Here We Are in Scotland

What’s it like to travel to a place that’s almost home?  What do we do when we get there?  These are reasonable questions and present the thesis for this first post in our Fall 2013 Scotland trip.  

The flights from Portland to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Edinburgh were very pleasant,

A lovely sunrise from about two hours west of Amsterdam.

if you can forget that we paid extra for the sort of upgraded seats (four inches more room) and had to pay $100 a bag for two extra bags.  We arrived on time in Amsterdam, but were clear across the terminal from our departure to Scotland.  We barely had time for a latte and cheese roll 

Amsterdam airport coffee shop.

before we had to board our plane to Edinburgh.  

In Edinburgh we picked up our rental car, a snazzy new Ford Focus that’s getting about 35 mpg.  

We made the drive to Crieff in plenty of time to meet Jacky, our B&B host/sister, 

for lunch at a local hangout called The Lounge.  The afternoon was spent unpacking and getting our golf clubs ready for golf on Friday.

Friday’s golf was a quick nine at St Fillans where we’re members, 

Anne tees off on the 3rd at St Fillans.

then back to the B&B so I could prepare a dressed up pasta dish for a dinner for ten in the evening.  Dinners for 10 or 15 are not unusual for this B&B

Jacky's pialla, cooked in a special pan about 2-1/2 feet wide, fixed for dinner the night before the big dinner.

--at this one were the family of the house (John, Jacky, daughter Ailsa), Booney (the Romanian live-in helper), 

Ailsa on the left and her father, John on the right. 

four ladies from Canada, and us.  

Us.

Pork chops, pasta, potatoes (always potatoes), salad, broccoli, and plenty of wine.  A grand time was had by all.

Saturday for us was a touring day.  We did a little shopping at House of Bruar, had hot chocolate and cake in Grandtully,

Scottish Chocolate Centre, Iain Burnett the Highland Chocolatier.

visited both a kirkyard

Logierait Kirkyard: mortsafes used to keep bodies from being dug up by body snatchers.

and a Hieland Coo.  

We had been recommending one of our favorite pubs to the guests we met at the B&B, so we stopped in for a light lunch at the Moulin Inn.

The sign reads, "Moulin Inn, Scottish Pub of the Year, 1696."

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest...and boy did we need it.  We did manage to go out for coffee and some writing time around noon and then drive the six miles out of town to the Innerfeffray Library, the oldest lending library in Scotland.  

Innerpeffray Chapel.

Chapel left and the white Innerpeffray Library on the right.

People visit the library connected to an old Drummond family chapel to research the hundreds of old Scottish books in the library.  

We had a nice visit with a charming curator/librarian who showed us the new books--the ones printed after 1800.

Our agenda for the next few days was golf, golf, golf: two courses we’d played before and one new to us.  We had great fun playing the fine Downfield course in Dundee 

Downfield GC, Dundee.

Step into the hazard, my friend. 

and the Strathmore course at the edge of the Highlands.  

Strathmore GC, near Alyth.

Playing the third day at Piperdam GC near Dundee was work--hard work for a couple of reasons.  First, the course quite hilly for me, the walker (Anne, with an injured foot, got to ride in a buggy).  

Second, we both had great difficulty trying to dissect the design problems of the course.  When I talked to the club pro after the round I asked, “Who designed the course?”  He replied, “That’s the problem, no one designed it, they just sort of put it together around the views.”  

Piperdam Golf and Liesure Centre, Fowlis, Dundee.

While the course is lovely, it has some serious problems as a golf course.  The pro did assure us that plans had been approved to rectify most of the glaring design flaws over the coming winter. 

Good flights, meeting old and new friends, shopping, touring, golf and a little work are a great way to start our Fall 2013 Scotland trip. 

A fall walk to Crieff town centre.

