Aberdeen and The Surrounding Area

For the non rider there is so much to do!

Why not add a week to see the sights?

Hayfield is surrounded by golf course, open countryside and forests so ten minutes of riding on tarmac to get to the far forests is the most you will ever do. Many of the tracks have a special surface ideal for riding out exercise to fitten the eventers and polo ponies.
As has been earlier mentioned, John and Darren need no persuasion to take the lorries out to ride at a great selection of different and beautiful venues no more than a half hour drive from Hayfield.

Aberdeen is hardly Monte Carlo for nightlife but you will not find it lacking for a City of 250,000 inhabitants. There are Casino's, night Clubs for young and old, Multi-screen Cinema's and a fantastic resident funfair called Codona's down by the Beach. There is a beautiful little Theatre and The Lemon Tree is a venue of International fame which attracts musicians from all over the world. As you may expect there are many restaurants and Aberdeen boasts the best fish and chip shop in Great Britain - its official!
Then there is shopping and buying something Scottish for those you left at home - we will show you where to go to get the best and maybe even a bargain!

For groups where all the participants are not riders there is a huge variety of other interesting pursuits to get involved with including:

Hunting, fishing and shooting of all different types from rough shoots to grouse on the glorious 12th of August and the stalking of red deer too.

Some of the best Gliding in Europe (35 miles west of Hayfield)

The Land Rover Experience where you can be taught and test your skills with a friend of John's David Gillanders who is one of Scotland's top rally drivers.

A raft of other country sports including walking, canoeing, skiing and mountain biking.

A choice of 35 golf courses with something to please every level of play.

The Archeolink centre which expresses the early history of Scotland from the times of the Picts and Celts many thousands of years ago.

You may want to add a Ferry trip to Orkney which is a group of the most fascinating islands in Scotland which offers world class diving on the scuttled German war fleet in Scapa Flow.

As an add on, Edinburgh or Stirling with their famous and spectacular Castles are only a wonderful three hour drive away and easily accessible by train as is Glasgow, Inverness and the Loch Ness Monster. Indeed, the thing about Scotland as a country is that you are never too far from anywhere.

Royal Deeside in the heart of Scotland

You can feel and see thousands of years of history.

From Hayfield it is only a fifteen minute drive up Royal Deeside to Drum Castle which was a Jacobite stronghold in the days of Bonny Prince Charlie which is only another fifteen minutes from the huge Crathes castle where Jamie Burnet of the Leys lived from there you can either travel East to the coastal town of Stonehaven and visit the ruined by magnificent Dunottar castle where the crown jewels of Scotland were hidden from the English and where Mel Gibson rode a Hayfield horse in the making of the film Shakespeare or a trip west to the Royal castle of Balmoral By now you are officially in the Scottish Highlands where the Romans fought the wild Scots at Mons Grapious and where only a hundred years ago highlanders hid illicit stills from the Kings redcoats and fought and killed them at the Battle of Culblean hill. Further west yet is the village of Braemar where every August Royalty visits the Braemar games as Queen Victoria did in her reign over in the days of the British Empire. West of that and you are quickly into barren moorland as the valley of the Dee river becomes little more than a narrow strip of cultivated land in sea of heather and barren rocks where none but the proud red deer prosper.

Please click here to visit the Aberdeen University Riding Club