Tag: #highlands

Posted on

The Sutherlands’ Dunrobin Castle in Highlands

The Sutherlands’ Dunrobin Castle is representative of the wealth, status and power of that family. It was these people who took over alot of the Highland areas for sheep farming and displaced the population to either working for them or moving outside of the sheep herding areas often to the seasides where they had no skills and where the farming was often impossible. Many of those people got on boats and left for the US, Australia and Canada and never looked back. It was a very sad time in the history for Scotland but it was a great time for the countries they went to since they brought their traditions and especially their music which became an important and integral part of what we now call “American music”. This castle is one of the nicest ones I’ve ever seen and it is extremely well-maintained. If you are in this area it’s one of the places you really must visit.

The castle Drive
The drive up to the castle
Of view from the garden
The castle from the garden
The Sutherland code of arms
This French motto means “fearless”. In fact the Sutherland family came from France and is most likely of Viking descent, as I was told by the historian in the castle
The pool table
This is about the largest pool table I have ever seen
Autograph photographs
Autographed photographs with the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII, in the center
Bathroom
The bathroom
Castle Center, Courtyard
The center courtyard
Children's bedroom
The children’s bedroom
The outfits
The display of the various robes and outfits
Dunrobin Castle Garden
A view of the garden from the castle
Dunrobin Garden
The Sutherlands collection of rhubarb
Giant rhubarb plant growing
An amazing cloud
This looks like an alien ship. It was an amazing cloud
Ancient stone
Ancient pictish stone
Ancient standing stones
Ancient standing stones
Posted on

Thurso to Moray, Scotland

from the northernmost part of the mainland UK traveling down southeast toward Aberdeen you find whiskey distilleries and very interesting small towns with very friendly people to chat with.

This was brought on for the breakfast and introduced to me as “brown sauce”. I suspect this is a standard in England as well as Scotland. It has some mild “brown” dull sweet flavor, not really something I would want for breakfast.
The statue is memorializing war dead
Let me know if you see this fellow waiting on you in a restaurant
This is a nice walking street
This Thai restaurant was not open which was too bad. I would have loved to have a break from fish and chips
This fellow is forever waiting for a train at this station
This is a pretty good tasting brew, and Irish cider
This fish and chips was really excellent but I didn’t eat all of the peas since I don’t really like them. But I know they are healthy so I did what I could.
This memorializes the people who were dispossessed of their land by the Sutherlands who turned this area into huge sheep farms, forcing people into areas and jobs in the peripheries. Those who couldn’t make it in those new jobs, feed their families or find some way to survive Got on boats and went to the US, Canada, Australia and maybe one or two other places. This was the great era of emmigration which gave great people and talent to other countries.
The River Helmsdale
my hotel lobby was very comfortable.
This was my hotel which was a little difficult to understand. I couldn’t find an entrance to the breakfast area so I left for the train station to catch the train to my next stop. Normally you would expect someone to be around to help you navigate the building but there was nobody.
Here is the river Helmsdale again
Scotland is just filled with stone walls
The Helmsdale graveyard
Yes, they still have these telephone booths
A local beach looks very nice but it was too cold to take a dip
I didn’t know Shakespeare was such a great fisherman
In other Scotland breakfast and you will notice my soy sauce. That little triangle above the sausage looked so oily I decided not to eat it.
The sausage sandwich was actually pretty good
A very tasty beer
On the bus to Thurso the driver, for some reason, decided to take the side roads and we got behind some farmers taking their cows to a different field.
You’re supposed to imagine what happens if you don’t drink coffee
This is a hand written genealogy tree explaining the kings and queens of Scotland and of England up until the 1700s.
This was the best deep fried fish in a town called Huntley. You can easily find the restaurant since it is the highest rated one.
The restaurant uses real slate for the placemat
A narrow road which is very narrow and possibly slippery in the winter leads down to this little town with just a few inhabitants but it is a seemingly nice place to just relax and hang out as a Harbour venue
At the eastern end of the harbor there is a small coffee shop which you will see below. The lady who runs the place will give you some good background information and chat with you while you drink your coffee.
Many of the farms just seem to go on forever
Some old abandoned equipment on the edge of the farm
Posted on

Visiting Huntley Castle: Local Brews and Historic Sites

Huntley Castle has mostly been destroyed but there are some things left that are of interest. And the town has some very friendly people at the pubs so I recommend going there, getting something to eat, maybe having a drink and talking with people.

