Bed and breakfast availability
Tarland b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Tarland and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Tarland, Aberdeenshire. Between the valleys of the Don and the Dee, about midway on their journey eastwards to the sea from the Cairngorm massif, lies a pleasant and fertile vale called the Howe of Cromar. At its centre is the old-world village of Tarland, an ancient kirk-town of very modest dimensions with a long history.

On the fold of land overlooking the village from the South, a Ministry of Public Building and Works' notice-board points the way up a shaggy knoll to the stone circle of Tomnaverie. When, slightly breathless, you reach this double ring of monoliths and feel the breezes from Byron's “Morven of Snows” play upon your face, you are standing on anciently hallowed ground. This is classic country for stone circles. There are over 200 of them in Aberdeenshire alone, and three distinct types have been distinguished. The one at Tomnaverie is said to have been the burial place of a Bronze Age “master race” who lorded it over the indigenous peasant population of the Howe. The chieftains of the tribe would have been interred here amid rituals of purification by fire.

The village has a quiet central square with good shops and a homely and very popular hotel. At the East end of the square is the kirkyard, with the remnants of the old parish church dedicated to St Moluag. It is one of a chain of sites associated with the saint, stretching from Dufftown, through the Cabrach to Clova, near Lumsden, and thence via Tarland southwards over the Capel Mounth into Strathmore. The handsome modern parish church stands on a site some distance to the East.

The House of Cromar, once the home of the Marquess of Aberdeen, passed in 1934 to the MacRobert family who had taken over the estate in 1918. Sir Alexander MacRobert went as a youth from Aberdeen to India, where he became a leader of industry, and on returning to this country he settled at Douneside. On his death in 1922, his eldest son Sir Alasdair succeeded in the baronetcy. He was killed in a flying accident in 1933, and his brother Sir Roderick succeeded him. He too was killed in action with the R.A.F., in 1940, and Sir Ian, Lady MacRobert's third and last airman son, was killed four weeks later. Lady MacRobert's gift of four Hurricane aircraft and a Stirling Bomber in memory of her sons, was followed in 1943 by the turning over of the House of Cromar, now known as Alastrean House, as a “guest and rest house” for serving and former officers of the R.A.F.

Nearby towns: Ballater, Banchory, Insch

Nearby villages: Aberdeen, Aboyne, Alford, Auchinhove, Badenyon, Ballaterach, Ballogie, Bellabeg, Birkhall, Birse, Bridge of Alford, Bridge of Gairn, Coldstone, Coull, Dinnet, Finzean, Inverernan, Keig, Kildrummy, Kirkton of Glenbuchat, Leochel-Cushnie, Lumphanan, Migvie, Ordie, Pannanich, Potarch, Strathdon, Tillyfour, Tillyfourie, Torphins, Tough, Towie, Tullynessle, Waterside, Whitehouse

Have you decided to visit Tarland or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Tarland bed and breakfast (a Tarland B&B or Tarland b and b)
• a Tarland guesthouse
• a Tarland hotel (or motel)
• a Tarland self-catering establishment, or
• other Tarland accommodation

Accommodation in Tarland:

Find availability in a Tarland bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.