Muir of Ord to Dounby, Orkneys

August 3:  Today we got up early for a 3-hour drive to Thurso and the port town next door,  Scrabster, so we could catch the 1:15 pm ferry to the Orkneys.  We gave ourselves four hours to complete the drive, but it took a little less than three, so we had time to walk around Thurso and pick up lunch supplies.  Thurso is perched at the top of Scotland on one side of large harbor with a great 'dog walking' beach.  Scrabster is on the other side of this harbor, sheltered from the wind.

Thurso main square

Thurso beach front

We had purchased ferry tickets - one for the vehicle and 3 for us passengers, on-line, so we just had to check in at the ferry gate and get assigned a place in line to wait for the ferry.  We had about 45 minutes to kill so we wandered up to a nearby lighthouse and  around the docks.  There were rare blue butterflies, a rare species of bumblebee, and a very common jellyfish (in the water). 

A rare blue butterfly

A unique bumblebee

We boarded the medium-large ferry with a single vehicle layer and two passenger levels.  We departed in clear weather, hit fog midway, and broke out the fog as we arrived into Stromness Harbor, on the West Mainland Island of the Orkneys.  We enjoyed a picnic lunch on board.

Island of Hoy before completely fogged in

Stromness

We debarked with everyone else and drove about 20 minutes from Stromness to Dounby and checked into the Smithfield Hotel.  It is located at the intersection of two roads at the north end of Loch of Harray, on West Mainland.  As I write this, Elaine and Betsy are reading up on what to do and see on the Orkneys, which include 70 islands in the archipelago, with a total population of 24,500.  There are only 4 islands with roads that we can drive to without a ferry, a couple more that are connected by ferry and may have vehicles (i.e., roads), and lots have little airports.  Hoy and the famous cliff side pillar known as Old Man of Hoy were covered in fog as we sailed past.  Hoy can be reached only by passenger ferry.

Pitlochry to Muir of Ord

August 2:  Today involved a drive northward through the western edge of Cairngorms National Park to just west of Inverness at Muir of Ord, with a stop in Aviemore.  We had a nice breakfast in probably the best equipped and furnished hotel we have seen on this trip (The Westlands).  It was spacious and modern - the plumbing had proper mixing taps.  We drove through the park which has very broad valleys and rounded hilltop vistas.  The tops of the largest 'munros' or mountains were in the clouds, though the weather did clear as we arrived in Aviemore.

Aviemore and the Spey Valley

Aviemore is a skier/mountain community that caters to visitors, rather like a smaller Jackson Hole, WY.  We went to Visitor Info and asked for a local hike suggestion.  We were pointed to one in a nearby nature park that wound up about 800 feet to a viewpoint overlooking the town and across the valley to the mountains.  The park was also billed as a place to see nesting Peregrine falcons.  The three of us started up, but Elaine begged off (wisely, she would not have enjoyed the slightly steep, rocky and potentially slippery trail).  Betsy and I climbed to a high viewpoint just short of the top.  The views were good but were impossible to photograph because they were so broad.  The hillsides were tundra-like with lots of heather in differing forms and shades of purple, ferns, lichen, and, a little lower down, huckleberry bushes, with ripe, tart berries.  We wondered why they weren't being picked by the locals.

We walked down and met up with Elaine, then drove north to Inverness.  We did a short Rick Steve's suggested walk in the town, which isn't much.

River Ness

We next drove to Muir of Ord and, after some bumbling around, found our accommodation for the night - Ord House Hotel.  We drove 3/4 of a mile down an potholed, one-lane driveway to a 17th century country house, with a black lab and free-range chickens out front.  The owner, Johnny, showed us our rooms, served as bartender, and regaled us with a variety of topics - training USCG cadets in San Francisco, skiing in the French Alps, being a lawyer in the City of London, weather, National Health Care, lotteries,and US politics.  While these topics don't sound humorous, we laughed a lot.  The hotel, though old and full of odd spaces, seems to have been updated effectively and is very comfortable.  Our pub supper was also fine.

