This Woman Was HereBritish Isles cruise Archives

NCL British Isles Cruise

After our Ireland trip, Steve and I flew from Shannon to London and hired a car through OTS (Onward Travel Solutions) to take us from Heathrow to Southampton cruise port where we boarded the Norwegian Jade for a 10 night tour of the British Isles with stops in Guernsey Island, Portland (Jurassic Coast), Cork, Irleand; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Kirkwall, Orkney Islands; Invergorden (Inverness), Scotland; Edinburgh, Scotland, and returning to Southampton. We booked our return from Southampton to Gatwick with the same car service. I decided on the airport taxi car service because the times were tight both ways and the cost ended up not being not much more than the train and taxi fare for the two of us. (The NCL transfer for two would have been $150 and the private car was a little over $100 from Heathrow to boat and $125 from boat to Gatwick).

The cruise was lovely. We like only having to unpack once and dining in style.

St. Peter’s Port, Guernsey

We tendered into Guernsey, arriving by 8:30, before anything was open, so we took a 1.5 hr local bus around the island for 1 pound.

The oldest man-made structure in Europe is said to be the 5,000 year-old dolmen, Le Dehus, with a chamber that has a stone with a figure carved on it. Guernsey is a beautiful island with a rocky coast dotted with lots of white sand beaches and fortifications, many of them from WWII when the Germans fortified the island. The tides rise 30-40 feet, rising over the sea wall in St. Peter’s Port a couple of times a year when the moon and tides are right, more evidence of sea-level rise.

When we got back to St. Peter’s Port, we went up to Hautville House, Victor Hugo’s home in exile during the reign of Napoleon III. Although we didn’t have a reservation for a tour (required), we were lucky enough to get on a tour when two people didn’t show up for their appointment. Hugo was devoted to freedom and the Republic and went into exile the day after Napoleon declared himself emperor.

The house is a surprise, ornately decorated by Hugo and filled with pieces he designed.

He collected antique chests and disassembled them to create wall and ceiling panels as well as ornate mantles. The walls are covered with tapestries and dark panels.

The salons were intended for entertaining guests and performing plays which were performed in blue salon while guests watched from the red room.

The rooms become lighter as you rise through the floors of the house, ending with the attic to which he added a greenhouse roof. He wrote standing in this room where on clear days, he could see France.

His heirs donated the house to the city of Paris, which runs it as a museum.

The garden behind the house is lovely and has a view of the harbor.

Next we visited Cornet Castle, originally an island guarding the port, which has been used as a trade route since Roman times.

The first castle was built by the English in the 13^th century to guard St. Peter’s Port harbor and has been expanded ever since. It was attacked by the French during the Hundred Years War and changed hands four tomes. During the English Civil War it was the last Royalist stronghold to surrender. When lighting struck the magazine in 1672, a huge explosion destroyed the Medieval section of the fort.

British soldiers were garrisoned her until 1940 when German forces occupied it until 1945. The castle is an immense affair that today it housed five museums and numerous small gardens. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is an epistolary novel that tells the story of the island’s inhabitants under German occupation.

There are numerous cliff walks from St. Peter’s Port. We started towards Fermain Bay and got far enough to have some views before turning back to town and our tender back to the boat

Portland/Weymouth, Jurassic Coast, England

Portland is a port, not a town, and passengers are not allowed to walk off the boat but are bussed to the port entrance in nearby Weymouth, which has been a port since Roman times. Our friends Steve and Jay Clegg met us at the entrance of the port and were our guides for our short day ashore.

The Georgian seafront of Weymouth stretches for miles along Chesile Beach, a 25 mile pebble beach deposited at the end of the last ice age.

The high pebble dunes stretch as far as the eye can see, guarding Fleet lagoon, an estuary of international importance. As we headed west towards West Bay, we drove along the spine of a mountain, looking down on Chesile beach and Fleet lagoon on one side and countryside on the other.

Our first stop was West Bay, the location of the TV series Broadchurch, with the stunning backdrop of the cliffs above a half moon beach of smooth pebbles.

The area between West Bay and Lyme Regis is a Unesco World Heritage site known as the Jurassic Coast, rich in fossil deposits. Steve had bought an ammonite from that coast at the rock shop near the Cliffs of Moher.

