Buchan+Bain in 2025

 Disappointing, lots of modern additions, but still plenty of Buchans were wed there. One whole side was given over to war dead. But also nurse Elsie Inglis, after whom the maternity hospital was named where so many Edinburgians were born, including many Buchans. She died in 1917 in Belgium. She will get her own post as I was meaning to research her, and then found her on the walls. There were two mausoleums. One to a Duke of Argyll and one to Duke of Montrose. Both on the side of the winning government forces, or else why would they be St Giles Cathedral. St Giles is the patron saint of lepers. Lauren thought that was significant to Edinburgh, but not sure why. There was an orchestra practicing for a night concert - playing it was said by others Spring, Summer etc. I thought they were pretty good, about 8 young people. Perhaps an awesome sight was the blue ceiling. Lots of lovely Victorian stained glass. I got most of the heraldic and Scottish saint ones. This is my favourite, I t...

  Our walking tour of Edinburgh led us inexorably up to the castle. The steel stands for the military tattoo in August were going up, obscuring some lovely big Celtic crosses. And triggering unfortunate memories of 2008 when Daniel and I chose to attend the Tattoo despite the forecasted torrential rain, and we were not alone in doing so. But the forecasted torrential rain was not wrong. And there was no 15 minute reprieve. No, three hours of torrential rain, no cover, steel bench seats. And a further three hours drying Daniel’s jeans with a hair drier back in the hotel room. Now back to 2025. Just before we entered the castle, Marina, our very tall young guide with the ‘attractive’ nose ring (none of us oldies were in favour), went to get our tickets, and so we went to a great little loo down a southern close. We knew it would be special when we went in - there was a dome. But even better there was a male attendant who cleaned the toilet cubicles as they became empty. What a lovely...

 When Edinburgh built a bridge to the south about 1788, which they called South Bridge, it had 19 arches. Across the top were shops, like many bridges did then. Edinburgh castle and its main thoroughfare are on a volcanic outcrop. When glaciers covered the land the ice had to go around the volcanic rock, and gouged out two grooves either side of the central ‘spine’. The north sided groove, or gully, was the loch collecting all the refuse off the city:; what was called in the 1770s the ‘nasties’. On the south sided groove or gully was the cow gate, where, not surprisingly, the cows to be butchers were kept. And beyond these gullies was higher land again, so the bridges made perfect sense. Someone had the bright idea to build rooms into the arches, and utilize this space. Edinburgh was very tight in space. It had to build upwards within the town walls. Those highlanders could come back! There were buildings up to 14 stories high down at the lower end.  At first these were used a...

 A kind of pretty but functional port town on the western side of Scotland. It is just 10 minutes drive from Knipoch House Hotel in the country. It is where the ferry closest to Mull is and where we came home to from Iona, via Mull. But to get to Iona we had to drive 90 minutes to a second ferry terminal because they are down to one ferry until next week. They are hiring the Spirit of Tasmania vessel! Oban is touristy, and also full of very many closed shops and derelict buildings just off the Centre of town. But I could always see something in the distance that looked like the Glenfinnan viaduct, you know, the bridge that is in all the Harry Potter movies.  It was Craig’s Folly. A monument to the Craig family built in the 1890s when there was a huge unemployment problem, so the rich guy ‘employed men/stone masons’ to build it. Three of us set off to climb the 133 steps. And the view was worth it. See how happy I was to survive the trek. Kathy wandering down to find the viewin...

 We drove through Mull to get to Iona. It is a long way from anywhere, and took three ferries, two of which took our bus. So I can only say that Mull has some high mountains, but they are not as jaggedy as the real Highlands, and there was more rolling pastures. Mull is an island within the county of Argyll & Bute, second only in size to Skye. I kept trying to take pictures of said mountains, and lonely cottages at their bases, but very few came out. I needed sunshine for best photographic effect. Iona is the site of the first Christian settlement in Scotland when Saint Columna arrived from Ireland. He spent his years writing gospels on calf skin, and keeping a close eye on his monks. He converted the local king of Dal Riada to Christianity, and from they spread just about everywhere.  The main special things are turquoise colored waters around it, lots of grave slabs dating from 700AD, and an abbey dating from 1200AD. I misunderstood to think that the abbey was a reconstr...

 We had two photo-stops during todays’s drive in the pouring rain - and both times the rain stopped, and for our last stop at The Kelpies, it was even sunny. The kelpies in Scottish mythology were mostly malevolent creatures who lived near water and took the shape of a horse. They carried people across the water - but like the clever fox, half way across, the game changed - and they dove down to the watery depths to drown the hapless humans. For no apparent reason. Anyway an artist was inspired to build these statutes to recognize the value of Clydesdales, and other working horses, who helped make Scottish industry great. And then he convinced a city to purchase them for display. They sit in a vast playground area outside Falkirk, an hour from Edinburgh, in central Scotland. They are massive, and you get quite a shock seeing them from afar. But when you se them up close, they are awe-inspiring. They are some 30m high. They looked dramatic and awesome in the sun that had only just c...

