one of the famous products from the island of Harris which is actually a continuation of Lewis, is Harris Tweed. I bought a Harris Tweed jacket in 1985 and I thought “Harris” was the name of the company produced the jacket. But it refers to handwoven wool tweed produced on the island of Harris and no other place in the world. Many products will import the tweed from Harris, create a product and ship all over the world and even back to Scotland. But the tweed needs to be certified by the association of Harris Tweed producers and therefore gets the standardized label “Harris Tweed”. Asking around I found there are probably over 200 people dedicated to weaving this product by hand.
Lobster or crab traps This church is pretty much at the southernmost part of Harris Ancient tabletsMany gravestones were done in sandstone and so they become unable after 100 yearsThis is just one abandoned building A golf course overlooking a beautiful beach One of the Stone Towers left by the Picts
I highly recommend visiting this museum in the very center of Edinburgh. It has all different kinds of art and it’s fun to walk-through.
Joseph BrewerTraquairBotticelliQuinten MassysEl GrecoVan GoghDegasMonetVan GoghSeuratMesdagGauguinCezanneDa Vinci (attributed to)LandseerGrahamRaeburnHughPatonHarvey. Curling was a thing in Scotland
This looks like an enclosure for some alien item. You can see the enclosed stone below.
many carved Christian stones were erected in the British Isles between 700 and 800AD. Slabs like this one, however, are only found around the east coast of the northern half of Scotland. They were commissioned, designed and sculpted by elite members of Pictish tribes. Who were these people and what do we know of them? During the 6th and 7th centuries AD, the art of the Picts was to incise geometric and animal symbols onto boulders. In the 8th century their sculpture changed. They completely covered both surfaces of large stone slabs with carved designs, including a Christian cross. Fine Pictish metalwork, mainly in silver, has also been found but ittle else has survived. However, churchmen and poets from other nations wrote and spoke of them, so we do know something more about the Picts. These people were not invaders or incomers. They were descendants of the Celts who had lived in this country for over 1,000 years. The Picts were a grouping of small tribes living in the northern half of Scotland during the first thousand years AD. They were farmers, sailors, hunters and craftsmen who used many raw materials, including metals, wood and leather. Although we have not found Pictish farmhouses, byers or barns in Easter Ross, we know that they existed because place-names like Pitcalzean and Pitcalnie have survived.
This design we find an old Irish carvings and also in Japan This almost looks like another symbol . I will leave it to you to discern the similarity. This is the church the Stone above is preserved in. Now that I think about it this reminds me of the movie by John Carpenter, “Prince of darkness”, a story about an ancient relic kept in a church for protection.
Brochs. The large standing cylinders groups occupied.
The Norsemen came here in the 9th Century AD and gave us the names ‘Skelbo’ (‘scelbol’ – shell stead) and broch’ (‘borg’ – a strong fortified place), but the broch builders who lived here, were the people of the Iron Age. We are not sure if these stone towers were only built for defence – to keep people safe during an attack from invaders. On earlier maps, brochs were often called ‘Pictish Towers’. A Roman called Ptolemy recorded the names of the Iron Age tribes and the people were called ‘Picti’ – the painted ones. The map shows the location of all the broch sites in the north. Only a few brochs were built further south. Perhaps they were status symbols and built to impress?
This is a Broch Which partially remains but now is covered by vegetationThese people were raising deer most likely for food I had the funniest room entrance of all time. The guest house and the room was extremely nice. I suspect this was probably some servants quarters or some work area hundred years ago A little soy sauce improves the taste tremendously Scotland is definitely the land of sheep
the west of Scotland, on toured the Isle of skye, it’s such a beautiful area and very rural with few towns so very different from any populated areas in Scotland. The driving is mostly typical two-way roads which are actually one way with paved bubbles what local cars to slow down, stop and then pass. Be careful driving there. On one side you wind up in a bog and the other side you wind up down the hill or in the ocean. But it’s so beautiful it’s worth the challenge.
It’s red so I knew it was not the tardis Strome FerryStrathcarron a delicious smoked salmon lunch with everything just so freshHostel in LairgDurnessSengobegSheep shears. I used these from my grandfather to trim the edge of the lawn when I was a kid It was such a hard living long ago many people couldn’t survive staying there so they left for other countries far across the oceans Brims castleYou can notice I used my soy sauce to give some flavor even though the black pudding had a lot of its own ArdcharnichThis was obviously someone’s camper, stopped for the evening Coffee is to be had Beinn Eighe nature reserveStrathcarron
on this island which is almost the north most of the Shetlands group you have a chance to see what people 6000 years ago before the pyramids.
