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Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted and Researched by Dawn

Edited by Erin Erin Ferguson (@erinfergus0n) • Instagram photos and videos

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Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon & ES_A Sound Foundation – Airae

 

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Dawn [0:02 – 0:03]: You’re a pro.

Kerry [0:05 – 0:07]: First thing sorted.

Dawn [0:07 – 0:24]: I know. Oh, God. Imagine that. I did a recording last night with somebody, and it usually goes to. To you, the person recording it. And she said, don, I can’t. It’s not come to me. I don’t know where it is. And she was panicking. I was like, oh, God, we’ll have to do it again. I’m so sorry. But we found it. It was right.

Kerry [0:25 – 0:26]: That’s perfect.

Dawn [0:26 – 0:26]: This is.

Kerry [0:26 – 0:30]: This is my son’s laptop, so he’ll have to find it, but I’ll be fine.

Dawn [0:30 – 0:42]: Oh, no, see, that’s what worries me. I’m not technical at all. So my husband’s over there just in case. We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Kerry. It’s just a chat. Somebody said to me, it’s just like you’re chatting with a friend.

Kerry [0:43 – 0:44]: That’s perfect.

Dawn [0:44 – 0:46]: D. It’ll be good. It’ll be good.

Kerry [0:46 – 0:47]: That makes me feel better.

Dawn [0:48 – 0:58]: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Okay then. Already. Okay. So, Kerry, welcome to the podcast. It’s lovely to have you on.

Kerry [0:58 – 1:01]: Thank you very much for having me, Dawn. It’s lovely to be here.

Dawn [1:01 – 1:07]: I know. It’s nice to speak to you again. It’s been a while since we last spoke, so it’s nice. Nice to see you again.

Kerry [1:07 – 1:11]: It is. It’s. It’s a lovely time of year to get to see you again.

Dawn [1:11 – 1:19]: Exactly. Nice, happy time. So can you tell us, just tell everybody a little bit about you and about Spellbound’s Keith Ness.

Kerry [1:20 – 2:30]: I am Kerry and I own Spellbound Caithness, and I am a Celtic pagan witch. And Spellbound sort of incorporates everything that I believe in and everything that I sort of do and everything that I like to put out in the world, like a little bit of added magic. And we could all do with a little bit of added magic and positivity. It’s a lovely way to live. It is not dark magic. It is very light. There is no elements of badness in there at all. Basically, just putting yourself out there and believing in the power that you hold in yourself and putting that across to people that you don’t have to be stuck in your ways or in a routine that you can be who you want to be and be who you are. And I like to think that the products that Spellbind actually sells incorporates that message to everybody and puts out to the world happiness, because we could all use a little more happiness in the world, especially since we had lockdown and Covid and we’re all just getting back together. It’s nice to be. To spread some positivity and spread some light heartedness and you’re really good at.

Dawn [2:30 – 2:53]: That because I met you through doing the Scottish collaboration and you did a zoom call and it was, it was, it was, it was about this time last year I think and it was like you say it wasn’t a great time and the positivity I got out of that and you know, you do, you know, positive thinking and. What’s the word I use? You’re thinking, you know, thinking what, what you want to materialise. What’s that word?

Kerry [2:53 – 2:54]: Manifest.

Dawn [2:54 – 3:05]: Yes, manifest. And see you just, you made it, it just. I felt so much better after the phone call with you. So what you do is, is wonderful. Just, just the positivity that came out of that.

Kerry [3:06 – 6:27]: It’s lovely to be able to have a little grip and have Newman intentions because the Newman is often a time whenever we’re very much inside ourselves and we don’t really want to be sociable and we’re sort of like stuck in a bit of a rut after the, the full moon comes and we’re also positive and full of energy and then the waning moon starts and it just tails off all that energy and we can become very self involved. So it’s nice to use that and have the film or the Newman intentions then to come across where anybody can join, it’s absolutely free. You can come along and set your intentions online with us. You don’t even have to put your camera on because I totally understand how daunting it is being on camera and you can just come along, set intentions, light a little candle and then come and join us again the next month and tell us how you got on. Basically that’s all it is. And it’s a lovely group of people. We have some women and men that want to come and set their intentions and I just think it’s a really, really lovely thing and it’s nice to be able to share that, especially in the darker months. Because up here, in case ness it gets dark now from about half 1, 2 o’clock in the afternoon and that, that is us setting up then for nighttime usually by it’s absolutely pitch black, we’ve all got our lights on and so I’ve put up my Christmas tree to give us a little bit of festive cheer and sparkle just to bring that into the house because it is hard and it’s dark and it’s dreary and it’s cold and in k ness most of our activities happen outside. We don’t really have as many indoor play areas or anything, or indoor recreational things, I suppose. I live quite near the football ground and they’re still playing football outside at this time of year in heels. Rain, winds, they’re. They’re. Oh, they’re absolutely dedicated to their game, they really are. I have to give it to them some nights. It’s absolutely lashing down and you can still hear them cheering and running about the pitch. I absolutely love that, I really do. So, again, Kith Ness is just. It’s very open and very vast and we’re not like a big city. We don’t have all the traps of Inverness even, to be honest. We have a very small select few shops. We have one big Tesco’s which is in Wick. Thurzo has a small Tesco’s, but if you’re really cold and tired in the winter and you want a quick walk around, you would usually go to Big Tesco’s and Wicker. Sometimes we’ll go to B and M. That would be like a good day out in Des for a bit of shopping. And then we go around some of the little local shops too, which is absolutely delightful. And there’s lots of hotels to choose from and eateries, there’s an abundance of those. But as for the things that we might do in the winter more, we don’t like big shops or even things like indoor ice skating or tempin bowling or. We don’t have any of that up here, so we sort of all make our own entertainment. So come winter, most people go into their houses at night and close their doors and close their curtains and try and keep warm. So it’s nice. It’s nice then to be able to use Newman intentions to bring everybody out. We can all gather together. You don’t even need to leave your sitting room. We’re just all together.

Dawn [6:27 – 6:41]: That must make for a long winter mind of everybody. What’s. What do you do? I mean, obviously for. We’ll talk about the summer in the summer months. What is there to do for the kids then? Or what do you like to do with your. Your kids? You’ve got a boy and a girl, haven’t you? Is that right?

Kerry [6:41 – 8:31]: I’ve got four children, so my eldest. My eldest one is 22 and my youngest one is 13. So the eldest one is a law onto himself. But most of time it’s like Billy Connolly says, there’s no wrong weather, it’s just choosing the right clothing or whoever the saying goes. So basically we will still put on our coats and we will still go into the forest and we will still trips around. My 13 year old is way back grown up now and she’s not just as keen to go and look for bears or go on bear hunks around Donut forest. But we go to the beach and we absolutely love collecting sea glass. We’ve got a beautiful beach at Leer and the very small particles of sea glass watch up there. So that is really amazing. It’s also absolutely glorious to watch the waves crash over the lighthouses. That, that’s pretty spectacular in winter and again it makes a fascinating day. Also we’ve got the northern lights at this time of year so the further you go out into the darkness of Kith ness you can see the lights so much clearer. So again, come winter we would pack a little hot chocolate in the car and a little flask and we would go up to go up west a little bit and look back towards north and we would sit there in the car and it’s, it’s absolutely lovely. It really is. It sounds like, oh gosh, I’m sure people would rather be doing so much more. But it is absolutely really, it’s just a whole other way of life and it is so quiet and you get peace to do what you want. The beaches are absolutely desolate this time of year so you can build the biggest sandcastle you want. My dog absolutely loves running along the empty beaches. It is just absolutely wonderful in winter whenever there’s not as many tourists and we’ve got all of this to ourselves. Why wouldn’t you put on a coat and just go and enjoy it?

Dawn [8:31 – 8:45]: Definitely you’re spoiled. I mean some of the pictures you’ve sent me, which we’ll share, I mean the beach you can see it’s. It looks like it’s a colder day so, you know, but it looks deserted and the way it just looks. It looks lovely though. You look quite happy, the three of you.

Kerry [8:46 – 9:16]: Yes, that’s my eldest son and my youngest daughter and that is us all hopped up on the beach going to look for sea glass and seashells. We often bring home the shelves and we would give them a little paint and we would. We usually bring home one. That’s our mission. Whenever we go to the beach we bring home our favourite stone and then we would paint that and then we put that in with the candles and we would put that on my altar which then goes to celebrate the land that’s actually around us and give thanks for beautiful, spectacular scenery that we actually have here.

Dawn [9:16 – 9:32]: That’s lovely. That’s a lovely story. And. Oh, I mean, the northern lights, you know, I’ve never seen the northern lights. Yes, and just your picture. You sent me the picture and I was like, oh, it’s beautiful. And you’ve got the thorough sign in there as well. Oh, Kerry, that’s just absolute.

Kerry [9:32 – 9:55]: It is just stunning. It is stunning. I. When I. We have lived here now for eight years, and whenever we first moved here, we used to go with northern light hunts all the time. We used to go so far to see them. And it was maybe two years ago, I opened my back door and I went outside to go and put something in the bin and I just looked up and there they were right over my house. And I just thought, oh, my goodness, I’ve been chasing you for so long and you have just appeared.

Dawn [9:55 – 9:57]: Come to me.

Kerry [9:57 – 10:20]: Yes, it was absolutely amazing. So we. We are treated to that quite often, especially down in Thurso Beach. You can see them right across the bay, heading across the Orkney. And it is just the most wonderful experience. You feel like you could be absolutely anywhere in the northern hemisphere, just really basking in these beautiful lights. It’s. It’s just some. It’s just so magical.

Dawn [10:20 – 10:29]: Oh, looks beautiful. One day, you know, I’ll need to. If I come up that way, I’ll come to your house and I’ll say, let me see. Please come. We’ll try and manifest it together.

Kerry [10:30 – 10:34]: Absolutely. Dawn, you can come any stage and come and see the lights. They’re absolutely beautiful.

Dawn [10:36 – 10:43]: So that’s the winter. So what about in the summer months, then? You say a lot of activities are outside. What is there to do? What do you like doing with your family?

Kerry [10:44 – 15:36]: Well, summer, it stays late to sort of midnight. You can. It’s very, very bright. There’s still people playing golf and golf courses up here at midnight. Come in the summer, you can go absolutely anywhere you want. Well, within reason. But you can go to the beach, you can go to the forest, you can go absolutely anywhere. And in the summer, we are treated to a spectacular display by usually the orcas and dolphins. We’ve even had the workers come into Thurso Bay, which was so spectacular and amazing to watch. Like, we are so spoiled. You can go and sit in the dump, cansby stacks, and you can look down and there, there they are just underneath. And sometimes they’re feeding and sometimes they’re swimming off. It is just so special to see. There’s puffins. So from sort of Easter time as well. Then we would get like the Puffins would come and start to migrate back here and come and settle down. So again it’s just so, so special for wildlife and for the sc, not to mention the lights. But in the summer there’s an awful lot to do. I also hold the Midsummer Carnival in the summer so that is held usually in the weigh in. And last year Sandy Tom came and sang for us and we all celebrated the whole of Kith ness celebrated then summer solstice together, which was what the mid summer carnival was for. It was to mark the summer solstice. There’s quite a big spiritual group up here of very, very diverse people and it is nice to bring everybody together once a year. So we held this carnival last year and the time came out in force. We had performers and singers and it was just absolutely amazing. Everybody came together and just put on this fantastic display and the money went to. The money we raised went to Thurso lifeboat and they were actually able then to go and do. They needed remedial works done in their little building and they were able to put the money to that. So it was. It was fantastic. And Sandy Tom had her little sing song and she was, she just was so nice and so kind to come and want to be part of our community for that evening. And everybody came out and they just enjoyed having this opportunity to celebrate summer solstice and come together. And we had a fire show at the end. Verity come up and she did a fire show and honestly it was just amazing. But it was the people of Caithness that actually made that happen. That everybody just wanted to be involved. And even at the last minute we had a man that offered to come and do the sign system. It’s just a lovely close knit community that everybody just wants to help each other. That sounds nice. But in the summer there’s just so much to do. There’s day trips to Orkney. There is. We can see Orkney much more clear. Well, we can see Orkney on most days but if it’s cloudy it’s quite hard to see across. But we can see Orkney very, very clear in the summer. And you can see right away, far right you can see right away over to. Dunno. Hey. I just stand. And the beaches still aren’t overly full even in tourist season. So we’ve got the mass you would swear you were in the Mediterranean. It does not always feel like you’re in the Mediterranean but the clear waters are absolutely gorgeous and they’re very inviting. It is very cold still, no matter what time of the year you want to double your feet into the water. It is still very cold, but it is lovely. It is really, really lovely. Come summer and there is an abundance of things to do. There is Highland Games, there’s Highland Games in Holkirk, there’s the county show in Thorzo. It’s Thursday this year. Last year it was in Thurso. In 2024, last year it was in Wick. It does turn about. But again, that was an amazing thing. Spellbound actually did our first county show this year and it was. It was lovely. It was really, really lovely. Then if you go on around the coast again, you’ve got the lighthouses, you’ve got the small villages and towns, you’ve got wonderful places to go and eat. There’s so. There’s so many things up here that’s actually really undiscovered. And then we’ve also got standing stones too. We’ve got the hill of Many Stands, which is just sort of outside Wick. And then we. My. I have lived here for eight years and my friend Karen absolutely hits my pronunciation of most of the time names. Most of the things that they’re called. I cannot get it right. We have a town in Sutherland, it’s called Brora, but I cannot do that first R, so it’s just known to me as Bora. That really, really gets on her nerves. Really gets on her nerves.

Dawn [15:36 – 15:38]: These damn Scottish Rs.

Kerry [15:39 – 16:45]: I know, I know that they’re just some such. So many unexpected places, but there is. There’s an abundance of things to do in the summer and there is quite a lot of events on that people can come and join in with. And then we’ve got a Thurso town and community craft market. It’s on if once every month in the Legion in Thurso, and it’s run by some really, really lovely people and everybody is always more than welcome to go and have a cup of tea and a local charity usually does the tea and coffee again. It’s a lovely community that is often brought together by the. That’s in it. And it’s the people that make our community up here. Everybody is really quite welcoming and want to make the most. Oh, want to make the most of this wonderful setting that we’ve been given. You know, the health care isn’t great. Not going to lie, that is the downside to living this far. Most of the time we have to travel right down to Inverness for health care. Even things like my son has braces, so half the time just to get his braces tightened, it’s an hour and a half travel down and an hour and a half travel back, but.

Dawn [16:45 – 16:46]: Right.

Kerry [16:46 – 16:53]: It is, it is worth it. It is worth it to come back and close your door and have this wonderful space.

Dawn [16:54 – 17:06]: It sounds. And like you say, it’s the community that just sounds such a. A vibrant place as well, you know, I don’t know how, how many people do you think live there? He’s all known each other. Is it that kind of small or.

Kerry [17:07 – 18:18]: I would say so. I think the last time I looked at the census, there was 7,500 people lived in Thurso, which is really quite small in, in comparison because I come from a town just outside Belfast called Bangor. And we would have 7,500 people would live in one housing area, I don’t know. But it is, it is like a very small community. Everybody does look out for each other and everybody knows each other, even if it’s just in passing faces sin become familiar and you to know other people and your children go to school with other children and you soon get to know their parents. So it is, it is a wonderful way to live and it is very inviting. And most, most of the time, everybody is just so, so lovely, like, so welcoming the outside ideas and welcoming to new people coming along and putting in ideas on how we can make it better and how we can pull together as a community to showcase what we actually have up here.

Dawn [18:18 – 18:44]: That’s beautiful. I really like that. I miss that community setting because I’m from a smallish sort of place as well, where, you know, you’re all pulled together. So it’s, it’s nice to hear that it still goes on out there. It’s kind of more few and far between now, isn’t it? But definitely nice. So now you sent me, I’m curious about this photo you sent me. It’s. It’s really. I don’t know whether you took it. It’s off the. Is it the side of front of a church or a big window?

Kerry [18:44 – 20:52]: It’s the Thurso kirk. It’s the Kirk in Thurso. It was an old church originally. It was actually a Viking graveyard, I’m glad to believe. But then the church decided to build on top of it and now we have a Christian graveyard. But it is also where the witches from Thurso were actually chained before they went on trial, before they were sent away. And there used to be a hook in the wall and the hook actually held the witches. But some of these people, some of these women that were chained to this wall were not necessarily witches. They were maybe a lady that gossiped into town, for instance. She was also accused of witchcraft and she was chained to the wall. We do have a case of the woman that lived in Scrabster who apparently sent cats to torment the man. And she would send the cats to go and torment the man. And apparently these cats talked to him and called him names. So the man then decided that he would kill the cat and he had an abundance of bad luck. And once the bad luck started, then he decided this woman was definitely a witch and she should be chained up. So she was then chained up to the kirk. But you can actually still go and see the kirk. I don’t think the hooks there anymore where the witches were tied to, but you can actually still go around and see the kirk. Part of it is closed off off due to the structure of it, but you can actually go and visit it. And it is the most beautiful place. There is all park graves in it as well too, which again, it’s a pretty spectacular place to have all these things right on our doorstep. But it is absolutely beautiful. And I would like to say Debbie Prentice actually took that photo of the northern lights at the kirk and has allowed me to use it and show you because I just wanted to show how. How beautiful the northern lights that that picture made it so spectacular shining through the kirk and back in the Thurso, sort of bringing. Bringing the power to us and the light. I thought it was. I thought it was a very apt photo to use to display.

Dawn [20:52 – 20:56]: It’s really. Is she a photographer? Because she’s really talented.

Kerry [20:56 – 23:16]: It’s just. Yeah, yeah, she’s an artist. So she used her talents to take that picture and I just thought it was. Was the best picture that I have seen of the kirk with the northern lights. I just thought it was so apt for this especially. Especially to showcase how. How the northern lights shine on us here in Thurso. But again, dawn, there’s just so much to see and do. But there’s. The kirk is just one very small thing. We’ve also got a museum in Thurso that is all about the Vikings and it has part of the nuclear power station. It has like part of like the original bits where you were able to pick up the. You can go and have a try at the machine, like pretending to pick up the radio, the radiated rods or. But that’s all in the museum in Thurso 2. They have the art gallery upstairs. They have downstairs. Tells you a little story about the rocks and things that have been found around Thurso. Again, it’s really, really interesting and it’s really worth while going to see whenever you’re here. But we do have so many spectacular things to actually go and have a look at. We also have Selkie’s grave, which is just outside Castletown, which is said never to get dry. So apparently it’s always about. So a selkie is like a sea creature that comes ashore and takes human form. So the story goes that the selkie came ashore and somebody stole her skin, and she was not able to turn back into a selkie and swim away. So apparently she, as some of the legends go, apparently she then was forced to marry a man she had children with man in the town, and apparently all their descendants now have webbed feet. All right, that’s a very unusual story, but there’s an awful lot of legends about the selkie. But you can go to visit her supposed grave in Castle Town, and if you put your hand in the grave, it is always said to be wet. But apparently the graveyard is cursed because there’s parrot graves in the graveyard. So apparently the parrots have cursed the graveyard and anybody that enters the graveyard also becomes cursed. True. So it’s.

Dawn [23:16 – 23:17]: Have you been into the graveyard?

Kerry [23:18 – 24:46]: I have. I have, and I don’t feel that I have been cursed. I don’t. But it’s one of those things you want to go and see what it’s like. You. You want to go and experience it for yourself. But again, we’ve got so many absolutely amazing stories that come from here, not just mythology and legends and. But actually, you know, I think the time was founded by. Or the man that founded the Boys Brigade came from Thurso himself, which, again, we’ve got such a rich history up here. We’ve got. The Vikings were actually here and settled here as well. Again, they had the Kirk first desert graveyard. But it’s just so amazing and it’s. I keep learning absolutely new things every day about the surroundings and about all the legends and all the history off up here. It’s just absolutely amazing. We’ve got a stone in Sutherland, it’s called the Devil’s Stone, and it’s a split stone. So apparently the story goes that a boy who’s coming back from the town and the devil was chasing him in a circle round the stone and he couldn’t get the boy. So because he couldn’t get the boy in temper, he cut the stone in half with his tail. And if you don’t be putting but the stone, as you go past, apparently you’ll bring the devil home. So every time we go past the stone, our kids are always like, you have to be. You have to beat the horn. We can’t bring the devil home.

Dawn [24:46 – 24:47]: I love that.

Kerry [24:48 – 25:00]: So it’s really amazing. It is. It is just so full of such rich history and heritage, and it is just such a beautiful place to actually get to live and stay and be part of.

Dawn [25:01 – 25:05]: And what brought you there, Kerry? Why did you move there?

Kerry [25:05 – 25:08]: Obviously, we had come here on holiday.

Dawn [25:08 – 25:10]: Because of the history, really.

Kerry [25:10 – 27:27]: No, we had come here on holiday. We decided to. We wanted to see snow. It does not snow very often in Northern Ireland. It doesn’t snow very often anywhere in Ireland, ever at all. So we wanted to have a proper snow after Christmas. We decided, let’s just pack up and we’ll go and have a look for some snow. So we came to stay in Inverness. So when we were in Inverness, one day gave snow forecast and it gave it for John O’Groats. And we thought, right, well, let’s get in the car and we will drive to John O’Groats. So we drove the whole way from Inverness up to John O’Groats and my goodness, it was cold. It was very cold. But on the way, we all fell in love with the scenery. We all thought it was absolutely beautiful. And as we drove around the coast, the beaches and the landscape, it just. It just drew us in. So we knew whenever we went back home that that was something that we wanted for our family, was to be able to bring them here and have. Have them live in this absolutely idyllic world. I would say at times it is idyllic. Again, the health care is not great. That is the only downside of living up here, I would say, is the health care. But apart from that, it is. It is just a wonderful place to bring up children. You can have your children play on the street and they’re very. They’re very safe, you know, as opposed to letting them play on the street. And inner Glasgow or in inner Belfast, they would be very, very safe here. There’s not even the. The traffic, for instance, especially in winter, you know, it’s nice to have that. It’s nice to have that freedom, be able to give your children that freedom of being able to go out and play and growing up without having to watch over their backs or. Obviously, coming from Northern Ireland, we had a very big divide of religious beliefs, where I am not religious in any way at all. So I was really Happy to come here. And all our children went to the same school and there wasn’t a divide. They all had the same summer holidays, the same Christmas holidays, which was absolutely amazing. Dawn, you didn’t know what a difference that made. It was just fantastic. Again, it’s just like all the small things add up and make something really, really great.

Dawn [27:28 – 27:37]: That’s a beautiful story. I got the chills. It was just the thought of. Yes. You know, finding that place, your perfect place. That’s really nice story. I’m glad you found it.

Kerry [27:37 – 28:15]: Thank you. It was just. It was just a total by chance that day that it said the snow was going to be forecast up by John O Groats and we’re all like, let’s get in the car and go. So we drove from John O Groats Rind past Wick and then into Thurso, and we thought to ourselves, you know, this is really lovely. Look at the size of that beach. And there’s not a soul on it. And we passed Donnet beach as well and we thought, oh, my goodness, the beaches are getting bigger, they’re getting sandier. Look at the golden sand. It’s just miles of golden sand. Why wouldn’t you want that? It just makes for such a lovely place to be able to come and play.

Dawn [28:15 – 28:22]: Yeah, just the Internet connection kind of goes now and again, doesn’t it, with the storm you had the other week?

Kerry [28:22 – 29:11]: It does, it does. That would be a bit of a downside, too. It’s like the intermittent Internet connection. And come. It’s like a wind tunnel. Thurso is sort of very much a wind tunnel. We even have chains that go around our bins and tie up our bins in winter because they’ve been known to absolutely take off even full. One of the local shops also has lost a roof. In storms, it sometimes can be absolutely horrendous. It can reach like 120 mile an hour winds up here and it can be relatively mild in the rest of the country. And the storm, it’s not even named. Once it gets to you up here, it’s like, oh, okay, yeah, it’s just a normal day to us up here. But yes, it’s just. We would call it a good washing day. It’s a day for putting your washing on the line.

Dawn [29:11 – 29:13]: But yeah, might not stay on the line.

Kerry [29:14 – 30:43]: No, you just have to peg it down really well. You soon come to learn all of these things. Just make them bins stay chained up. Nobody wants to have to run about the street collecting up the rubbish at the end. But it is. It is really dramatic. The wind and the weather can be really, really dramatic, which makes for absolutely fabulous photos. Again, the lighthouse in Leibester. If you time it perfectly, you can actually see the waves crash over the back of. Of the whole lighthouse and it just encases it and it just. Just shows you how much force there is and the power of the water coming straight over. And it is. It just. It is very, very picturesque and very scenic, but again, it is. It’s all. You would say it was magical. You definitely would say it was magical. But there is. And there’s just. We don’t have many trees. That. That is one thing Kithnas doesn’t have, is like an awful lot of trees. We. But what we do have is an awful lot of beaches. We have so many beautiful beaches, so that really makes up for the lack of trees. But we do have. We’ve got Rumster Forest and we’ve got Donut Forest, which, again, are like two absolutely lovely places to go. And there’s a wee hut you can go. And again, it’s just wonderful. So you get to spend time in nature and it’s almost nicer than going on a Saturday and trips around shopping centres and.

Dawn [30:43 – 30:46]: Oh, yes, it’s.

Kerry [30:46 – 31:09]: It’s just nice to get out into nature. And obviously I enjoy, like, going and talking to the trees and being with nature. I absolutely love that. And I. I love that I have passed that on to my youngest daughter, especially my eldest daughter. She found the barrenness, I would say, of Keith Ness quite hard. So she now lives in Aberdeen, where it’s a bit busier.

Dawn [31:09 – 31:10]: Yeah, just a bit more.

Kerry [31:11 – 32:05]: A bit more full of life for her. And more nightclubs to choose from because we’ve only got one in Thurso. So she likes a variety of nightclubs and those sort of things. Whereas most of us people that live in Kithness are really quite happy at the end of the day to go in and close our doors and just enjoy listening to the wind and the rain and wondering what storm’s going to come next. There is a real magic in it. And waking up every day, the weather is almost never right for Kithnas. So even if you watch the BBC news, you’re thinking, oh, goodness, that’s not what it looks like outside. That’s like today. We’ve had a real mix of hailstones and sleet and snow all. All day. And as you drove further out west, the snow got a little bit heavier, but it really didn’t come to anything. But where else would you get that?

Dawn [32:05 – 32:13]: Yeah, exactly. And what about your family back in that you, you know, you moved from Northern Ireland. Have they come to visit you? What do they think of the place?

Kerry [32:13 – 34:05]: Yes, my. My mom absolutely loves it. She. She really loves it. One of the times she was here, she got to see a whale breaching. I didn’t see. So she thought that was absolutely amazing. And we took her to Smooth Cave up at Darness and to Coco Mountain to go and get hot chocolate. They do the best hot chocolate in the absolute world. So they’ve got a coffee shop that I would call it the End of the Line because that’s where Darness is. You really can’t go any further out west than Darness. And it is just this little shop in sort of the middle of nowhere that does the most amazing hot chocolate. And they actually drizzle your cup with chocolate around the side. It makes it worse. It makes it worth like the hour and a half drive to go and get hot chocolate. It is just to die for. But again, it is absolutely wonderful. And on the way, there’s so many things to actually stop and do. And there is a zip line that is between one big hill to another hill that you can actually go along. I have never been brave enough to do that. Never? No, never. I have watched my children do it. I would never. Oh, gosh. I just think whenever you’re standing there and the wind is coming at you, you. No, it’s okay. I watch you. You go ahead. But it makes. It makes days like an awful lot special. And they’re always very memorable. There is always something that happens that is so memorable to actually bring back. And we do try to bring back a little stone or an acorn from the forest. And then we put it all on my altar. I’ve got like three candles that sit in my altar. And then it’s just filled now with stones from precious times whenever we think of the beach. Noon. I’m not talking quick dog walk because sometimes the dog wants back to the car before we’ve really even got halfway along the beach because his paws are cold. And now he’s taken to jumper wearing season.

Dawn [34:05 – 34:07]: Oh, bless him.

Kerry [34:10 – 34:15]: He. He is. But he’s a proper Scottish dog. He was born in Thurso. He should be well used to this.

Dawn [34:15 – 34:19]: Oh, he’s just been weak, that one, isn’t he? Come on. He is.

Kerry [34:20 – 34:42]: He should be. But. But no, he’s halfway down the beach, then he’s deciding he’s going back to the car. So then we all have to follow him back. It can be very blowy and gusty, but it is definitely worth it to shake the cobwebs off. And it is a fantastic way to actually go out and feel better about yourself. Is just like a little quick sand blast of the face. Walking up and down that beach. Sure. You couldn’t feel it.

Dawn [34:42 – 34:51]: No, definitely not. It beats going to the shops any day of the week. I’m not going to. I can’t think of anywhere. So that’s my kind of. My kind of thing. I could do that.

Kerry [34:51 – 35:06]: Absolutely. And in the summer we would have, like, a little fire down at the water’s edge or a little barbecue. And it’s just perfect to sit at nighttime and watch. Watch the waves come up and the stars twinkle and see, oh, Kerry, you’re.

Dawn [35:06 – 35:08]: Sailing it, you’re selling it.

Kerry [35:08 – 35:51]: I know we’re going to have an influx of people wanting to come and live here. To think that it’s magical. Don’t come and live here. No. I want each of you. We’ve got absolutely an abundance of land, but it is. It is wonderful. It is. Especially with the sea life and the northern lights and all of those things that go along with it. It’s a very unmaterialistic way of life. It is. It is just very freeing. You know, there’s so much to actually see and do and go to explore. We’ve got caves, we’ve got stones, we’ve got absolutely miles and miles of sandy beaches. Have you ever been up here, Dawn?

Dawn [35:51 – 36:00]: I haven’t. No. That’s not true. I’ve been up. We went over to Orany on the ferry. So I. I don’t. Is it a place you pass through it or is it. You have to go. Do you.

Kerry [36:00 – 36:05]: You passed. You passed through Thurso to go down. Did you leave from Scrabster?

Dawn [36:05 – 36:08]: Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes.

Kerry [36:08 – 37:02]: So you pass through Thurso to go down to Scrabster. But there’s. There’s so much more to Keith Ness. And just that one little stretch there, there really is just the miles and miles of sand is pretty breathtaking. As you drive from Cast. From Thurso, we’re into Castle Town and towards Donut. You’re just sort of thinking to yourself, oh, my goodness, just look at all this empty space. And obviously we’ve got things and like ceiling clubs and we’ve got surfing clubs. The surfing’s actually massive in Thurso. Every year there’s a massive surfing competition just held off Thurso Bay there. And we’ve Got one of the best female surfers, I think, in the world comes from Thurso. So that. That is pretty amazing. So that is really such an accolade. But again, that water is absolutely freezing.

Dawn [37:02 – 37:04]: I was gonna say. Oh, they’re brave.

Kerry [37:05 – 39:24]: They are very brave. They have my utmost respect for coming out in the middle of that. Even in wet and dry. It’s middle of. I think they hold it at sort of the end of October, whenever it is absolutely freezing, storms have started to set in. Although storms can set in July and August. Last year we had to replace. We have a polytunnel, but before that we had a greenhouse. And our greenhouse took off last July. It. It just decided that it was going for the wind. So off it went. So we had to replace that now with a polytunnel. But that’s. That has held down really well. And that’s where we grow all the herbs to make the smudge sticks. And again, that’s sort of what my daughter would help with. My youngest daughter is like helping with herbs and the plants in the garden. She. She really enjoys getting her hands dirty and getting out there and being able to actually name the plants too. Again, it’s a whole education. Witchcraft. It’s not just what people think it is. You know, like, we’re not devil worshipping in any way. There’s none of that involved at all. I think that there’s quite a lot of people have in their minds that witchcraft is. And it’s totally not. It’s absolutely not. But again, it’s just wonderful. And it’s wonderful to be able to pass these things on and to actually teach Isabella new skills and to be. Be able to teach her how to look after herself, like how to grow vegetables and how to care for animals and how to look after the plants so that they don’t die. Although that’s not always very successful, let’s be honest. Even as a witch, that’s not always very successful. Like today, she was grinding down eggshells for me to make black salt, which she absolutely loved because she’s an absolute messer. So she absolutely loved that part. She loves mess, and so she really did. But it is. It is just such a nice place to be able to come and be free and. And do all of this, because you. You don’t get that chance and that opportunity in very many places to actually be yourself. Because most of us these days are carbon copies of each other. And we don’t want to stand out and we don’t want to be different and we all want to be the same, and I totally get that. But it is nice to actually be able to be your true self and show your real identity and be able to teach kids that they can also be whoever they want to be and.

Dawn [39:24 – 39:25]: Exactly.

Kerry [39:25 – 40:11]: It is just lovely. It really is. Especially whenever you’ve got children growing from young women up through and to be in their teenage years, and then you’re just preparing them for life, Dawn. And I think this is actually the perfect place to do it because they’re given so much freedom and there’s so much for them to actually see and do and experience here other than go shopping. Now, we do have a cinema. We. We do have a cinema and we’ve got extra screens added now, so. So we’ve got all the latest blockbusters for the cosy. For the cosy winter coming. So that’s always lovely. And again, you can go up there and there can maybe just be Isabella and I sitting in the cinema, which is absolutely perfect screening.

Dawn [40:11 – 40:12]: How cool is that?

Kerry [40:12 – 40:34]: It feels like that sometime. It is absolutely lovely to be able to actually go and do that. There’s not the hustle and bustle of being able to. Having to push past people with popcorns and drinks in your hand. It is very free and very lovely. So I am just very thankful that we have found our place in the world to be able to come and do all this.

Dawn [40:34 – 40:38]: Yeah. And your daughter, she. Did you say Isabel or Isabella?

Kerry [40:38 – 40:39]: Isabella.

Dawn [40:39 – 40:54]: Isabella. Because Sheila enjoys coming with you to do with Spellbound Keith next, doesn’t she? I always see your poor hosts. You know, you’ve gone to events together, you’re showcasing things. So she really enjoys that side of it as well.

Kerry [40:54 – 41:46]: She does. Isabella has got autism, so sometimes she can be quite socially awkward. But it totally works for my stall. Totally works for mine. So sometimes she’ll sit under the table and if she’s feeling a bit overwhelmed, she’ll meow or she’ll hiss at people, just depending on how she finds their energy. That talk, again, totally works for my stall. Sometimes it looks like I’m really talking to myself whenever she’s sitting underneath the table. So again, it could be a spirit, I’m talking to her, it could be Isabella under the table, but it totally works. But she can become very overwhelmed very quickly. But everybody has gotten to know her and everybody has incorporated her into the fairs and the events. She also, one of my lovely friends, Yvonne, she owns a. A small business too, called Abby Crafts. And Isabella, absolutely. She’s adopted Yvonne as her Scottish nan.

Dawn [41:46 – 41:47]: Oh, Nice.

Kerry [41:47 – 42:39]: So she helps Yvonne pack up and she helps Yvonne put out her things. But because Isabella has got autism, her coordination isn’t always great and Yvonne sells painted glass, so sometimes I just dread that is possibly going to happen. But Yvonne is so, so lovely to her and has offered to let her help with the community market as well, which is again, such a lovely opportunity for Isabella to be able to go and be part of. And again, it lets her see the other side of, like, not just. Usually we just turn up, we set up. But this will give her the chance to actually go and see the other side of the hard work that actually goes into organising events and making sure that all runs smoothly and setting out the tables. And so it’s wonderful for her. But it’s good that, again, it’s a community and everybody pulls together to really.

Dawn [42:39 – 42:47]: Help and you feel safe letting your daughter, you know, it’s not strangers, you know who these people, you know, people are. So, yes, you feel safe.

Kerry [42:47 – 43:19]: Absolutely. Isabella has adopted quite a few of them as her own. Definitely. She really has. She’s very fond of Yvonne and Aaron. Aaron has Kithness aromatics and she is. She’s just in awe of Aaron. I think if she could go and sit Erin stall all day, she would. Or Yvonne’s. But mine, she wants to sit underneath the table and it can be absolutely hilarious. It can. But you’ve got to sort of warn people sometimes in case she grabs their feet from under the table.

Dawn [43:20 – 43:21]: That would scare me to death.

Kerry [43:22 – 43:32]: Especially whenever you’re starting looking at Ouija boards and the next thing a little hand comes out and wants to. Wants to give you a bit of a shake.

Dawn [43:32 – 43:38]: People would pay to get a fright like that sometimes, wouldn’t they? That’s should sell tickets.

