Category: Scotland
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Taigh a’ Bheannaich
A ruined chapel, vanishing huts, and a handful of monks who chose isolation on the edge of the Atlantic. Taigh a’ Bheannaich is where faith met the wind and held fast for 1,400 years.
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A Day Among Norse Horizontal Mills
A day of water-mills—horizontal ones, no less. We visited eight, or so I believe; one quickly loses count. It took me some time to grasp how they worked. The water wheel sits flat in a channel, its blades catching the water and spinning the millstone directly above. No gears, just force and gravity. The mills…
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Tràigh na Berie
This will be home for the next few days. A pause in the travelling. Tràigh na Berie lies on the west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. According to those geomorphologically minded the beach, dunes and machair are expanding, apparently a rare occurrence in Scotland. This is going to be such a hardship.
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Ben Wyvis: A Hill Long Avoided, Finally Bagged
After years of driving past Ben Wyvis, I finally climbed it—through cloud, inversion, and a descent the guidebook called “grassy” but which turned out to be anything but. A solitary giant, well worth the wait.
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Badenoch: The Drowned Land with a Golden Shore
Off to Badenoch—where the land is “drowned,” the beach is golden, and the names are mangled by history and tourists alike. A break from the Moors, into the Highlands.
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A Geologist’s Nightmare: Wild Guesses at Dunbar
A fleeting stopover at Dunbar and a wander along the coastline offered up a geological wonder. The rock formation on the shore was arranged, rather whimsically, in red and grey layers, calling to mind a Scooby snack tipped on its side. Of course, not being a geologist, I can only speculate wildly about the rock…
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The Bridge at Aberfeldy: A Symbol of Wade’s Grand Scheme
A stroll along the banks of the “Beautiful silvery Tay,” immortalised by William McGonagall, Scotland’s least celebrated poet—a man whose crimes against verse are beyond reproach. To dwell any longer on his literary failings would be an unnecessary indulgence, so let us leave him by the river and proceed to Aberfeldy, where we stumbled upon…
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Loch Druich: the Lull Before the Storm
Last night, we found ourselves upon the shores of Loch Druich, that serene lull before the delightful chaos of Storm Ashley. One could not help but note the poetic irony of fleeing eastward from nature’s wrath, only to reflect on a past replete with violence. Loch Druich, naturally, is more than just a postcard. It…
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Dun Telve: An Ancient Scottish Broch
The Glenelg Brochs, so-called, are of course not actually in Glenelg at all. They are, if one insists on accuracy, in the smaller Gleann Beag, but such a trifling detail is likely of no interest to the modern tourist, who seeks spectacle over precision. Here, there are two of these ancient towers to be found,…
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Tulliallan Castle
When it was constructed in the early years of the nineteenth century, this rather ostentatious blend of Gothic and Italian architectural styles would have been deemed an elegant pile for Admiral Lord Keith, erstwhile senior officer to Lord Nelson. It was financed with prize money, purportedly employing French prisoners of war as a labour force.…