Monday 23^rd June                            BRAE  -  LERWICK  -  SCALLOWAY

We were fairly lucky with the weather today – as I said yesterday, the forecast today was for rain likely in the morning, and even more rain in the afternoon. With this in mind, we thought we’d get ourselves down to Lerwick as early as we could and hope that the weather gods would smile on us for a while, at least.

We met for breakfast (included in our hotel room cost) at 7.30, to find a large array of continental breakfast options, plus also our choice from the cooked menu. No one was quite brave enough to have haggis for breakfast though! However, I can confirm that the scrambled eggs and sausages were very nice. We left about quarter to nine, and headed south for the half hour drive to Lerwick. Of course, it was raining by this time.

                                 There's a lot of fairly bleak moorland between Brae and Lerwick
However, when we got into the town and found the parking area (free, yay), it was fine but cloudy. We were parked right next to a large fort, dating back to the time when it was a major defensive post in the 1660s when the Dutch were the bad guys. The Dutch successfully burnt it in 1673, but it was rebuilt and named Fort Charlotte after the queen in 1781. Glen and Carol went off to explore it, but Lex and I decided to head down to the Esplanade and walk along there. Being a fan of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland novels and the TV series they inspired, I wanted to find Inspector Jimmy Perez’s house. It’s Lerwick’s most photographed building, unsurprisingly, and is right on the waterline. It’s called The Lodberrie, but in fact we saw several of them. A lodberrie, Google informed me, is a Lerwick house/store built into the sea, with a door to the sea wall into which goods could be delivered. At one time, there were over 20 along the seafront, many of them associated with smugglers!

                                                Fort Charlotte at Lerwick. Note the cannons!

                                            Keen 'Shetland' fan outside Jimmy Perez's house.

                                              (Jimmy is obviously doing a spot of renovation!)

We had a most enjoyable walk along the Esplanade and through the winding, very old streets of the shops in Commercial Road. Lots of little, sometimes tiny passageways through to the sea or up the hill. What we’d call a ‘close’ is a ‘closs’! It was high tide, and it did make you wonder how on earth they built all those walls and houses INTO the sea. A huge ocean liner was in the harbour, and hundreds of passengers were being ferried across and pouring into the town. We decided we’d seen enough of the town area, and should head around to the museum, but we’d have morning tea first. By now, it had started to rain, as threatened. We tried several places, but found them shut up. Apparently, Monday is a favourite day to close, even if there’s a cruise ship in town. Anyway, we finally found a nice little shop in Commercial Road, the Island Larder,  which had hot drinks, fudge, biscuits and croissants, so we happily munched our morning tea while watching the world go damply by. The street is twisty and narrow, with buildings jutting out, and it was interesting to watch cars and delivery vans making their way through the crowds. Amazingly, we didn’t see anyone knocked down.

                                           Lots of narrow lanes and passageways and closses

                                      Huge liner contrasting with the Viking ship in the harbour!

                                                     Crooked, winding streets.

After this, we headed up the hill towards the town hall. I was very grateful that I’d remembered my umbrella, as it certainly was well used today. The town hall was built by the Victorian great and good local landowners in 1883 and it’s now a Grade A listed building. It’s very gothic in appearance. We went into the meeting room and the main hall upstairs, both of which feature beautiful stained glass windows about the Shetlands’ history. I’d forgotten that the Shetlands used to actually belong to Denmark, but were included in a marriage dowry in the 1400s when a Danish princess married a Scottish prince. Unfortunately, the marriage wasn’t happy or long, as they both died young. The Danes spent decades trying to get the islands back, but unsurprisingly the Scots weren’t enthusiastic, so here we are! You can certainly see the Danish/ Viking heritage in a lot of the local customs and place names.

                                                              Lerwick Town Hall, 1883

                                                  Lex with one of the very Baroque dolphins

                                             Danish princess marries Scottish prince, 1468

                                                         The Shetlands become Scottish.

                                                        Lerwick Police Station

When we’d finished admiring the town hall, we headed for the museum, past the Lerwick Police Station, another frequent appearance in ‘Shetland’. The museum was closed when we got there. We thought about having lunch first in the café we could see in the archives, then discovered….of course, closed on Mondays! Anyway, the museum opened at midday, so in we went. It is very good, with displays starting with Shetlands pre-history then working up to the present day. We spent a very enjoyable hour or so wandering around the exhibits. There was also an art gallery with a display by local artist Ron Sandford, all pen and ink with watercolour. I loved his big picture of Sumburgh Head, where we went to the lighthouse yesterday, but alas, someone else had already bought it for 2000 pounds. (Don’t think I’d have got it home safely, anyway.)

