ICONIC IMAGES OF SCOTLAND (Part One)

The Scottish thistle is but one of many iconic images of Scotland--those sights which call up other mental visages of the Scottish experience.  Even if you’ve never traveled to the land of haggis, broadswords, and heather certain pictures clue you that you are seeing Scotland or will come to mind when someone mentions Scotland.

In this series of posts I will share some of what I believe are the most Scottish of images, starting with the structures which seem to crowd the landscape, Scotland’s castles.  Whether lived in or recently lived in, such as castles Methven, Glamis, Menzies, or Craigievar,

Methven Castle near Perth

Glamis Castle, the home Queen Mum and childhood home of Elizabeth II. 

Menzies Castle in the Highlands.

Craigievar Castle, lived in until the 1960s.

or ruins like Balvenie, Loch an Eilein, or Stalker, these castles represent the history of a nation whose culture is both violent and enlightened.  

Balvenie Castle near Balvenie and Glenfiddich Distilleries.

Loch an Eilein Castle in Cairngorm National Park.

Castle Stalker on the west coast.

Historic castles, particularly Stirling and Edinburgh, are major tourist draws and bustle with crowds year round.  

Stirling Castle of Braveheart fame.

Edinburgh Castle seen from the old shopping district below.

And yet other castles become picture postcards for Scotland tourism-- Eilean Donan and Dunnottar being the best examples.  

Castle Eilean Donan, seen with hot air balloon as an opening for BBC programming in America.

Dunnottar Castle near Aberdeen on the North Sea.

Look on any map of Scotalnd and you will notice the dots of castles--touristy, lived in, ruined, and almost forgotten--in every corner of the country.

Next, an important image that comes to mind when Scotland is mentioned is golf.  As the Home of Golf, where the game was developed if not invented, golf and Scotland are almost synonymous. 

Anne pitches out of the bunkers backwards at Kingsbarns GC near St Andrews.

The British Open, especially when played at St Andrews Old Course, and this year’s Ryder Cup venue Gleneagles are known to many more than weekend duffers.  Golf in Scotland, though is not relegated to the famous courses, but instead infects the country like a plague--a plague many of us relish.  Scotland, about two-thirds the size of Oregon, has at last count 595 golf courses while Oregon has but 260.  

St Andrews from St Andrews Castle Course.

St Andrews Castle Course, newest of the seven St Andrews Links Trust courses. 

Every village, even some of the smallest, will have a golf course.  

Anne at Isle of Skye GC, where else but the Isle of Skye.

Scenes of golf courses, famous or unheralded, will forever represent Scotland.

Whereas New York may be known for its skyscrapers, Scotland is better known for quaint villages where people still walk to the butcher and bakery shops daily.  

Comrie Village, Perthshire, Central Scotland.

The village of Crieff is our home base when we're in Scotland. 

Comrie in the Autumn.

Filled with little shops and tea rooms, these villages, such as Crieff and Comrie in central Scotland, are a joy to visit to see everyday life in Scotland.  

The village of Portree, the main town on the Isle of Skye.

Tarbert on the Kintyre Peninsula in the evening.

Others become picture postcards to the memory.

         And while the quaint villages of Scotland are home to many Scots, there are other locals you’ll meet in the country--which in most cases is not far from the villages.  Most iconic is the "Hieland Coo" (Highland Cow), 

a hearty breed able to withstand the rigors of wet Scottish summers and cold winters.  Sometimes you get to meet some of the locals in the road, this is affectionately known as a Scottish traffic jam.  

The other local resident, responsible for the Scottish Clearances where many crofters were thrown off their land to make room for more profitable production, is the Scottish sheep.  

So iconic (and cute are the sheep and lambs) that Anne has managed to bring a herd of them home over the years. 

Last in this first part of Scotland images is an unsuspected figure, the Queen.  With very little love of things English by the Scots--and for good reason, just read a little history--it is amazing how much love and respect there is for the Queen. 

The Queen visiting Balmoral Castle (her Scottish summer residence) after a storm.  Photo taken by a Austrian friend we met at Merlindale B&B in Crieff.

Elizabeth II may be an English monarch, but she is The Queen to the Scots and thus an image of great importance.

Next: Part Two and then Part Three...were you expecting anything else?  

Anniversary Road Trip and Why Scotland?

To celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary Anne I planned a three-day trip along the Columbia River Gorge and to Pendleton.  The morning we left for Pendleton, suitcases, camera gear, and golf clubs in the car, was pleasant but cool.  We planned stops at several of the falls along the gorge.  First, was Latourell Falls, 

a short 200-yard hike from the parking area to the base of the falls.  At 28 degrees the walk was quite brisk, but the views we got of the falls were worth it--I burned quite a bit of memory at the falls dropping straight down from a basalt cliff to the rocks below.  



























Next was a hike (for me, Anne stayed warm in the car) of about 500-yards downhill to the base of Bridal Veil Falls.  The side trails around the base of the falls were very slippery so I played safe and stuck to the main path.  The photos I think are worth the three rest stop climb back to the car park

 The main waterfall on the scenic highway is Multnomah Falls, the highest in Oregon at about 620 feet in two steps.  We were still early enough in the day and late enough in the year to not have to fight too many visitors for our views.  