Kerry [43:38 – 48:42]: I should. I should take her to Horror Con. I should sell her to Laura. Laura would absolutely love Isabella jumping out in people and scaring the absolute bejesus out of them. She would absolutely love. Well, but it is honestly, it is mostly all good fun. Sometimes the travelling is 102 miles, I think, roughly. Or is it 120 miles either way from Thurso to Infinite else before we can even go anywhere further than that. So it is quite a long distance. So to do fares up and down the country involves an awful lot of driving and an awful lot of dedication on our part. And especially if we’re bringing into Bella, there has to be an awful lot of forward planning as to how her day is going to go. And it has to be set out and very regimented and Routine because she’s got autism, she likes to always know what’s coming next so that we’re not sitting in the car. And the time we get the Hamsdale, all we’ll hear is is, are we there yet? Are we there yet? So it’s nice to be able to have a whole plan of what we’re actually going to do so that she’s aware of what’s going to happen too. But it is an awful lot of drive and I do quite a lot of conventions in Aberdeen with Northern frights. Laura is absolutely wonderful. She runs an awful lot of these events. So there’s HorrorCon and Fantasy Con. And at the weekend there was a Goblin King Ball, which was, was really amazing. There was a string quartet playing all the songs from the Witcher. Oh, Dawn. You would have loved that. You really would have loved it. It was just really, really nice. And I actually took my eldest daughter and left Isabella and her father at home and went and had a wonderfully good time. Yes, it was nice to get a break away. But we do, when we travel down the country, I don’t think that people understand the amount of miles that we put in to come to some of the events and the amount of dedication and willpower that it takes up to get up on a really cold, frosty morning. Sometimes you’re getting up, it’ll be 3:00 to start and set off for the day. And it is, sometimes you just, it’s a struggle to price yourself out of bed and even get started, let alone pack the car up and get ready to go. But it has been totally worth it to meet some of the most nicest people in the whole of Scotland. We’ve been as far down as Doncaster, actually, in England this year, which was a massive, massive drive. We went to Dubness the night of the, the night of the living Dubness. It was a camping festival, which was really, really good. And everybody is just so wonderful whenever you get there. And they, they, they do genuinely be so happy that you have made it down from that far up to come and be part of their event. But I, I don’t always think that everybody understands just how far and the extreme lengths that we go to to get to these places, because if the roads are covered in ice and snow up here, it’s not pleasant. It’s really, really not pleasant. Or if it’s a treacherously windy and rainy day, it is just so hard some mornings to just want to prize yourself from underneath the warm covers and start to get out of bed and get washed and dressed to go and set up a stall. But it makes the experience all worthwhile once you get there and you get to meet really, really lovely people. You do. And no matter where you go, you usually always meet somebody that has either lived in Caithness, has been to Kith Ness, has absolutely loved kfnas and it’s nice to be able to represent the county all over Scotland and the top of England so far and get to experience their way of life too. And again, it becomes a community, even with some of the bigger events like Horicon, the. The Traders all become a community and you’ll get to know each other and you get to play, play a role, I suppose, in helping also Horicon and Fantasy Con grow. And it’s nice to be able to do that and it’s nice to be able to help each other’s businesses grow and be able to give a little bit insight for the new people coming along. Because whenever I first opened Spellbound Kiffness, there had never really been anything like that up here. There had never. And at the start, I had like, quite a few older ladies run past the stall and put their heads down and exclude, like, exclaimed that this was awful. But once you get sort of chatting to people, they. They sort of are more willing to listen to you and they’re more accepted of a pagan way of life, shall we say. But it has been a real, real learning curve the last two years from I started spellbound. And it has, it has been wonderful at times. It has been absolutely tedious to drive up and down the road and see the seam scenery day in, day out. And, you know, obviously, you know, it’s just sometimes that it’s. The travel can be just so, so.

Dawn [48:42 – 48:50]: Hard and you’re leaving behind such a beautiful place. You’re like, you just want to stay. I don’t want to go today. I don’t want to enjoy it.

Kerry [48:51 – 51:07]: Yes. But if I want my business to grow at the same time, I’ve got to get out there and I’ve got to spread the word and tell people where we are and, and showcase where we come from and what a beautiful land that it is and just how magical it is and all the things that they can learn from coming to Caithness and all the beautiful places they can come to visit, like Castle of May, for instance. It’s absolutely gorgeous. And we’ve got the May Highland Games every year at John O’Groats, which the king actually came to this year. The year before, he was only the Prince of Wales. But this year he is the king, so graded. Yeah. So we also had that this year too, this summer, which was again, wonderful. And Isabella really enjoyed coming to that as well. She really enjoyed being part of that. And it is such a lovely community to be a part of and it is so accepting of. You would think for a small community you could end up very by yourself and very closed off. But that is not how I have found it. At the start, it was difficult to find a sort of a middle ground, shall we say, for witchcraft. But it has definitely found its home back here in Caithness with all the other wonderful women who came. For me, it has been a real, real learning curve and it has just set us up for having our own little community. I’m hoping next year that we’ll perhaps have a Caithness coven and we will have like a little collective of women that just want to come together. And we found make spells and potions and learn how to make their own broomsticks and learn what their crystals are for and how to charge them and what all the different phases of the moon can mean to you as a person. And I just want to be able to share the knowledge that I have gained along the way. And I think that that is something that I would like to be able to pass on to everybody, which is what I sort of use spellbound to do is. Everything that I have ever learned or I have ever been taught is to help pass that on so that everybody can use it in whatever way that they like and incorporate it into their lifestyle too. But it has. It has been a really amazing time. And I met you, Dawn.

Dawn [51:07 – 51:09]: I know, exactly.

Kerry [51:09 – 52:36]: I know. We have met so many, so many fantastic people. We’ve had so many wonderful opportunities and I am just so, so thankful for all of it. But again, that comes from manifestation, Dawn. That comes from hard work and doing our new intentions and setting ourselves up and believing in ourselves. But K Ness help really helps with that. I. I feel that being here really helps with that because we don’t have the. The humdrum of the. The big city or all the trappings that go with it. We. We really don’t. We’re very secluded up here, I feel. And sometimes we can even be totally cut off. If it snows during the A9 and snow gates get closed, we can be cut off. And bread and milk become very scarce, especially the bread. Don’t know what that’s all about. Whatever. We could all make a few loaves of bread ourselves. I don’t know as it is that you hear the word, the word snow on the news, it seems to be that we’re running for bread and milk. Yeah. Yeah, I know. We’ll all need a coy of our own this year in the garden. I feel. I feel that this could be quite a bad winter. We’ll all be. We’ll all be around. The berries were very, very thick in the trees this year, so I feel that we could be in for quite a hard winter. A hard, long winter. Although last year was a very long winter. It was a. The snow really didn’t relent to sort of the end of March. March.

Dawn [52:36 – 52:38]: Oh, really? That long?

Kerry [52:38 – 54:10]: Yeah, it was bitter, bitter cold. And the roads can freeze it. We’ve actually had the whole river freeze in Thurso. It. It makes for stunning photos. You don’t necessarily really want to go out on those days whenever it’s absolutely cold and really, really, really, really freezing, but it makes for absolutely stunning photos, which, again, why wouldn’t you just want to put your coat on and walk to the end of the road and have a wee look and see what it’s like? Like. But yeah, we have just so many different seasons. Some. Some days we can have four seasons in one day. You just not sure what to wear sometimes, especially in like September and October. But again, it is. It’s just very, very picturesque. There’s always something to take a photo of and no matter. You can drive past the same place twice and it looks completely different in every season. We would have very, very purple hills sort of at the end of the summer with the heather, which is always lovely to see. And then it starts to turn brown again. So it looks very different every time that you see it. It does. And then the leaves falling again. Again, it’s just so, so different. And then in the summer we’ve got the bright green colours and. And the locks and lakes look so invite and there’s so much to actually come and do and see and especially with all of the lovely things that we’ve got going on here. And everybody’s more than welcome to come to Midsummer Carnival 2024.

Dawn [54:10 – 54:12]: Yeah. Would you know when it’s going to be?

Kerry [54:13 – 56:02]: Yes, it’s going to be the 21st of June, so it’s going to be an actual summer solstice this year, which makes it even more special. So we are going to Upper game and hopefully we’ll have a bigger fire show than last year. Now, the first year, last year was already very good, but the rein came on at the very end. But Faraday was an absolute tripper and continued on. She really was. She was so special. So this year, because it’s on summer solstice, it would be very, very nice if we could just up the ante a little bit and have like more spiritual workshops and more interactive things for people to be able to come along and join in to, especially from the town. I think after a long, especially a long winter, it’s nice come the summer to see the lighter nights and to be able to come together as a community. After all, being locked in for so long. Not that you’re locked in, but it feels like such short days. In winter. You want to get out and you want to meet your friends and you want to celebrate the light coming back. You want, you want to go all out and have fun. You really, really do. You want to make the most of the late nights. You want to be able to walk along the beach at 11 o’clock. You want to be able to do all of those things, you know. So it’s nice that we’re going to have the carnival on actual summer solstice. We’re hoping to have the fire show, lots of spiritual goings on. We’re hoping to have singers and dancers and performers again this year with a very solstice theme. So you’re more than welcome to dress up. We had some absolutely terrific costumes last year. People really did put in the effort of coming to the carnival in costume, which they. They all just looked amazing. The town did so, so well. They really did. They come out and for us to support it. So I would hope that we would always give back.

Dawn [56:02 – 56:08]: And again, a lot of outside, you know, outside visitors. Visitors coming to the event as well.

Kerry [56:09 – 59:42]: We had quite a few tourists, yes, that also came and we advertised it down the top part of the A9. So as you were driving up, you could see that it was on. So it was nice that we had quite a few people who didn’t necessarily live in Kith ness came along too and wanted to be part of it as well. We also had quite a lot of people that woodlike sang from all over Scotland had gotten contact, but we were fully booked by that stage. But if anybody would like to be part of this year, it’s always going to be non profit so that the community can actually have something to come together for. All as we ever ask is a donation for the lifeboat, which is who we raised money for last year. And I would like to do it again for the lifeboat this year because we are such a coastal community. The lifeboat are an absolute godsend to the town. They, they really are. They go out in all weathers and the amount of fantastic work that they do is just so underrated. Those, those fellow. Those men and women really do put their lives at risk to go and save so many others. So it’s just nice to be able to actually give back to that. And we have the most horrendous seas up here. So it is absolutely no mean fate to put your life at risk to get on that boat every time you’re going out and which is in essence what they’re doing. So it’s really nice to be able to help that and feel like we’re doing something to help them because. Because they are helping everybody else. So it’s nice to just give back. But it will always be nonprofit. So if anybody would like to come and give support or help in any way they can, it would just be absolutely wonderful. And it is nice that it can be. We’re open to it being absolutely anything, any denomination, any religious thing, absolutely anything. We incorporate everybody. We try to. We really do. We wouldn’t turn anybody away. But this year we had so many requests to be part of it and so we even had a pagan singer had offered to come up from Liverpool which was amazing that it reached Liverpool. It was amazing that it reached Liverpool. So it was lovely that. But unfortunately we had already got our full quota of singers and the Thurso School Choir also came and they did us pride and they had to act an absolutely lovely song and they sang for Sandy Tom coming to which was just so, so lovely. And it was really just so nice that everybody wanted to come together and be part of it and celebrate summer solstice. Because summer solstice is really the pinnacle of the. The light is the pinnacle of us coming together and the pinnacle of being able to use that light to bring us, us together. And really because we’re so far north, it is, we tho is the furthest town north in the whole of the UK on the mainland. So it is nice that summer solstice could be celebrated here. It would be nice to do that on a bigger scale with the big fire. And that’s what I have envisioned for years. Time that we’ll have big, big, big, big tents and gazebos and we’ll have a massive fire and we’ll have pagan drummers the whole way around it and we’ll all come in and cook some ropes and little, little, little torches. Absolutely. I would absolutely love that. But we’ve got to work up to that we really do start in a small scale. But it is wonderful that the community wants to support something quite unusual, dawn.

Dawn [59:42 – 59:56]: For it is, isn’t it? So it was just. It took them once they got to know you and you know what you were all about and that there was nothing to fear. I suppose then they’ve accepted you and actually supporting you now, which is lovely.

Kerry [59:56 – 1:01:22]: It is lovely. And we, like I said, we do have quite a large spiritual community up here of. We’ve got an awful lot healers, we’ve got energy healers and again, they don’t always get the showcase, but they do either. So it’s nice that the carnival was able to bring all that together and let everybody see that there’s so much actually up here that you can get involved in. It’s that there is alternatives to. To the mainstream. That there really is. You know, we had tarot readers and we had a psychic as well. Again, all these things really did an amazing job. I had really good help. I did. And to be honest, the night before I was absolutely full of panic and dread. I was full of panic and anxiety even about doing your podcast cast today, but let alone having the actual carnival start. And I sat the night before and I was so worried nobody was going to come and my friend was like, I think know that everybody will come. And I was like, I’m not sure they will. But it. It was very, very dumped and I get very, very nervous. And it was the first time I had ever been on the radio to go and publicise that this was happening. Well, before I went on. Oh, Dawn. Before I went on I thought, oh my goodness, that this is just awful. It feels just. Oh, but we made it. And it was a whole new experience to me. I get very nervous very easily, but.

Dawn [1:01:22 – 1:01:32]: It was a whole new never know. You. You don’t come across like that at all. And a couple of times I’ve spoke to. You’ve been spot on. You hide it well.

Kerry [1:01:33 – 1:01:51]: That is so kind. That is just so nice. But I am, I’m very nervous. I’m always nervous, especially whenever it’s something that I am fully invested in and I’ve worked really hard on. It is just wee bit daunting. Is anybody actually going to come and enjoy it? And they did, which just blew me away. It did.

Dawn [1:01:51 – 1:01:56]: Have more faith in yourself. They’re coming for you. It’s you. You’re very personable.

Kerry [1:01:56 – 1:03:41]: Oh, that is. That is just so kind. But again, it’s the place and the place makes all of this happen. It really does. There’s definitely a magical force in Caithness that brings us all together, but I do believe it’s a mixture of the land, the light, the wildlife. Even the wildlife wants to come here in summer. Like, there’s not many places in the British Isles you can see orcas, and here we’re just so spoiled and so treated to being able to actually walk out the front door and see them in Thurso Bay. You know, there’s not really many places that you would get away with that in the British Isles. And it’s. It’s just so lovely and that they’re actually left alone, you know, it’s not that there’s drones flying over them or. Which I think would just spoil the whole ambience of the situation and maybe they might come back, but they enjoy it here and they feel very free. And I think that that’s the main part of kith Ness has made me feel very free and very liberated, especially for my. From a sense of my children growing up here. And it is very idyllic for them, that situation of having children and being able to allow them to be free and experience other things other than the commercialization of the world and use their imagination more and actually go outside and physically play and pretend that they’re Vikings and dragons along the beach and encourage. Encourage all of that. It is just so lovely to be able to do. It’s just such an amazing place. It truly is. Like, I can’t. Can’t. I really can’t give KFNS enough credit for all of the things that we have here and all of the beautiful scenery that we have. And we tend to often be overlooked, especially in the cause of, like, driving to work.

Dawn [1:03:42 – 1:03:43]: There you go. Yeah.

Kerry [1:03:43 – 1:04:12]: Yeah. You know, we often do get overlooked and there is so many special places to go and visit here, which, again, my pronunciation is still. Absolutely. After seven years of living here, I don’t know it’s ever going to get any better. So I apologise now. But at least at this stage, I. I can say quite a lot of the. Pronounce quite a lot of the words in the streets and hopefully it’ll get easier with time. My tongue will get used to the extra Rs.

Dawn [1:04:12 – 1:04:15]: Oh, I know. We do a lot of work with that tongue. So would you.

Kerry [1:04:16 – 1:04:42]: I know, I know. It’s like having a little workout. It truly is. It truly is. But you can. You can just sit along Thursday Obey, and you can totally imagine the big Vik boats just sailing up into the bay. You really can. When you’re there, it is just such a very impressionable place. And when you’re here, you often just don’t want to leave because it is so peaceful and quiet and it’s. It is just wonderful.

Dawn [1:04:42 – 1:04:53]: Well, Kerry, it’s been lovely talking to you. I really enjoyed hearing about 30 everything that you’ve talked about. You’ve really immersed me in the place. I love it. Really, really good.

Kerry [1:04:53 – 1:04:55]: You’re going to have to come and visit now, darling.

Dawn [1:04:55 – 1:05:00]: No, I am. And when you were talking about your festival next year, I’m thinking, oh God, that sounds great.

Kerry [1:05:00 – 1:05:06]: I’m thinking you’re absolutely more than welcome to come and do a whole life podcast. We would.

Dawn [1:05:06 – 1:05:13]: Oh no, God no, don’t. That’s too much pressure. I want to enjoy myself.

Kerry [1:05:13 – 1:05:23]: We would love to have you and we would love for you to come and do your podcast. We really would. You can come and dance the night away.

Dawn [1:05:25 – 1:05:26]: I can do that.

Kerry [1:05:27 – 1:05:56]: You would really, really enjoy it. You might not want to go home again until winter. Until winter hits and then it’s a whole different level of cold. I’m not going to lie. It is big woolly socks and it is like thermal leggings and it is big knee high bits and big, big dukes, coats. But do you know what? You just get on with it. It would be no different than living maybe in Norway or Iceland that you just have to get on with it and make the most of it and it, it just becomes a way of life.

Dawn [1:05:56 – 1:05:59]: Just worth it. Because you know what’s coming again, don’t you? It’s going on.

Kerry [1:05:59 – 1:06:25]: Oh, absolutely. And the brighter nights. Absolutely. It truly is. There’s nothing better than turning the corner and there’s a massive, maybe six foot stag standing in front of you. Looking back, it is just phenomenal. It really is phenomenal. It’s definitely very, very picturesque. And I, I am. It is an absolute pleasure to be able to live here and promote kfnas. Definitely.

Dawn [1:06:25 – 1:06:39]: It’s been lovely. So before you go, I’m curious. You’ve got so many beautiful, beautiful products on your website. I mean, just stunning. What is, is. What’s, what’s your favourite? If. Can you have it? Do you have a favourite? Is there something that you just.

Kerry [1:06:39 – 1:08:13]: I recently made our own spellbox so all the herbs were grown in our garden. So it is like totally ours. Every part of it was made here in my house. From the anointing oil to the herbs, even the spell I wrote all of the spells, that’s in the spell box. So that was all totally me. So it is. Everything is in it. It’s all from us and it is all from here and kithnaeus. And I am just so proud of that. It took two years to be able to grow quite a lot of these herbs. It was quite tricky to be able to learn how to grow skullcap and Angelina vervee and all these herbs that you can’t just go to Tesco’s and buy. It took a long time to actually work with them and the mugwort actually took over the garden for quite a long time. It grew out of control and we were wondering for quite a long time, what can we do with all of this mug work other than just use bell? So we thought we would put it in a spell box and it has come together absolutely beautifully and it’s the product that I am most proud of because every part of us is in that box. All of our hard work, from the making the protection salt, like Bella was doing tonight, and grinding down all of that, it is all in there and it just encapsulates. It’s everything that we love about being in Keith Ness and the harsh winters and the lovely summers and it just. That is my favourite product that we definitely do because it is just every bit of us goes into that spellbox.

Dawn [1:08:13 – 1:08:19]: It sounds. It. It sounds really. You should be proud of that. That’s an amazing achievement, that, isn’t it?

Kerry [1:08:19 – 1:11:08]: Thank you, Donna. I do feel proud of it. It took such a long time to be able to put it together and in the end that has. It has just blown me away. It really has. It looks so good and I am so super proud of what we have achieved together. My husband works tirelessly. My husband actually works in the harbour in Thurso, but when he comes home, he loves growing the vegetables. He really does. And he loves growing the herbs and he is very, very good to me. He loads the car for me and he does so much for me. And he is very underrated, I would say, in the business. He. He really is. He often goes without a mention. Yeah, he is definitely the backbone providing the. The muscles of the job, I would say. But he is very good and he is. He has learned an awful lot in this adventure too. And he puts his heart and soul into helping, growing the herbs and all of that. And anything that I can see that I would like to make, he. He helps me and he is just such a good person of, like, helping lift me up on days, whenever it’s. The herbs have blown over in the polytunnel. And you just think, oh, this is just the end. This is just awful. He is very good at helping me turn that around. He really is. But the spellbox does it incorporates every single part of spellbound kithness and what we actually stand for and the sort of magic that we want to send out and create into the world. World. We also sell pin dolls, which my friend Karen crochets, which is absolutely amazing. So they’re Highland pin dolls and they all contain a little bit of magic. But we believe that rather than use them for badness, that if we actually take the pen and we bring it out and we bring it from our stomachs, obviously not touching yourself to the top of your head and you bring that pin and you put it into the pindle, that you’re releasing your own bad energies and you’re putting your own energies into the pindle rather than cursing anybo or using it for badness. We believe if you take all of that, the doll can hold all your really bad thoughts and feelings and you can store them in there rather than having to store them inside yourself. So I think that that is also a wonderful tool and really good to help people. And again, it’s about promoting the light of witchcraft rather than the darkness. I think people often believe that we’re cursing people and there’s an awful lot of badness and there’s absolutely none of that. That it is just such a nice way of life to be able to actually let go through using the doll or the spellbox, casting your intentions out to the world. Because that’s what magic is all about, is putting all of that out there and really believing that you can do this. And self belief really does carry you on so, so far in the world. And it’s nice to be able to give people the belief in themselves that they can achieve whatever they want.

Dawn [1:11:08 – 1:11:18]: That’s. That sounds really nice. I like the sound of that. What a beautiful thing you’ve done there. I can. I’ve already thought of somebody that that would help. So, yeah.

Kerry [1:11:19 – 1:12:19]: I think that that’s just so much nicer way to actually use pindles rather than putting somebody’s hair into them. Even though there’s times we would all like to do that. I’m sure there is. There is absolutely time times. We would all absolutely love to do that, but it’s just nice to use it for yourself and to feel better about yourself and just have all those negative thoughts contained in something that you can actually put away and free your mind from all those things that we pent up and have inside ourselves all the time. But again, I couldn’t do that without my friend Karen, who also really is a big, big help to me. She is so lovely and she. She lives in Thurso, too, do. And again, I wouldn’t have met Karen had I not lived here. And now we’ve got a really fantastic friendship and I couldn’t ask for better friends, and I couldn’t ask for anybody better than Karen. I really couldn’t. And it has been such a fabulous community to be a part of. It’s.

Dawn [1:12:19 – 1:12:26]: It’s been really, really wonderful listening to you and everything you’ve got to say. It’s been fascinating. I’ve really enjoyed it. It.

Kerry [1:12:27 – 1:12:33]: Thank you, Dawn. I’m so sorry that I was so nervous, but we. We got there, didn’t we?

Dawn [1:12:33 – 1:12:45]: Oh, we absolutely did, Car. You did amazing. It was really enjoyed listening to everything you had to say you did. Like I say, you literally took me there with you and it was really, really special. So thank you.

Kerry [1:12:45 – 1:12:51]: That’s good. That is good. So, Hardy, I send you the chat there, right?

Dawn [1:12:51 – 1:12:57]: Okay. So if you press, can you see where it says stop? Stop recording.

Kerry [1:12:57 – 1:13:01]: Hang on. Yeah.

2024 Parade Routes | South Queensferry | Ferry Fair Festival | Edinburgh

South Queensferry | Ferry Fair Festival | Edinburgh

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Maid of the Forth Sightseeing Cruises on the Firth of Forth

Three Bridges Cruise – Forth Boat Tours. Edinburgh Days Out.

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Dalmeny House Edinburgh | Scotland – Rosebery Estates

Dalmeny House near Edinburgh | Home to the Earl of Rosebery

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The BEST Queensferry Tours and Things to Do in 2024 – FREE Cancellation | GetYourGuide

THE TOP 10 Things to Do in South Queensferry – 2024 (with Photos)

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Fife Coastal Path: North Queensferry to Dalgety Bay – The Glasgow Gallivanter

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Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted and Researched by Dawn

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Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Dawn [0:00 – 0:56]: Welcome to another episode of Scottish Digest. In this episode, we will be speaking to Theshira from the podcast Legendary Africa, who will be talking to us about their favourite place in Scotland, South Queensferry, which is a town about 10 miles northwest of Edinburgh. As I said, Thushira is the host of the podcast Legendary Africa, which is your gateway to the mythical, magical and legendary world of the African continent, where Theshira tells tales of going searching for Egyptian treasure and encountering dragons, witches, fairies and magicians along the way. Hi, Theshira. It’s lovely to have you on the podcast.

Theshira [0:56 – 0:59]: Thank you so much. I’m so glad I finally made it.

Dawn [1:00 – 1:02]: So tell us a bit about you and your podcast.

Theshira [1:03 – 2:19]: Legendary Africa is essentially a podcast where I tell and retell African myth, legends and lore. Sometimes I, you know, stick to the original quite a lot, or sometimes if I only have, like a little bit to work from, then I sort of, you know, add my little flair and that sort of thing. I just want to make it interesting for people to listen to while also making them aware of certain African myths and legends that I think a lot of people don’t necessarily know about. It was a podcast that actually started with my sister in Covid, during COVID time, the height of COVID in 2020. It used to be called Legendary. And we were initially looking at a whole bunch of, like, world myths and stuff like that. And we realised there’s a lot of podcasts out there that are doing the same thing, which is amazing. And a lot of better podcasts than ours, to be honest. But we didn’t see that many African centred religions. And I’m South African, so it kind of made sense that. Let’s talk about our culture a little bit. So we switched it and we changed into Legendary Africa, which we did for, I think, a couple of months. Unfortunately, my sister passed away in 2020, so I continued to do it without her. Oh, the Shera. Yeah. No. Oh, Shagesh. I’m really sorry.

Dawn [2:19 – 2:21]: I didn’t know that. Oh, my goodness.

Theshira [2:21 – 2:23]: No, it’s all. It’s all good.

Dawn [2:23 – 2:23]: I’m sorry.

Theshira [2:23 – 2:51]: Thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, 2020 was crazy for everybody. Yeah. So I know I initially thought I’m gonna not do it, but, you know, I really. I really like doing it. I still like doing it even though it’s on break. And so I said, you know what? I think she would have liked me to have continued with it because, you know, something that we did together and it was lots of fun and now it’s just Me and my voice. But, I mean, it’s still, you know, it’s still good fun. But anyway, I didn’t mean to make this sad.

Dawn [2:51 – 3:12]: No, no. Goodness, I’m sorry. I didn’t even realise that I haven’t read. I don’t think I listened to the beginning ones, but I have listened to the later ones from last year and you’ve got a beautiful voice. I mean, it’s really perfect quality and everything. So I really, you know, I enjoy listening, but I feel really bad. I didn’t realise about your sister. So apologies.

Theshira [3:12 – 3:38]: No, I mean, to be perfectly honest, the first few episodes are trash. Like, don’t listen to them. Quality is bad. We didn’t know what you were doing. It was mostly us, just like, I don’t know, going on for 10 minutes, but who knows what. So, you know, if you’re dedicated, go listen to it. But anybody who’s listening to us right now, don’t bother. Don’t bother. Start from. Start from when I took over, really, because then, you know, the quality just got so much better.

Dawn [3:40 – 3:53]: A lot of people say when they first start listening, when they find a podcast, they like to go back to the beginning and listen to the Journey. And I’m like, no, don’t listen to the Journey. Just. I don’t. I don’t listen to the Journey. I like the new. I know what our journey is like.

Theshira [3:54 – 4:00]: In our case, the journey is rough. It is bumpy. Nobody needs to hear that.

Dawn [4:02 – 4:03]: Exactly.

Theshira [4:03 – 4:20]: But, yeah, there’s loads of episodes that you can go listen to, except for the first 10. You know, there’s lots of stuff from. I can’t even remember what I did, to be honest. There’s, like Ghana and Nigeria and stories from Tanzania. Lots of stuff.

Dawn [4:21 – 4:25]: It’s interesting. It’s a nice little niche as well, isn’t it? Because that’s. It’s where you’re from.

Theshira [4:25 – 4:34]: No. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I hope that people will enjoy. I started actually another podcast because, you know, if you don’t have time for one, surely you’ll have time for two.

Dawn [4:36 – 4:37]: What was the other one?

Theshira [4:38 – 4:55]: That one I called the Asian Tapestry because I am Indian. I’m. My heritage is from South India, so I started doing Indian fairy tales and stuff like that, which is actually really fun and exciting, which obviously has also gotten a break because I can’t do two podcasts and the rest of everything.

Dawn [4:56 – 5:03]: So you’re living in Edinburgh just now, but the place you used to live in, the place that you are going to talk about today, which is.

Theshira [5:04 – 5:11]: I’M in Edinburgh, but I used to live in South Queensbury and I’m going to talk about South Queensbury and North Queensbury, if you don’t mind.

Dawn [5:12 – 5:18]: Oh, are you, you snuck that in there. Tashira. I haven’t done North Queen Fairy research, so.

Theshira [5:18 – 5:30]: So just a little bit, just a little bit. Because, because it’s just, it’s just across the bridge and so, you know, and this is such a great cafe and I just, I just have stuff to talk about there. I’m so sorry. It was unprepared.

Dawn [5:30 – 5:42]: No, because just before I started recording, I’m saying, telling my husband, I was speaking to you about South Queensberry and he said, oh, is that where the, the. What was it? He said, was it the zoo or the. He said the zoo or the.

Theshira [5:42 – 5:45]: Oh, SeaWorld. SeaWorld. It’s in North Queensworth.

Dawn [5:45 – 5:57]: I didn’t see that in my research. And he said it was definitely there the last time I was there. And it was definitely. It wasn’t. It’s not, it can’t be there anymore. And he said it’s a north. The SeaWorld. I’m not doing North Queensbury.

Theshira [5:57 – 6:03]: Well, I haven’t, I haven’t been to the SeaWorld, but from what I hear, apparently it’s shit.

Dawn [6:03 – 6:12]: Oh, right, okay. Well, maybe Peter’s standards are a little bit lower. He enjoyed it.

Theshira [6:12 – 6:20]: He needs to go to the. He needs to go to Ushaka in South Africa in Durban. That’s an aquarium. That’s a SeaWorld.

Dawn [6:20 – 6:21]: Fair enough, fair enough.

Theshira [6:22 – 6:24]: You can do destinations in South Africa some other time.

Dawn [6:26 – 6:32]: Go on then. Tell us when you moved across South Queensferry and what you did. All about it.

Theshira [6:32 – 6:59]: Yeah. So South Queensferry was the first place that I, that I came to when I first arrived in Edinburgh in the. I think it was end of 2021, first time moving away from home, which probably sounds a bit silly considering I was like 20, mid-20s already. But you know, from South Africa to Edinburgh was probably a 22 hour flight, which is crazy.

Dawn [6:59 – 7:00]: Why Edinburgh?

Theshira [7:00 – 7:55]: Oh, well, you know, I don’t really know why. So I think my fascination with Scotland kind of came from my mom for some reason. My mom is absolutely in love with Scotland and anything to do with Scottish culture, she’s really. Yeah, yeah. We came to the uk, we visited the UK in, I think when I was like three or four, something like that. And she didn’t get to Scotland, she went to England, a bit of London, a bit of. I don’t know if she went a bit to Wales. But they never got to Scotland. She was so disappointed. One of the reasons being that she absolutely adores the castles. She loves castle, anything to do with castles. So she’s like, you know, Scotland is the place to be. So I think I absorbed a little bit of that and I was like, you know, Scotland sounds amazing. And so what I’ve heard, people are lovely, which is obviously true, because I’ve not obviously unfriendly Scottish people yet. So, I mean, maybe, you know.

Dawn [7:56 – 7:57]: No, never.

Theshira [7:59 – 8:20]: So, yeah, so Edinburgh just, you know, seemed amazing, but what really cemented was the supervisor. My supervisor. Edinburgh University is just like, perfect for my. For my thesis. And so I was like, well, it’s fate. Clearly, I’m supposed to be here, got a scholarship and managed to get my bum over here, which is amazing.

Dawn [8:20 – 8:25]: And you moved to. That was when you went to South Queens Ferry. You stayed there initially?

Theshira [8:25 – 8:37]: Yeah, yeah, that’s when I went to. I was in South Queensford for two years, actually. I just moved out of there last month. And it’s. It’s an amazing place. I don’t know if you’ve. You said your puppy’s been to north.

Dawn [8:37 – 8:41]: I haven’t. No, I haven’t been. So how far away is it from Edinburgh?

Theshira [8:42 – 8:54]: I think on a bus, you’re probably about 54 to 60 minutes away from Edinburgh City. So I was. I’ve been commuting, really, 54 minutes on a bus for two years.

Dawn [8:54 – 9:00]: Oh, my God. I didn’t realise it was so far. Oh, is that. Does it take lots of detours on the bus?

Theshira [9:00 – 9:18]: No. What was so. So South Queens View. Right. It’s a town, but it’s basically a village. It’s really a village because there’s only about. There’s like one main bus that services the area. 43. Love the 43. It’s green, it’s a country bus. It doesn’t have good suspension.

Dawn [9:18 – 9:19]: Oh, no.

Theshira [9:19 – 9:49]: But it’s so much fun, you know, it’s great. It’s very bumpy, but it’s lots of fun. Also, the drivers, I have so much respect for them because the country roads are tiny, but they zoom, like, say, zoom down. And I’m like, I could be dying. But they seem to be in control. It’s fine. So, you know the one bus that takes you into inversity, essentially, so that takes about 54 minutes, but if you have a car, you can drive in maybe 20 minutes. But good luck parking at Edinburgh City.

Dawn [9:49 – 10:00]: So I read that it sits on the shore of the first of the fourth, with the bridges Sort of looming over it. The bridges. Tell us about them. They’re beautiful.

Theshira [10:00 – 11:19]: The bridges are my favourite part of South Queensbury. I mean, I had researched a little bit about South Queensby before I moved there because. So slightly backtracking when I was trying to find a place in Edinburgh, all the way in South Africa. I mean, you know, I’m sure, you know, the rental, the renting market is crazy now then all the time. So I didn’t find a place until about a week before my flight and I was kind of panicking. I had a feeling that I was gonna probably stay over at a friend’s house just to try and find someplace. But at the last minute, this place came through and so I was like, oh, South Queensbury. Okay, let me research a bit about it. Fun little town. And then I saw, oh, okay, it’s home to these UNESCO bridges. That’s really cool. Then I got there and, my goodness, it is actually the most fabulous thing that I’ve ever seen. So, you know, the three bridges connect Edinburgh with Fife, the Kingdom of Fife. I think it’s Fife. Correct me if I’m wrong, Fife is the ending. And what’s really cool is that each of the bridges span three centuries because they were built in 1890 and then 1964. 19. I think it’s 2016 or 2017, I can’t remember.

Dawn [11:19 – 11:22]: 2017. I’ve got that. Yeah, I looked at that one.

Theshira [11:22 – 11:35]: Excellent. The fourth bridge, the railway bridge, though, is. Is my favourite, the oldest bridge. And I’m sure you’ve seen. You’ve seen it or you’ve seen pictures of it, but it’s.

Dawn [11:35 – 11:36]: Is that the red one?

Theshira [11:36 – 12:39]: That’s the. That’s the red one. It’s really, really nice. It just looks. I mean, it could be that I just really like old architecture because, I mean, the most recent one is fabulous. It’s really cool. It looks a bit like shark fins, which is fun. But I really like the old architecture. I think I’ve been across the railway bridge a couple of times. It’s a really, really short train ride, maybe three minutes. So I think a lot of people are like, well, it’s not worth it unless you’re travelling further in. But I mean, even just for that short little trip, I really think it’s worth it. You get some great views of the Firth, as you’re saying, to actually get a really nice view of it. You can just walk down to the shore in Queensbury, which I’ve done loads of times. It’s a lovely colour and especially in the mornings or the late evenings, and then on a sunny day, you get the reflection of the bridge and the sea and it’s just beautiful. I’ve probably taken like 40 photos of the one bridge.

Dawn [12:40 – 12:50]: There was one photo you sent me, it was off the bridge in the background, you know, and you were down low and it was a little lighthouse, like a little stone lighthouse just in the foreground.

Theshira [12:50 – 12:51]: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dawn [12:51 – 12:52]: Do you remember taking that one?

Theshira [12:52 – 12:55]: Yeah. So that’s actually a North Queensbury.

Dawn [12:55 – 12:58]: Ah, no, I’ve done this.

Theshira [12:58 – 13:19]: No, no, no. But actually, I think so. You kind of have to talk about them together because north and south used to be one. They used to be just Queensbury until they got separated at some point. Don’t ask me when, I don’t know. But that lighthouse in North Queensbury. I know, I know we’re jumping a little bit, but it’s the world’s smallest lighthouse and it still works.

Dawn [13:19 – 13:22]: Really? Yeah, it’s really cute.

Theshira [13:22 – 13:35]: It’s tiny. I don’t know if the picture does it justice, like, if you can see how small it is, but it’s. I don’t know if you can stand up if you go in, but apparently the staircase is tiny. I’ve never been inside it because there’s a staircase.

Dawn [13:36 – 13:37]: You hardly need a staircase.

Theshira [13:39 – 14:08]: I know, but that’s so great. I kind of wish that it was open, but it relies on volunteers, so whenever I go there, it’s never open. But anyway. Yeah. So back to the bridges a little bit. So I love the railway bridge. The fourth road bridge, which is the second oldest one, is my favourite. That’s the pedestrian bridge and I’ve walked over that countless times. Walking over it there and back, you get your 10,000 steps, so it’s really worth it.

Dawn [14:08 – 14:11]: Oh, yeah, that’s good. A nice view again.