West Bay facing south

We drove through Abbotsbury, a charming stone village with thatched roof cottages, and visited the immense Tithe barn associated with the Abbey destroyed by Henry VIII (parishioners tithed 10% of their grain crop to the church, which was quite wealthy). Unfortunately the barn is today a children’s petting park. The swanery, which maintains huge flocks of swans (once raised for meat by the Abbey) was far too expensive to visit (17 pounds), so we moved on to the charming neighborhood os Sutton Poyntz not far outside of Weymouth, which dates to 849 AD.

We had a lovely lunch (Plowman’s lunch for me and Jurassic fish and chips for Steve) at the restaurant facing the pond before heading out to the Portland bill (peninsula) light, our last stop before heading back to the boat, last shuttle at 2:30.

Cork, Ireland

Sailing into Cobh, Ireland

We landed in Cobh Island, the second largest deep-water port in th world after Sydey, Australeaoutside of Cork Ireland where Irish immigrants set sail for America during the potato famine and where victims from the Lusitania disaster were brought ashore. When we arrived, we discovered we had to take a train into Cork city (10E RT each and about 30 min). The walk from the train station to the town center was about another 20 min.

We made a reservation for a Cork Walking Tour that met in front of the Filte Irish Information Center on the Grande Parade, just down from the English Market. It was one of the best the best things we’ve booked so far. Jack was incredibly knowlegeable about Irish history and Cork.

English Market

Cork was called Corky because it was marshlands. The River Lee forks around Cork and run around and under it.

Cork is a huge IT center, largely because it is tax free. Apple has its European center here, employing 7 thousand people.

Revolutionary monument with new streetlights shaped like sails

So for the history. The Celts have been in Ireland from 400 BC.. The Celts accepted Christianity in the 5^th century AD and were a center of monastic life and knowledge during the Dark Ages in Europe. The Vikings raided regularly and were responsible for the founding of major cities such as Dublin and Waterford.

The Normans invaded in 1185 from France and captured both England and Ireland. French was the official language of both Ireland and England. They built a walled city in Cork and disenfanchised the Celts but eventually intermarried with them so that the two cultures merged Celtic/Norman until Henry VIII split Catholic and Protestant and the Celtic/Normans were thrown off their land and the Ulster Plantation was introduced, in which Protestants were given Irish land. An English general was automatically given thirty thousand acres of land in Ireland on retirement and a soldier was entitled to one thousand acres after ten years of service.

After the Battle of the Boyne, Cork is influenced by Dutch style. Butter was one of the main exports to Holland.

oldest pub in Cork

From 1700s to 1822, Catholics were not allowed to worship or be educated and because of laws that required them to divide their land between their male heirs, few Irish owned enough land to farm by the time of the potato famine in 1845. The population of Ireland was nine million before the famine and four million today. The lost 3 million people in four years, 1.5 million to emigration and 1.5 million to starvation (in a country that exported million of pound of wheat, beef and mutton to England during that period).

Angela’s Ashes was filmed in the narrow streets of Cork.

We visited Elizabeth Fort, built in the 1600s which was used as a holding place for 7 thousand women prisoners from age 20-30 before they were shipped off to Australia, a culling of the prison population. Seventy thousand Irish were sent to Botany Bay to get rid of undesirables. In Sydney women could be bought of 5 pounds. Women were called POM because they were prisoners of her majesty.

Elizabeth and Phillip of Spain hated each other and Spain hoped to invade vie Ireland since with west of England wasn’t defended but the Spanish Armada which was supposed to land in Catholic Donegal was forced into Protestant Kinsale by a storm and defeated.

After the walking tour, we had a great lunch in a pub he recommended, the Long Valley, seafood chowder, corned beef sandwich and in Cork, Murphy’s rather than Guinness.

We walked to the university to see their collection of ogam stones.

Back at the ship, I wandered through Cobh Village with its memorial to the victims and survivors of the Lusitania and where boat trips to Star Island, with its star shaped fort are available.

Lusitania memorial

A group of costumed villagers wandered from the village down to the boat to pose for pictures.

Statue honoring the 15 year-old Irish girl who was the first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island.

