Tag: Scotland

Dundee, Perth and St Andrews, June 2023

June 20, 2023 /

June 10 – Inverness to Dundee – We had a bus trip booked to Inverness, the same bus that we had caught up from Glasgow then a change at Perth for a relatively short haul to Dundee. We had a wait of a couple of hours between having to vacate the lodgings and catching a bus so we just wandered town, finding different spots to stop and sit. We chatted to a few others in similar circumstances, an Austrian chap off a cruise ship and a woman who lives on the mainland over-looking Skye. She remarked how some of her neighbours who are dependent on rain water are starting to run low. We didn’t get to actually see Perth, because the intercity bus station is some distance out, so it was marked down for a visit later. The scenery was a repeat of before, so it was very much a doze and listen to music trip, most relaxing.

Once again, we had a place that was in the suburbs, meaning a #28 bus trip. We are getting quite good at these now and don’t feel quite so self-conscious about hauling luggage onto a crowded commuter bus. Everyone is very helpful and kind. We just join in with the prams and wheelchairs, standing up and hanging on for grim death. A ride through Dundee didn’t fill us with wonder at the grandeur of the place. It appeared as a mix of semi-grand, plain modern and squalid. Our estate was worse. The flat was nice enough, two big bedrooms and all the necessaries, but the area was unkept, and the street rubbish was terrible. To be fair to the residents, the rubbish wasn’t thrown around, but spilled out of rubbish bins. I don’t know what the collection pattern is but it obviously is not enough, and the cats and foxes raiding bins adds to the issue. It seems to be a problem throughout the UK. We didn’t see any untoward behaviour or hear anything bad happening but it looked like something out of an episode of The Bill. Ah well! What we did notice on the bus was a notice that strike action would commence in two day’s time, cutting some lesser routes out and putting the rest on Sunday timetables, with nothing at all after 7pm. This would continue until further notice. It may prove to be a nuisance but it doesn’t come as a surprise. Prices are going through the roof in the UK and it will be certain that wages haven’t risen to match.

June 11 – Dundee – A bus trip into Dundee was in order. Not being used to any rain, we walked the 150m to the bus stop, but as we waited , the rain started coming down. Christine at least had a rain jacket, I had a cotton pullover that would be ghastly when wet. We headed back, dried off and repacked, this time with umbrellas. It proved to be a wise move. By the time we got into town, the rain was continual and moderately heavy. Few people seemed to have planned for it and there were some very uncomfortable looking people.

The bus let us out at Albert Square, a beautiful part of town with the museum as a centrepiece in the square and a glorious stature of Queen Victoria, in her later and heavier years. We walked down through the town following largely pedestrian streets and revised our opinion of the city. There are some pretty parts and some buildings of merit after all. Near the harbour, is the polar expedition ship Discovery, which was used on a voyage of Antarctic exploration in 1901-04, with Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott amongst the explorers on board. We have been on board enough famous ships now to be content with a view from the outside. The nearby ultra modern building proved to be the V&A Museum (Victoria and Albert), a name which evoked images of displays about their life and times. However, it was a textile and design museum, not quite our cup of tea, but we did spend some time with the counter staff who gave us some tips on what to see and do, including advice about getting to St Andrews.

The V&A textile museum and Antarctic ship Discovery

We walked on through the rain, worse at times, until heading for a Greggs to get a cup of tea and a sausage roll. Greggs is a chain of fast food cafes that has 2,300 locations around Britain. We need it in Australia. You can pop in, buy a tea or a range of coffees, grab a pastry snack or sandwich and not lose half a day’s wages in the process. The food is as good, in some cases better, than the café across the road that charges ridiculous prices and they always seem to have enough staff that one is not left waiting for ages for a coffee to be made.

Emerging from the Greggs, we made our way up to The McManus, home to the Dundee Museum and Gallery, spending a pleasant hour browsing the displays and some lovely art pieces, especially in the Victoria Gallery. It helped that we now knew many of the scenes of the Highlands that the paintings depicted. We may have been more than an hour, because by the time we left the museum, the rain had ceased and the ground was almost dry again, the sun breaking through. We continued to wander town before finding a Tesco, then heading back to the apartment.

The McManus

Views of Dundee

June 12th – Perth – Today we caught a train to Perth, a trip that only takes 20 minutes or so. We had anticipated problems getting a bus into Dundee due to the planned strike, but just as we walked up to the stop a bus appeared. As we walked through the city, we passed a group of strikers, holding their placards and getting lots of toots in support from passing motorists. We got onto the train and were soon in Perth.

As the train crossed the River Tay, the city was presented at its best with a beautiful river frontage, stately stone buildings spanning the riverfront between the rail bridge and two road bridges.. We left the station and wandered down around town, which is small in area. There are a few squares and walking streets to wander through and some nice alfresco cafes to choose from. We picked one to stop for tea and scones, luckily sitting under an awning section, as the rain came down shortly after, sending other people scurrying. The shower was short and the sun re-emerged.

