Four & Five Star Quality B&Bs in Scotland Aberdeen - Grampian Highlands - Moray

Aberdeen, the granite city, is one of the most northerly cities in Britain and the 'oil capital' of Britain too. Today, the oil boom is waning but, even so, the busy docks have oil tankers as well as fishing boats and container ships calling in frequently whilst Aberdeen airport chugs constantly with helicopters taking men to and from the rigs. It's a city lively with lots of shops and new shopping arcades to explore but it is also a city with a history. Interesting buildings like Provost Ross' House, the Maritime Museum, and Aberdeen University's Marischal College are right in the heart of town, as is the Art Gallery, a short walk from Union Street, the dignified main thoroughfare.

The city lies between the two great rivers, the Dee and the Don - both good salmon rivers, and the stretch of coast between the two river mouths has a splendid sandy beach. A little way upstream on the Don, is the Brig o' Balgownie, with some quaint old cottages clustered around it. Aberdeen has won the Britain in Bloom competitions so many times that it was barred from entering to give everyone else a chance! In spring, especially, the roadside verges and the river banks are bright with a succession of crocus, daffodils and narcissi which give way to masses of roses in summer. Duthie Park is a carpet of colour and, if wet, visitors can retreat to the cactus houses and imagine themselves in a tropical world with noisy parrots in the greenery at roof level and huge sinuous carp hiding in the pools.

Royal Deeside is famous and justly popular amongst visitors who explore the towns along the Dee: Banchory, Aboyne and Ballater. In summer, you may glimpse salmon leaping up the waterfall under the Bridge of Feugh, not far from the centre of Banchory. Follow the side road alongside the River Feugh then turn off, following the signs to the Forest of Birse. Here it is peaceful with no sound but the tumbling waters, the ever-present sheep and maybe a distant buzzard mewing over the hill tops.

In May, it is bright with yellow gorse, purple in August with heather and, in autumn, the rowan trees are laden with red berries. Back on Deeside, at Potarch, is the bridge where a famous local strongman, Donald Dinnie, is reputed to have carried two huge boulders across the river. The stones are still there, outside the Inn. At Aboyne watch the Highland Games take place on the village green before resuming the well-trodden route to Balmoral and Braemar.

Everywhere, in stone circles and standing stones, is the evidence of prehistory. Not far from Aberdeen Airport, near Inverurie, just off the A96, is Archaeolink an interpretive centre about these monuments and the people who built them. Fascinating names like Clinkstone, Maiden Stone and Cloven Stone invite the curious while the intriguingly shaped hill, Bennachie, looms in the background. It's a land of mystery where your imagination can take flight and you can forget the present, wondering about the past.

As well as the Castle Trail, this area also has the Coastal Trail and the Whisky Trail, which links many of the Speyside area distilleries. Turn off the A96 at Huntly on the B9022 to Portsoy and explore east to Banff and Macduff or west to Cullen along the Coastal Trail. Some of Scotland's finest fish is landed at the harbour at nearby Buckie. Rejoin the A96 at Fochabers, a lovely little town favoured by antique hunters. On the western outskirts of Fochabers, is the Baxter's Factory, where visitors can view the making of Baxter's well known soups and preserves.

Beyond Fochabers, is the elegant town of Elgin with its imposing and historic cathedral ruins and dignified Victorian town centre. West from Elgin, the A96 bypasses Forres. It's worth going through the town though to see the floral displays, which have won this town prizes in the "Scotland in Bloom" and "Britain in Bloom" competitions, and also Sueno's Stone, a huge Pictish standing stone covered in carvings.