Theshira [14:11 – 14:35]: Beautiful views Again, again. Where I take most of my photos is up there. I mean, it’s really nice because you get to see the boats coming in under the bridge and we’ve had some really cool ships, actually. We’ve had a warship, a really big helicarrier, which just about fit under the bridges, which is a bit terrifying because the rail bridge is, back when it was built, is quite low compared to the other two, so you have to be. It’s a bit stressful when something comes under them.

Dawn [14:35 – 14:36]: I bet it was.

Theshira [14:37 – 15:07]: I know, yeah. But yeah, the road bridge was great. I mean, that’s the bridge that I walked over to get to North Queensbury. So you get to just walk over, come down some steps and you’re in North Queensbury, which is also such a cute place. And then the Queensferry crossing. The latest bridge is really, really impressive. I’ve been across it a couple of times, but because I don’t drive, I don’t have a car, I don’t think I appreciate it as much as the other two bridges.

Dawn [15:07 – 15:28]: I think I’ve been across that one. I think I’ve driven across that one numerous times. But, yeah, it didn’t really blow me away. Oh, I do remember that one because it looks like ship’s masts from a distance. You can see it from quite far away and it just looks like the ship’s masts are. You think, oh, wow, what’s that? And then you get closer than it. So, yeah, I think it looked quite cool from a distance.

Theshira [15:28 – 15:58]: No, it is. And you’re right. Yeah, I think it’s, as you say, the ship’s master, quite impressive because especially at night when it’s all lit up, it’s really quite. That’s quite impressive. And when you’re driving alongside it with all the lights, it’s quite a fun experience. I think it depends on what you like. If you like modern architecture, if you like old architecture, that’s going to affect which ones you like. But the. The bridges are definitely, like, my favourite thing about Queensferry. Aside from the people, of course. Of course.

Dawn [15:59 – 16:05]: Come on, you made a slip there, didn’t you? It’s the bridges you came for, wasn’t it?

Theshira [16:05 – 16:12]: It’s the. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s the bridges. Oh, it’s the bridges and the. And the fairy festival. I don’t know if you. If you heard about the fairy festival at all.

Dawn [16:12 – 16:17]: I was going to ask you about that. Tell me about that. Yeah, I had a look at it.

Theshira [16:17 – 16:47]: So the Fiery Fair is something that I also read about when I was going to Cumbere and I was like, no, this can’t be a thing. Right. Because it’s a fair that has origins in pagan terms. And I was like, this is amazing. I’m a classicist. So the fact that there’s a pagan ritual, I was like, okay, my life is made. And then I actually saw it. So one of the main parts of that fair is the Buryman Festival.

Dawn [16:48 – 16:53]: Yeah, I didn’t. I didn’t understand that. Tell us about. What did they do to the man?

Theshira [16:53 – 17:53]: So. So he’s not. Okay, so first of all, disclaimer. He’s not naked. Because that’s something that I initially thought before I came here. I thought that it was this naked guy that was covered in sticky burrs. But no, no, no, he’s got his clothes on, thankfully. And essentially, from what I can understand, the process is that several days before the fair they collect all these burrs and they spend hours sort of sticking the burs all over his body. Like literally his entire body is covered head to toe in these sticky burrs. And the poor guy has to walk around and he’s carrying. I can’t remember what he carries exactly, whether it’s a torch or something. He has to walk around the entire town from like 8am to half past 4 in the afternoon carrying these two things. And he has to stop at every pub and have a thing to drink. A beer to drink, of course, or an ale or something like that.

Dawn [17:54 – 17:56]: Through a straw. Through a straw.

Theshira [17:56 – 18:16]: And he can’t let go. He can’t, he can’t let go of these. Whatever he’s holding his hand. So someone else has to literally be helping him drink throughout the day. And he just walks around and stands and takes photos of people. And, you know, I’ve gotten some photos myself of him, which I appreciate. I don’t think I sent it to you. I must do that.

Dawn [18:16 – 18:20]: You didn’t, you didn’t. You have to send it. I’m desperate to see what he looks like.

Theshira [18:20 – 18:36]: Oh, he looks so interesting. I mean, he has to be a local Queensberry man, apparently. And it just looks so uncomfortable because, I mean, it’s in August so it’s not that cold yet, you know. And poor guy, he must be a sweaty mess underneath all that.

Dawn [18:36 – 18:40]: I couldn’t believe it when I read that. I was like, they do what, Joe?

Theshira [18:40 – 18:41]: Exactly.

Dawn [18:41 – 18:43]: It was strange.

Theshira [18:44 – 19:23]: It’s great though. It’s good fun. I mean, after that there’s. I think there’s games and activities throughout the day. You’ve got. Oh, there was a bunch of alpacas, a couple of alpacas that were brought in to entertain the children, which I found hilarious. Yeah, there’s races for the kids and then there’s a town race people compete in and, oh, there’s a weightlifting challenge. But like you have to carry these. I can’t remember how heavy they are, but very, very heavy weights up high street. And that’s intense looking. Obviously I didn’t try it because I got skeletons.

Dawn [19:26 – 19:29]: And that’s called the fairy fear, isn’t it?

Theshira [19:29 – 19:30]: Yes, Fairy fair.

Dawn [19:31 – 19:37]: Like they’ve just thrown everything at it, Just everything strange. They’ll do it.

Theshira [19:37 – 19:55]: Yeah, I know. It’s really cool though. I mean, I think. And Then yeah, it was really cool to find out that the Bariman thing goes back to pagan times apparently. I think they said it was supposed to be some sort of like agricultural fertility ritual, that the crops may grow well or something like that. That’s what they think might have been.

Dawn [19:56 – 20:03]: So what else did you do? There’s some beautiful. You’ve sent me some photos of. So there was the ferry tap. Now which side is that on?

Theshira [20:03 – 20:35]: That’s on the High street of South Queensbury. Along the high street there’s some great little shops and restaurants. There’s a couple like if you want that are boutique reds shops is there. There’s hairdressers, all the usual something. And then the Fairy Cap is like probably one of the most popular pubs in Queensbury. I haven’t really like gone in there properly but outside is just beautiful. But it’s very popular with locals. That and I think it’s Horzgen, which. It’s H A W E S. I’m.

Dawn [20:35 – 20:36]: Glad you clarified that.

Theshira [20:36 – 20:37]: Not anything else.

Dawn [20:38 – 20:40]: You saw me read it. Say what?

Theshira [20:40 – 21:21]: Yeah, it’s because the first time I read it I was like oh, O. Right. But that’s down on the shore. That’s also quite popular but yes, the very tempest. And then there’s a great restaurant called the Rocker Pier. I think I may have sent you a photo of the Rocker Pier Hotel which is just next to the restaurant and that is a great little restaurant. I mean you get the best view of the bridges from there. I’ve been there a couple of times and I’ve been to some other restaurants but that one is definitely like my favourite, the Scottish mussels.

Dawn [21:21 – 21:24]: Oh yeah, beautiful. I saw the photo of that.

Theshira [21:25 – 21:35]: That was good. Yeah. Also the other, the beer battered fish and chips, which sounds silly that you go to a restaurant for fish and chips but honestly the fish and chips was amazing.

Dawn [21:36 – 21:46]: Oh no, I used to always eat fish and chips. That was always scampion chips for me. That was everywhere. Every pub I went and scoped. Scampionship. Scampionships still get it.

Theshira [21:46 – 21:46]: Seafood.

Dawn [21:46 – 21:48]: It’s just seafood.

Theshira [21:48 – 21:50]: It’s just. It’s just so good. Yeah, I know.

Dawn [21:50 – 21:51]: It’s so good.

Theshira [21:51 – 21:53]: I’m getting slightly angry now, so.

Dawn [21:53 – 22:05]: I know, I know, I know. Let’s move on, let’s move on. They also sent me lots of photos of nice walks through wooded areas and was that your dog or. There was a dog in one of the photos. Is that yours?

Theshira [22:05 – 22:14]: No. So sadly, no, I don’t have a dog which is very sad because I love dogs. I’ve got two fur babies at home though, in South Africa with my parents. So I do get to see them.

Dawn [22:14 – 22:14]: When I go home.

Theshira [22:15 – 23:08]: No. So that, that lovely labradoodle was called is called Leia. She is a puppy belonging to sort of a neighbour. I mean, she lives a bit further in Queensbury, but I offered to walk her dog once a week or whatever the case was. So thanks to Leia, I discovered all these areas. And little woodland area that I sort of sent photos of is actually the Fairy Glen, which is another favourite place for me in South Queensbury. It’s a woodland that goes between the high streets, South Queensbury’s high street. And I think it can link you. Yes, it can. It can link you to Delmini Station, which is Queensbury’s main train station, but without all the boring part, because you can literally just walk through. I mean, that’s not what I meant to say. I meant like literally. I was going to say without having to bump into people.

Dawn [23:09 – 23:16]: Oh, I knew you went there for the bridges, not the people. You don’t want the people.

Theshira [23:17 – 23:21]: And now I’m in the city, I can’t escape them.

Dawn [23:23 – 23:28]: I know you’re in the city now. Anyway, no, I’ll digress.

Theshira [23:28 – 23:29]: We’ll come back to that.

Dawn [23:29 – 23:31]: I’m easily distracted.

Theshira [23:31 – 23:32]: Shocker.

Dawn [23:34 – 23:39]: Now you sent me another one. I was really curious. It was Willy’s well. Where is that?

Theshira [23:39 – 23:41]: Woollies well is in North Queensbury.

Dawn [23:41 – 23:42]: He’s north.

Theshira [23:42 – 24:39]: Right, okay, there’s some. I took a photo of Wooley’s well just because I kind of find it funny. I clearly have terrible sense of humour. Willys well is one of, I think four elves in North Queensbury. It’s actually a really, really sweet place because it’s got some. It’s got maybe even more historical little objects, fascination than South Queensbury. But that being said, I might just not have discovered all of South Korean series ones. But they’ve got four wells. So there’s Willy’s well and I think there’s the Jubilee well for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. Waterloo well, which is a battle of Waterloo. And then they’ve got the Lionhead’s well, which is quite fascinating because they’ve got like a plot with an image of vignette actually of Europa and the bull. I don’t know if you’re aware of that myth at all.

Dawn [24:39 – 24:39]: No.

Theshira [24:40 – 25:30]: So Europa is like a princess that Zeus, so it’s from Greek mythology. So Zeus, the king of the gods, turns into a bull because that’s, you know, really Attractive to ladies and basically kidnaps Europa and drags off into the sea or whatever the case is. And then her brother Cadmus goes off and tries to find her and is told by the oracle of Delphi that don’t look for her. Follow this cow until it lies down. And where it lies down, you need to found a city. And that is apparently the legend behind the founding of the city Thebes, the Greek city Thebes, where he then founded the city. And he brought water into the city from a fountain, which is a very, very long winded way of saying that that’s how the myth connects to this fountain. And as well.

Dawn [25:32 – 25:34]: Not sure I see it.

Theshira [25:34 – 25:37]: Not sure I see it. Really nice.

Dawn [25:38 – 25:39]: Nice layer.

Theshira [25:41 – 26:07]: It’s there somehow, but yeah. And then Woollies. Well, is just Wooly’s. Well is quite fun. It’s like a little bit hidden away. You have to go down some stone steps and you find it and apparently that if you. The myth goes that if you drink from the water of Will Easwell, you’re fated to return to North Queensbury. Like, you can’t. You have to come back at some point. I thought it was going to be more sinister and they’d be like, you can never leave.

Dawn [26:08 – 26:11]: I wondered where you were going with that mine. I was like, oh, that’s not so bad.

Theshira [26:12 – 26:17]: You can come back. I don’t know whether when you come back again then you can’t leave. I’m not sure.

Dawn [26:17 – 26:19]: But, oh, that is a bit more sinister.

Theshira [26:19 – 26:25]: I wouldn’t. To anybody listening, I wouldn’t drink from it now. It’s. It’s not monitored?

Dawn [26:26 – 26:28]: No. Oh, nasty.

Theshira [26:30 – 26:35]: It’s not. Doesn’t look great. Unless you like bog water visions.

Dawn [26:37 – 26:37]: What water?

Theshira [26:38 – 26:39]: Bog water.

Dawn [26:40 – 26:42]: I thought you said bomb water.

Theshira [26:43 – 26:45]: It’s not that bad. She ra.

Dawn [26:45 – 26:47]: It’s a different show.

Theshira [26:49 – 26:51]: You didn’t know what you were signing up for.

Dawn [26:55 – 26:59]: And I’ve got to ask you, have you been there over Christmas and New Year time?

Theshira [26:59 – 27:00]: Yeah.

Dawn [27:00 – 27:05]: So at Christmas time it said that they. All the locals gather together and they put on a wee performance.

Theshira [27:06 – 27:12]: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But I know there is like a little bit of celebration and festivity that goes into that. Yeah.

Dawn [27:12 – 27:16]: And what about New Year’s Day? They talk about a loony duke.

Theshira [27:16 – 27:19]: Oh, yeah. I have not participated because.

Dawn [27:19 – 27:26]: Oh, you’re not participated. Oh, have you. Tell us about that. It’s a good hangover cure.

Theshira [27:26 – 27:29]: Yeah. See, the thing is, I don’t drink.

Dawn [27:30 – 27:33]: So I can’t get it on. You want me to do it?

Theshira [27:33 – 27:56]: Well, I’ve seen. I’ve Seen a couple of people do it and, and I’ve seen the photos afterwards and they don’t actually. Not all of them actually like strip down, like stripped down completely. They’re wearing like, you know, bikinis or whatever the case is, something. But they literally will jump into the ice cold water by the fork on you. And I’m just like, okay, good for you.

Dawn [27:59 – 28:01]: That is a good hangover cure, mind.

Theshira [28:01 – 28:16]: Yeah. I mean, apparently cold water is really, really good for you. You know, health benefits. I just, I don’t know, I don’t think I’m mentally ready for that. In South Africa anytime. 35 degrees.

Dawn [28:16 – 28:18]: Oh, that would be. That would be different.

Theshira [28:19 – 28:20]: Yeah.

Dawn [28:20 – 28:36]: I could not do that. Oh, I can’t even imagine stripping off. I mean, I would never mind getting into the water. I’ve just been stripping off in the outside at that time of year. Oh my God. No, no, no. Have you ever been on a boat tour on the, on the fourth?

Theshira [28:36 – 28:38]: I have. I had. I did the. It’s.

Dawn [28:38 – 28:40]: Have you. Oh, that looks so great.

Theshira [28:40 – 29:23]: I did it once with my parents that came over last year, July. It’s called the maid of the fourth chores that we went on and. Oh, it’s lovely. It’s a little boat that takes you under the bridges around and under the bridges, which is really a really nice way to experience the bridges outside of walking over it, going, taking the train, which is what all the things that I’ve done and just really nice. And obviously we have a guide sort of telling us about it, which is really, really good. I mean, like, I would 100% recommend anybody to go and take this tour. We did the one that is a three hour tour. We went and stopped on Inchcombe island, which is not too far from Queensbury. It’s where the Inchcombe Abbey is beautiful.

Dawn [29:24 – 29:25]: Really is beautiful. Stunning.

Theshira [29:26 – 29:37]: It’s so beautiful. I mean I’m so. I think that was one of the. It’s gonna sound terrible and nobody come at me for this, but I actually enjoyed it more than Edinburgh Castle tour.

Dawn [29:37 – 29:41]: Okay. See that. I mean, I’ve done the Edinburgh Castle tour.

Theshira [29:41 – 29:48]: Yeah. Yeah. I mean Edinburgh Castle is lovely, but it’s. Yeah, it’s very touristy, isn’t it?

Dawn [29:49 – 29:50]: It’s very touristy, yeah.

Theshira [29:50 – 29:51]: Yeah.

Dawn [29:51 – 29:54]: I like the look of that. Quite fancy doing that boat trip. I love being on the water.

Theshira [29:54 – 29:55]: It’s great.

Dawn [29:55 – 29:56]: That abbey looks beautiful.

Theshira [29:56 – 30:38]: And you can they take it. They take the time, you know, you don’t. They don’t just get rushed across. It’s really, really n. Right there and Then the actual abbey is beautiful. I mean, you can. There’s bits that are still intact. So you can go inside. I think one of the eating halls, the dining halls are still intact. That was brilliant. And there’s these tiny little staircases, like really tiny. So if claustrophobia is a thing that you have, maybe be aware of it. I mean, I would still do it because, I mean, they’re tiny, but it’s really cool. The spiral staircase go up and they go up to different levels of the abbey. And it’s just really cool. You kind of are like almost climbing on your hands and feet because it’s that tiny.

Dawn [30:38 – 30:42]: It’s the coming down again, though. It looks up ahead. Coming up.

Theshira [30:44 – 30:54]: All right. The only problem is that as you’re going up, you have to say, coming up. Because otherwise people are coming down, they’re going to have to stop or reverse or whatever the case is. Or going down. Reverse.

Dawn [30:54 – 30:59]: Oh, no. All the way back down again. Oh, nuts.

Theshira [30:59 – 31:10]: It’s good fun. And you can potentially see some, I think, seals. You can maybe see some seals off that side and swans, if you’re lucky.

Dawn [31:10 – 31:10]: Nice.

Theshira [31:11 – 31:11]: Yeah.

Dawn [31:11 – 31:39]: And talking about. Now, you mentioned you liked walking. So have you ever done the John Muir way coastal walk or part of it? And it says it covers 134 miles. You can walk on it, you can cycle on it. And beaches, woodlands, historic towns, natural reserves, hilltops, Roman forts. It just cover takes in so much. It sounds. I mean, I wouldn’t be doing the 134 miles, but you can do parts of it.

Theshira [31:39 – 32:57]: No, that’s the thing. You can break it up into chunks and do it. There is a really nice walk that I did part of from Queensferry, which is called the Shore Walk. Then you start from South Queensferry Shore and you can actually walk all the way to Cramond, which is another little, like, lovely little suburb. I’ve only done part of it because I had Leo, I had the puppy with me. And so every five minutes we have to stop and sniff and do a dance. And I’m like, well, this is taking three hours and I’m not even there yet. But it’s a really beautiful walk because you get to walk a little bit along the shore. So you follow the beach a little bit and there’s like little pathways that take you down to the beach if you want to. But I wasn’t going to get this dark full of seawater, and then I would have to deal with it. So I didn’t go down to the beach. But you can go along the woodland and I went in autumn time and you know how the autumn trees get here. It’s beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. It’s just. It’s just stunning. Full of crunchy leaves and mushrooms. Mushrooms. Huge mushrooms that you can just find along the way. Don’t. I don’t. I didn’t pick them because I’ve known nothing about. Mushrooms could have been poisonous, so I don’t know. And touch them.

Dawn [32:57 – 32:59]: My God. Where are you going?

Theshira [33:00 – 33:18]: It’s just a walk in. There’s lots of mushrooms, but it’s a. It’s. It’s a great, beautiful walk. It’s just a really nice way to go to Cramond. If you want to go to the suburb, it takes you. I went all the way up to Delmini House. Have you. Did you. Have you heard of Delmini House at all?

Dawn [33:18 – 33:26]: I was going to ask you about these. Have you been to Dalmini House? Oh, God, there’s. There’s two of them. Stately homes, isn’t there? Oh, tell me about them. Yeah.

Theshira [33:26 – 34:25]: Hopepton Estate. I think it’s called Hopeton now. So Hopeton Estate. Oh, it could be. No, sorry, sorry. It’s Hopeton House and Delminy Estate. I don’t know whether they interchange them, so. I’ve been to Hopeton House once for a show. It was a show that was around end of October and I went to. When I first arrived here. It was like a wooden show they had. It was kind of like for families or for kids, whatever the case was. But they had like those projections, so colour projections of animals and, you know, that sort of thing. Like there was a big owl on a tree and it was really beautiful. Very, very pretty done. But the house itself was closed, so, you know, we couldn’t go inside. But it’s really, really grand. Manor looks lovely. There’s loads of events that go on there, but, I mean, it’s a bit expensive, so I don’t really go too much.

Dawn [34:25 – 34:27]: That’s disappointing. It was closed.

Theshira [34:28 – 34:54]: Yeah, well, it was closed because of the event, so Understandable. The sad thing is that Delmini Estate is closed because they’re doing renovations. Because from the pictures, I mean, I’ve seen the outside when I went on the walk. It’s. I don’t know if you watch Downton Abbey or heard of Downton Abbey, but it reminded me so much of that, like the outside, doesn’t it?

Dawn [34:54 – 34:58]: They could have used. They could have used the outside of it. Just really like it.

Theshira [34:58 – 35:04]: It’s. It’s stunning. It’s really really pretty. It’s. And you know when they say grand estate, they really mean grand estate.

Dawn [35:04 – 35:05]: Yeah, they do. It’s massive.

Theshira [35:06 – 35:12]: I feel like the. The golf course outside of it kind of spoils it for me. But then if you like golf. I guess not.

Dawn [35:12 – 35:13]: Oh, is it a golf course?

Theshira [35:13 – 35:14]: Yeah, there’s a golf course.

Dawn [35:15 – 35:20]: I know one of them says you can have your wedding and such. Like this is that. Which one’s that? Is that that one?

Theshira [35:20 – 35:35]: That’s Delminy. That’s Delminy. I don’t know. I think right now probably it’s paused because, I mean, I’m sure you can do it at Hopeton as well. Probably. Probably they also do, but I mean from, from the website, it’s Dulmini says, you know, you can host your weddings or whatever that.

Dawn [35:35 – 35:36]: All right. Okay.

Theshira [35:36 – 35:49]: But it’s beautiful. I mean, the amazing thing was that it was used as a hospital During World War I, I think it was. Which again, I was like, this is so much like Downton Abbey vibes, isn’t it?

Dawn [35:51 – 36:00]: And the families still live there and each of them, don’t they? You’ve got an Earl at 1, Erland Countess at Dalmeny. Dalmeny, Is that what you called it?

Theshira [36:00 – 36:55]: Dalmany? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think. I think so. I think the families are still there. I mean, I don’t envy them because I feel like the. The upkeep and the maintenance of such huge houses are incredible. But Dalmini is lovely because they’ve got a working farm, they’ve got Highland cows and sheep and it’s. They’re free roaming, which I just love, you know this. They’ve got tonnes of space, they just get to. I don’t know whether they’re bred for commercial use. I’m not really sure whether they’re bred at all, whether they’re just sort of kept. But I love when I used to take the bus 43 into Edinburgh city, it would drive right past Dalmini Estate and in the colder months the Highland cows would be out and they’d be all fluffy and there was this brown and white, the cream coloured ones and the darker ones and they can’t see where they’re going because they’ve got the fur over the eyes and I’m just like. They’re.

Dawn [36:55 – 36:58]: So you want to just wipe out the way just.

Theshira [36:58 – 37:33]: I want to just be like, just hold still, take a bit of scissors and just. Just cut it so that you can see what you’re doing. But you get to see them. And this. I don’t know how many, probably hundreds of sheep. All fluffy sheep. And then until they’re shown of course. But I mean, oh, they’re so cute. But yeah, that’s one of, that’s like one of the highlights. When I’m on 33, for the first few minutes I wait for the sheep and the cows and the scenery because all the, you know, the farms are so pretty. And then I’m like, okay, I can sleep, I can have my nap before I can do city.

Dawn [37:34 – 37:35]: I can’t go to sleep.

Theshira [37:36 – 37:38]: I mean I’m going to be on there 40 minutes.

Dawn [37:40 – 37:45]: But you’re missing the bridges. You’re looking over the bridges would, you know on the bus.

Theshira [37:45 – 37:55]: Well the bus, the bus doesn’t go over the bridges. The bus to get into the city, it won’t go the bridges, it’ll go the opposite way. But you do see the bridges. When you’re coming back, you see the bridges and you come back.

Dawn [37:55 – 38:05]: Yeah, okay, got it. Oh, it’s been lovely hearing about that. Now I know what we’re going to talk about, Loch Ness and Castle Uckart. But should we do that another time?

Theshira [38:05 – 38:53]: Yeah, we can. Especially because I, because I sort of took, took over your. Oh, there’s one last thing I do want to tell you about South Queensbury. Yeah, tell me, tell me is ice cream recommendations. Oh yeah, if you want ice cream. If you go to South Queensbury on the high street there’s two places where you can get really, really good ice cream which is the little parlour. They’re kind of opposite each other on the high streets there’s this little parlour. It has over 40 ice cream flavours which is incredible. And then there’s Lulu’s just opposite. And Lulu’s is a family run little shop and it has the most delicious ice cream and the waffles are to die for. I could just eat too many of them. Anyway, if you want ice cream those are the places to go.

Dawn [38:53 – 39:03]: Places. Yeah, that sounds good. And you obviously didn’t have any accommodation recommendations because you, you lived there. So whereabouts did you live?

Theshira [39:03 – 39:16]: Well, I lived in Long Crook, which is a lovely road. I mean, you know, it’s a great, great place. But I do know where you shouldn’t go because I’ve heard terrible things about it. So don’t go to the Premier and.

Dawn [39:16 – 39:17]: Oh really?

Theshira [39:17 – 39:22]: You know, some premium inns are great. The premium here, it looks pretty creepy from the outside.

Dawn [39:23 – 39:25]: Oh no, gonna have to look now.

Theshira [39:25 – 39:27]: It just looks a bit nasty.

Dawn [39:27 – 39:29]: What have you heard about it?

Theshira [39:29 – 39:54]: So someone I know. Had to. Had to stay there because their house got flooded and it was a whole thing, but they stayed there and it was pretty horrible. I can’t remember if they mentioned anything about rats, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was something like that in there because it doesn’t look great. The only benefit to the Premium Inn is that it’s next to the McDonald’s sold. You’ll take the rats?

Dawn [39:56 – 40:06]: Oh, God, no. That’s awful. But it looks kind of like a. It kind of looks like a prison from the outside. It’s got these, like, little balconies, but it looks like jail cells.

Theshira [40:07 – 40:28]: It’s not great. I’ve been to the Premiere and up in Elgin by Inverness. That was lovely. Lovely Premium. But the Dakota Hotel may be a better bet if you’re willing to pay a little bit more. The Dakota Hotel is apparently very nice. And then of course, you can stay at the Rocker Pier Hotel. I know certain places, but I haven’t stayed in there myself. But, you know, some recommendations.

Dawn [40:28 – 40:30]: Yeah, yeah, no, that’s brilliant. Thank you.

Theshira [40:30 – 40:30]: Yeah.

Dawn [40:30 – 40:38]: Oh, it’s been really fun finding out about South Queensbury. I’ve never been, so I might go. I can go between going to north as well as south now.

Theshira [40:38 – 40:38]: Yeah.

Dawn [40:38 – 40:40]: I don’t know what I’m looking for. It’s just.

Theshira [40:41 – 40:54]: They’re small towns, but there’s. If you like. If you like old architecture and you like a bit of history and ice cream, then I would recommend Queensbury Burke north and South a lot. Yeah.

Dawn [40:54 – 40:57]: Just the bridges alone are just worth going for, isn’t it?

Theshira [40:57 – 40:58]: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Dawn [40:59 – 41:06]: It looks beautiful. Thanks very much for coming on. It’s been great talking to you. Can you tell everybody where they can find podcast?

Theshira [41:07 – 41:22]: So Legendary Africa, albeit it’s a whole. But if you want to go for the old catalogue, it’s on Spotify, it’s on Google Podcasts, our podcasts. You just have to put in Legendary Africa and you’ll probably find it. I’m on Twitter on Instagram. It’s not Twitter anymore, is it? It’s what? Is it X now?

Dawn [41:22 – 41:22]: X?

Theshira [41:22 – 41:43]: Yeah, I can’t. I can’t. Can’t really get mine. Anyway, Twitter X as Legendary Africa and on Instagram as well. I do not. I’ve not been very good at checking social media, but hopefully soon I will be announcing that it’s back and there’s some interesting things going on. But yeah, feel free to go cheque out the old episodes.

Dawn [41:43 – 41:47]: Yeah, there are plenty of them, but not the first 10 if you want.

Theshira [41:47 – 41:57]: To hurt your ears with bad quality, cheque out the cast. But, yeah, otherwise. Otherwise stick to the new ones.

Dawn [41:59 – 42:05]: And there are so many episodes, so you’ll have a full day listening to all them and the Shira’s voice.

Theshira [42:05 – 42:06]: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Dawn [42:06 – 42:10]: No problem. But thank you again for coming on and we’ll hopefully speak to you again.

Theshira [42:11 – 42:13]: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been amazing.

Tremula Network

Kilmartin Glen, Kilmartin – Monuments & Ruins | VisitScotland

Wild for Scotland Podcast – An Immersive Travel Podcast

Heathery Heights – Outdoor Adventure & Discovery

File:Urquhart Bay and Drumnadrochit from Cnoc a’ Bhuachaille – geograph.org.uk – 1773511.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Looking towards Ben Nevis – geograph.org.uk – 2975904.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Above Fort William – geograph.org.uk – 2971581.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Loch Ness, Fort Augustus and the Caley Canal – geograph.org.uk – 2435359.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

The routes Information – Great Glen Way

Kilmartin Glen – Wikipedia

Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted and Researched by Dawn

Edited by Erin Erin Ferguson (@erinfergus0n) • Instagram photos and videos

Map courtesy of openstreetmap

Images courtesty of commons.wikimedia.org/

Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon & ES_A Sound Foundation – Airae

 

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Dawn [0:00 – 1:30]: Welcome to another episode of Scottish Digest. In this episode, we’ll be speaking to Francesca from the podcasts seizure adventure and on the outside, who is also the founder of Tremula Network. And she also runs the outdoor podcast Club, which Scottish Digest is proud to be part of. And she will be talking to us about our favourite places in Scotland, specifically the Kilmartin Glen area and the great Glen Way. Before we hear from Francesca, let’s find out where the areas are that we will be talking about today. So, the Kilmartin Glen, according to Wikipedia, is an area in Argyle, located between Oban, where I grew up, Loch Guilphead, where I lived for the first couple of years of my life, and is just over a two hour drive northwest of Glasgow. And there’s the great Glen Way, which, according to Highland Dot gov dot UK, is a 75 miles or 120 kilometre walking route that stretches from Fort William in the south west to Inverness in the north east, taking in Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain and sections of the caledonian canal. Now let’s hear my chat with Francesca about her visits to these areas. So, hello, Francesca. Welcome to the podcast.

Francesca [1:30 – 1:33]: Hello. Thank you very much for having me.

Dawn [1:33 – 1:38]: Oh, it’s an absolute pleasure. Can you tell us a bit more about you and your background?

Francesca [1:39 – 3:03]: I can indeed. So I guess for your listeners, they might be interested in knowing that I too am a podcaster and audio producer. So I have a small network called Tremula Network and we really focused on podcasts which are to do with outdoors adventure and particularly the unheard stories within that space. So slightly less about the. The big first and the macho stories and a bit more about the everyday adventures and the things that might resonate with a lot more people, essentially. And, yeah, in terms of myself, I am quite adventurous and do quite a lot of hiking and a bit of long distance running and this kind of thing. And that, as a lot of people would probably recognise, includes things like doing the three peaks when I was a bit younger and that kind of thing. So one of the. One of my connections to Scotland, going and doing the Ben Nevis when I was 19, I think young, that’s an achievement. Yes, I do have a big story about the first one of the three peaks that I did when I was, uh, seven years old and I did Snowden. Don’t necessarily have to go into that, though, because it was, uh, going up, down and around Snowden when I was seven years old.

Dawn [3:03 – 3:06]: Pretty fit then, at seven. Be sore.

Francesca [3:07 – 3:16]: Yeah, I mean, I remember being very, very, like, sore footed afterwards. Uh, so, yeah, God.

Dawn [3:17 – 3:21]: So what tell me about. You’ve got two podcasts, haven’t you? Tell me about them as well.

Francesca [3:21 – 3:57]: Yeah, so two podcasts of my own. So one of them is called seizure adventure. That was my OG podcast. And, yeah, that’s very specifically about people with epilepsy that do adventure sports. That does come from personal experience. I was diagnosed in 2015. Had to think about that. So a little while ago now, and luckily I’m doing quite well with it. I haven’t had any proper seizures for about six or seven years. So since, oh, longer since 2015, getting on for nine years now.

Dawn [3:57 – 4:01]: So at the time you were diagnosed, that was the last time you had the market?

Francesca [4:01 – 4:13]: Yeah, I was lucky enough to get medication that worked quite, quite quickly for me. So, yeah, that was my first foray into podcasting, speaking to other people.

Dawn [4:13 – 4:19]: It’s a great idea for a topic. And the title is clever as well. Seizure events. Very, very clever.

Francesca [4:19 – 5:06]: I can’t take credit for that. That was my boyfriend that came up with that one. And he reminds me every single time, it’s really good. But I do love a pun, podcast name. So, yeah, anything. Anything. That’s a pun I do love. And then the second one is a little bit more outdoors and adventure and countryside and, like, that kind of thing in general, but thinking about, like, outdoors culture a bit more and the types of news stories that are happening there. And specifically, I try to speak to people and get panels of various different voices within the outdoor space, so we get lots of opinions and different stories.

Dawn [5:06 – 5:21]: And you also mentioned that you’re also the founder of the Tremulina network, and you run the Outdoor podcast club, which is Scottish Digest is part of. Why did you decide to set up the network and the club as well?

Francesca [5:22 – 6:26]: Yeah, well, I know that, as you know, being a solo podcaster can be quite hard at times. And I think that the outdoors podcast club was just a way of connecting with a community of people rather than doing one to one calls. After I started my first podcast, I actually started working in podcasting over the pandemic period. And so I been a baptism of fire in terms of learning the skills to do remote podcasting and this kind of thing, and specifically outdoors podcasting. Taking, like, the remote recording skills out into the field can be a little bit tricky as well. So, yeah, the podcast club was my way of kind of like, sharing those skills in a quite accessible way. And like I say, building a community of people that are all working on really good shows, essentially just trying to kind of amplify them and make them as good as they can be, including my own. I learn a lot from teaching, so.

Dawn [6:27 – 6:40]: Yeah, you do. And every month, if you’re part of the club, Francesca does a presentation for you and, you know, you go on a call with her and you really, I’ve learned a lot from, from yourself. So it’s been, yeah, I’m glad I’m part of the network.

Francesca [6:40 – 6:43]: Very, very glad to have you contacting.

Dawn [6:43 – 6:48]: With other people that are in similar situations and getting that advice and help. It’s been really beneficial.

Francesca [6:48 – 6:49]: Yeah.

Dawn [6:49 – 7:01]: And, yeah, and youre always there to just help with any little questions people have got. So anybody out there listening that’s got their own podcast for outdoor podcasts? That’s the one. Francesca’s the one for you.

Francesca [7:02 – 7:09]: Thank you. Yes. Yeah. My mind is very preoccupied by podcasting most of the time, so.

Dawn [7:10 – 7:15]: And you’re also the editor for a pod Bible. Tell us about that as well.

Francesca [7:15 – 8:14]: Yeah. So pod Bible is a magazine all about podcasts and it is just coming up to five years old, actually. So it might be five years old when this goes out. So it’s been around for quite a long time. OG podcasting magazine in the UK and, yeah, we basically write reviews for podcasts and recommendation lists and that kind of thing. We interview lots of podcasters and last year I was really lucky to actually be a guest editor on one of the issues of the magazine. I’ve got that very proudly in my office, just the hard copy of the magazine, which I was the guest editor of. And yeah, the outdoors podcast club features in that. And we had the recommendations from all of you and I think, oh, what was it? There was a true crime podcast, which you suggested, which was really good. Is it?

Dawn [8:14 – 8:15]: It was real.

Francesca [8:16 – 8:25]: Real. I was going, I had unreal in my head and I was like, that’s a different one. Entirely real. That’s the one. It’s a really, really nice, true grime one.

Dawn [8:25 – 8:40]: So just pulls you in. I thought we just hooked. Yeah, yeah. But that was nice. And I’ve got that magazine, the little magazine as well. The little original. Yes. I’ve kept that too. It’s like, it’s so cute. It’s just a dinky thing. It’s lovely.

Francesca [8:40 – 8:46]: Yeah, yeah. It’s a six size, so that really, really kind of like quarter of a page. I love it.

Dawn [8:46 – 8:52]: But it’s packed, packed full of information and you can get it online as well, can’t you can still read it online too.

Francesca [8:52 – 8:53]: Yeah, you can indeed.

Dawn [8:53 – 9:08]: Yeah. So it’s there for energy all right, so now we’ve found out all about you, let’s get down to business. So we’re here to talk about your favourite places in Scotland. So can you tell us where it is?

Francesca [9:09 – 10:24]: So, my number one place in Scotland is the Kilmartin Glen area. So it’s in Argyle, the west coast of Scotland. And, yeah, the reason that I like it is a little bit convoluted, to be honest with you. I don’t know how often you get this, but I actually was obsessed with a fantasy book when I was younger, and it is not a certain wizarding series. It’s actually a book called the White Mare that was set in the Killglen, set in the Kilmartin Glen area during the kind of like, roman invasion of Scotland. So that’s the first century ad and, yeah, it has, like, druids and priestesses and fights against romans and all of this kind of stuff. And, yeah, that’s kind of like how I was introduced to that area of Scotland, essentially. And it’s a really good place for that kind of fantasy setting because it has so much history going backwards. There’s, like, neolithic stone circles and carvings and this kind of thing. So, yeah, really lovely area I see.