Dublin, Ireland

A shuttle bus from the port to the town center costs 15 E each, but sounds like a convenience. We don’t land until 11am so the 10:30 walking tour won’t be possible. Debarkation is a bit late, so we don’t get to Dublin town center until a bit before noon. We hoof it to Trinity College and stand in line for the Book of Kells exhibit for about 30 min.

The book of Kells is an illuminated version of the four Gospels that was created around 800 AD.

The Long Room Library holds 2000 books arranged not by topic but by size. It is lined with bust of the great thinkers.

Afterward, we tried to grab a bite to eat in a pub across from Trinity before our 2pm Sandeman’s walking tour from the park next to the old Dublin City Hall, but there wasn’t time, so we grabbed a sandwich and ate as we walked. A friendly Irishman stopped on his bike and asked where we wanted to go when he saw us looking at our map.

We had time to grab a pint of Guinness before the tour started. Patrick, our tall, blond guide from Kinsale, was excellent.

I would recommend this tour as heartily as the one in Cork. Although it was larger, Patrick was as informative and entertaining as Jack in Cork. He gave us a quick history of the portal tombs and passage tombs (like Newgrange) built by neolithic peoples in Ireland, and he taught us several Irish expressions.

The Celts arrived in Ireland from Europe around 500 BC bringing with them the Iron Age. Christianity was introduced by St. Patrick, who in 389 was kidnapped from England by Irish pirates and sold into slavery. He escaped and sailed back to England only to receive a vision from God that he needed to return to Christianize the Irish.

Around 500 AD was the golden age of monasteries. The Vikings began raiding the monasteries in the 6th ad 7th centuries, and founded Dublin, which comes from the Viking words for dark water. In 1170 the Anglo Normans invaded but intermarried with the Celts to become Celtic Normans.

Dublin Castle

It wasn’t until 1150 when Henry VIII divorced the Pope and introduced Protestantism that the real trouble started. Ireland became a plantation for Protestant immigrants from England and Scotland. The Irish rebelled time and again, allying themselves with whoever was England’s enemy.

Back of Dublin Castle

Hugh the Red was the son of one of two powerful Celtic clans, the O’Neils and the O’Donahues. He was kidnapped through a promise of free wine and imprisoned for 5 years in the gaol of Dublin Castle. When he escaped, his father made him leader, and he declared war on the British and allied himself with the Spanish who sent the Spanish Armada to help the Irish fight the British, but the fleet were thrown off course by storms and ended up in Kinsale instead of Donegal where they were defeated by the English even though the Irish marched from Donegal to join them.

Patrick told anecdotes about the 1916 uprising, in which the Irish were helped by the Germans, who England was at war with. The Germans sailed a boat to Ireland with a guns and amo but the Irish were late to meet it and the Germans sunk the boat in order not to be taken by the British. The rebels decided to go ahead with the rebellion and 19 men and women stormed Dublin Castle, taking it easily because the British had intelligence that they would attack a day earlier, and as a result, believing the danger was past, had sent the soldiers to the races. The Irish abandoned the Castle believing it was a trap and took over City Hall which they only managed to hold for 24 hours. When the British arrested and executed the leaders of the rebellion, the protest spurred the revolution.

We walked through a narrow alley where Jonathan Swift was born.

Christ Church, 1870, the oldest church in Dublin (protestant) was abandoned for years and used as a bar, distillery and brothel but a wealthy Dubliner whose money was from whiskey gave money for its restoration. St. Patricks Cathedral was restored with Guinness money, so they say they have a whiskey and a beer church.

The Temple Bar area is the old section with cobbled streets and lots of restaurants and pubs.

We ended the tour at Trinity College, established by Queen Elizabeth I to educate young Protestants. Catholics were not allowed to be educated.

We learned the Irish expression Craic (pronounced crack), which means fun.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

A shuttle is required from the port to the town center, but we have booked a tour through McCombs and are met at the dock by the McCombs bus. Patrick, our driver, gave us a tour through the cathedral quarter, once run down but being rebuilt today.

The population of Belfast, including suburbs, is around 700 thousand, so it’s a relatively small city. Northern Ireland is 1.7 million and Ireland is 6 million (3 million less than before the famine). Northern Ireland is a separate country, part of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), and it uses the British pound as currency. The protestant population dates back to the English and Scottish settlers who were introduced under Queen Elizabeth I.