The Bar at Ord House Hotel, 'Johnny's haunt'

Ord House Hotel in Muir of Ord

One of two watchdogs, unknown name; the other Poppy, was older, quieter and liked laying by the fire

N. Queensferry to Pitlochry

August 1:  Our first destination today was St. Andrews, on the east coast, and then we drove to Pitlochry, the gateway to the Cairngorms National Park.  We had an easy time getting away from Edinburgh and arrived in St Andrews, which we had never visited, by mid-morning.  We parked the car in a long-term lot next to the University of St. Andrews Physics Building and walked to the 18th hole of the "Old Course."  St Andrews is where golf was invented and played since the 17th century.  The 18th hole is parallel to the 1st hole, and we watched foursomes 'tee off,' complete with photographs, as well as people putting out the last hole.  The guide books say that if you want a tee time, book ahead by at least a year.  The fairways were as immaculate and closely cropped as the greens, and it was only by finding a flag did we know where the green was.  Interestingly, there are five different courses woven together in a triangle of land just back from the beach called West Sands.  The West Sands is where the running scene in The Chariots of Fire was filmed.

The 18th Hole, Old Course

We walked up along the famous golf-related buildings on the bluff overlooking the courses and by the museum of golf.  We then passed a war memorial, bandstand, and a pool; the views of the coast line were spectacular.  The town of St Andrews was founded as a religious site sometime around about 600 AD.  The relics of Saint Andrew were being brought from the Holy Land when the ship wrecked just off the coast of Scotland, so the priests said "we have arrived" and built an abbey and cathedral.  We followed a Rick Steve's walking tour into town, passing the University of St. Andrews (the original, historic, quad and chapel buildings), stopped briefly in the Museum of St. Andrews, went by the ruins of the Castle (founded about the same time as the monastery as home for the bishop) and finally reached the point of the peninsula where the the cathedral was.  It is a major ruin with only a few walls and two towers still standing (castle, abbey, and cathedral were gradually dismantled during the Scottish Reformation).  The cathedral was historically a pilgrim destination comparable to Santiago de Compostela and is still a tourist mecca.  We walked back through town with its old, historic buildings and shops.  The university is intermingled with much of this downtown area.  By the way, Prince William and wife Kate were both members of the class of 2005.

University of St. Andrew, main quad

St. Andrew Castle 

St. Andrew Cathedral

We left St. Andrews and drove first north over the Firth of Tay to Dundee (4th largest city in Scotland), then west to Perth and then north to Pitlochry, just outside of the Cairngorms National Park.  We checked in to a very nice "large B&B" and decided to walk up and around to the Edradour Distillery.  We arrived 15 minutes after the last tour, but I already knew what I was going to buy.  The shop was still open, of course.  When we were in Ft. William after the WHW hike, we sampled a cream liqueur made with Edradour scotch and milk.

 It was lovely then, so we bought a bottle for evening nightcaps.  I also got a small bottle of their standard 10-year old single malt scotch.  However, we won't be bringing any of it home since there is no room in the luggage.  We'll have to drink it here - so sad.

We walked back to town by way of a scenic waterfall and stopped for beer and cider before returning to the B&B.  We went for dinner, saw a pipe band parade through town to a park ground near the Tay River for an evening show of Scottish music, and then we walked up to the Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder.  The dam and ladder are part of a huge hydroelectric power 'scheme' in this section of the Highlands owned by Scottish Power.  This dam was built in 1951, and there are over 70 more dams, 54 powerhouses, and lots of underground tunnels and diversions moving water around, consolidating it, thereby maximizing generation.

Sunday in Edinburgh

July 31:  We had a thorough day in Edinburgh.  We took the local train from North Queensferry to Edinburgh-Waverly, the main train station, arriving about 10:30 am.  We walk through a close to the Royal Mile and up to the Castle to collect Elaine's pre-paid ticket.  The scaffolding for the Military Tattoo was in place, which starts on August 2nd for a month.

We walked partway downhill to St. Giles Cathedral to attend the 11:30 am church service - choir and sermon.  It started with prelude by Tallis and ended with a Fugue by Mendelssohn, played on a magnificent organ.  In between, we sung a few hymns and heard a sermon by a newly hired American paster from Florida.  The choir was quite good, too.