  

The Scottish Weather

As I said in the last post, I am going to comment on the Scottish weather: “Admiral, there be weather here!”  When we left home, Portland was just coming off a stretch of fine weather, finally.  In Amsterdam we landed in heavy winds and rain.  But we stepped out of Turnhouse Aiiport in Edinburgh into clouds, sun, and breeze--better weather than we’d left at home.  One afternoon doesn’t really answer the question of what weather will we have.  But Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were sunny with clouds as well.  The breeze, though, has made it cool--mid to high 40s.  As far as we are concerned this is almost perfect weather for both touring and golfing.  The Scots though are hoping for some warmer and even drier days--April here was the rainiest on record. 

I will say that driving west to Inveraray through snow capped peaks (between 2500 and 3500 feet) on our first Saturday was lovely enough to shoot over a hundred photos of the mountains.  The first full week has been clouds, sun, and cool temperatures.  We loved that!  Now we have moved to the Highlands, Aviemore in the Cairngorm National Park.  As we left Crieff light snow flurries accompanied our packing the car and we walked to dinner in more light flurries.  Tonight is to be minus two degrees--and this is May 5th!  The prediction is that it will be the coldest May on record. Oh well, we have winter fleece  jumpers and warm golf gloves.  Though we may have to buy orange golf balls for the snow!

My, What a Difference

Four inches often seems insignificant--I know certain of our friends are now saying, “Four inches can make a lot of difference!”  You know, we all have some of those friends.  I will say though that the four inches we gained by upgrading from economy to Premier Economy on Delta was well worth the dollars spent.  I was able to stretch my legs out under the seat in front of me without jamming into the seat ahead’s structure.  Our seats were able to recline further and the people in front of us could recline fully without smashing their headrest into our noses.  The trays came down without rubbing across our shirt fronts and we could get up and down in our seats so much easier than we could in economy. 

Anne pointed out also that we got on earlier--a definite advantage with how tight overhead storage space has become--and off sooner--a definite advantage just because after nine and a half hours we’re ready to get off the plane. Four inches.  Highly significant to a high jumper.  And as Anne and I will now attest, important to the comfort of the traveler.    

A Scottish Kirk

On the edge of Loch Awe in the west of Scotland we visited Saint Conan’s Kirk (church).  We knew little about the kirk, but had some idea that it had some interesting features.  Location was one of those features.  Sited on the edge of the loch with a view to the snow covered hills to the northeast, Saint Conan’s was indeed lovely in the cool spring sun. 

St Conan was reputed to have lived in the Glenorchy area and was a disciple of St Columba who brought Christianity from Ireland to Scotland in the 600s.  St Conan became tutor to two sons of the King of Scotland and eventually a Bishop.  The church we visited is not particularly old, having been dedicated in the 1930s, but the original church on the location was begun in 1881 and finished in 1886.  

Some of the most interesting features of the kirk include the tall Celtic Cross, the Cloister Garth, the Bruce Chapel, and a set of modern gargoyles.  

The Celtic Cross was erected on a knoll at the west end of the kirk by the builder in memory of his mother.  The cross is a fine example of funerary sculpture.  

The Cloister Garth, the best entrance into the church, serves no specific purpose.  Instead, the cloisters copy the design of larger Scottish abbeys simply for the love of beautiful design.  The Bruce Chapel contains a more than life-size effigy of King Robert the Bruce, the first king of a united Scotland. 

The effigy is made of wood with the face and hands of alabaster.  Below the figure of the King is a small ossuary which contains a bone of the King himself taken from Dunfermline Abbey.  Bruce’s body is buried in Dunfermline, his heart is buried in Melrose Abbey in the Borders, and a piece of him resides at St Conan’s--he was a King who certainly got around.  On the exterior of the kirk is a set of unusual modern gargoyles or waterspouts.  Figures decorating churches which are not functional spouts are called grotesques, regardless of how nice they may be.  The three gargoyles at St Conan’s are figures of two large-eared rabbits (likely Scottish hares) and one that looks like it was meant to be a hippopotamus. 

Usually we’ve seen carved-stone faces, demons, dragons, angels, lions or such animals.  Hares and hippos of metal are unique.  

Saint Conan’s Kirk is a thing of beauty being preserved for future generations and is a fine example of the sites we visit throughout Scotland.    