                                                     Lerwick Museum

                                         Back of Sumburgh Head, Shetland by Ron Sandford

                                  A 'sixareen', the traditional Shetland fishing boats with 6 oars

                                        Beautiful Fair isle knits from the 1800s and early 1900s

                                    Carol is a keen knitter and has bought herself a Fair Isle kit!

Around one, Lex and I met up and thought we’d have lunch in the museum’s café. Except it’s closed, in-between owners. Glen had also just discovered the same thing, so we headed off into the rain again to meet up with Carol and look for somewhere actually open to eat lunch. We passed a lot of closed cafes and restaurants before stumbling upon the Golden Coach, an Asian restaurant. We had a nice, warming Chinese meal there.

After this, we decided that the rain was here to stay, so we came home via Scalloway, to see the Scalloway memorial to the ‘Shetlands Bus’. This was the help that the Shetlanders gave to the people of Norway particularly during WWII, when they were occupied by Germany. Thousands escaped by sea, and most of them came to the Shetlands. Once we got to Scalloway, it was pouring, so we volunteered Glen to go and take photos, which he bravely did!

                                           Scalloway Castle is closed for renovations. Obviously.

                                                    The 'Shetland Bus' memorial in Scalloway

After this we came home to the hotel for a good lie down and read. I finished off the novel I’ve been reading, The Winder, which Carol had loaned me. It was written by John Hunter, who is a forensic archaeologist and heads the local history society in Tysoe. I really enjoyed it. Have also been sorting photos and blog writing; all enjoyable, warm and dry activities on a cold rainy day. Hopefully tomorrow may be better, according to the Met….

 

Saturday 21^st June                         ABERDEEN  -  SHETLAND FERRY!

Robyn writes: Well, this is something very new – we’ve been on quite a few ferries before, but never a long enough journey to sleep on one. And here we are, currently (as I type) off the coast of Peterhead, Scotland, sailing north.

We woke up this morning in our hotel room at the Bridge of Don in Aberdeen, after a good night’s sleep. We met Glen and Carol for breakfast as pre-arranged in the restaurant at 8, and everyone had a good feed. Our meal deal entitled us to the full breakfast, so we had lots of choices. I must say that Premier Inns are a good place to stay, except for the very poor Wi-Fi. I ended up sitting in the reception area after breakfast to finish and publish the day before’s blog! After that we returned to our rooms to finish packing and out to the car to sort what was going and what was staying, and then we met up with Glen to swap things over.

What’s happening is this: our hire car is bigger than Carol’s, so we are taking it on the ferry to the Shetlands. Hers was to go to long term parking at the Aberdeen airport with all the luggage we didn’t need for the four-day trip. Once we’d got all the Shetlands luggage loaded, we set out to see what we could see of Aberdeen in the limited time we had.

We navigated through the very foggy morning to a paid parking site I’d found right near the terminal. It turned out to be in a shopping centre, which was fine. We parked, then went to check out the terminal so we knew where to go this afternoon, then walked the few minutes to the Aberdeen Maritime Museum. It was very interesting, and huge – many levels of information about sailors, rescue ships, oil rigs, sea exploration past and present. We were there until about one, when we decided we’d better move on if we wanted to see much of the art gallery. This was about a ten-minute walk away, so we navigated around a massive amount of redevelopment/ road works going on in Union Street, where they’d pulled up the road for several blocks. Aberdeen’s predominant colour is grey – lots of grey granite buildings line the streets. It was still quite foggy, so very atmospheric!

                                                      Aberdeen Maritime Museum

                                                          The museum overlooks the docks

We were starving by the time we got to the art gallery, so we willingly paid a pound to dump our backpacks in a locker there, and went into their café. Lex ordered the haggis and was disappointed when the girl came back to apologise that they were out of it! He settled for a cheese and chutney ciabatta instead, and I had the macaroni cheese. Both very tasty.

