This post covers our time in East Lothian and the Borders, heading out of Scotland:
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| 20.08.2014 - 26.08.2014 |
After my sniffles had dissipated we kicked off our post-Edinburgh touring with a trip back north to Roslin, and the Rosslyn Chapel. We had heard good things! It is a pretty substantial tourist haunt after the Dan Brown novel (find it in every secondhand book store). Despite the two coaches in the car park it didn't seem too busy - the stone carvings inside are so detailed, it is one of a kind. They have this cat in residence, William - he just sleeps on a pew. Gets patted thousands of times a day. They have William themed keepsakes in the gift shop!
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| Outside of Rosslyn chapel |
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| Creepy monkey statues |
After visiting the chapel we saw there was a nearby walk in the Roslin Glen to an old Gunpowder mill. I was curious and we wanted a wee walk - so off we went on to the nearby un-signposted, thistle covered trails. Eventually we found the correct route, finding lots of wild raspberries on the way before finding the old waterwheel water feeds and drains, and the remnants of the old mill. Left to ruin, nature was taking the area back and it was a lovely and romantic spot. A coach driver caught up with us, he pops down there while his tourists are in Rosslyn Chapel. This is what Rosslyn Chapel was like before it got all fixed up - must have been quite something in those not-quite-ruinous years!
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| Ruins of the gunpowder mill waterwheel housing |
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| A wild raspberry. It was eaten shortly after this picture was taken. |
After this we returned to Dotty and drove on past Edinburgh and to North Berwick. The scenic coast road was windy, deserted and beautiful. As you approach you can see the North Berwick Law for miles - a wee jut of earth rising from the coastline - the remnant of ancient volcanic activity. We drove straight there and climbed the 20 minutes to the top.
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| North Berwick Law - you have to climb it. It's the Law. |
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| The proper gentle-lady. |
On our way up the Law we came across a band of wee ponies. A couple of horse-whispering ladies were taking photos of them, and they were quite in to posing for the shots:
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| Posing ponies on the Law |
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| "Draw me like one of your French ponies" |
At the top we had lovely views of Bass Rock, an offshore island that is the home of no less than 22,000 gannets:
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| Bass Rock. See the circling gannets! |
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| I haven't photoshopped out my lovely southern-cross lens-dots in this shot. Lovely. |
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| Panorama from the top - complete with fibreglass whale ribs |
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| Cottage ruins on North Berwick Law - Bass rock in the background. |
Returning to the car park, we checked all the signs. None said we couldn't stay for the evening - so we did.
In the morning while I tidied the van Kate foraged in the neighbouring bushes and found copious amounts of wild blackberries. We ate muesli with blackberries and yoghurt for breakfast then headed a short distance to the National Museum of Flight.
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| Natural! |
The National Museum of Flight is on an old airfield used in both world wars. The prize horse is the Concorde Alpha-Alpha - I saw a prototype Concorde but seeing the real deal was a treat. The hangar featured a lot of information too, and it was a bit of a surprise to me to learn Concorde only stopped flying in 2003!
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| Concorde Alpha-Alpha. Too long for one photo! |
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| "of and before its time" |
Other hangers had bugger all WWII planes but lots of jets and civilian planes. There was a lot of interesting information, each had a neat 'tidbit', a wacky event to happen to someone in each type of plane. For one of the jets, I believe it was a Lightning, the tidbit was a mechanic triggering a fault and accidentally starting the jet. Minus a seat, and having only flown wee Cesnas or something, he managed to land this military jet without any major problems. Crikey!
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| Vulcan. See what we did there? Oh yes you do. |
In one building was also a hands-on area, with lots of flight-based activities for you to do. We had a lot of fun making and testing paper airplanes, crashing the R34 airship (simulated!) and landing a plane in a simulator. Absolutely worth the £10, this place!
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| Dart-launcher |
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| Head in a wind tunnel |
North again, we arrived at Tantallon Castle. Little more than an enormous six storey wall against the coast, we'd seen it from the Law and were curious to see more. Though it is pretty ruinous there ended up being quite a lot to run around in, and it has some interesting aspects - I quite liked the rooms filled in with cement and rock (the result of later re-fortification).
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| Tantallon Castle |
In the corner was a wee telescope to help get better views of Bass Rock - that was cool too.
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| Bass Rock, as through the cellphone camera through the telescope - HIGH TECH! |
In the evening we headed past a concrete mill and nuclear power station toward Dowlaw and found a nice piece of gravel on a rarely travelled one lane road with coastal views. Good spot for the night!