Belfast city has the feel of a city recovering from bad times. Many buildings are still boarded, but recovery is underway and many of the old buildings are being converted into hotels. Belfast doesn’t have enough rooms to accommodate the tourists who have only recently started visiting Northern Ireland after the history of violence that plagued it during “the Troubles.”

We saw St Anne’s Cathedral with the largest Celtic cross in the world, and the 1906 Belfast City Hall, built over what had been the center of the linen industry. (Belfast was the world’s largest producer of fine linen). The furniture in city hall, created by French and Italian craftsmen, was intended for the Titanic but was not completed in time for the maiden voyage and was installed in city hall when the ship never returned. We passed many of old Victorian buildings that are now being converted into hotels.

The Albert Memorial clock was built on soft ground over the river and quickly began sinking. Although saved, it permanently tilts four feet back and to the right and is said to have both the time and the inclination.

The city built a weir on the tidal river to maintain the artificial high tide and avoid the stench of low tide. The weir brought salmon back to the river.

The Titanic exhibit cost over 100 million pounds and is built on the site of the original ship building yard. It is quite a gorgeous building that stands as high as she ship when she was being built and covered with 2,500 tiles for the 2,500 passengers and crew that were supposed to be aboard during the maiden voyage (not all made it).

The posts mark the slipway of the Titanic (with the NCL Jade in the background).

We were there at 8:45 when the exhibit opened, so we were able to tour the building before the crowds arrived. We spent two hours in one of the best designed exhibits I have ever seen. The four-floor self-guided tour tells the story of the industrialization of Belfast’s linen and ship building industries through the use of old photographs and film footage. It then tells the story of how the ship was built. There is even a ride through the bowels of the ship as rivets are heated, tossed, caught and pounded into the steel plates of the hull. Ten thousand people were employed building the ship and 100,000 showed up to watch the launch of the greatest luxury liner ever built.

There are displays of the first, second and third class quarters and moving first-hand accounts of survivors experiences as the ship went down.

The Discovery theater shows images of the discovery of the Titanic on the ocean floor and of the debris field of bottles and shoes that still litters the ocean floor between the two sections of the hull.

As we drove out of town to our second destination, Carrick-a-Rede and the Giant’s Causeway, Patrick talked about the sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is 45% Catholic and 47% Protestant (although the numbers were more heavily Protestant when Northern Ireland was partitioned from Ireland.

The differences between the two sides is not so much based on religious differences but on national identity. The Republicans (Catholic) identify with Ireland and favor one unified Ireland, and the Nationalists identify themselves as British and want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

What amounted to a civil war began in the 60’s with Catholic protests against discrimination. What began as marches, turned into riots, and British troops came in to restore order and remained in Northern Ireland for thirty years while paramilitary groups on both sides waged civil war. One hotel in Belfast, the Europa, where most of the journalists stayed, was bombed forty times.

Bill Clinton and George Mitchell were responsible for brokering a peace agreement in 1998, which was then approved by 70% of Northern Ireland and 90% of Ireland. Since then, peace has brought new prosperity and investment to Northern Ireland. They are worried about what the Brexit vote will mean. They voted, like Scotland, to remain in the European Union. The loss of European union money and having to install border controls are consequences that no one wants.

Patrick talked about how people know who is Catholic and who is Protestant (asking would be considered extremely rude). Names are the first giveaway. Catholics tend to be named for saints and Protestants tend to be named for the Royal Family. Where someone lives is another indication as there are segregated neighborhoods, and where someone went to school is the third indicator. Catholics tend to go to private Catholic schools and Protestants to Protestant public schools.

Carrick-a-Rede

After a little over an hour ride through gorgeous countryside with green fields and lots of sheep, cattle, and blooming hawthorne hedgerows, we arrived at Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge that crosses from the mainland to a small island where fisherman traditionally netted salmon in the summer months, catching 200-300 salmon a day for the four month spawning season.

close up of rope bridge

Unfortunately, they overfished the waters, and the salmon population dropped and there was no longer a fishery. We stopped for photographs but the hike down to the bridge is 25 minutes and we didn’t have time to do that.