                                                          Aberdeen city centre
After lunch, we had about an hour to look around the art gallery. It was interesting, but there was nothing to tell you what displays were where, so it was a bit like a lucky dip going from gallery to gallery. I did really enjoy a collection of samplers sewn by young girls over the centuries – some of them gave so much information and they were very talented seamstresses. There were also some lovely French impressionists, and of course a lot of Scottish painters.

Finally, we figured we’d better head off to meet up with Glen and Carol. By this time, they’d dropped the car off at the airport, and taken a bus to Union Square, which was where the car was parked. The fog was finally lifting as we headed back, and met up with them about quarter to three. We got ourselves out of the car park and drove the block to the ferry terminal, where we’d been told to arrive about 3. There was already a line of cars there, so we pulled up too, and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, about 4, they started bringing cars into the dockyard. We got put into a line and told to wait. There were about ten lines. Occasionally, they would move the cars even closer in line. So we waited there. And waited. And kept on waiting. Finally, they started moving cars and motorbikes. We kept on waiting….five o’clock – sailing time - came. Still waiting. Finally, at about 6, we got the call, and drove onto the ferry, parked the car and made our way upstairs. We are in room 428, small but perfectly formed. It has 4 bunks in it, and no window, which I’m trying not to think about!

                                                         Our ferry, the Hjatland

                                                                  Happy sailors!
We went straight to the dining area, as we were pretty hungry by this stage. Lex and I had the beef pie, and Glen and Carol the fish and chips. All very nice, then Glen and I just had to try the Orkney icecream. While we were eating, the ferry set sail – very smooth until we left the harbour and noticeably rougher since. Am crossing everything I’ve got to cross for a smooth sailing!

While we were out on the back deck admiring the view after tea, Glen (who’d made our booking) got a call over the loudspeaker. He came back to say that our car alarm was going off, so he and Lex went off to stop it. They couldn’t figure out precisely why it had started, so the bloke down there with the cars has our key in case it happens again!

                                    Our cabin. Nice and squeezy. Those top bunks fold down.

Of course, today is the longest day, and we are far enough north that it probably won’t get dark at all. (So it might be just as well that there’s no window….) We will reach the Orkney Islands at about midnight, and despite the late start, the captain is hopeful we’ll still be on time into Shetland around 7.30 tomorrow morning. Then the Shetland adventures will really begin!

Sunday 22^nd June                                    THE  SHETLAND  ISLANDS  -  PUFFINS!

Robyn writes: Well, it was a long, long night! I fell asleep fairly easily, but woke when the noised indicated we were coming into harbour in the Orkneys. That seemed to take ages, with lots of different sounds and shaking the boat. Finally we were underway again, and I dropped off, but woke several times. Around 5.15am we were rolling quite a bit. I tried not to think about movies like the Poseidon Adventure. Glen snored, and Lex says I snored too (I am sure it was only in self-defence.) Carol had decided that the room was just a bit too claustrophobic, and there were very comfy reclining chairs upstairs. Anyway, I was sound asleep and not happy when the alarm went off at 6.15. The three of us were soon up and dressed, and pretty much ready for breakfast soon after it started at 6.30. The ferry was back on time, and we were into Lerwick harbour at about 7.30.

                                                                   Hello Lerwick!
Mercifully, it took a lot less time to get off the ferry than it had to get on. Before we knew it, we were driving out, and onto the road south. The weather was foggy but very little rain, and it has pretty much kept that up all day. Lerwick, the capital, is roughly in the middle of the main island, and our accommodation is at Brae, almost at the top of it. We’d googled a few places and found that they opened at 10, so decided to go south first.

However, we drove past a broch, and decided that we just had to check it out before we went anywhere. For the uninitiated, a broch is a type of Scottish tower / pre-castle. They are always round. We’ve never actually visited one before, and this one was excellent. It had so much extra development around it that it really reminded Lex and I of the homes at Skara Brae, which we saw in Orkney in 2014. The Clickimin Broch was built around 2300 years ago for a local ruler on the side of a loch. Historians can’t seem to agree on the uses of it, but it looked to have pretty strong defences to us. It was great to be able to go around and into it.

