Aug 8, '07 7:47 AM
for loretta's contacts
I feel as if I have been away from here for ages, apart from the odd test, quiz or to answer a message or something I just don’t seem to have really sat down and ‘blogged’ so to speak. Oh I’m going into withdrawl so here goes!
I’m sure it can’t really be as long as it seems. Those of you who know me also know all about my dodgy knees; the knees belong to a body which is rapidly nearing it’s sell by date and certainly wouldn’t pass its MOT. The thing is; the knees, along with the rest of the body, are driven by a brain which foolishly refuses to acknowledge the passage of time and persists in the delusion that it’s forever 25 (ish). Now, as you can imagine, this does cause a bit of a problem at times. For the last couple of weeks or so the knees have protested if made to sit at the computer for any length of time, they just don’t like the position they are forced to adopt and they are certainly not knees to shut up and suffer in silence, all of which partly explains my absence. But only partly; As coincidence would have it, at the very same time as the knees refuse to fold neatly under the computer, a friend who I just don’t get to see that often unexpectedly turned up and offered a weeks worth of sight seeing in the car. I duly consulted the knees and they assured me that stretching out full length in a plush, air conditioned, sat navigated, all singing/ all dancing car was totally acceptable whereas bending double in the cramped confines of under computing table was absolutely not. So……well what choice did I have but to drag myself along on this sight seeing tour? Just prior to the sight seeing tour, my family, who had already noticed I was just a wee bit down, depressed and stressed out had included me in several ‘fun’ family days out.
And that just about sums up the longer than usual absence from these pages. Inconsiderate and uncooperative knees, a brain which refuses to acknowledge the passage of time, family who are observant enough to recognise rising stress levels, and the unexpected arrival of a god-send of a friend with a car. Oh and then there are the photographs of course. Sight-seeing = multiple photo shoot opportunities = loads of photos to download, sort, save and put online, a time consuming task as yet unfinished. I could only do little bits at a time as and when the knees permitted.
Where do I begin? At the beginning I suppose, 8th July.
One daughter + one daughters’ partner + his daughter + their son + another of my daughters’ son + me, all took a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas is a REAL steam train and visits the Caladonian Railway in Brechin once or twice every year!! We met Thomas and all of his friends, we talked to the man on stilts wearing stripy trews and juggling balls, the children took rides on the fairground carousel and everyone went away clutching Thomas flags. The 25 year old brain thought it was great fun, the aged knees did nothing but complain but the sad and depressed spirit fleetingly lifted and sored.
http://www.caledonianrailway.co.uk/
Then there was Blair Drummond Safari Park, 12th July,
God-send friend + all singing all dancing car + youngest grandchild + me, all spent the day there. Child cuddled a Lama, clapped at the penguins, shyed away from the pacing Bear, rode on a ‘tea-Pot’ ride, half ate his packed lunch and finally peeded his pants in the sand pit and went home wearing bright red tiger pyjamas hurriedly bought from the shop. Think that adds up to a good time when you’re just two.
http://www.safari-park.co.uk/faqs.php
There followed a weekend of ‘events’ in our own little town.
On Saturday14th July,
WE had the ‘Seafront Spectacular’, an annual event held on the park next to the beach. With customary grandchild in tow I watched the Fly Past of three antiquated aircraft, all looping the loop and sending out streams of coloured ‘stuff’ (smoke?, Steam?, dunno exactly what it is). We watched the skydiving, all done in the name of some local charity, the grandchild climbed in, out and over and under a fire engine while wearing a REAL yellow fireman’s hat. I watched while the child inspected a steam roller, a whole row of very large motor bikes and what seemed like hundreds of circling Minis. Then, oh joy of joys…………the grandchild spotted the helium inflated, Thomas balloon floating in the sky, well he just had to have one. I was reliably informed he slept with this oversized, helium inflated Thomas balloon for the next week or until it was so deflated it posed a health hazard and had to be forcibly removed from his tiny, tightly closed fist. I think that operation also involved much screaming and stamping of feet but fortunately I wasn’t around to witness the final sad demise of Thomas, or the wrath of the child.
http://www.seafront.org.uk/
Saturdays Seafront Spectacular was followed on
Sunday 15th July,
by another local event arranged by one of the town pubs and named, rather tongue in cheek, ‘Tooties in the Park’. ‘Tooties’ is in fact the name of the organising pub, and the ‘Park’ is the park next to the pub where the event is held; But, the name itself (rather obviously) is a ‘take’ on the infamous ‘T in the Park’. Seemed to be hundreds of kids everywhere, daughters kids, daughters friends kids, kids belonging to neighbours, friends of friends, nephews, nieces, cousins, just kids, kids, kids and more kids where ever you looked. There were stalls, rides, marching bands, military bands, Radio DJ AND……the star attraction! A Crain whose top seemed to disappear into the clouds. At the very top of this Crain was a little platform from which people threw themselves off! And all in the name of charity, of course. Bungee jumping is, I am reliably informed, a totally ‘cool’ way to earn respect & cash for your chosen charity, It just looks bloody scary to me but each to his own I suppose. Guess even brain realises it’s not 25 sometimes.