The Giant’s Causeway, ten minutes down the road, is a geologic marvel of hexagonal basalt volcanic columns formed during a volcanic eruption 50 to 60 million years ago. The lava cooled slowly and cracked and crystalized, forming 40 thousand hexagonal columns.

Unfortunately, fog descended just as we did and we were socked in with no visibility, which made the several walking paths less appealing than they would have been on a sunny day. We opted to have a pint of Guinness and a steak and Guinness pie in the Nook pub before taking a shuttle down to the causeway (1 pound each way). The hexagonal columns form perfect stepping stones and are so regular that they seem man-made.

On our return to Belfast, Patrick drove us through the sectarian area of the city separated by a forty foot wall, called the peace wall, that has gates that are closed at 7pm and not reopened until 7 am.

On the Nationalist side, houses fly the Union Jack and stores have murals celebrating Protestant martyrs. The divisions are palpable, with the Unionists wearing red (the Red Hand of Ulster is a symbol). Schools are still segregated, so kids learn division and hatred from their parents and peers.

We stopped at the wall and had a chance to write a peace message, but the chances of the wall coming down anytime soon are nill. A recent poll showed 100% of people living on both sides of the wall wanted it to remain.

The Republican Falls Road side had murals and graffiti celebrating rebels all over the world and murals honoring Bobby Sands, the IRA prisoner who died in a hunger strike along with ten others. We saw lots of green shirts and Irish flags.

A Republican would never dream of walking into a Unionist pub and vice-versa.

It is truly a sad situation, with working class people who have more in common than they have differences pitted against one another by their identification with their group/side. I thought of Jonathan Swift and his big-endians and little-endians, and unfortunately of the political divisions rending our country.

Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland

In Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, we arrange for a small, six-person tour through Wildabout Orkney.

Rosemary met us at the port and whisked us away to the WWII Italian Chapel, built by Italian prisoners captured in North Africa, who had been brought to the island to help build the Churchill Barriers, cement block barriers to keep German subs from entering Scapa Flow, the deep-water harbor where the British fleet was gathered before the war. They had sunk old ships to block the channels but the tidal flow is so strong that one ship was dislodged and a German sub snuck in the harbor and in October 1939 sunk a training boat with 1200 men and boys (from 16-18), with the loss of 804 lives. The rest of the fleet had luckily gone out on maneuvers the night the sub snuck in.

Churchill barrier

To build the Churchill barriers, 1200 Italian prisoners were brought in and they requested permission to build a chapel in their spare time and out of two quonset huts and using only salvaged materials and cement, they built a beautiful chapel dedicated to peace. The interior is painted on plasterboard, the grill was made from scrap metal, the candlesticks from salvaged stair runner rods, the lanterns from beef tins. It is a moving testament to their faith and their artistry. The primary artist was Domenico Chioochetti and the grillwork was done by Giuseppe Palumbi.

When the barracks were being demolished, the chapel was saved only when the bulldozer operator refused to destroy it, and local residents got together and agreed to protect it.

We next headed for Skara Brae, a neolithic village occupied 5,000 years ago (3,000 BC, well before the pyramids).The settlement was discovered in 1850 when a storm blew away the sand to reveal the ruins of a neolithic stone village, with eight houses furnished with central firepit, stone beds and dressers and linked by covered passages.

The village had a sophisticated design, with indoor toilets connected by pipes that fed to the sea. Each house also had a clay lined pit that could have held sea water to keep the catch fresh until the next day. The underground passages that connected the houses are well suited to the area, which has strong winds. Each house could be shut off by a sliding stone door.

Next, we visited Skaill House, a manor house that dates to the 17th century and overlooks Skara Brae. The laird of the manor is the one who discovered Skara Brae after a storm.

Skaill House in background

We didn’t get a chance to visit Maeshow (advance appointments are required), a burial mound built around 3500 BC. It was designed so that the light of the setting sun at the winter solstice focuses on the narrow passageway, illuminating the chamber inside.

The Ring of Brodgar is a circle 36 stones (originally 60) surrounded by a deep ditch. It is 130m across and it is set in a natural ring of lochs and hills. Clearly, the Neolithic people had a thing about circles.It is the third largest stone circle in the British Isles, larger and about 800 years older than Stonehenge.

An ambitious water drainage program is underway so part of the circle was closed off.

