Back in to England

Wednesday 27th September

Easy start from Edinburgh. At our breakfast table were a young couple who had come over from Germany for a rock concert - oh to be young! As we left, a stiff breeze was blowing very low cloud in from the North Sea and as the day went on the cloud got lower and thicker so that by late afternoon there was quite a heavy mist. First departure from the A1 took us to an inlet near Aberlady with vast sand flats and grassy areas with many waterbirds, including geese which had flown in from Greenland. Apparently by the end of the month there will be about 10,000 in the area and it becomes quite noisy. Following another scenic route found us in Dunbar. A very interesting port with a long history including the residency of Mary Queen of Scots in the castle for a period. A new and safer  entry into the port has been made by blasting a gap through the ruins of the castle.

The third detour was into Berwick upon Tweed where we walked around the Town Ramparts which gave some good views of the town, the ocean and the mouth of the River Tweed. Had a very relaxing cuppa in a cafe.                                    

Finally we arrived at Brockmill Farmhouse -  a working farm with old stone buildings, cows and sheep in the paddock the other side of the stone walled garden our room overlooks, large rooms with quality fittings, and two Labrador dogs who want cuddles all of the time. Life's tough!

Dining Roon

View from our room

Thursday 28th September

A lovely, unhurried day on Lindisfarne - Holy Island. Walked through ruins of a priory from the 1500's. Learned more about St Columba and St Cuthbert, the Whitby Synod and the loss of Celtic Christianity, the Viking Raids of 793, the production of the Lindisfarne Bible - similar to the Book of Kells, and life on the island over the centuries. A highlight was hearing a mysterious singing whilst walking through the ruins and learning it was the grey seals basking on the rocks and beaches singing!!! The weather was kind, sunshine and clouds but no wind or sea mist - a coat free day!

A Right Royal Day

Tuesday 26th September

We departed from Balmoral Guest House at 9.45 hrs (yes our room is on the top floor, 43 stairs up Merilyn tells me (often), but we do have a nice view and we are at the back so there is no road noise) and walked, of course, to the docks to board the Royal Yacht Britannia at 10.15 hrs. And what a jolly good visit we had. Starting from the Bridge and under the guidance of a hand held speaker thing we worked our way down 5 levels with 28 stopping points, to the engine room. It really was fascinating to learn how the ship ran with an Admiral in charge, and 20 officers and 220

Drawing Room

other ranks. We saw the rooms the Queen used both privately and officially, the Royal Barge which took the Royals to a landing place on shore, such as a wharf on the Yarra when visiting Melbourne, the Silver Cloud Rolls Royce, and the engine room which was spotlessly clean with shining brass and steel fittings - just as it was when the ship was being used by the Queen - it was decommissioned in 1997. Particularly interesting were the Drawing Room - where the family and special visitors gathered to meet before meals to relax, read the paper, do jig-saws, play Cluedo or play the grand piano, and the Dining Room where official dinners were held when in a port. People like Churchill, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and leaders of many other nations had dined in this room. Apparently it took 3 hours to get the table set properly for each meal.

In the afternoon we leisurely wandered through the beautiful and very peaceful Royal Botanic Gardens. Many large trees, a large rock garden, autumn colours everywhere, very green lawns, colourful flowers, tranquil pools, squirrels jumping over the tracks, a vegie garden, orchard area and a special garden planted in memory of the Queen Mother who was Scottish. A very peaceful ending of our time in Scotland, which we have loved.

Three big things and another castle

Sunday 24th September

We slept in, not waking until nearly 8.00 am! A rainy day with cloud all day,

1st up - The memorial to William Wallace who lead a battle against the English called the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1314. Wallace's troops although greatly outnumbered won the battle decisively and prevented the English taking Stirling Castle. The monument, which is taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa but smaller than the Eiffel Tower, is situated high on a hill overlooking the battle site. Bruce went the 264 steps to the top, which was in misty rain, and Merilyn went 140 steps up to both history floors.

The 2nd stop was at the Falkirk Wheel, an amazing engineering structure which lifts boats, and the water the're floating on, from one canal to another 39 m higher up. We watched two boats go up and one come down. It is the only wheel of this type in the world.

3rd stop was also in Falkirk to see the Kelpies. Massive metal sculptures of horses on either side of a lock in a canal - Kelpies was the name given to the horses which pulled boats along the canals.

Finally we reached Edinburgh and "Tammy" the Tom Tom showed us to the door of our accommodation. Dinner was in a full and happily noisy Italian restaurant.

Monday 25th September

We have been away for 6 weeks. Very foggy morning. We walked to and then along the Royal Mile to  the Edinburgh Castle, built high on a rocky hill and spent several hours exploring this historic and significant place, which included a viewing of the Scottish Crown Jewels.

Along the Royal Mile

Edinburgh Castle

Still walking, we went to the Georgian House, No 7 Charlotte Square, owned by the National Trust in the 'New Town' which was designed and built in the late 1700's. A video with actors playing characters from the period, and well set up rooms, showed how the rich lived in the 1800's.  

