THE BEST OF THE REST: Fall Scotland 2018 Part 3

This post is made up of the Best of the Rest of my photos from the fall trip to Scotland. These haven’t been seen in the blogs from this trip, but deserve some viewing time. And I have a request for those of you who view the blog—give me some feedback on the photos. If I get the usual three or four responses, I’ll appreciate your comments, but I’ll also be disappointed. I really want to hear from those who follow the blog. Specifically, I want to know which photo or photos you suggest I consider for art shows; which photos have artistic merit and quality of composition to enter into an art competition, like a judged show. Also, which photos should I consider for making prints for framing to sell when we set up our book and photo booth at fairs and shows. Sometimes, but not always, a photo might end up in both category. Winter is the time when I can get ready for sales and shows, so your help would be appreciated. The photos in this post are organized into arbitrary categories for convenience, but don’t let that affect your choices when considering photos for sales and/or shows. I hope you enjoy the challenge I’m asking you to take on—it’s sort of what I do whenever I’m in a gallery or looking through someone’s portfolio of work at a shop of booth.

FLORA AND FAUNA

There were plenty of flowers in bloom on this trip to Scotland, but this photo of the fronds blowing in the wind is the one I like best.

Hielan'Coos (Highland or hairy cows) always make for a good photo, particularly with the sheep in the background.

Reindeer were reintroduced to Scotland in the 1950s. Now the Cairngorm herd numbers around 200. After hiking up to the herd, we wandered among them and this guy just walked right up to me looking for a handout.

Tough photo to get--a fast moving gannet skimming the water while I photograph from a car ferry bouncing in the chop.

This harbour seal (or is it a sea lion?) was a much easier target. in the Pittenwee, Harbour He was as curious about me as I was about him.

ARCHITECTURE

This grotesque was on display at Elgin Cathedral after having been in storage for decades. Grotesques and gargoyles (those with water spouts) were meant to remind church goers of the the devil's fearsome work.

A picturesque house at Pittenweem Harbour.

Dean Village (a section of Edinburgh) is one of the few places I've seen to make  drain pipes into art.

A lovely stairway in Falkland Village.

One of the features of Falkland Village is the dated lintels above doorways.  In this case, even though the doorway is gone, the lintel announces that GB married MH in 1686 and moved into this dwelling.

PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT

J L Gills in Crieff may not be the largest whisky shop in Scotland, but largely due to its owner, Andrew Cuthbert, it probably has the most personality.

You can see the rain is on the way, but the wind is already here.

Speaking of wind, just try to get a good picture in the wind on a fast moving ferry.

A group of hunters hiking to their hunting ground were spotted through the trees near the Roman Bridge.

The story: inside the old section of Dunkeld Cathedral a father patiently answers his young daughters questions.

At the park beside Dunkeld Cathedral, Anne contemplates the River Tay--which was as high as we've ever seen it.

THE PLACE IS THE THING

Looking up toward Drummond Castle from the formal gardens. The gardens were used in the Outlander TV series to represent Versailles Garden.

Part of Dean Village, just north of Edinburgh's downtown area.

The skeleton of Elgin Cathedral which at one time rivaled St Andrews Cathedral for size and power.

A typical Highland croft with resident locals.

Glen Lyon in Perthshire has one of the tightest drives in a country of narrow roads.

A small island (I think it might be Swona) we passed on our way to St Margaret's Hope on the Orkney Islands. 

The Italian Chapel on the Orkney island Lamb Holm was built by Italian POWs during World War II. The ornate chapel is now privately maintained and is a real gem.

Midhowe Chambered Cairn on Rousay is a Neolithic burial tomb more than 27 meters long which has been preserved within a cement hanger and is viewed from paths on scaffolding which runs the length of the tomb. The remains of 25 people have been found in the tomb.

The Roman Bridge in Glen Lyon is not of Roman origin having been built in the 15th or 16 century --the Romans left the British Isles in the 4th century. "Roman" most likely refers to the Roman-style arch of the bridge's design.

