So, which way do I go???
The famous Old Course at St. Andrews Links - no that is not Tiger Woods putting...
The view of the city of St. Andrews from on top of St. Rule's Tower
Watching the sunrise
The best part of the sunrise at St. Andrews
Thursday, 24 September 2009
The last group of pictures from the trail - promise!
So, which way do I go???The famous Old Course at St. Andrews Links - no that is not Tiger Woods putting...The view of the city of St. Andrews from on top of St. Rule's TowerWatching the sunriseThe best part of the sunrise at St. Andrews
I'm not kidding - more pics of the Fife path
St. Andrew's Cathedral at sunset
My cairn -I wonder how long it will stand?
so WINDY!!!
Lunch break of banana's, granola bar and water - yum :-)
and more pictures of the path
Quick picture break
The rock and the spindle - pretty neat
more beach walking!
My big feet :-)
Yup, more pictures of the path
What?!?!?!?!?!
You gotta be kidding me? Wait for the tide to recede? I could be here all night!
The most North Eastern tip of my run
So pretty!
The cute little harbor of Crail. You can almost see my little lobster shack in the corner, too bad its a shack and its little :-)
Fife Coastal Path Pictures
A cool rock formation along the way - can you spot the face?
St. Monan's Windmill
Lady's Tower
One of the many little lighthouses dotting the coast line
I have no idea what this is. It was in the middle of nowhere, for no apparent reason, and of course, I took a picture of it like a true tourist :-)
Pics from the Trail
The home of Alexander Selkirk
One of the many beaches I trudged across :-)
All suited up in my rain gear!
A cute little fishing village along the way
Running the Fife Coastal Trail
Hiya Everyone!
Again, sorry for the lengthy time between posts! I had to move flats (as expected) and it was a bit more cumbersome to get on-line from my new accommodations (which is a funny story in and of itself, but we'll talk about that a different time :-). I think I will continue to blog about my summer adventures even after I return home. I have gotten so far behind in my story telling, and you all seem to enjoy reading about my adventures, that maybe I'll keep going for a bit longer? Sound OK to everyone? I return to Florida NEXT Monday already! Wow, 3 months went quick! I won't be blogging for the following 3 weeks though, because I will be traveling the East Coast for a while. So I'm sure I'll blog about that as well once I return. OK, on to my latest adventure!
With my time quickly drawing to a close here in Scotland, the pressure was on to finish running the Fife Coastal Path. I've spoken of it before, but I'll give you a quick summary. This path is over 80 miles long and reaches from North Queensferry up along the east coast of Scotland, along the North Sea and ending at Newport on Tay. http://www.fifecoastalpath.co.uk/main.asp. I had already accomplished the first 15 miles of the trail earlier in the summer, but still had the remainder to finish, so it was now or never! I decided not to run the final 19 miles from St. Andrews to Newport because it was mostly inland, and the coast is the best part of the run, so that left 45 miles on the agenda!
Sunday, after church, I hopped on a train up to Kirkcaldy and then took a bus up to Leven, where I checked into a B&B, dropped off my bag, put on my sneakers and hit the trail for 10 miles. I had to run the section backwards so I was headed back down to Kirkcaldy along the Firth of Forth. It was a beautiful day, but windy, so it was a bit more of a workout than I had anticipated. Along the way I passed ruined castles, abbeys and towers. I finally got into Kirkcaldy around 6:30, only to miss the bus back up to Leven by 1 minute! Talk about frustrating. So I just dropped into the local foodstore and picked a nice pasta meal for supper and then waited for the next bus up the coast.