MONDAY 30th JULY.
Then on with the sight seeing tour. Monday was the Falkirk
Wheel, a feat of contemporary engineering, with astounding mechanics, absolutely second to none. Monday dawned a fine, bright and sunny day perfect for our visit (no kids today) to the wheel and surrounding docks, barge boats and countryside. I managed some dramatic and almost abstract photography of the wheel, all of which are now stored in my flickr photos so please just go take a look. The Falkirk Wheel is the spectacular centrepiece of the £84.5 million ‘Millennium Link', the UK’s largest canal restoration project, developed by British Waterways to reconnect the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal, re-establishing east to west coast access for boats.
http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/
TUESDAY 31st JULY.
Tuesday was a late afternoon visit to Barry Mill just outside Carnoustie, Angus. We arrived too late to actually get into the Mill but …… another great photo opportunity, just go look at the photos and see what a great sky there was that evening. The Mill itself is a pretty interesting little place which we will return too later. This 19th century meal mill works on a demonstration basis. Records show that a mill has occupied the site since at least 1539. The present building was rebuilt in 1814 following a fire. Barry Mill was the last water-powered meal mill to work in Angus, producing oatmeal until the late 1970s and animal feed until 1982. The whole ‘visitor’ experience highlights the important place the mill held in the community.
http://www.aboutbritain.com/barrymill.htm
WEDNESDAY 1st AUG.
Now Wednesday really was an OUTSTANDING day, rated on a scale of 0-10 on out little sightseeing tour it’s right up there at 10++++. We travelled all the way North to Oban, known as the ‘Gateway to the Islands’. Oban lies on the North West coast of Scotland and is the major ferry port to many of the outlying Islands. The journey up there took us past hills, lochs, villages and scenery just out of this world. On the way we stopped briefly at Loch Earn, 87 meters deep, 10.5 km East to West, 0.8 km width at widest point, all set to a backdrop of hills, villages and water foul.
http://www.strathearn.com/op/lochearn.htm
Just before Oban we passed the Connel Bridge, built in 1901 over the entrance to Loch Etive and near to the ‘Falls of Lora’. This is a relatively small Cantilever bridge but quite an impressive one, anyone who likes bridges and engineering projects just check this one out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connel_Bridge
Once you get into Oban you can see why it is called ‘The Gateway to the islands’, that’s exactly what it is, a town that completely revolves around its little harbour. The town is full of people waiting for, embarking, disembarking, booking, or almost missing ferries all bound for one of the islands off the West Coast of Scotland. This is another of Scotland’s towns which once boasted a large, successful fishing fleet but in order to survive has had to ‘diversify’ as they say. Fortunately for Oban, it’s just the most amazing place for tourists so their future is assured, pity the same can’t be said for many more of the little fishing towns all along Scotland’s coast whose livelihoods have been decimated by ‘fish quotas’ and suchlike.
Dominating the skyline above the town is a Collosseum like structure built by Banker, (yes that is a B) John Stewart McCaig, a wealthy Victorian philanthropist. He designed the structure and built it by employing local unemployed stone masons throughout the winter months. It dominates the skyline, giving the impression that Oban is overshadowed by a great ancient monument that would rival the best that ancient world has to offer. All false of course, it’s just another example of the Victorian obsession with Ancient Classicism. BUT…… it offers views to die for, now these photos you have to check out
So here’s a bit of the history; The tower is also known as "The Crown of Oban" and is built on Battery Hill, which, as the name suggest was previously the site of gun emplacements. It’s approximately 190 feet in diameter and is essentially another Victorian ‘Folly’. The tower was built, like so many other "follies" to provide work for local stone masons. Whatever the reasons behind the building, or the inspiration, the tower has provided Oban with another attraction and this one is never, EVER forgotten. The views from the tower are stunning. It's position is perfect as it looks out over the harbour, Kerrera Island and the whole bay. Originally the wealthy philanthropist planned a tower, museum, art gallery and chapel all to be built at the site, but none of that actually happened. The likeness of the building to Rome's Coliseum has prompted suggestion that the tower was modelled on Rome's famous landmark, you can understand why, like I said, check out the photos. The tower is now owned by Oban Town Council who have added floodlights and maintain the property. The floodlights have ensured that the tower dominates the town at night. And we will just have to go back to see the tower at night!!
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/oban/oban/index.html
http://www.robinwilson.net/mccaigstower/mccaigstower.html
THURSDAY 2cd JULY.
