Pitchitsh Stones in the Rain

Intermittent rain through the night to light rain by morning. By the time we were ready to load up, it was raining pretty hard. We encountered heavy/light intermittent rain until the end of the day when the Sun actually came out for a wee bit. Diane elected to drive again today again.

Continental breakfast of OJ, instant coffee, brown wonder bread and butter with a yogurt. Enough to get us by until lunch, which we had in Pitlochey at a fish and chips place. A gigantic piece of cod. We must have arrived just before a tour bus unloaded. Okay, but we are just not quite used to fried food, but thought we should at least try once.

The focus of the day was Pitchtish stones. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictish_stone ] We started with one as the little spot in the map outside of Crieff called Fowlis Wester. Raining hard, but still had a chance to examine their replica n the center of a few houses. The original and another stone were in the church but we traveled on due to the rain without venturing inside. The next one was also in the little spot on the map, Dunfallany near Pitlochey. Very interesting stone, but to protect it, it was contained in a shelter with plexiglass. But it was raining so we also had some shelter. It had a commanding view of the red Scottish cows and pastures, but was not in the original location. Then on to Meigle where we paid for a year's membership to the Historical Society of Scotland to cover entry here and to many other interesting future sites under protection by the society. The Meigle museum [ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigle_Sculptur…] had several in what had been an old shool house until the late 1800's. Very interesting set of stones, some fully intack, others partial pieces. Mound grave in the church grave yard purported to be of King Arthur's Genevierre. Then on to the stone in the ruined church at Essie [ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eassie_Stone ]. We travled down the road looking ro the next one in Glamis, but when I made a miss turn into the Glamis Castle at the end of the day, we were encouraged not to visit it since it was on the property of an older man who probably had some type of dementia. With all of our travels, we were a little sad that thest important stone to the local people had been moved from their original placement, somehow robbing them of their spirituality and purpose.

So on we went to Forfar where we found a nice B&B run by Pat and Bill MacDonald so we could settle for the night [thank goodness for the cell phone and the ablity to google at the end of the day. How much we take that all for granted]. After a nice chat with the owners, we went down to The Stag at the corner for dinner. Lodging was 60 pounds, but at least tonight our room was en suite instead of shared with 2 other rooms and comes with full Scottish breakfast (but we declined the black & white pudding (blood sausage)). Dinner was a steal since we arrived and ordered before 6:30. An appetizer and main or main and dessert was 11 pounds so we had an appetizer of pate and oat biscuits with chutney, beef "pie" (stew) with puff pastry and broccoli and carrots, and a dessert of a type of mouse on top of sponge cake with berries all for 22 pounds.

Bill is in a tournament with his local club that is down to the semi-finals. Peter was quite jealous: Bill is paying 12 pounds a round as part of his tournamet. Bill mentioned watching groups of most likely Americans today, each of the four in each of 3 parties each with caddies trying to make the best of the rain today, while his club opted to wait for a less rainly day for which to finish the tournament. Bill estimated about $1k each person for the soaking experience.

More rain in the schedule for tomorrow, but perhaps a break mid-day. Plan is to work our way through more pictish stones (Miffen Museum in Forfar, Aberlemno, and St Vigeans in Anrbroath), iron age high peak forts (White and Brown Caterthun) and other antiquites as we work our way up to Aberdee. Not sure if we will make it all the way to Aberdee or perhaps Stonehaven, but not venturing into a big city unless we absolutely need to do so.Read more