Doon The Watter

Tell someone that you are going “doon the watter,” and you will be met with puzzled looks. Unless of course they are from Glasgow, in which case they will immediately understand you plan to sail “down the waters” of the river Clyde.

For Eric any trip doon the watter would be incomplete without a visit to the holiday destination of his childhood Millport.

Millport is the only town on the island of Great Cumbrae, which sits one and a half miles off the coast of north Ayrshire. Alongside other towns like its island neighbour Rothesay it used to be a popular destination for holidaymakers coming doon the watter on paddle steamers from Glasgow.

In the 20th century, Millport became a tourist destination with thousands of families taking trips from Glasgow, Greenock and other Clyde towns. Some would stay in Millport throughout the summer with fathers taking the boat to join their families at the weekend. At this time there were hundreds of pleasure steamers linking all the Clyde costs towns. Today, the paddle steamer Waverley (last seagoing paddle steamer in the world) continues this tradition with regular visits to Millport in the summer months.
For today’s meander by car, foot, boat and bike we are joined by Emma’s good friend Janice from Lowestoft who has taken six days sabbatical in Scotland to recharge her batteries. To get there we take the ferry from Largs on Scotland’s west coast. The crossing only takes 15 minutes. The small car ferry alights on the islands north shore and from here it takes a leisurely 10 minutes to the timeless hamlet of Millport. Once you arrive, the traditional way to see Great Cumbrae is by bike. It's only 11 miles round and the road is flat thus making it a great place to cycle. We quickly hire our cycles and take off around the coastline, taking in the delights of the island's nature and wildlife, sandy bays and pebble beaches.

Our first stop off point is 3 miles in to the trip as we feast on tea and cake at Fintry Bay a renowned café and popular resting place for the thousands of cyclists who circumnavigate the island each year. Shortly after Fintry we view the first of several bizarre rock formations that has evolved on the island over the years ‘Indian Rock’. The Indian's face was possibly done by Fern Andy who lived in a cave near the area in the 1920's. It is probable that the eyes of the Indian were painted as a guide point for boats sometime previously.

Further around the island we encounter ‘The Lion Rock’. Its proper name is Houloon Keipel Dyke & it's a natural rock formation from volcanic lava - but the folklore story is that good elves were building a bridge to the mainland, the bad ogres tried to copy them but didn't do it very well, so kicked holes in the bottom & it ended up looking like a lion. As lions are frightening to elves, they all ran off & you'll never see an elf on the east side of the island today!

On returning to Millport we pass perhaps the most famous of the islands legendary rocks ‘Crocodile Rock’. The crocodile was painted by a retired architect, Robert Brown, in the early 20th century. He came out of the tavern after his regular lunchtime tipple & remarked that the rock looked remarkably like a crocodile, the next day he took it upon himself to paint it. It's been freshened up many times since but the black, red & white colours you still see today are the same colours used by Robert Brown.

As we return our bikes after our 3 hour sojourn around an island that remains unaffected by the passing of time we venture over to The Royal George Hotel for rehydration and rest before ascending to the highest point on the island to capture a panoramic image and then speeding down off the hill to catch the ferry we have been tracing coming over from Largs and quickly clambering aboard it’s opening bow securing us back to the mainland.

A Walk Across The Rooftops

The city of Glasgow has a distinct architecture, and is particularly noted for its 19th-century Victorian architecture, and the early 20th-century "Glasgow Style", as developed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Mackintosh was an architect and designer in the Arts and Crafts movement and the main exponent of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom, designing numerous noted Glasgow buildings such as the Glasgow School of Art, Willow Tearooms and the Scotland Street School.

Glasgow has many industrial and commercial buildings of significant architectural merit, the most notable of which is the former Glasgow Herald Building. The lower floors were used as production space and the newspapers were dispatched onto the waiting lorries at the numerous openings all along Mitchell Street. The upper floors were used for the editorial and commercial side of the operation and again illustrate Mackintosh's unique style.
In 1999 the building was completely refurbished to celebrate Glasgow's status as UK City of Architecture and Design and renamed The Lighthouse Scotland's Centre for Architecture, Design and the City.

One of the stunning features of The Lighthouse is the uninterrupted view over Glasgow's cityscape from the Mackintosh Tower at the north of the building, which is accessible via a helical staircase from the third floor. It is this viewpoint that we intend to take our first steps in to he art of ‘Bulb Photography'.

