Day 24: Falkirk and Falkland

Anyone else watching Outlander?

It's been a funny old day.

If Northumberland was all about castles, this morning Scotland was all about bridges.

The new Queensferry Crossing over the Firth of Forth was being constructed immediately over my head.

Thanks to Karen McNally asking Facebook friends, I was off to Falkirk today for my must see and must do when I saw a signpost for Hopetoun House.

According to Visit Scotland it's not only Scotland's premier stately home. It's also find location for Outlanders Duke of Sandringham's home. In the series we see it like this...

In reality it looks like this, but the film company digitally removed the two wings.

Don't remember seeing the flock of black sheep in the films though.

Took photos then back on the road. National Trust Scotland has been kindly tweeting suggested places for me to visit on route so second detour was to House of Binns a 17th century lairds house near Linlithgow.

Their livestock is not penned in.

Some of their livestock is unusual...

It wasn't actually open. Should have guessed as Gloria was the only car in the carpark.

Today the former MP Sir Tam Dalyell and his wife live there, but I thought no one would mind if I went through the woods to the tower to see the wonderful panoramic views.

Eventually I reached Falkirk. She wasn't looking her best. The clock tower in the town centre was hidden by scaffolding, and it was interesting that parking on the street would have cost me £2.30 an hour, whilst in the temple to Mammon, the Howgate shopping centre, just £1.50 for three hours. Mmm...

The outskirts had big retail parks too. So, hardly surprising that the actual town centre shops are dying fast. From the entrance to the Howgate centre I saw 13 shop premises for sale signs. What are they going to do with the high street shops I wonder?

Not impressed.

However my real reason for coming to Falkirk was to see two fabulous engineering projects. Both creative.

First the Kelpies in Helix Park.

They are 30 metres high  and are standing right next to the Forth and Clyde canal. Created by Andy Scott, They are possibly the largest horse sculptures in the world and cost £5 million to build.

Wish I could have stayed on to see them lit up at night.

The second one was a world first on the Forth, Clyde and Union Canal. When I think of wheels I think of round things like car or bike wheels, or even The London or Brighton Eye, but in Falkirk they have literally reinvented the wheel.

It is a canal boat lift that rotates taking a boat up from the Forth and Clyde canal and depositing it on the Union canal. I saw one being lifted. It was astonishing. It's possibly one of the largest functional pieces of sculpture I have ever seen.

Had trouble booking my next two night Airbnb stop in Fife as everyone I contacted was not available. But forth time lucky Lorna in a place called Markinch said she could have me. Well Karen McNally and friends, how beautiful is the Kingdom of Fife!!!

The cottage I am booked into is lovely.

My host suggested that I drive a few miles down the road to look at another Scottish National Trust property, a Palace no less, in a small village called Falkland. The Palace would be shut but I could see it from the road and get supper there in one of the pubs.

Falkland was stunning. Won an award from Scotland in Bloom as well as one from Beautiful Scotland.

 

 

It was after 6pm and the locals were obviously having supper and the streets were deserted so I could walk down the road and just look.

The place looked like a stage set.

Then I saw this....

And when I got back to the cottage my host told me I had just missed the Film crew from outlander by about three weeks. And I had no idea....

My car indicators have stopped working so tomorrow first thing I need to find a garage. That will stop me in my tracks for 24 hours.

Day 19: Bamburgh, Ford, Etal, Duddo and Flodden

Lindisfarne? Not today thank you.

Perhaps this blog would be better titled 'Travels with a Wayward Sat Nav'

I was up, out and on the road to Lindisfarne by 9.30am.

The wrong Lindisfarne.

Are there two then?

Apparently there is Lindisfarne in Morpeth!

I arrived at the correct place too late to cross as the tide was coming in and the causeway was flooding.

So I had to change my plans, and actually a great day full of little gems.

First stop Girl Power with that favourite of primary school assembly- Grace Darling. She was a 22 years old when she risked her life in an open boat to help the survivors of a wrecked ship on 7 September 1838. With her father, she rowed for over a mile through raging seas to reach them. The courage that Grace and her family showed on that day is now legendary. The RNLI has a great little museum at Bamburgh named after Grace.

 

Grace Darling was born here...

At only 26 she died and was buried in the church across the road...

This is Kirsty Watts, a volunteer who is both passionate and well informed.

5 Things I now know about lifeboat crew and lifeboats in general:

1. Eastbourne and Whitby have the most successful life boat museums in the country
2. You don't need to be able to swim to volunteer as a lifeboat crew member
3. Pub staff on the Thames are being trained to save drunks who fall in.
4. 12% of lifeboat crew are women
5. By 2020 the RNLI hope to cut avoidable drownings by 50%

The museum is free, as is parking.

In Sussex, Ford is a small place near Arundel with a Prison. In Northumbria it is a small place with extraordinary watercolour murals in a school. 

They are painted by the Victorian Marquise Louisa Waterford, over a period of 21 years, to get over the death of her husband when she was just 40.

She also built the school, restored the castle, and created the village of Ford for her tenants and employees to live in.

Currently the castle is a residential education centre.

The Gentry own most of this County. Ford and the nearby village of Etal are owned by Lord Joicey whose wealth originated in mining. Although just a minute or two down the road, looks very different. Thatched and whitewashed

Another member of the landed gentry close by, although literally in another county, is the Earl of Perth. The Douglas Home family have an enormous estate called The Hirsel, which is just over the border outside a town called Coldstream .

There is a monument to Sir Alec Douglas Home who served in the UK government.

There is a golf course (it is Scotland after all), a lake

beautiful grounds

Are pink or white bluebells still called ‘bluebells’?

Answers from Gardeners Question Time Panel on a postcard please.

Again, except for these…

And this…

I was the only tourist.

The place wasn't totally deserted, there are wonderful craft outlets on the estate. Abbey Ceramics is run by potter and water colourist Peter Lochhead

Julia Linstead makes wonderful glass in her studio.

And in White Fox Gallery there are beautiful photographs, paintings, and felted pieces. There is also a lovely tea shop.

Over the river Tweed and back in England five minutes later I found a Stone Circle at Duddo. It's on private land and you have to walk about a mile and a half through the fields to get there but it's worth it.

Back in Flodden I visited the Battlefield behind the house where I am staying with Sue and her family.

No-one outside the area seems to know about this dreadful battle. 10,000 Scottish lads and their dads were killed on 9th September 1513 by the British who lost around 3,000. James IV was also killed.

The villagers have a great sense of fun. Whereas I have seen visitors centres on this journey costing hundreds of thousands of pounds. This visitor centre is the smallest in the World.

It cost just £1 from the GPO.

Finally another random gem in this tiny place.

The Cement Menagerie was set up by a building family to amuse and stimulate their disabled child in the 1960s. I think it got a bit out of hand.

 

 

Did I say I was going to Lindisfarne tomorrow?