secret spots (10. 012)

Presenting a pair of hidden places that H found—first in our campsite on the beach of Crackaig by Loth that’s buffered from traffic by a long path through the pasture and a rail underpass that keeps the bigger caravans away.

There were very few people, the larger campers perched on the dunes being permanent installations and presently vacant. It took some time to adjust to wind and the facilities were a bit lacking but no matter as we had a nice overnight stay.

The next was a hidden cove down a quite long, unmarked footpath through the heather (see previously) at an unassuming rest stop between Counties Caithness and Sutherland. The trail led by a gradual, rocky natural step descent to a stone and shale beach curtained by a protected cliff face host to hundreds of nesting puffins to observe from a distance. I was unsure whether I had ever seen the bird in flight (certainly not in person) but they were pretty cute and comical with their dangling little legs and deft crash landings.

and i would walk five hundred more (10. 011)

Following the North Coast 500 back towards the North Sea and open waters, we stopped at the stately ancestral home of the Clan Sutherland in the Highlands, Dunrobin Castle, the medieval fortification extensively remodelled in the 1830s in Scottish Baronial style for the second duke—whose father was a touch megalomaniacal having commissioned a colossal statue of himself build atop Ben Bhraggie visible at every point in the county and whose land reform practises were responsible for the Highland Clearances, landowners evicting crofting communities (tenant farmers) to make room for the far more profitable raising of sheep for wool.  

Dunrobin takes its present form thanks to these gains. We opted not to take the guided tour owing to the large amount of tour coaches parked in the forecourt—including a Rotel bus with a sleeper carriage (see previously) so instead we walked around to the beach of the Firth of Dornach to see the residence from that side before later claiming a patch of strand as our own.

kirk-yard (10. 009)

Still in the region of the Highlands referred to as the Black Isle, we paid a visit to the ancient Kirkmichael overlooking the placid Udale estuary on the Firth of Cromarty.

The grave markers, many of the slate slabs featuring exquisite masonry and funereal art and span more than eight centuries of memorial and memory and many moments of upheaval and transition with plague, war and reformation. The site has views of the bird sanctuary and drilling platforms.

and i‘ll be in scotland afore you (10. 008)

Meandering along the Spey and visiting a distillery—though too early for a tour and a testing before heading to Elgin (Eilginn, possibly meaning Little Ireland and reminding early Celtic settlers of home) in Moray whose cathedral was left in elegant and vaunted ruins since its destruction by fire in the late thirteenth century. 

I tried not to drag H to too many monoand i‘ll be in scotland afore you liths this trip but willingly we went to see the Stone of Sueno outside of Forres, the largest Pictish slab carving in the nation. The plinth traditionally associated with Sven Forkbeard features a Celtic style cross on one side and possibly a coronation scene on the other. 

Next we took a look at the ancestral home of Clan Brodie and the grounds of Fort George, a Vauban-inspired bastion that suppressed Scotland’s rebellion by taking the strategically important headland at the straits between the Firth of Moray and the bay leading into Inverness and Loch Ness before journeying there ourselves—seeing the Clava cairns, an ensemble of Bronze Age burial mounds along the way. 

We marveled first at Loch Ness and set up camp near Drumnadrochit (Druim na Drochaid) and hiked along a high coastal trail to Urquhart Castle overlooking the loch, whose invasion attempt by Edward I of England in 1296 marked the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence, besieged and never rebuilt in order to deny Jacobite elements purchase to reorganise.

aberdeenshire or deeside, donside (10. 006)

Decamping from outside of Edinburgh, we first headed to the quaint village of Queensferry to marvel at the antique and modern trio of bridges that span the Firth of Forth and link the south with points northwards.

Driving on, we came to the Grampian mountains and the landscape became increasingly remarkable as we went on.  

We stopped at Balmoral to visit the royal residence (we can definitely see why the Queen would live there part-time) before returning to the Highlands and winding and unforgettable trip through the Cairngorms with lots of stops to take in the incredible vistas. Leaving the Dee and the Don, we were now on the River Spey with its whisky distilleries and salmon spawning.

berwickshire (10. 004)

Arriving in the UK on the hottest day in recorded we tread as gently as possible so as to raise the ire for others, we came into the Tyne at Newcastle and headed for the borders, first stopping of at Bamburgh (no relation to the Bavarian city but rather the core fortress of this Northumbrian stronghold was named after the citadel captured by Anglo-Saxon warrior queen Ida of Bernicia called Bebba and thus Bebbanburg first established in the fifth century. 

Next fearing to be washed out by a high tide (see previously)we took a protracted tour of Lindisfarne, the Holy Isle, before visiting the ruins of Tantallon (a corruption of the descriptor din talgwn, high walled fortress) in North Berwick on the sea cliffs overlooking the Firth of Forth. 

The fourteenth century stronghold was constructed by William Douglass and withstood multiple incursions until finally abandoned as a ruin after Oliver Cromwell‘s attempted invasion of Scotland during the interregnum in 1651. Opposite it lays Bass Rock in the firth, originally hosting the hermitage of Saint Baldred but now a reservation for sea birds—particularly a colony of gannets.

Then after setting up camp on the outskirts of the city, we took the bus into Edinburgh (Dùn Èideann) to get a few impressions of the capital—which could of been a visit by itself. Our tour mostly confined to Castle Rock, Arthur‘s Seat, the mountain at the city centre (but we had a nice windshield tour with public transport nonetheless) hosting an ensemble of ancient buildings. There was also the Flower Clock of Edinburgh—presently commemorating the Queen’s jubilee.