Just for fun I checked my compass with the stone and I found the stone points exactly north but I have no idea what that means and nobody else knows. The other stone is the Clivocast. This stone is 3m high and leans slightly north. It was used as a sailing mark between Strandburgh Ness on Fetlar and the entrance of Skuda Sound (between Uyea and Haaf Gruney). It is said to mark the spot where the son of Viking Harold Harfager was killed around 900AD. Human remains and armour were allegedly found in a cairn to the south west.There are some very beautiful beaches here which would be nice in the summer You can see some old ruins in many places on these islands The grazing areas are often open range so you have to drive carefully this is a reconstruction of probably what the inside of a long house would look like. Some excavations show extensive remains but of course the wooden parts including the roofs have deteriorated completelyAfter World War II one family put in extensive efforts to promote and grow the Shetland pony breed worldwide. here are some of the colorations This is a typical northern Scotland breakfast. I needed to add my soy sauce
if you have been watching “outlander” you are familiar with the Fraser family. What I learned is that more than 1000 years ago in France someone offered the king strawberries, maybe which they grew. The king gave them the name open “strawberry” in French which became Frisel when the family moved to Normandy. And 1000 years ago they went to Scotland to fight the Danes and were duly knighted given land by the local Lord near Aberdeen. They change the name to Fraser and started this castle with just the main tower. It is now kept with its Fraser family contents exactly as they were since the last owner decided to give the castle to the national trust. It is one of the best examples of Scottish history in its original place.
This is the entrance and the original tower We were told the sword on the left was used at the battle of Collin
the main island in the Shetlands was referred to a couple people as “the mainland” even though we had a 10 hour ferry ride from the mainline of Scotland. It’s cold and very windy here with occasional rain, just the reason I came here, for the weather. It’s a great place to get away from the tropical heat.
I looked at the menu and it seems there are a lot of sweet things like cakes and stuff like that on the menu. I’ve never seen a Chinese restaurant with that kind of food but with a name like this I guess you can do anything. More white sheep here than black sheep. I would like to talk to a farmer and find out something about sheepherding. I know something about it since when I was a kid my father gave me sheep shears to trim the edge of the lawn. They belonged to my grandfather Of course it’s a one lane bridge They were curious about me as I was curious about them. But then again I was whistling a Dean Martin song which they probably never heard before. Read the black one A lot of the old farmhouses just fell down from neglect. When large landowners took over the land and changed the rules for the tenant farmers here many of them couldn’t make a living so they left for Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
the Shetland Islands are the northernmost part of Scotland and therefore the northernmost part of the UK. For 50 years I wanted to have the time to make it up there. So now I do it. Frankly, I am looking for windy, cloudy bad weather to fulfill my image of the islands.
No cabins were available and I really didn’t want to spend money on one so I reserved a “pod”. This large chair reclines back inside its casing and is fairly comfortable, sufficient for the 14 hour trip from Aberdeen to Lerwick. My car was also on the ferry since a car is really necessary to enjoy a small number of days in the Shetlands or the Orkneys. Someone told me these windmills were just off the coast of the Trump international golf club I think “Dunna” means “don’t” and I think “Chuck” means “throw” but I don’t know what”Bruck” means. if you know then please leave a comment.They look like black Angus The Shetlands wouldn’t be complete without Shetland ponies. I hope they are not quite as mean tempered as Welsh ponies. That’s a whole different story.These ruins Are built on origins that are thousands of years old. The Picts first inhabited these islandsSome more ancient buildings sitesThere are quite a few beautiful beaches on the islands. The water is very cold, about the same temperature as the water in Monterey California He just kept watching me and I kept my distance just to leave him alone The fish was not bad, the onion rings were terrible and the only sauce was vinegar while salt was also available. It reminded me of the old H Salt Esquire fish and chips franchiseYou can see the inexpensive lawn mowers doing their job I didn’t dare go close to this house. They could be descendants of the Vikings, which they probably are anyway. most of the roads here are the width of one-way roads with little side bubbles where people can allow others to pass. Many of the bridges allow only one way at a time.My walkway to the pub