Monday was the day I was most nervous about. I had scheduled to run 20 miles from Leven up to Crail. I got started right at 9 am with the cloudy sky waiting to send its rain down on me. This part of the trail runs right along the Firth of Forth on my right and then more often than not, golf courses on my left. So I was always watching out for any flying golf balls that might come out of no where and bop me on the head (thankfully that never happened, but with all the signs they had up about it, I'm sure that it has occurred to some unlucky traveler in the past!) I ended up walking a good portion of the trail, because it was directly on the beach in many places. Absolutely beautiful, but hard going when you're walking in sand. Plus, it started to rain a bit, and who wants to struggle through sand in the rain as you run? I'm not that much of a gluten for punishment :-) The trail did bring me through some really cute towns along the way. Lower Largo is the home of Alexander Selkirk, whom Daniel Defoe used as his inspiration for the character of Robinson Crusoe. I stopped here and had a nice cup of tea and lemon drizzle cake for lunch - so that sweetened my run/walk a bit more :-) From here I continued on and passed Lady's Tower, an old ruin of a tower that was built for Lady Jane Anstruther, so that she could enter the bay below without the townspeople watching her. I also passed St. Monans Windmill, which was used once upon a time to pump seawater into the salt pans. Finally around mid-afternoon I hit my stop for the day - Crail. I stayed in a lovely B&B with great people who offered to come pick me up anywhere if I ran into trouble on my future days walk. I was a bit disappointed though, there was a little shack on the harbor that sells fresh lobsters and crab right off the boat. They cook it while you wait and then you can just sit there at a picnic table on the beach, eating the freshest lobster you will ever have. Just my luck, they were closed on Monday. Oh well, I'll just have to go back :-)
Tuesday rolled around much too quickly for my weary knees, but I only had 15 miles to accomplish so I knew I could handle it. Unfortunately for me, this last leg proved to be the toughest. There are NO towns along the way - it is completely along the coast of the North Sea, so no tea breaks for me. Plus, I thought Sunday was windy, it was NOTHING compared to the wind on Tuesday. In some places I had to walk almost bent at the waist just to stay upright. The winds along the sea are simply horrendously strong. This section is Scotland's coast at its best though. It was just mile after mile of crashing surf and cliff faces. I soon discovered that the path wasn't quite complete and proved a little difficult to navigate. Some areas you have to wait to cross if the tide is in. Rocky beaches again became my path as well as ruts along a 20 foot cliff overlooking the sea. Finally after 12 miles, St. Andrews appeared on the cliffs in front of me, about 3 miles away. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, seeing the Emerald City for the first time after traveling the yellow brick road. One of my favorite memories of this leg of the journey was stopping at a particularly rocky beach and building my own little cairn. It was my memorial stone tower of thanks to God for a fantastic summer and grateful for his protection over me during this little jaunt along the coast.
The Fife Coastal Path, is actually the path that pilgrims would take to get from Edinburgh to St. Andrews, where the bones of St. Andrew are supposed to be. It is a really cute town. Lots of great little stores, restaurants and old stuff :-) too check out. St. Andrews Castle, which was built for the Bishops of the church, is built right on the cliff face. You can also check out the old Cathedral and St. Rule's tower, which was built in the 14th century and has amazing views of the coast if you climb the 108 stairs to the top (which of course, I did). The beach scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed on the East Sands beach in St. Andrews (I've never seen it, but I guess I'll have to check it out now :-) Plus, if you're a golfer, St. Andrews Old Course is there to play 18 holes of very expensive golf. (Someone told me that Golf got its name this way - G (gentlemen) O (only) L (ladies) F (forbidden). I don't know if its true, but..... Mary Queen of Scots got into a lot of trouble when she wanted to play golf...
My B&B in St. Andrews was again, wonderfully comfortable and I was thankful for a warm shower and comfy bed to rest my weary body. Of course, my running wasn't over just yet. I saw a postcard taken at sunrise and also sunset in St. Andrews and thought how fun that would be to get the same shot and how handy it would be to do during a run. So, that night at 6:30 I ran 4 miles back up the coastal path to try and get some great shots of the city in the waning light and also at 6 am the next day I was up and running again with my camera in my hand ready to take some fantastic shots. The sunset & sunrise weren't as great as the postcards, but I'm still glad that I tried, and I did get a couple good shot :-)
Another super long post I'm afraid. Sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed looking at the pics from my run and reading about the cute fishing villages I passed along the way. See you later!
Again, sorry for the lengthy time between posts! I had to move flats (as expected) and it was a bit more cumbersome to get on-line from my new accommodations (which is a funny story in and of itself, but we'll talk about that a different time :-). I think I will continue to blog about my summer adventures even after I return home. I have gotten so far behind in my story telling, and you all seem to enjoy reading about my adventures, that maybe I'll keep going for a bit longer? Sound OK to everyone? I return to Florida NEXT Monday already! Wow, 3 months went quick! I won't be blogging for the following 3 weeks though, because I will be traveling the East Coast for a while. So I'm sure I'll blog about that as well once I return. OK, on to my latest adventure!
With my time quickly drawing to a close here in Scotland, the pressure was on to finish running the Fife Coastal Path. I've spoken of it before, but I'll give you a quick summary. This path is over 80 miles long and reaches from North Queensferry up along the east coast of Scotland, along the North Sea and ending at Newport on Tay. http://www.fifecoastalpath.co.uk/main.asp. I had already accomplished the first 15 miles of the trail earlier in the summer, but still had the remainder to finish, so it was now or never! I decided not to run the final 19 miles from St. Andrews to Newport because it was mostly inland, and the coast is the best part of the run, so that left 45 miles on the agenda!
