Our first stop after we left Fochabers (barring a wee detour for petrol at the Tesco in Inverness; 89.9p a litre, fit a bargain!) was Dunrobin Castle, north of Golspie. Dunrobin is the ancestral home of the Earls and Dukes of Sutherland. The first Duke gained notoriety for the Clearances of 1814 to 1819, when his tenants were brutally evicted from their homes to make way for sheep farming on the hills. The displaced crofters and their families were forced to eke out a living in new villages on the coast or else emigrate to places like North America.
Much of what can be seen today at Dunrobin is the result of extensive remodelling in the 1840s by Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Palace of Westminster (a.k.a the Houses of Parliament). Architecturally Dunrobin has a distinctly 'French renaissance meets Scots Baronial' feel, and is quite unlike any other castle in the region.
We had dinner in the castle tearoom (as you do), and I had a wander round the bonny gardens and the wee museum, which is situated in the old summer house and populated with stuffed animals shot by the Dukes, amongst other things! The photo below shows Beth balancing on the edge of a precipice, with the gardens visible in the background.
The rest of the day was spent driving north to Lybster, in the county of Caithness, for three nights in the Portland Arms Hotel.
Monday 4th September 2006
On Monday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to have a full breakfast (I had sausage, bacon, eggs, black pudding, the works!) before I said my farewells and headed off to the hills. While Beth sat and watched DVDs on the laptop back at the hotel, I embarked on a 15 mile hike which saw me climb the three summits of Scaraben followed by an ascent of Morven. These two mountains can be seen from across the North Sea in my hame county of Moray, I've been looking at them since I was a bairn and have long wanted to climb them.
The first photo shows the cairn at the top of East Scaraben, with the main summit of Scaraben in the middle distance and Morven in the background. I made my way down from here then up again to the top of Scaraben, where I had my dinner. I can only apologise for the following close-up taken on the summit in the face of a bracing breeze:
The next photo shows what I was faced with on my descent from Scaraben. Morven is the high peak in the background; unfortunately there was a ridge called Smean between me and my goal, and I'd already come a long way with miles to go before I could sleep. I had to coax myself somewhat to get up and over Smean (I think I heard some vocabulary even *I* hadn't been aware of!), but I rewarded myself with a bar of chocolate when I got to the foot of Morven which fortified me for the climb ahead.
After tramping up hill and down glen I finally made it to the top of Morven, with spectacular views for miles around. At this point I must add the following note to my cousin Morven in case she ever reads this; rest assured it's no bad thing being named after such a bonny part of Scotland!
Tuesday 5th September 2006
The next day we took a wee drive round Caithness. First stop was Lybster harbour, built in the 1830s when the town was at the centre of the herring fisheries boom, and for a while home to Scotland's third largest fishing fleet.
We then had a look round some of the archaeological sites in the area including Cairn o' Get, a Neolithic chambered burial mound. It was found to contain cremated remains, flint tools and pottery when it was excavated during the nineteenth century. The following photo shows the inner chamber:
The steps at Whaligoe were the next port of call. After my walk in the hills the previous day I didn't think I'd make it back up the steps if I ventured down, but I had to give it a go! There are 365 steps (one for each day of the year!) and they are unique in Scotland. They were hewn out of the cliff face around 1792 in order to provide access to a platform where catches of herring were landed, processed, and subsequently carried up the steps in baskets called creels.
Below, you can see the lower part of the steps and the platform where the boats were secured in bad weather, and which acted as a landing and curing station.
After I got my breath back, we drove north to the Castle of Old Wick, the best-preserved Norse castle in Scotland. The Vikings invaded and settled this part of Scotland from the late ninth century onwards. Dating from the 12th century, the tower sits on a thin promontory projecting into the sea between two deep, narrow gullies. Those Vikings were a hardy lot.
Finally, a few miles later we arrived at John o' Groats, the 'Last House in Scotland'. With a sign stating that John o' Groats is 874 miles from Land's End, in the far south-west of the British Isles, this really is the end of the trail. Fortunately there's a wee cafe where we had a cuppa (and pie and beans, if you're me!), and some shops to have a look round. The rain and wind had got up by now so I had to brave the elements just to get my photo taken, I hope you think it was worth it.
After nearly dropping off the edge of the world (well, Scotland anyway) at John o' Groats, we drove west to the Castle of Mey. The Castle was the property of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1952 until 1996, when she gifted it to the Castle of Mey Trust. It was built circa 1570 by the Earl of Caithness, but by the time the Queen Mother first visited while mourning the death of her husband, King George VI, it had seen better days. She restored it and spent the last three weeks of August at the Castle, returning for about ten days in October each year.
The guides in the Castle couldn't have been more friendly or helpful, many of them had worked at the Castle when the Queen Mum lived there which added a personal touch to their stories. There was also an old lift which allowed Beth to access the upper floors in her wheelchair - needless to say the Queen Mum never used it, even (according to the guides) during her last visit aged 101!
The next photo shows Beth outside the Castle, I had to secure her chair with ropes to stop her from blowing away (almost).
After we left the Castle, we drove back to the Portland Arms via Thurso (where we looked for a curry house to have our tea, in vain).
Wednesday 6th September 2006
After a hearty plate of porridge, we left Lybster for the drive south. We had a quick stop at Latheronwheel to look at the bonny wee harbour, then at Helmsdale I walked up the hill and took a picture of the new monument put up in 2004 to The Emigrants.
Helmsdale grew as a planned village from 1814, laid out by the Sutherland Estates. You may remember the wee story told about the Clearances and the Duke of Sutherland from earlier in the trip. Well, some of those cleared from the land were resettled in Helmsdale, as an alternative to being shipped to the colonies or to North America. The new statue remembers those who packed the emigrant ships:
"The Emigrants commemorates the people of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland who, in the face of great adversity, sought freedom, hope and justice beyond these shores..."
The rest of the trip home involved a detour to the Falls o' Shin (above) where I saw salmon leaping up the falls on the way to their spawning grounds. We had our dinner at the Storehouse of Foulis on the Cromarty Firth, the food there is always good and there are bonny views across the water. After a quick stop in Elgin to see Mum and Dad we finally got home, where we spent the next few days recovering from our holiday!