This was the breakfast which of course was in need of some soy sauce
I highly recommend this beer, Tennant
A local chocolate ice cream they sell at the castle. Very tasty
The Gordon’s were the last grand owners of the castle and their name is permanently fixed on the front, carved in stone
This cute little cottage hotel looked abandoned but maybe it was just closed for the off-season
The fish was OK but I’m not really a fan of deep fried fish, the beans were typical England beans, nothing special, and the onion rings tasted like there was no onion inside which was the case with all of the onion rings I had on my trip. Don’t eat the onion rings but there are places where you can get some good fish.
Posted on

Alness – Dornoch Firth Scotland

this is one of the very beautiful areas in the Highlands

Carbisdale castle. You need a reservation to get through the gate and to view the castle
Late October was the perfect time in this area. The fall colors were beautiful
A very big funny looking mushroom
Posted on

Scotland – the amazing West

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 Ferry
Strathcarron
a delicious smoked salmon lunch with everything just so fresh
Hostel in Lairg
Durness
Sengobeg
Sheep 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 castle
You can notice I used my soy sauce to give some flavor even though the black pudding had a lot of its own
Ardcharnich
This was obviously someone’s camper, stopped for the evening
Coffee is to be had
Beinn Eighe nature reserve
Strathcarron
Posted on

Dundee Scotland

I have heard about Dundee since I was a little kid but I can’t remember exactly why I know the city. There is a lot of history here but I didn’t find it all that fascinating. It is a quiet and beautiful place on an ocean Inlet.

The facilities were OK but the sign indicates just how much attention this place pays to Reception. Only one time, when I checked in, did I meet who I thought was the owner. No one appeared over the next two days to greet me or anyone else.
My hotel room was very much like many of them I occupied so far in Scotland. They tend to be old houses refurbished, keeping the same small room characteristics of old houses, building separate bathroom facilities for each room and then renting them out. I found it interesting and comfortable
Looking at Dundee from the other side of the bridge
After this breakfast, scrambled eggs with cheese on top and the only sauces of ketchup and “brown sauce”, I decided to go out and buy my own sauces and bring to breakfasts. Soy sauce and sriracha sauce are necessity for me.
This photo reminds me of San Francisco
Actually, I found the breakfast choices kind of amazing and the chef who I was thinking probably is also the owner, the husband of the lady who checked me in, was really extremely helpful and flexible in how the food was prepared.
On the second morning I got smarter and just decided on Scottish smoked salmon with these eggs. I found some soy sauce
Posted on

Scottish Highlands – Castletown & Thurso

Up until about 1400 years ago the Picts were living here pretty much alone. Here is one of their famous stones.
the breakfast was fairly plain but the salted ham was tasty and the black pudding was also very nice. You can see I needed to add some soy sauce which I carry with me to give the necessary flavors. On the left is a small bowl of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries with some yogurt on top
Local old town people called this restaurant “the Indian”
You can see Castletown is a very small place with one gas station
I suspect these people were getting on the small boat to go to the neighboring island, not serviced by ferries
I don’t yet know what kind of “bowling” is going on but there is a huge grass area in the back so it might be something like bocce
Several markets like this had an unbelievably high percentage of rosé type wines I guess that is in demand in Scotland
Look at what all the Shop needs to do I hope this is keeping them busy enough
In the distance you could see the small island of stroma
Thurso has a small railway station with a train once a day that takes you all the way to Inverness
The local church of Scotland
They must’ve had trouble with kids playing with a ball in this area?
This old central government building is now a library
How “wee” can you get?
The town’s World War I memorial
I guess they are famous for their Flagstone
The water is cold like it is in Monterey but outside it is very cold as well, like the coldest day in Monterey. I can’t imagine going swimming here, not after living in Thailand for so many years
The new houses in town. Well, relatively new
This is the post office, newsstand and the general store, another multipurpose business
This is not a roll-on, roll off ferry. The cars have to turn around to get off
I was told this is one of the old ferries. The “more modern” one is on loan to the Hebrides since their new fleet is still on order..