                                                     Lovely views across the bay from Lerwick

                                                              Broch exploration
From there, we continued southwards, over a lot of hilly country and some pretty heavy fog. Thankfully the roads were good, and two lanes, so it wasn’t too death-defying! Our aim was to head to the Sumburgh Head Lighthouse and Visitor Centre, which is right at the very bottom of the island. We reached the parking area there around 9.30ish – at the bottom of the hill we had to climb to get there. Lex decided he wanted to see first what was on the hill behind us, so he climbed it, and discovered a cairn of rocks. Meanwhile, after putting on every warm and windproof thing we owned, Glen, Carol and I made our way up the path. There’s a hut halfway with lots of good vantage points to see the hundreds of seabirds that were wheeling around and nesting there, and then we made our way up, arriving just as it opened at 10. Excellent timing!

                                  If you look very carefully, you'll see a lighthouse in the fog.                                                                                       That's where we had to walk to!

                                               Lex's photo of the cairn on the hill behind us.

                                                                   Sumburgh Lighthouse

Morning tea with a view!

We bought our tickets (6 pounds each) and the first order of the day was morning tea. For a donation, they have lovely cakes and biscuits and a hot drink, so we all had very tasty muffins while looking out at the view from their lovely, warm room. Lex arrived to join us, then we went off to look around the old lighthouse and rooms, and the birds on the rocks. Glen and Carol had seen a couple of puffins on the way up, but from about 11 o’clock, they were all coming out of their burrows and onto the ledges and rocks, and I was in puffin heaven! It was the puffin motherlode. We all took a ridiculous amount of photos. Finally, we tore ourselves away (photographing puffins on the way down) and were back to the car a bit before 12.

                                                                      So many puffins!!!
Our next destination was the Shetland’s only surviving mill, at Quendale, which was less than a ten minute drive away. We had a good time exploring it, and saw a video about its history, and how a local group restored it.

                                                        Quendale Mill
By now it was after one, and the hunger pangs were real, so we drove back south to the Sumburgh Hotel, built in the 1800s and added to several times since. It has a distinctly gothic look, and the lunch was affordable and tasty. It came in at under ten pounds each, which you’re lucky to get here. Lex and Glen had huge baked potatoes with prawns / Coronation chicken. My quiche was nice, but I definitely had food envy!

                                                                 Sumburgh Hotel for lunch

                                                                Back through the fog
By the time we’d finished, we realised that we could head north to the Brae Hotel and check in to our rooms there. It took just under an hour to drive pretty much the length of the main island, through some very thick fog at times, and the odd shower of rain. The hotel won’t ever win any style awards, but it is warm and the beds are sooo comfortable. The moment we got in, I pulled the curtains, collapsed on the bed and shut my eyes. I vaguely heard Lex moving around, then all was silence until we woke up around quarter past 5. I really needed that nap!

Since then, I’ve washed my hair (bliss – it’s been whipped by salt gales all day), written the blog, and Lex went for a walk around Brae. He only got rained on a bit. We met at the hotel restaurant for tea at 7.15, and had a lovely meal. Glen and I both had the roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding  and heaps of vegetables, Lex had cod and a bean casserole, and Carol the haggis bon bons! (Well, we are in Scotland.)

                                                         Best ever roast beef and Yorkshire pud

Tomorrow, unfortunately, rain is forecast, so we will be looking for indoor activities. Fingers crossed it decides to be kinder to us!

 

 

Friday 20^th June                       COCKENZIE  -  CASTLE  FRASER  -  BRIDGE OF DON (ABERDEEN)

Well, it’s been yet another travel day, and a lovely one, which is not always the case! Today the gods of travel have been good to us, as have the gods of weather.

We were up around 7 in Turret Cottage, and after breakfast began the process of final packing, stripping of bed linens and checking we hadn’t forgotten anything. I was looking out for Squiggle, our resident squirrel, to say goodbye, but he was no doubt up a tree in the front garden. Our resident robin had steadfastly foiled all my attempts to photograph him, but Glen finally got a photo this morning, much to my delight. Finally, by about 8.45ish, we were ready to leave.

                                                                        Squiggle

                                                          Robin (both Glen's photos)

We parted ways with Glen and Carol for the day; they wanted to see Aberdour House which is on the north side of the Firth of Forth. It did sound delightful, but I’d checked the National Trust book and realised that Castle Fraser is only about a half hour’s drive to the west of Aberdeen, our destination for today, so Lex and I headed for there.

Note to my Thompson cousins: (will be boring for everyone else; you can skip). We MUST have Fraser ancestors. Our GGG Grandfather was James Frazer Thomson, son of John Thomson, who married Jean Dempster. By the Scottish traditions of naming children, John’s mother should have been a Fraser. The most likely names for his parents according to the traditions are James Thomson and Ann Fraser. I’ve searched the records for many years and nothing conclusive has ever come up, but I do live in hope!

