Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Sophie Norris

Terrified holidaymakers film white-knuckle drive to cliff-edge cottage

Holidaymakers filmed themselves braving the "scariest drive ever" to a teetering holiday cottage.

Wendy and Stephen Farrar were visiting the small fishing village of Gardenstown in Aberdeenshire when they realised how precarious the route was.

The couple had already navigated a steep descent into the fishing port, but as they turned down the street to their holiday rental they discovered the tight one-track road was on the edge of a cliff, the Daily Record reported.

At the bottom of the rock wall waves were smashing into the geological structure.

In nail-biting footage, business owner Stephen can be seen driving along the tiny road.

Stephen steered the car down the thin track (Kennedy News and Media)
Have you had a terrifying holiday experience? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

At one point he notes that the crashing waves had "splashed the side of the car" while he attempted to avoid plummeting off the edge.

The drive only added to the experience for the stout-of-heart holidaymakers, with Wendy saying the cottage turned out to be the "best place they'd ever stayed"

Wendy, from Ossett, West Yorkshire, said: "It's definitely not for the faint-hearted. It's the scariest drive we've done.

"It's a standing joke with us that wherever we stay, it's always either a tiny single-track road or there's something about the drive itself.

"It was a really steep driveway down into the fishing port. As you go round, you drive round a tiny little harbour which is beautiful then we saw the road we had to go round. We thought 'oh my god, that's quite a drop'.

They managed to avoid falling off the path (Kennedy News and Media)
The Yorkshire couple embraced the challenge (Kennedy News and Media)

"It was amazing. We said it's probably the best place we'd ever stayed."

The day after their arrival the couple decided to park by the harbour instead, as Wendy had been forced to walk behind their vehicle to make sure it didn't go too close to the edge or face any further scratches on the way out.

Wendy said: "My husband did the driving and he was like 'I'll just take it really slowly'.

"We put the mirrors in on the car just in case. When we got it down to the car park on the end, he said 'I think tomorrow if we go out we'll park by the harbour instead'.

"The following day I said I'd walk behind the car to see how close to the edge we were. It was pretty close. The drop was about eight to 10 ft.

"We go up to Scotland all the time and there's always something that happens. We drove up to Glencoe the year before and there was a storm at the time.

"They said the gales were about 50mph and really heavy rain. That was scary.

"We've driven through really dense fog in the middle of the night driving up to Scotland, but this was probably the scariest drive so far.

"I think one or two cars have gone over [in the past]. We did come back in the dark a couple of evenings but on those evenings we parked round by the harbour."

Despite their hair-raising start to the holiday, Wendy claims the views at the property were "absolutely stunning" and the pair even got to see the Aurora Borealis.

Wendy said: "I've got photographs from inside the cottage looking out. It was absolutely stunning. The residents of this village were some of the loveliest people we've met.

"We went towards the end of October and have since found out that Ainsley Harriott has stayed there for a programme he was doing.

"The bizarre thing is that one day we were sat in the living room. I said to my husband I was sure I could hear a truck and the next minute a truck drove past.

"It put its mirrors in and it had a passenger looking out the side. He must do that quite often but we couldn't believe that. We thought 'how the heck has he managed that'."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.