Dawn [10:24 – 10:36]: Coming from all the highlands and argyle areas and I hadn’t. I don’t know about that area. I’ve never visited that area. So it was fun. I was like, yes. When you said argyle, I was like, yes. And then you said where? And I was like, oh, no.

Francesca [10:38 – 10:55]: It does seem to be quite a hidden, hidden place. Yeah. I don’t know. Like. Like I said, a very convoluted route into finding it for myself. But, yeah, I would say everybody definitely go and visit. It’s got a lot packed into that little glen. Definitely.

Dawn [10:55 – 10:58]: So you sent me over some photos?

Francesca [10:58 – 10:59]: Yes.

Dawn [10:59 – 11:08]: Yeah, Ken, they’ll obviously will show them on YouTube, but can you just talk about them and the ones that relate to Kilmartin and your time there?

Francesca [11:09 – 11:20]: Yeah. So I sent you over a couple of photos from when I went on a trip to meet one of the. Another podcaster within the Outdoors podcast Club, which is Cathy from the Wild for Scotland podcast.

Dawn [11:21 – 11:23]: I didn’t even recognise Cathy.

Francesca [11:23 – 12:24]: Yeah, no, but it was one of the people that we interviewed for the podcast. I think it was the fourth series. So, yeah, we were doing some interviews for the fourth series of that one and I convinced her to go to the Kilnbarton Glen area and, yeah, we met up with this woman called Heather who does history tours around the area and she was telling us all about some of the kind of like the, like I said, the stone carvings and standing stones. So this photo in particular, there’s like a layer of rock and you’ve got a little bit of heather just like poking up in the foreground and then behind you can see that there’s me in my full on producer podcast mode like pointing this microphone at Heather and she is telling me a little bit about the rock that we’re standing, standing near. And this is called the ardnabracan rock, I believe.

Dawn [12:24 – 12:26]: It looks like it’s.

Francesca [12:29 – 12:32]: That sounds right. I knew it was. Yeah.

Dawn [12:33 – 12:35]: Akna Brick rock.

Francesca [12:36 – 13:32]: And this is a rock which is very flat on the ground and when you can see it, particularly if it’s been raining, it’s really clear. There’s lots of cup and ring markings on it. So those are markings that are almost exactly what they sound like. Like little indentations and then little rings within the stone. And nobody quite knows what they’re for. But we do know that they go back a long way. So I think it’s about 5000 years. Some of those markings can go back. And Heather’s the person to speak to in terms of a bit more about the history and stuff. And she told me, told me a lot whilst we were standing there and looking at them. But yeah, really, really interesting to just go and see and wonder how long that’s been there and what people were meaning when they were carving them.

Dawn [13:33 – 13:35]: It’s a lovely picture. Was that Kathy that took that one?

Francesca [13:35 – 13:42]: It was, yeah, yeah. Kathy did all of the ones that were the good pictures I sent you.

Dawn [13:42 – 13:50]: It’s beautiful. So the other one, is this actual stand in stone one as well? Is that in the same place?

Francesca [13:50 – 15:17]: It is not far away, so it’s still within the glen. But we did have to get in a car to kind of like go between them. So you could probably walk it if you were really adventurous within a day. But certainly I’d suggest a car if you’re doing lots of the visits in a day. This one I do know is called the Nevalaki stones. So I think this is the south Nevalaki stones and they are your stereotypical standing stones. So they’re really quite tall. I think they’re about like seven, seven or eight foot. So me being five foot tall, it towers over me quite a lot. And they are just in this field that’s like a farming field, you know, and you’re walking up to them and there’s several of them in the field and you’ve got lots of lichen on the stone and this kind of thing. And in the picture, you can see again, Heather being like the very good tour guide and, like, pointing and telling me about it whilst I’m just in awe of what we’re looking at. So, yeah, really, really lovely place to visit. And that’s one of several different things within a similar area. So you’ve also got Templewood stone circle and there’s a few, like, cairns and kists and this kind of thing. So, yeah, lovely, lovely place, it looks like.

Dawn [15:17 – 15:26]: And you had an okay day. A bit overcast, but it looks. It was clear. Quite nice walking through there. I can imagine it with the grass rustling and.

Francesca [15:26 – 15:54]: Yeah, yeah, it was definitely as far as rain in Scotland goes. It was barely there. There was the tiniest drizzle as we were kind of like just setting off. And we were slightly worried about having to do everything in a downpour. But no, we managed to do everything outside and sit and do a nice recording without any. Any rain going on. So, like you say, a bit grey and overcast, but, yeah.

Dawn [15:54 – 16:09]: And it’s just, again, it’s another beautiful picture with the other stones further ahead. And then you’ve got the hills going up at the back of you. It’s beautiful. It’s really nice. God. Did you go up? Did you go anywhere else from there, then? Where did you go from there?

Francesca [16:09 – 17:42]: Yeah. So one of the main places within the Kilmartin glen that people will go to as well on a bit of a sightseeing thing is called the Donnard Hill fort. Like, it’s a really quite steep hill that is very rocky in places. And it used to have a hill fort in. I can’t quite remember the century, but post roman hill fort, shall we say. And it was part of the kind of like, argyle area of Irish coming over into Scotland and that kind of thing. So lots of the connections there between the two sides of the Irish Sea. So, yeah, a really nice hill fort to go to. And when you can climb up it, you can hike up it. When you get to the top, there are, for one, you can just see how flat the plains were around. So you can see why people kind of like, settled there and were there as a kind of like, fort protection. But the other thing that you can see when you’re at the top of the hill fort is a kind of like, carving that’s foot shaped. And it is believed that that carving was used to kind of like, crown the kings of Dunard and that kind of thing. So the kings would like, put their foot in it and declare that they would protect the people and this kind of stuff. So lots of mythology and history based around that. That carving.

Dawn [17:42 – 17:51]: That sounds really nice. That’s. I’m gonna go. Next time I’m in open, I’m gonna take a trip to Kilmartin. I love these kind of things. I can’t believe I just know it was there.

Francesca [17:51 – 18:14]: It is incredible. And it is especially, like, knowing about it from a book and a fantasy book. When you go up there, it is really quite moving to see it is a real place and there’s history to it that is, like, far beyond the kind of, like, imagined history that the writer chose to write about.

Dawn [18:14 – 18:23]: So when you were up there walking through everything, could you kind of play back scenes from the book and think, oh, I can see how this would play. I can imagine that must be quite cool.

Francesca [18:23 – 18:45]: Absolutely. And I was obsessed with this book when I was a teenager, so it’s pretty much ingrained in my head. I could probably tell you the entire story from memory. So, yeah, it was very, very interesting to see the bits that she’s picked from the real place and put into this story that she told.

Dawn [18:45 – 18:57]: Yeah, fascinating. And what else did you do when you were there? Did you stay overnight? Were you just there for the day? Did you, any recommendations of accommodation or places to eat or anything?

Francesca [18:57 – 20:11]: Yeah, so, unfortunately, I think where we stayed has actually closed now. So it was a b and b that was not too far from the hill fort. You could see it from the window, but I think they have closed down, unfortunately. But I do know that there are a couple of other b and b’s around Kilmartin itself, the town Kilmartin. And it is pretty easy to get to from places like Oband, which you mentioned, and that kind of thing. So, yeah, lots of, like, the slightly bigger towns that you might want to stay in and do a day trip out. And we kind of did it the other way. And we actually went out from Kilmartin for a day to do a boat tour. So we did kind of like seal watching and bird watching and did, like a little trip out around some of the islands on a little boat to do a wildlife tour, which was so amazing. And we actually saw a pod of porpoises when we were out, which was incredible. Lots of seabirds, lots of, like, gilly motts and that kind of thing. And.

Dawn [20:11 – 20:14]: Yeah, you did that. Is that from Kilmartin?

Francesca [20:15 – 20:50]: Yes. So we. We took a car up and then we went to. I can’t remember the name of the town, which is really bad. I’m very bad with names, but I can remember that we went over a bridge that’s called the. The bridge over the Atlantic. I think it is. It’s the bridge over the Atlantic or the bridge over the sea, because you kind of, like, take this tiny bridge which goes over the sea there.

Dawn [20:50 – 20:53]: Yeah, yeah, I’m learning so much.

Francesca [20:53 – 21:25]: Yeah, yeah. It’s one of those where. Because I had, like, such a good tour guide in cafe, I didn’t necessarily take note of a lot of the names, but I could tell you to very much kind of, like, seek out people that know the area and that kind of, like, work in the area, because there’s so much to take in. There’s, like, bits and pieces I’ve maintained, but, yeah, everything. Everything in terms of, like, names and exact locations, definitely, yeah, definitely worth double checking.

Dawn [21:25 – 21:30]: How long is it since you’ve been there? Can you be forgiven? Is it. Has it been a while?

Francesca [21:30 – 21:32]: Nope, it’s been about two years. So.

Dawn [21:35 – 21:43]: Francesca, I know I’m the same. I just like looking and seeing, but I’m not good at retaining the names. I mean.

Francesca [21:43 – 22:04]: Yeah, I mean, people have asked me in terms of, like, travelling and doing adventures and stuff, they always go, what’s your favourite adventure? And I’m always, like, the last one because I can remember it, or the next one because it’s something I’m excited about. So, yeah, I don’t have the best memory from maintaining it.

Dawn [22:05 – 22:17]: There’s too much else in there, isn’t it? Can’t remember everything. So, on that trip, did you go to your next favourite place in Scotland, or is that a different time?

Francesca [22:18 – 23:56]: No, it was that trip. I did a nice long one. I was away for about ten days in total. So after we kind of did the Kilmartin Glen area, I said goodbye to cathy and went off on my own little adventure, which was to walk the great Glen way. So, yeah, the great Glen way is a really nice, low level route for kind of, like, hiking. You can, like, go and kayak it as well, you can cycle it and this kind of stuff. There’s lots of different ways that you can take that route, and I think it’s just over a hundred miles in total. So it’s like, in terms of long distance routes, it’s a shorter one that you can do in, like, a week, quite leisurely, as it were, for hikers that are used to doing mega distances. So, yeah, the great Glen way starts in Inverness and then it goes down the kind of like, rift that’s between Scotland’s lowlands and Highlands, essentially, and goes all along Loch Ness and the various different lochs that separate the two halves of Scotland there. And, yeah, it is really incredible when you’re walking along it. And loch Ness in particular. I knew it was big, but when you’re hiking alongside it for three days in a row, how long it took, you suddenly realise how long it really is. Is. Yeah, just kept going.

Dawn [23:56 – 24:01]: I’ve nipped along in a boat, but, no, it didn’t take three days.

Francesca [24:02 – 24:32]: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that one. If you are a hiker, I would say it’s really worth it. I think a lot of people that like to hike mountains, there are other routes that are a bit more kind of like high, high level and go up into the hills a bit more and that kind of stuff. But I found the great Glenway was really nice for something that’s a little bit more relaxed and you can go through a few towns and this kind of thing. So, yeah, a really lovely one.

Dawn [24:32 – 24:37]: Oh, and where does. Is that. Where does it come out, then? Where does it end? Where did you come out?

Francesca [24:38 – 24:43]: It goes all the way down to. I think it’s called Drumnard.

Dawn [24:44 – 24:46]: Drumna Drocket.

Francesca [24:46 – 25:23]: Drumna jocket. Yeah, that’s where I finished it. But I think it does go a little bit further. And when you kind of, like, get past that, you can see, like, Ben Nevis and this kind of thing, you come into that area. And I think it does go all the way to Fort William. So Fort William is kind of like the end point, start point for a lot of people. But I kind of gave up on that aspect then kind of. I got a little car tour b and b from there. It’s like, no, I’m not doing this anymore. I’m kind of running out of time. I’ll just skip the last bit.

Dawn [25:23 – 25:29]: And what did you think of the wee places on your way past, then, when you got out? What did you think of it all?

Francesca [25:30 – 26:31]: Yeah, it was really lovely there. You go through a couple of places which are quite touristic because it is on Loch Ness. So Fort Augustus, Washington, one of the ones that I did kind of, like, go through. And I did actually manage to get a little. It was meant to be a sunset boat tour, but there wasn’t really a sun to set that day. So it was more a twilight boat tour. But, yeah, I did get a sunset boat tour out on Loch Ness and do all of the. Listening to the stories about what could possibly be in Loch Ness. I was drinking a nice little whiskey on the boat. They had a bar on there. So that was very nice. So, yeah, Fort Augustus is a nice little stop. And yeah, there’s a couple of kind of like just backpacker hostels along the route that were just nice little hostels that really look after you, essentially. So, yeah, nice.

Dawn [26:31 – 26:36]: And tell me about the couple of photos you sent me over about this trip then.

Francesca [26:37 – 28:57]: Yeah, so there was a couple that I sent you that were I from the great Glen way. So they’re from a few different places along that route. First one is that start for me end for a lot of people, which was in Inverness itself. So you get the lovely tower that tells you this is the start of the great Glen way. Or well done, you’ve made it if you’re coming from the other side. And yeah, that’s me at the start, pointing at it, going, I’m here, me looking very excited that I’m about to start. And then there is another one, which is just kind of like a pretty little heather field, essentially. So I was walking along a road that didn’t have any cars on it on the entire time I was walking along it. But it’s just running through this field of heather. And it was the season that the heather was lovely and purple. So you’ve got a kind of like marker stone showing where the next town is, which is quite far away. And then in the middle of the heather field there. And then another one, which was really nice, was not far from that. That kind of like heavyfield picture. You kind of like duck back in through some woodland. And as I was walking along, I just saw this really welcome sign that was like cafe 100 metres. And I was like, oh, my goodness, I wasn’t expecting a cafe here. So that’s always a nice, kind of like a treat, a bit of trail magic if you’re doing a long distance hike. And yeah, I obviously popped down to that cafe and met the folks there and they said that they basically catered to people that are doing the great Glen way and that’s all that they see. And I think I was like one of the few people that they saw that day, but they kind of like, give you a lovely lunch for a very decent price. And I got a soup and a slice of cake and some lovely homemade bread and, yeah, a really, really lovely little idyllic cottage and cafe in the middle of a woodland.

Dawn [28:57 – 29:01]: But just it’s on its own in the middle of this woodland.

Francesca [29:01 – 29:11]: Yeah, yeah. And the, uh, the owner was saying that they they very much are there for the trail, but they’re pretty much off. Off grid otherwise, so.

Dawn [29:11 – 29:15]: Wow, that’s nice of them then, to have done that just for the walkers.

Francesca [29:16 – 29:17]: Yeah, absolutely.

Dawn [29:17 – 29:23]: So did you not see, did you not pass or come across any other walkers either, then, on the route?

Francesca [29:23 – 30:01]: Not very many. I did come across a few hikers, most of whom were going the other way, because I think most people start in Fort William and then go up to Inverness. So I was very much, like, out of sync with a lot of people that I did see. But, yeah, on the trail itself, I probably bumped into people a handful of times, like, less than I could count on my fingers, as it were. And there were maybe a couple of places where I, you know, coming into towns and stuff, it would get a bit busier, but actually out on the trail and people that were walking. Yeah, it was quite a low number.

Dawn [30:02 – 30:05]: So must have been so peaceful.

Francesca [30:06 – 30:42]: Yes, definitely peaceful at times. There was also the slightly scary bit when there was a thunderstorm, and I was like, am I high enough to be worried about this? I don’t think I was. And the fact that my feet just gave up before the end. I’ve done a few, like, long distance hikes, but this time I was like, no, not wearing the right shoes this time. And I think after about five days of walking, I was just, like, done. This is no longer. This is no longer the peaceful hike.

Dawn [30:43 – 30:47]: You want to enjoy it, don’t you? Yeah. Not to be miserable.

Francesca [30:48 – 30:48]: That’s.

Dawn [30:48 – 30:54]: God, is that when you stopped at Port Augustus and that was you? You’re done?

Francesca [30:55 – 31:09]: Yeah. So it was the stop after Fort Augustus. I kind of, like, gave up on. So, yeah, the book that I was following gives you kind of, like, different stages, and I did that stage after Fort Augustus and then kind of, like, hopped off.

Dawn [31:10 – 31:17]: Glad you did well, though. So did you never get to Fort William then? Did you not make it to Fort William, or did you go.

Francesca [31:17 – 31:52]: Not on that trip? No, no, I kind of. I hopped back on my train back down to London at the stop after Fort William because it was, like, a little bit closer. And, yeah. So this time I did skip Fort William, but I have been there a couple of times, and, yeah, it’s obviously quite a. Quite a well known town for being near to Ben Nevis and that area. And it has a really nice climbing wall with a cafe that’s inside a church. So I do remember that about Fort William.

Dawn [31:53 – 31:54]: I didn’t know that.

Francesca [31:55 – 32:03]: Yeah, yeah, one of those, like, hidden. Hidden inside churches things. So much stuff where I’m like, oh, church. Oh, no, hang on.

Dawn [32:05 – 32:14]: And tell me, do you think you’ll do the trips again? Do you think you’ll do that? What did you. Was it the glen, what was the name of the walk?

Francesca [32:15 – 32:43]: The great Glen way? Yeah, I would be really tempted to, and I think that if I were to do it again, I might try to do it by kayak. So because it goes through the kind of like the locks and the canals, you can kayak the whole way as well. So, yeah, I’d be really tempted to do that. And I know there are a couple of tour companies that will kind of like, take you and this kind of thing. So that would be how I would do it again, I think.

Dawn [32:43 – 32:47]: Yeah. Oh, that’s good that you do it again. No, but save your feet this time.

Francesca [32:47 – 32:54]: Yeah, definitely save my feet. I’ll probably just be complaining about my arms after the next one, though. Oh, gosh.

Dawn [32:56 – 33:05]: Oh, God. Well, um, it was really. Yeah, I loved learning that so much, I didn’t know about where I’m from.

Francesca [33:06 – 33:13]: It’s always the way, though, isn’t it? You kind of don’t realise when you live there, you’re too busy doing the living to.

Dawn [33:13 – 33:30]: You don’t appreciate what’s on your doorstep. So, no, it’s been really, really interesting learning about these things and beautiful pictures. Really nice. So thanks for sharing with us. If you want to tell everybody just how they can find your podcast or how they find you on social media.

Francesca [33:30 – 34:06]: Yeah. So I am fairly easy to find, if you can spell my whole name. So. Francesca Tarauskis. But if you want a slightly easier way of finding me, my podcasts are@tremula.net work. So that’s Tremula.net work and that’s the main website that has all of my goings on, all of the podcasts that we do, including links to the podcast club and this kind of thing, and hopefully there’ll be some exciting news coming later in the year on there as well. So definitely worth following there.

Dawn [34:07 – 34:11]: Yeah. Oh, well, thanks for coming on, Francesca. It’s been really interesting.

Francesca [34:11 – 34:15]: Yeah, this has been lovely. I’ve enjoyed reminiscing about Scotland.

Dawn [34:20 – 35:53]: The exciting news Francesca alluded to is that she has organised the first Tremula network festival, which will take place on the 20th and 21 September 2024 in the South Downs. The two day festival will be a celebration of audio storytelling, outdoors, nature and community, and will include live panel shows, interviews, storytelling and practical workshops teaching recording techniques for outdoors production. So if this sounds like something that you’d be interested in. You can find out more from tremula.net work. A link to this and everything mentioned in this episode will be in the show notes and on our website, cluranton.com scottishdigest that’s cluaranton.com scottishdigest. We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode listening to adventures. Join us next time for another wee slice of Bonnie Scotland. Scottish Digest is a production of chlorin tornado.

Visit Beauly – The Beautiful Place

Beauly – Wikipedia

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Lovat Castle – Wikipedia

Beaufort Castle – Beauly – Parks & Gardens

Beaufort Castle Dounie Beauly Kiltarlity and Convinth Inverness-shire Highland Scotland Scottish

Beauly Priory | Lead Public Body for Scotland’s Historic Environment

Beauly Visitor Guide – Accommodation, Things To Do & More | VisitScotland

Beaufort Castle, Scotland – Wikipedia

BEAULY PRIORY: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

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HISTORY — Belladrum Festival 2024 – Homegrown in the Highlands

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Dawn [0:00 – 0:36]: Welcome to another episode of Scottish Digest. In this episode, we will be speaking to Kevin and Cathy from the YouTube podcast just thought Lounge, who will be talking to us about one of their favourite places in Scotland, Beaulieu. Okay, so, hi, Kevin and Cathy, welcome to the podcast.

Cathy [0:36 – 0:38]: Hi, Don. Thanks for having us. Yeah, good to be here.

Dawn [0:38 – 0:45]: Oh, it’s lovely to speak to you again. So, can you tell us a little bit about you and what brought you to the UK?

Cathy [0:45 – 1:32]: Sure, Don. Yeah. So we are originally from Canada and we moved to the UK about ten years ago so that Kathy could go to do her master’s programme was essentially what brought us over here and we ended up just really enjoying it and living in England and we decided to stay. So one short year turned into ten years and we’ve got no plans to leave. So, a little bit about us. We run the channel, a YouTube channel called the Just Thought Lounge, which is a true crime channel where we do many documentaries that are 20 to 40 minutes in length, where we just kind of consolidate and tell a story in a very succinct, distilled down way in a mini documentary format.

Dawn [1:32 – 1:46]: You’ve been very, you know, modest. It’s an amazing channel. And Kathy, I don’t know who’s doing what now, but Kathy was doing all the videos and they were beautiful. Couldn’t replicate that. Tried, couldn’t do it. Wow.

Cathy [1:46 – 1:46]: Thanks.

Dawn [1:46 – 1:48]: It’s very talented.

Cathy [1:49 – 1:53]: It’s been quite a lot. It’s been quite a journey with the channel, but we’re happy with where we are now.

Dawn [1:53 – 1:58]: Okay, then. So what we’re here for is to talk about your favourite place in Scotland where you recently visited.

Cathy [1:58 – 2:05]: And it is today we’re talking about Bewley, just outside of Inverness in north Scotland.

Dawn [2:10 – 2:41]: Like I said, Kevin is the host of the YouTube podcast just thought lounge, as well as working with Cathy to do everything else behind the scenes, the write, edit and produce the episodes for YouTube. They are both from Canada, but moved to England about ten years ago. However, they had thought about perhaps moving to Scotland in the future, and so they went on a wee holiday to a few areas in Scotland last year. But before we hear about their trip to Scotland first, heres a clip from an episode of Kevin and Kathys podcast, just thought lounge.

Kevin [2:41 – 3:39]: In March 2024, Riley Strain was on a pub crawl with friends down Broadway and Nashville, the popular main strip packed with shops, bars and restaurants. The 22 year old left his last bar of the night at just past 09:30 p.m. he seemed to vanish only minutes later, even with cameras retracing his steps through the city. There were gaps in his movements, witnesses coming forward that could not always be trusted. Clues were being uncovered that raised more questions than answers. And amager sleuths online were both helping and hurting the investigation. Hi there, Im Kevin and welcome to just thought lounge. Todays case has recently gone viral across social media. Amongst the mystery of Rileys disappearance is a family desperate for answers, bizarre clues that seem to defy common sense and a few outlandish theories.

Cathy [3:39 – 3:41]: Let’s take a look.

Dawn [3:55 – 3:59]: Why did you end up going? Why did you choose there? Why was that your place? You went?

Cathy [3:59 – 5:17]: So it was just recently, it was just in August, and we’ve recently been talking about actually making a house move and we’re looking at different areas still within the UK. And we’ve always really liked the Highlands in Scotland. We’ve been there a couple times, so, yeah, so we really like the Highlands in Scotland. Been there a couple times. So what we wanted to do before settling on any location was just kind of get a feel for the area, right, and kind of get a feel for up north towards Inverness. So we took a trip, started in Glasgow and took the train up past pit Locrie, past Avermore, took a little left at Inverness and we ended up in Beaulieu. We picked a couple spots along the way, pit lockery Avamore, just to kind of get a feel for the area. We had never heard of Bewley before. We didn’t know anything about it. But as we were looking at the area, we did have one sort of connection there, which. Which we thought was interesting, which I’m sure a lot of people say, but Kathy’s family name is McCray and the McCrays do have a link to that area. So we thought, if we’re going to be up there anyways, kind of scoping things out, why don’t we make Beulia a pit stop and kind of see what it’s all about? Do you have any Beaulieu facts?

Dawn [5:17 – 5:33]: A fun fact. The Beuley Priory was location mentioned in the Outlander book series written by Deanna Gabaldon. But I don’t watch that series to use. Do. Yeah, they love it. There you go. Beautiful.

Cathy [5:33 – 5:48]: Yeah, I was right. I had no idea there was a beauty connection, but I did in fact, read pretty much all of those books before the series started. So I have been watching it. Yeah, it’s very. It’s very cheesy. I mean, I’m not going to recommend it, but. Yes.

Dawn [5:49 – 6:01]: Yeah, very nice. And you actually sent me some photos before recorded. And it’s off. Well, it’s off the gravestone. McCrae gravestone. So what. So what is the connection then? Who’s James McCrae?

Cathy [6:02 – 6:59]: Yeah, well, James McCray is actually my father’s name. So I, you know, Google told me that the Beaulieu was the traditional home of the McCray clan. So we thought, well, we’re already heading up in this direction. This is a good area for us to, you know, just have a. Just have a look around. And I was probably at the train for, I don’t know, ten minutes before we ran into. Ran into an old resident that had my father’s name, which I just thought was, you know, so I. Whatever it is, whatever you take from that. But, yeah, I mean, the idea was to be able to view the area not so much as a tourist. They sort of get an idea of what the area would be like for locals and to live in. Of course. Though, interestingly enough, of course, you show up and, you know, with all of your luggage and the first thing you do is every touristy thing that you can because you want to get back to you what the area is and what’s interesting and what it has to offer. Essentially what we did.

Dawn [6:59 – 7:02]: So what did you do? Tell us some of the things that you did when you were there.

Cathy [7:03 – 7:51]: Yeah. So I guess arriving at Beuley worth noting is the train station. The Beaulieu train station is the smallest platform we’ve ever seen. It was probably about ten yards long. It was large enough to kind of fit one carriage on the train. You had to get off on the right one. Yeah. Basically two doors opened on the train. So that was, that sort of told us what we were stepping into was not maybe a commuter hotspot or really a happening place, but we just found that really interesting, that the planning of the Beaulieu train station was clearly. They also weren’t expecting it to grow over time. Right. They just kind of built it for that one carriage to stop, which was interesting. So.

Dawn [7:51 – 7:54]: So were you on the right carriage then, or did you have to make a mud dash?

Cathy [7:54 – 8:11]: They made sure. Yeah, they made sure that they huddled everyone forward to the right doors. To be fair, don, it was not a large train either. That’s fair. Yeah, that’s. Yeah, that’s personal. Yeah. There weren’t many of us heading that way. 50 50 chance to get the right door, I think.

Dawn [8:11 – 8:17]: So. This is great. The picture in my head, it’s like this little dinky train. This little dinky little.

Cathy [8:18 – 8:25]: We’ll send you over we actually. We got a picture of the train station, too. I’ll send that to you after and you can have a look at it. It’s pretty. It’s pretty cute.

Dawn [8:25 – 8:28]: Yeah, that would be cool. So whereabouts did you stay when you were there, then?

Cathy [8:29 – 8:48]: So we stayed right downtown on the high street. So right in Beaulieu, there’s a nice little square that basically has everything happening. And then there’s houses surrounding it. But right downtown on the high street, there’s a square, and we stay. They call it downtown. It was the happening area. It was the happening area. It was the happening. It was the high street.

Dawn [8:48 – 8:49]: Is that the only street?

Cathy [8:51 – 9:17]: Basically, state. You get off on Station Road, and you walk about a mile down station road, it turns into High street, and then you leave town. And that was basically it. But we stayed at the Priory hotel, is where we stayed. Right. Right in the square, which was really nice. Cute old hotel. Yeah. Got in there right off the train, dropped off our bags, and then were able to kind of do a wander around.

Dawn [9:17 – 9:26]: Oh, nice. And you said you went there about August. Apparently. The town, the square you’re talking about about that time. It’s full of flowers. Did you see all that?

Cathy [9:26 – 9:26]: Yes.

Dawn [9:26 – 9:28]: So did you?

Cathy [9:28 – 9:36]: Yeah, we spoke about the flower budget that Yuli and surrounding villages must have. It was really. It was very noticeable. It was very impressive.

Dawn [9:36 – 9:42]: Very. Yeah, it did. It said that that was their main event and it sounded like we got photos. Can you send that as well?

Cathy [9:43 – 9:53]: I. You know what? As much as we talked about the flowers, I don’t think we took any photos of them. I don’t think we knew it was special. We just thought maybe this was how it was done up all the time.

Dawn [9:54 – 9:55]: It was special.

Cathy [9:55 – 10:19]: Cathy, if I’d known, I would have some of those photos. Yeah. I feel a lot better about noticing it now and talking about it, but, yeah, it was. Yeah, a lot of flowers. Really. Yeah. Really cute square we ended up. And that’s actually right on the square there is just beside our hotel, is where we found the priory. Right, yeah. Hence the priory.

Dawn [10:20 – 10:26]: Is it on the same sort of site? You’re just next to it, or your hotel almost right next door.

Cathy [10:26 – 10:44]: Yeah. Sort of jaunt across the car park. And then. And then you could go. And then you could go in and see the. The ruins. And of course, it was a cemetery, hence the photos of the gravestones. But that’s probably the first thing we did once we dropped our luggage, was just explore those. Those ruins. Really picturesque. Really pretty. Yeah.

Dawn [10:44 – 10:46]: Was it a nice day? Did you have a good day?

Cathy [10:46 – 11:33]: It was good. You know what, the whole. The whole week we were there in Scotland, I remember the weather forecast was calling for rain basically the whole week. And it held off for us the whole time. I think we got. We got rain at one point, right at the end when we were in. When we were in Dingwall, but we’ll. We’ll talk about Dingwall shortly. The only rain was in Dingwall. But no, yeah. First stop was the priory. And. Yeah. And we just kind of wandered through there. We didn’t, again, didn’t know anything about Beaulieu, so didn’t know it was there, but just really. Yeah, really nice building, old building. And then that’s where we found the. The gravestones. The McCray gravestones were actually in the priory in the building. They weren’t just on the grounds, they were actually inside the building, which was really neat.

Dawn [11:33 – 11:45]: Oh, okay. So tell us, so what was it like walking through there then? Was it. I can see you in the picture. You’re right. You’re in the middle of there. Tell us about what it was like. Was it quiet? Is it eerie?

Cathy [11:45 – 13:10]: No. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was pretty quiet. There was maybe half a dozen or so other tourists there. Right. So it was pretty quiet. You could see the different sort of gravestones in the floor of the priory, as you kind of see in different abbeys and things like that. They had, just beside the door on the inside, I remember they had a really old. It was like a stone bowl attached to the wall where they put holy water in there. And so that’s where. That’s where, you know, that’s their old bowl that they would go in and sort of everyone on their way in or way out would. Would dip their hands in that bowl. So interesting seeing those little details that have lasted over time. Yeah. You could tell that the building itself would have been when it still had a full roof cover, an impressive building. But as a result, the walls that remain, the structure that remained was quite impressive. And it really struck quite a scene walking through. What was the story? They used the stones for the. From the priory to build a building in Inverness, was it? Do you remember that? Yes. Yes. So they repurposed part of the building so you can actually. And it has. So it has a connection to another area. I wish we had written that down. Yeah. There’s a. I think there’s a tower. There was a building, a clock tower. Yeah. A building built in Inverness from the stones of the Priory. And the only thing remaining of that secondary building is the clock tower.

Dawn [13:10 – 13:18]: I think I’ll look into that. Did you happen to see the 800 year old elm tree located in the priory?

Cathy [13:18 – 13:23]: I’m sure we didn’t notice it, but I’m sure we saw it.

Dawn [13:24 – 13:26]: Like, how big must that have been?

Cathy [13:27 – 13:31]: Yeah. Yeah. No, not that we noticed, unfortunately.

Dawn [13:32 – 13:37]: Oh, that was my other fun fact. It’s a fun fact.

Cathy [13:37 – 13:41]: Now I’m sad. We sort of missed it. We’ll cheque it out next time we go.

Dawn [13:41 – 13:48]: Are you planning on going? So you said you were going up that way to look for possible places to move to. Were you thinking about it or is it not for you?

Cathy [13:48 – 14:09]: Beaulieu itself? No, no, not for us. I think we were looking for something a bit more in the highlands. Right. A bit more scenic, a bit more with the hills and the landscape, which I don’t think Beaulieu necessarily had. I think that was. I think we kind of got out of it a little bit. So, no, Beaulieu did not make our shortlist.

Dawn [14:10 – 14:13]: Oh. But still beautiful nonetheless. Is it still.

Cathy [14:13 – 14:26]: Oh, gorgeous. Yeah, gorgeous around and getting up there is absolutely. The trip. The trip up on the train is, you know, in and of itself is. Is a great. A great destination. Just. Just taking the train up there is fantastic.

Dawn [14:27 – 14:37]: And what about food? Because I know, Kevin, you’re same as me. You’re vegan, aren’t you? And I know you saw on your socials, you commented that there was a nice vegan place there. What was that?

Cathy [14:37 – 14:44]: Yeah, so we’re actually both. We’re actually both vegan. So Cathy’s. Kathy’s the one that pulled me along on that. On that trip.

Dawn [14:44 – 14:56]: Oh, Cathy, I’m sure you were there, of course, because you were the one about the restaurant down in London. Yes, I got that wrong. You. I got that the wrong way around, didn’t I? I thought it was you, Kevin. That was the dabbler still.

Cathy [14:57 – 15:51]: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Yeah. We went to unity diner in London. Right? Yeah, yeah. Food and Beaulieu, we ended up. So we were only there for a short time, but after. After sort of the priory and everything, we went for lunch at a little cafe in the square. It was called the corner on the square cafe. And it was. It was. Right, yeah, right on, right on the square corner. It was very busy. I mean, it was the type of small, little cafe that you knew the food was good because of how, like, they were overflowing with. With everyone popping in. So to, you know, either take food to go or I’m amazed we even got a table. So it was that sort of a spot, which was nice. And they had quite a few options for us, too. Yeah. Yeah. With how. With how quiet the town was. With how quiet Beaulieu was. Yeah. I couldn’t believe how many people were in there for lunch. It was just. It was like, it was the place to be, apparently.

Dawn [15:52 – 15:56]: And did you stay there? Did you have your tea there as well? Or did you just head off the next day and didn’t hang about?

Cathy [15:57 – 16:02]: We ate at the hotel, I believe, before. Yeah. For our. Yeah, before we left. Yeah.

Dawn [16:02 – 16:07]: I’m so nosy. Am I giving the itinerary, the full itinerary?

Cathy [16:07 – 17:33]: No, no, but no. So what we actually did, Don, before worth mentioning, because I think it’s a big draw for Beuley, is before lunch, after we. After we saw the priory, there was a gift shop just down the way. And it was an award winning gift shop, apparently, that they pride themselves on. And that was the old school Beaulieu gift shop is what that was called. And, yeah, we just. We went in there and it was. It was one of those places where you go in. And my first impression was there was a lot of sort of trinkets and local products, you know, people. People knitting scarves or sweaters and stuff locally and putting it in. And it was neat. It wasn’t anything really special at first glance. What I was in, what I ended up doing was I left the gift shop and I stood outside for a second and I couldn’t find Kathy. And I didn’t know. I didn’t know where Kathy went and I didn’t know how I lost her in this tiny little two room gift shop. And so it wasn’t until I went back in that I realised that the back of the gift shop opens right up to a very large bookstore. Yeah, a bookstore. And, yes, some pet supplies and some, you know, like, children homeware. Yeah. So it really. It really opened up and there was so much more to it than first meets the eye. But I almost. I almost missed. I almost missed the whole thing.

Dawn [17:34 – 17:35]: You lost Cathy.

Cathy [17:36 – 17:39]: You lost me in the back of the books.

Dawn [17:41 – 17:44]: That’s what I’m going to be. Did you buy anything as a souvenir then?

Cathy [17:45 – 18:22]: I actually think I left without anything. And I. And I recall actually carrying around quite a few different items. And I actually have photos of books. I took photos of books I wanted. I determined that it was a really, really well curated selection. There were so many of the books that I was looking through that I would have actually wanted to take home. But I have problems with indecision if there are too many things that I’m interested in. If it had been the type of gift shop that was two rooms. So there was one item I liked, I thought, oh, that’s perfect. That’s what I’ll take from Beaulieu. But I wanted maybe a dozen different things and none of them were going to fit in my suitcase. So I just took photos of items that I wanted for later.

Dawn [18:23 – 18:36]: That’s a good top tip there. Yeah, I would probably buy them and then just carry them about the rest of the holiday. So tell me, where did you go next? You went to Dingwall?

