We went to the Lost Gallery which is down a dirt road up a mountain, through a forest. Their philosophy is that if the art is good enough, people will come to it. It didn't seem to be working...
Yesterday we went to a Ski Resort, and a nearby Beach. The Beach won a Beach Award.
And an old Fort
Difficult to look elegant in your walking gear! Stunning blue skies today....the car thermometer read 22.
This is one of the lounges. It is the Number 1 Birdwatchers Hotel in Scotland, and provides Talks, films, a resident Expert, loan binoculars, books, everything. We booked it as we couldn't find B&B accommodation in the area, not realising this is Holiday Central at this time of year.....Tourists come in winter to ski, and in summer to enjoy the outdoors and visit Whiskey Distilleries, Reindeer Farm, Osprey Centre, and Mountain Biking.
Of course you can ski on the golf course in winter:). Even through summer a touch of snow remains on the mountain tops. The Cairngorms have the most "Munros" (Mountains over 3,000 feet- or is it metres?). Munro Bagging is the thing, if you're an avid mountaineer.
Here's another photo of the Woollen Mill....bunting in their courtyard! The Observant will see the Tartan from the boots in the previous Post.
Distilleries to the left, distilleries to the right, Glenfiddich down the road, Glenlivett around the corner.
We came across a tiny Woollen Mill that is the only surviving continuously working Mill in the UK. It makes beautiful fabrics from local fleeces. These beautiful boots are made from the tartan they designed to represent their Mill and the colours of the surrounding countryside. They explained how the tweeds and tartans they make are customised to the countryside colours of their clients.
And we did! This is on the way to Glen Affric.
Beautiful tree bark
And the usual water, in lochs, rivers, burns, waterfalls, the sky.
Chain-saw art is popular! This is a particularly impressive example, outside a Community Firestation, in a rural area.
This speaks for itself....
There are not many visible horses, though a couple of Villages offer Pony Treks.
Sheep come in small groups, rather than in big mobs. These seem to be different varieties. Maybe you can identify them for us , O Vet Brothers?
The yellow-flowering wild gorse in prolific in places where nothing else grows. This is also a good example of the main road in the North!! Which is why it takes longer to drive than you think.
Where gardens are cultivated, in fertile ground, they are stunning. This one is at Plockton, which benefits from a warm Gulfstream current. It runs down to the Loch.
Pretty flowers will just thrive just about anywhere.
Even in the Far North, at Durness and Tongue, where some summers it only gets up to 12degrees, there are keen surfers. Haven't actually SEEN any, but at Durness there is a part-time Surf Shop. And a sign saying AWARD WINNING BEACH. The Public Toilet also has an Award for Best Loo, 2010: they take their awards seriously up here!
The little children have their anoraks on, along with their buckets and spades.
Highland sheep have any number of horns, straight and crooked. They survive on poor land where regular sheep can't. These were on a small holding where we stayed. Moira was from the south of Scotland, and said her English husband is more accepted than she is, as the Southern Scots are resented for being brought in as shepherds, after the clearances 200 years ago. The adjacent croft had the Flag of Scotland flying.
Moira knits these lovely jumpers when she is not minding the sheep or the B&B.
Being a sheep isn't such hard work.
You even get to sit on a table while you're being clipped. Watch out for the ciggy ash though!!
Three Ahhhhs is the 100% top rating, because one sounds silly saying it more than that! Driving through Glencoe, with brooding mountains all around, is definitely a Three Ahhhh experience.
Making tartan. The olde waye.
More modern layering.
Maybe THIS is the sort of girl ....
Clifton, Balliemore, Pentland, Perth, Balquidder, Applecross, Kintail, Attadale, Glebe, Barcaldine, Dornoch, Armadale, Broadford, Waverley, St Kilda, Blair Atholl, Duncraig, Dalkeith, Lismore, Milton, Bright water, Stirling, Leeming, Moray, Elgin, Auchenflower, Lindesfarne, Glencoe .
These are place names I am not only familiar with, but which I know because of personal connection with each. Barcaldine is where - in Central Western Queensland, our father, Perry Lyons, was born. Brightwater is down the road from me, as is Lindesfarne, my local GP Practice. ...and I forgot Iona, a girl's Catholic High School in Perth. Glencoe the street around the corner where I lived when I was ten. Milton is where I shared a house in Brisbane, and where my good friend Cassandra now lives. Balquidder, a cattle and sheep property in South Australia where my brother and his wife worked.
Barcaldine House
Time to attempt to portray the wild mountainous magnificence of the land. ....and did I mention Lochs?
This is part of the Isle of Skye. You will note some cleared timber, which is plantation.
