A Voyage of Discovery
Apr. 15th, 2012 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dave_future_predatoror... What I Did On Holiday. We were 2 weeks away, travelling in the camper around Scotland, covering nearly 900 miles and visiting friends and relatives, seeing some unusual and thought-provoking places steeped in history and, dare I say, wonder, of different kinds, and making me think about my past my present and my future. This may be over-egging it a little, but hey, anything else is just boring *g* Or maybe these are just blethers and a few holiday snaps :p
I thought a map might be in order first. We never really intended to do the full circle, but a chance to visit old family friends in the west, and see someone I've not seen for 15 years with her 8 yr-old son I've never met, was too good to pass up.
So, we started with a weekend near Ayr, staying with friends who have 2 young girls, one of whom was 3 and as mad as a bucket of frogs, it was wonderful!! Reminded me a little of miss fifiling, only perhaps even more bonkers. So nice to play with wee ones and hand them back at the end :p We visited Culzean Castle, a Georgian mansion with a wonderful clifftop setting.
On our way north to Aberdeen, we stopped to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Fife, so it was wonderful to see them for more than a quick hello at a family wedding. They were looking after their grandchildren, so that was more adorably cute toddlers to play with, and a chance for my children to play with their second cousins.
After a scorcher of a week before, there was snow when we were in Aberdeen, and in the wilds of mid-Aberdeenshire, where we had a lovely meal out for my Gran's birthday, it was still lying and enough for Dave to sit on a stone mushroom and refuse to get down *g*
After a cosy night on a campsite, we met up with hubby's family for a day of sightseeing on the Moray coast (where I set my original fiction, incidentally, so awesome to see those places!)
We visited the incredible House of Automata in Kinloss, where the guy who made the automatons for Hugo and The Woman in Black now seems to live and work. He was really cool!! A lovely chap. With his lab coat and moustache he was just the ticket! There were the most wonderful automata, some funny, some creepy! And lots of trick toys and quirky little things to see and buy in the shop. Automata are moving objects, often like clockwork, if you're not sure, check out their videos, like this lady with a fan.
We visited the Findhorn Ecovillage, which was odd, but interesting! It started out as a kind of spiritual settlement, but now has a very environmental focus, with a great deal of sustainable building. In the quiet garden I snapped this Hobbit-like house, more a glorified shed, really, but very pretty :)
We visited the village of Burghead, a fascinating place on a wee spit of land that was once the site of a Pictish fort. There was a fabulous cafe there - The Bothy - with more cakes and goodies than you could shake a stick at, and the Cullen Skink was brilliant. But we iz intellectual, and went to see the Burghead Well. Dutifully collecting the key for the gate from the designated house along the street, we went in to see the old well, a bizarre underground sink that may once have been used for ritual drownings in the Dark Ages... You couldn't get far down, just look at the pool from the bottom of the steps, but it was fascinating, a pool about ten feet across in a tall chamber.
We stayed Easter weekend with hubby's brother and wife, and Dave found a new friend! Awwww!
While staying with them, we visited the Clootie Well near Munlochy. These spiritual sites are common in Scotland, where people have long dipped a piece of cloth in the stream or well and tied it to a nearby tree, in order to receive healing or favour from the spirit of the well. We could see it from the road, and just had to stop on the way back from looking for dolphins (unsuccessfully) at Chanonry Point *g* In a piece of forestry land, the place was quite amazing. For a good distance around the stream, there were rags and pieces of clothing and hankies and all kinds on all the branches (not as many underpants as I'd expected, but there you go). Quite a sight!! Check this out.
Yes, it was also slightly gross, LOL!! You an imagine everything eventually gets a bit mouldy and icky *veg* However, in good fashion, we left a dishcloth from the camper, and my SIL left her sock, and Dave got a good atmospheric pic taken by the well itself, or the stone basin in the stream, at any rate.
From our most northerly part of the trip we headed southwest, on our most epic leg, down Loch Ness and through Glen Coe. It took us about 6 hours, and travelled some of the finest scenery in Scotland. We stopped at the Commando Memorial, in the most spectacular place, a fitting tribute to some of out finest troops. The statue is of three Commandos looking out across to Ben Nevis, complete with Fairbairn-Sykes knife on the belt.
The view all round was incredible, even with low-ish cloud. We arrived just before all the bus tours appeared :p
There's just nothing there.
Our final leg of the trip was spent back on the East coast, in the house I grew up in, where we helped my mum and dad clear some of the stuff the old tenants left behind and do some digging in the garden. It's a great house, but it needs a lot of work. The garden is amazing, about an acre, and I love going there and remembering all the good times I had as a child. To show how old I am, when we moved in, I could jump over the little fir tree now towering over the drying green *g*
And that pretty much concluded our trip (not least because all the digging crippled me, LOL) and we headed home. After visiting so many places in Scotland that formed our whole lives, we talked a lot about whether we would move back at some point, as we occasionally do. I don't think we came to any conclusion, other than we rather like where we are, and I couldn't help take a snap as we neared home. I've lived here almost as long as I lived in Scotland, and I'm not tired of it yet.