Sunday, after church, I hopped on a train up to Kirkcaldy and then took a bus up to Leven, where I checked into a B&B, dropped off my bag, put on my sneakers and hit the trail for 10 miles. I had to run the section backwards so I was headed back down to Kirkcaldy along the Firth of Forth. It was a beautiful day, but windy, so it was a bit more of a workout than I had anticipated. Along the way I passed ruined castles, abbeys and towers. I finally got into Kirkcaldy around 6:30, only to miss the bus back up to Leven by 1 minute! Talk about frustrating. So I just dropped into the local foodstore and picked a nice pasta meal for supper and then waited for the next bus up the coast.
Monday was the day I was most nervous about. I had scheduled to run 20 miles from Leven up to Crail. I got started right at 9 am with the cloudy sky waiting to send its rain down on me. This part of the trail runs right along the Firth of Forth on my right and then more often than not, golf courses on my left. So I was always watching out for any flying golf balls that might come out of no where and bop me on the head (thankfully that never happened, but with all the signs they had up about it, I'm sure that it has occurred to some unlucky traveler in the past!) I ended up walking a good portion of the trail, because it was directly on the beach in many places. Absolutely beautiful, but hard going when you're walking in sand. Plus, it started to rain a bit, and who wants to struggle through sand in the rain as you run? I'm not that much of a gluten for punishment :-) The trail did bring me through some really cute towns along the way. Lower Largo is the home of Alexander Selkirk, whom Daniel Defoe used as his inspiration for the character of Robinson Crusoe. I stopped here and had a nice cup of tea and lemon drizzle cake for lunch - so that sweetened my run/walk a bit more :-) From here I continued on and passed Lady's Tower, an old ruin of a tower that was built for Lady Jane Anstruther, so that she could enter the bay below without the townspeople watching her. I also passed St. Monans Windmill, which was used once upon a time to pump seawater into the salt pans. Finally around mid-afternoon I hit my stop for the day - Crail. I stayed in a lovely B&B with great people who offered to come pick me up anywhere if I ran into trouble on my future days walk. I was a bit disappointed though, there was a little shack on the harbor that sells fresh lobsters and crab right off the boat. They cook it while you wait and then you can just sit there at a picnic table on the beach, eating the freshest lobster you will ever have. Just my luck, they were closed on Monday. Oh well, I'll just have to go back :-)
Tuesday rolled around much too quickly for my weary knees, but I only had 15 miles to accomplish so I knew I could handle it. Unfortunately for me, this last leg proved to be the toughest. There are NO towns along the way - it is completely along the coast of the North Sea, so no tea breaks for me. Plus, I thought Sunday was windy, it was NOTHING compared to the wind on Tuesday. In some places I had to walk almost bent at the waist just to stay upright. The winds along the sea are simply horrendously strong. This section is Scotland's coast at its best though. It was just mile after mile of crashing surf and cliff faces. I soon discovered that the path wasn't quite complete and proved a little difficult to navigate. Some areas you have to wait to cross if the tide is in. Rocky beaches again became my path as well as ruts along a 20 foot cliff overlooking the sea. Finally after 12 miles, St. Andrews appeared on the cliffs in front of me, about 3 miles away. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, seeing the Emerald City for the first time after traveling the yellow brick road. One of my favorite memories of this leg of the journey was stopping at a particularly rocky beach and building my own little cairn. It was my memorial stone tower of thanks to God for a fantastic summer and grateful for his protection over me during this little jaunt along the coast.
The Fife Coastal Path, is actually the path that pilgrims would take to get from Edinburgh to St. Andrews, where the bones of St. Andrew are supposed to be. It is a really cute town. Lots of great little stores, restaurants and old stuff :-) too check out. St. Andrews Castle, which was built for the Bishops of the church, is built right on the cliff face. You can also check out the old Cathedral and St. Rule's tower, which was built in the 14th century and has amazing views of the coast if you climb the 108 stairs to the top (which of course, I did). The beach scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed on the East Sands beach in St. Andrews (I've never seen it, but I guess I'll have to check it out now :-) Plus, if you're a golfer, St. Andrews Old Course is there to play 18 holes of very expensive golf. (Someone told me that Golf got its name this way - G (gentlemen) O (only) L (ladies) F (forbidden). I don't know if its true, but..... Mary Queen of Scots got into a lot of trouble when she wanted to play golf...
