I am going on holiday at the weekend, and so there won’t be a post next week.
I hope you all won’t be too disappointed about that! 🙂
I will be returning home on the 15th, but as it’s rather close to Tuesday, and I’m bound to have stuff to do when I get back, I’ll probably take a couple of weeks off.
Have a good time while I’m away.
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Maria and Tom have bought an antique table for the old cottage they have bought. When they hear strange noises in the night that sound like crying, they worry their house is haunted, but the sounds seem to come from the table.
They set about trying to find what is causing the disturbances. The answer is stranger than either of them had thought.
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I’ve been on another Scottish holiday. This time to the islands of Islay (pronounced Iyla) and Jura. We chose the hottest week ever on the islands, or even in Scotland, I think.
Anyway, here are some photographs I took while there.
The first place we stayed was at an inn on the shores of Loch Fyne. A lovely position for a lovely inn.
The Creggans Inn
From here we went to look at Inverary Castle, the seat of the Dukes of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell.
An impressive Scottish castle
And another view.
We caught a ferry over to Islay. It took just over 2 hours, travelling down Loch Long, until docking at Port Askaig in the north of the island. From here we caught a bus to Bowmore, the capital of Islay.
The main street in Bowmore.
Bowmore is famous for its whisky. The hotel where we stayed actually belonged to the Bowmore distillery.
The excellent hotel where we stayed.
We had a room that had the most tremendous view across to Jura.
The Paps of Jura from our bedroom window.
And here is the harbour next to the inn.
Bowmore Harbour
The Bowmore Distillery
The next day we caught the bus back to Askaig where we caught a ferry, this time to Jura. The two island are very close together and the ferry only took 10 minutes maximum to cross. The natives don’t want a bridge though, as the bus driver on Jura told us.
We were planning to walk to a beautiful beach from the town of Craighouses. I say ‘town’, but both this place and Bowmore were scarcely bigger than villages.
Anyway, we set off for what should have been about a 3 mile walk. As we passed a cottage, a man was just going in and he warned us that the ‘clegs’ were out and we’d get bitten. We had no idea what these ‘clegs’ were. I assumed they were the midges that Scotland is infamous for. How wrong I was. Clegs, it seems, are nothing less than horseflies.
Now, I’ve come across these nasty insects before, when I used to ride, but only in ones and twos. These were in swarms. We took our hats off and walked for a while swiping at the little blighters, but eventually we were driven back to Craighouses.
Apparently they have the most painful bite of all the insect world.
So we sat in the hot sun, ate our lunch and contemplated the view.
On the day of our return to the mainland, we had to get up very early. Our ferry left at 6:50 and it was about a 20 minute drive. We’d ordered a taxi for 6:15, so were up at just before 5:45. What a sight greeted our eyes. A wonderful sunrise over the Paps of Jura.
After returning to the mainland, and collected our car, we had a beautiful drive to Glasgow, where we stayed for the night.
Sorry, Glasgow! Not impressed, even though we were on the banks of the Clyde near the new exhibition centre, dubbed the Armadillo, which I found underwhelming. It’s supposed to reference ships’ hulls, but I didn’t think it looked as spectacular in the flesh as it does in pictures. (I didn’t take a photo, and couldn’t find a free one, so if you want to see it you’ll have to look it up. Sorry.)
We walked to the centre of the city. Or at least what the map said was the centre, and it was where the main station was. It was packed with people, and little else other than eating places. No shops that we found. At a time of a pandemic, it was a little nerve-shredding being amongst crowds. There was litter around, too. The only place where there was any space to move without dodging people was the waterfront.
The following day we set off back to England, calling at friends and relatives on the way.
We’d had an excellent holiday, with fantastic weather. We’ve always been quite lucky in Scotland and keep telling people that it has brilliant weather! (I hope they take that with a pinch of salt, though.)
I would love to hear your views. Have you been to Scotland? How did you find the weather?
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Maria and Tom have bought an antique table for their 17th century house, but during the night, strange sounds begin. They are assured it’s not haunted, so what is causing the sounds and can they get rid of what is making them?
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I have recently got back from a holiday in Scotland. On the way, we stayed in the Peak District National Park as it’s too far to go to Scotland in one go.
We decided we’d walk some of the Pennine Way while we were there, This is Britain’s oldest long-distance trail, being 268 miles across some of England’s best scenery.
In 1932, ramblers did a mass trespass on Kinder Scout, one of the peaks in the Peak District. It was done to bring to notice the fact that walkers in England and Wales were denied access to many areas of open countryside. This led to the ultimate opening of large areas and the idea of the Pennine Way was born.
If you look online, it will tell you that the Pennine Way was opened in 1965. This is not true. Only the final stage to Kirk Yeltholm was opened then. The trail known as The Pennine Way was in existence long before that. The idea was proposed in 1935 by a man called Stephenson who had been inspired by long-distance trails in the US–especially the Appalachian Trail. I cannot find when the first part was begun, though, but I do know it was before 1965 because I have walked on it before that date!And it wasn’t considered new then.
It begins in the village of Edale, in Derbyshire and culminates 268 miles later in Kirk Yeltholm, just inside the Scottish border. It passes through some of England’s most beautiful scenery including, as well as the Peak District, The Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park.
The route follows the Pennines, known as the Backbone of England. This is a range of mountains and hills that runs down the centre of Northern England.
The popularity of the trail has been a problem. Even in the 1960s the path was becoming worn away, and so some parts are now paved.
If you enjoyed these pictures and a bit of history, please leave a comment in the comments box. I enjoy reading what you think of my posts.
I have recently heard that Vengeance of a Slave is now available in hardcover. You can find it here.
And Viv’s Family Recipes is available in paperback. You can find it here.
Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 