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| Our evening park enroute to Dowlaw. The campsites wanted about £28 per night - get out of here, we get this for free! |
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| What a spot! |
After a leisurely morning we headed east to St. Abbs head. A lovely coastline with sheer cliffs, it was a nice hour loop walk. The coastguard performing (hopefully just) manoeuvres ruined the peaceful, natural ambience somewhat but were interesting too.
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| The coast around St Abbs head |
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| St Abbs head - stunning! |
On our returning inland track, we walked by a wee loch, finding a trove of unpicked ripe blackberries. We pigged out until we could pig no more, then continued on - and stumbled upon wee voles on the track! So tiny!
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| !!! |
After this, we returned to England! The shock horror! But only briefly - we got petrol and food from Berwick-upon-Tweed before crossing back to Scotland. Then we changed our plan and headed back over the border to Flodden Field. The battle between the English and the Scots here in 1513 cost 14,000 lives, which is huge now but enormous back then! The Scots lost 10,000 men and their King. The hills are drained and peaceful farmland now, but the memorial and info boards along the memorial trail are poignant.
Why can't we all just get along!?
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| Flodden field memorial. |
In the morning we headed back over the border to Scotland, and the lovely border town of Kelso. The Abbey sits prominently by the town centre, and after some harrowing narrow parking we toodled about the abbey and the town.
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| Kelso Abbey |
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| The abbey is pretty chipper these days |
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| Some blokes fishing and rowing the Tweed. |
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| Floors Castle from Kelso bridge - we did not visit! |
Heading on we arrived in the gorgeous town of Melrose. It seems all of these border towns are lovely! Melrose particularly though, with their nice red stone. We had some wraps in the van then headed over to Melrose Abbey, the most intact of the abbeys in the vicinity.
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| Melrose Abbey |
Around the back of the Abbey is a small museum, containing various things discovered on site and that. I quite liked the piss pots - monks would carry these about and discretely piss in them under their robes.
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| Piss pots |
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| Kate as monk. |
Nearby was the Priory Garden - a National Trust garden. Since we're both members we went and had a look, and found it to be rather mild. Pretty much just a regular garden and orchard!
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| The Priory Garden, with Melrose Abbey in the background. |
Following the tourist signs we headed up a nearby hill to 'Scott's view'. This was a favourite haunt of Scott, the famous Scottish writer. During his funeral procession his horse stopped at the viewpoint out of habit! A lovely view of volcanic mounds, and a wild bunny hopped by to see what the deal was.
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| The Tweed valley from Scott's view |
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| Our furry friend |
A little down the hill was the 'Wallace Statue', built during Victorian times by an eccentric nut:
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| The Wallace statue |
Pottering down the hill we visited the 'Temple of the Muses', also built by this same chap. Interesting! Unfortunately we had to walk back up the hill afterwards, during which time Kate got stung by a wasp so that put a dampener on these wee monuments in the middle of nowhere!
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| Temple of the muses |
Returning to the Wallace Monument car park, we intended to settle in for the night - but discovered a hulking great motorhome with a family of Germans in it rolling on to levelling blocks for the evening. Two motorhomes in a car park for eight didn't sit well with us, so we left, heading for a layby near the Rhymer's Stone which we had visited earlier that day.
Having just been there we were confident we could find our way without navigational assistance. After driving around the area for 30 minutes we realised this was not the case! But we finally made it and spent a nice evening at this dog-walking spot.
The legend here is that some chap fell asleep, got taken away to fairy land and when he returned to the land of the living he had the power of foresight. He said, if you stood under this tree here, you'd see a bridge over the river - and lo! This huge high bridge now crosses the river, and you can just see it in the distance in this picture. He became something of a popular writer after all that.
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| The bridge |
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| View from Rhymer's stone |
In the morning we headed south, along lovely one-lane windy and lonesome roads in the Borders. We had one more Scotland stop before our night-four camp site stop - Hermitage Castle.
Hermitage Castle is pretty spooky - right on the border with England, it has been through the wars and is fortified to the nines.
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| Spooky Hermitage castle |
Our campsite right now is the camp site Lidalia in Newcastleton. Our first night in Scotland was spent here, so it was fitting we stopped here on our way back! And it is also the nicest, most peaceful camp site we have stayed at.
So that's the end of Scotland this tour. What a blast! A great country, I'd like to see more of the Highlands and visit some of the islands next time.
Next stops: an MOT for Dotty (hopefully not too expensive), then toodling down through England to fly out of Heathrow on the 25th. Plenty more adventures to come!