No 7 has the blue door, and the rooms with 2 windows to the right and one to the left.

Walking home we stopped at an Indian Restaurant for dinner. A great day!

Travelling South

 Friday September 22^nd

A travelling day. Very glad that we had decided to take the scenic route south from Banff, even though it was going to add an extra hour to the drive. Scenery was very picturesque and diverse. We passed through farm land where hay had been bailed and was being loaded onto huge trailers towed by tractors, dense forest where car lights were needed because of the gloom created by the overhead foliage, hills with patches of pink heather, rocky mountains with grassy slopes where skiing was the obvious winter sport, conifer forests, and glens with green grasses and rushing streams. We saw many cute villages, grand estates with long tree lined drives leading to Downton Abbey type mansions, several castles and not too many other travellers.

Late in the afternoon we stopped at Cupar for a cuppa where a lovely lady in a Christian bookshop/café told us how to get to Kettle Hills where we were heading following a Murray connection – David and his young wife Jane lived there for at least two years after they were married - Jane had lived there most of her life. We easily found the place and also found two adjoining  cottages of the right age and just down the road was evidence of an old quarry. In the 1851 Census David, Jane and a son had been living next to Jane's mother and her sisters and David was shown as a quarryman. I had a copy of an 1870's map in which the streets matched the current streets, although now there are more houses and one more side road. We might not have found the right cottages but we were certainly in the place where they lived. We also found the church where they were probably married in nearby Kettle. David, Jane and two children migrated to Geelong in 1854 and we don't know how they managed to do that - we think we are on an adventure!

Our adventure continued as we headed for Stirling' our destination for the night. With 10 miles to go a 'road closed' sign blocked our path. Diverted down a side road we finally reached a major road which eventually joined a freeway and finally we reached Stirling half an hour later and quite disorientated - not quite grumpy, but very tired. Finally put the GPS on and wound our way up  to the Youth Hostel, right up next to the castle, where we made our own tea at 9.00 pm! A very good day but with a somewhat unsettled ending. Lesson learned - trust Tammy the Tom Tom, and switch her on at the start of the journey.

Saturday 23rd September

We didn't use the car today! Morning bright and sunny but it didn't last long. Cold, windy and overcast for most of the day. Lot's of interesting history today. A modern 3D interaction experience which explained how Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland, was victor over the English at Bannockburn. The Rude Church of Scotland, second oldest building in Stirling - famous for the coronation of James VI, where John Knox was the preacher - a very large church with beautiful glass windows. Stirling Castle and Palace took up most of the afternoon - history, history, history! We walked part of the wall, saw Queen Anne's Garden, the kitchens, the Royal Chapel, the rooms of the Palace - three for the king and three for the Queen, the Grand Hall, and many other minor buildings. The evening finished with a very nice Indian dinner.

Robert the Bruce - Bannockburn

Stirling Castle

Closer to the North Pole

Thursday 21st September

It rained all day! Cloud level was so low that as we passed wind turbines we could see the bases of the towers but not the blades. In the morning we visited some wonderful coastal villages, a single row of houses right next to the sea wall with a concrete walled harbour, but it was too damp to take photos, or take a pleasant stroll, so we assured each other that we would return in the afternoon once the weather cleared.

Gardenstown - Thomas Murray was born near here.

 

We did return to the coast late in the afternoon but the weather was worse - now it was very cold and  windy as well as wet. However we still had a good day. Spent two hours or more tramping through cemeteries at New Pitsligo with the wet gear on. There were quite a few Murray graves but none that we were looking for - many of the oldest grave stones were just too difficult to decipher. We found the cottage that Thomas and Anne lived in in the main street in 1861and felt we got a good feel for the place and the surrounding country - very much like some of Western Victoria - low green hills with sheep farming and hay production.

The cottage on the left and would have had smaller windows and no dormer window 160 years ago

 

To fill in time we drove to Fraserburg, right on the tip of the North East side of Scotland, and found by chance a well set up museum which had an emphasis on the port and the fishing industry. The port is over 400 years old and was established so that goods could be shipped to Norway and the Baltic States. The herring industry then developed and photos from the 1890's showed hundreds of fishing sail boats in the harbour. It is still a significant port with many people employed in the fishing and food processing industries and in a lot of other industries associated with maintenance of ships. As well as being a hop step and jump from Norway we realised that we were probably as close to the North Pole as we are ever going to get - hence the cold wind! Some of the North Sea fishing fleet was in port when we drove down and I was amazed at the size of the boats.

Heading across Scotland

Tuesday 19th September

Glorious warm  sunshine all day!!!   Early start (9.00am - almost early) and viewed Eilean Dunan Castle before going across to Plockton of Hamish McBeth TV series fame. Both places just beautiful in the morning light.

