Scotland. Stones & Whiskey

Well, the hotel was nice enough, but the bed was the hardest yet, so no quality sleeping yet. The owner appologized for one of the guests from US who was an ex-marine and former figher fighter from the East coast, who was pretty opinionated and lound. We sat next to them at the breakfast table were we had a lovely Scottish breakfast, did not talk politics and wished them well on their way as we left.

Today was a lovely day. Started out 51 deg with 100% humidity, but soon the Sun popped out and we had a little blue sky. Tomorrow is purported to be the same with rain coming in late Monday eve. We will enjoy it while it lasts! Might get back up to 70 deg on Tues!

Today we drove down SW along the coast to find a couple of what is called sourterrains, or burried storage rooms from pre-0AD for the local residents. We vsited 3 NW of Dundee: Arestie, Carlungie and Tealing [ http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=5951, http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=5950, http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=913…]. The first two were a bit difficult to locate, but we stoped 2 ladies riding horseback to ask for directions. All Three very interesting and a bit different. Thought to perhaps be storage for food stuffs for the Roman army. Must have been slightly warmer then as the houses were just conic treed dewelings set above ground instead of beind partially in ground for better warmth.

At the Tealing souterraine, we stopped for a while to chat with a family who recently had purchased part of the farm buildings from an old estate. Gary was retired RAF who was modifying the old dairy to be their home. The old estate Dovecott was next to his property as well as the Tealing sourterrain. He gave us a tour of the original estate ice house where they stored ice and hung meat. He said that there was no really good place locally to cut ice, but that some of the ice had come off the boats bringing back fish from Nova Scotia! The Dovecott was a 1500's building where they raised large doves for food and eggs through the winter. The inside was full of nesting boxes on all walls. The Souterrain was the longest and deepest that we saw today. An older stone slab wth pecked concentric circles frm a much earlier time had been reused as part of the passage oppening.

Then off to the White and Brown CATERTHUNS (iron age "forts") set up on high hills [ http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/bridgend/…] . We only climbed to the top of the White for a view as it was the most impressive. Not really defensive, but a massive amount of stone to make the walls that were carried from somewhere. Great views out to the North Sea from there as well as pretty much 360 deg panprama.

Peter started to drive from there and we went over hlll and dale as we moved up towards Inveruie, outside of Aberdeen. Seemed like a lot of city folks in cars and motorcycles were out enjoying the great weather going over the "mountain" pass. A bit of a chalenge on the narrow winding roads.

Up here, we are in search of stone circles. However, but the time we arrived, it was about 3:40 and we had no place to stay yet. The phone proved invaluable as we were ablet to find a room in one of the older High street hotels. Most of the other lodging was already taken. Older, 3-story hotel in need of quite a bit of care that had a room for 55 poungs including breakfast. Bed seems a little softer, or else we can't tell any more.

Off to see the Eater Aquhorthies stone circle [ http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/inverurie… was out in the country NW of town and we had it pretty much to ourselves in the 5pm Sun. Quite a place, our first recumbant stone circle. Recumbant stone circles are unique to NE Scotland. They have two vertical standing stones flanking the sidewase recombant stone lying perpendicular to the SW/NE. They all seem to have the same orientation. Then off to see the Loanand stone circle at Daviot [ http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/oldmeldru…]. Very unusual stone circle with a circular cremation circle next to it. The recombent stone looks like it was made of 2 long slabs instead of one that split, but hard to tell. Unfortunately, the Sun was going in and out of clouds and was low einough in the sky that the trees West of the ring put the ring in 100% shadow. Quite unusual with a stone paved interior. The ring is located in the park for a very small community, next to the boy scouts building. Looked like the boy scouts were getting ready to sleep in the woods for the night.

This area of Scotland is a large grain/food belt and seems to get a wee bit more Sunlight to help with the crop production. Last night the owner of the hotel joked that with more sunlight, the solar array salesmen are ] working hard to sell systems around here. We can't quite see how it could be ecconomical yet.

We did see a plethera of fields with hoop houses or fields of berries covered in row cloth. They were cutting grain and hay around us today. Not sure how they can get it/keep it dry. Once bailed int large circular bails, the bails are then nomrally shirink wrapped in black plastic until needed for use. Some fields had new crops just sprouting.

Dinner was slim pickings in this little town However, we walked up to center of town and had a very nice Indan food in a quiet, nice newer restaurant. We were a little worried that we might e too casually dressed, but that proved not to be the case. However, I did feel a little out of place walking in my low top hikers with other , youndger ladies in their stylish 4" heels/wedges.

Weather should be good for a couple of days yet before it starts to rain again on Tuesday.Read more