St. Giles Cathedral

Organ inside St. Giles

After church, Elaine went to tour the Castle.  Betsy and I explored the neighborhood south of the Royal Mile.  We walked through Grass Market to Greyfriars Abbey/Cemetery.  The neighborhood is were JK Rowlings first began writing Harry Potter stories, we saw a tour group being escorted around complete with wands, and noticed a grave marker to a McGonagal (inspiration for JK Rowling).  We next explored the first floor of the National Museum of Scotland (Smithsonian-like) with an eclectic collection of Scottish artifacts and recognizing famous people.  One interesting aside for those of you who were in Glasgow, we saw this clock in the Museum and it might of been made by the same guy who did all the crazy whirligigs in the Kinetic Museum, Glasgow.

We were meeting Elaine at Deacon Brodie Pub, supposedly the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  On the way the went quickly through a Scotland National Library exhibit on Maps.

After drinks in the pub, we walked down the rest of the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace, the royal residence in Scotland.  No one was at home from the royal family (probably on the way to Balmoral instead), so we paid for entry and toured the palace, with audioguides.  The layout of rooms resembles the standard procession for a royal visit in historic times.  One starts in large public spaces and works to increasing intimate spaces, culminating in the bedroom, though the king (or queen) never slept in this room.  We saw a few more rooms used by Mary, Queen of Scots, located in the oldest tower of the palace.  We next visited a special exhibit of Queen Elizabeth's ceremonial dresses.  We exited through the ruins of the abbey, which was the original structure on the site.

Abbey Ruin at Holyrood Palace

We walked to New Town, tried to view the Queens Garden, but it is evidently private and ended up at a Middle Eastern restaurant for dinner.  We each ordered three mezze plates and shared all around.  Our dinner included dessert, and we all chose profiteroles.

We walked along Princes Street to the Haymarket Train station for the ride back to North Queensferry.

Edinburgh Castle

Hayden Bridge to North Queensferry

July 30. Mostly a driving day.  After a short debate we opted for a route that went along the coast of Northumbria, instead of inland past a national park.  We stopped at the seaside town of Amble, to walk along the beach and along its harbor.  It's a vacation destination for Northumbrians, even though it may never get very warm.

Amble coastline with view to St. Coquille Island, a bird refuge; previously monastic cell and lighthouse

Then we drove into Alnwick, in search of a toilet stop and maybe a picnic.  Somehow we got pulled into a major tourist site, Alnwick Garden and Castle, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Northumbria, the Percy's.  We turned into its vast parking lot and the attendants collected 3 pounds before we knew what we were doing.  We followed the hordes across the road and found that the site would have cost us more than 30 pounds to go in.  We did use the toilets, took a quick walk through a woodland park and then ate our picnic in the car.

We drove all the way to Edinburgh, crossing the Firth of Forth to North Queensferry.  Our strategy is to take the train to Edinburgh tomorrow for sightseeing, thereby avoiding the need to drive in and try to find parking.

We checked into the Ferrybridge Hotel, a quaint little pub/hotel/restaurant in the shadow of the two bridges that cross the Forth.  The oldest bridge was opened in 1894, the current bridge was opened in 1964 to motorized traffic while the first bridge was converted to rail use only.  As we approached the Forth, we saw a new stave bridge under construction.  It will replace the bridge opened in 1964 and that bridge will carry public transport.  We completed a short walk around Queensferry seeing a some local historical sights.

Queensferry Crossing, the new bridge; stave

Forth Bridge, built in the 1890s; cantilevered

Ambleside to Hayden Bridge

July 29:  Today, we left Ambleside and the Lake District for our tour of Scotland.  We got up early to finish packing, prepare lunch, clean out the refrigerator, eat breakfast and grab cups of coffee from our favorite coffee bar (using our "frequent flyer" card to get a free cup).  We loaded the 5 suitcases, 3 packs, and several bags of other stuff into the car.  We used all of the space in the car leaving barely enough room to sit.

We drove northward toward Patterdale, going out of Ambleside by way of Kirkstone Pass on a road called "The Struggle," a 20% graded road.  We stopped for the view at Kirkstone, which is at over 1,400 feet elevation; the inn located at the pass is reputedly the highest in England.  We drove down past Brothers Water and into Patterdale, seeing several sights from our Coast-to-Coast walk - the restaurant whose owner' s young daughter had walked the trail 3 times, the White Lion, and the Grisedale B&B.  We stopped at the next village, Glenridding, and the National Park Visitor Center.  In December 2015, after a month of heavy rain, the beck that flows through the town flooded, wiping out streets, inundating buildings, and undermining many foundations. The creek bed is under flood protection upgrades with a wider bed and new, reinforced concrete sidewalls with rock overlays).   The visitor center is in a "temporary" trailer which the Rangers say may become permanent.  The corner of the old visitor center was undermined and flooded.  The Rangers said it costs too much to reconstruct, so the Park is just going to leave it standing and empty.