Bulb photography is a technique where the lens of the camera is left open for longer than usual (usually for some seconds).
The camera shutter is often operated manually and is left open for as long as the shutter release is pressed. The effect of this is that the camera often captures images not usually seen by the naked eye (such as the streaks left by car headlights, rather than the cars themselves).

Sadly the views turn out to be less dramatic than we had hoped for, not to be undone we venture over to the modern viewing platform at the south of the building, which forms the buildings sixth floor and is only accessible via lift. The ambient light conditions are unforgiving but the glass encased platform offers a stunning opportunity to capture some photo opportunities against the cityscape.

Battling against time we capture some stunning portraits before walking briskly to Glasgow’s East End for our 2:30pm appointment and Celtic Foot Park for an official tour of the stadium. The tour of course is a pure Eric self-indulgence and a return to the home of his favorite football club: Celtic.

The all-seater stadium is also known as Parkhead and occasionally nicknamed Paradise by Celtic fans. It is the largest football stadium in Scotland by capacity, and the third-largest in the United Kingdom after Old Trafford and Wembley.

The tour leads us through some of the most prestigious behind the scenes areas of the stadium, including the boardroom, the trophy room displaying the club’s vast range of trophies from past and present including the European Cup. The Media Room, the Executive and Directors’ Box, the players' tunnel and dugout, finished with a 15 minute documentary on Celtics humble beginnings and the significant role they have championed for the poor and needy of the east end of Glasgow.

As we leave the stadium with a kind and genuine handshake from our friendly tour guide we happen upon a Celtic legend and all round nice guy, ‘Paul McStay’ who is standing in the reception waiting to meet a member of the clubs hierarchy.

Life can’t get much better than this ;-)

Gastronomic Meander

Scots have the world's worst records for heart attacks and angina fueled by the ingestion of junk food washed down with copious amounts of cigarettes and alcohol. For the more discerning palette Scotland has provided the culinary world with fine venison, salmon, beef, pheasant and whisky. It has also gained a reputation for the variances of food that it has invented over the years including the deep fried mars bar and haggis. It is the dishes of lesser renown and peculiar too only a certain generation of Scots that we seek out in our meander to Angus.

Angus sits between Aberdeenshire and the Perth/Kinross region and abounds with fine produce including succulent summer berries, the freshest seafood, the finest Angus beef, palate-warming whisky and savoury pastry. The county has 40% of Scotland's class 1 agricultural land and produces 28% of the country's potatoes.

Our first culinary stop is Kirriemuir which is notable for the gingerbread which can be found in most supermarket bakery shelves. Over 80 years ago, in a rural highland town at the foot of the Grampian Mountains, a baker named Walter Burnett created a gingerbread unsurpassed to this day. He christened it with the name of the town, which had previously been made famous by the author and play-write Sir James M. Barrie. Many will know the works of this famous writer, which include “Peter Pan” and “The Admirable Crichton” among others.

The wrapping design of Kirriemuir Gingerbread has remained unchanged for decades and centres around a picture of a house, with the caption “A window in Thrums” - the house (left) was at the centre of one of Sir Barrie’s earliest books of the same name, and Thrums was the name he used for the town of Kirriemuir.

Sadly, none of the towns’ bakeries could provide us with an example of the famous bread which has made the towns name synonymous with the product so we move on to the neighbouring town of Forfar which has gathered renown for its peculiar pasty, the Bridie. A Forfar Bridie is a horseshoe shaped meat product. It has a short-crust cover and the filling consists of beef, onions and seasoning. They originated in Forfar in the early part if the 19th Century. One story of their origin is that they were made for wedding meals (the Bride's meal) hence the horseshoe shape (for luck). Another story is that they were made by Margaret Bridie of Glamis, who sold them at the Buttermarket in Forfar. The pride and competition within the small town to claim superiority and originality over each other has resulted in shop warfare between the bakers and split loyalties amongst its residents who bicker over Sadlers and Maclarens bakers who traditionally use shortcrust pastry and A.Camerons the Fishmonger who uses flaky or puff pastry. We settle for the shortcrust Bridie as the alternative looks remarkably similar to the Cornish pasty.