A Dying Fascination, Part 2

Where do we go to find art?  In Scotland, the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh has a wonderful display of paintings and sculptures.  Anne and I find natural art on almost every golf course we visit--trees, flowers, the art of design.  Cemeteries, church or kirk graveyards, bone factories seem to be one of the least likely spots to go chasing art, but  there is much that is artistic in the graveyards, especially in Scotland.  I’ve already shown examples in the last entry of one artsy aspect of the graveyards: the patterns of stones and light. The next aspect to examine is the art on the stones themselves, the carvings.  The weathered stone carvings catch attention as we wander among the graves, but the meaning behind the symbols gives substance to the stone mason’s art.

The first category of carvings to explore are the Emblems of Mortality (Willsher, p. 38).  Here is where I’ll go back to my misconceptions about the skull and crossbones.  Instead of symbols referring to death by plague, the gruesome image simply says that this person is dead, as we all shall be.  It is one of the symbols of mortality; symbols which remind us that death is a natural part of life which will come to us all as it has with this soul.  Skull and crossbones is not the only image to remind us of our mortality, we’ve seen several others in the kirkyards of Scotland and England.  Here are some examples of the carvings categorized as emblems of mortality:

Grave Digger’s Tools, such as the spade and turf-cutter (Muthill Old Church and Tower graves, Perthshire);

the Deid Bell rung to give notice of funerals seen in these twin grave slabs at the ruined St Peter’s Kirk near Duffus, Morayshire; 

Winged Skulls are usually found on tombs from the 17th century, but this elaborate winged skull (University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, England) is obviously much later;

the Skeleton, the ultimate image of the death that comes to us all, like the one Anne sat next to in the Elgin Cathedral;

the Hourglass which indicates time is passing or, as seen in this grave slab in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney, has past; 

Weapons of Death, such as the dart or arrow (St Magnus Cathedral); 

and the Coffin as our final resting place (Elgin Cathedral, Elgin, Morayshire). This slab like many others displays multiple symbols of mortality; in this example, skull and crossbones, grave-digger tools, deid bell, hour glass, and the coffin. 

A second category of carvings on the stones refer to Emblems of Immortality (Willsher, p. 42).  These images seem to be less prevalent than mortality images, as if the living were more concerned with the inevitability of their own death rather than life forever after for the departed.  One image of immortality that is quite easy to find is the Winged Soul or Cherub, as opposed to the less common winged skull. The first example is from Muthill Old Church and the second more elaborate carving is from Balfron Village Church, Scotland.

The other symbol often found is the Scallop Shell, a common object carried by pilgrims, which could also just be pretty decoration.  At the Burford Parish Church, England, we found this unusual combination of mortality symbol (the skull) and the immortality symbol (the scallop shell).

It is more common to see the kind of scallop shell decoration we saw in the Dull Churchyard.

Other symbols of immortality that we’ve found include:

The Angus Dei, or figure of a lamb bearing a cross or flag which is said to represent the Passion of Christ, and the Phoenix, the mythical bird which rises out of its own ashes, which is a strong image of rebirth (both seen in the churchyard of the St Columba’s Episcopal Church in Crieff, Perthshire).

The Dove which is the symbol of the Holy Spirit was very popular in the 19th century.  It is unusual, though, to find a carving of a dove on a memorial (Kinfauns graveyard near Perth).

The Wheel-head or Celtic Cross representing the eternal circle of life is both the symbol of hope and very artistic. This nice example is in the graveyard at St Peter’s Church in Haysham, England, near Lancaster.  

The third category of carvings to discuss in this entry are carvings of symbolic scenes, especially Biblical scenes.  Betty Willsher in Understanding Scottish Graveyards (2006) mentions three specific scenes to look for--Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, and the Sower and the Reaper.  In all the graveyards we searched on this trip (and looking at photos from past trips) I could find only two Adam and Eve stones, one at the Church of the Holy Rude cemetery in Stirling and the other at St Madeos Church near Perth.  

Other examples of this story and other scenes will have to wait for future trips.  

There is one more category of grave stone carving to explore, but that will have to wait for the next entry.