Month: July 2017

Touring Northern UK on the mighty Breva II – a picture narrative 

Went to England but not London

Went to Scotland but not Edinburgh

Didn’t do Manchester, Liverpool or Leeds

Touring a motorbike is on a different path

With strange admirers along the way

Crossing the Burway on the Welsh/English border

Started in Stoke

Made it to the top

Coast to coast

From Newcastle in the east

To Skye in the west

Past castles grand

And those that bare the scars of Britain’s violent history.

Sinclair Castle

In search of monsters real or legend

In the highlands

Fortingall Hotel Central Highlands
View from the Burway

And in the low

Smoo cave on the North Coast 500

Went to England and didn’t do London

In Scotland missed Edinburgh

But saw a bit.

Mighty Breva II loaded and ready for the European adventure to come

Inverness and North Scotland 

Inverness ancient trading city of the north

Vikings

Pictish

Roman

Scots

Romans

All have influenced this city

Inverness castle

Inverness castle looms over the city

Destroyed and rebuilt a number of times

The Hanoverian garrison during the bloody Battle of Culloden that ended the Scottish uprising.

But I thing I was touched the by the Celtic Ray

At Hootananny where the beer and good craic flower

Inverness is the gateway to the very north of Scotland

The start and finish of the touring route the North Coast 500

It takes you the top of the British mainland

John O’Groats
Dunnet Head the northern most point of mainland Britain

And the beautiful villages and dramatic coastline and history of North Scotland

Smoo Cave

Flying fox across the fjord

Inverness’ Calladonian Canal opened a trading route into the northern highlands

Locks at the start of the Calladonian Canal stepping up to Loch Ness

So my rediscovery of the Celtic Ray stated in the old streets of Inverness.

Back on the Celtic Ray

Back in Glasgow

The light

The buildings have a new feel

Sight

Texture

I’ve been touched by the Celtic Ray (the Awen)

Harris Tweed Cap made on the Shetland Islands

‘Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Wales
I can hear the mothers’ voices calling
“Children, children, children”

Listen Jimmy! I want to go home.
Listen Jimmy! I want to go home.
I’ve been away from the Ray too long
I’ve been away from the Ray too long’ – words by Van Morrison

My heritage is Irish, my great grand parents migrating to Kalgoorlie in the 1890s

Part of the Irish diaspora.

But spending time in the north of Scotland has put me on the Celtic Ray

John O’Groats

Fishing harbour John O’Groats

Touched by the Celtic Ray

Glasgow has a new light.

I found the Glasgow Enlightenment

And the fact the the world’s first Afro-American doctor was trained in Glasgow by slavery abolitionists. He was James Mcune-Smith.

I have been away from the Ray too long

Skye

Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing

Onward the sailors cry

Carry the lad that was born to be king

O’er the see to Skye.

So goes the first verse of the Skye boat song and Skye is inextricably linked to the Bonnie Prince Charlie legend.

Skye is an island of deep fojds and sounds, rugged mountains and quaint villages.

Faery pools

When leaving Stirling I met a Spanish couple on a BMW. Who had said the beauty of Skye bought a tear to their eye.

View of Portree

And it is hard to disagree.

The vistas on each turn of the road surpassing the previous.

And the Scottish weather continued to smile.

Stirling to Skye – a run through the Scottish highlands

Wallace National Monument, Stirling

The Wallace monument stands tall looking across the Forth River at Stirling Castle.

The Scots watching the English, the English watching the Scots as it has been for centuries.

Back at Berwick upon Tweed tale had told how that city had changed from Scottish to English and then English to Scottish 13 times in 30 years.

Not that either could see much on the damp misty Stirling day.

In the highlands past Dalwhinnie the cloud lifted revealing the green rolling hills and small villages.

Gatehouses that mark the entrance to stately homes.

Still the homes of the clan chieftains.

The lochs opening up bigger and broader as the west coast of Scotland came closer and closer.

With grand castles standing on islets.

Eilean Donan Castle

Across from Skye is the township of Kyle of Lochalsh.

A working port

End of the train line from Inverness and just o’er the sea from Skye.

Lochalsh from Kyle

In the middle of the working port

On the station at the end of the line.

There is a most beautiful seafood restaurant.

Waterside seafood restaurant on Kyle station

With a choice from delights such as langoustines, monkfish, sea bass

Beautiful day

Beautiful food

Beautiful sunset over the Loch at 11pm

And Skye still to be explored.