Perth on the River Tay

Our walk took us to the river and over one of two road bridges, stopping to watch a group kayak up into the fairly strong current. On the other side of the river, a beautiful riverside garden lead upstream to the other road bridge, making a pleasant walk.

We only managed to find one store that sold tourist items, and then very little. Christine wanted a T-Shirt that said “Perth, Scotland” as a curiosity. The one tourist store had one design that said Perth, all the rest just said Scotland. I guess Perth tourism isn’t booming.

Around Perth

T-Shirt secured, we headed back to the train and Dundee, a relaxing and easy trip. That makes our 3rd Perth, having also been to the one in Tasmania. There are quite a few left in the World to visit.

The Tay Road Bridge

June 13th – St Andrews – It’s a pity neither of us play golf because today we headed to the birthplace of golf, St Andrews. We took the #99 bus, crossing the amazing Tay Road Bridge, which, at 2.2km, is one of the longest in Europe. It is interesting to see observe that on the intercity buses, almost no-one wears a seatbelt, even though they are fitted. The recent news from Australia of the wedding bus crash showed the importance of wearing seatbelts on buses, so we always belt up. In fact, we even get on trains and feel awkward when there is no seatbelt. The bus raced across the winding road at breakneck speed, making the feel of the seatbelt comforting.

The countryside was interesting enough, with some of the barley even starting to show signs of ripening. There were a lot of potato fields as well. The final approach to the town is alongside golf links, including the famed Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, that ruled the game up until 2004. There are five courses in all, and plenty of people out in the beautiful summer sunshine.

I had always thought that St Andrews was the name of the golf course, but it is actually a town of some 17,000 people and is primarily a university town the institution being established in 1410. In 2022, the University of St Andrews was ranked as the UKs best. It is impossible to miss the complex when in the town, its buildings dominate the streetscapes. Today was graduation day and the streets were filled with young people in academic gown, lunching with proud parents and looking like gearing up for the forthcoming Graduation Ball. We wandered the town, admiring the grand building and the quaint; there were more of the latter. Once in the University zone, we stepped inside a courtyard of the University, which was filled with young grads, mums and dads and professors.

Around St Andrews

St Andrews has an aquarium, which also houses a population of meerkats and a pair of marmosets, an odd combination but they are also into animal rescue. The aquarium side of things has local cold water fish on display and it was interesting to see live examples of the things we had been eating, such as Atlantic Cod and Haddock. They also had a tropical area, filled with all kinds of interesting fish, including some big piranha.

Atlantic Cod )top) and Sea Bass (bottom)

We joined a group of school children to watch the resident harbour seals being fed. These have all been born in captivity, except for one which was born a bit of a runt and abandoned as a pup. There behaviours were explained and demonstrated and it was interesting to see that they often swim upside down, part of their prey being bottom dwellers such as crabs and lobsters, and looking down makes hunting easier. A single large gull joined in the feeding and was extremely adept at getting to the thrown sprat before the seals. It was a wonder it could still get off the ground.

After the seals, the meerkats were fed. They are fed with live crickets, a whole bunch being released into the enclosure. The meerkats searched them out and pounced on them like I pounce on a Cornish Pastie. They actually have quite poor eyesight, which is why they are continually moving their heads, trying to focus. It was amusing because the watching crowd could see crickets on the rock outcrops with meerkats passing close by and missing them. Eventually, the score was meerkats 100, crickets 0 but it took a while, and is good exercise for the meerkats, if not the crickets.

The marmosets are a pair that were rescued from a private collector. Apparently, they were quite badly behaved when they first arrived, but with a consistent approach, their manners have improved. They don’t turn around and expose their bottoms at people quite as often. The species hails from South America and simply ooze cuteness. They are fast and nimble in the trees and don’t seem to stay still for long. Later in the day there would be a penguin feed but we contented ourselves with an explore of the aquariums before heading off and back into town.

Skink and Haggis Bonbons

A cute little pub attracted our attention for lunch. Christine had been keen to try a local dish called Skink, which sounds like a genus of lizard but is actually a type of fish chowder with smoked haddock and potato. I was equally excited by the haggis bonbons. Both proved excellent, although I can tolerate smoked fish in small amounts so I was glad a stuck with the haggis. Of course, the beer went down well. The pubs in the UK sell some terrific cheap food, usually have loads of ambience and are a fraction of the coast of cafes and restaurants. They must make a go of it because in some towns you can stand on a street and see four pubs within a stone’s throw of each other.

We left the golf shops and graduates behind and headed back to Dundee and the apartment (after a 40 minute wait for a bus that is usually every 15 minutes). Reflecting on our visit to Dundee, it has not been the best city on our tour by a long way, but it has provided a good base for visits to Perth and St Andrews, both of which are well worth the visit. It will be nice, however, to go to a city where rubbish collections are effective. Tomorrow, it is back to England and a stay in York.

Inverness, John O’Groats and Skye, June 2023

June 19, 2023 /

5 June – Glasgow to Inverness – Our path north to Inverness was by coach, the first we have used in the UK. We travelled with a group called Stagecoach, through Megabus, and it proved to be just as comfortable as the Flixbus we had used on the continent. One downside is that that don’t have a seat booking system, so there is a bit of a bun fight on boarding, but we fought well and bagged the upstairs seats at the front to command a good view.

