The weather forecast today was such that it made one think — ‘Hmmm, better get out into the open air, before some pencil-pushing parasite with a job to make seem relevant decides I can no longer be trusted to do so.’ So I went out. To Scotland, in fact: making this only the second non-English shot since the beginning of February. It was worth the drive. This is Loch Skeen, near Moffat.
On my way home, visited the Wallace Monument in Stirling, built to commemorate William Wallace, Scottish hero (yeah yeah, Braveheart, Mel Gibson, etc.). Three things about it are steep — the stairs to the top, the walk up the hill to it, and the £10.50 entry fee. These are just about compensated for by the view, however, which takes in the Ochils (where I walked yesterday), Stirling, the Highlands to the west and to the east, the valley of the River Forth. This is perhaps the least glamorous direction, but photographically the most interesting — today, at least.
I guess there’s all sorts of metaphorical and analogical interpretations which could be put on the title of this post, but it’s all literal — these people (and obviously, myself) were engaged this morning on the climb of the steep south slope of the hill known as The Law, just outside the little town of Tillicoultry, which is visible below. Why? On a day of glorious sunshine like this, why not?
The post title has a double meaning. ‘Back in time’ because Palmerston Park in Dumfries is a very old-school football ground, particularly at this, the Terregles Street end. The brickwork! The pylons! I doubt this scene would have looked a great deal different in the 1950s.
‘Back in time’ also because the weather is like February here…. no, come to think of it, February was nicer than this at times. This photo is taken in conditions of around 14ºC and teeming rain. The thought that over the last week, the UK might have experienced its hottest ever day, was laughable at this point.
Ben Nevis is a mountain of two sides, for sure. On the south side, a vast but rather dull slope up which hundreds toil daily; the payoff for climbing continuously for three hours being the chance to attain the status of Most Elevated Person in Great Britain, at 4,411 feet (or 1,345 metres). We secured this goal at 11.24am.
But going up that way doesn’t show you the other side, the North Face, with its stupendous crags and (after the tourist path) blissful sollitude. This is the connoisseur’s side of the mountain, the place where you can really look up and feel, yep: this is the culminating point of the whole country, it really doesn’t get any bigger than this.
The lump in the background is the lower slope of Ben Nevis, highest mountain in Great Britain and something I have decided it is past time I hauled myself up. Thus, it is tomorrow’s target for a walk. Here’s hoping for somewhat better weather than we had this evening — but it is forecast to be… wish me luck.
When I said yesterday that I was close by friends, I meant Pegs and Dan, who live in the highly attractive place that is Aberdour, and which we last visited in May, when the views were just as good as they were today. That’s Edinburgh over there — see Arthur’s Seat to the left, the castle in the centre. A hard place to just walk away from, but I have to go home, and will be back some day.
It’s been a little while (three weeks) since my football habit directly made an appearance on the blog but I like this shot. The blues, Burntisland Shipyard, on the attack here, scored a last-minute goal to win 3-2. Why did I come to this game? I just like the name. Burntisland Shipyard. (And I have friends who live down the road.)
Another shot taken out of the windows of a moving train — grubby windows too. But I think the dirt is disguished well enough on this shot, taken from near Attadale station on the rather pretty Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh line. The sort of train journey that it’s slightly pointless to take for any reason other than just to do the journey…. but there are good enough reasons for that.
This is Clachnaharry sea lock, the northern end of the Caledonian Canal, completed in 1822 after a mammoth building project that finished years later than planned and way over budget, and so late that one main reason for building it — to protect shipping against Napoleon — had become obsolete years before thanks to Waterloo. Sounds like some modern infrastructure projects we could all name.
I did get another half-decent picture of the Old Town in Edinburgh this morning but having done that yesterday, let’s choose one from further north on the day’s journey. Taken through the window of the train as it left Inverness (which is my excuse for the grainy quality); but that was the way I saw most of the day.