Thursday and half way through our weeks worth of sight seeing already. Thursday’s destination was a place I had visited before but always wanted to return to. Amongst other things, (buildings, bridges, Victorian engineering projects, etc) I have a love of boats and ships. So Thursday’s destination was the Glenlee, One of only 5 Clydebuilt ships remaining afloat today. She was built in Glasgow in 1896 and used as a long haul cargo vessel. And what a very beautiful vessel she is! Apart from anything else, she’s just another great photo opportunity. The Glenlee was built at the Bay Yard in Port Glasgow and was one of a group of 10 steel sailing vessels built to a standard design for the Glasgow shipping firm of ‘Archibald Sterling and Co ltd’. She is a three masted barque, with length 245 feet; beam 37.5 feet and depth 22.5 feet. The Glenlee first took to the water as a bulk cargo carrier in 1896. She circumnavigated the globe four times and survived ( not easy in those days, though not without incident) passing through the fearsome storms of Cape Horn 15 times,(wow 15!!) before being bought by the Spanish navy in 1922 and being turned into a sail training vessel. The ship was modified and served in that role until 1969. She then operated as a training school until 1981 when she was laid up in Seville Harbour and largely forgotten. Untill she was rescued, brought home and restored to her former glory, don’t you just love a happy ending.
http://www.glenlee.co.uk/
FRIDAY 3rd JULY
And then it was Friday, the last day of the sight seeing tour in the plush, air conditioned, all singing/all dancing, sat navigated car. Also time for me to start calculating my unusually large eco footprint for the previous week……………..I’m gonna be turning off lights, recycling mine and every body else’s rubbish and letting even more of my garden grow wild for the next year to compensate for the oh so deliciously extravagant all singing/all dancing automobile excursion. But oh!..... it has been enjoyable. So Friday, well that turned out to be an odd day. We aimed for Loch Levan, it looked like a picturesque loch with a ruinous castle on an island in the middle of the Loch, only accessible by a boat ride. Oh…. It sounded an ideal way to end our week, so we set the sat nav, sat back and enjoyed the scenery.
www.kinrosshouse.com/lochleven_touristinfo.html
Unfortunately we asked her (sat nav) to take us to Leven, not LOCH LEVEN, seems the loch is not the same place as the town and the town turned out to be not that exciting. It’s quite a sad, kinda run down little sea side town, which has the cheek to ask 30p to go to the not so special loo on the sea front! So we sat in the car, drank coffee, looked at the sea and decided what to do. And what we decided was to just drive up the coast and have a look at the picturesque villages along the way. We passed St Monans, Pittenween and Anstruther.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Monans
www.scotland-flavour.co.uk/pittenweem -
www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/anstruther/anstruther
And this rather impromptu and unexpected tour of some of Scotland’s best kept secrets along the Fife coast was just such a high to end out sight seeing on. These are traditional Scottish fishing villages at their best. I haven’t quite finished downloading all the photos from my camera so the pictures from Friday have yet to go online, but all the others are there and these will follow just a.s.a.p. The only village we actually managed to park in and get a good look at was St Monans, and it was beautiful. St Monans is a town in the East Neuk of Fife named after the legendary Saint Monan. It’s approximately 3 miles west of Anstruther this small picturesque fishing community rests on a hill overlooking the Firth of Forth Estuary, with views over to North Berwick, the Bass Rock and the Isle of May. St Monans contains loads of historically important buildings, most notably the now defunct Windmill that once powered a salt-panning industry! There is also a 14th century church that perches precariously on the rock face cliffs above the water on the western side of the village. Approximately 1/2 mile west of St Monans, are the remains of the once great Newark Castle, a 16th century manor that has since fallen to ruin through cliff erosion and disrepair, another one to add to my ‘must see’ list. In 2002 with the permission of Historic Scotland, an attempt to restore the castle was made however for whatever reason was unsuccessful (if anyone knows why please feel free to add that in).
Parish Church
St Monans church, still within its kirkyard is just to the west of the village on the very edge of the sea. It’s rumored to be the church nearest the sea in the whole of Scotlands The church, one of the best Middle Ages Church in Scotland was built by King David 11Bruce (1329-71), initially for a small house of Dominican Frias. It later became the Church of Scotland parish church. The church has never been properly finished (it lacks a nave), it has many features of architectural interest, notably the fine stone vaulting in the choir and the simple but handsome ‘sedilia’. Internally it is white-washed throughout and is in a style that seems to dominate in this small Fife costal area.
Major restoration to the windows and masonry was completed in March 2007. The church is open to visitors daily from April – October, for some reason not open while we were there! And so ended our grand tour. From there we traveled up the coast intending to grab a coffee in St Andrews before setting off for our final destination….home. What we didn’t take into account was the ‘Ladies Open’, (important Golf for those of you who like me, are completely disinterested!), in full swing in St Andrews, and which consequently led to every parking place and coffee shop being full, full, full. Dehydrated, tired and homeward bound our weeks sight seeing finally came to an end. And after all that I’m sure you can see why blogging has taken a bit of a back seat for a while.
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Tags: 360 import, environment, seafront spectacular, arbroath, scotland
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