Cathy [18:37 – 20:16]: Yes. Yeah. So part of the whole trip was, you know, seeing the area and seeing what was around. And we saw on a map that that Dingwall was just a short train trip away. So we decided to head on up there. As a coastal town, we didn’t know much about it. We assumed coastal towns would be a bit lively. But we ended up, we ended up catching the bus and we took the bus up. It was maybe a 20 minutes bus ride, not too bad, and got to see all of the areas along the way, which was really neat. But when we got to Dingwall, it was a bit, the high street was closed up a bit, sort of run down. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s had some hard times. So we had a wander around Dingwall and that’s when it started raining on us. And we just did. We just did. We just did a walk around. We were maybe there for maybe an hour and a half, maybe 2 hours, just kind of a big loop around, saw what we could see and then ended up back at the bus station, at the bus stop and caught the next bus home. But what was funny was, and I think it speaks to how small some of these communities are, is that the bus on the way back we had the same bus driver that had dropped us off 2 hours earlier. But then not only that, I get bus drivers, you know, they have routes and so you’ll see them multiple times. But the one other person that was on the bus with us on the way to Digwall was also catching the same bus back to Beaulieu. So we basically had the same driver and the same passenger with us on the way there and on the way back. Yeah.

Dawn [20:16 – 20:25]: Oh, that’s really sad about Dingwall because I have actually been there. I used to go there regularly and, oh, I mean, it’s quite a small place, but yeah, that’s a shame.

Cathy [20:26 – 20:28]: What did you used to go there for?

Dawn [20:28 – 20:42]: It was just. With my previous partner, he used to just do lawnmowers and he was just. He would go to the caravan sites and, you know, service their lawnmowers and it was just. I remember it being a lovely, quiet but beautiful place. So. That’s sad to hear.

Cathy [20:42 – 20:57]: I. Yeah, it seemed like a lot. A lot was boarded up. What they did have there, though, which we saw a couple times, was a bakery. And you might know these done that. We had never seen them before, but they were gao. Is that what it was, a gao bakery?

Dawn [20:59 – 21:00]: God, I don’t know.

Cathy [21:00 – 21:16]: G o w. But the reason I bring it up is because we saw one in Avomore and then we saw another one in Beaulieu and then we saw the third one in Dingwall. So it seemed like it was a chain. Harry Gow. Harry Gow bakery is what it was.

Dawn [21:17 – 21:20]: Oh, God. I’ve never heard of him. It must be up that week.

Cathy [21:22 – 21:27]: It seemed pretty funny. It seemed like every. Every town we stopped in, there was a. There was a hairy gow bakery.

Dawn [21:29 – 21:33]: I wonder how popular that is. If he’s in all the small places, he must get the tourists.

Cathy [21:34 – 21:36]: Yeah, I guess. Yeah, maybe that’s what it is. Yeah.

Dawn [21:37 – 21:48]: Okay, then. So that was your visit to the Highlands. So do you think you’ll go back? Have you got your eye on anywhere else or in the area or see anything on the buses when you were travelling?

Cathy [21:48 – 22:25]: Well, we’ll definitely go back. Which areas we’ll choose next time. I’m not sure. I think that the next trip is going to require a car. We did this entire trip by train and that really did dictate sort of the stops and the areas that we could. That we could explore. So when we have been. Previously, we’ve driven around, you know. Yeah. So we have done that before, but we chose this time to just go by train. So if we go back up again, I think we’ll probably. We’ll map out some more smaller areas to take a look, go off the beaten track again and pretend that we’re not tourists and then end up doing touristy things.

Dawn [22:27 – 22:33]: Why do you want to pretend you’re not a tourist? It’s luckily being a tourist. It is. It is.

Cathy [22:33 – 22:42]: No, it’s. It’s. It is. It is fun, but it’s also. It’s hard to get an idea of what it’s like to actually live in a place when you are a tourist surrounded by tourists.

Dawn [22:43 – 22:51]: All right, then we’ll. That’s it. Thanks very much for telling me all about your time in the Highlands. I look forward to hearing from you again, if you go again.

Cathy [22:52 – 23:08]: Absolutely. It’s been fun. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having us on, Don. It’s been. This is, this is our. This is our first podcast that we’ve been on, so it was very, very exciting and fun. So, yeah, appreciate it. Thanks for having us. We’ll take better notes next time.

Dawn [23:08 – 23:14]: Yeah. But can you tell everybody they can find just thought lounge and you.

Cathy [23:14 – 23:40]: Absolutely, yeah. So we are just thought lounge on YouTube. So if you just kind of look us up there, all of our socials are kind of connected to that. We’re also on. On Instagram, primarily just on there. So if you want to see some pictures of our travels around Kent and specifically our two cockapoos, then make sure you find us on Instagram, which is just thought lounge there as well.

Dawn [23:45 – 27:11]: According to Wikipedia, beaulieu is a town in the Highlands, located on the river Beaulieu and is 12 miles, or 19 kilometres, about a 20 minutes drive west of Inverness. According to visit Beaulieu, Mary Queen of Scots visited Beaulieu in 1564 and stayed overnight, with many believing that the town got its name when she stated, pardon, my friend, c’est un Beaulieu, which means what a beautiful place in French. Although others believe that it is more likely the town’s name came from french monks who had a base in Hampshire in England called Beaulieu. Again, according to visit Beaulieu. The town is centred around a square where you will find many award winning independent shops and places to eat. And in the spring, visitors will come from far and wide to see the annual floral displays. Beaulieu is also a great base to start the north coast 500, from which is according to Northcoast 500 dot Comma, Scotland’s ultimate road trip, a route that covers 516 miles, or 830 kilometres of the North Highlands, where you will pass some breathtaking scenery, beautiful sandy beaches, rugged mountains and quaint fishing villages. An experience that you will not forget. For more information and to see the route, visit Northcoast 500 Dot. We talked a lot about the Beaulieu Priory in this episode, which was founded in 1230. And as I mentioned, there’s an 800 year old elm tree located in the extensive priory. And so now on to the annual events that take place in the Beaulieu area. Well, there’s actually quite a few. There’s the Beaulieu gala that takes place in July each year and the Highland Cross finishing line is at Bewley. The Highland cross is a 50 miles, being 20 miles on foot and 30 miles by bike duathlon that traverses the Scottish Highlands from coast to coast, west to east, ending like I say in Bewley. But the event that really caught my eye was the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, which takes place every year just a few miles from Bewley in 2024. It will take place on the 25th to the 27 July and tickets are on sale now from tartanheartfestival.com. the Bella Drum Tartan Heart Festival was first established in 2004 and has become one of the most unique and anticipated music festivals in Scotland, with a record breaking 20,000 people attending in 2022. It brings a diverse range of music genre together, from indie to folk, as well as showcasing local and international talent. It has also won many awards, such as an award at the scottish e awards in 2023 for best festival. It sounds like it would be a fantastic weekend. If you’d like to find out more or buy tickets then visit tartanheartfestival.com. so that’s about the end. If you’ve enjoyed the episode and would like to hear even more of Kevin’s delightful voice, then you can find just thought lounge on YouTube. A link to this as well as everything mentioned in this episode will be in the show notes as well as on our website, clurintornous.com scottishdigest that’s cluaranton.com Scottishdigest so we hope you join us next time for another wee slice of Bonnie Scotland.

Solway Firth – Wikipedia

Solway Firth Visitor Guide – Accommodation, Things To Do & More | VisitScotland

The Solway Firth Visitor Guide | Out About Scotland

Solway Firth (song) – Wikipedia

Annan, Dumfries and Galloway – Wikipedia

Annan Visitor Guide – Accommodation, Things To Do & More | VisitScotland

Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Annan Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland

SWH! Podcast | Scots Whay Hae!

Scots Whay Hae! | Scots Whay Hae!

In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences (Penguin Essentials): Written by Truman Capote, 2012 Edition, (Re-issue) Publisher: Penguin [Paperback]: Amazon.co.uk: Truman Capote: 8601417132517: Books

File:Ashley Jensen June 2016.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Haaf Net Fisherman on The Solway Firth – geograph.org.uk – 4116075.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:The river Annan at Annan – geograph.org.uk – 3626304.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Annan Bridge – geograph.org.uk – 4113600.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:High Street, Annan – geograph.org.uk – 3536074.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:High Street, Annan – geograph.org.uk – 5919085.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Lonsdale Cinema and Bingo Club – geograph.org.uk – 6001711.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Annan, alongside the river – geograph.org.uk – 4594853.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Solway shore at Powfoot – geograph.org.uk – 3644589.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Remains of tidal swimming pool at Powfoot – geograph.org.uk – 4513403.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Lonsdale Cinema, Annan | Home

BBC – Robert Burns – The Deil’s awa wi’ the Exciseman

File:Town centre architecture, Annan – geograph.org.uk – 6001690.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

(2) Facebook

(2) Facebook

File:River Annan railway viaduct, Annan, Dumfries and Galloway.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:River Annan upstream of the pedestrian bridge, Annan, Dumfries and Galloway.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Footpath beside River Annan – geograph.org.uk – 1067582.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Annan river bridge – Oct 2006.JPG – Wikimedia Commons

BBC Scotland – My Kind of Town, Series 1, Annan

File:’The Wicker Man’ Filming Locations, Plaque On Whithorn Public Library – geograph.org.uk – 4085699.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Annandale Distillery, Annan, Dumfries & Galloway. Chimney and courtyard.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station 2.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Chapelcross04JM.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Annan Harbour – Dumfries and Galloway south west Scotland

Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted by Dawn

Written and Produced by Dawn Young

Edited by Erin Erin Ferguson (@erinfergus0n) • Instagram photos and videos

Map courtesy of openstreetmap

Images courtesty of commons.wikimedia.org/

Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon & ES_A Sound Foundation – Airae

 

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Dawn [0:00 – 0:59]: Welcome to episode three of season two of Scottish Digest. In this episode, we will be speaking to Alister from the podcast Scotsway Hay, who will be talking to us about his favourite place and area in Scotland, which is Annan and the Solway Firth. Alister is the host of the podcast Scots Whay Hae, which discusses modern Scottish culture, whatever and wherever that may be. And Alister has had some fantastic guests on his podcast. Alistair and I also appeared on the BBC Scotland show the Big Scottish book club crime special episode, which you can watch on iPlayer if you’re in the UK. Just before we speak to Alister, here’s a wee clip from an episode of Scott’s Way Hay.

Alistair [1:00 – 1:53]: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another Scots Whay Hae podcast. And today I’m joined once again by writer Denzil Meyrick to talk about his new novel, Murder at Holly House. Hello, Denzil. Hello there, Alistair. It’s nice to see you again. And nice to see you again. And this is, as we just mentioned before we start recording, this is a bit of a departure. So what can you tell listeners about murder at Holly House? Murder at Holly House is set in 1950s North Yorkshire and it involves Di Frank Rasby, who arrives in the village of Elderby to find somebody dead down a chimney, something he wasn’t expecting. And one of the lines that the young laird of the manor says on this discovery, well, Santa got it terribly wrong this year.

Dawn [1:54 – 1:57]: Hi, Alistair. It’s lovely to have you on the podcast.

Alistair [1:57 – 1:59]: Hello, dawn. Thank you for asking me.

Dawn [2:00 – 2:11]: Oh, I wasn’t going to not ask you after meeting you. Billy Conley esque. So, can you tell us a little bit about you and about your podcast Scots weigh?

Alistair [2:12 – 3:00]: Sure. Well, Alastair Braidwood, who runs the Scots Whay Hae website and podcast, both of which look at Scottish culture. They’re a celebration of all things about Scottish culture. So it started out kind of focusing on books, but now it’s music, it’s theatre, it’s paintings, it’s opera, even. So, covering all sorts of different things. I just recently did a podcast with a couple choreographers who’ve got two dance shows out, or they did have last month. So it’s amazing the different things that we’ve kind of covered. I’ve learned so much doing it over the years. We’re coming up to our 300th podcast, so that’s coming up fairly soon.

Dawn [3:01 – 3:03]: Good God, that’s an achievement there.

Alistair [3:03 – 3:20]: Yeah. So it started 2011, I think was the first one. Website started in 2009, and both just been regularly doing over the years and it’s been great. I’ve absolutely loved it.

Dawn [3:20 – 3:31]: Yeah, you’ve got an amazing, like, so many different guests. Like you were saying, it’s just. It’s just so random, isn’t it? Each episode is just. You never know what you’re going to get. I like that.

Alistair [3:31 – 4:30]: Well, it’s interesting because when I started the website, people said, well, concentrate on one thing, you know, and that’s. That’s the best advice. And I thought, I don’t want to do that because I’m interested in loads of things. Yes. I was doing a degree in literature at Glasgow Uni at the time, which is one of the reasons I started it. But I also love my music and I love going to theatre and all sorts of things, so I kind of ignored that advice and maybe that was the right thing to do. But it does mean that you get a real mix of people coming on. We did one with Nancy from Crimecon, for instance. I never thought I would introduce her through yourself, and, of course, had the podcast sharing collaboration that you sorted out last year, which had all different people from different areas. Yeah, it’s been. It’s a great way of meeting and talking to new people. I think that’s the main thing. And if you’re interested in people, there’s nothing better.

Dawn [4:31 – 4:49]: Definitely. And it was. That’s where we met Nancy as well, didn’t it? At the BBC’s. BBC, Scotland’s, the big Scottish Book Club. That was where I first met you as well, in person. It was lovely doing that with you. But that wasn’t your type of book, though, was it? It was Truman Capote in cold Blood.

Alistair [4:49 – 5:48]: Well, in a way, it was my type of book. I would have read before I said Scottsdale. Hey, I’d read it and years and years and years ago, when I used to read a lot of american writers and things like that. I was really glad you asked me because it was something different for me, because now I mostly review fiction. That’s not true. I review a lot of nonfiction as well, but in terms of crime, it’s mostly crime fiction instead of true crime. So it was interesting to go back to a book which I kind of still thought of as a novel, because it’s a kind of novelization, a dramatisation of a true crime, which is what we ended up talking about a lot on the day. So. But actually, you asking me to do that, I think that’s a great example of the kind of connections that you make through doing podcasts and meeting new people, and then someone will say, oh, I don’t know who might do that. Don might do that. You know, that’s the way that he’s. And that’s probably why you’ve asked me on today, because, you know, these connections are made.

Dawn [5:48 – 5:59]: Oh, sure, yeah. Always. I love making connections and just sharing. Like you say, it’s interesting meeting new people and different walks of life, so. Yeah, definitely. I’m glad we met.

Alistair [5:59 – 6:00]: Yes, absolutely.

Dawn [6:01 – 6:08]: So, anyway, we’re here today to talk about one of your favourite places in Scotland. Do you want to tell us where it is?

Alistair [6:08 – 6:27]: I was so excited when you said this, because the place is Annan in Dunfisher, in the borders, and not a lot of people still know what it is. It’s become a little bit more famous recently because Ashley Jensen, the new lead on Shetland, that’s where she’s from. Yeah, she’s from Annan, yeah.

Dawn [6:27 – 6:28]: I didn’t know that.

Alistair [6:28 – 8:09]: Yeah. And I’m kind of surprised we never bumped into each other as kids because she’s a year older than me. She, I think, was born in 69 and I was born in 70, but. But we didn’t, however. Yeah, we used to go. The reason I picked Anand is because when we were kids, from a young age to teenage years, that’s where we would go on our holidays. So whether it was Easter, whether it was school holidays, whether it was summer holidays, that’s where we would go, because that’s where my mum’s from, so, her mum and dad. But although my granddad passed away when I was only three, we used to go down there for our holidays and it was, in hindsight, it was a good thing because I was from cambus Lang in Glasgow, a very different place, I think, to be playing on the streets. Dan Annan, which is very much. It was a kind of. Almost like a famous five time. You know, we were young, there was lots of fields. You had the solway, not that far, you know, you would go fishing for tadpoles, it sounds like, from something from the 1950s, but all sorts of things like that. There was a pipeline that used to go down to the solway, which we would walk down. Don’t think we were supposed to, but we did, and we would climb trees and build tree houses and we would play putting and it was just a lovely child go cycling. I don’t think we would have been allowed to cycle around Cambusland all day, but in Annan there was hardly any cars, really, on the street back then in the seventies and eighties, and we just went everywhere on bikes. It was a great time, it looked.

Dawn [8:09 – 8:13]: Sounds amazing. And you went there, you’ve got a brother as well. That’s who you went there with, wasn’t it?

Alistair [8:13 – 9:15]: Yes. Me and my brother’s three years younger than me. And we would go down. You asked for a picture, a picture of me and Andy. Now, Andy would have been really young there, looking at that picture, but, you know, there was a little play park and we would go, and as he reminded me back then, play parks were all covered in concrete. They were dead traps, you know, and we’re swinging up as high as we could. And it was beside Annan High School, which was the local high school. So we soon made friends with local kids, Peter and Helen Gilmore, if they ever hear this. Hello. Who lived in the same crescent as my granny did, and other folk like Pete Jackson and then later on, other kids. And so they were almost like your holiday friends, if you know, your school friends, camber slang. Friends, school friends here. And then you had your holiday pals when you went down there and. Yeah, so it was like another life, slightly from the rest of the year.

Dawn [9:16 – 9:21]: So have you been more recently? I mean, have you ever been back again? When was the last time you were there?

Alistair [9:22 – 10:35]: Funnily enough, I went last year because my mum and I were going down for a wee break down south, and she still got friends there that she went to school with and keeps in touch with them. So she was going to meet two of them for a lunch. So I was driving, so I said, I’ll drop you off, you go and have your lunch and then I’ll have a wander about and, you know, old memories. And it was great. It was really lovely to do. It’s not a big place anand you can walk around it quite easily. And it was great to see some of the old places that I remembered were there. Of course, a lot of them weren’t, but the basic structure of the town and the high street northwest was still there and some of the old buildings and Lady street cinema, which was the cinema we used to go to as kids, you know, the kind of morning shows off various things. Yeah, it was great to go back and have lots of memories, but I do often if I’m going down south or I’m passing nearby, I’ll pop in, because my granny and granddad are both buried there. So I’ll go and, you know, give the stone a clean and put some flowers on and that kind of thing. So that’s kind of the only time that I’m down. But it was nice to go back last year and really explore again.

Dawn [10:36 – 10:40]: And I’ve got some beautiful beaches there as well, haven’t they? Did you ever.

Alistair [10:40 – 11:29]: Absolutely. The one we used to go to was pow foot, which was. I mean, I could cycle to it, you know, quite a lengthy cycle, but, yeah, so that’s not too far from Annan at all by car. And it’s got some great beaches and jellyfish on the beach, you know, just lots of. There was a. There was a. I think they were called the notman’s, and I don’t know how legal this was or even anything, but they used to sell ice cream out of their kind of back kitchen, like proper ice creams they’ve got in their freezer. So jellyfish and ice cream. That’s what I remember a lot about power footage. But there’s a nice hotel there and the hotel still there, and there’s a golf course, and it is quite a kind of destination. But for us it was like jumping in the car, going and playing in the rock pools, and then maybe braving a swim.

Dawn [11:30 – 11:48]: Sounds good. And I mentioned, obviously it was maybe before your time, but I mentioned that there used to be a mile over the viaduct. There used to be a railway over the viaduct. Did you know anything about that? It was quite interesting.

Alistair [11:48 – 11:49]: In Ireland.

Dawn [11:51 – 11:56]: Over the sottles hallway. It used to be from England to Scotland.

Alistair [11:56 – 12:25]: Oh, right. I was thinking more just about Allan, but there was a bridge that went over, because the railway line still has to go over the solway. I think it’s a while since I passed, but when you. My memory here is if you’re driving south from Annan towards Gretna and then Carlisle, particularly near Gretna, you can look out your right and you can see a bridge where the rail, where the railway goes on it going down south, so that’s probably true. Yeah.

Dawn [12:26 – 12:38]: I read that it was. The Scottish used to go over into, use the bridge to go over to England, because the. You could drink there seven days a week and you couldn’t. I like that.

Alistair [12:38 – 13:08]: That’s probably true. I have to say, there is a great history off the borders. I read a book last year and his name escapes me, but it was all about the history off the borders. The writer had walked from one side in the east all the way along, jumping between the two sides, going from Scotland to England, back to the Solway. And yeah, it was a fascinating history a lot. I didn’t know a lot about it, but it really is.

Dawn [13:08 – 13:13]: I haven’t ever been to Annan, but I read somewhere that a lot of the buildings were made of dark red.

Alistair [13:14 – 13:55]: Yeah, that’s right, that’s right. And a lot of the municipal buildings which are still standing, a lot of them unfortunately, look pretty empty from when I went around recently. And a lot of the. Yeah, they’ve got that real kind of red sandstone. I don’t know the history behind where that might come from. But. Yeah, that’s true. It’s a really interesting. Oh, there’s a lot of history there as well. Thomas Carlisle is linked. In a moment I’ll talk about a cracking fish and chip shop, which is there, but the tale is that on that space, Robert Burns wrote the deals awa with exciseman because he worked down in Dumfries. He was an exciseman down in the fries shirt.

Dawn [13:55 – 14:00]: And there’s a cairn on the jetty that commemorates them as well, I think.

Alistair [14:00 – 14:01]: Yeah, there will be.

Dawn [14:02 – 14:04]: No, I like that. Robert Burns, eh?

Alistair [14:04 – 14:05]: Yeah.

Dawn [14:09 – 14:11]: Tell us about the fish and chip shop.

Alistair [14:11 – 15:12]: Well, I was thinking about. Because you’d said right away, where did you go to eat? And we didn’t go out a lot. It was usually kind of even back then it was going to take away. I will say, when we were really young kids, there was a corner shop which was. We could walk down to that used to sell at five p mixtures and, you know, really fruit salads and blackjacks and all those kind of things. And I mean, no wonder my teeth are so bad. We were kind of raised on if my granny would give us a five p, we were straight down here for something very sugary and sticky. That was probably the first place I thought of. And then there was the Solway cafe, which when we were young, when I was kind of 1213, about to become a teenager, I don’t think my folks were that happy about me going there. It was almost like the coffee shops off the fifties, you know, I think that’s where the bad kids hang about, all that kind of stuff. It’s absolutely fine. And I never saw any bother. And coming from cambus Lang, it was unlike, you know, it’s a different thing there.

Dawn [15:13 – 15:15]: Well, you would be the ball there. You’re not bringing the ball out there.

Alistair [15:15 – 15:46]: I was a very good child, but then there was. Now I remember this is a pagani’s fish and chip shop. And I looked it up and it said the cafe royal. And I think that’s its real name, is the cafe Royal. But the family who ran it, well, the paganis. And that’s what everyone knew as paganis fish and chips. And it’s a crack it. It was a really good. People travelled for miles around. In fact, I was looking at the tripadvisor, and people still travel from Carlisle to get some fish and chips.

Dawn [15:46 – 15:47]: Really?

Alistair [15:47 – 16:01]: It’s supposed to be freezing by the time they get home. I think you can sit in. I’m pretty sure you can, but, yeah, that’s a really good fish and chip shop. Worth visiting. If you’re in Ireland, that’s definitely the place, I would say, to visit.

Dawn [16:02 – 16:07]: And what about staying, when you went, did you ever stay? Did you stay with family or did.

Alistair [16:07 – 16:42]: You just stayed up? My grandson, my gran, lived on Solway Crescent. Now, living on a crescent’s great, because there’s hardly any cars again going round. So you’ve got this grass mound in the middle and we could just cycle round it and round it and round it. And so that’s where we would stay at my granny’s every time. Yeah. She passed away in 2011, so since then, that’s why we don’t visit like we once did. But right up to the end, you know, I would still go to visit her back then. Yeah.

Dawn [16:42 – 16:47]: How long does it take to travel from where you are now? Is it not going down?

Alistair [16:47 – 17:20]: I would say if you really put your foot down, you could probably do it in an hour, but probably about an hour and a half, I would say. And there’s some lovely ways to get there. You know, you could just east it down the M 74 and do that. But the old road, the b, I’m going to say 778, I might have got that wrong. But the old b road is still open, which is a really lovely road. Once you get down to kind of beatuk, you can take the back roads and go through things like Lockerbie and Eckelfeken and all these wonderful names.

Dawn [17:20 – 17:22]: I love that name. Always love that echo.

Alistair [17:22 – 18:04]: Fecken and Lochmaben and all these places. And these were the places we used to cycle to, because those roads were quiet. So you would get on your bike on a summer’s day and go out to Hodham Castle or go down the coast and go down to the solway. And we used to. We used to play in the fishing nets, which now seems like a strange and probably quite a dangerous thing to do. But they were all kind of like walls and you would kind of like little mazes and. Yeah, I now know that the tide is actually quite dangerous in there, but as kids, danger wasn’t really a kind of just went and did it. That was the kind of famous five side of things. You would just go and you know, luckily you were safe.

Dawn [18:04 – 18:09]: I love that famous five reference I can picture in my head, because I was a fan as well.

Alistair [18:09 – 18:39]: Yeah, it was. It was fun. And my friends actually had a dog, so we had our own Timmy the dog as well, to get it. As I said, it was just such an. It sounds. I don’t know if I’m viewing it now through real rose tinted specks, but it was a really idyllic place to kind of run about in summer and, you know, and just enjoy it. Plus it was also, you know, half an hour drive to Dumfries or Carlisle, so if you wanted to go into the big town, if you like, you could still go and. And do that.

Dawn [18:40 – 19:00]: His kids, though, I think I preferred the country as well. I liked. I wasn’t bothered about the towns or shopping and all that. It was like you sprang over things and splashing about. That was. Yeah, happy times. Don’t get that anymore, really. Was just jumping in puddles with your welly boots was just a great time.

Alistair [19:01 – 19:17]: Yeah. And, you know, going back to the old swim parks and everything, they were absolutely brutal. But you didn’t think that you might come off and split? I think I did once come off and split my head, but, you know, you did. You know, you just got back on and went and did it again.

Dawn [19:17 – 19:26]: Just what you’re used to, isn’t it? It’s normal. And are you into walking, Alistair? Because there’s a big walk, isn’t there, from.

Alistair [19:26 – 20:46]: I am into walking, but I wasn’t really at that time, so I would go walks and some of the ones I would go would be down to the solway along the coast and back up. I had. I was a runner when I was younger. I used to run a lot, so I would, you know, go running to power foot and even further. My grannies, my uncle and his wife, great uncle, I should say. He was an ex gamekeeper. So he lived in this wee place called green hill with really low roofs and there was a couple of ferrets running about the house and stuff like that, you know, real old school. But sometimes you would run out as far as there to go and. But there’s a lovely walk that goes down the river, and the river Annan’s a hugely important part of it. You know, fishing was a big part of the kind of economy there. Although my mum’s dad actually worked in Cochrane’s boilermakers, which was down in Newby. They’re actually from a little village called Newby, which is just down the river. And Cochrane’s was a big employer in the area and did boilers for boats and trains and all sorts of things. But, yeah, the river Anning is a big thing and you can still do a great walk, which is all path now, you’d have to fight through bramble bushes to get there. That’s a really beautiful walk, actually, to go out that way.

Dawn [20:47 – 20:51]: And there’s a route called. Is it the Annandale way as well? Is that the one you’re talking about?

Alistair [20:51 – 20:59]: I’m not sure if that’s the name of it. I wouldn’t know the name of it, but it could be. But there’ll be walks up hills and I’ve tried to remember the names of them.

Dawn [20:59 – 21:02]: Now, there’s a Moffat, Moffett Hills.

Alistair [21:02 – 21:08]: The one starts the Moffat hills. That’s quite a distance away, though, is it?

Dawn [21:08 – 21:12]: Yeah, it’s a 53 miles walking route. If you’re really keen.

Alistair [21:12 – 21:32]: Well, you’d have to be really keen. It must be about that. It must be about that. But you could probably a bit like the West Highland way. You could walk and do it. And also, as I was saying earlier, you can walk the border line. You might have to, you know, sometimes move from one side to the next to make it along. But you can do it. It can be done.

Dawn [21:34 – 21:43]: And you mentioned, is there a stone bridge there as well? It’s quite designed by Robert Stevenson. I love old things. I love these kind of old designy things.

Alistair [21:44 – 22:36]: Beautiful bridge. When you arrive in Annan that goes over a stone bridge. Now. I don’t know, again, I don’t know, my research, we just arrived and that was it. And we’d be cheering. When we arrived. And we passed the sign that said Annan, we thought, whoa, we’re in Annan. But it’s a beautiful old bridge and. Yeah, that’s very much. There’s lots of these kind of striking features in the place. If you like your old buildings and you like a bit of a local history, it’s worth checking out. In fact, have you seen the television programme where the presenter goes from town to town? I think it’s called in my town, something like that. He’s a visually impaired presenter and he goes with his guide dog. I think they’re all on BBC iplayer. And he did one in Annan and that’s if you’re interested in what I’m talking about. He’ll give you real dates and times and people and places on that.

Dawn [22:36 – 22:45]: Oh, that’ll be interesting. Have a look at that. The solway is that of scandinavian origin. Do you know, about that, the name.

Alistair [22:45 – 23:18]: Of it, it could be. There’s lots of cook named places in the area, which is a scandinavian for church. And so I don’t know if it is or not, but it’s. It was a place where, I think, kind of border raids happened, you know, the fights for the rights of the lands on the solway and fishing rights and all sorts of things. I think the Vikings would have been in and around that area at some point, considering how far down the coast they went, and then over to Ireland as well.

Dawn [23:19 – 23:24]: The wicker man was filmed round in a boat down that area, wasn’t it? Were you a boat for that?

Alistair [23:24 – 23:33]: A little bit before my time, but actually, Don, it’s one of my favourite films. I love the Wicker man in a big, big way.

Dawn [23:33 – 23:38]: I didn’t know. I always thought it was up north, further north it was filmed, but I.

Alistair [23:38 – 24:47]: Think it was filmed nearer, kind of Castle Douglas way, so slightly more into Galloway. I think that’s right. I’m not entirely sure I should know because I’ve read books about the making of the Wicker man. I think that’s right. And where they got that lovely sunset. And I think that’s all filmed on the mainland. And I should know where the house is that the Lord Summer Isle stays as well. I can’t remember. But, yeah, you’re right. It’s in that Dumfries and Galloway area. And what I would say is a lot of people overlook not just Annan, but Dumfries and Galloway in general. I think that’s partly because they built the M 74. Right. You know, beside it. So if you were travelling from Glasgow to Carlisle, for instance, you would go through Annan. That was one of the main roads, so it was really busy thoroughfare. And then, of course, that changed, and a lot of these places are forgotten for that reason. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who live in Galloway and love it, and it’s a beautiful part of the world, as is Dumfries, but a lot of people forget about it on their way up to the central belt or even on their way up to the Highlands.

Dawn [24:47 – 25:08]: Mm hmm. I do the same. I come from the northeast and I get over to Carlisle and straight up in the motorway and, you know, it’s such a boring. I am used to driving in the Highlands and I love, you know, actually doing something with your brain and actually driving a car around corners. That’s what straight line is, boring. So I don’t know why, but it’s just. It’s quicker, I think, isn’t it?

Alistair [25:08 – 25:54]: And it’s a good bit quicker, which is why they did it. What I would say is, if you’re ever visiting Ann, and instead of just jumping back on at the motorway, head out towards Lochmaben and Beatock. And those be back roads, because they’re beautiful roads to drive and they’re quiet these days. Unless you get stuck behind a tractor, which can help, you’ll come out kind of near Moffat. So it’s quite a nice drive and it doesn’t take that much longer than it would on the motorway. But if you want to go, say you were going up to Ayrshire, that drive Dumfries, Galloway, Castle Douglas, and then up the corner, up past Killane Castle and into Ayres. That’s beautiful drive.

Dawn [25:55 – 26:14]: I’ve never done that. I’ve actually looked at properties over in Annan and over that way, because it is. I think I saw it one time on escape to the country, and I was like, oh, I’d love to be over there, but I’ve never, never made it. Do you think, is that somewhere you would ever, you think, maybe have a wee retirement tool? Or is it not for you?

Alistair [26:16 – 27:48]: Now, it’s interesting you talk about escape to the country because it’s a programme. I used to work in television. Well, I used to subtitle television. I didn’t work in television. I subtitled the Telly for a few years, and I remember doing an escape to the country, kind of in Perthshire, and I thought, oh, that would be quite nice. And my brother’s up in Braemar, so it’s not that far. So I think I might think of going further north than there. But my brother saw a programme, a property programme, and one. He must have read it online or something, and there was a beautiful old house which overlooked the river, and it was quite inexpensive in terms of, you know, how much. And he kind of went, oh, that would be good to maybe buy as a holiday home or something. But then cents kicked in and, you know, and I went, no, I don’t. I don’t think that’s right. And I kind of wonder if you were to go back there, if that would spoil the memories that we have of it when we were kids, because it’d be such a different thing. I don’t know. But it was nice to go back and visit and I think it made me feel I should visit more often. But my mum’s got connections still there. I don’t really have connections there anymore, although I’ve still got family on mum’s side who are farmers. They’ve been farming in the area, and some of them are still down in that area and teaching and doing all sorts of things. But, yeah, I don’t know is the answer. There’s some lovely spots. There are some absolutely gorgeous spots.

Dawn [27:48 – 27:51]: Yeah. Like you said, it will spoil it.

Alistair [27:51 – 28:44]: It’s nice to consider, I think, definitely something I would. I’d like to mention, if it’s okay. One of the things they do every summer now, border towns have their ridings of the marches. They have their kind of celebrations every summer, and Annan had the riding of the marches every year. And we like people because it’s a country area, there’s lots of horses and that kind of thing. And people would get dressed up in the hunting. I don’t know if they actually hunted. I never suddenly crossed my mind if there was actually hunts going on, but they were dressed up in that way and they were blowing horns and they were on horseback, and everyone went down and cheered and all that kind of stuff. And I have to mention this, or my mum would kill me. There’s always a queen of the border each year, and my mum was once queen of the border with the crown and the staff and all that. Yeah. I think she’d only be about 15 or 16, maybe.

Dawn [28:45 – 28:47]: Is that like a gala or something? Is that. What is it?

Alistair [28:47 – 28:57]: It’s a gala. It’s a kind of gala. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All over the borders. But the Annan one’s called the riding of the marches, and that’s because it’s nearly all done on horseback.

Dawn [28:57 – 29:02]: That’s an amazing thing to watch. I mean, obviously, I don’t agree with the hunting side of it, but I.

Alistair [29:02 – 29:12]: Don’T know if they did, you know, I don’t know. They weren’t dressed in red things and, you know, it was. It seemed more ceremonial. But I could be wrong about that. That could be me being naive, kid.

Dawn [29:13 – 29:37]: You know, you don’t think about that. But no, it’s just been part of that. I, on my other podcast I did, I hadn’t ever heard of this gala when there’s queen queens and such like. And I did an episode that talked about Lockerbie, something that happened in Lockerbie, and that was the first time I heard about it, and it sounded amazing. And my sister and I were saying, why did we never have anything like that? That would have been so cool, so interesting.

Alistair [29:37 – 30:55]: It seems to be a real border town thing because they have it in Jedburgh and gala shields and all of these places. And. Yeah, the more I’m thinking, I think it was more about. You talked about the Wicker man earlier. There was more about kind of celebrating the summer and, you know, almost like a kind of harvest festival aspect to it, but on horseback, if that makes sense. Yeah. And they used to have fancy dress competitions where you would get dressed up, going, and one year, this. This ages me. It was the year after Scotland got put out, the World cup in 1978, or it was maybe that summer, and Ali’s tartan army, Ally McLeod’s tartan army, came back with her tail between her legs and everything. And we got dressed up as Ali’s battered army and we were like, in football strips with bandages and all that around us, and took part in this parade. We were on my uncle Alec’s van and I met talking to my mum before, about. Before we started talking. I said, how did we get Alec’s van? Why would you let us have this van? But, yeah, it was, again, that idea of kind of. You wouldn’t get that in Glasgow, or at least, you know, not that way. So it was a really interesting kind of very different experience.

Dawn [30:56 – 31:01]: I like that. It’s like all communities coming together. You can do that in the weird places, can’t you?

Alistair [31:01 – 31:13]: Yeah, it was stuff like that because the leader of the march might be the local hairdresser, and then there would be the farmers, and then there would be. The schools would take part and, you know, it really did bring the community together, no doubt about it.

Dawn [31:13 – 31:38]: I’m talking about events that take place. Have you ever been to the Annan Harbour festival? Have you ever been down when you’ve. No, no. It’s on every year and it’s on towards the end of your September time. And it just sounds. It doesn’t sound as good as the writing thing about, but it’s just cooking demonstrations, you know, food and drink and crafts and arts and lightning.

Alistair [31:38 – 33:09]: Sounds like that’s much more recent than I would have been, but it sounds like a good thing to visit. And I think. I think, from what I could tell last time, Annan’s really trying hard to have a bit of a regeneration in terms of trying to make it more of a destination for tourism having. They’ve got Annan distillery. That’s where my mum went for lunch that day. They’ve got their own distillery down there that’s new. They’ve got a lot more kind of brown sign spaces, you know, historical. They didn’t really play on their history back then. The other, I talked about fishing industry, but the other big industry in the seventies and eighties and into the nineties was there was the chapel cross power station down there, which was a huge power station, and a lot of people worked there. And then that closed, as you can imagine, and has been flattened. When we were. When we used to go down to Annan in the car, a game that we always played was the first person to see Chapel cross from the motorway. And you can still see the kind of where it was. But they’ve not got these big cooling towers that they had previously. But I think it was really struggling in the eighties and nineties for that reason. Apologies if that’s not correct, but that was the feeling I got when a big industry kind of left, as it did in so many places. I get the feeling it’s really trying to kind of reclaim its own identity with lots of different things going on. So that harbour festival sounds perfect for that. And something I might cheque out at some point.