Skaill Bay Beach, on the main Orkney island, is one of the many picturesque beaches throughout Scotland. 

The Standing Stones of Stenness (Orkney) are the remains of what was once a 12-stone circle built in about 3100 BC. It may be the oldest henge in the British Isles and the stones stand as high as 16 feet.

The village of Dunkeld seems to fit the black and white format.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Edinburgh Arches

An Edinburgh close or alley looking down from the Royal Mile toward Princess Street.

Doorway

My shadow on a bakery window create "Pie Man."

A rainy street in Kirkwall, Orkney.

Anne meets Sausage Man.

On the small island of Rousay it's hard to find a street for Street Photography, so I had to resort to Farm Road Photography. This road is the main road around the island.

NEXT: There may be some new or new/old travel stories to share.

Scotland Fall 2016: Glasgow, Fireworks, and Stone Circles

Welcome to the new readers from the OEA conference workshop.  Hope you enjoy the journey.

Picturesque Shiskine Golf Club

This is the road that circumnavigates the Isle of Arran.

An Afternoon in Glasgow

Glasgow Building Reflections

Jacky, our Scottish adopted sister, drove, so I got to look at the scenery as Anne, Jacky, and I went into Glasgow (an hour drive) to spend the afternoon with our adopted niece Ailsa, a second year Uni student majoring in Business. We parked at Ailsa’s dorm/apartment and walked the 20 minutes to Glasgow’s vibrant main shopping street Sauchiehall. Starbucks was our first stop—the first Pumpkin Spice latte of the season. 

Ailsa and Jacky on the down escalator.

Then it was across the Sauchiehall (a pedestrian mall) to the Apple store crowded with hundreds of Glaswegians struggling to get their hands on a new iPhone 7.  Is there enough difference to justify the expensive upgrade?  It seems there certainly is to many.

Street People

Street Art

Leaving the throngs to ogle the sparkling 7s, we walked down Sauchiehall to Buchanan Street (still a ped mall) where the ladies shopped at Primark, a clothing discounter.  For forty minutes I wandered outside the shop watching a steady stream of customers file empty-handed in and come out with bags of treasure. 

At one point, huddled against a display window under a small overhang, I pressed against the glass to avoid being drenched by a quick moving downpour. Anne, Jacky, and Ailsa eventually found their way out after the rain had ended; they were tightly clutching their Primark bargains.

I wasn’t as interested in shopping as I was in eating—it was 5:00 and we hadn’t had but a bite of cheese for lunch.  Ailsa promised us good food and great prices at a restaurant in the Italian section of Glasgow only a few blocks away.  

She made good on her promise; Amore offered a two-course dinner for £9.95 and my bruschetta and spaghetti with meatballs were quite tasty. 

A Glasgow Selfie.

Even the parking garages are well decorated in Glasgow.

It was a mile walk back to see Ailsa’s apartment and an hour back to Crieff.  Glasgow will be on our agenda in future trips—for the shopping, the food, and the people watching.  

Pladda Island off the southern coast of Isle Arran.

The mountains of Isle arran from the cross-island String Road.

Be Careful What You Say…

We were having a cuppa at the Corrie GC tearoom on the Isle of Arran and doing some writing. The tearoom manager was friendly and chatty with those of us in the room.  She commented about a group of young people who had just left saying, “They startled me. I hadn’t heard them come in and when I came from the kitchen they were there quietly fiddling with their mobile devices not saying a word. Just think, they’re the ones who will be in charge of us when we’re all in those special homes.” 

      She notice me writing and asked what I was doing.  When I told her that I was working on my notes for the golf guides we write she said, “Oh, I’ve got to watch what I say when I don’t know who’s in the room.” She laughed and went into the kitchen.

The village of Corrie.