More windy roads with passing places, more reflections in the locks, following the train line from Kyle of Lobash to Inverness. Lunch at Beauly and then a side trip To Urquhart Castle ruins, on Loch Ness, to collect our Scottish Heritage Passes and wander through the ruins with their amazing thick walls. The passes are for seven days and we should make good use of them. We found our Inverness accommodation much more easily than expected and had time to walk along the top end of the Caledonian Canal before dinner. Another short walk along the river Ness and then bedtime in another lovely attic room.

Inverness

Wednesday 20th September

Cloudy with soft rain this morning as we headed out to Colloden field. A very sobering place. Spent two hours learning about the Jacobite uprising which was lead by Bonnie Prince Charles with the aim of putting the Stuart King, James V111 who was exiled in France, Prince Charles's father, back on the English throne. The final battle was at Culloden and was a disaster for the Jacobites - about 1500 killed in two hours and only 70 British soldiers. The clan structure of Scotland society was changed forever following the defeat and the reprisals which followed. The British were determined that there would be no more Scottish uprisings and they brutally dealt with any one with Jacobite connections

Colloden

We walked over the battlefield where there were good interpretive signs explaining where the troops had been and what events had taken place on the day.

By afternoon the rain had stopped and we were at Fort George, a very large British Army Base which has a museum dedicated to the Scottish Highlander Regiments. In one room dedicated to the Seaforth Highlanders we were able to learn quite a bit about the regiment to which Merilyn's ancestor, Thomas Murray, had belonged in the early 1800's. He had been Paymaster when they were serving in Capetown, which is where David Wyndham Murray was born. He, David, migrated to Australia in the 1850's, settled in Geelong, and was Dawn Genat's (Merilyn's mum) grand father on her mother's side. Tomorrow we will explore Gamrie, where Thomas Murray was born and New Pitsligo, where he lived following retirement his from the army as a Chelsea Pensioner.

Some of the two hour drive from Fort George to Banff, our destination for the night, was along the coast and by chance we called into a village Port Knockeara which had many old cottages, a quaint port and fascinating rock formations. We had a nice chat with an elderly local who is restoring an old timber pilot boat and patted his old Border Collie, part Kelpie, dog. A lovely peaceful way to end the day.

Skye - practically perfect

Sunday 17th September

Clear blue sky to start the day - have almost forgotten what one looks like! Up early, did our own breakfast in the Youth Hostel - corn flakes, toast and marmalade, none of this cooked full Scottish breakfast rubbish! Headed inland for an hour to reach the top end of a road which ran back down to the coast through the Glencoe Pass. A somewhat grim place where a massacre of the Macdonald clan was carried out by the Campbell clan in the late 1700's. A terrific drive with many high and rugged mountain peaks and because of very little wind, great reflections off the surfaces of the Lochs. The only problem was the traffic - very heavy and fast. Imagine the road through the Gampians with non stop traffic in both directions doing about 110 kph. Once again all of the car parks were full to overflowing (the Scots obviously love climbing mountain peaks on a sunny Sunday), and so we were unable to stop to take photos. However, despite the overabundance of travellers, it was a most enjoyable trip.

 

After lunch and a walk around Fort William we took the Scenic road to Mallaig to catch a ferry to Skye. We stopped to explore the end of the Caledonian Canal which starts at Inverness and goes to Fort William and includes the waters of Loch Ness and Loch Lochy -

quite an engineering  for it's time which saves boats (mainly pleasure craft these days) a lot of time travelling in dangerous seas. At the Fort William end, boats travel through seven locks to come down from the canal to sea level.  The next stop was to climb to a lookout to view a monument to Bonnie Prince Charles which was erected to recognize the support of the Jacobites in the uprising against the British.

 

After leaving the Skye ferry we drove to our accommodation which was at Kyle of Lobasch, which is actually across a Loch from Skye, reachable by an impressive bridge. The B&B is a small, two storey cottage in a group of cottages overlooking a large Loch. Our view from a back bedroom is of a mountain with a paddock of white and black rare breed Hebredian sheep, directly behind us. Guess who loves it! Our dinner in the dining room of a recently refurbished hotel which overlooked the loch was great, particularly the tower pavlova - two meringues high full of cream with fresh berries, mango and passionfruit - guess who loved it!

 

Monday 18th September

 

Another blue sky morning, great for adventuring, but first we had to do the washing! Previously (twice) we had paid someone to do it whilst we kept gallivanting around, but here there was no one available. So to the laundrette we went, but all was not lost. I was able to photograph the bridge linking Skye to the mainland, and then watch the police close down the bridge and the highway through the town, which involved moving most of the traffic into side streets, to enable three trucks carrying massive wind turbine blades pass through the town. It was most entertaining.

 

 

We crossed the bridge to Skye at about 10am and did not cross back again until after 8pm. A wonderful day with highlights around every bend - mountains, picturesque villages, lochs, a waterfall into the sea, and much, much more. Also, we did not put on our coats!  - a first!

A Scottish Busker