My B&B in St. Andrews was again, wonderfully comfortable and I was thankful for a warm shower and comfy bed to rest my weary body. Of course, my running wasn't over just yet. I saw a postcard taken at sunrise and also sunset in St. Andrews and thought how fun that would be to get the same shot and how handy it would be to do during a run. So, that night at 6:30 I ran 4 miles back up the coastal path to try and get some great shots of the city in the waning light and also at 6 am the next day I was up and running again with my camera in my hand ready to take some fantastic shots. The sunset & sunrise weren't as great as the postcards, but I'm still glad that I tried, and I did get a couple good shot :-)
Another super long post I'm afraid. Sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed looking at the pics from my run and reading about the cute fishing villages I passed along the way. See you later!
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Almost done with more castle pictures
A highland coo
The covered walkway in the garden of Glamis castle
Glamis castle
Yup, I climbed a tree for this pic :-)
Glamis castle up close
More Castle Pictures!
The amazing Huntley castle front door
Along the way to Findlater castle
Me, hanging precipitously out the "window' of Findlater :-)
Findlater castle from the mainland. Yup, had to cross the great divide to get to that little bit of organized rock there on the left.
More Castle Pictures!
The very cool Dunnotter castle
So pretty!
Visiting my ancestral home :-) Maybe I should make it my new summer home? Anyone want to finance it for me?
Slain's castle - yup, still raining
Slain's castle from across the burn. I had to walk about 1/2 mile inland to get around the ravine and then back again on the other side until I was even somewhat close to the castle - but still, look at that view!
The Castle Trail
Hi again!
I am so far behind I almost forgot that I didn't tell you all about one of my weekends away in the northeast corner of Scotland! Wow!!! That was a really fun weekend that I am very excited to share about! So here it goes!
One of my favorite places in all of Scotland is Cruden Bay, where Slain's castle is located. Slain's castle is the previous seat of the Hay Clan (my ancestors, well, some of them - I'm a Duncan too!) Slain's castle is perched right on the cliffs over the sea and it is an AMAZING view. This is not like the other ruined castles where it is taken care of and made safe for the general public - no, this is a RUIN in all senses of the word. No caretakers - nothing, just the way I like it. I took a coastal path (of course it was raining, as usual) and got soaked in the process of the 2 mile journey through some boggy marshland and also a wheat field - ssshhh, don't tell :-) I got a bit turned around, but eventually the castle was spotted! The castle had been added on to many, many times in the past so it truly was like a maze. I really wish I could have seen the castle in all its glory and saw how it all flowed. Over the course of the years of occupation it was blown up twice by the owners of the castle (they were a bunch of nutters it would seem :-) Yea, for my ancestors!) Most recently, and this was in the late 1800's, Bram Stoker, who used to vacation in Cruden Bay, used Slains Castle as his inspiration for Dracula's Castle. Pretty neat, eh?
I also got to visit another one of my favorite castles in Stonehaven, Dunnotter castle. Dunnotter, is also built right on the cliffs, but is a little more dramatic in its presentation because it is built on a little rock island of sorts that is only attached to the mainland by a small strip of rock. Again, one of the most beautiful castles in all of Scotland. It was here that the Scotland Honors (the crown jewels) were hidden from Oliver Cromwell when he attacked Scotland in the 1600's. Legend has it that they were secreted out of the castle by being sewn into the clothes of the washer women that were allowed to enter the castle during Cromwell's siege of Dunnotter. Cromwell's men even helped the washer women carry their laundry baskets from the castle to their cart :-) Those sneaky Scotsmen were pretty smart :-)
My next adventure took me on an 8 mile hike along the coast by a little town called Portsoy. It started out a bit mundane, but the closer I got to the coast the more outstanding the view was. Eventually my path led me to Findlater Castle - another TRUE ruin in all senses of the word. I had to climb down a step embankment and then cross a small strip of land to get to the castle that was truly built right into the cliff wall. Many parts of it had fallen down and there were huge gaping holes in between the different levels of the castle, but it was so amazing to be there. I can only imagine how cold it would get in those rooms when the wind was blowing on a cold and blustery night in the middle of winter. Perhaps I took more risks than I should have when exploring this castle, but.... it was worth it!
Onto another castle, I warned you, this was a castle trail! Huntley Castle is like most other castles you need to pay to get into, except they had some terrific stonework with such detailing that I can't compare it to any other place. The section of the house where the front door is, has a 3 story tall, ornate stone carving, that I have no idea how they managed to create. The fireplaces and mantles were also works of art in the stone cutting world. (on a side note, I got to stay in a true castle that was now a hotel in the town of Huntley and it was pretty neat. One of the most interesting parts of my stay was chatting with the castles owner and him recounting how he had only known his wife for 8 days before they got married - it was love at first sight, and still is over 40 years later! All together now, Aaaawwwhhh!)