Perhaps the most famous dish to originate from Angus is the traditional Arbroath Smokie and it is too here that we make our next venture in to the peculiarities of this small counties cuisine. These wood smoked Haddock are a delicacy that should not be missed. A culinary delight exclusive to the area, The Smokie is protected under European Law as a 'Protected Geographical Location' with the same regard as that maintained for Parma Ham and Champagne. A real Smokie is only from Arbroath. Only haddock can be used to produce an authentic 'Arbroath Smokie'. Once landed and gutted the smokie pit is prepared. A hole is dug in the ground, and a half whisky barrel is set into it. The base of the barrel is lined with slates to protect it, and a hardwood fire of beech and oak is lit inside. The sticks of fish are then placed over the pit and a hessian cover allows the fire to breathe and maintain the required heat. The cooking time is usually a minimum of 30 - 40 minutes but only an experienced smokie maker knows exactly when they are ready. The resultant golden brown fish, eaten straight from the barrel is a truly mouth-watering experience that has to be tasted to be believed!

We take our Haddock the short distance along Arbroath promenade and devour with a gusto matched only by the waiting gulls who feed off the remnants of fish and bone thrown away by the many tourists who flock to this small fishing town annually to taste these smoked delicacies.

With our taste buds reinvigorated and our faith in Scottish gastronomic cuisine restored we return to Glasgow, the spiritual home of the deep fried pizza, kebab and pakora ;-)

Ben Lomond

Ben Lomond is for many the most celebrated of Scottish mountains. It is still the rival of Ben Nevis for the foremost place in popularity. This is due to its conspicuous and easily accessible situation, to the ease with which it can be ascended, and to the magnificence of the view it commands. Owing to its somewhat isolated position at the southern extremity of the Highlands, it forms a conspicuous object from many points of view, whilst from its summit there is obtained a singularly extensive and varied survey of mountain and loch, valley and plain, with a picturesque middle distance of hill, wood, and water.

The most popular ascent of the Ben is from Rowardennan on the east side of Loch Lomond which attracts nearly 30,000 climbers per year and can resemble Sauchiehall Street at ‘chucking oot time’ over a sunny weekend. In search of solitude and in keeping with our pioneering spirit we assault the hill from the lesser trodden and least known ascent from the shores of Loch Chon which is situated 6 miles west of Aberfoyle and traverses the mountains north west ridge.

As we start our climb we recall Dr Garnett’s observations on the Ben’s early climbers. From his "Tour in Scotland" of 1798 he sagely regales "this mountain is visited by strangers from every quarter of the island." From a remark, however, in the same book we must not be surprised at the strange and marvellous sights some of those early mountaineers saw, for it is stated that "it is deemed impossible to reach the top without the aid of a bottle of whisky!”

These Dickensian trailblazers clearly embraced the idiom ‘fit to drop’ with some zeal ;-)

Our source of rehydration is taken from the little streams coming down off the Ben as we plot our way through the myriad of forests trails that will eventually take us clear of the forest cover and out on to the mountains broad open slopes chocked with bracken and broom and countless hidden boggy traps which Eric manages to fall prey too with alarming regularity. As we follow the last hissing stream to its source we climb up to the ridge of the mountain’s shoulder and look down on Loch Lomond sparkling a deep silky blue on our left, seemingly close enough to leap and dive into. As we climb the final zigzag flank towards the summit at 3195ft, small wisps of cloud appear that feel so close that one could almost pull them out of the sky with a tethered rope.

With the summit gained we take in the panorama of peaks, from Bens Cruachan, Lui, Nevis, More, Lawers and Stobinian with Ben Ledi and Ben Venue in The Trossachs, the Paps of Jura in the west and Goat Fell with its sisters on the Isle of Arran. To the south lie the islands of Incailloch, Inchmurrin, Inchmoan, Inchconnachan, Inchcruin and Inchfad.

This remote trek up Scotland’s most accessible mountain took an exhausting four and half hours to achieve as opposed to the 2hrs the swarming hordes take walking the well worn tourist route. Sadly, we can only rest our weary limbs for 30 minutes due to restrictive time parameters before quickly retracing our steps back down the lonely route to Loch Chon, stopping briefly to gaze at a soufflé of clouds in the distance which gather like a small airborne crush of icebergs dissipating as they wander south.