I am technically pleased with the photos I took, even if they are rather typical.  The last waterfall we stopped at before rejoining the freeway (motorway to our Scottish friends) was Horsetail Falls.  

The falls have an impressive flow even though it is less than a third the height of Multnomah.  

After leaving the falls area it’s a long drive through the Columbia River Gorge to Pendleton.  The scenery is entertaining, but we still needed a coffee break in The Dalles.  By the time we reached Pendleton we were ready to check into our digs for two nights, Wildhorse Resort & Casino about four miles east of Pendleton. 

We had hoped to play golf on the resort’s fine course, but at 35 degrees with a twenty mile an hour wind, the course wasn’t very inviting.  So, what to do?  Let’s go to the casino.  At the end of the two days we were at Wildhorse,

we had spent less than half what we had taken to play with--we consider that a successful casino trip--lots of fun and money left over.

Since the next day was even colder (with a low of 14 degrees) and the wind was even stronger we decided a photo excursion was a better choice than golf. We started the day with breakfast (in fact, we ate there both days) at the Main Street Diner in Pendleton.  

50s decor in the Main Street Diner.

Owner and manager Marilyn Anderson.

A hole-in-the-wall downtown diner with friendly staff and great food.  It’s hard to eat anywhere else when there’s a place this good in town.  Our drive toward John Day was slower than anticipated. 

Abandoned homestead by Pilot Rock, OR.

I had wanted to get more photos of the almost ghost town of Fox, but the icy roads through John Day River canyons and over mountain passes was too slow to make the whole trip.  Instead, we drove off the main road and into the town of Ukiah, population 186.  

Mule deer outside Ukiah.

At 3400 feet in elevation Ukiah’s noted as having recorded the coldest temperature in Oregon at -54°F or -46°C (Feb., 1933).  We grabbed a quick cup of coffee (no pie, pie only on the weekends) at the only place to eat in town, the Thicket  Cafe and Lounge.  

No pie, but good coffee.

Nobody was in the four-table cafe, but the lounge was quite busy.  Back in Pendleton we did a little shopping at the Pendleton Woolen Mills Store

--Anne shopped, I looked.

After another evening leaving money and taking money from the casino machines (more leaving than taking this night) we fought the heavy winds on the freeway toward home.  As we approached Portland we made a final waterfall stop at Multnomah Falls.  

After two days of almost single digit temperatures there was quite a different look to the falls.  Made a good bookend to our anniversary road trip.

Why Scotland?

At our 50th reunion in August we were asked several times why we go to Scotland so much, especially after we mentioned we were getting ready for our 23rd trip since 2000 right after the reunion.  The answer I always give is, “Golf, castles, and Scotch whisky--and not necessarily in that order.”  While that’s true that we go for the great, historic golf in the Home of Golf, 

Anne at Piperdam GC near Dundee.

and we enjoy visiting as many castles and other historic sites (cathedrals, abbeys, stone circles, cairns, battlefields) as we can, 

Curator of the modern section (1850) of Innerpeffray Library.

and we do seek out distilleries to visit and special bottles of single malt whisky to bring home, those aren’t the most important reasons we forgo traveling to other places and return to Scotland primarily, but Wales, England, and Ireland as well.

A Home at Crail harbour. 

Our real motivation to go back to Scotland is that the place gets in your blood--ask almost anyone who’s been there even once.  For Anne it’s her heritage (Scottish, English, Irish) and for me it’s a kindred Celtic heritage (Welsh, English).  We’ve also been adopted by a Scottish family in Crieff (central Scotland, between Perth on the east and Stirling on the west which are between Edinburgh and Glasgow which are between the North Sea and the Atlantic to get technical).  We are now familially obligated to be in Scotland for birthdays (very important to the Scots) and Speech Days (end of the school year celebrations) for our adopted niece and nephew.  

Ballater GC.

We are also obligated by our chosen retirement gig--writing golf travel guides and books of travel stories.  For our next book (or next revision of a previous book) we “have to” play some courses new to us, stay in different B&Bs, and try new restaurants, pubs, and tea rooms.  “Have to.”  In order to keep sales going we need to go back to courses, restaurants, and pubs we’ve previously visited to promote the latest book (which by the way is the current golf in Scotland #1 seller on AmazonUK).  

Lastly, we keep going back to Scotland and the UK because there is a real satisfaction in knowing a place in depth rather than superficially. 

School PE for Highland children.

We’ve been to Germany, Austria, and Hungary on a two-week train excursion and we want to go back...sometime.  But right now it seems more important to be sure we’ve seen all of Scotland (next for us is to get to the Outer Hebrides, particularly the Isles of Harris and Lewis), Wales (our fifth visit is scheduled for our spring 2014 trip), and England (I have yet to get to London, although Anne flew over for girls’ weekend with our Scottish family  a couple of years ago). 

Kellie castle Gardens, Fife.

I guess the need for in depth knowledge was imparted to me by being a debater in high school and college and a speech coach for all those years.  So, going to Scotland for three months a year (in two trips) is for the golf, the castles, and the whisky--and a whole lot more. 

Rabbie Burns in the Birks of Aberfeldy.

Interesting sculpture on a Highland tombstone.