Dawn [33:10 – 33:19]: And you think it can do that, then? Has it got the, you know, the structure about it, that it can actually make it a little tourist spot destination?

Alistair [33:19 – 34:06]: So it’s close to lots of lovely countryside? It’s close. It’s got a lot of its own identity, historically. Lots of old buildings, statues, that kind of thing. Lovely. It’s got the river with everything that goes on down there. And an athletic football are doing better than they used to when I was a kid. They are now doing all right. So, yeah, I think it could do that. I think it probably is doing that. And what I was really impressed the last time I was there was how busy it was. It really was busy. And it looked to me like a lot of them would be tourists. So I think, yes, I think it can, and I think it is doing that, to be honest.

Dawn [34:07 – 34:07]: Good.

Alistair [34:07 – 34:14]: But that’s. That’s taken from, like, a couple of experiences recently. As I say, I kind of haven’t been for a long time.

Dawn [34:14 – 34:18]: Yeah. So do you get any. Have you got any plans to go again soon or.

Alistair [34:18 – 35:17]: Well, Andy, my brother and I always talk, or often talk about the two of us going and just walking the streets that we used to go. And I think we will do that, no doubt about it. Go up and walk around the crescent, up Hecklegarth, which was the name of the street, another great name, Hecklegarth. And maybe even walk down the pipeline, if we can still do that, and look at the fields where we used to make the tree houses and carver names, and the railway bridge where we used to wave at the drivers, you know, that kind of stuff that you did and. Yeah, I walk down to the solway and probably go to power foot. Yeah. And do all the things that we used to do and just kind of refresh our memories for all those things. I don’t know if the tennis courts and the putting are still open. That used to be a regular thing, but yeah, we do that and we fish tea and paganis would just kind of round the whole thing off.

Dawn [35:17 – 35:29]: God, you know, I’ve not heard of fish teas for a wee while. Fish teas? Yeah. You can’t beat a cup of tea in a fish shop. That sounds like a lot. I think that’s a nice idea. We video it though, so you’ve got it.

Alistair [35:29 – 36:12]: We’ll certainly be taking lots of pictures and selfies with it when we do. If we do, I’m sure we will, actually. And I’m sure Andy would love to take his son down and show him, you know, where we kind of went and played as well. I think the swing parks will be more child friendly than they were in early, but it was just like, you know, kicking, picking a football till it was past dark and you couldn’t see it anymore. And it was. I think it was because my mum grew up there and she felt safe, so she felt safe, us just, you know, getting up in the morning and chewing, see us for the rest of the day and it was fine. And she never worried, you know, at all.

Dawn [36:13 – 36:29]: These are the days, eh? I remember these days as well, showing my age as well. When you said the football, see, when you said about the football and how Ali. I thought you were going to talk about Ali McCoys. That’s my era. I didn’t know that. Oh, I know. Oh, no, I don’t know him.

Alistair [36:30 – 36:58]: No, no, that’s, uh. Admit I watched him play a game of handball. Ali McCoys back in the day, East Kobride boy, I was canvas lang, so we. I used to go up Teesco bride quite a bit. But no, Ali Macleod would have been before your time. He was the manager in 78 and I was only eight years old. There was only a kid myself, but yeah, it was. It kind of traumatised the nation when we went to Argentina thinking we were going to win the World cup. And then we’re just battered.

Dawn [36:59 – 37:03]: It’s gotta be a bit better, though. I remember it always used to be getting battered.

Alistair [37:03 – 37:06]: Yeah. No, recently it certainly has.

Dawn [37:07 – 37:15]: Alistair. It’s been really, really good listening to you talking about your childhood memories. I’ve loved it, really. Thank you.

Alistair [37:15 – 37:30]: It’s been lovely it’s been lovely to think about those days and kind of think about time spent in Annan, where it really was a. An escape for us all, you know, it was. That’s how it felt anyway. A real escape to the country.

Dawn [37:32 – 37:39]: You had to get that in, didn’t you? Can you tell everybody where they can find Scottswehy?

Alistair [37:39 – 38:32]: Well, yes, absolutely. Scottswahe.com is where the website is, and on there you’ll find all the podcasts. And also, I should say, I do a radio show on Cam Glen radio every Sunday night between seven and nine. You can find the links there to that show, too, but there’s lots of reviews and the podcast interviews and a whole lot more. On the website, you’ll find the Scottswahi podcast. If you just put in Scotsway Hay, that’s s c o t s w h a y h a e, wherever you get your podcast from. I know we all say that these days, but it’s true. It’s on everything. And then we’ll go on social media as well. Same spell in the scots way, hey, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, or X, as it is now known. But yeah, so that’s where you can find everything. Scots with heish.

Dawn [38:36 – 40:33]: So Annan, according to Undiscovered Scotland, is probably derived from the gallic goddess of prosperity, Annu. And according to visit Scotland, Annan is a town on the north shore of the Solway Firth, lying on the east side of the River Annan and being about 8 miles or 13 kilometres from the english border, the Solway Firth estuary, which forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway, and is the third largest estuary in the UK. Being a special area of conservation comprises coastal dunes, salt marshes, raised mires and agricultural land. If you’re a bird lover, there are also two nature reserves along the coastline where, according to Visit Scotland, you can see thousands of barnacle and pink footed geese from autumn until spring. And I did, you know, is that the american heavy metal band Slipknot released a song called Solway Firth in July 2019, which was named after the Firth. I also mentioned the Annan Harbour Festival, which takes place in September each year and is a fun and free family event with a range of activities including cooking demonstrations, food and drink, crafts, children’s entertainment, live music and boats, fishing and heritage displays. You can visit annanharbour.org dot uk for more information. And that’s almost the end of the episode. If you have enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more Alister’s Billy Connolly esque voice. Then, like Alister said, you can find Scotsway. Hey, podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts, a link to this, as well as to everything mentioned in this episode will be in the show notes as well as on our website, cluranton.com scottishdigest that’s Cluaranton.com scottishdigest. We hope you join us next time for another wee slice of Bonnie Scotland.

Awesome Guide of Things to do in Cromarty [2023] – Scotland Bucket List

Cromarty – Wikipedia

Cromarty | Black-Isle Info

Cromarty Live – information and services in Cromarty, a charming and unique old town in the north-east coast of the Scottish Highlands

Cromarty Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland

All About Cromarty

Cromarty Live | Brief History

Cromarty History Society | Home

Awesome Guide of Things to do in Cromarty [2023] – Scotland Bucket List

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Home | Cromarty Film Festival

Things to do in Cromarty

The Fishertown Inn

Cromarty Arts Trust

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Waverley Excursions – The world’s last Seagoing paddle steamer

Garrison House – Millport; Isle of Cumbrae

Events – Millport.org

Millport.org – Welcome to the Isle of Cumbrae

Millport, Isle of Cumbrae – Your Questions Answered

Millport Visitor Guide – Accommodation, Things To Do & More | VisitScotland

Millport, Great Cumbrae – Wikipedia

Millport Raft Race: Date set for 2023 Cumbrae event | Largs and Millport Weekly News

(11) Millport Raft Race | Facebook

Cycling around Cumbrae – Millport.org

A Guide to Cycling in Millport, Isle of Cumbrae

Jack’s Alt-Stays – Unique Hot Tub Cabins in Millport

File:Lion Rock Millport – panoramio.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Isle of Cumbrae Cathedral of the Isles | National Churches Trust

File:Garrison House, Millport, Cumbrae, Scotland 05.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted by Dawn

Written and Produced by Dawn Young

Edited by Erin Erin Ferguson (@erinfergus0n) • Instagram photos and videos

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Images courtesty of commons.wikimedia.org/

Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon & ES_A Sound Foundation – Airae

 

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Dawn [0:00 – 0:49]: Welcome to episode two of Scottish Digest. In this episode, we will be speaking to Stefanie from the podcast Scottish and scared, who will be talking to us about our favourite places in Scotland being Cromarty and Millport. Stefanie is the host of the podcast Scottish and scared, where she discusses everything from haunted castles to ghost stories and mythological creatures from across Scotland. So if you’re interested in scottish history, horror, or just love a good ghost story, this is the podcast for you.

 

Stefanie [0:49 – 1:17]: So today, my lovelies, we are back in the wonderful city of Edinburgh. We are going to be talking about the Edinburgh vaults. You may have heard of them before, they’ve been investigated by ghost adventures most haunted, and we all know how I feel about those shows, but yes, they are renowned for being extremely haunted and are open to the public for tours. I myself have been on a tour of the vaults and had what I would consider a very strange experience. So I’ll tell you all about that later on in the show.

 

Dawn [1:17 – 1:21]: Hiya, Stefanie. It’s really great to have you on the podcast. How are you doing?

 

Stefanie [1:22 – 1:24]: I’m absolutely great. How are you?

 

Dawn [1:24 – 1:34]: I’m really good. Pleased to be speaking to you again. It’s been. It’s been a year since I’ve last seen you, mind, it was at the ghost hunt was the last time I’ve seen you. That was about this time last year, wasn’t it?

 

Stefanie [1:34 – 1:42]: Yeah. I can’t believe that’s been a year. Doesn’t feel like a year, this entire year. I just think it. I’m like, it’s November. What? It was November.

 

Dawn [1:43 – 1:52]: I know, aye. So, steph, before we talk about your favourite places in Scotland, can you just tell us a bit about you and Scottish and scared?

 

Stefanie [1:52 – 2:18]: Yep. So I’m Stefanie, I’m the host of the scottish and Scared podcast, and it is just a podcast talking about scottish history, scottish folklore, scottish myths, legends, ghost stories, haunted castles, all the creepy stuff that people want to know about Scotland. So, yeah, it’s about. It’s about all that kind of stuff. So if you like ghost stories or you just like history, it’s probably a good podcast for you listening.

 

Dawn [2:18 – 2:22]: And you’ve got a great accent as well, so that’s nice to listen as well.

 

Stefanie [2:24 – 2:25]: I’ve got a niche.

 

Dawn [2:25 – 2:38]: You do, you do. Brilliant. So you’ve got a couple of places you want to talk about today, isn’t there? So can you tell us what’s your first favourite place that you like to visit and why?

 

Stefanie [2:39 – 3:34]: So, my first favourite place is the wee village of Cromartie, and it is about a four hour drive from Glasgow, so that’s where I live. So it’s about a four hour drive north of Glasgow. The drive alone is beautiful. You go through Glencoe and stuff, you get to see the mountains, the wildlife. It’s honestly really, really stunning. We decided to go there last year in the summer when Scotland had that really nice summer, and we just decided to go see some places in Scotland that we’ve been talking about. I think it’s a bit different, actually getting the vibe of the place, rather than just looking at pictures and stuff. So one of the places that my cousin had researched was a place called the pirates graveyard. So we weren’t actually sure where it was. We just knew it was called the pirates graveyard, looked at a wee bit more, seen that it was in Cromarty, and then just decided to go. So, like I say, it’s a bit.

 

Dawn [3:34 – 3:39]: You’d never been to Cromarty before, had you? Because I’d not even heard of it. Until you said I was exactly the.

 

Stefanie [3:39 – 3:48]: Same, I’d never really heard of it. I’d never even really heard of the Black Isle either, because it’s located on the eastern point of the black Isle. I’d never even heard of that.

 

Dawn [3:48 – 3:51]: Neither did I, I’m ashamed to say. I was like, ah, that’s all right.

 

Stefanie [3:53 – 4:23]: I know it was shameful, but, yeah, it’s about a four hour drive north of Glasgow, like I say. And it’s. It’s one of the villages where it’s like one road in, one road out, and it’s. It’s very off the beaten path, it’s big wind and country road, so again, it’s a beautiful drive, but it’s a really small, like, 18th century kind of village and it’s only got a population about 700, so that’s not a lot, considering me coming to the big city of Glasgow is like, what I know.

 

Dawn [4:23 – 4:26]: Everybody will know everybody’s business, definitely.

 

Stefanie [4:26 – 4:30]: Well, definitely. We got there and people were staying quite a bit, so.

 

Dawn [4:30 – 4:35]: And friendly, because obviously Scots are always scottish, people are always friendly, so.

 

Stefanie [4:35 – 4:50]: Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, a lot of people were just driving by the cars, just staring at me, but, I mean, I do look a bit like, what is that? Walking over there in the best way possible. In the best way possible.

 

Dawn [4:51 – 4:57]: Hey, Stefanie, what do you mean? You got your tattoos, haven’t you? Is that what you’re meaning?

 

Stefanie [4:57 – 5:04]: Yeah, because it was. It was a height this summer, so obviously you have everything that people don’t usually see, so everybody was about like, oh, where’s that?

 

Dawn [5:05 – 5:15]: And you like to wear, you know, you like to be like Halloween, don’t you? Because we’re supposed to. You were going to do a Halloween party and I said, oh, I don’t know what I’ll dress up as. And you said, I always look like Halloween.

 

Stefanie [5:15 – 5:25]: Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I think of people that know me would class me as goth, but, I mean, I’m just. Halloween is my aesthetic. Really. Halloween in horror movies?

 

Dawn [5:27 – 5:34]: Oh, I like that. But I. So tell us, what was it like? So it was just this one street going in and out.

 

Stefanie [5:34 – 6:26]: So it was one road going in. And then when you. You’ll know when you get to the village, because it’s. You’ll see there’s an oil rig just, like, off the coast, like this huge, big oil rig. And I spoke to my dad about it because my dad knows a lot about that kind of stuff. And he said that that’s kind of where they go when they get, like, decommissioned and stuff. So you’ll see them, like, just in the water. So you’ll see them first, and then you obviously see the village, but there’s, like, a small wee car park just as you pull in. So if you just pull into the car park, that’s what we did. And then we just go and kind of explored a wee bit. But it’s just. It’s a really beautiful weed wee village. It’s. There’s a lot of mix of, like, different buildings. There’s townhouses, like, really grand looking townhouses. And then you’ve got, like, small cottages, you’ve got thatched roof cottages, and then you’ve got, like, wee fishermen cottages that are all, like, painted different colours. So it’s just really beautiful place to just wander about and have a wee look.

 

Dawn [6:26 – 6:30]: All right, mix. So where did you go? What did you see when you were there, then?

 

Stefanie [6:31 – 8:15]: So we were looking for the. The pirate’s graveyard, but we didn’t actually. We can actually see it on a map because it’s not called the pirate’s graveyard. It’s actually called St. Regulus’s graveyard. So we didn’t know that. So we were walking about this town. We didn’t want to ask anybody because we didn’t want to look weird. Why are they looking for graveyard? So we just kind of explored to be back. There was loads of shops and stuff, and there was a courthouse in the middle of the village that we thought was a church because it kind of looks quite church like. So we just thought, oh, well, there must be a. There must be a graveyard here somewhere. So we went into this, like, back path behind this big grand courthouse and we walked up this big massive hill and it was roasting. But we did get to the top. The graveyard wasn’t there, but there was another graveyard at the top. And I don’t know if there’s war memorials and stuff there, but it’s just loads and loads and loads of graves. There’s like a. It looks like it used to be an old chapel or something and it’s like ruined now, but it’s really beautiful. I took some pictures and stuff and then we had to walk all the way back to the village to find out where this graveyard was. But if you walk to the end, if you’re in the middle of the village and you walk to the end of Church street, you’ll find there’s a wee church called East Church. And it’s got a cemetery as well. And it’s a really beautiful cemetery. There’s also, like, it’s just very that vibrant. Loads of overgrown trees, grass, and the graves are all mossy and stuff like that. So that’s a really beautiful wee cemetery. If you’re into that kind of thing, you can go in there. And I think you actually go into the church as well. I think it was like one of the first presbyterian churches that was ever built in Scotland or something like that.

 

Dawn [8:16 – 8:21]: Is that the church that you sent? Because you sent me a lot of photos. Is that one of the wee steeple at the front of it?

 

Stefanie [8:22 – 9:26]: No, that’s the. That’s the courthouse we thought was a church. But this church is a wee bit. Is a bit further down. But again, I think you can go inside and you can do tours and stuff and they’ll tell you about different history and stuff. But because we were there for one thing, we didn’t really look at a lot of stuff. We just were there to do that one thing. But eventually we asked. We were into a wee pub that was in the middle of the village and asked the bar maid and she was like, oh, no, it’s here. So if you’re looking for it and you’re in the middle of the village, you want to just walk straight to the bowling green. There’s like a bowling green in the far side the village, and once you see the bowling green, there’s like this really big hill and really steep hill. There’s not a lot of signage, but if you just follow the hill, you’ll come to this, like, really eerie looking tunnel. And it’s like. It’s got a locked gate on it and stuff like that. It’s really dark. It looks really scary. And that’s the servants tunnel. And that actually leads to Cromarty House, but it’s obviously not in use anymore, so it’s all kind of, like, gated up, but it’s very creepy. It’s supposed to be haunted as well, so we took a lot of pictures of that as well.

 

Dawn [9:26 – 9:30]: You can’t get close to it. There’s a. You know, I love these old, scary places.

 

Stefanie [9:30 – 9:30]: Yeah.

 

Dawn [9:30 – 9:32]: Can’t get close to it at all.

 

Stefanie [9:33 – 10:03]: I’m not sure if you can go to Cromwell House, if you can go there. We never really looked at it that much, but I know that that tunnel is there. So if you’re looking for the graveyard, once you see the tunnel on your right, there’s like, a small, like, stony staircase to your left. It’s really hard to miss because it’s just in between all the bushes and stuff. But if you follow that staircase, it will take you into the pirates graveyard. So that’s. We eventually got there sweating, warm, moaning so is it.

 

Dawn [10:04 – 10:12]: Is it. Okay, I’m going to ask a stupid question. Is it called the pirates graveyard because it’s. Pirates are buried there. Well, what’s the story?

 

Stefanie [10:12 – 10:46]: Funnily enough, there are no pirates buried there. But the reason that it’s called the pirates graveyard is because I would say, like, 80% of the graves in there, they have memento mori carved onto them. If you don’t know what memento Mori is, just this kind of, like, artistic trope that you usually see on, like, really mediaeval graves. You can sometimes see it on masonry, you sometimes see it in art and stuff like that, but it almost always has skull and crossbones. You have seen the skull and crossbones, probably, and stuff.

 

Dawn [10:46 – 10:50]: Oh, I can see on one of them, I’m looking at eye. I can see the skull and cross bones.

 

Stefanie [10:50 – 11:26]: Yeah. So you usually. Momentum worry will always have a skull and crossbones, and that just kind of symbolises the inevitability of death and. But can sometimes the other. They include other symbols as well, like hourglasses and bells and stuff. That just depends what kind of person designed it and stuff. But obviously, momentum warrior is latin for remember, you will die. So that’s why this graveyard is called the pirates graveyard, just because they are the skull and crossbones. But it’s quite fitting, though, because when you’re in that graveyard, you can. It’s like. It’s on, like, a steep hill and it looks at onto the ocean. So it’s like very like pirates of tea.

 

Dawn [11:27 – 11:41]: So is this the picture? Because I know you’ve got a couple of places. So is the street. I’m looking. Is it right by the water? I’m looking at the pictures you sent me. Is it got a beach by?

 

Stefanie [11:41 – 11:42]: Yeah, crawl by. It’s got a beach.

 

Dawn [11:42 – 11:43]: It’s h. Right.

 

Stefanie [11:43 – 11:51]: The entire village is basically on the waterfront, so you can walk along the entire village. Majority on the water.

 

Dawn [11:51 – 11:54]: Hey, it looks really nice. It looks beautiful. Jay Yard.

 

Stefanie [11:55 – 12:12]: It is a really stunning place. I really like to go back. Like I say, they do loads of stuff that we never even knew that they did. They do like wildlife tours. You can see dolphins and stuff. They have a cinema. They have loads and loads and loads of stuff today. It’s definitely worth a wee drive in the summer.

 

Dawn [12:13 – 12:18]: Not scorching hot and not wearing a big black jacket in the summer.

 

Stefanie [12:18 – 12:42]: No, but we went to. Once we had our adventure and stuff, we went into the Fishertown Inn as well, which was just like a wee local pub that just had, like, really simple comfort pub food. And it was really, really nice. It was like cosy. The bartender came over, the owner came over on Saturdays and spoke to us and stuff. So it’s a really nice, welcoming place. So, yeah, I highly recommend.

 

Dawn [12:42 – 12:52]: And it’s not sort of a tourist destination, is it? I mean, like I said, I hadn’t heard of it before. You hadn’t? It’s not. Did you see. Was it busy when you. When you got there? Were you seeing a lot of tourists?

 

Stefanie [12:52 – 13:12]: There was a lot of cars in the car park, but it was. It wasn’t even busy. Like, you could walk and go see somebody for a couple of minutes. It wasn’t like pandemonium or anything. It’s like air or something like that during the summer. So as I think that’s due to the fact that it’s like a four door driveway. Classical so. But it is really, really stunning. Really, really beautiful.

 

Dawn [13:12 – 13:21]: And it’s not far from Inverness. It’s about 40 minutes drive from Inverness, I think. So it’s not. It’s not that awfully beaten track. Or is it. When is it. Is it wee roads you’re on or.

 

Stefanie [13:22 – 13:40]: Yeah, it’s like big open fields are just like grass and trees and stuff, like, on the way in. It’s just like a country road, but it’s very open. There’s lots of, like, fields and there’s like a wee place you can stop just before you get to cromry and it’s like a wee. You know those vending machines you see sometimes that sell, like, vegetables and eggs and milk? One of them.

 

Dawn [13:40 – 13:51]: Weird that when I found out about that, I’m like, what, in a vending machine? And did you stay over or did you just stay for the day, a few hours?

 

Stefanie [13:51 – 14:38]: No, we just. We just went for the day. We just went to take a few pictures and look at. We about. Speak to some of the people that were there. The people are really, like, if you have any questions or anything, like we asked about in the pirate’s graveyard, there’s like. There’s like a slope in the middle that you can walk down and there’s a crypt at the bottom of it and you can go inside it and there’s like four graves inside it, like, really small ones. And it was a bit odd. And we were. We asked, obviously, what it was and apparently there used to be like a. Like a chapel in front on top of it that’s obviously no longer there. So, like, just. You can ask people, they’re no, like, oh, God, tourists. They’re quite happy to just sit and have a week at me and talk about stuff and so I really enjoyed it.

 

Dawn [14:38 – 14:46]: It sounds lovely. Sounds. I like that. And going by the pictures, it looks beautiful. And didn’t even know it existed.

 

Stefanie [14:47 – 14:48]: Neither did we.

 

Dawn [14:49 – 14:53]: All right, then. So tell us about your second place.

 

Stefanie [14:53 – 15:24]: So my second favourite place is the famous Malcolm. It’s my favourite because as a kid, I think a lot of people my age that are from here, we have a great aunt and a great uncle who don’t have kids, so they just treated us like their kids. And they used to take us to Malport, like, every second weekend or something like that, especially during the summer. So we spent a lot of our summers on Malport, like, doing the bike rides and crocodile rock and all that kind of stuff.

 

Dawn [15:25 – 15:31]: First of all, tell us where. About how far away from Glasgow is that, then? How long did it take you to get there? Because it’s over the ferry, isn’t it?

 

Stefanie [15:32 – 15:58]: Yeah. I’m not really sure, to be honest. I’ve not been in a very long time. I know that. It’s obviously, you get the ferry from Largs, so I don’t know how long it is for Glasgow to larks. I’m terrible with distances, by the way. Miles have lost on me the idea. But you get to largs and you get the ferry for largs, but I’m not really sure how long that entire distance is.

 

Dawn [15:59 – 16:18]: I didn’t. It’s another place I didn’t know about at all. I didn’t. I didn’t know it was an island. I didn’t know it was near Arran, because I covered a case of my other podcast on Arran, and I didn’t. No idea. So it was just like, oh, I like this place. So tell us. You mentioned it. The crocodile rock. Tell us about the crocodile rock.

 

Stefanie [16:20 – 17:02]: I’m not going to be as fully information as I was about Cromwell, just because it is a childhood place. So I don’t really know much about it. But, yeah, on the beach in Malport, there’s this kind of rock that kind of protrudes from the water, and it’s. Somebody painted it, I don’t know how long ago, but it was there when I was a kid, and that was like 20 years ago. But there’s. They painted it to look like a crocodile, so it gets called crocodile rock, but when they see the tides up, it’s like, fully out of the water. You can climb on it, you can set up. We’ve got loads of. I’ll need to send you some. We’ve got loads of pictures sitting on the rock, but when the tides in, it looks like it’s in the water, so it’s actually quite terrifying.

 

Dawn [17:02 – 17:17]: Bloody. It looks really good. I like it. I was like, what the hell is this? So you said that you went there when you were like a kid? A lot of the time. So what. What did you get up to as kids? It’s kind of a family place. Is it?

 

Stefanie [17:17 – 18:16]: Yeah, it’s, um. We used to. They do this. I don’t know if they still do it, but they do this thing where you can ride it on the island on a bike. So you hire a bike and you just. It’s like a perfect circle. You just go around a circle and there’s loads of things to see. So we used to do that. And there’s the crocodile rock, and then there’s other rocks as well. Around the island. There’s a rock, I’m sure it’s called indian rock, and it’s. I think it was. The same person has painted, like, um, like a native american painting on the front of it, so it looks like a face. And so there’s, like, things like that, I’d say, but that’s huge. That’s, like, on the side of a cliff, and you can see that there’s lion rock, which is just like a big rock that comes up for the hillside. It looks like a line. So we used to do that. We used to just cycle down the island and, like, see the cows and, like, stop at the beach, collect seashells or that kind of gutsy family stuff. And then we would just go for, like, a wee lunch and a wee pub somewhere and then just sit on the beach for a while and go home.

 

Dawn [18:16 – 18:19]: Oh, so you didn’t stay there either? You were just there for.

 

Stefanie [18:19 – 18:34]: I’ve actually never stayed. My dad’s. They used to take my dad and my uncle when they were young as well. It was like a family thing. And they stayed quite a lot in, like, b and b’s and stuff. But we’ve never stayed. We’ve just. Because we had the car and stuff when we were young, we used to just hop back on the ferry and come home.

 

Dawn [18:35 – 18:51]: I like the sound of it being like, a perfect circle because I think it’s apparently called, like, the island of a thousand bicycles, because it’s just. I don’t know whether they’ve got a thousand of them they can rent. I’m not sure why, but it’s just like this. Beautiful. It must have been beautiful. I loved rides when I was young, honestly.

 

Stefanie [18:51 – 19:26]: It’s a really beautiful. The island is beautiful in general, but that ride, that site, I don’t think I could date at this age, if I’m being honest. I think I really like. Right, get the car. But it honestly is. It’s beautiful. And the only thing that I would say is there we had an incident on one of the bike journeys. My dad was standing too close to a tree and, like, puffins attacked them. And I don’t know if, like, there’s puffing mating season or something like that, or puffins have their eggs or something. My dad got attacked with puffins. So there’s puffins on the island as well.

 

Dawn [19:26 – 19:32]: Oh, I’ve never seen a puffin close up, so we didn’t want to see them that close.

 

Stefanie [19:32 – 19:33]: Very aggressive.

 

Dawn [19:33 – 19:36]: They’re only teensy little things as well, aren’t there?

 

Stefanie [19:36 – 19:55]: I think it’s maybe been nesting season or something like that, and my dad’s just got too close. But, yeah, there’s loads of wildlife. There’s rabbits, deer, and there’s a lot of farmland as well, in the root, so you can stop, like, pet cows and stuff like that. And there’s horses. So it’s a really beautiful journey, adventure.

 

Dawn [19:56 – 20:11]: And did you do anything else? Do you remember anything else? Do you remember visiting a wee cathedral or anything there? They’ve got. Apparently they’ve got the world’s or the island’s smallest cathedral, the smallest cathedral in the UK is on the island. Do you remember that?

 

Stefanie [20:11 – 20:33]: I’ve honestly, like, we never really did, like, touristy things. We just went there because it was like our whole families went there, like, since they were small and that was the majority. What we do is just sit on the beach, collect shells, crabs and the bikes and stuff. But I do want to go back as an adult, so I’ll definitely be writing some stuff done and checking it out when I’m there.

 

Dawn [20:33 – 20:38]: Oh, that’ll be good. It’ll be good to have you back on and find out the difference of when you were a kid and what it’s like now.

 

Stefanie [20:39 – 20:41]: Well, definitely no bike rides, I’ll tell you that.

 

Dawn [20:42 – 20:46]: Is it not flat or is it bottom? Hilly? Is it, like, hill?

 

Stefanie [20:46 – 20:52]: Some of it’s flat and it’s not like big, steep hills, obviously, but it’s an incline.

 

Dawn [20:54 – 21:00]: No, I’m not a fan of inclines. Can you get these electric ones now?

 

Stefanie [21:01 – 21:20]: Probably. It’s funny because me, my sister and my cousin used to. We were like, we threesome memorial. And my uncle, who used to take the car, he would drive her in the island, went beside us in the car, on the bikes, just to make sure we were all right. And every time my cousin and my sister would just get up and put the bikes in the boat and they would just get in the car and I would just begin.

 

Dawn [21:21 – 21:22]: Are you joking?

 

Stefanie [21:24 – 21:25]: I was like, I’m looking up.

 

Dawn [21:28 – 21:35]: I used sound like my sister. She’s like that. I remember her doing something similar, just, they would follow her with a car and she just would keep on going.

 

Stefanie [21:35 – 21:42]: Yep, I just loved it. I just love being outdoors and fresh air and the wildlife and the greenery. I just. I love all that.

 

Dawn [21:42 – 21:52]: And it’s different, I suppose, from where you are in Glasgow. Like you say, it’s like a city and then you’re out in the country just a lot. Like, it’s not far away, it’s not like 4 hours up the road. It’s like over the water, isn’t it?

 

Stefanie [21:52 – 22:09]: Yep. Glasgow, it’s just buildings. You don’t really see the sky. I know that sounds crazy, but, like, I can’t look at my window right now and see the sky. Like, there’s just buildings. But when you’re outside and you can actually look up and see the sky and the stars and stuff, it’s like so alien to people that live in the city.

 

Dawn [22:09 – 22:15]: Aye, the stars, because you don’t see that when you’re in the built up areas. But there’s so many of them.

 

Stefanie [22:16 – 22:21]: I went to. I went to Yorkshire a couple of years ago.

 

Dawn [22:21 – 22:22]: What was that for?

 

Stefanie [22:23 – 22:42]: I ended up with sepsis. So, from the water, no shade, Yorkshire. But, yeah, I was stupid. I didn’t realise that you couldn’t drink water in England. Well, some parts of England. I didn’t know that. Just being in Scotland my whole life and no ever travelling to England, I.

 

Dawn [22:42 – 22:42]: Didn’T know that either.

 

Stefanie [22:43 – 22:48]: I got really, really, really ill and I ended up having to be hospitalised when I came home and I had sepsis, so.

 

Dawn [22:48 – 22:51]: All right, then. So you’re definitely a scottish girl.

 

Stefanie [22:51 – 23:04]: He’s staying in Scotland, no shade, Yorkshire. But. Come on. But, yeah, when I went to Yorkshire, the stars, I was see just the stars, being able to see the sky like that, it was so alien, which is just bizarre.

 

Dawn [23:04 – 23:07]: I know. It’s a big world out there, isn’t it?

 

Stefanie [23:07 – 23:08]: Yep.

 

Dawn [23:08 – 23:15]: I know. You’re only there for the day. Did you ever be part of the raft race? The partners do raffle races there every year. Have you ever done that?

 

Stefanie [23:15 – 23:17]: Is that where you build the rafts?

 

Dawn [23:17 – 23:26]: I think so. It’s really competitive. There’s only seven people last year, I think. But they were really coming down to the wire. They were, like, going for it.

 

Stefanie [23:26 – 23:32]: I’ve seen that on the news and stuff, but I’ve never actually done it. I think my dad and my uncle mate, I did something like that when they were young.

 

Dawn [23:32 – 23:33]: I’m sure.

 

Stefanie [23:33 – 23:36]: I’ve seen pictures of them on the beach building stuff.

 

Dawn [23:36 – 23:38]: I think it’s from lurgs to Millport.

 

Stefanie [23:40 – 23:42]: See, I’ve just got so much to learn.

 

Dawn [23:42 – 23:45]: No, get yourself over there as an adult.

 

Stefanie [23:47 – 23:48]: I’ll report back.

 

Dawn [23:49 – 24:01]: So, anyway, Stefanie, it’s been really, really great speaking with you and hearing about Cromarty and Millport. So can you tell everybody, if they want to hear your lovely voice more, where they can find scottish and scared?

 

Stefanie [24:02 – 24:31]: So if you just go to our website, scottishandscared.com, you’ll find all our links on there. We. Our instagram’s on there. Everywhere that you can listen is on there. All the links. But, yeah, just your usual apple, Spotify, Google play, all that kind of stuff. That’s where you’ll get is. You can follow us on Instagram. That’s where we just put up a lot of stories and stuff there. Just things that we’re up to, events are coming up, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, that’s where you can find us.

 

Dawn [24:35 – 28:49]: So, that was my week chat with Stefanie about Cromarty and Millport. Two of our favourite places in Scotland. While I think Stefanie did a fantastic job painting a picture of Cromarty and Millport, here’s some further information for you. Firstly, about Cromarty, which according to Wikipedia, is a town situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of the Cromarty and is about a 40 minutes drive north of Inverness. And according to cromartyartstrust.org dot Uk, Cromarty is the Highland’s best preserved historic town, having 209 listed buildings, including a lighthouse which was built by the uncle of Robert Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote the novel Treasure island. There’s also a thatched cottage and museum, which was the birthplace of Hugh Miller, who was a 19th century geologist. There’s also an 18th century courthouse museum you can visit, which according to cromertocourthouse.org dot Uk, you can come face to face with a tough Highland justice of the time, visit a prisoner and take part in a trial. It also has many exhibitions and collections to see if you’re a cheese lover. You’ll also find in Cromarty an award winning cheese shop where, according to scotlandbucketlist.com, you will find a great selection of authentic dutch cheese. Now, if you’re tempted to visit Cromarty after hearing about Stefanie’s visit there, then you might be interested to know that every march the Cromarty Film festival takes place, where you can expect to see a variety of different films from well known short independent films and those by scottish filmmakers. Next up is Milport. I personally really enjoyed hearing about the lion Rock, the indian rock and the Crocodile rock, which have been around for about 100 years, and cycling around the islands of Cumbri sounded idyllic. According to milport.org comma, the island of Cumbri is referred to as the island of a thousand bicycles simply because Cumbri is a paradise for cyclists. The island of Cumbri is located off the west coast of Scotland, about 36 miles, or 58 kilometres west of Glasgow, so quite near if you fancy a day trip to Millport, and during the summer months, the P’s Waverley, which is the last seagoing passenger carrying paddle steamer in the world, calls Millport twice a week on trips from Ayr in Glasgow, as well as visiting the iconic rocks while you’re visiting Millport, there’s also, as I mentioned, the smallest cathedral in the UK to visit, as well as the Garrison house, which is not far from the cathedral, which was built in 1745, and it also houses an impressive model railway. Theres also a home called the Wedge to visit, which according to Jacksaltstays dot co dot UK comma, was in the Guinness Book of Records for being one of the narrowest houses in the world at 47 inches or 119 centimetres. Although it has now lost the title of being the narrowest in the world, it still holds the title for being the narrowest house in Britain. Sadly, you arent able to go inside this house elsewhere on the island of Cumbria, Jacksaltstays dot co dot UK recommends visiting the Gladestone, which is located at the very top of the island and will give you 360 degree panoramic views of the island. And what about events? Well, I mentioned the Millport raft race in my chat with Stefanie, and after a two year break it began again in September 2023 where, according to Largs and millportnews.com comma, hundreds watched seven raft teams compete from Kames Bay to the pier head. If youre more interested in dry land events, then theres the Millport vintage scooter rally that also takes place over a weekend every September, with the weekend being packed with scooters and bands. Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing about Cromarty and Millport from Stefanie. If youd like to hear more about scottish haunted castles, ghost stories and mythological creatures, then as Stefanie said, you can find scottish and scared wherever you get your podcasts. You can find all links to everything mentioned in this episode by visiting clurinton.com scottishdigest. We hope you join us next time for another wee slice of Bonnie Scotland.

East Neuk – Wikipedia

Edinburgh to Elie and Earlsferry – Google Maps

East Neuk Festival – East Neuk FestivalEast Neuk Festival | Annual international music & arts festival

10 fascinating facts about… St Andrews and the East Neuk – Scottish Field

Multi Activity Days – East Neuk Outdoors

East Neuk Outdoors – East Neuk Outdoors

The East Neuk of Fife Visitor Guide | Out About Scotland

The East Neuk of Fife – sea views in one of the prettiest parts of Scotland

Elie Earlsferry Beach, Elie – Beaches | VisitScotland

Things to do in Elie – East Neuk of Fife, Scotland

East Neuk of Fife Travel Guide & Things To Do – The Chaotic Scot

Elie and Earlsferry – Wikipedia

Elie & Earlsferry Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland

Home – Elie & Earlsferry History Society

beauly – Search

Elie Holiday Park at Shell Bay, Fife| Abbeyford Leisure

Home – The Shellfish Shack Fife

(20+) Facebook

Home – Crail Pottery

St Andrews 4 miles-Quiet hamlet-Walk to the Sea! – Cottages for Rent in St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom – Airbnb

Elie chain walk – scrambling Scotland’s via ferratta on the Fife coast

Daneger and Stacey – YouTube

Pittenweem Chocolate Company – Pittenweem Chocolate Co.

