We all had a really good night's sleep and woke up later than we expected. This, I find, is one of the pleasures of being on holiday.

Our destination today was the coastline north of Aberdeen, in particular the Bullers of Buchan, one of the only places on the British mainland where you might see puffins.

Spoiler Alert: Linda loves puffins but cannot abide a seagull. We didn't see any puffins but saw more than our fair share of seagulls.

The Bullers of Buchan is a clifftop walk looking over some dramatic coves, blow holes and sea cliffs. Seabirds in their thousands mostly, but not exclusively, of the seagull variety were nesting on precarious perches on the cliffs.

I've helpfully made sure to include Linda and her Mum in the photo above, for scale.

We had borrowed a pair of binoculars from the Cottage and spent a long time examining suspiciously dark birds for signs of puffinness but nary a puffin did we spot (the dark birds were mostly some sort of shag).

Returning to the car, we drove a few miles (yes, they still use miles over here) north to Peterhead. We found this a fairly grey town, with very little greenery, no trees and no public toilets.

Just south of town, they did have a field of "heelin coos", a photo opportunity Linda had been looking forward to almost as much as puffins.

A bit further south on the coast was the small town of Cruden Bay, which provided all the greenery, trees and public toilets that Peterhead had lacked. It also had a delightful white sand beach.

Here we left Mum to enjoy the view and a coffee while Linda and I took an easy 10 minute walk through a glade of trees, along a river valley and up onto the cliffs again to New Slains Castle.

New Slains Castle was built in 1597, replacing Old Slains Castle. It stands on an imposing location on the cliffs.

It has been derelict for the last century after an enterprising company bought it, removed the roof and made a fortune selling off the roofing slate.

The castle also has some connection with Dracula but, having never had any interest in that subject, I didn't pay much attention to what the connection was and so leave googling it as an exercise for the reader.

From there, we drove back to Aberdeen, delayed somewhat by an accident at a particularly dangerous road junction (we were not involved in the accident).

In Aberdeen, we met up with Margaret and George at Seaton Park and enjoyed a stroll around in the sunshine through the grounds and alongside the River Don.

We were parked near the playground.

Seaton Park was Mum's local park when she was a girl and we stopped outside her old house for Linda to take a photo of her.

We went back to Margaret and George's house for a cup of tea and a long chat. A quick visit to the supermarket followed, then it was dinner and bed.