A little slice of Glasgow

23/01/12
We have been enjoying Glasgow with the help of the lovely C, Graham's cousin. Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and has a lovely mix of old and new buildings, it is also rated as the 57th most liveable city in the wrold- if you are interested. C took us out on Saturday evening to the local pubs and clubs and we had a fabulous time.

M & G

G & C & M

We spent Sunday driving around (after feeling a little sorry for ourselves...) and went to see the Wind Farm (see my previous post). For the next few days Graham and I ventured into the city to see what Glasgow had to offer.

The glasgow eye, in the middle of the city, pumping out bizarre tunes that didn't seem to match the occasion ha ha

In George square, checking out the Glasgow City Chambers.

Pretty building- thumbs up.

We then headed up to the very ominous sounding Necropolis, which means the City of the Dead. We stopped of at the very intereting St Mungo musuem of religious life and art. Which was a fabulous wee museum just outside the necropolis. It was filled with information and artifacts from several prominant religions with a basic summary of their core belief systems, and it's relation to Glasgow. It was full of beautiful art and information, and very tactfully presented.

The veiw from the Necropolis.

The Necropolis is a Victorian cemetary with fifty thousand (!) permanent residents. The Necropolis began as a huge influx of people entered Glasgow and the poor conditions resulted in a need for all of victims of the resulting diseases to be laid to rest somewhere. It was officially opened in 1833.

There is a huge range of incredible monuments and gravestones (including one for the auther of "wee willie winkie") It was a bit of a desolate day to be up there, but fitted the somber mood of the place.

The bridge of sighs, the "separation between time and eternity" upon wich the funernal processions would move over to the Necropolis. I thought it was a very interesting name, romantic, if you could use that word.

As we were crossing the road we came accross a sign for the oldest house in glasgow, and it was beautifully refurbished and quite large! Provand's Lordship was built in 1471 and is the only house to survive from the medievil city. It was said that Mary Queen of Scots had stayed there (we seem to be following her trail, as she is mentioned everywhere we go) The doorways are teeny tiny in the house fitting for our much shorter ancestors.

Graham enjoying the stairs (I forgot to take any other photos- whoops)

Melaina & Graham xox

Treading the path of my ancestors

Some of my ancestors came on one of the very first settler ships to reach New Zealand. My mother's side of the family has been very interested in this and so, I have been to celebrations and reunions of the ship descendants. While I have been in Scotland i have found a bit of information online about my family and was able to trace back to the suburb he was born in.

Enjoying Rutherglen like James might have in the early 1800's

Wind farms

22/01/12

Today I saw my very first windfarm in Glasgow- and it was a little bit scary. First of all 140 windmills are hanging out in a paddock being creepy and 110m tall, and they don't bother to turn at the same time, which is irritating to watch.

Looming around

It is scarier than you would think going uder the blades! They turn very fast and move towards the ground (and your head) at a speedy clip. Each blade is the length of a house or so.

Not so big perhaps...

Melaina & Graham xoxo

*UPDATE*

In one of my previous posts, we had an amazing photo of a mirror loch with (what i thought) was a Church reflected in the surface. I would like to happily correct myself and announce that it is none other than Glenbogle house from Monarch of the Glen! I'm sure 95% of people who read this won't care- but for the other 5% wooohooo. It is actually a real estate with a different name (Ardverikie), but always Glenbogle to me

Castle time

21/01/12

Today we drove from Aviemore down to Glasgow and stopped off at a few Castles along the way. Blair Atholl Castle was recommended to us by a family member so we stopped to check it out.
I didn't get a picture out the front because it was raining... but here is one I prepared earlier:

Blair Castle dates from 1269 with many extentions through the ages. The castle is very oppulently appointed with antiquities from various times in Scotland, with a fair few from the Jacobites. I'm not sure that you were allowed to take photos inside, but i just couldn't resist snapping a few of the grander rooms... oops.

The entrance hall was decorated with guns, and by decorated- I mean hundreds of guns arranged in swirling patterns all around the extremely high walls with swords to break it up a little. I wasn’t able to get a photo of this- as there were people milling around, but if you are really interested click here http://www.flickr.com/photos/drewsouthcott/4426388273/ to see someone else's photos

The photo below is in a large staircase heaving with portraits of ancestors. But the ceiling was very intricate and Graham was particulalry impressed.

The castle was very well laid out and you followed a sort of path around through many beautiful rooms crammed with furniture and art work. Everything had been lovingly restored and laid out for your viewing pleasure. Below was one of the grand lounge rooms.

In one of the rooms, you walked in and it was similar to the above room, however there were perhaps twenty or so stuffed birds. Something caught my eye on the birds head... it was a turban. A tiny bird sized turban with jewel bright colours and feathers. I took a closer look and every single bird in the room was wearing a tiny little turban! Bizzare! And no mention was made of this oddity.

Oh hey Rodney- nice hat bro

There was also a rabbit in the room that Graham pointed out, but the rabbit didn't get a turban... it got a sparkly pink top hat.

Edward wishes he could have a top hat too, but Rabbit is very cruel and won't share

WHAT THE?

After this strange little room, you meander through the bedrooms filled with lush beds resplendant in red with plumes of feathers to help you sleep.

And finally, and most excitingly (perhaps second only to the turban-ed birds) were three or four NARWHAL tusks decorating the staircase. They were very long and glowed with magical energy. (maybe not, but they were long)

And finally the one room I could take photos in, the lovely room of death, the ballroom.