St. Fillan’s Cave – Pittenweem, Scotland – Atlas Obscura

Ardross Farm

Bowhouse – Replacing the missing link in the local food chain

St Andrews 4 miles-Quiet hamlet-Walk to the Sea! – Cottages for Rent in St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom – Airbnb

Fife business – Lady’s Tower

Wikimedia Commons

Market Weekends – Bowhouse

Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted by Dawn

Written and Produced by Dawn Young

Edited by Erin – Erin Ferguson (@erinfergus0n) • Instagram photos and videos

Map courtesy of openstreetmap

Images courtesty of commons.wikimedia.org/

Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon & ES_A Sound Foundation – Airae

 

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Dawn [0:00 – 1:12]: Welcome to episode one of season two of Scottish Digest. This season we will be hearing from a variety of people about what their favourite places and areas in Scotland are, what they love about it, and what things they love to do when visiting, as well as hear their food, drink and accommodation recommendations. And of course, I’ll be telling you all about the events and or festivals that take place there each year. We hope you enjoy hearing more about the beautiful places and areas around Bonnie Scotland. In this episode we will be speaking to Marti from the podcast Mums Mysteries and Murder, which is hosted by Marti and Effie. Marti is from Australia, but moved to Edinburgh and Scotland in 2006. A native, Scott, Effie grew up in Aberdeen but now also lives in Edinburgh. Before we hear from Marti and about her favourite places and areas in Scotland, here’s a wee flavour of what you can expect from the Mums Mysteries and Murder podcast.

Marti [1:14 – 1:58]: Hi, I’m Marti. And I’m Effie. And we are mum’s mysteries and murder. We’re mums obsessed with true crime and mysterious happenings in our respective countries. Australia and Scotland. We talked about it all the time, so we thought, screw it, let’s record that shit. And we started a podcast. Each month we bring you an episode from either Scotland or Australia, both well known and less well known. And we might talk about some other stuff in between too. So if you love a bit of true crime, weird accents, you love a mystery and you don’t mind a bit of random chat in between, then this is the podcast for you. You can come and follow us on Instagram, umsmysteries and murder and listen and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Bye.

Dawn [2:03 – 2:05]: So, hi Marti, welcome to the podcast.

Marti [2:06 – 2:07]: Thanks for having me.

Dawn [2:07 – 2:14]: I’m excited. So can you tell us a little bit about you and what brought you to Scotland?

Marti [2:16 – 3:50]: So I moved to Scotland back in 2006. I had been here before, so a very long time ago. It was actually the year 2000. I lived here, but I lived in Cheltenham, further down south, and I’d been to Glasgow for one day, I think I’d been to Edinburgh for half a day when I lived here. So I’d come up, stayed here. The guy that I was going out with at the time, he was working in Glasgow. So I caught the train up and I met him in Glasgow and I stayed here for a couple of days. I stay here, I’m in Edinburgh, but I love the shopping so much. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying to me. I could not understand. I just kept saying yes to people and that was sort of my experience with Scotland. Like two days. It was literally two or three days that I’d spent here. But I remember the shopping and how amazing the shopping was. So when I went back to Australia and decided that I wanted to come back, Scotland was the first place, not just for the shopping. I’m not that shallow. But I remembered, like, how green everything was. Everything to me. Because Australia is so brown, because it’s quite hot in Australia all the time, most parts of Australia. So, yeah, I actually remember taking pictures of Scotland and being shocked at how green the grass was and how beautiful it was. So when I decided to come back, I thought, I’m just going to try Scotland, see how it is. If I don’t like it, I can move somewhere else. But, yeah, that was sort of like the decision, I think the shopping, the green, the cow parade was on. Do you remember the cow parade?

Dawn [3:50 – 3:52]: No. Nope.

Marti [3:52 – 3:52]: I don’t know.

Dawn [3:52 – 3:54]: The co parade in glass.

Marti [3:54 – 4:07]: You said that like you knew exactly what that was then. No. So it was like a. You will remember it when I explained this. You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. So they were fibreglass cows and they were painted by different people and then they were auctioned off for charity.

Dawn [4:08 – 4:11]: Do you remember, was it in Glasgow?

Marti [4:12 – 4:24]: It was all over Edinburgh and Glasgow. I think it was Glasgow as well. So they auctioned them off. So I remember saying to my friend that was moving over with me at the time, let’s go to Scotland, because they have good shopping and there’s a cow parade.

Dawn [4:24 – 4:31]: Hose. Oh, my God. I’ve never heard of that. I’m gonna have to ask my gran.

Marti [4:33 – 4:50]: I mean, yeah, it was really. It was a very not well educated decision, to be fair. But I didn’t regret it and I loved it and I’m never leaving, so, I mean, it’s all worked out well in the end, hasn’t it? Cows or no cows, clothes and shopping.

Dawn [4:50 – 4:55]: Okay, and green. Whereabouts in Australia? Whereabouts in Australia? Where you from?

Marti [4:55 – 4:56]: Melbourne.

Dawn [4:57 – 4:58]: All right, okay.

Marti [4:58 – 4:59]: Which one is that?

Dawn [4:59 – 5:00]: Neighbours.

Marti [5:00 – 5:17]: That’s. Yes, that is neighbours. Right down the bottom. I’m actually born in a smaller town that’s just near Melbourne. That guy pearce is from. That’s all we’ve got. That’s the only claim to fame. We’ve got guy. Peace and quicksilver. Quicksilver comes from there as well. Yeah.

Dawn [5:17 – 5:20]: Yeah. Oh, no, guy. Peter is a good one. He’s done well for himself.

Marti [5:21 – 5:28]: Yeah, he’s. He’s a good one to have if you’ve only got one small person. That’s a good person. It’s a good looking person to have, isn’t it?

Dawn [5:31 – 5:36]: And tell us a little bit about the podcast as well. How did that come about? Mum’s mysteries and murder.

Marti [5:36 – 6:12]: So that kind of come about in Covid, pretty much like everyone else’s business did and everyone else’s podcast did. Effie and I would talk about true crime and, you know, we’d send each other links to things all the time. Effie. Effie’s really annoying the way she does it, though. She’s not going to kill me for this because she knows. She knows what she does. She sends me a message that just says OMG and nothing else. And you’re sitting there like, what? What is OMG? What do you tell me what you’re talking about. You’re just sitting there waiting. She’s not even typing. You know, you can see them typing. She’s not even typing.

Dawn [6:12 – 6:16]: Getting your attention first. Are you really paying attention? I’ll tell you the punchline.

Marti [6:16 – 7:42]: That’s what it is. You have to wait and be interested. But, yeah, we would often send each other random little facts about true crime stories that she would send me the most random things about people in Russia and, you know, all this sort of stuff, and I would send her lots of serial killer information because that’s not really her thing. So we sort of started talking about it a little bit and she was quite hesitant at the beginning. I had been a guest on other people’s podcasts to talk about social media, which is my day job. So I was sort of a little bit. Let’s just give it a go. No one will listen. It’s fine. And so I really had to talk her into doing it. But, yeah, it’s worked out really well. We have a really good rapport. We’re sort of at the stage where, because we’ve known each other for so long, we feel quite comfortable speaking to, like, interrupting each other and asking random questions and, you know, she’s very good at asking random questions that I feel like I’m never going to have the answer to and vice versa. And she has lots of very strange stories. She has. We’re similar, but I’m sort of from the city, so I grew up near the city and I’ve always lived near the city and she’s from Aberdeen, but a little bit further away. So sort of like the real country. So the stories that she comes up with are just so bizarre and, yes, so bizarre and so different. But we have this same sort of sense of humour. So I think it sort of works out really well.

Dawn [7:42 – 7:59]: Oh, it does work out, really. And you’ve got some great following amount of, you know, checked out your reviews and you get some lovely reviews and, you know, people, even on social media, you’ve got, you know, people saying how great you are and how much they love your conversations and it’s lovely to see you’ve done really well.

Marti [7:59 – 8:15]: Yeah, it’s a really. Thank you. It’s a really lovely follower base that we have. We have, like, a few certain people that will message us all the time after episodes and I’m thinking, why do you love it so much? It’s really not that good, but I’m not going to tell them that, so it’s fine.

Dawn [8:16 – 8:19]: No, you’ve got something, you know, you’ve obviously got something.

Marti [8:19 – 8:22]: Yeah. All right, then.

Dawn [8:22 – 8:29]: So back to Scotland. We’re here to talk about your favourite place, which is reveal.

Marti [8:29 – 8:37]: Wow. I did say early, but I’m going to be a bit sneaky and say the ace nuke of fife.

Dawn [8:37 – 8:45]: That’s okay. I was like, oh, what are you going to say? Because I’ve not done research. You can do that to me because.

Marti [8:45 – 8:59]: Technically Ely is part of that area, but there’s so many little villages in that whole section and I’m just in love with it. But Ely is the main focus for us, really.

Dawn [8:59 – 9:07]: So, um, we’ve got east Nook and specifically Ely and Earlsbury, because they are joined villages, aren’t they?

Marti [9:07 – 9:50]: Yes. Do you know Earlsbury is. I didn’t really know much about Earlsbury and I don’t really know a lot about it, but the beach at Earlsbury is one of the most beautiful beaches, I don’t want to say in Scotland, because I know there’s Shetland and all those amazing beaches and, like, Harris and all of that, but in this little part of the world, elsewhere, beach is so beautiful and, like, ely’s got such a huge main beach. It’s huge. And, you know, they play cricket. There’s always, like, cricket. It’s really well known for cricket games on there and, like, lots of sporting activities. But the beach at Earls Ferry is just stunning. It’s always deserted as well.

Dawn [9:50 – 10:12]: I saw, I was looking on YouTube and there was a video from a couple called Dan. He’s called Dean. Dean and Stacey, and it’s danger and Stacey. And they showed and I haven’t. Is it like a little cove? Yeah. Oh, that was the video they showed and it was beautiful. So I know which one you’re talking about.

Marti [10:12 – 10:34]: It’s just when you compare it to Ili because Ily is so busy and so full of families. It’s a nice beach, but it’s nothing special. This is going to sound bad. Earls Ferry is just like. I’m almost torn about whether I wanted to mention it because I want it to stay really quiet. When we were there, we could hear seals on the rock out at sea. It was amazing.

Dawn [10:34 – 11:02]: It looks beautiful. I’m going to have to show a picture of that. It’s situated on the northerly part of the firth of force in Fife. It’s about 46 miles, or 74 kilometres northeast of Edinburgh, or about an hour and a half journey. It’s quite small, it’s 40 sq mi and it’s known for its scenic coastline and pretty fishing villages with Petoween and Strother and Creole. Is it Creole?

Marti [11:02 – 13:03]: Yes. I’ve got Crail on the list. I’m so glad you mentioned Crayole. Crail is one of those places. Right, because. So we’ve been going to ily for the last few years, maybe about. For the last four or five years, and we usually stay in the caravan park. I think it’s called Shao Bay Caravan park. Yeah. Which is amazing. It is such a pretty caravan park. I never grew up doing caravan holidays. Right. We were not rich by any means at all, but we never did caravan park holidays when I was little. So this was the first caravan park I’d been to. And it’s just. Yeah, it’s so pretty. I mean, they have the disco, they have the kids disco and all that that you can go to, you know. And I know people aren’t a big fan of that. I mean, we went once and it was brilliant. Yeah. Oh, I mean, it was brilliant. So we usually drive around, we’ll do the St Andrews thing and we’ll go to anstruther and all that sort of thing. But we discovered krail only two years ago and I was like, how have we not found this amazing place? So it’s quite small. It’s really small. You wouldn’t spend the day there. You’d spend maybe half the day there. Right. But it’s one of those places when you walk around the corner and every corner is instagram worthy. I’m not just saying that because I work in social media. It is so beautiful. It’s winding. Like, it’s all really winding and it sort of goes up to like a big cliff top that overlooks the harbour. And there is someone that sells lobster rolls. I think it’s called the lobster shack. I’ve written it down. Lobster shack on the harbour. And you can just go and get a lobster roll in the summer. Oh, my God. It is amazing. And they have the Crail Harbour gallery, where you can get a coffee. And that is sort of right at the top of the harbour. And it just overlooks. If you can get a seat in there, I mean, get in there at 10:00 in the morning because the tourists will be there and there’s no way you’ll get a seat. We’ve never managed to get a seat in there.

Dawn [13:03 – 13:05]: But is it just little or just a little?

Marti [13:05 – 13:42]: Yeah, it’s tiny. And then there’s, like, a little bit that goes outside and sort of. It is just stunning. It is just one of the most beautiful villages I’ve ever seen. There’s like a little krail pottery place. I think it’s just called krail pottery, but it is really small. Like, it’s super small, but it’s just sort of up on a. It’s almost like a. What’s the word? Like a turret. There’s almost like a big sort of turret at the top. It’s really hard to explain, but it is just the most beautiful place. It is gorgeous, yeah.

Dawn [13:42 – 13:48]: And it said it has an attractive harbour as well. Is that right? You mentioned the harbour.

Marti [13:48 – 14:08]: Yeah. It’s quite small. There’s not really much there. But I mean, the lobster shack, you can sit there on the harbour and have your lobster roll. And it’s quite famous, I think, the lobster shack, I think it’s quite well known. There’s not. I mean, there’s not much there at all, but it’s just such a beautiful place to spend the morning. It’s just lovely.

Dawn [14:09 – 14:15]: Just to unwind. It sounds like it’s just a slow down kind of place. Just let it roll over you.

Marti [14:15 – 14:27]: Yeah, it’s one of those places where you go around the corner and there’s more people on their phones taking photos, and then you go around the corner, more people take. You know, it’s one of those really little cute places, but it’s just beautiful.

Dawn [14:27 – 14:44]: Now, you did send me a couple of photos of you and your family there as well in Ely, was it Ely you were at? Yes, apparently. Again, it’s the green. You mentioned the green, and the photos were beautiful, and there was green everywhere. Can you just tell us a little bit about the photos and what you were doing that day and.

Marti [14:44 – 15:29]: Yes. So that green, actually is just near St. Andrews. So that’s another little town that we stay in called Boar Hills. So we went there for the first time this year. We were looking for Ealy. Ealy was sold out, so it often sells out really quick. But this is a little Airbnb and I think I’ve sent you the link so you could put it in the show notes even. But it’s a really little. It’s not. I don’t even know if you’d call it a village. There’s a few houses and it’s about ten minutes drive from St. Andrews and it’s a little area called Moor Hills. And we send this Airbnb. Absolutely stunning. They had a hammock in the back garden and they had, like, a little fire pit for roasting marshmallows. So lovely. The owners were so lovely.

Dawn [15:29 – 15:32]: Miranda, it says it was horsted by Miranda.

Marti [15:32 – 15:57]: Yeah. Yes. And so child friendly. One of the rooms, you opened the cupboard and it’s packed full of toys, like a full doll house, a full kitchen. So, yeah, it’s a really great place to stay if you have kids because it’s quite peaceful and it’s not too far from anyway. But that little, that image that I sent you with the grass, that’s actually a walk that goes down to a beach.

Dawn [15:58 – 16:10]: Yes. It was an easy walking distance to the sea. So that’s. I can see that you got the grass. Beautiful picture. Chocolate, it’s green. And then you’ve got the blue, and then the blue sky and it’s beautiful.

Marti [16:10 – 17:30]: It is so beautiful. I’m. I’m a little bit of an old lady when it comes to Scotland, really. I’ve turned into my dad, you know, when we were little, my dad would take us to go and see boats and go, oh, look at that boat. That boat’s amazing. It’s got a really loud voice, which is what been transferred to me, clearly. But look at that boat. That boat’s so nice. Look at it. Oh, wouldn’t you love to go and say, no, I don’t want to sit in that boat. And now my little boy, because he’s grown up here, so he know, like, he’s used to Scotland, but to me, I still find everything just so beautiful and, like, walking in the woods, I just am constantly taking pictures. That green just. I took so many pictures of that day. I’ve got so many pictures of the same beaches in Italy, the same villages, you know, in Krail, the same walk that we do when we go to Grail. It’s just so stunning. It’s just such a different view to what you get in Australia. And I’m so pleased that, you know, I’ve been living here for so long, and I still find just everything so beautiful in Scotland. It’s just such a beautiful place to live. Even Edinburgh, you know, when you see the castle all the time, you sort of get used to it. But I’m so grateful that I still, you know, will come down in autumn and see Princess street gardens. And I’m like, oh, I’m so lucky to live here. Just so striking.

Dawn [17:31 – 17:41]: It is. It is a beautiful place. Yeah, I’m biassed, I suppose, but, yeah, no, the photos were. And even the other one you sent me as well, of you and. Is that your husband and you, wee boy?

Marti [17:41 – 17:48]: Yes. So that’s actually on the beach. You get like, a private beach at the caravan park in Ely.

Dawn [17:48 – 17:50]: Oh, right. So it’s like one of the.

Marti [17:50 – 18:36]: Yeah, that. Well, that was actually at nighttime. So we tend to go down in our pyjamas at nighttime to this beach. Yeah, it’s literally. So a lot of the time when we book, we try and book the front pitches. So you’re literally about 20 steps from the beach when you stay there. And it’s your own, like, little private alcove beach, which is just beautiful. I mean, it’s not really amazing for swimming. There’s no waves or anything, but it’s just lovely to go down at nighttime. You can watch the sunset and it’s just such a beautiful, peaceful place. The whole area is just such a beautiful, peaceful place. I mean, there’s the chain walk. That’s not peaceful. And I’m never going to do that because I’m not good with stuff like that, so.

Dawn [18:36 – 18:39]: What’s that? Sorry? The chain walk.

Marti [18:39 – 18:57]: Yeah. So it’s like the coastal. I think it’s called the. Is it the fife? I don’t think it’s called the fife. It’s the coastal chain walk. I think that’s what. Eight, five. Coastal chain walk. That could be what it’s called. Or maybe it’s East Newark, however you pronounce it.

Dawn [18:57 – 19:01]: Oh, the faith coastal walk. Is that to St. Mornans?

Marti [19:01 – 19:07]: Yes. And you. And you follow chains and you go around the rocks. Oh, yeah.

Dawn [19:07 – 19:08]: So you’ve never done that?

Marti [19:09 – 19:13]: Oh, it’s just not for me, Dawn. I can’t deal with things like that.

Dawn [19:15 – 19:21]: Well, there’s a story there, but it takes you to the Ely lighthouse. You pass the Ely lighthouse as well, I think. That one.

Marti [19:21 – 19:27]: Yes, yes. And St. Mounan’s windmill and everything is that way as well.

Dawn [19:28 – 19:43]: And there’s also a ruby bay. It was named after the garnets that were once mined there, and a ladies tower, which was a changing room that was built for the Lady Anne Strother in the 1770 so she could bathe in the floor.

Marti [19:43 – 19:45]: I’ve actually been to that tower.

Dawn [19:45 – 19:46]: Have you?

Marti [19:46 – 20:05]: Yeah, I met. It is beautiful. It is actually really, really beautiful. It’s like an old ruin. But we met some really nice Americans there and they were, like, telling us the whole story of the tower. They like me the whole story. They were driving around in a campervan. They were amazing. See, this is what happens in Scotland.

Dawn [20:05 – 20:17]: You meet everyone on the campervan community is amazing. The way that everybody. We did campervan in once and everybody passed the wave at you and it’s just. Oh, it’s so friendly.

Marti [20:17 – 20:20]: I’d love to do that. I’d love a campervan.

Dawn [20:20 – 20:27]: It was amazing. You just never feel alone because you just feel that somebody would stop if you needed them. They’re just so friendly.

Marti [20:27 – 20:29]: It’s so lovely, isn’t it?

Dawn [20:29 – 20:36]: Isn’t it? Because that was the first time we did. It was a couple of years ago and we didn’t know what was happening. And we’re like, oh, what the hell’s going on?

Marti [20:37 – 20:41]: Why are people waving at me? This is crazy.

Dawn [20:42 – 20:44]: Yeah. It took us a minute.

Marti [20:44 – 20:46]: Oh, I love it.

Dawn [20:46 – 21:01]: But that lady, Anne Strother, apparently she would have. She had a bell toll. She would go down and swim in the fourth and she had the bell toller told the bell, so everybody knew not to go near when she was swimming. She was a right madam by the time.

Marti [21:02 – 21:12]: I love that. There’s so many weird things in Scotland, aren’t there? There’s like so many little. Oh, well, have you heard about Danino Den?

Dawn [21:12 – 21:13]: No.

Marti [21:13 – 21:26]: So this really freaked us out. So my husband, he’s not really into true crime, but he’s into weird stuff, right? Not. That sounds weird now. He’s into, like, mysteries and, you know, that sounded so bad.

Dawn [21:27 – 21:28]: I’m leaving that in.

Marti [21:30 – 21:54]: That’s fine. I’m happy with that. We’ve all got our things. Yeah. Danino den. So it’s nice. St. Andrews. And he found it and he was really interested in it and he was like, we have to go to this place, right? It’s this little den. It’s. It’s an ancient site of druid pagan worship. You’ve heard of it, haven’t you?

Dawn [21:54 – 21:59]: I think there was something that was. Yeah, carry on. It’s. Yeah.

Marti [22:00 – 24:32]: So it’s in a wooded area and it’s just behind the abbey. Right? So it’s quite. It’s in the middle of nowhere, right? So you just go up this big long road, and me and my little boy, so he’s twelve. He was eleven when we went. We were like, I don’t know about this because, you know, I’m true crime background. I just. I’m suspicious of everything. I like peaceful places, but if they’re too peaceful. Nah, I’m not having this. Right, yeah. So you get it. So it’s been around since 4000 BC, which my brain doesn’t compute that that is actually a thing I don’t understand. Yeah, we talk about this all the time on the podcast. Anything BC? No, no. My brain starts. I know they were like cavemen and dinosaurs and all that, right? And then I know that there was like Henry VIII, and that’s the two bits, right? And I don’t know what happened in between. There were things and there were other things, but my brain doesn’t compute those, right? So that really freaks me out. Anyway, so there’s steps to go down to the den, right? So you go into this wooded area, and there’s like little steps. When I say steps, they’re sort of like built into the rock, so they’re sort of hard to get down, but you could get down, right? And there’s like celtic crosses and faces etched into the rocks. So, like, when you google it, they’re real. Like it’s a proper face. It’s not just like, you know when people say it’s etched in and it’s sort of a face, you’re not like, oh, it’s sort of a face. You know, people have like a potato and it looks like Jesus. And you’re like, that doesn’t look like Jesus. So these are like, who knew I’d start talking about potatoes and Jesus? They’re real faces etched into the rock, right? And people leave things there. So when you look down, there’s all ribbons tied to the tree. People leave money, there’s beads. I think there’s other weird stuff left there as well. But when we got there, this is going to sound really weird, but I’m not making this up. So my husband went, and me and my little boy sort of waited, and we were like, I’m not going down there. It’s a bit. Bit freaky. I don’t like it. And he doesn’t really like things like that. So I said, we’ll stay here. We could hear singing. We could actually hear singing. There was no one in the abbey because there was two cars in the car park and one was ours. The abbey was completely quiet and there was like a little. I mean, it’s a little chapel. It’s not really like a big abbey and there’s like a cemetery. It’s really pretty. There was no one around and we could hear singing. And he was like, what’s that singing? I’m like, it’s nothing. But I was freaking out as well. I was like, I’m not sure about this. I don’t like this at all.

Dawn [24:32 – 24:35]: And did your husband hear it from down there?

Marti [24:35 – 25:21]: No, he said he didn’t hear it. But then people started coming back. So there were other people there, but this was different singing to what normal people would have been doing. So we didn’t like it. And we sort of headed back to the car and he kept going. I know it was really creepy because it was so secluded and the woods were so secluded. And there was bells and bells. Woods and bells and singing. Oh, my God. Yeah. It’s the start of a film when everything goes bad and everyone dies. Leave the woods. Leave the woods. Anyway, I mean, it was the middle of the day and it’s just, you know, he went down there and said it was fine, but he did say it was slightly creepy. But he’s, you know, he likes all that sort of weird stuff again. Weird stuff.

Dawn [25:22 – 25:24]: Have you got a photo? Can I see the photo?

Marti [25:25 – 25:30]: I don’t think we took any photos. We should have. I mean, we were so freaked out.

Dawn [25:30 – 25:31]: Yeah.

Marti [25:31 – 27:02]: That we just left. But there is photos of the faces and things on Google, if you go on Google. But it’s just fascinating, like the weed stuff. There’s also pit and weem. So pit and weem’s another, like, little fishing village. Lovely. The chocolate cafe. They’re amazing. Handmade chocolates in, like, mice. Everything you can imagine. Lavender, chocolate. Unbelievable, right. But they have a cave there called St Finian’s Cave. Again, my husband found this. Of course he did. And it’s basically. It’s so weird. So it’s a little. So pit and we. Magen is a little village, fishing village. They have, like a main harbour and they have an old fashioned sweet shop and ice creams and all that sort of stuff. Lovely. And then you sort of go up these windy little paths where people’s houses are really pretty. But in the side of the wall, it’s sort of like rock. Some of the houses sort of built into rock, almost. Right. And in the side of the wall is a little cave which is actually just a padlocked gate. Right in the wall. And you look through the wall and you’re like, what’s that? It’s a cave, right? And apparently it’s said to have been a refuge for Saint Finnian, who lived there for a while. And he wrote sermons by the light of his glowing arm. What the actual hell is that? Okay.

Dawn [27:02 – 27:05]: I didn’t know that was where you were going. He’s arm.

Marti [27:05 – 27:27]: He’s arm. And you can go in there. Right? But this is what’s so weird, and this is what’s amazing about Scotland. You have to go into one of the shops to go and get the key to go into this cave. Yeah, it’s padlocked, but you can go in there. There’s a sign to say. And there’s actually a little altar still in there. That’s like a little shrine to St Finnian. It is amazing.

Dawn [27:28 – 27:34]: You know, I’ve heard of St Finian’s Cave, but I’ve never. I didn’t know anything about it. I had no idea that. That it was.

Marti [27:35 – 27:47]: It’s crazy. Why are there all these weed things in Scotland? I absolutely love them. But, yeah, amazing. And that’s in Pittenweam. Pittenweem is so beautiful. I love Pittenweam. It’s really pretty.

Dawn [27:47 – 27:53]: So all along the east coast, it sounds like there’s loads of little wee villages and. Beautiful.

Marti [27:53 – 28:09]: They’re literally like ten minutes away from each other. St Monan’s is really pretty as well. There’s not loads in St Monan’s. I mean, there’s no glowy arm cave or weird pagan rituals. But they do have the best farm shop in Scotland.

Dawn [28:10 – 28:12]: In Scotland, that is. Yeah.

Marti [28:12 – 28:31]: In Scotland. I know that. Oh, actually, I think I might take that back. It’s pretty good. I haven’t been to all of Scotland, but it’s an amazing farm shop and we always spend. We get to the front and we like. That’s 80 pounds. And we’re like, 80 pounds. What have we bought? But it is amazing.

Dawn [28:31 – 28:33]: The best and most expensive.

Marti [28:33 – 28:59]: The best and most expensive. It’s called Ardross adros farm shop. And it’s just. I mean, it’s really good quality stuff. It’s one of those places where you go in and there’s everything you’ve never seen before. Do you know what I mean? Like giant marshmallows. Oh, we need to make s’mores. Let’s get that. And then there’s like, special jams and, like, fancy bread and they have all the different meats and. But do you know, I mean, it’s expensive. But all farm shops are expensive.

Dawn [28:59 – 29:06]: Well, they also do a festival up there as well, called East Nook Festival. Have you ever heard of that or been to that?

Marti [29:06 – 29:07]: No.

Dawn [29:08 – 29:17]: It’s a registered charity and they raise money each year. They do it every year. Next year it’s on the 26th or 30 June. And it’s just a lot of musicians coming together and just.

Marti [29:18 – 30:43]: I love that. They do a good market there as well, actually. The bowhouse market? Yeah, it’s just near St. Monan’s and it’s the. Now, I’m going to get this wrong, but people can look it up. It’s the first Saturday of the month, or it’s the last Saturday of. And every year when we went there, we just missed it. Like, it’d be. Oh, it’s next weekend. Oh, it was last weekend. We went this year. Absolutely amazing. Do you know what? There was a massive line for a guy just selling sausage rolls. Who knew? Really? Yeah. Amazing. I was talking to a lady selling candles and I was like, what are those people lined up for? Is that like a special thing? I thought it was like bespoke something, you know? No, she’s like, yeah, he’s the sausage roll guy. Oh, God, that sounds such a good market. You’ve got to get there really early because it gets quite parked and they have a whole section in the back for street food. Really? Yeah. So it’s like the whole maker’s market. It’s really big. It’s huge. And a sausage roll guy in the middle and someone selling coffee at the front. Always handy. And then you go to the side and it’s street food. And weirdly, a middle aged guy. I shouldn’t say that. A guy. Do you know what he knows? He’s middle aged. Middle aged guy djing. When I say djing, he’s just like, got a big speaker and he’s playing some music, having a fun time.

Dawn [30:44 – 30:45]: Is it good music?

Marti [30:45 – 30:48]: I mean, it was a bit quiet, so you couldn’t really hear it.

Dawn [30:48 – 30:49]: Okay.

Marti [30:49 – 31:05]: But, you know, people want to talk, so, you know, well done to him. But, yeah, that is an amazing market. Yeah, he’s doing his best. That’s what we’ll say about him. But, yeah, that. That’s a really fantastic market. You could be there for ages.

Dawn [31:05 – 31:16]: I need to tell my sister about that. She loves these kind of things. Yes, we quaint things. So are you planning on visiting again? Any holidays planned? East nuke or ely?

Marti [31:16 – 32:01]: Do you know what? Yeah, I think we’ll probably do it again next summer. It’s one of those places that just has such lovely memories for us because my little boy was so little when we first started going there and I just think it’s just such a peaceful place and we have. We know each little town that we’re going to go to on what day. I mean, we do St Andrews and we do lots of stuff around there as well, but just the little fishing villages. It’s not too far from Edinburgh, it’s not too much of a drive. It’s like an easy three or four days. You could just get away. It’s not too expensive, it’s a lovely thing to do with families and it’s just such a lovely atmosphere there. So, yeah, I think we’ll probably definitely go there next summer as well. Yeah, 100%, definitely.

Dawn [32:01 – 32:08]: It sounds really nice. You’ve painted an amazing picture, honestly, you have. And I’ve never been so. Yeah, I’ve got lots of nice.

Marti [32:08 – 32:19]: You have to go. I mean, you have to go to that weed just for the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And get some chocolate after you’ve been to see the arm because that cafe. Amazing.

Dawn [32:20 – 32:24]: But you said mice. I was like, I remember the little mice when we were young. Do you remember the little.

Marti [32:25 – 32:33]: Yes. These are more detailed, though, and they have like, cardamom and like, they have amazing flavours. Oh, you’ll spend a fortune there as well.

Dawn [32:33 – 32:33]: See?

Marti [32:33 – 32:38]: Yeah. It’s all around food for me, isn’t it? Food and weed things and money.

Dawn [32:38 – 32:39]: We need to take money with us.

Marti [32:40 – 33:01]: Yes, yes. I mean, it’s not a massively expensive holiday really, either. You could do it fairly cheaply. You could get fish and chips, get an ice cream, you know, sit on the beach. Yeah. Maybe don’t go to the farm shop until the end and see how much money you’ve got left. I have a lot of nice gin, I’ll say that. They have a lot of nice gin.

Dawn [33:02 – 33:05]: You need it by the end because you’ve got to go back home again, haven’t you?

Marti [33:05 – 33:12]: Yeah, exactly. And you need to calm yourself after the pagan. Oh, yeah, the pagan ritual stuff. Yeah.

Dawn [33:12 – 33:17]: I don’t think I would go there, but I’m curious if. I’m going to have a look at the faces, though. I want to see what that looks like.

Marti [33:17 – 33:32]: It’s so interesting. I mean, I understand why people go there. It’s really, really fascinating and it’s a very peaceful area, so I sort of understand it. It’s not meant to be creepy. I think it’s just me. I read a lot of books. I watch a lot of true crime. So.

Dawn [33:32 – 33:38]: Got a podcast. So my murder podcast. So, yeah, yeah. Your imagination must be going wild.

Marti [33:38 – 33:42]: I mean, you’re the same, so. Yeah, I understand.

Dawn [33:42 – 33:47]: Alyssa Marie, it’s been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. Thanks for sharing, Easton.

Marti [33:48 – 33:55]: Thanks for having me. I get very passionate and very excited when I talk about these places.

Dawn [33:55 – 34:11]: I’m trying not. I’m trying to stay calm because when I get passionate and excited, I talk like 100 miles an hour and nobody can understand what I say. I just try and keep it calm. I know. It’s been a pleasure. So can you tell everybody how they can find you on socials and your pod?

Marti [34:11 – 34:31]: Yes. Thank you. So we are at mumsmysteries and murder on Instagram and you can find us everywhere. You get your podcast for mums mysteries and murder, whether you’re apple, your Google, all the places, Spotify everywhere. And we have a very exciting episode coming up very soon.

Dawn [34:32 – 34:34]: Ooh. Can you give us any clues?

Marti [34:35 – 34:54]: Well, it’s actually someone in Australia who has been all over the news. Do you know, we had another episode set up and we’ve recorded this episode today, actually, this woman was arrested on Friday. So it’s very, very new. We’ve never covered a case that recent happening.

Dawn [34:54 – 35:00]: So is it somebody that’s been murdered in the past and, like, somebody’s just been arrested now or is it just all happening now?

Marti [35:00 – 35:10]: No, it happened in July, July of this year. It’s actually Erin Patterson and she’s known as the mushroom murderer.

Dawn [35:10 – 35:12]: Oh. Oh, yeah.

Marti [35:13 – 35:31]: Very interesting. It’s an australian case, though. This one’s australian. So we take turns. For people that haven’t listened to the podcast, we take turns. So I’ll do the australian episode and then Effie will do a scottish story the month after. So we sort of take turns. So it’s a bit of a mixture, but yeah, very, very interesting case.

Dawn [35:36 – 38:51]: So that was my conversation with Marti. But let me tell you a few more things about the Ely and Errols ferry area. According to outaboutscotland.com, comma, East Nuke is an area of 40 sq mi and is known for its scenic coastline and pretty fishing villages, with Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail having particularly attractive harbours. And according to Lovefromscotland, Co dot UK, Ely and errolsferry is a quintessential scottish seaside village and popular holiday destination. If you like water sports, then there’s the east nuke outdoors, which is a family run outdoor activity centre on Fife’s east coast in cellar Dyke by Anstruther and it offers a range of outdoor activities including kayaking, canoeing, archery, paddle boarding and axe throwing, with activities for individuals or all the family, and is located a 15 minutes drive north east of Ely and Errolsferry. If this sounds like something you’d like to try, you can find out more from east nukeoutdoors dot co dot UK now Marti mentioned so many food recommendations, but according to scottish spill dot co dot UK comma, an early seafood product from east nuke was the Creo Caprin, which is sun dried haddock and a couple of fun facts are that a small pictish dwelling near Elsferry was discovered in 1923 when a tractor fell through its roof and the 1997 film the Winter Guest, which starred Emma Thompson and was directed by Alan Rickman, was filmed in Ely and Errolsferry. Now I did mention the East Nuke festival when I was talking to Marti, but here’s a wee bit more about it. It has been taking place since 2004, when Donald and Louise Macdonald had the seed of an idea and believed that live music could not only bring joy, but could transform lives and connect people from those in the community to professional and new musicians. With the inspiration behind the festival being taken from the landscape, heritage and history of the area and attendance over the years has grown to an estimated 25,000, with some of the comments on the website from people who have attended saying that there superb music and a friendly atmosphere, while another said that there was wonderful music in a magical setting and that they received a warm welcome in 2024. The East Nuke festival will take place from the 26th to the 30 June and you can find out more information about the East Nuke festival as well as see the full programme for 2024 by visiting east nukefestival.com. Marti also mentioned in our conversation about a case that mums mysteries in murder would be covering. It was a murder that took place in July 2023 and the suspected murderer Erin Patterson, who is known as the mushroom murderer, was arrested late in 2023 at the time of the recording. So if you’re new to the Mums Mysteries and Murder podcast and want to listen, then I’d recommend starting with that episode. A link to the Mums mysteries and murder podcast, as well as to everything mentioned in this episode will be in the show notes as well as on our website cluarantonn.com/scottishdigest. So we hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and my chat with Marti and join us next time for another wee slice of bonnie Scotland.