I was looking forward to the trip for the scenery, and it didn’t disappoint. The road lead back to Stirling then north to Perth, where we changed drivers, before heading on to pass the beautiful mountain of Blair Athol and skirted the Cairngorms. The National Park that covers the area is a popular hiking and mountain bike destination, with snow sports during the Winter, so the small towns we passed through were very sports oriented and quite crowded with tourists.

When we arrived at Inverness, our first impressions were not positive. The entry was via the industrial area, not extensive, with the only real industry being barley malting, but lacking visual appeal. We got off the bus, gathered our luggage and headed off through the middle of the town, which is far from big. It didn’t take long for our first impressions to be turned around, the quaint streetscapes and charming restaurants and pubs soon winning us over.

Overall, Inverness has around 40,000 people in the centre with another 40,000 outlying. Unlike Manchester and Glasgow, our accommodation was very central, just over the River Ness via the “Bouncy Bridge” one of three pedestrian suspension bridges built in the 1880s. They are called bouncy because it only really takes a regular heavy pace to get the whole bridge moving, which must be quite something after a night on the town. The river is fast flowing and shallow, and can be a productive salmon river at times. Our apartment is a single floor of an old stone building and is one of the better ones we have had so far, given the location, comfort and general ambiance.

The ‘Bouncy Bridge’ and our cute little house.

We had time to settle in and head down to the local Tesco for supplies for dinner. Coming home and realising that the beer was warm, we made the decision to try out the local pub, the Waterfront Pub. It is a very popular place for dinner, and a glance at the menu told us why. We promised ourselves another visit.

6 June – Inverness – We spent a good part of the day exploring Inverness, completing a walk of the town using the GPSmyCity App. There is a mix of the old and new, although nothing in the way of actual high-rise buildings. We did come across the oldest building in the town, Abertaff House, built in 1593. The Victoria Market is a beautiful 19th Century arcade filled with interesting shops and old world charm. The walk was relaxed and easy, after the crowds of Glasgow and Manchester. The whole town has a wonderful feel to it, the kind of place people might retire to, a thing which appears to be a thing, at least in some of the outlying towns. Even the traffic was more relaxed and some streets had empty parking spaces, a rare sight in other cities.

After lunch, we headed out again to walk along the banks of the River Ness. We passed the Inverness Cathedral and the Arts Centre, enjoying the relative warmth of the fine weather. I say relative because one minute it can be warm enough to convince you that the jacket needs to come off and the next minute a couple of gusts of icy wind tells you otherwise. It is not the place to go out unprepared. A brewery and distillery drew our attention and the presence of an outdoor area sufficiently sheltered from the breeze coerced us into a lager. Unfortunately, it was the first beer we had tried in the UK that was not to our liking, being a bit on the bitter side. All that meant was it took longer to drink it.

7 June – Dunrobin Castle and John O’Groats – Today was the first of two consecutive days of 12 hour tours. What possessed us to do that? We actually booked them way back in January, sources suggested that such tours book out very early. This was probably true because both tours were fully subscribed. If memory serves, back at the time, we did not have the option of booking with a day in between. Unfortunately, my advice to anyone booking tours of the Highlands is to leave it until there is a weather forecast available, even though the locals say forecasts are always rubbish anyway. There are stories of tours driving through heavy mist all day, with the passengers seeing nothing.

Our first tour was north out of Inverness along the north-east coastline to John O’Groats, often said to be the most northerly point on the British mainland, although that claim can actually be taken by the nearby Dunnet Head. Inverness sits on the Moray Firth, and we crossed that via the beautiful Kessock Bridge. The bus skirted Cromarty Firth through Invergordon, once the site of a large naval base, then the base for the construction of huge north-sea gas and oil platforms. As the fossil fuel industry declines, the base has turned more to the manufacture and servicing of wind turbines, hundreds of which dot the northern Scottish coastline. It’s good to see how a town can keep reinventing itself and a sign that closing down fossil fuel based industries may not mean the end of industry.

We stopped for morning tea in Dornoch, a beautiful little castle village, with some lovely stone buildings, castle, church and gaol to cover all bases. We stopped at the churchyard, where a sign told of the vibrant monthly markets that used to be held amongst the grave-stones, until a band of feral pigs started digging up the bodies and the yard had to be walled off, making the market impractical. It’s stories like that we need to keep small town tourism alive.

Dornoch

The next stop of the famous Dunrobin Castle. More like a palace than a castle, the amazing Disney-like structure has been the summer residence of the Duke of Sutherland since the late 18th Century. The name is tainted in the eyes of some Scots because the first Duke was responsible for what is called the Highland Clearances, when the clans were forced off the land by raising the rents. The vacated land was stocked by the large land owners with sheep, and the inhabitants forced to settle on the coast to fish, move to the industrial cities further south or emigrate to places such  as America or Australia. The Duke did not hold the same poor opinion of himself, erecting a 100’ statue of himself on the highest hill in the district to overlook everything. Despite the dubious politics of the day, most of the advances in the area that brought a more modern way to the Highland areas seem to have their origins with the Duke of Sutherland.