I thought a map might be in order first. We never really intended to do the full circle, but a chance to visit old family friends in the west, and see someone I've not seen for 15 years with her 8 yr-old son I've never met, was too good to pass up.
So, we started with a weekend near Ayr, staying with friends who have 2 young girls, one of whom was 3 and as mad as a bucket of frogs, it was wonderful!! Reminded me a little of miss fifiling, only perhaps even more bonkers. So nice to play with wee ones and hand them back at the end :p We visited Culzean Castle, a Georgian mansion with a wonderful clifftop setting.
On our way north to Aberdeen, we stopped to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Fife, so it was wonderful to see them for more than a quick hello at a family wedding. They were looking after their grandchildren, so that was more adorably cute toddlers to play with, and a chance for my children to play with their second cousins.
After a scorcher of a week before, there was snow when we were in Aberdeen, and in the wilds of mid-Aberdeenshire, where we had a lovely meal out for my Gran's birthday, it was still lying and enough for Dave to sit on a stone mushroom and refuse to get down *g*
After a cosy night on a campsite, we met up with hubby's family for a day of sightseeing on the Moray coast (where I set my original fiction, incidentally, so awesome to see those places!)
We visited the incredible House of Automata in Kinloss, where the guy who made the automatons for Hugo and The Woman in Black now seems to live and work. He was really cool!! A lovely chap. With his lab coat and moustache he was just the ticket! There were the most wonderful automata, some funny, some creepy! And lots of trick toys and quirky little things to see and buy in the shop. Automata are moving objects, often like clockwork, if you're not sure, check out their videos, like this lady with a fan.
We visited the Findhorn Ecovillage, which was odd, but interesting! It started out as a kind of spiritual settlement, but now has a very environmental focus, with a great deal of sustainable building. In the quiet garden I snapped this Hobbit-like house, more a glorified shed, really, but very pretty :)
We visited the village of Burghead, a fascinating place on a wee spit of land that was once the site of a Pictish fort. There was a fabulous cafe there - The Bothy - with more cakes and goodies than you could shake a stick at, and the Cullen Skink was brilliant. But we iz intellectual, and went to see the Burghead Well. Dutifully collecting the key for the gate from the designated house along the street, we went in to see the old well, a bizarre underground sink that may once have been used for ritual drownings in the Dark Ages... You couldn't get far down, just look at the pool from the bottom of the steps, but it was fascinating, a pool about ten feet across in a tall chamber.
We stayed Easter weekend with hubby's brother and wife, and Dave found a new friend! Awwww!
While staying with them, we visited the Clootie Well near Munlochy. These spiritual sites are common in Scotland, where people have long dipped a piece of cloth in the stream or well and tied it to a nearby tree, in order to receive healing or favour from the spirit of the well. We could see it from the road, and just had to stop on the way back from looking for dolphins (unsuccessfully) at Chanonry Point *g* In a piece of forestry land, the place was quite amazing. For a good distance around the stream, there were rags and pieces of clothing and hankies and all kinds on all the branches (not as many underpants as I'd expected, but there you go). Quite a sight!! Check this out.
Yes, it was also slightly gross, LOL!! You an imagine everything eventually gets a bit mouldy and icky *veg* However, in good fashion, we left a dishcloth from the camper, and my SIL left her sock, and Dave got a good atmospheric pic taken by the well itself, or the stone basin in the stream, at any rate.
From our most northerly part of the trip we headed southwest, on our most epic leg, down Loch Ness and through Glen Coe. It took us about 6 hours, and travelled some of the finest scenery in Scotland. We stopped at the Commando Memorial, in the most spectacular place, a fitting tribute to some of out finest troops. The statue is of three Commandos looking out across to Ben Nevis, complete with Fairbairn-Sykes knife on the belt.
The view all round was incredible, even with low-ish cloud. We arrived just before all the bus tours appeared :p
There's just nothing there.
Our final leg of the trip was spent back on the East coast, in the house I grew up in, where we helped my mum and dad clear some of the stuff the old tenants left behind and do some digging in the garden. It's a great house, but it needs a lot of work. The garden is amazing, about an acre, and I love going there and remembering all the good times I had as a child. To show how old I am, when we moved in, I could jump over the little fir tree now towering over the drying green *g*
And that pretty much concluded our trip (not least because all the digging crippled me, LOL) and we headed home. After visiting so many places in Scotland that formed our whole lives, we talked a lot about whether we would move back at some point, as we occasionally do. I don't think we came to any conclusion, other than we rather like where we are, and I couldn't help take a snap as we neared home. I've lived here almost as long as I lived in Scotland, and I'm not tired of it yet.