My last stop was Glamis Castle, this castle is still used as a residence, so it is completely filled with old furniture and everything else you need to really get a feel for what life is like living in a castle! This is where the Queen Mother (the current Queen's mom, who died in 2002 at the ripe old age of 101) was born and grew up. They have many ghost legends and haunting tales to tell of murder and mayhem. The castle dates back to the 1400's and lots of history has been made here. What castle would be complete without their very own herd of highland cattle! Yup, out back there were many highland coo's. Some were mama's with their babies and others were some nasty looking males, waiting to trample you if you climbed over the fence :-)
Whelp, I know it was another long post, and its my own fault for falling so far behind, but hopefully I have kept you all entertained for most of it! More fun to come in the next storytelling time! See you later!
I am so far behind I almost forgot that I didn't tell you all about one of my weekends away in the northeast corner of Scotland! Wow!!! That was a really fun weekend that I am very excited to share about! So here it goes!
One of my favorite places in all of Scotland is Cruden Bay, where Slain's castle is located. Slain's castle is the previous seat of the Hay Clan (my ancestors, well, some of them - I'm a Duncan too!) Slain's castle is perched right on the cliffs over the sea and it is an AMAZING view. This is not like the other ruined castles where it is taken care of and made safe for the general public - no, this is a RUIN in all senses of the word. No caretakers - nothing, just the way I like it. I took a coastal path (of course it was raining, as usual) and got soaked in the process of the 2 mile journey through some boggy marshland and also a wheat field - ssshhh, don't tell :-) I got a bit turned around, but eventually the castle was spotted! The castle had been added on to many, many times in the past so it truly was like a maze. I really wish I could have seen the castle in all its glory and saw how it all flowed. Over the course of the years of occupation it was blown up twice by the owners of the castle (they were a bunch of nutters it would seem :-) Yea, for my ancestors!) Most recently, and this was in the late 1800's, Bram Stoker, who used to vacation in Cruden Bay, used Slains Castle as his inspiration for Dracula's Castle. Pretty neat, eh?
I also got to visit another one of my favorite castles in Stonehaven, Dunnotter castle. Dunnotter, is also built right on the cliffs, but is a little more dramatic in its presentation because it is built on a little rock island of sorts that is only attached to the mainland by a small strip of rock. Again, one of the most beautiful castles in all of Scotland. It was here that the Scotland Honors (the crown jewels) were hidden from Oliver Cromwell when he attacked Scotland in the 1600's. Legend has it that they were secreted out of the castle by being sewn into the clothes of the washer women that were allowed to enter the castle during Cromwell's siege of Dunnotter. Cromwell's men even helped the washer women carry their laundry baskets from the castle to their cart :-) Those sneaky Scotsmen were pretty smart :-)
My next adventure took me on an 8 mile hike along the coast by a little town called Portsoy. It started out a bit mundane, but the closer I got to the coast the more outstanding the view was. Eventually my path led me to Findlater Castle - another TRUE ruin in all senses of the word. I had to climb down a step embankment and then cross a small strip of land to get to the castle that was truly built right into the cliff wall. Many parts of it had fallen down and there were huge gaping holes in between the different levels of the castle, but it was so amazing to be there. I can only imagine how cold it would get in those rooms when the wind was blowing on a cold and blustery night in the middle of winter. Perhaps I took more risks than I should have when exploring this castle, but.... it was worth it!
Onto another castle, I warned you, this was a castle trail! Huntley Castle is like most other castles you need to pay to get into, except they had some terrific stonework with such detailing that I can't compare it to any other place. The section of the house where the front door is, has a 3 story tall, ornate stone carving, that I have no idea how they managed to create. The fireplaces and mantles were also works of art in the stone cutting world. (on a side note, I got to stay in a true castle that was now a hotel in the town of Huntley and it was pretty neat. One of the most interesting parts of my stay was chatting with the castles owner and him recounting how he had only known his wife for 8 days before they got married - it was love at first sight, and still is over 40 years later! All together now, Aaaawwwhhh!)
My last stop was Glamis Castle, this castle is still used as a residence, so it is completely filled with old furniture and everything else you need to really get a feel for what life is like living in a castle! This is where the Queen Mother (the current Queen's mom, who died in 2002 at the ripe old age of 101) was born and grew up. They have many ghost legends and haunting tales to tell of murder and mayhem. The castle dates back to the 1400's and lots of history has been made here. What castle would be complete without their very own herd of highland cattle! Yup, out back there were many highland coo's. Some were mama's with their babies and others were some nasty looking males, waiting to trample you if you climbed over the fence :-)
Whelp, I know it was another long post, and its my own fault for falling so far behind, but hopefully I have kept you all entertained for most of it! More fun to come in the next storytelling time! See you later!
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