From the carpark side, the castle looks impressive, although much like many others. It is from the other side, which overlooks a huge formal garden styled like that at Versailles, that the true magnificence of the building can be seen. There are four stages to the structure, dating from the 14th Century keep, now deep within the main building, to the ornate outer structure which was built between 1835 and 1850 by Sir Charles Barry (rebuilt Westminster Houses of Parliament in London). It is now open to the public as a museum of the lives of the Sutherlands in the 19th Century.

All rooms are laid out beautifully, with ornate table settings in the grand dining room, an amazing collection of old books in the library, a most wonderful nursery packed with games and toys that, I am pleased to say, would have been museum pieces when I was a child. As you move throughout the castle, you can’t help but notice that almost every wall carries portrait of members of the Sutherland Clan. Some are done by noted artists and a very large and very beautiful. The other things covering the walls are stag heads, most with plaques bearing the names of the people who killed the creatures and the date. Most carry ten point antlers, with a few having twelve points, true prizes in the stag shooting world. To be fair, the deer do need regular hunting in these parts. If the numbers are allowed to grow unchecked, the damage to the environment is heavy, as they will eat the tree saplings and prevent forest growth.

We moved through the castle, surely one of the best museums of Victorian upper crust life anywhere. Out on the rear balcony, we admired the formal gardens below, spread out between the castle and the waters of Dornoch Firth, before tackling the long walk down, via steps and steep gravel pathways. The ladies of the 19th Century would probably have made do with the view from above, the trip down being so difficult in the heavy full outfits of the day.

Harris’s Hawk

We made our way to an area at the rear of the gardens set up with wooden benches facing an open lawned area. On the other side of the lawn, we could see the aviaries for the hunting birds, some falcons and hawks. A number of perches were set up around the area and two birds were brought out, one at a time. The master falconer explained how hawking had been very popular in times past and a genuine way that the poorer people could access game meat in the form of rabbits, hares and grouse. A man could get permission to trap a hawk and the Duke allowed hawking in the and around the forests. The hawk brought out was a species from New Mexico called a Harris’s Hawk. It flew from perch to perch and back to the keeper’s gloved hand, taking small pieces of meat as a reward. A young boy from the audience was chosen to run across the field, dragging a lure behind to illustrate the hunting method of the bird, which takes game from the ground rather than the air as falcons do.

Gryfalcon

The second bird was a gyrfalcon from Siberia, the largest of the falcons. Falcons have shorter legs, more streamlined wings and hunt in the air, taking birds as prey. It was a striking bird. The keeper exercised it by swinging a lure around his head, the falcon making continual attacks. The speed and aerial agility of the bird was amazing.

A video of the falconry display can be seen at https://youtu.be/Dg8c2II7BSc.

With time running out, we had to leave the birds and get back to the bus. Having been quite ho-hum about yet another castle, the visit had turned out to be a highlight.

The bus pushed on north stopping briefly at a spot in Loch Fleet to watch a large group of seals flop around on a sandbank, before taking the A9 towards John O’Groats. The A9 soon lost its dual carriageway status and became a good two lane road with excellent traffic flow, before eventually turning into the A99. At Reis, our driver Alex announced that he would try a new route, heading inland, taking the B876 to the north coast then turn east to John O’Groats. This would let us see some different country rather than seeing the same things as we travelled north then back down the same way. It sounded fine, although he admitted he had not done it before. All went fine, until half way up to the coast, his GPS advised him to turn right. He followed instructions, to find himself in the same situation as us when driving a one lane hedged road in Wales. It was crazy. The road was so narrow and quite rough. There was a surprising amount of traffic to deal with via pull-overs. I imagine some of the traffic was also caught by Google’s ‘shorter is better’ approach to navigation. We followed the route on our own Google Maps and could see no real reason why we were doing what we were doing. There were even chances to get back to the B876 but we stuck to the tiny back road. The scenery was not even worth it; high rolling hills with little more than gorse and heather covering them was our reward.

Eventually, we emerged onto the coast, got a brief glimpse of Dunnet Head, the true most northern point on the mainland British Isles, then drove on a short distance to John O’Groats, quite perplexed as to why we had just suffered 40 minutes of being bashed around in the bus. John O’Groats is hardly a town, more a village with little purpose other than hosting tourist buses and ferry access to the Orkneys, visible not far off-shore. We were lucky to actually see the Orkneys. Most people who come here see little other than driving rain or thick fog. We had ideal conditions, including a glassed-out sea, which allowed us to see the tidal races and swirls that the area is famous for, as the big tides of the North Sea hit those of the Atlantic. It looks like a place every bit as dangerous as the waters off the Kimberley coastline in Australia.

John O’Groats

Alex had told us there was a good fish and chip shack overlooking the point. Unfortunately, with our extended drive through the back country, we were quite late and just as we walked up, savouring a bit of cod and a serve of chips, the woman closed up, giving us a look that said “tough luck, I’m out.” We looked around the other café offerings and settled on lentil soup and bread, our bodies thanking us for the sacrifice (actually, it was delicious).