A couple of minutes later she came out and told us a story of another time she should have held her tongue.  She and one of her regulars were talking about fireworks for Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year’s celebration.  The customer was bemoaning the fact that you couldn’t bring fireworks over to the island on the Caledonian MacBryne ferries from the mainland.  The tearoom manager said loudly enough for the whole room to hear, “I just go over to Ardrossan, buy about £400 of fireworks, cover them with a blanket in the back of my car, and drive right on the ferry—to hell with CalMac rules.”  One visitor said sort of quietly to her, “Young lady, you ought to be careful what you say in front of strangers.”

She gasped and said, “Oh my god, you work for Calmac ferries don’t you!”

“Yes, I’m a ship’s Captain.”

She said he wrote down her car registration (license plate number) and that her car now gets regularly checked.

Island post box or island art? Or both?

I found a tiny graveyard off the main road around Arran.  When I hiked to the graveyard I found stones commemorating members of Clan MacAlister, which is my clan. Notice the dates -- 1961 and 1783.

The Stones of Isle Arran

It wasn’t a long drive from our B&B in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran to Brodick and then over the String Road to the small parking lot on the west coast of Arran about three miles north-northeast of Blackwaterfoot.  At one end of the ten car lot was a gate with a sign pointing inland to Machrie Moor.  Through the gate, Anne and I started the one and a half mile hike that would take us back four or five thousand years.  

The view back down the path to Machrie Moor.

We started our hike along a well-worn cart track through fields of sheep who weren’t very interested in us, unless we got too close.  We passed several small groups of people hiking back to their cars and by the time we reached the first ancient site along the trail, we were alone with the stones.

The first ancient monument on the way to Machrie Moor is probably a cairn with kerb stones around it.

Most impressive of all the archeological sites on Arran are Moss Farm Road circle and Machrie Moor which has been called “the best group of architecturally varied circles in western Europe.”  The path is a dirt and gravel cart track which climbs gently through pastures to the Moss Farm Road stone circle (labeled “Circle X”).  The “circle” is a type of burial cairn which is surrounded by a series of upright stones.  Ancient people passing the cairn would have been impressed by the family’s importance shown by building such a fine monument to their dead.  

Moss Farm Circle

Old Moss Farm

Continuing past a couple of significant standing stones we came to the ruins of Moss Farm.  Here was the first of six stone circles in the care of Historic Scotland which make up the Machrie Moor stones.

Machrie Moor is an area of approximately five square miles of flat fertile soil called low blanket bog.  The name machair means an area of flat sandy land.  This had been an important area of human habitation far before the 1800 to 1600 BC date of the stone circles we see today.  

The main stone of Circle No. 2.

The wide moor hosts numerous prehistoric monuments, tombs, and hut circles besides the six main megalithic stone circles.  The moor was abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age (about 2600 years ago) because of climate change and poor farming practices.  

Three stones of another circle on Machrie Moor.

Of the six circles Circle II contains the largest stones reaching almost 18 feet in height.  Circle V, a concentric ring about 60 feet in diameter, is known as Suidhe Choir Fhionn or Fingal’s cauldron seat.  Legend says that Fingal, the mythological Scottish giant, tied his dog Bran to a stone in the outer circle while he ate a meal in the inner circle.  Circle XI is the most recently excavated being uncovered in 1985-86.  

Diggings at the various circles have unearthed a smattering of human remains, arrowheads, a bronze awl, a food container, a beaker, and several flint flakes. The stones may have served a variety of ceremonial and/or astronomical purposes. Archeologist John Barnatt suggested in 1978 that the circles aligned with a notch of the Machrie glen skyline and that the notch is split by the rising sun on Midsummer’s Morn.  

The view back at the parking lot for Machrie Moor.

Anne and I noticed an interesting juxtaposition on the moor—the contrast of viewing the crumbling ruin of Moss Farm, probably only 200 to 300 years old, and the permanence of the stones placed there by primitive people more than 4000 years ago.  As we walked back to our car we again passed small groups, this time heading up to view the stones.  It was nice to have had the moor to ourselves at least for a little while. 

The Birks (birches) of Aberfeldy

A fitting good-bye to Scotland from our home course at St Fillans.