Guest Blogger - David McCubbin

7 Apr 2018

My new year’s resolution this year was to get out running more, as part of this I signed up to the mapmyrun 2018km running challenge and booked my place on the second Great Aberdeen Run - Half Marathon. It is now the end of March and I have run 300 km (186 miles), and am starting to focus on my half marathon training to build up the distance that I run.

In my role at VisitAberdeenshire I am very fortunate to get out and about all over north Aberdeenshire, so whenever I go to meetings or events I always take my running stuff with me, then at the end of the day I can fit a run in but more importantly somewhere different each time. This week I did a 4 mile run at Haddo House, Estate and Country Park.  Haddo is a lowland estate that is dedicated to farming, forestry and country sports.  There is a magnificent National Trust for Scotland eighteenth-century mansion, Haddo House,  alongside a 240-acre Country Park.

My run started at the main visitor car park, passed the front of Haddo House, round the edge of the terrace gardens, which feature seasonal planting, fountain, gravel pathways and statues and then out into the Country Park itself. The Country Park has a mixture of gravel and woodland pathways with some small hills so is a great place to run. The scenery is beautiful with landscaped areas, woodland, pond and streams and the Scots Mile, which runs from Haddo House through the Golden Gates and up to a stunning viewpoint marked by the Monumental Urn. There is a great network of paths so you can run a different route every time you visit Haddo.

Haddo has refreshment facilities, toilets and free parking so is a great place to run with some wonderful views and scenery.

David McCubbin

Business Engagement Executive – North Aberdeenshire

VisitAberdeenshire