We set off again, Alex seeming to understand that the A99 is not the enemy, and we drove to Duncansby Head, a high and spectacular cliff area known as a seabird roosting area. The hope was that we would see some puffins. Everyone set off along the track that hugged the cliff tops to a deep long crevasse, called the Geo of Sclaites, that ran several hundred meters into the cliff. The scenery itself was worth the visit, and the sight of all the sea birds pouring up and down the crevasse, swimming in the water or roosting along the cliffs made it all the better. We got quite excited thinking we had seen a large number of puffins below us, but some watchers raised doubts when they pointed out that they did not have orange beaks as puffins in breeding season have. A check on our “Birds of Europe” App showed that they were Little Auks, closely related to puffins. No puffins; auks would have to suffice. Christine decided that she had walked enough and stayed at the crevasse while I went on for a bit to look down on the spectacular Duncansby Head Stacks, a couple of offshore chimneys.

The bird watching done, it was the start of the long drive back to Inverness, with a stop at Dunbeath, a small harbour that used to service a herring fleet in bygone days. We got back to town at 7:30pm, making it an 11 hour tour, interesting enough with some marvellous scenery, but tiring all the same. Quite done in, we headed to the Waterfront Pub for dinner, only to find that we needed a booking, the place being packed to the hilt. We made a booking for the next night and trudged home, thankful that we at least had the makings of a meal in the fridge.

8 June – Isle of Skye – It was like waking to an alarm after a night on the town. I really didn’t want to get up, but it was another early start with a 7:45 tour scheduled. We were seriously questioning why we had done this to ourselves. We stood in line at the pickup spot, the same place as yesterday’s start. Christine looked like she wouldn’t cope, until the bus arrived and the driver showed himself in his kilt. She noticeably perked up, along with all the other females in the queue. I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about but there was much fanning of blushing faces going on.

The driver, Luke, proved to be quite the showman, having been a DJ in a past life. Despite the kilt, he was a Londoner, but had come to Inverness about 6 years ago and taken to the tour guiding business. He was one of the best, lots of fun and full of knowledge. He did a roll call and came up one short, so we waited for a bit until a young American girl named Ashley arrived. Luke berated her, in a friendly banter kind of way, and she showed her mettle by giving as good as she got, then it was off. Ashley had to sit in the only seat left, in the front next to Luke, which upset al the other ladies on the bus. He pointed out that his name was Luke, that we were going to Skye and that we would be doing lots of walking so her dubbed himself Luke Skywalker. Ashely was appointed assistant and dubbed Princess Ashleia. It was like a setup, but it was all adlib stuff. Ashely proved to be from Michigan and on a week’s visit to Scotland, having just landed the night before. She was good fun.

We drove down the length of Loch Ness, hearing some of the stories surrounding the ‘monster’ and the way photos and sightings have been debunked, but the myth is an economic boon for the region. We saw the ruins of Urquart Castle, near where the original 1934 photograph of “Nessie” was taken/fabricated. The road took us through the Great Glen, a wondrous huge valley carved out by glaciers in the last ice age, before leaving and travelling along the shores of Loch Cluanie, a man-made loch resulting from a hydro-dam. Then it was into Glen Shiel, with its towering walls, an even more spectacular drive than the Great Glen. We passed the site of the battle of Glen Shiel, when the Jacobites and some Spanish marines were defeated by the British in 1719.

Driving through LochNess (top) and Glen Shiel (bottom)

Our next stop was another castle, possibly the most photographed in the Highlands, Eileen Donan Castle. Built in the 13th Century to guard against the Vikings, it was a strategic point during the Jacobite uprisings in the 18th Century. The Jacobites holed up there, until the British Navy sent a couple of frigates to bombard it in an attempt to reduce it to rubble. The canons failed to have much of an impact but the castle was stormed and over-run, the 343 barrels of gunpowder in the armoury doing what the cannons couldn’t do. It remained as a ruin until the early 20th Century when it was reconstructed from the ruins. Its island setting makes it a real magnet for photographers and it makes an appearance on calendars and jigsaw puzzles around the World. We elected to admire the castle from the shore, not wanting a tour inside and not wanting to pay to simply cross the bridge.

Eilean Donan Castle

We didn’t think the scenery could get any better, but we hadn’t counted on the sheer beauty of the Isle of Skye. I had always imagined that Bonny Prince Charlie had a lengthy voyage as he was carried away over the seas to Skye on his escape from the British, but it is a rather narrow channel in reality, although the tidal currents make it tricky. These days, there is a bridge and so we were onto the isle with little fuss. The island has it all. At 100kms long, it is Scotland’s second largest island. It has a varied history of settlement, being inhabited by Celts, Picts and Scandinavian Vikings, being under Norwegian ownership up until 1266. Volcanic cores form the dominant mountains called the Cuillins, one formation being made of dark rock and called the Black Cuillin and the other a more reddish colour known as the Red Cuillin. We were lucky to have the perfect weather continue and we could see the mountains in all their glory. We drove through areas of thick deep forest, cleared farmlands and more open, heather covered hills. Due to the influence of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, Skye has a milder climate than the mainland, with snow being rare other than on the peaks.