Our return is not without incident as Eric rescues a lamb which has become separated from its distraught mother and got itself trapped hysterically in a small ravine. With mother and lamb reunited and Eric’s status as superhero reaffirmed we press on at great haste to reach the car in the cover of a glorious sunset 8 hours after our departure.

The Rockcliffe File

The Solway Firth on Scotland’s southern coast is often bypassed at great speed by motorists on there way to Glasgow and all points north on the M74.
Oblivious to the hordes is the fact that this glorious stretch of coastline is internationally renowned for bird life, rare plants and offers a host of different habitats for many animals. The landscape surrounding the Firth is varied and includes sand dunes, salt marshes, raised mires and mud flats and is a rich agricultural area. The numerous small ports, harbours and towns that dot the intricate coastline have grown, shrunk and grown again according to the changing fortunes of farming and industry.

The Solway Firth can be a wild and sometimes treacherous place, and only recently have people looked on it as a place of quiet contemplation and pleasure. Previously, the firth’s shifting sands and muds were more or less known only to those whose livelihoods depended on them such as the wildfowlers and the fishermen. The poke nets and haaf nets that can be seen catching salmon on the Solway today are unique to these shores and together with the stake nets, have been used by local fishermen for almost a thousand years.

It is this neglected coastline that we make our first sojourn in to Scotland’s most southern county (Dumfries and Galloway) to visit Rockcliffe.
Rockcliffe is one of a number of small seaside villages along the stretch of the north shore of the Solway Firth known as the Colvend Coast. An arc of largely white-painted houses and cottages stand on the landward side of the road, looking out over the beach. The village stands on the east side of the mouth of Rough Firth, the estuary of the Urr Water.

Two islands are visible offshore. The more distant is Hestan Island, complete with its lighthouse and cottages. Closer in, a third of a mile from Rockcliffe, is Rough Island. This is accessible on foot at low tide, either via a causeway of sorts from the north or directly across the sand from Rockcliffe when the tide permits. The island is a bird sanctuary and we are advised not to visit during the months of May and June to avoid disturbing the nesting oystercatchers and ringed plovers.

The NTS (National Trust Scotland) owns much of the coastal land north-west of Rockcliffe, and it is through here we take the footpath which leads to Kippford a mile away. En route we pass the Mote of Mark. This Dark Age hill fort overlooks the Urr Estuary and is thought to have been occupied for up to 300 years until being destroyed by fire in the 700s. It is said to be named after Mark, King of Dumnonia, and links have been made with the story of Tristan and Isolde and with the legends of King Arthur.

From here we travel slightly east to what is regarded as one of the most attractive villages in Scotland, Gatehouse of Fleet. Known as a "gait" after the Old Norse for road, the military road crossed the Water of Fleet over a wooden bridge. The local lairds, the Murrays, saw a commercial opportunity, and built a stone gait-house or inn on the road near the bridge to service the passing traffic. Over time the word gait passed into antiquity, and the gait-house became known as the gatehouse.

Given the current pace of life in the village, it's difficult to imagine that in the late 18th- and early 19th centuries, Gatehouse of Fleet was a thriving industrial centre with cotton mills, shipbuilding, a brewery and its own port and was known locally as the 'Glasgow of the South'. Today, little remains of Gatehouse of Fleet's industrial past. The Mill on the Fleet Visitor Centre occupies the one remaining mill building on the banks of the Water of Fleet, on the north side of the village. Unfortunately for us the VC and Mill are closed on our arrival but thankfully the renowned ‘Ship Inn’ was just opening for evening meals which we duly frequented and had an excellent dinner in sumptuous surroundings.

On our journey home we detour to visit Cairnholy burial site which is situated a few miles east of Gatehouse of Fleet. On a gently sloping hill above Kirkdale Glen this superb Clyde-type chambered cairn has a monumental curving façade of eight tall uprights. The forecourt was used for ritual ceremonies and lying prostrate in front of the entrance there is a closing stone which dates from the 3rd Millennium BC. The standing stones are not in the Stonehenge class of course, but as the night sky envelops us we recognise the significance of the strategic placement of the stones and ponder at the funeral rituals of our predecessors, speculating if they celebrated a life well lived or mourned the passing of loved one to another world?