after you’ve been away adventuring because you are nearly home. You start recognising Shetland faces in the crowd as you make your …
An epic bikepacking adventure through Scotland to the summit of Ben Nevis: Part 3 In the summer of 2016 my friend and I undertook a rather grand adventure. Regular readers will know all about it, but if you’re new to my blog here’s a quick recap: I turned 40 at the end of 2016, and …
An epic bikepacking adventure through Scotland to the summit of Ben Nevis: Part 2 In June of 2016 I set off, with a friend, on an epic bikepacking fundraising cycle from Britain’s most northerly RNLI lifeboat station in Aith, on the west side of Shetland. Our destination: the summit of Ben Nevis. You can read …
An epic bikepacking adventure through Scotland to the summit of Ben Nevis: Part 1. In June of this year I embarked on the most grand adventure I have ever been on (so far). The reason? I’m turning 40 soon and I wanted to make my 40th year something memorable; something I could look back on …
Five things you could see and do in Orkney in a day, or two, if you’re really slow cyclist* like me. (*Fast forward to 2021, when I cycled through Orkney again and left with quite a few of the Strava Queen of the Mountains!) I have lived in Shetland for nearly 18 years and never …
Planning an adventure of a lifetime and fundraising for the RNLI. Ok, it’s time for the big reveal! For the last few months I’ve been hinting at something big in the pipeline. Something I’ve been training for, something that means I’ve been consuming an extraordinary amount of protein and subsequently I’ve been sharing fewer cake …
The Ptarmigan – Scotland’s highest restaurant at 1090 metres. Situated in the top station on Cairn Gorm Mountain, in the most unexpected of places, you’ll find Scotland’s highest restaurant – The Ptarmigan. At 1090 metres/ 3500 feet above sea level it’s no problem to access thanks to Scotland’s only Funicular Railway – a train carriage …
As Storm Abigail bashes and batters the outside of our house on this windy, wet, cold Shetland winter’s day, and the flickering lights mean the electricity is still holding on, I am daydreaming of warmer temperatures and the family adventures of times gone by.
Road trip! Caravans, vikings and a food festival! Living on a remote island archipelago, travelling to the mainland is not something we do very often. Travel costs to get off the island, especially for our whole family, tend to be rather on the dear extortionate side, so we tend to spend our holidays exploring Shetland. …
This post was updated April 25, 2018, with photographs of my great-grandfather next to the Robert the Bruce monument in progress. Photos are from hard copies owned by my grandfather, David Bowie, in Canada. Look at the detail in this sculpture, isn’t it stunning? This is the sculpture of Robert de Bruce located in Bannockburn, …
Great Britain is in the grip of a heatwave. With temperatures on the mainland soaring to over 30 degrees Celsius, Shetlanders (well, my friends, anyway) are flocking south in their droves to soak up some summer rays. Our family, on the other hand, hid from the sun and travelled north for our summer holiday to the …
This week is Farmhouse Breakfast Week, “an annual celebration championing the importance of breakfast which aims to get the nation to Shake Up Their Wake Up!” It is designed to raise awareness of the importance of breakfast and to encourage people to regularly eat a healthy breakfast.