The Cuillins

Our first stop on the island was a picturesque spot called Sligachan Old Bridge, where a beautiful old stone bridge spanned a series of low waterfalls. The falls were unspectacular due to the lack of recent rain. The pools are called the ‘Fairy Pools’ because it is well known that fairies attract more tourists. Rather recent (as in the last decade or so) folklore says that washing your face in the water for 7 seconds will bestow everlasting beauty or holding your head under for 30 seconds will grant immortality. It was a shame the water levels were so low. Probably more relevant is that it was the site of a major battle between the clans MacDonald and MacCleod in 1601. Hopefully, those involved in the battle had held their heads under the water for 30 seconds prior to attacking.

We stopped for lunch in Portree, the major settlement on the island. It is a town that thrives on tourism and hospitality and, as often is the case when tourism pressures a town, the standard of service falls. This was the first example we had found in Scotland of poor service and disinterested workers. Still, we found a soup and bread meal in a pub and satisfied our needs.

Portree

The tour pushed on past a mountain with an unusual formation called ‘The Old Man of Storr’, stopping for the obligatory photos and again at the Rigg View Point, offering spectacular views along the high cliffs.

Old man of Storr at bottom

Skye would be a wonderful place to stay for a few days with your own transport, to fully explore and appreciate what the island has to offer. A visit of only a few hours has left a lasting impression.

The drive back was long, but still full of interest, because the spectacular scenery could be viewed from the opposite perspective. Luke and Princess Ashleia kept us entertained with a quiz and music requests, keeping most of us awake and amused, no mean feat after such a long day. We rolled into Inverness around 7:30pm once again, not quite knowing how we would cope with a long bus trip to Dundee the next day. Just as we neared the end of the tour, a check of our itinerary produced the wonderful news that we actually had an extra unallocated day in Inverness, and would not be travelling south the next day. A sleep in and a day off. Bliss!

9 June – Inverness – We slept in, as we had promised ourselves, and spent the morning doing very little. About 11 o’clock, we thought it was time to get active and went for a leisurely wander across the bridge to town and continued to walk, without any real purpose, just soaking up the ambiance of this pretty little city. It is so easy to explore after the hustle and bustle of places like Manchester and Glasgow. We had a few options, and could have caught a few buses to other attractions, but we were done for the moment.  We would regain our energy in Dundee, our next stop.

 

 

Glasgow, Sirling, Edinburgh, June 2023

June 13, 2023 /

June 1 – Manchester to Glasgow – Our biggest concern about our planned train trip to Glasgow was the looming possibility of strikes. With a big weekend of events on the horizon for Britain, including a Manchester City vs Manchester United FA Cup Final, both Cold Play and Elton John concerts in Manchester and a number of other big festivals planned, the rail unions had upped the ante. The industrial dispute has been going on for nearly a year, with little sign of a resolution. We had a ticket booked with TransPennine Express, and no strike action against them was listed for June 1st, but we have found things can change. We were very relieved when the train pulled in.

We had table seats and two young local girls sat opposite us. One immediately began to apply copious amounts of stuff to her face. To be fair, she was very good at what she did, although possibly lacking the underlying structures of a Vogue model. However, it was quite off-putting to have someone right opposite you opening all manner of creams and applications and painting patterns on their face. One doesn’t want to stare, so around 90 degrees of our immediate vision span was out of bounds.

Our route took us through some beautiful country, with the Lake District on one side of the train and the Pennines visible on the other. As we crossed the border into Scotland, even the vegetation started to show signs of change, with the tops of the hills being bare of trees and showing patches of gorse and heather. We passed through Carlisle and on into Glasgow, arriving at Glasgow Central. We had already worked out that we needed a #4 bus to our accommodation in Broomehill, once again, a bit of a distance from the city centre, although not as far as our digs in Manchester.

Finding the bus stop was easy, and we managed to purchase tickets. After that, it was hard to work out whether the Glasgow road surfaces are in an appalling state or whether the bus completely lacked any form of suspension. It was a bone shattering ride. The route took us past the University of Glasgow and westwards towards the areas that once housed the many workers of the Clyde ship building industry, one of the mainstays of the city in years past. When we alighted in Crow Rd, we were greeted with the beautiful sight of a long streetscape of beautiful Victorian sandstone faced buildings, once tenements housing the working class, but now privately owned apartments, and worth considerably more than there were. Our host, Arthur, was waiting for us, and ran us through the basics of the flat. We even had a back yard, with a lawn and all. The flat comprised a bedroom, loungeroom, hallway, kitchen/dining and a couple of storerooms, positive luxury for us. The ceilings were so high they could have held a mezzanine and the beautiful bay windows looked out over the street. The faults were many and obvious, but the old place had heaps of character and was clean.

We unpacked, walked down the road to a Sainsbury’s to get some food, came home and crashed.

