west lothian (10. 023)

Though certainly the numerous landmarks we saw did not disappoint, quite a few places we visited were closed for access and undergoing repairs, including one of the final stops we made at the royal palace of Linlithgow. We had a nice time touring the grounds, the Peel, and learning about its residents of renown including the Steward line,

James V, his daughter Mary Queen of Scots—subject of royal intrigue and crisis of succession and the first target of the so called Rough Wooing, who found allies in France and the papacy coinciding with Henry VIII’s turning away from the Church in Rome and eventually forced to abdicate herself in favour of her infant son James VI & I, ruling a united England, Scotland and Ireland—but the inter court was closed pending repairs. From a safe distance, H tried launching his drone for a glimpse from above but the gulls tried to hunt it down and had to quickly abort the mission. Linlithgow was originally established as an English fort to disrupt the supply route between Edinburgh and Stirling castles (the baby Mary was spirited away to the more defencible latter), destroyed and rebuilt for the monarchy, embellished over generations until falling into disrepair from disuse as courtly life was now centred in The south. The palace lies on the banks of the eponymous loch in the city centre behind the church of Saint Michael with its modern steel steeple and has a gangway with the dates and reigns of all the Scottish kings and queens. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, who kept Mary confined to various castles in England after she relinquished her title and claim and eventually had her beheaded—after eighteen years—for conspiring against her majesty, is not referred to by her ordinal designation and rather as Palatine Electoress as she never ruled over Scotland. To this end, after the coronation of the current monarch, some Royal Mail post boxes were vanalised, objecting to Elizabeth II because there never was a first.

eilean donan (10. 022)

In search of coffee and a light lunch and more intent to explore more of the northwest Highlands’ natural beauty, we happened on the small tidal island at the confluence of three sea lochs named for Irish missionary Donnán of Eigg—a saint martyred when trying to convert the Picts—with a very spectacular and picturesque castle that was once the stronghold of Clan Mackenzie, demolished for their involvement in the Jacobite rebellion, garrisoning a contingent of Spanish mercenaries and a magazine of gunpowder, prompting the English government to send in three heavily armed frigates to quell the uprising, in the early seventeen hundreds but restored over two decades in the early twentieth century according to its original thirteenth century design. 

Once the focus of clan feuds, the castle and its destruction—and subsequent rebuilding—is seen as a symbol of resistance and loyalty to the House of Stuart. The striking building has had several cameos in film and television, including The Highlander franchise, Braveheart and the 1999 Bond movie The World is Not Enough, as well as the short, once thought lost film Black Angel that features the castle and island prominently and was exclusively screened as a double-feature with The Empire Strikes Back in UK cinemas in 1980.

7x7 (10. 021)

from zero to five thousand: the exponential growth in the discovery of exoplanets since 1991 until the present

verdissement d’image: newly ascribed French vocabulary on climate demonstrates the language’s malleability

thebandwashere: decade‘s plus project by photographer Steven Burnbaum to overlay musicians and venues

necroborics: scientists exploit the hydraulic limbs of dead spiders 

test kitchen: thousands of emoji mash-up permutations—via Waxy 

the odaae: Oxford press publishes a dictionary of African American English  

 

recolte se fér: raging wild fires across Europe setting off unexploded ordinances from World War I

loch monster (10. 020)

(The rhythm from the B-52s Rock Lobster playing throughout) We all know Loch Ness (I conflated the history of the struggle of control for the strategic bulwark with that of the legendary monster—it’s a metaphor), majestic Loch Lomond, Loch Awe but we‘d like to acquaint you with the Loch of Garry which when viewed from Glengarry and from the right angle resembles a map of Scotland.

Or there’s Loch Lochy that’s haunted by a waterhorse, a kelpie who lures mares and stallions into the water and capsises boats. Or there’s Loch Pityoulish in the Cairngorms off the River Spey, whose name means “at the settlement of the bright place” and is popular for wild swimming. More to come. Motion in the ocean—hoorah!

inner hebrides ii (10. 019)

More impressions from the Isle of Skye, including some iconic Scottish cows.

inner hebrides i (10. 018)

Nearly completing a circuit of the second largest island of Scotland, we were absolutely enthralled with the Isle of Skye—probably from the Old Norse for the Islands of Mist (though considerably clearer and brighter in relative terms) and found this otherworldly landscape breathtaking.

The northern peninsula of Trotternish with its underlying strata of basalt offers some especially distinctive geographical features like the chromatic sea cliffs faceted with quartz called Kilt Rock whose columnar formations resemble pleats of a skirt, numerous rocky pinnacles and the striking landslip known as the Storr with its thirty meter high pillar known as the Old Man. Storr and its surroundings were stand-ins for the exomoon LV-223 in the 2012 Alien prequel Prometheus (previously)—not to mention a beach called An Corran near Staffin riddled with Jurassic footprints.  Though we did not manage to locate the traces of dinosaurs lumbering along the primordial strand, we have faith the evidence was right under our feet.

supply chain (10. 017)

Perched atop a formerly staffed look-out point above the Wester Ross village of Aultbea on the shores of sea Loch of Ewe, we gained some insight into the present NATO refueling depot, whose depths are accommodating to large maritime vessels coming inland through its history as the base of operations from 1941 until 1944 for the vital but treacherous resupply corridor through the Arctic that kept an otherwise cut-off co-combatant connected to the rest of the Allied powers and furnished fuel and other essentials.

 Aside from the modern station flanked with the platforms a of gunnery emplacements, Aultbea and neighbouring villages host a number of World War II relics as testament to their role in this support effort over the top of the world.

gorgeous on the contrary (10. 016)

Whilst waiting for us as well as our camping kit to hopefully air-dry back at the campgrounds near Ullapool on Broom Loch (Lochbraon, Gaelic for the Loch of Rain Showers—that ought to have been a clue), we hiked down the forested trail to view Corrieshalloch Gorge (Coire Shalach, ironically for unattractive corrie, ravine), hewn out of the monolithic landscape by retreating glaciers and torrents of melt water ten thousand years ago.

The bridge afforded views of the forty meter drop and rushing river below and there was an observation platform further on that extended over the edge. Smallest of Scotland‘s forty three nature preserves supporting populations of ferns, feather mosses and sansicle, the forty six meter cascade has the poetic name Easan na Miasaich, meaning Waterfall at the Place of Platters, for the Onomatopoeia and the plate shape bore holes the falling water forms.