We drove to Penrith and continued east to the historic "cathedral and castle town" of Durham.  We parked in a high tech parking garage (your license plate is read when you enter the garage, then upon leaving, you type the plate number in at a kiosk and it calculates your parking charge) and walked up to the top of the central plaza to the Cathedral.  It is considered the finest intact Norman-style cathedral in the world and dates back to the 11th century, shortly after the Norman Conquest.    It has twin square towers at the west end and a newer, more gothic-style bell tower toward the other end.  The architecture evolved over time, with several additions.  The Norman-style (notably circular arches) remains in the central portion of the complex, which took only about 40 years to construct, comparatively fast for a cathedral.  The main columns are more massive that those of later Gothic cathedrals.  We wandered around the entire inside and walked the four sides within the attached cloister.  No photographs were allowed inside, though I snuck a couple while in the cloister.  We had an interesting chat with one of the many volunteers that roam around inside.

From the Cloister

We next drove north and west to a small town, Hayden Bridge, and checked into the Anchor Inn, a pub undergoing some rejuvenation by the new owners.  We then drove up toward Hadrian's Wall and Housesteads Roman Fort.  By the way, driving on the narrow roads is a bit stressful since with larger trucks and buses, one only has a few inches of clearance on either side and the locals don't seem to slow down when they approach you.  I do slow though I am getting a little better hugging the left side of my lane.  The farmers in Land Rovers are the speediest drivers.

Housesteads was interesting.  The fort, which dates from about the third century AD,  is about 1/2 mile from the parking area, up on a bluff with good views to the north (toward the 'Barbarians').  We got oriented by watching a 20-minute movie that showed the remains as there are now and graphically reconstructed what the scholars believe they originally looked like.  After the movie, we walked all over the site, seeing remnants of the commander's house,  the HQ/Administration building, the soldiers' barracks (housing up to 800 soldiers), the hospital, grain storage, the bakery, and latrines.  The layout is like all Roman forts, roughly square-shaped, with 4 gates in the middle of each wall.  The fort's north wall was integral to Hadrian's Wall itself.

Central heating Roman-style

The Latrine, with running water

 We made one more stop before returning to the Anchor Inn, to see the remains of  Brocolitia, a temple to Mithras, a minor Roman god.  It was small, roughly 20 by 10 feet, with an anteroom, altars, wooden screens, and earthen benches for seating.  Only a few carved stone pieces remain inside the stone outline of the temple but you could picture soldiers or camp-followers coming here to wish for a promotion or healthy children.

Temple of Mithras

Dinner was at the Anchor, which had a good kitchen, offering creative variations (and generous servings) on typical pub food.

Day 27 - Ambleside

July 28:  It rained most of the day, some of the worst weather we have had in the Lake District so far.  It was our last day here, so we packed.  And, we tested fitting our largest-sized suitcase in the rental car.  I was able to get it in after removing the hatchback shelf and folding part of the back seat down.  We concluded we would be able to get everything in the car, though it would be a tight fit.

Otherwise we hung out in the flat, reading and watching it rain.  By late afternoon we had to move and went out with umbrellas for a walk.  We walked to Rydal on the main road, passing the site for a one-day Lakeland Sports festival and returned home via a back lane.  The sports festival didn't appear to have much attendance.  It featured a fell run (by humans) and various other activities, including hound trials - a race for foxhounds on a course laid out by dragging a scented rag over the ground.  It sounded interesting but it was raining too much.  And, I wondered if the scent would wash away.  As we walked by, we saw some hounds being led to a start point we presume, though we didn't wait for the start.  Many minutes later we heard a cacophony of barking which must have been the race.  We were too far away from the fields by that point.

We ate leftover food for both lunch and dinner and drank the rest of the cider and beer, too.