June 2 – Glasgow – Our time in Glasgow is short, and we have lots planned. With only one day allocated to explore the city, we set off quite early on a walk that would take us down a long hill towards the Clyde. We passed many more rows of stone tenements, exactly the same design as ours. These were all built during the enormous industrial expansion of the 19th Century to house a explosion of workers, coming in from the farms and the highlands in search of employment and a higher standard of living. Some of the streetscapes are stunning, the beautiful sandstone frontages creating a wonderful effect. However, a glance to the rooflines showed the incredible number of chimneys, evidence of just how many dwellings each row of buildings supported. The populations must have been huge, the pollution from so much coal burning in winter almost unbearable. Now, however, the repurposed buildings create a wonderful effect, with many of the streetscapes being heritage listed.

The streetscape in Crow Rd

Our target was the Riverside Museum. The riverside referred to is not the Clyde, but the Kelvin, which flows into the Clyde a little downstream of the museum. We were a tad early for the museum’s opening but we spent the time going through the sailing ship Glenlee, one of the last sail-only ships built on the Clyde in the 1890s. After a long history of trading, including runs to Australia, a marvellous history as a sail training ship owned by both the Italians and the Spanish, and finally coming home to be a floating museum. The other ships we have been on have been warships. This was originally a cargo ship, and the displays portrayed that role brilliantly. The lives of the crew and officers was presented in a way that you could almost feel what they went through. It was a wonderful display.

The Riverside Museum itself is devoted to the history of transport. We had few expectations. It was there, so we thought we would look. Then we were blown away, by probably the best, most comprehensive presentation of a theme we have ever encountered in a museum. It is hard to describe just how wonderful it is to wander around a huge facility filled with buses, cars, trains, carriages, bikes, motorbikes, tube stations, boats… you name it, if it moves, it was there. One section recreated some Glasgow streets of the 19th Century, complete with transport of the day. Another presentation recreated the first underground railway in the city, a cable driven tube train. We could easily have spent several more hours wandering around but we knew we had to push on, so, reluctantly, we left the building.

We had already worked out the bus to catch to take us to the city centre. Buses are Glasgow’s big downfall. There is an underground system, but somehow, it never seems to suit us. The problem with the bus system, is that there are at least (possibly more) five bus companies in operation. There is no one coordinated system. The bus we caught from the Riverside Museum, proved to be a community bus, run by volunteers. That’s a wonderful thing, except their little service doesn’t run to contactless payment with a card. Cash only! Seriously? We managed to dredge up enough cash to cover the fare. At the next two stops, people got on and had to leave again, because they did not have any cash. Crazy!

Glasgow University

Once again, our route took us past the University, this time on the south side. The buildings are so spectacular, we were sorry we would not have a chance to explore the grounds. Later, we learnt that the grounds were used as the basis for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.

We spent a few hours wandering around the city centre, taking in the sites, checking out where the bus station is for future travel, and generally wearing out the legs. We stopped at a café for lunch and a pint and was served by a Melbourne girl, who had been in Glasgow for a few months, including the winter, which she said was very difficult. We chose a share platter, part of which was haggis bites. The waitress admitted she has not yet tried haggis. It proved to be more than bearable, I found it delicious and wouldn’t be shy of having it again. I think the share plate was designed for four or five people. We didn’t recover from eating everything for 24 hours, we were so full. No dinner that night didn’t even help.

Buchanan St, Glasgow

June 3 – Edinburgh – Today we caught a train to Edinburgh, an hour away from Glasgow Queen St Station. The trip was interesting, with the start of the Highlands off to the north. Our train took us into Edinburgh Waverley station, a perfect spot to start an exploration of the essential central sights. We used the GPSMyCity App to plan a circular route, starting in the old town and going around through the parklands under the castle to the shopping area and back to the station.

The old town part of Edinburgh is focussed on the castle, set upon a crag that is the core remains of a long extinct volcano. The “Royal Mile” is the walk between Hollyrood Palace and the castle, and is the main focus for most visitors. Everywhere you look, there is outstanding architecture and items of interest, not to mention crowds of people. There a tour guides everywhere, all striding along with parasols or selfie sticks pointed skywards for their followers to track. We felt little need for a guided tour, with the information on the App and the signage dotted around giving us as much information as we needed. We ducked into tourist shops to find a few bits for the grand children, investigated some narrow alleyways from a medieval past, sat and had a tea and scone and did all those touristy things that one does. The only problem is the hills and steps. Because the city is an offshoot of the castle, everything is uphill. Some of the flights of steps are calf-killing things. We seemed to climb continuously, then carefully work our way back down steep cobbled pathways. At least it was dry. Some of the walkways would be really treacherous in poor weather.

Reluctantly, we gave a tour of the castle a miss. We had a couple of castle tours lined up and and already seen a few. We did take a look at the outside, as best you can without forking out money. A lot of the outside space is taken up with scaffolding to take seating for the Military Tattoo held in August, but the entry grounds of the castle are still rather spectacular.

Sir Walter Scott memorial at left.

