My Scottish Summer Adventures

Thursday, 30 July 2009

My Other MisAdventures

I have no idea what these little beasties are! Rams? Sheep? I don't know, but with their ears hanging down and their horns sticking out, they look a bit odd...

The Front yard of Hopetoun House

The path along the side of Hopetoun

The Backyard of Hopetoun - I would hate to cut that lawn every Saturday afternoon :-)

Newhailes House

Clan Gathering Pictures

The Clan Village sitting underneath the Salisbury Crags

There were kilt clad men everywhere!

I LOVE the bright yellow wellies paired with the kilt - what a cute brother and sister!

The 2009 Clan Gathering and aother Misadventures

July 2009 was the BIGGEST Clan gathering since 1822, with more clan chiefs in attendance since the Battle of Culloden in 1745! Over 30,000 from around the world descended upon Edinburgh to rediscover their roots and explore their ancestors lands. It was a 2 day affair with a clan village (over 85 clan families were represented, with the Hay's and Duncan of course :-), highland dancing, caber tossing, stone throwing, hill racing and much more. I have never seen so many kilt clad men in my life :-) Everyone was proudly displaying their family's tartan. Even Prince Charles showed up for the occasion. While I hate crowds, it was a neat experience to be around all these people who were so excited about their history

While, I enjoyed the clan gathering, I was even happier to escape the crowds and head over to Musselburgh to explore Newhailes house. The day got off to a rocky start though, as always I missed the train to Musselburgh by about 2 minutes and the next one was in 1 hour. So I had a decision, wait an hour to take a 4 minute train ride, or hop a bus and arrive 40 minutes later in Musselburgh (yup, you read that right, 4 minutes compared to 40! Insane!) Anyway, I opted to have lunch in town and then get the next train. This would have been fine, had the way to Newhailes been marked properly on the maps at the train station. But, having learned from experience, the best way is to ask people, so I stopped in a bakery and asked for directions. The kind women sent me down the street about a mile. There was NO Newhailes in a mile... I stopped at a gas station and was told - "Oh, you need to go BACK into town about a mile, then continue on about 2 1/2 miles in the OTHER direction to get to Newhailes." At this point, what could I really do? So an hour after arriving in Musselburgh, I arrived at Newhailes house in the rain. (yup, it got better when it started to rain :-) The house is an old country estate house that was built in the early 18th century. The Scottish National Trust just took it over and their motto is "Conservation not restoration" so everything is a bit threadbare and dingy, but you can get the idea of what it was supposed to look like. My favorite room was the library, where there were floor to ceiling bookcases. Unfortunately there is a no picture taking policy, so you only get to see the outside of the house (unless you take a look at this web-site: http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/47/) Thankfully I asked the caretaker for directions back to the train station, and he sent me on a little shortcut and it only took me 10 minutes to get there :-)

My next little adventure took me to Hopetoun House. This is the huge family estate of the Hope family that has been in their possession since 1709! It is a huge house with 150 acres of land out back. This time I knew I was in for a 2 mile walk to the house from the bus stop, but it was a pleasant walk along the coast, so I was happy. The house is absolutely amazing with vastness of the rooms and the beautiful land outback. I got to have afternoon tea in the tea shop (which used to be the stables) and it was great! My new favorite treat is a ginger oatcake slice - very yummy! They have a 10K the end of September that I think I might enter. That would be a fun way to end my stay in Scotland :-) If you have time checkout their web-site, there is absolutely no way I could do the house justice in trying to explain it to you - it is absolutely palatial! http://www.hopetounhouse.com/

Since beginning my stay in Scotland I have had to learn a lot about Scottish appliances. The stove, for instance needs to be started with a match (definitely not used to that). There is no dryer, so all my clothes have to be hung up all over my room to dry after being washed. The shower, needs to be switched by a little pulley next to the sink, and then you have to be careful not to soak the bathroom, because there are no walls around you! Since being here I have realized even more how thankful I am to have ALL the modern conveniences that we have in the states. Shower curtains are a wonderful thing :-)

See you all later!

Monday, 27 July 2009

Linlithgow Palace and Melrose Abbey Pics

Melrose Abbey

Me, hiding from the rain at Melrose Abbey

The really neat fountain at Linlithgow Palace

A view or Linlithgow from across the loch

My favorite room: The Great Hall

Linlithgow, Rosslyn Chapel and Melrose Abbey

Hello All!

After my long adventure up into the highlands I decided to stick a little closer to home and visit some local attractions near Edinburgh. Linlithgow Palace is only a 20 minute train ride west and great place to visit. http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/propertyoverview?PropID=pl_199&PropName=Linlithgow%20Palace. This is where Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots was born in the 1500's. This palace is another fantastic ruin that you can run around in and explore. My favorite room was the Great Hall. There was no ceiling, but I could just imagine the torches glowing from the side walls, and the tables that would have lined the room filled with venison, pork and chickens. I could hear the shouting between men and the sound of music coming from the musicians playing the harp and lyre from the corner of the room. Even today, this would be a really neat place to throw a party, you could hang twinkle lights everywhere and really decorate the place up nice! (of course you would have to keep your fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain since there is no roof :-) The Palace is set on a loch, which is a nice 2 1/2 miles round and a great place for a walk. That day was particularly windy and all the little sailboats on the loch kept falling over and dumping their occupants into the water. I felt bad they were all getting wet, but it really was quite funny :-)

After Linlithgow, I headed over to Rosslyn Chapel. The chapel is about a 1/2 hour bus ride from Edinburgh - not too bad. Most of you will remember that it is featured in part of the book/movie "The Di Vinici Code". All I can say is it is so much more impressive in person! I was completely awed when I walked in. The chapel is under some serious renovations (after the movie the number of tourists visiting jumped from 11,000 a year to over a million a year (I think.. don't hold me to that :-) There had been some bad structural decisions made over the past century so they are now trying to be corrected. I wish I could post pictures, but no picture taking is allowed in the chapel anymore. This is all thanks to some stupid lady who was walking around taking pictures and not looking where she was going and she tripped. Well, of course she sued and ended up winning, so now no one can take pictures in the chapel. Thanks Lady for wreaking it for everyone else! So here is a link to the web-site so you can check it out yourself http://www.rosslynchapel.org.uk/. I do think this is one of my favorite places that I've been to so far. The inside of the chapel is small, and everything is a limestone white (this was done to protect the soft sandstone, but ended harming the building more than helping) but it gives the chapel a peaceful feeling. The stonework is unbelievably intracit and it amazes me that masons were able to do this kind of work over 500 years ago! If you ever get to Scotland - you have to visit, it's worth the trip!

My next stop was Melrose Abbey. http://www.aboutscotland.co.uk/mel.html Yeah.....well, that wasn't as great as I would have hoped it to be. I was under the misguided impression that the bus trip would take about an hour, it took 2 1/4 hours! Once I got there, it started pouring - what could I do but walk around anyway? The abbey itself is another ruin with no ceiling but the work was so beautiful. About 300 monks and laymen lived there once upon a time and they really did have a lot of modern conveniences for their time. After exploring for a couple house, I contemplated continuing my journey south to Jedburgh Abbey (where I would also be in the rain) or giving up and going home to get dry and warm - I gave up :-) I'll leave Jedburgh Abbey and Dryburgh Abbey for another day (If I get up the courage to get on the bus for another couple hours ;-)

I hope you like the pictures I've posted for these past few adventures. Keep an eye out, I continued running more of the Fife Coastal Trail and it was another amazing 9 miles! Pictures coming soon :-)