Going over the bridge

The Ochils

We skirted Edinburgh on the same A road which took us to Queensferry the other day, but this time continued to the west a bit, and crossed the firth on the new (2017) road bridge. This is like no other bridge we’ve ever been on; when I looked at it from the boat, I assumed that the huge cable supports stretching out like a 70s string art piece were on either side of the bridge, and you drove between them. They weren’t. Both sets were together in the middle of the bridge and not that far apart. It was quite spectacular. From here we skirted Dumfermline and headed north, with my favourite mountain range, the Ochils (pronounced orkills) to our left. From the 1600s onwards, many of my Scottish ancestors owned properties in the foothills of the Ochils, so we spent a lot of time there in 2014.  By half past ten we were both looking for a cuppa, so we diverted into near the little town of Errol (which we’d visited in 2014; more ancestors!) An internet search had revealed the café, The Pickled Peacock there. We were their first customers for the day, and it was a lovely find in the middle of nowhere! The staff were very welcoming, and had cups of tea and a slice of delicious lemon cake to share before going on. We drove around the outskirts of Dundee, with the Caingorms on our left, continuing north, and finally arrived at half past 12. To our shock and horror, the temperature at this stage had reached 27 degrees! The locals were in heaven. We found the café first, in the old servants’ quarters, and had a lovely lunch – I had toasted cheese and pickle sandwiches, and Lex the Carrot & Coriander soup and a roll.

The Pickled Peacock for morning tea!

Castle Fraser was built over several centuries – it was an existing rectangular, 2 storey stone building in the 1500s when the first Lord Fraser was created. The Great Hall is still in this building. One interesting feature was that the door was a storey up! Everyone had to climb up a very rickety wooden ladder to get in, and if danger threatened, they would simply pull it up. You can still see where it was from the courtyard. Over the years, the family enthusiastically extended, putting on turrets and towers and favouring the French coned roofs (common in Scotland, which liked France a lot more than the English did.) More wings and a courtyard were added, too, and a walled garden.

Castle Fraser back and arch leading to courtyard

Front view

The first Lord Fraser

The castle was nothing like what we’ve ever been in; for example, the main turret has six levels, and there are bedrooms and living rooms piled one on top of the other, joined only by a spiral stone staircase. 200 steps. It must have been massively inconvenient to live there! We went right up on top of the roof of the main tower, and there were lovely views all around. By this stage, what looked like storm clouds were massing, and I eyed them anxiously, but so far nothing has come of them. They did cool it down just a little.

The walled garden seen from the castle roof

We headed back down the stairs, visiting adjacent rooms along the way. The Frasers remained at the castle until 1921, when the last surviving daughter, Theodora, was forced to sell it as she couldn’t afford to maintain it. She had a carved stone set into the wall with the dates of their occupation and FINIS to show they had gone. Sad. It was bought by Viscount Cowdray, who mainly wanted the land. His niece, Lavinia Smiley, was the last owner, and gave it to the National Trust in the 1980s. She, her husband and her father had spent years renovating it, so it was certainly a worthy acquisition.

Unusual sundial in the walled garden

Lex's photos

Once we’d finished looking through the house, I had a happy perusal of the gift shop. Then we went for a walk through the walled garden, which National Trust volunteers restored in the early 2000s. Although it’s been just over 20 years, it’s lovely to see how good it looks now.

When we’d finished, we headed back towards Aberdeen. It took just over half an hour to reach our accommodation for the night at the Premier Inn. We have a very comfortable room (though the wifi reception is lousy) but we’ve got meals included in our rate, so it’s lovely not to have to worry about cooking tea, cleaning up etc. Glen and Carol arrived at about 6, after only getting lost a few times, and we met at 6.30 at the restaurant. We’d all bought the ‘meal deal’- 26 pounds each which gave us a drink and two courses tonight, and the full breakfast tomorrow (which should set us up nicely for the day.) Lex and Carol had the entrée and main, and Glen and I had the main and dessert. We are all so, so full. It was a very nice meal.

                                                                   Premier Inn for the night

Tomorrow, we explore Aberdeen before getting on the ferry for our overnight trip to the Shetlands!