Category: Scotland
-
Antonine Wall
A huge ditch gives some idea of the scale of the engineering the Romans put into the building of the Antonine Wall. Stretching 40 miles across Scotland between the Clyde and the Forth estuaries, it was built of the orders of the Emporer Antonius Pius in AD142 and occupied for 22 years before being abandoned…
-
Hill of Fire
Tinto, perhaps the most prominent hill in the Clyde valley. At 707m above sea level it is not particularly high but still a very popular climb. The name means the hill of fire, a reference to the druidic practice of lighting fires on the summit to their sun god. A Bronze Age burial cairn, the…
-
Auld Wives Lifts
Craigmaddie Muir is a boggy heather moor in the Lennox Hills. The name, Craigmaddie, means ‘Rock of God’ but it is the Auld Wives Lifts that provides a geological curiosity. The Lifts are two massive boulders side by side, with a third, eighteen feet long and weighing some 60 tons, lying across them. It is…
-
A’ Chuile
A bothy in Glendessary, 30 miles north west of Fort William. Scottish bothies have been romanticised recently with several press articles and TV programmes. Free places to stay in remote locations with congenial company around a roaring log fire without those creature comforts of modern life that most take for granted. Electricity, gas, WiFi and…
-
Linn Caves of Baldernock
In the Lennox Hills just north of Glasgow. A sylvan waterfall behind which are man made caves from limestone extraction. Although the caves go in some distance it seems to have been a low key extraction with kilns nearby burning local coal to make lime for agricultural use. Heading north tomorrow. I will be incommunicado…
-
Inchmurrin
A still misty morning on Loch Lomond. Inchmurrin is the largest island on the loch. The name is derived from St. Mirin, an Irish monk who came to Scotland in the first century. The island was the site of a chapel dedicated to the saint.
-
Gearraidh Lotalgear
A deserted settlement on the east coast of Harris
-
Tràigh na Beirigh
On the west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, a two kilometre stretch of golden sands with hardly a footprint on it. ‘S math sin. ‘S math sin is a Gaelic phrase that found its into English. ‘S math sin is pronounced smashing and that exactly what it means.
-
Geodha an Fhithich
I spotted this on the map and I just had to visit it. Fhithich, as some of my regular readers will know is the domain name for this blog. It’s Gaelic for raven. Geodha means a chasm or ravine. So this is the ravine of the raven. I must admit I was a bit disappointed.…
-
Dùn Èistean
The site of a medieval fort on a small island the size of half a football pitch surrounded by steep crags off the coast just east of the Butt of Lewis overlooking the shipping routes of The Minch. The island probably supported a permanent community and is said to be the traditional stronghold of the…