 Here comes another sweeping statement: best castle in Scotland, so far! So we set off for this castle in the driving rain. Maybe a 70 minute drive. It is the seat of the Campbell Dukes of Argyll. So we are in southwest Scotland, in that county near Ireland. The Campbells are a proud and ancient clan, almost always royalist. The started out as mere thanes, became earls, lost a few heads due to treasonable behaviour with the English civil wars, understandable really. But the heir of the last beheaded one had taken himself off to exile to the court of William and Mary in Holland. So in the Glorious Revolution that brought them to the British throne, the exile heir was given all his family lands back and made a Duke! For loyalty. He did not waste this opportunity. He rebuilt a magnificent castle out of a local greeny-grey stone we have not seen before. It really is quite spectacular. The current and 13th Duke is called Torquhil Campbell, a Norse name from his mother’s side. His s...

 This was the painting on the wall of our private dining room at Knipoch House Hotel. Even better, we passed it on the way out of Knipoch on the way to Inveraray Castle. Just a ruin through a mist, which was better than the driving rain of an hour or so before. There is a saying in Scotland which we consistently saw fulfilled “if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes”.

Best museum EVER!  After a £7million renovation when Historic Scotland took over a little community museum, the results are amazing. Not all “look at me, I am state of the art modern museum” like Newgrange in Ireland, which was also amazing. And who knew, they have whale sharks in Scottish waters. Plus otters, deer, birds of prey, seals, dolphins, puffins (of course), deer, pigs and wild boar, squirrels, weasels and a coral reef. Previously bigger deer, mammoths, Irish deer. Currently uninvited - cats, dogs, rabbits, midges. More of a subdued but very classy “I have henges, curcuss, cairns, cist burial chambers, standing stones, Christian sites all within about 15 kilometres of where you are standing, and there about 800 prehistoric sites in all; and some of our exhibits, like a 2000BC beaker pot was found just outside the door really - oh and I have easy to read summary posters with great graphics and am very inviting, very hands on”. So I spun wool into yarn, ground grain, worked...

 It was meant to be a photo stop, because the exterior of the castle is believed to be the most photographed castle in Scotland. You get 30 minutes viewing time, of the exterior, and then the parking police are into you. We had left in plenty of time because of the strict timing of our parking booking. So being early we went up to a little known, or apparently used, lookout - because there were only 2 other cars there. Fantastic views which the photos do not do justice. Leaving Inverness that morning we had left the sunshine behind. Scotland got a much needed drenching after nearly 9 weeks of no rain. It was drought! We thought it was lovely, and I did get a little sunburnt one day when I forgot the suncream or moisturizer. So we get down to the castle, and we get a treat, we can walk around the castle walls. Wonderful. I trot off, taking photos all the while. I get to the main entrance and hand out my ticket, and am waved in. In the second room a tour ‘joined me’ and so I got to e...

 Our first whisky tour and tasting was really rather fun. Glenlivet is a famous distillery. In the lawless early 1700s no-one could afford the very high license fees, so home brew and smuggling were the norm. However when the fees were lowered, one man braved the ire of his neighbours and bought a license, and never looked back. What was really interesting was the huge fermenting chambers, where 55,000 gallons of malted barley was heated. Malting is really just saturating the barley. It smelled very malty and quite nice. The steam is collected and condensed in one pipes to be ‘distilled’ as whisky. Since the only grain used is barley, it is called single malt. I would never drink anything else! The tasting room was thoughtful theatre, where some of us smelled, and twirled and sipped our tiny tasting samples. I decanted mine into tiny bottles (can’t say wee here) to bring home. Fun fact. In Scotland, whisky is always aged in casks that have been already used with a different drink, ...

 Much is made of Glencoe as a site of an infamous act of violence against highland hosts. The new King William in in the 1690s ordered the extermination of men of fighting age (5-70) of a small clan in Glencoe (valley of the Coe) as an example to the rest of the highlands. The commander went even further to include all inhabitants.  It is laid at the feet of the murderous Campbell, and the 130 soldiers were led by a Captain Campbell although there were only 13 men named Campbell among them. The order came from the King, and then his commander onto hapless Captain Campbell. So at 4am on a very cold snowy January morning, the attack began.  We were there in late May, and it is now a major transit road, although still only two narrow lanes wide. There were 6-7 viewing spots, we stopped at 4. Outside it was really cold, and raining and a bit windy, but still we were drawn out of the bus by the beauty of the mountains. Of course it was a photo stop, but all the more welcome be...

The geography of my tour: First we crossed the Kessock Bridge and went to Killearnan Church where Alexander and Catherine married in 1830. Lovely, had a look around the gravestones of course, very nice views across the Beauly Firth. We then passed the entrance to Red Castle now done up again, it was famous in the 1500s. Saw Kirkhill across the water from here, just a few houses visible. Went up to big Tore roundabout which is roughly where something important was, but is no longer.  Then to Muir of Ord which I had not mentioned to him previously so we tootled around it. I had only given him some broad towns as a guide, but I should have sent him a very detailed rundown of where was most important, street addresses etc. He would be googling something I had scribbled (and to my embarrassment it was scribbled by me the night before in my tiny Inverness B&B, with no desk). This was great as it helped us get to key places. Saw the 6000 year old henge site, no signage what so ever, b...