Many many deers were harmed in the making of this ballroom. Enjoy your feasting!

After Blair Atholl we drove up to Stirling Castle in the midst of lots of rain and wind. It was a rather pricy entry fee and the whole thing had been restored by the Historical Trust of Scotland back to its true form and colour. I will sum up the castle visit in saying that it was very confusing. It seemed that a lot of money had been spent on some things and it looked like they had run out of money for basic furnishings and what not. Some things were excellent and some really not so. The tour guide was great and really informative, but after seeing Blair Castle it seemed like a bit of an empty shell. I did take a few photos of the one or two rooms that were actually furnished. The one below is the queens bedroom.

One of the royal chambers

The only original bit of the outside- the prince's walk.

I would say it was worth the visit, in that you get to see what the colours would have looked like back in the 1700's, but they aren't to modern day tastes! The great hall was about the size of a large school hall and was done up lovely with draping and windows, but there was only one lonesome table and two chairs in the entire room. I didnt really take any pictures as i wasn't entranced by what i saw. Never mind though, there was lots of information for once.

Walks around Aviemore

Just a few quick pictures of our walks around Aviemore and further afield

An older one from Fort Augustus- me at the Loch Ness

And one from our long bushwalk around a loch

Completion! And all rugged up, as it snowed yesterday.....

And it kept on snowing tonight!

Some mulled wine is definitely needed!

Poor Justin Bobby Campervan

Straight out of Narnia!!!

The snow is falling again, so we will have to see whether we can get out of Aviemore this weekend...

Melaina & Graham xoxox

Culloden & the Clava Cairns

17/01/12
Today we drove up to Inverness. It was much bigger than we expected and had a large shopping centre. We didn't find a main street or look around much, as our sights were set slightly further afield....
To Culloden.
The battle of Culloden was in 1746 and was the final confrontation in the Jacobite rising. Between 1500 and 2000 Jacobites were killed or wounded compared to the 50 dead and 259 wounded in the opposing side. It seems that a very under prepared highlander army fought on a horrible boggy landscape against the superior firepower of the government. We pulled up at Culloden and weren't really sure what to expect. Most disappointingly was that the visitor centre was closed for renovations... again! We have chosen a terrible time to visit things, it seems. So we started walking around the massive open field.

There is a cottage built on the edge of the Field where the English fought. It is a replacement cottage but actually dates from 1760

You can peer in the windows but there seems to be only barrels and thing like that

As you walk out onto the battlefield there are walks with signs with (we felt) extremely vague descriptions of what happened with very little evidence. However, when we went home and looked it up online, there was a wealth of information. So perhaps we missed out on a great deal of info at the visitors centre.

One of the walks takes you all around the edge battle field and you come across many memorial plaques and clan headstones

One of the clan headstones

There are many headstones like the above dotted around the field showing where clans fought and died together. It is a very barren and large area and the historical society of Scotland is slowly turning the area back into the way it would have looked in 1746- a whole lot boggier, poor Scots.

The Scot's famous highland charge was used to great failure in this battle, as the order was given late, and the ground was horrible and boggy to run over, meaning that the Jacobite's were slaughtered by the enemies firepower before they even got close.

There wasn't much to take photos of, just acres of windswept land. But it was a bit eerie and very sad.
After Culloden we headed down the road a wee way to the Clava Cairns, which were bronze age burial grounds with circular tombs and standing stones dating back 4000 years! It seems that only a couple of bodies were buried in each of three arrangements. There is a large circular mound of rocks that you can walk into and standing stones around the outside and range from small to taller than I.

The stones range in size so that the smallest are at the front to face the sun. Originally the centre chamber was enclosed, and on the winter solstice, the morning sun would light the inner chamber creating one effect, and the evening light would create another. For the rest of the year, the inner chamber remained dark. Some of the stone had curious cup marks dug into them and were worn very smooth over the years. The stones were also placed with their colour in mind, so many years ago. They were extremely fascinating and a lot of fun to look around, especially as we were alone and it was very quiet.

Melaina & Graham xoxo

The drive to Aviemore

14/01/12

Today we drove from Fort William to Aviemore where we will be spending the week. We have been very lucky and gained the use of Graham's Uncle's timeshare for the week (thanks Andy!) so we will be hanging around Aviemore and going up to Inverness and Culloden during this week.



Frozen loch



Not a great photo- but half of the loch is frozen over

The drive was very cold and veeery beautiful, so although nothing much happened today, I just had to share the photos- none of them are touched up!

Hey New Zealand- meet one of Scotland's views




Perfectly reflected little church on the loch side

 

We also stopped at the Ruthven Barracks that were built in 1719 after the Jacobite uprising of 1715

 The stables were built in 1734 for the Dragoon's horses, and then some fool climbed up them in 2012

On the day after the Battle of Culloden as many as 3,000 Jacobites assembled at Fort Ruthven with the intention of fighting on. However awaiting them was a message from their leader Prince Charles Edward Stewart saying that each man should save himself as best he could.
The remains of the barracks were pretty much how they were left in 1746, with most of the exterior and little of the interior.

And finally we went to a zoo outside Aviemore with all sorts of lovely creatures,  and the very poor photo below is for my sister




Red Squirrel!!

Melaina and Graham xoxo