Our walk took us on a long winding path back down the crag. Along the way, we passed the New College of the University of Edinburgh and admired the inner courtyards. At the bottom of the hill are the beautiful Princes Street Gardens, through which we enjoyed a leisurely stroll, before heading back out onto the street. This area is the main retail zone, full of shops that sell goods well out of both our pay scale and immediate needs. We did pass by the iconic Sir Walter Scott Monument, a towering stone structure that would look more at home on the top of a church than on the street. The stone was very dirty, apparently because the sandstone used contains a lot of natural oil, which in turn holds dust and grime very easily.

The Princes St Gardens

Although there is so much more to see in this fine city, we felt that we had at least done it some form of justice and headed back to the train, and home. It was another day of much walking, but this time, most of it was going up, or coming back down. The consolation is that the more we walk, the more we can eat.

June 5 – Loch Lomond, The Trossachs and Stirling Castle – With a tour booked for the day, we headed back into town on the now dreaded #4 bus. Glasgow’s bus system is like the Australian domestic flight system, definitely not designed for the consumer.

Our tour was a small one, with only eight people and a nice small, but comfortable bus. It would take us to Loch Lomnd, through the Trossachs and on to Stirling Castle. The driver, Stuart, was a very friendly guy, who was looking forward to one day visiting Perth, where one son now works as a surgeon at Fiona Stanley. Our tour headed off to the west then north of Glasgow to cross the fault line that demarks the start of the Highlands. We would crisscross this line a few times throughout the day. In most places, it is obvious, with the rise of the highlands coming off the mostly flat lands.

We stopped for a while to wander around the tiny village of Luss, nestled on the banks of Loch Lomond. The whole village is heritage rated and preserved, with all buildings being built from a beautiful local stone and the history dating back to the 5th Century.

The little lakeside village of Luss

Loch Lomond is Scotland’s biggest lake by surface area, although not as big as Loch Ness in volume. It is still deep though, with depths of up to 190m. The hills around the loch are very scenic with forests, pine plantations and farms, as well as the grandeur of the majestic Ben Lomond at the northern end. The southern end is a popular holiday destination, although the water itself is so cold that when swimming, it is compulsory to wear a floatation device. We boarded a boat to take a short cruise along the loch and admire the many fine Victorian and Georgian mansions dotted along the shores. Once the boat got moving, the wind chill factor made sitting up front difficult, so eventually, we moved downstairs undercover, where the scenery was better because our eyelids weren’t freezing over.

Loch Lomond

From Loch Lomond, we drove to the town of Aberfoyle for a lunch stop before driving up through the Trossachs, an area of mountains, glens and forests to the east of Loch Lomond. Its beauty has resulted in most of the area forming a National Park, along with parts of Loch Lomond. The drive was up a series of steep winding narrow roads, with each turn exposing a new delight. The forests are very deep and carry a lot of outstanding timber, of a wide variety of species. In the areas where the forest gives way to the more open mountainsides, the flowering yellow gorse created a beautiful display. In places, the heather was showing the first signs of flowering with a purple blush developing, although we later learnt that this was a different heather to the variety that covers the open hills further north, and flowers later in July and August.

At one point, we stopped by a field to admire a small herd of highland cattle. These huge animals are a breed native to the Hebrides and are raised throughout the highlands for their high quality meat. If you see Scottish Beef on a menu, it will be highland cattle meat. They are very popular with tourists for their huge spreading horns and shaggy coats, that sometimes hang over their eyes, making them considerably cuter than their lowland cousins.

Highland Cattle, known locally as ‘Hairy Coos’

Leaving the Trossachs, we pushed on to Stirling Castle. The complex competes with Edinburgh Castle for the title of Scotland’s most historically important fortress. Over the years, it has often served as the residence of Scottish Kings and Queens, and was a key defensive point during the ongoing wars between England and Scotland during the 14th Century. Most of the present work was done during the 15th Century under the Stewart Kings, James IV, V and VI. After the defeat of the Scottish monarchy and the failure of the Jacobite uprisings, the Castle lost its royal purpose and spent the centuries as a fortress, and later as a military barracks.

Much of the castle has been faithfully restored to depict the royal palace of the 16th Century monarchs. A major feature is the collection of recreated tapestries, known as the Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries. The original 15th Century works are in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2002, a program of recreating the works using original techniques was launched using a studio in West Sussex. The result is amazing, with full sized reproductions hanging in the Queen’s chamber. There is a display of the techniques used. Each tapestry took two years of painstaking work, amazing in this day and age, but almost unbelievable back in the 15th Century. The castle also houses the Stirling Heads, a collection of 38 carved rondels featuring the heads of monarchs, important figures and biblical characters, that originally adorned the ceiling of the King’s Waiting room.

We explored the reconstructed Great Hall and the wonderful display in the old castle kitchen, with figures depicting the cooking and serving in the old days. The entire castle was very well presented, and filled in many gaps in our knowledge of Scottish History.

We got back to Glasgow tired, but left with the feeling that we had experienced just a little of what Scotland has to offer, and pleased to be moving on into the Highlands to explore more. Next stop, Inverness.

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