Saturday, July 05, 2014

This time last week

I'm back!  Hard to imagine that this time last week we were in Scotland.  It seems like only yesterday and at the same time seems ages ago.  We spent a couple of days in Carlisle, a city that I really liked, on the way into Scotland.  I'll write more about what we saw there in a later post.


First stop in Scotland  Gretna and Gretna Green both with a very different history.  That's me standing under the sculpture by Ray Lonsdale perhaps you'll remember him from my post a few weeks ago on the Filey Fisherman?  The sculpture is close to the famous old Blacksmith's Shop and museum at Gretna Green.  We didn't go in the museum but later in the week we did visit a nearby museum which tells of the very different reason behind the building of the nearby town of GretnaAgain this deserves a post in its own right so I'll write more later.


We were staying on the outskirts of the town of Dumfries, where the poet Robert Burns spent the last years of his life.  Unfortunately, his statue was fenced off due to road works the evening we had a stroll around the town. There was so much to see in this part of the country.  Here are just a few glimpses of the places we visited.

Caerlaverock Castle - I just loved this castle so much it was stunning...

....from every angle you could photograph from.  Paul saw a brown hare on the woodland boardwalk here - I missed it as I was too busy looking at butterflies in the opposite direction.


Sweetheart Abbey in the village of New Abbey.   Lady Devorgilla of Galloway, founded the abbey in honour of her husband John Balliol after his death in 1273 and was buried here clutching his embalmed heart which she had carried around wherever she travelled in an ivory casket - so the monks called their monastery Sweetheart Abbey. John de Balliol was an adviser to Henry III and also Sherrif of Nottingham from 1261 to 1262.  After his death his wife, Devorgilla, gave many endowments in his name including Balliol College, Oxford.

  Just a short walk to the other side of the village and you can find the corn mill.




 the people working here were lovely and so welcoming and friendly we had a great time wandering around.

The fish pond near the Mill was formerly the fish pond used by the monks of Sweetheart Abbey.  Apparently red squirrels can be seen in and around the mill's car park and picnic area. I think they were hiding the day we visited or perhaps just not tempted by our picnic lunch.

 However, we did see a red squirrel the next day at the RSPB's reserve at Loch Ken.  It was a long walk from the car park to the bird hides overlooking the loch and I kept thinking we can't expect to walk into the hide and see a red squirrel straight away - but guess what?  We did! It stayed around long enough for us to admire it and photograph it.  


We saw lots of woodpeckers too.  On the loch itself there were many gulls and a few ducks.  There is also a goose viewing platform for when they visit during the autumn and winter. Loch Ken is also on the Galloway Kite Trail and we saw several Red Kites in this area.


We also visited Southerness and walked along the banks of the estuary of the Solway Firth. You can see the Cumbrian hills on the opposite side.


I even managed to bring a bit of family history into the holiday.  My great, great, great grandfather John Young left Scotland sometime in the 1820s and came to work as a tailor in Loughborough in Leicestershire. He married Maria Parkinson there in 1826.  All their children were baptised at the Dead Lane Primitive Methodist Chapel in Loughborough.  He was born in 1803 in Limekilns, Kirkaldy, Fife the son of Alexander Young also a tailor and his wife, formerly Ann Brash.  My great great grandfather was named Alexander as was my grandfather.  So you can see that when I saw the little book and coaster showing the Young tartan I had to make a modest purchase as a souvenir.



I could show you far more photos which I will eventually in future posts and I still haven't told you about our day at the St Anne's Allotments in Nottingham when we were taken on a heritage tour of this most interesting and historic part of the city.  Again another post calls to give full justice to the topic.

For now I'm off to catch up with what has been happening around here and also what you have all been blogging about whilst I have been away.  Since I got back I've been feeling more like the tortoise than the hare so it may take me some time to catch up with everything.  I'll get back to normal very soon I hope.




20 comments:

  1. Fantastic Rosie, I love Scotland. It looks like you had some nice weather too. How wonderful to see a red squirrel, so refreshing after our continual battles with our horde of grey ones!

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    1. The red squirrel and the weather were both delightful. We have a particularly naughty grey squirrel at the moment in the garden - he or she has learnt every trick in the book to get at those bird feeders:)

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  2. Busy and exciting times Rosie! I have never been to Scotland but would love to visit one day. Your 'Young' tartan is lovely! I don't think I have ever seen a red squirrel in the real - only the one in the tufty club! I can see that you had a most wonderful break and look forward to your tales over the coming weeks. x

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    1. I remember the tufty club! We did had a wonderful time and now I want to go back again soon:)

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  3. So much to see!! I can't wait! You have had a lovely time in some fab places xxx

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    1. We saw some lovely places and wonderful buildings whilst we were there - such a lovely part of the country:)

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  4. Superb trip. We saw the hands when we went to Gretna last year. But we turned left and went to Galloway. Nice area.

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    1. Ah, we didn't go that far left - maybe next time. I wanted to see wigtown but we didn't get that far in such a short time I'm afraid:)

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  5. I've never been back to that part of the country since I spent a very wet cycling holiday up there about forty years ago. It's nice to see it with the sun shining.

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    1. On, no poor you - I have to say we didn't have one drop of rain whilst we were there which I would say was most unusual:)

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  6. You didn't see anybody running away to get married then? Gretna is on my list of places to see one day, so thank you for a little taster! xx

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    1. No - no stage coaches or phaeton and pairs drawing up in haste at the little chapel. Seriously it is more of a wedding venue now with designer shops attached still intersting though. Gretna Green is very different to Gretna which was built to house munitions workers during WWI:)

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  7. What a wonderful visit you obviously had! I love the castle, it must have been lovely to visit. I look forward to your other posts as and when you have a chance to catch up with yourself! xx

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    1. So much to write about, so little time and energy at the moment. I will get there eventually:)

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  8. Welcome back Rosie! I'm going to enjoy being an armchair traveller as you take us around Scotland (and Nottingham) in your next few posts.

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    1. Thanks, Linda I don't know what to write about next:)

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  9. Great, Rosie!!! The Caerlaverock Castle is fantastic, Sweetheart Abbey is a beautiful name for a beautiful story. Excellent trip, I wait for the next post.

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    1. The castle was wonderful, so atmospheric and we had it almost to ourselves. In contrast Sweetheart Abbey was so very busy but beautiful nontheless:)

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  10. It looks like you visited some great and interesting places. I've never been to Scotland but it's high on my list!

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    1. The area we went to was lovely with so much to see and do - plenty of walking and nature reserves. I'd not been to that part of Sctoland before. In fact I've only ever been to Edinbugh and Glasgow and just up the coast and along the borders from Berwick-on-Tweed:)

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