Stones of Stenness

The Stones of Stenness, 1 mile away from Ring of Brodgar, has four giant stones that date back to 3100BC, making it one of the oldest stones circles in Britain. It is 1/3 the diameter of Brodgar but the stones are taller. It is believed to be a site for feasting before processions led along the bank of the lock up to the Ring of Brodgar. In 1814, there were 11 stones, but when Sir Walter Scott wrote a novel that popularized the site, tourists started visiting the site, to the annoyance of the tenant farmer, who decided to blow up the stones to rid himself of the tourists. In 1820, he drilled holes and inserted dynamite, succeeding in blowing up 7 of the stones as well as the Oden stone (that had a hole in the middle and was used in local weddings) before local residents realized what was happening and drove him off the island.

The Ness of Brodgar is a huge ceremonial site that dates back to 3100 BC. It was only recently discovered when a woman decided to put in a garden and discovered what were clearly archeological remains. It is just being excavated (fir 6 weeks in the summer).

Ness of Brodgar

Clearly, in this area, if you scratch the surface, you will find Neolithic remains.

Next, we visited the Yesnaby coast with spectacular rock formations.

While the others visited the distillery, we visited St. Magnus Cathedral, built between 1137 and 1200.

Inverness, Scotland

We landed in the port of Cromarty Firth (firth is Old Norse for fijord) beside the town of Invergorden. We had booked a tour through Wow Scotland, and red-headed, blue-eyed Gordon met us as we walked out of the port. We had a choice of sandwiches for a bag lunch we would pick up at Culloden This tour includes Brodie Castle, Clava Cairns, Culloden Battlefield, Loch Ness and Inverness.

As we drove along the shores of the Cromarty Firth we saw several parked well drilling platforms, sometimes abandoned for many years, but we also spotted seals and oyster catchers.

The land is as green as Ireland but with no stone fences separating fields. Clearly, this is better farmland, with huge fields of green barley (primary ingredient in Scotch). The hills and roads were in full bloom with gorse (dying out) and broom, another even brighter yellow head-high plant).

At Brodie Castle we are treated to a private tour before the castle opened. Built in 1567, it is a Z plan defensive castle with defensive measures such as entering the main hall through a window through a removable ladder or stairs, turrets with musket slots, and narrow spiral staircases. The house has been lived in sine the 1500’s and was donated to the national trust with the provision that it be preserved as it is.

Clava Cairns is a group of prehistoric burial cairns which were built around 4000 years ago. This Bronze Age cemetery has passage graves, ring cairns, and standing stones, all centered around summer and winter solstices. The Victorians planted trees to make the site more atmospheric so today site does get the light it would have 4000 years ago.

White quartz standing stones would have caught rays of sunrise and red sandstone stones would have caught sunset light. The Outlander series begins with the heroine falling back in time through a split stone such as the one found here. The samhain stone used to mark the 45 days before and 45 days after the winter equinox is also featured in her book.

The Battle of Culloden (4/16, 1746) was the last battle fought on British soil. It pitted 8000 Highland Clansmen attempting to reclaim the throne of the exiled Stuart heir, Bonnie Prince Charlie (Jacobites) against the British Hanovarian soldiers. The Jacobites had great success earlier, almost reaching London before they chose to retreat to the highlands. The should never have fought in a broad open plane such as Culloden because that favored English tactics. The highlanders fought by charging the enemy line and using sword and dirk (dagger) to kill the enemy.

Gordon demonstrating highlander weaponry

Unfortunately they were mowed down by British rifles as they charged and then the British line closed around them and 1,500 men were killed in an hour, compared to 50 British deaths.

The battle marked the end of the clan system, and assertion of English control. Many castles were burned and the lands given to the English. In the Highland Clearances, farmers were kicked off their land, sometimes burned out, in order to make way for sheep. This inaugurated the mass emigrations to Canada and the United States.
Our tour then headed for hills for beautiful Highland scenery. We traveled up a narrow road into the mountain moorlands with both sides of the road blooming in yellow. We had a good view of the rift valley. Northern Scotland has been slidding slowly southwest (rocks on both sides are 65 ft distant).

We took the very narrow Trail of Lochs above Lock Ness with both sides of the road filled with blooming gorse and broom.

