Back in Glasgow…
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It has been so long since we’ve updated the blog properly that I’m going to have to resort to point form synopses of the places we’ve been and the things we’ve seen, so here it goes:
Isle of Iona: island where all the Scottish kings are buried; amazing ruined Abbey, monastery and nunnery; lots of Celtic crosses and gravestones that date back beyond the Crusades; very hot day – waded in the water at the beach awaiting the ferry to take us on to Staffa.
Staffa: basalt column island – Scottish end of the Devil’s Causeway originating in Ireland (I dare say the island is probably more impressive); we walked into the cave mouth at sea level – incredible music! No wonder Mendelson was inspired when he visited Fingal’s cave! We walked to the top of the island and waited for the puffins to come see us – they like humans because we offer protection from the seagulls. It took about 20 minutes, but they flew up to the cliff sides and their nests right in front of us – George took some amazing photographs!
Basking Shark!: on the ferry trip to Staffa we were fortunate enough to see seals basking on the rocks, and even more impressive – a basking shark filter feeding plankton right beside the ferry! I was over the moon – it just couldn’t get any more exciting than this…
Tobermory (Isle of Mull): – beautiful little fishing village where we stayed in a fantastic B&B (with a hilarious little Jack Russel puppy); the brightly colored store & business fronts on the harbour reminded us of St John’s Nfld; took lots of pictures of boats, birds and friends – had a great time out with our touring buddies at a local pub on the water front (Mish Nish?)
White Sands of Morar: – we were lucky enough to get to go to the beach at Morar on the hottest day in recorded history in Scotland! It was a real treat to get to cool down in the ocean firth, and swim with our new friends…
Castles Everywhere!: – on this part of the journey we’ve seen Blackness Castle, Stirling Castle, Kilchurn Castle, Duart Castle, Loch Leven & Glengorm Castles, Moi Castle, Clan Campbell Castle… all beautiful ruins in impossibly picturesque locations and histories that make me feel ignorant for knowing so little (actually, Campbell Castle is still inhabited by the Campbell’s… we didn’t go in, as I have a problem with paying admission to a family that’s filthy rich to see the stuff they have)
Here’s a fun Scottish word we learned: “Minging” – it applies to bad smells (ie: after the football match we were totally minging…); ugly people (ie: Queen Elizabeth 1st was childless because she was a total minger…); being very drunk (ie: we are a little out of sorts today as we were minging last night…)- a very useful word…
Scotch Whiskey Society in Edinburgh: – George’s membership paid off, as you can only get in if you’re a member, and they serve the best lunches in town at an entirely reasonable price (we were there two days in a row for the food…) It was nice to finally get to go to the place, as they’ve been sending George info on bottlings since last year.
Scottish Writer’s Museum: – well worth the effort to finally spend some time here: fascinating displays, quotes, artifacts, illustrations and information on Robbie Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson…
Melrose: ancient ruined Abbey where Robert The Bruce’s heart is buried – apparently on his death bed he asked his friend to take his heart into battle on a crusade, as his body would not be able to make it – the friend attempted to comply with this wish, but made it no further than Spain before he too was killed. R the B’s heart was returned to & buried at Melrose, in accordance with his wishes. Incidentally, the Bruce family paid the Abbey 100 pounds/ year to ensure the Abbey, his heart and the monks were properly maintained & attended to – origin of the word “pittance” – the money was used to provide the monks with a second meal a day – rice and almond milk – referred to as a “pittance” – considered to be a great treat at the time… Loads of detailed gargoyles (pig playing bagpipes…) that were worth taking pictures of…
Selkirk: stopped at Selkirk glass (I love glass art) and had a chance to see the workshop, but it was a Sunday, so nobody was working – still, fun to see the displays…
Innerleithen: went to Robert Small’s printing press – amazing working printing press, that still uses the machinery from the 1800′s. Current proprietor was amazed to learn I have bagpipe music from the press (from my grandfather – bought in the 1940′s) It was lots of fun to talk to the people there. We stopped off at the 1800′s healing spa and sulfer springs to partake of the water there before moving on (I’m not sure if it did any good, but it can’t hurt…)
Traquair House: – longest continually inhabited house in all of Scotland; Historically it has hosted 40+ Scottish monarchs, including Mary Queen of Scots. There’s a beautiful family chapel, a working brewery, a maze garden, goats, horses, peacocks kept on the grounds, as well as the workshops of sevral artisans – lots of fun to visit the grounds and wander at will…
Great day for birds!: – the day we went to Traquair House, we saw a raven carrying a sparrow in it’s beak; several Perigrin falcons persuing smaller birds at the Gray Mare’s Tail waterfall, and two male peacocks face off against each other with full feather display while perched 25 feet off the ground in a Scotch Pine on the Traqiar House property… we watched them for about 45 minutes, and took loads of pictures…
Dumfries: – we called Ellie Cooper’s friends Margaret & Hammish Steele, as they have a little campground just outside of Dumfries, and they invited us to stay with them – very kind. We got entirely lost finding them, but we did see lots of beautiful countryside… We stayed up late and talked about everything under the sun, and the next day we were given a tour of their beautiful property, and Hammish’s bee hives and honey room. It was facinating – we couldn’t leave without taking some honey with us, and we were very sorry to have to leave, as they are now great friends…
Ellisland Farm: – home of Robert Burns (Scotland’s national bard during his day..) while he was a farmer and excise man. The charming man who gave the tour was very informative, and had lots of time to spend with you, but he didn’t seem to realize that not all visitors had all day to spend there…we had to sneak off after 1 1/2 hours. Still, we got to see where he wrote “Auld Lang Syne”, and “Tam ‘O Shantern” (sp?) George the computer guy was in a ‘right foul mood’ after having to spend so much time there on my account…
Kircudbright: charming artist colony town on the seaside where famous Scottish artists such as Hornell, Pepleo and Mary King established an artistic society that still exists today. The streets of the town are lined with galleries and artistic shops… loads of fun (I could have spent a lot of money there, but didn’t).
I can’t type any more, so I’ll finish this later – still about 8 places to go…
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