Ruins by Dave Hileman

This is an old lime kiln on the property of the Inveraray Castle. It was on the hike to the mountain top where the old folly stands and the view is amazing.

Lovely! by Dave Hileman

Miss Rowena will be back next Saturday to give the final report on the Scotland jaunt. And two weeks later, if her therapy is complete, she will provide her first selection from the US.

Meanwhile we learned that in Scotland seafood means shell fish. Thankfully we both like them for the restaurant we went to for a special meal was only shellfish. I had mussels and scallops, jill had a pasta with oysters.

Flora Week - Scotland Edition .3 by Dave Hileman

A walk in the woods along the shore of Loch Ness. This was a wonderful, easy trail with lots of flowering shrubs and views of the loch. But what we liked best was a quiet side trail that led to the rocky shore with an old fallen log where we spent most of an hour just enjoying the sounds, the quiet, the breeze and each other. Plus, we were heading back to ice cream!

We also met and chatted briefly with a young couple hiking the path and he said that one year ago (on the day we met them) it snowed a bit. So we were grateful for 72 and blue skies and not 37 and snow.

Our barely visible side trail

Flora Week - Scotland Edition .2 by Dave Hileman

Gorse, of course. It is the most amazing yellow and it grows in abundance in Scotland, especially in the west. It is also wicked. The thorns are long, strong and needle sharp. To learn more read this article: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/gorse-the-yellowest-of-flowers/

Flora Week - Scotland Edition by Dave Hileman

These Water forget-me-nots grow in profusion over the rocks of the remains of the nunnery on the Isle of Iona. Constructed in the 1200’s the nunnery was begun after the establishment of the Benedictine monastery, founded by Raghnall mac Somhairle in 1203. Raghnall's sister, Bethóc, became the first prioress. This was one of the three Augustinian monasteries of women in Scotland. These ruins are the most complete of the three.

Rowena Brambleglen Pioneer by Dave Hileman

I am well aware, dear readers, that this last installment of the Scottish journey is past due. I understand that you are disappointed that it is tardy, however, I am properly livid. The colorful appellation is not simply referring to my adorable bill. I am as cross as two sticks. Let me go back to the onset of this issue. 

It all began with only two days left on my contract with the lad and lass and one more brilliant installment of reporting. When the lass came to me and suggested that she was rather pleased with my keen insight and delightful prose and wondered if I might like to come to the states with them for a bit. Well, I must say, I have been intrigued by the colonies for quite some time having seen nearly every episode of “Friends” and “Seinfeld” while I was recovering from my unfortunate storm-caused damage. My culinary expectations were and remain low but the idea of living for a while in New York and, perhaps, getting some Babaca bread or a famous bagel might be worth the effort. It is a paid trip after all. So I said, “yes” to the proposal. Then the horrors ensued. 

First some official with a badge and name tag took me and placed me in quarantine. Me! I have never set a feather wrong, have no common diseases, brush my beak every night and have read Dickens. Yet this person whose language I imagine might have been English, rudely and unceremoniously dumped me in a pseudo jail with animals of every kind for five days. Plus they had the gall to serve me raw seeds. Unconscionable cruelty. 

Second, after being released by my employers who had to pay fees for this stay, I am whisked off not to Broadway but to “Isle of Palms” in some place called South Carolina. There was an ocean but not the friendly, familiar rocks and craigs of a normal coast but hectors of sand followed by more sand. And the heat. Oh my. Now, much to my surprise we did have some interesting food that I will get to next week or so. I am just there long enough to wilt when we speed off for hours and hours in a car toward a place I know not, TenIsea. Poorly named as far as I know as I see no ocean at all. Again, barely in place long enough for my pillow to mold to my beak and back in yet another car and off to North Carolina. I presume it is north of SC but would not know as there, again, no ocean in a place named after Sir Walter Raleigh. We are there for some festivities and apparently the annual stuffing of boxes in a car and then, poof, hours and hours again to back to Tenisea. 

Third we ate food along side the highway more than once at one of the thousands of “fast food” options that litter the highway. In my brief experience they are sort of fast but barely food and, again, eating in the car. I shudder to think what I may have agreed to with the American visit.

My head is spinning. So, I will prevail on your patience to wait for the next bi-monthly installment of my oasis of a column where I will complete the Scotland journal.  

A proper meal in Scotland - one I fear I may never see again.

Castle Week .4 by Dave Hileman

We did not visit this castle but passed in on the ferry from Oben to Craignure on the island of Mull. Th early light lit up the hill behind the castle. Duart Castle is about 700 years old and the home of Clan Maclean. It dominates the view to the Sound of Mull and Loch Linnhe. It is open for tours but we barely had time to get across the street to get the bus to the other side of Mull so we could catch yet another ferry to Iona. Whew.

Castle Week .2 by Dave Hileman

This was the most impressive of the castles we were able to visit. This is Dunrobin near Dornoch, Scotland. This is one that is still a home but the home is in a section you don’t tour. We were in over 20 rooms. The gardens are extensive and the lawn leads down to the North Sea. A most magnificent home with a lot of history. Parts of the castle date back to the 1200’s. I will be doing several photos of three of the castles later on the site, including Dunrobin. You can learn much more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunrobin_Castle

Jill on the side of the pond with the castle on the hill.

Castle Week by Dave Hileman

We start our castle week overview with the picturesque Eilean Donan castle located on a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs (Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh) in the western Highlands of Scotland. This was the home of the of the Clan Mackenzie. The 12th century castle was mostly destroyed in 1719 because of Mackenzie’s involvement in the Jacobite rebellion. It was rebuilt in the early 1900’s and the footbridge added. It is a popular tourist and movie site.

Eilean Donan, which means simply "island of Donnán", is named after Donnán of Eigg, a Celtic saint who was martyred in 617. Donnán is said to have established a church on the island.

Old by Dave Hileman

These crosses are in the abby museum on Iona and date from about 700. The first of the celtic crosses.

Note the amazing carving. The ship is the one Columba sailed on from Ireland to begin this mission

This is likely the first Celtic Cross mid to late 600’s

Sometimes you get lucky by Dave Hileman

I was taking a photo across the road of the gorse, the yellow blooming plant and I heard this nice engine sound and looked down the road and here came this vintage Jaguar Mark III circa 1960’s in this perfect color scooting up the highway. I was able to reframe and get some sort of shot quickly - not perfectly, but from Morse, found from the BBC on PBS, this is his car.

Greyfriars Bobby by Dave Hileman

This statue is to a police dog who did not leave his master’s graveside for a considerable amount of time - years actually. However, it is not really known how many years. The city found the tourists who would come to the site very lucrative so they “may” have replaced Bobby one or two times. Yet, finally, he dies and his memorial is much loved and a highly visited site. His grave, however, is actually just outside the gate for a dog cannot be buried inside the walls of the church cemetery.

Open Occasionally by Dave Hileman

This old crofter cottage is now a pottery shop that had “occasional hours.” It did not have a lot of traffic on the day we were there but these two found a comfortable bench to watch the walkers passing by on the way to either the sand beaches or the highest point of the island. Nice day to daydream and drink a coffee.