Blog 27.6.14 Farewell to Scotland

3:56am Orkney sunrise

Falkirk wheel 35m upwards!!

Inside XC14AEJ towards Mull

Loch Duich walk

Nae... it's a flat walk

Skara Brae House,dresser and beds

Skye towards Isle of Raasay 

Stirling Castle..Bass relief ceiling in fantastic colour

We drive South tomorrow after almost 3 weeks in Bonnie Scotland.  So we have sampled several drams of whiskey (some with affable Scots), listened to bagpipers busking, admired knobbly knees beneath the kilt, talked to native Gaelic speakers (they pronounce it as garlic), seen thistles just coming into flower, photo’d beautiful wild orchids, watched as the hillsides slowly turn purple as the heather starts flowering, enjoyed the debate on BBC Scotland about the referendum on independence and we have avoided eating haggis (sold wrapped in plastic in the supermarket)! Sean Connery a proponent of independence gives advice from the states!!

We spent today in Glasgow, a city being made all squeaky clean for the Commonwealth Games in July. They contracted the graffiti artist, Banksie to do some of his work around the city and it is fascinating. We visited the grand University of Glasgow and while in the Hunterian Museum looked out the window to see masses of graduates leave their ceremony and process around the courtyard lead by a piper. Great stuff. This museum has a few Maori treasures brought back by Cook, although some of the Maori names were mentioned little other information was presented. Interesting to know, for those of you who studied at Vic, that Glasgow Uni has a Hunter and a Rankin building. James Watt, what a scientist….wow.

The rest of our stay on the Orkney Islands continued to be intriguing. One highlight was the graffiti left written in runes by the Vikings in the Neolithic tomb, Maeshowe. They were apparently seeking shelter for 3 days in a storm. The graffiti translated to just what our graffiti says today, for example boasts about their ability such as ‘I am the best writer of runes in the world’ and the names of local lassies. One of the sentences was written by a woman, this was great to hear and means that some Viking women were educated. The runic alphabet used is called Futhark (sounds like a good swear word) one of several forms. Certainly see where Tolkien based his.

The drive down the western Highlands was beautiful with dramatic scenes of mountains, coast and lochs. There are SO many lochs! Scotland will be exporting the world’s water in the future. Unfortunately the weather was still cold and misty so we did not see it at its best. The road is single track with passing bays and like many Scottish roads had an appalling road surface so it was a slow trip.  Best roads were on Orkney! There were lots of other campervans on the road with convoys of German or French tourists common.

We had a couple of nights on the shore of Loch Duich and the weather lifted one afternoon so we tramped up one of the hills behind the camp and got above the tree-line. This was the first time we noticed the notorious Highland midges. They swarmed around our heads when we stopped walking despite our insect repellent. They even got on the lens of the camera as we tried to take photos. One man told us that in June the midges are just getting their boots on. They sell nets for covering heads and we saw some people wearing them. Very wise…however gives a meshed view of the world!

Next came a couple of days on the Isle of Skye - this was delightful but again the mist and rain meant that we could not see all the scenery. Visited Dunvegan Castle, then on to visit a very expensive potter and ended up at the Taliskar Distillery.

Interestingly Talsiker distillery set the nearby loch on fire some years ago as a considerable volume of very high proof alcohol leaked from the distillery on to the lake and caught fire! Must have made for interesting swimming.

Had a short walk near the Cuillin Hills over the moorland and warmed up in the pub afterwards. The weather lifted on our drive South to Oban as the sun came out. Luckily we were given a wonderful campsite right on the beach with a view over the Isle of Mull, we got the deck chairs out for the second time on the trip and just enjoyed being there. What a beautiful part of the world.

On our way down to Glasgow we stopped and visited the very special Stirling Castle. They are restoring part of the castle (the Palace) to the way it would have looked in the 1500’s. New tapestries are being woven (you can watch this being done) and replica sculptures are made and painted as they would have been. An explosion of colour. We will look at castles differently in future. Great accessible summary of Scottish history was provided in one of the halls. As a balance to all the old and ancient stuff we indulged our fascination with British canals systems by going on a boat ride on the Falkirk Wheel. This 2002 structure takes boats vertically 35 metres between two canal systems and replaces 11 locks. It only took 4 minutes! Great Scottish engineering.

Despite the cold, mist and rain it has been a great visit. We often said ‘and this is their summer’. You would think this would make people depressed but every Scot we have talked to is upbeat, warm and welcoming and ready with a joke….and with out an empty bottle of whisky in hand. Our bus driver into Glasgow today said he loves summer as the rain is warmer!