When we started to turn down to Lock Ness, the road was closed and we were forced to retrace our steps and take an even tinier side road down the mountain. We couldn’t believe that they would attempt this road in a full-sized coach (apparently they had never tried it before). If we had met anyone on the road, someone would have had to back a very long way.

We arrived at the village of Dores on Lock Ness to a strong cold wind, a good excuse for a whiskey (if the drive hadn’t been).

We drove through the villages of Evanton and Alness on the way back to the port of Invergordon.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh (pronounced Edinbura)

We tendered into port (about 25 min) and took a city bus (#10) right across from where the tender dropped us. We had to have the right change, 4 pounds for an all day ticket, but the bus dropped us in front of the Scottish National Gallery at the foot of Castle Rock (literally built on a rock).

We made our way up to the Royal Mile through one of the incredibly old, narrow closes (alleyways).

The Castle didn’t open until 9:45, so we waited in line for about 30 min to be admitted and buy our tickets (13 L for seniors). The castle is built on a rock and has been inhabited since 1000BC and fortified by the Picts in the 3 an 4^th centuriessince Roman traded with Pict leaders. The views from the castle are spectacular.

We wandered through St. Margaret’s Chapel built in 1076, the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh.

We saw the Scottish crown jewels and royal chambers before they got crowded.

Royal Mile

Writers’ Museum

Afterwards, we wandered down the Royal Mile, stopping at the Writer’s Museum on one of the closes (alley) that snake off the Royal Mile to see rooms dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Lewis Stephenson. A literary walk starts from this point at 1:30 but we didn’t have time to wait.

We stopped in St. Giles Cathedral, really the High Kirk of Edinburgh, Church of Scotland since 1500. The Medieval and Norman original is encased in a Georgian exterior that dates to 1828 but the spire is from 1485. A choir was rehearsing for a concert and we were treated to etherial music surrounded by stunning stained glass windows.

We stopped in the Royal Mile Tavern (wonderful atmosphere with old prints on the walls) and had a reasonable fish and chips lunch with a local Caledonia ale.

We also stopped at the People’s Museum off Tollhouse close, an interesting vision of poverty in the city over the centuries.

the new and the old

From there we made our way down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where we found a short line and no crowds (12 L for seniors). The left tower of the palace was built in 1530 by James but rebuilt in a classical style by Charles in 1670’s. The different levels of the interior courtyard facade show ionic, doric and corinthian columns.

The dining room, first was used by Queen Victoria, who liked to stay here and at her newly purchased Balmoral Castle, and she imported tapestries and furnishings from London to make the palace more comfortable.

Holyroodhouse is the seat of the Stuarts.

The portrait hall displays over 100 portraits commissioned by Charles II to establish his ancestry, many invented by the Dutch artist James De Witt who in 1648 signed a contract to deliver 110 portraits in two years, turning out one every 2 weeks.

Mary Queen of Scots was named queen of Scotland before she was one, but was sent to France at the age of five and raised by her mother’s family. At 15, she married the dauphin, son of the king of France, but he lived only two years and she returned to Scotland a widow. She next married Lord Darnely (20) and gave birth to her son James the VI of Scotland, who later became James I of England, unifying England and Scotland into Great Britain.

Lord Darnley became jealous of Mary’s Italian advisor and he and a group of other men stabbed him over fifty times.

A year later Lord Darnley was killed (it is suspected by Mary’s lover, whom she later married). He and she became unpopular and she was forced to abdicate and fled to England where her cousin, Elizabeth I, imprisoned her and later had her executed for treason.

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey (built in 1128 as an Augustinian abbey) are beside the palace. By 1500 it was one of the largest monasteries in Scotland, with a design similar to St. Gyles.

Arthur’s Seat, an 822 ft rocky mountain covered with yellow furze rises in the middle of Edinburgh.

Across the street from the palace is the new Parliament building (Scotland has its own parliament for the first time in 300 years). The building is a bit of a modern eyesore among so many historic buildings.

From Holyroodehouse, we caught bus 35 to Ocean Terminal, where we got a free shuttle bus back to our tender location.

The temperatures were once again in the 60’s, a heat-wave for this area.

This Woman Was Here

A Do-It-Yourselfer's Life Journey

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