Graeme from Scotland’s Stories: A Scotland Travel Blog With Great Stories (scotlands-stories.com)

Helen from Wheely Braw

Monique from Home – The Enchanted Forest

Pitlochry – SCOTLAND UNWRAPPED

In the Heart of Scotland – Pitlochry

Pitlochry – Wikipedia

12 Incredible Things To Do in Pitlochry | VisitScotland

Pitlochry | VisitScotland

34 Things to do in Pitlochry Scotland – Our Complete Guide

Explore Pitlochry and Highland Perthshire – Pitlochry Scotland

Gateway to the Highlands | VisitScotland

Queen’s View Visitor Centre – Forestry and Land Scotland

Perthshire – Wikipedia

Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre | Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre

Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre | Pitlochry Scotland

Pitlochry, Blair Atholl and Rannoch walks (Walkhighlands)

Accessible Holiday Accommodation Scotland

Handmade Jewellery Made In Scotland | Scottish gifts | Discover Heathergems

Moulin Hotel Pitlochry – Highland Perthshire Hotel

Home (pitlochryandmoulinheritagecentre.co.uk)

Edradour Distillery

Scotch Corner of Pitlochry Ice Cream Sweet shop

Blair Castle, Pitlochry | 5 Star Visitor Attraction in Perthshire (atholl-estates.co.uk)

www.fieldfare.org.uk

Mains of Taymouth Courtyard – Kenmore Delicatessen & Gifts

Highland Safaris & Red Deer Centre – Aberfeldy Safaris

Fishershotelpitlochry.com

File:Pitlochry Hydro-electric dam – geograph.org.uk – 2422561.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Pitlochry dam and power station (2) – geograph.org.uk – 3221568.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:The Enchanted Forest, Pitlochry – geograph.org.uk – 4721620.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Shops on Atholl Road, Pitlochry – geograph.org.uk – 5113729.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Pitlochry and Ben Vrackie – geograph.org.uk – 5184466.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:84-104 Atholl Road, Pitlochry (geograph 6570515).jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Pitlochry – panoramio (4).jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Welcome to Pitlochry – geograph.org.uk – 170713.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Power Station at River Tummel (49005660133).jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:River Tummel, Pitlochry – geograph.org.uk – 2279092.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Footbridge over the River Tummel at Pitlochry – geograph.org.uk – 4078333.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

File:Pitlochry, Perthshire (50248088648).jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted by Dawn

Written and Produced by Dawn Young

Map courtesy of openstreetmap

Images courtesty of commons.wikimedia.org/

Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon & ES_A Sound Foundation – Airae

 

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Hosted by Dawn Young

Welcome to Episode 7 of Scottish Digest, where we will be telling you all about Aberfoyle.

[Music]

In today’s episode we will be hearing from Graeme from Scotland’s Stories who is never happier than when he is donning his Kilt and exploring Scotland with Molly the Labrador, and his stories from his exploring are truly engaging. We’ll also hear from Helen who is a disability travel blogger who runs the website Wheely Braw, whose aim is to help wheelchair users and other disabled people get the most out of their visit to Scotland. And will also hear from Monique who will tell us all about The Enchanted Forest, an event that takes place every year near Pitlochry, and in 2023 will take place from the 5th of October to the 5th of November. So we’ve got quite an episode for you.

But first, where is Pitlochry? Well, Pitlochry is a picturesque largely Victorian town in Perthshire, situated almost halfway between Edinburgh and Inverness, being about 71.4 miles or 115 kilometres northwest of Edinburgh and 85.9 miles and 138 kilometres southeast of Inverness, and it lies on the River Tummel. According to Scotland Unwrapped, Pitlochry is often referred to as the Gateway to the Highlands and is one of the jewels in the crown of Scotland. According to Wikipedia, in 2011 Pitlochry had a population of 2,776, but, due to not only the charm of Pitlochry but also its perfect placement to explore Perthshire, visitors from all over the world return to Pitlochry year after year. Pitlochry is also known for the Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder Visitor Centre, which, according to pitlochry-scotland, is cantilevered eight metres out from the banks of the River Tummel
and gives excellent views of the dam. According to Brendan from scotland-unwrapped.com, the dam being constructed where it was, in the late 1940s and early 50s, would have prevented the huge amount of salmon and sea trout that migrated annually from reaching their spawning beds upstream, and so a salmon ladder of 310 metres was also created, allowing the fish to reach the waters above the dam. You can read more about this and about Brendan’s numerous visits to Pitlochry, which is one of his favourite places to visit in the world, at scotland-unwrapped.com.

Okay, so as Pitlochry is another place I have passed by many many times but not actually visited, let’s hear what Graeme from Scotland’s Stories discovered on his trips to Pitlochry and Perthshire as a whole, and what stories he can tell us.

[Music]

Graeme – Hi there. I’m Graeme from Scotland’s Stories and I’m here to tell you why the wee Perthshire town of Pitlochry is one of my favourite destinations. Pitlochry is one of the gateways to the highlands, nestled in between Ben Vrackie and the River Tummel.

It’s a bustling town today, but that hasn’t always been the case. The town as we know it began to form when General Wade’s military road passed through here in the 1700s, and its importance was solidified with the arrival of the railway over 100 years later. It still retains much of its Victorian tourist town charm with plenty of quirky wee shops and cafes for you to choose from if you like a wee bit of shopping. But for something completely different there’s the Heathergems Visitor Centre and shop, where craftspeople make beautiful jewellery out of Highland heather stems. Now as Pitlochry increased in importance it overtook an older settlement of Moulin, which is well worth visiting. It’s just a short journey up the hill to the Moulin Hotel beside the old church, but it is like traveling back in time. You find some great walks from here as well, including hiking to the top of Ben Vrackie, or you can take things a bit easier by just visiting the Heritage Centre inside the church. You’ll learn everything you could possibly want to know about Pitlochry, Moulin, the local area, from ancient origins to more modern memories. Don’t miss the Crusader’s Grave in the kirkyard, said to date from the 12th century, or the short walk out to the Black Castle. Built in the 1300s it allegedly gained its name after an outbreak of the black death amongst the castle inhabitants in the 1500s. The locals destroyed the building to contain the disease, but I promise it is safe to visit today. If you’ve worked up a thirst by now pop into the Moulin Hotel for a tour around the brewery and sample some local ales. Or, if you’re looking for something a bit stronger, then Pitlochry has a couple of great whisky options for you. The first is the Blair Athol Distillery, found in town and available for a number of different tours to wet your whistle. But just out of town Edradour Distillery, unfortunately closed for 2023, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the taste. My top tip is to visit the Scotch Corner shop in town, order some of the Edradour whisky ice cream. Even if you’re not a big whisky drinker I challenge you not to enjoy it. One of the more unusual, but still popular attractions, is the Pitlochry Dam. Now it’s a marvel of engineering from the mid-20th century, built to create hydroelectric power from the River Tummel. But there was plenty of local opposition at the time. One of the main concerns was how salmon would manage the annual swim up river to spawn. But the problem was solved with the creation of the Pitlochry fish ladder and its 34 stepped pools, where visitors can watch the salmon swim through the chambers all the way from the bottom to the top. If you’re really lucky then it’s not unknown to spot the fish leaping in the air.

Don’t just limit yourself to the town of Pitlochry though, there is so much to see in the nearby area. The bright white Blair Castle isn’t far away, and it’s easily one of the most popular attractions in the area. Once home to the Earls and later Dukes of Atholl, the castle has a fascinating history from its 13th century origins as a sturdy tower, right up to its modern incarnation as a lavish mansion. Guarding the only easy passage through the mountains to Inverness, Blair Castle was caught up in the Jacobite risings, but thankfully survived fairly unscathed. While no longer home to the Duke of Atholl, it does happen to be home to Europe’s only legal private army, The Atholl Highlanders. Next head to Queen’s View, enjoy the view down Loch Tummel, past Schiehallion towards Loch Rannoch, and on a really clear day you can see all the way to Glencoe. Nearby you’ll find somewhere that’s been one of my favourite places since I was a kid, and not just because it’s a fun word to say, Killiecrankie. As well as being a beautiful woodland walk this wee gorge was the setting for the first real battle of the Jacobite risings in 1689, which would dominate Scottish history for the next 60 years. The Jacobites won that clash, although their leader, Bonnie Dundee, would be killed. If you keep your ears open as you wander above the river you might still hear the ghostly sound of clashing swords and firing muskets, of a battle long over. An easy walk there will take you to Soldier’s Leap, where the river churns in a tumbling waterfall. That’s where a government Soldier, Donald McBane, was trapped by a group of Jacobites and faced with what seemed like certain death. Turning around, he raced towards the water and somehow managed to leap the 18-foot gap to safety, although he did lose a shoe in the process.

So, from leaping salmon to leaping soldiers, Pitlochry and the surrounding area has plenty of things worth experiencing, no matter what time of year you decide to visit. If you’re looking for more travel suggestions, or Scottish stories, you can find me at scotlands-stories.com or on whatever social media you use is scotlandsstories. If you see a bald guy in his Labrador, I think you’re in the right place.

Dawn – Killiecrankie is a place myself and my husband have passed so many times too when we visited my gran on Skye, and it’s a place name that always makes me smile. I absolutely love Graeme’s stories, they’re so interesting and engaging, and I love his voice. You can find so many more stories from Graeme on his website scotlands-stories.com, or follow him on social media for more interesting and funny videos. But I hope he’s given you a good wee insight into what you can do and see in and around Pitlochry.

[Music]

According to Visit Scotland, Perthshire is known as Big Tree Country due to there being more than 200,000 acres of woodlands. And with the abundance of scenic forest trails, gigantic mountains and atmospheric lochs to be explored in Perthshire, and activities such as fishing, golfing, walking, hill climbing, mountain biking and bungee jumping being aplenty, staying in Pitlochry and exploring the surrounding area really does become even more attractive. And never fear if you have a disability and think you won’t be able to enjoy or participate in activities in Perthshire, because Helen from Wheely Braw is here to tell you differently.

[Music]

Helen – As a wheelchair user I won’t pretend it’s easy to find accessible things to enjoy in Scotland, particularly if you want to get lost in nature, but there are some beautiful spots around the country to enjoy, including some in Perthshire. When you hear wheelchair accessible, mountains might not be the first thing that you think of, but Perthshire offers at least two opportunities for wheelchair users and other disabled people to explore mountains. First up is Ben Lawers, or Beinn Labhair in Gaelic, which means Speaking Mountain. Well, it certainly spoke to me, especially when I found out that there’s a National Trust for Scotland car park up at 1,400 feet with some spectacular views over Loch Tay. The ground up there is rocky and uneven but I managed a short wheel to admire the snow-capped Munro. It’s breathtaking up there. Next up is Schiehallion, which has been named Scotland’s first wheelchair-friendly Munro by the Fieldfare Trust. So the general advice here is to park in the Braes of Foss car park and take the path to the summit of East Schiehallion. You might not get to the summit as only the first third of the path is advised for wheelchair users, but you can assess the terrain and decide if it’s safe for you to complete the journey. I’m yet to visit and try this but I can’t wait. There’s something really empowering about showing up in spaces where people don’t expect to see you in a wheelchair, and mountains definitely fit that bill. If you fancy something a bit more down to earth then Kenmore is a lovely stop on the shore of Loch Tay. A while back I visited The Courtyard shop and deli in Kenmore for a browse and came out with a bag full of treats; gin, fudge, biscuits, jams. It’s such a beautiful shop. It’s accessible and represents Scottish producers really well. Just next door is The Courtyard bar that has an all-day menu with some vegan and gluten-free options too. Not far from Kenmore is Dull, which really isn’t dull it’s beautiful actually. I visited Highland Safaris there for one of their red deer feeding experiences. It was lovely to be able to get so close to these beautiful creatures. Our guide was really knowledgeable and also understanding of my accessibility requirements. It is such a family-friendly activity, and there’s a wee café on site too, because no day trip is complete without cake. I hope this has given you a couple of ideas of wheelchair accessible things to do in Perthshire. I know I’ve barely scratched the surface, so if you want to keep up with my adventures you can follow me on Instagram @wheelybraw that’s w-h-e-e-l-y-b-r-a-w.

And my wife Kirsty and I have just started a joint venture Accessible Holidays Scotland, which is a growing database of accommodation, days out, places to eat and shopping. You can follow us at accessibleholidays.scot and visit the website at

www.accessibleholidays.scot. We’d love your support.

Dawn – All the places that Helen mentioned are no more than about a 20 mile or a 32 kilometre drive from Pitlochry, with the exception of Ben Lawers, which is a 32.7 mile or 52.6 kilometre drive away.

As Helen said she has not even scratched the surface when it comes to telling you about the places she has visited and what she has done, and you can find so much more from her website wheelybraw.scot, or follow her on social media for some great videos.

[Music]

I really hope both Graeme and Helen’s stories about their visits to Pitlochry and Perthshire have tempted you to visit the area yourself. However, if you’re still on the fence, perhaps hearing all about The Enchanted Forest will entice you, which according to the website enchantedforest.org.uk will set your imagination alight with dazzling visuals and innovative design, all choreographed against an original music score, while you explore the stunning Autumn woodland setting of Faskally Wood near Pitlochry. Here’s Monique to tell you all about it.

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Monique – Hi, my name is Monique McArdle, and I’m the event producer at The Enchanted Forest. The Enchanted Forest is an award-winning annual sound and light show which transforms the beautiful Faskally Wood in the Scottish Highlands into a magical destination each October. A trailblazing event that is creative, energetic and entertaining, it requires a combined pool of extraordinary talent, drawing in some of the best creative minds in the UK to work together to create entrancing visuals and original music score, and stunning visual effects, which succeed in raising the artistic bar year on year to celebrate outdoors. The event showcases Scotland’s natural landscape at its Autumnal best. One of the UK’s most successful cultural events, The Enchanted Forest will take place at Faskally Wood Pitlochry from the 5th of October until the 5th of November this year, and will have an aquatic theme entitled From the Deep. This is designed to create a bigger splash than ever before. Using captivating visuals and an original music score, their year’s show will see visitors transported into the depths of an underwater world, blending light, video and sound to create a truly unique visitor experience. Faskally Wood will transform into an underwater forest with a deep watery glow of aqua blue and green. From the depths of the sea beds, visitors will make their way around the forest trail, swept along by the currents and tides, on a brightly lit journey that will span the globe, discovering the mysteries of our ocean and its inhabitants. As with previous years, this year’s show will include several impressive installations; including a spectacular light show over Loch Dunmore, which will use music, animation, projection, beams, lights and lasers, to tell the story of bioluminescent creatures that are found throughout marine habitats, from the ocean surface to the deep sea floor. There will be ample catering options on site for those visitors who are feeling a little bit peckish, from fresh pizzas, fish and chips and sweet snacks, and not to mention the legendary toasted marshmallows, there will be something for everyone. Menus will be announced on The Enchanted Forest website in August. Due to the success of our autism friendly performances at last year’s show, these will be returning for 2023. The autism friendly performances offer our autistic customers and their families the opportunity to be right at the start of the bus queues before any crowds
have built up, and be the first ones on site at the beginning of the night. For those who are unable to take the regular coaches from Fishers Hotel to reach the event in the forest, an accessible bus will also be available this year for customers with specific mobility or access needs, and will depart from the Blair Athol Distillery. This year tickets are free for the under threes and are priced at £14.50 for 3 to 15 year olds, £26 for an adult and £72.50 for a family. All tickets can be booked via the website at www.enchantedforest.org.uk. Over the 20 years The Enchanted Forest has been running it has seen significant growth, from just 1,500 people over three nights in 2002, to attracting over 83,000 visitors over five weeks in 2022. The event delivers an incredible shot in the arm to the local tourism economy in and around Pitlochry and Perthshire, with a staggering economic impact of nearly £10 million. Proceeds raised from the event are put back into local community initiatives, administered through The Enchanted Forest community fund. To-date, the fund has reinvested £320,000 back into the region, making a lasting positive impact by benefiting more than 137 local community groups, projects and charities. The unique nature of the show has gained it worldwide acclaim. To keep up-to-date with the latest news concerning the event, you can find The Enchanted Forest on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram using the handle @enchantforest, and on Facebook using the handle @theenchantedforest. We look forward to welcoming many of you to the event this October.

Dawn – Like Monique said, you can find all information about The Enchanted Forest from the website enchantedforest.org.uk, or on social media. I’ve not been to this event myself but I watched the videos on their website and it looks amazing. I’m very very tempted to go this year. Let me know if you’ve attended before, or plan to attend this year, I’d love to know what you thought.

[Music]

So that’s almost the end of the episode, and it is the last episode of Season One of Scottish Digest. I really hope the places and events we have talked about in Scotland this season have inspired you to visit. I’ve really enjoyed season one and hearing from so many people who love traveling around Scotland, visiting beautiful and fascinating places, and telling us all about it; such as Suzanne, Helen, Kathi and Graeme. Or those who are proud of where they live and the events that take place there, and want to share with others. It’s inspiring. I hope you will join me for Season Two, where I will be finding out more about places in Scotland from people who live there or visit time and time again, having a wee chat with them and delving into what they love about that specific place. If you love a specific place in Scotland and feel it needs to be talked about, please let me know on social media or by emailing me at contact@cluarantonn.com, that’s contact@c-l-u-a-r-a-n-t-o-n-n.com. All links from today’s episode will be in the show notes or on our website cluarantonn.com.

We hope you join us next season for another wee slice of Bonnie Scotland.

[Music]

Granny Robertson – Scottish Digest is a production of Cluarantonn.

Paul from See Loch Lomond :: What to do in Loch Lomond and Trossachs

Beth from Bike Trossachs

Visit Aberfoyle, Gateway to the Trossachs — See Loch Lomond :: What to do in Loch Lomond and Trossachs

See Loch Lomond :: What to do in Loch Lomond and Trossachs

Bike Trossachs

Dukes Weekender

Gravelfoyle

Go Ape in Scotland | Go Ape

River Forth – Wikipedia

Craigmore (hill) – Wikipedia

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park – Wikipedia

Munro – Wikipedia

Aberfoyle – Here. Now. All of us. -Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park

Aberfoyle, heart of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park

Craigmore, near Aberfoyle (Walkhighlands)

Aberfoyle Visitor Guide – Accommodation, Things To Do & More | VisitScotland

Simply The Best Destination – The Scottish Wool Centre, Stirling – Wool & Tartan | VisitScotland

Aberfoyle, Stirling – Wikipedia

Doon Hill and Fairy Knowe – Aberfoyle, Scotland – Atlas Obscura

Aberfoyle Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland

The Station Coffee Shop – Go Aberfoyle

Maggie’s Aberfoyle Kitchen | Cakes, Bakes & Treats (maggiesaberfoylekitchen.co.uk)

National Cycle Route 7 – Here. Now. All of us. -Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park (lochlomond-trossachs.org)

Altskeith Country House Wedding Venue and Hotel

Loch Katrine – Loch Cruises on the Sir Walter Scott Steamship

Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted by Dawn

Written and Produced by Dawn Young

Map courtesy of openstreetmap

Images courtesty of commons.wikimedia.org/

Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Hosted by Dawn Young

Welcome to Episode 7 of Scottish Digest, where we will be telling you all about Aberfoyle.

[Music]

In today’s episode we will be hearing from Paul, who runs the website seelochlomond.com, who will tell us all about what Aberfoyle has to offer visitors, as well as some of his favourite eateries, and we’ll also hear from Beth from Bike Trossachs, a community interests company, who will tell us all about Gravelfoyle, one of the UK’s finest gravel and road cycling waymarked routes that start from Aberfoyle and weave around Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, as well as tell us about the Dukes Weekender which is an event that takes place every year, and in 2023 will take place on the 9th and 10th of September. Aberfoyle is a place I’ve never visited or even passed through, so it was interesting finding out about it and what there is to do and see there. But first, where is Aberfoyle. The picturesque Village of Aberfoyle is about 26 miles or 42 kilometres northwest of Glasgow and, according to Wikipedia, is situated on the River Forth, which is a 29 mile or 47 kilometre major river in central Scotland which drains into the North Sea on the east coast of Scotland, at the foot of Craigmore which is a 378 metre or 1,207 foot high hill, is part of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, and is known as the southern Gateway to the Trossachs. So this wee village with a population, according to Wikipedia in 2011 of 1,065, certainly packs a punch. And I’ve only just scratched the surface of what there is to do in and around Aberfoyle, and with the Trossachs National Park, Loch Lomond and Loch Ard being nearby where, according to lochlomond-trossachs.org, you can enjoy magnificent scenery and see some amazing wildlife, enjoy cycling, walking, water activities, golf, loch cruises and hike or climb up a Munro Mountain, Aberfoyle is a perfect place to base yourself. And while that all does sound absolutely amazing and a lot of fun, there was something else I found that I personally would love to try first, as I do love a bit of adrenaline sometimes, and it’s called Go Ape, which is located about 0.8 miles or 1.3 kilometres outside of Aberfoyle.  If you guessed that this would include zipping along over trees and waterfalls while being afforded some amazing views of the Scottish Highlands, then you’d be right. According to goape.co.uk Go Ape Aberfoyle is home to two of the longest zips in the UK. And so you can expect to experience some fantastic views, as well as be absolutely exhilarated, as you fly along either a 323 metre zip or a 45 metre high 426 metre long zip. My only bit of advice would be don’t look down. Okay, so if zip lining is not your thing and you prefer something a wee bit more sedate, never fear, Aberfoyle has something for everyone. Located just off Main Street is the Scottish Wool Centre, and it is well signposted. According to Visit Scotland, the Scottish Wool Centre aims to tell the story of wool, from sheep to shops, by putting on daily live shows during the season, such as the dog and duck show which features Collie dogs herding Indian ducks through an obstacle course, as well as demonstrations of spinning. Now, no place in Scotland is complete without a fairy lore story and Aberfoyle is no different. According to atlasobscura.com, Doon Hill and Fairy Knowle, located a mile or 1.6 kilometres from Aberfoyle, held a particular fascination for a Reverend Robert Kirk, who in 1961 published his book called The Secret Commonwealth of Elves and Fairies. A year later his body was mysteriously found on Doon Hill. Many believed they knew what had happened to Reverend Robert Kirk, but I’ll let Paul from See Loch Lomond tell you what the belief was, as well as tell you more about Aberfoyle and the surrounding area, as well as some of his favourite places to eat and what activities he likes to do in the area.

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Paul – Aberfoyle is Gateway to the Trossachs, with lochs, forests and beautiful villages like this one. You can explore this part of Scotland’s first National Park, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, by bike, boat and boot. But before you set off on your adventures take a stroll up Aberfoyle’s Main Street, it’s bright and colourful with lots of hand-painted signs on the interesting shops and cafes. I highly recommend the Station Coffee Shop with locally roasted coffee and an amazing haggis toasty. And next door is Maggie’s which is full of treats. On my See Loch Lomond website we have a stack of guides to help you explore Aberfoyle and the area around it. And Visit Scotland has an information centre just opposite the Station Coffee Shop. Pick up in there a leaflet for the Trossachs trail, which will give you a map and guide to help you navigate the area, and there is also a website for what was Scotland’s first geographical trail. With the Gravelfoyle tracks and NCN7 there are excellent cycling routes, plus a stack of walking trails. And keep going straight on through the village to get to Loch Ard, and then Loch Chon, which are ideal for stand-up paddle boards, kayaking and canoeing. It’s my favourite place in the National Park to do this. Altskeith House on Loch Ard does amazing food for B&B guests, and it is also a popular wedding venue. Back to Aberfoyle and you must take a two hour circular walk, sign for the large free car park in the village. And you’ll be following the footsteps of former Minister for Aberfoyle the Reverend Robert Kirk. Hopefully you’ll get on better than he did because in 1692 he was doing this walk, but was punished at Doon Hill for revealing the secrets of the fairies in a book that he published. And they are said to have taken his spirit and placed it in a pine tree at the top of the hill. And by that tree you’ll find lots of charms, ribbons and other items placed around it. Moving on from the village go across the steep climb of Duke’s pass to get to Loch Katrine, home of the 123 year old steamship Sir Walter Scott, which has recently completed a £750,000 restoration and is back sailing. It was the public reaction to Sir Walter Scott’s 1810 poem Lady of the Lake, a blockbuster publication in the day, that brought visitors to the area, and they wanted to see the landscapes described so vividly by Scott for themselves. And this resulted in the Trossachs being considered as the birthplace of Scottish tourism. Now, the steamship Sir Walter Scott sails three times a day, and there is a new exhibition about the history of steamships at Loch Katrine on the pier. The steamship is wheelchair friendly.  And, alternatively, if you want to take a climb to get a good view of Loch Katrine go up Ben A’an, which is one of Scotland’s most popular hill climbs. There is so much to do in and around Aberfoyle, and just enjoy the amazing scenery on two wheels, on foot or by water. And if you follow any of the guides on the See Loch Lomond website, which is seelochlomond.co.uk, do leave me a message letting me know about how you got on, what you saw and what you enjoyed.

Dawn – So, what did you think about the Doon Hill mystery, and of the reason many people believed Robert, Reverend Kirk, had died? According to lochlomond-trossachs.org Doon Hill is thought to be a doorway to an underground fairy queen palace, and that this is where Robert Kirk’s soul is still being held captive. An interesting story for sure. Now, like Paul said, you can find so much more about Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, and the villages, lochs, islands and activities within, by visiting his website seelochlomond.co.uk.

[music]

I mentioned earlier that one of the many activities that can be enjoyed in and around Aberfoyle was cycling, and that Gravelfoyle had the UK’s finest gravel and road cycling waymarked routes, with many of the routes starting from Aberfoyle and taking you deep into the National Park. Well, here’s Beth to tell you more about that, as well as tell you so much more about the Dukes Weekender, which takes place every year in Aberfoyle.

[music]

Hello. I’m Beth from Bike Trossachs, a local community interest company based in Aberfoyle. We’re the people behind the newly established waymarked cycle trails which start in the village, and our annual gravel racing event the Dukes Weekender. This year on Saturday the 9th and Sunday the 10th of September Aberfoyle will come alive for the Dukes Weekender. This is a family-orientated off-road cycling festival set in the heart of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. The cycling festival has a kids gravel enduro, a gravel hill climb and a signature gravel enduro event which takes place over the two days. Saturday morning sees the event village open in the heart of Aberfoyle, the vibrant race village will be hosting a fully sized, free to use pump track, demo bikes, brands and local community enterprises, and entertainment open to all. Our first event on Saturday morning is the children’s mini enduro. This is a hugely popular part of the Dukes Weekender, and a great chance for kids to sample the gravel enduro racing and get in amongst the action. It’s aimed at children aged 8 to 14 years old but they have to be accompanied by an adult. We have prioritised the tickets for this as pre-entries and we have a few left on the website, so please check it out for details. Saturday afternoon comes alive with cowbells and crowds as competitors take on the gravel hill climb. If you want to visit as a spectator only, Saturday from 2pm you want to be at the waterfall by the David Marshall Lodge above Aberfoyle. The gravel hill climb is stage one of the full Dukes Weekender, but it’s also available as a standalone event too. This is a unique opportunity for riders to ride up the gravel trails beside the Dukes pass in a vibrant and fun atmosphere. The climb itself is 1.3 kilometres, climbing up to 150 meters in height, and is achievable for both occasional riders through to the pros. So you can take in the scenery or chew on the bars, it’s up to you. The route is lined with people, local schools, we have live Taiko drumming, a wee bar and ice creams for sale. It’s an incredible experience for all competitors and we can’t wait for it. Back in the village that evening we’re hoping to run our adventure film night as well. Sunday sees our 75 kilometre gravel enduro. This is a social format of an event where riders can ride in groups at a relaxed pace for most of the route. This is with the exception of six short timed stages where they race individually against the clock. The incredible route weaves around the stunning lochs and glens of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. The format of the race allows competitors to stop for lunch, coffee and snacks in Aberfoyle and Stronachlachar in the selection of local businesses. The Dukes adaptive riders also ride on Sunday, and the village festivities and event village entertainment continue throughout. The competitors are supported by marshals and full signposting along the route. Our competitors come from a fully diverse range, with some people participating in their first ever cycling event alongside world and Olympic level champions. Inclusivity is really important to us at Bike Trossachs. Last year we had a 25% female representation which was nearly double that of the previous year, and we’re currently sitting at a 30% female sign up for 2023, so our best representation ever. We’re also one of the first gravel events in the country to include an adaptive and recumbent cycle category. Last year saw the event handed over to Bike Trossachs CIC, which means all profits now go directly back into the local community. The gravel enduro-only tickets are sold out, with entries filling fast for the kids and adaptive cycle categories. We have very limited full weekend tickets left so please go to dukesweekender.com to find out more. It’s worth making the trip to visit Gravelfoyle at any time of the year though. Whether on our waymarked routes or exploring further, Aberfoyle village and the surrounding area offers one of the UK’s most extensive arrays of gravel trails and roads. Within just a 12 kilometre radius of the village there are over 200 kilometres of gravel roads, trails and paths to explore, taking you deep into the National Park and exploring incredible scenery from lochsides to mountain tops. In addition to this there is our three waymarked routes of 10 kilometres, 20 kilometres and 30 kilometres that give riders of all abilities the opportunity to take part and explore the beautiful surroundings of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. If you want to find out more about gravel riding in the Trossachs, please go to gravelfoyle.com or search for Gravelfoyle on the socials. We’re looking forward to welcoming you to Gravelfoyle.

Dawn – Gravelfoyle and the Dukes Weekender sound like such fantastic experiences. Let me know if you plan to attend, or do attend, and what you loved about the Dukes Weekender or Gravelfoyle the most. If you’d like more information or to register for an event you can visit dukesweekender.com or gravelfoyle.com. All links mentioned in the episode will be in the show notes and on our website cluarantonn.com/scottishdigest. That’s c-l-u-a-r-a-n-t-o-n-n.com/scottishdigest.

So, that’s the end of today’s episode, we hope you have enjoyed finding out about Aberfoyle and just what it has to offer as much as I did. Join us next time for another wee slice of Bonnie Scotland.

[Music]

Scottish Digest is a production of Cluarantonn.

Malcolm All of Scotland in One Weekend – Cowal Gathering

Ciorsdan on behalf of Wild About Argyll | Argyll & the Isles | Scotland’s Adventure Coast

Colin Home – Dunoon Presents

Dunoon: Exploring the Coastal Charms and Cultural Delights of this Scottish Retreat – In The Playroom

Dunoon Visitor Guide – Accommodation, Things To Do & More | VisitScotland

Coach Holidays to Dunoon – David Urquhart – Search Now

Open Street Map

Holy Loch Port, Cowal and Bute.

Dunoon – Wikipedia

Visit Dunoon and Cowal | Argyll and the Isles

Dunoon Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland

Visitor UK Visitoruk – Tourist info for Visitoruk, argyll and bute

Museum | Castle House Museum | Scotland

Cowal – Wikipedia

Trustees – Dunoon Burgh Hall

Benmore Botanic Garden, Benmore, by Dunoon, Benmore, By Dunoon – Parks | VisitScotland

Home – Dunoon Project

Dunoon Presents… Argyll Rally – 23rd / 24th June 2023

Come rain or shine there is always something going on in Dunoon – What’s on Dunoon

CONTACT | trailwest

HOME | CALA

Home – Singing Kettle

The Clan, Scotland’s Cycle Stunt Team – The UK’s most exciting and daring bicycle display show

Dunoon: Gourock – Dunoon | CalMac Ferries

Western Ferries (Clyde) Ltd

Dunoon Pier – Wikipedia

Dunoon Pier, Dunoon – Sailing and Boating | VisitScotland

Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted and written by Dawn Young

Produced by Dawn Young

Map courtesy of openstreetmap

Images courtesty of commons.wikimedia.org/

Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Hosted by Dawn Young

Welcome to Episode 6 of Scottish Digest, where we will be telling you all about Dunoon.

[Music]

In today’s episode we will hear from Ciorsdan, who lives and works in Dunoon, who will tell us a little bit about what visitors can expect, from Colin from Dunoon Presents who will tell us more about what you can do and see while visiting Dunoon, and also from Malcolm who will tell us all about the Cowal Gathering event that takes place every year in Dunoon, and in 2023 will be taking place from the 24th to the 26th of August. While I apparently visited Dunoon regularly when I was young, visiting family members and for days out when we lived in Lochgilphead and Oban, I don’t actually remember these visits, so I’ll be finding out about Dunoon along with you. First off where is Dunoon? Well, according to Wikipedia, Dunoon is the main town on the Cowal Peninsula in the south of Argyll and Bute, and is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan, and is also the gateway to Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. It is about an hour and 52 minute drive north west of Glasgow.  But, while lovely that drive is, as I’ve driven on that route to and from Glasgow many times, it’s not the most direct route. This would be via ferry, and you have a couple of choices. If you have a car you can travel by Western Ferries from McInroy’s Point in Gourock to Hunters Quay, which is located about a four minute drive from Dunoon centre, and ideal if you were planning on staying at the Hunters Quay Holiday Village, and this crossing takes 20 minutes.  Or there’s a passenger ferry ran by Caledonian MacBrayne which departs from Gourock Ferry Terminal, where you will also find Gourock train station, and lands at Dunoon Ferry Terminal located right at the heart of Dunoon. This crossing takes about 25 minutes. So a wee bit shorter than driving around the road to Dunoon, and you get to relax and enjoy the crossing. However, if you’re like me and enjoy driving and decide to take the road to Dunoon well, just before you reach Dunoon, about 13 minutes outside of it, you will come across Benmore Botanic Garden, which is home to a world famous collection of plants from regions ranging from the Himalayas, China and Japan, to North and South America, with over 300 species of rhododendrons, which sounds very much like something which my gran would enjoy visiting, and she told me that she did frequently when she visited Dunoon. But, I’ve said a few times now, I much prefer visiting castles, and the Castle House Museum is a mere six minute walk from the Dunoon Ferry Terminal. According to castlehousemuseum.org.uk,  Castle House is a beautiful building with its own rich history, such as the flag post marking the original site of a 13th century stone castle. Castle House later became Dunoon’s public library, but now hosts the museum, where you can discover the history of the Dunoon, such as Highland clan battles, wartime Cowal and the Clyde Steamers in their heyday. A short walk from Castle House you will find a statue of Mary Campbell, also known as Highland Mary, who had an affair with the famous poet, Robert Burns, located on Castle Hill overlooking the water and Dunoon Pier. Speaking of the pier, Dunoon Pier is a fabulous Victorian Pier, which, according to Visit Scotland, is one of the finest and rarest examples of a category A listed Victorian Pier, which was completed in 1898, although its earliest parts date to 1835. The areas surrounding Dunoon are, according to Wikipedia, fast becoming recognised as a destination for outdoor pursuits, so let’s hear more about this from Colin from Dunoon Presents.

[Music]

Colin – Dunoon is a small town on the west coast of Scotland just across the water from Greenock, indeed just a 15-20 minute sailing by ferry. Dunoon in the last 30 years has somewhat fallen by the wayside due to changing consumer trends, but that’s all changing. Dunoon is a town

very much on the up, there’s a multi-million pound private sector investment going into the town now, which will make the town one of the foremost mountain biking locations, not only in Scotland but across the UK. That project is at an advanced stage. Our project, we are called Dunoon Presents and we have honed a series of high-end events over the last five to eight years bringing new visitors to the town. There’s regular events on in the town all through the year, from markets selling high-end food and non-food, outdoor markets. There are many sporting events, we run a 10K in August,  we run an ultra marathon in October, which is an off road race for a distance in excess of 26 miles, in this case 33 miles. We host a round of the Scottish rally championship, Dunoon is one of the rounds of seven on that. Indeed the town is on one night of that event turned into a, effectively, a Scalextric track, for one of a better term, and one of the rounds is raced round the streets of the town. It’s a fantastic spectacle. We have had, and will have back again, a round of UK powerboat championships, hopefully in 2024. The last one we did was 2022, which was highly successful. So, you can see that we’re using the natural resources of the town, which are the land and the sea, to bring new visitors to the town. And if you check us out either on Dunoon Presents Facebook page or our website, which has regular updates with event information, is www.dunoonpresents.co.uk. And if you’ve got any inquiries at all please email us on info@pa23.org.uk, that’s info@pa23.org.uk. We look forward to seeing you in Dunoon very soon.

Dawn – dunoonpresents.co.uk is full of information about Dunoon, including accommodation, places to eat, places to visit, and events that take place there throughout the year.

[Music]

In my gran’s day when she would visit Dunoon, she told me that during the two-week Glasgow Fair holiday in July, where everything in Glasgow closed down, Dunoon, amongst other places on the west coast of Scotland, was inundated with visitors arriving by paddle steamer from Glasgow. So I hope the regeneration that Colin talks about will bring back the ‘Doon the Watter’ era, which refers to Glaswegians visiting the Clyde Coast en-mass for the holidays. Speaking about Dunoon being inundated with visitors, during the Cowal Gathering, around 23,000 people visit Dunoon each year to experience the festival of Scottish culture. Here’s Malcolm to tell you more.

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Malcolm – Cowal Gathering has taken place at the end of August in Dunoon on the West Coast of Scotland since 1894. The event has grown since those early days to become a three-day extravaganza of traditional Scottish culture. We are delighted to host several of the most important Highland Dancing championships in the Highland Dancing calendar, including the World Highland Dancing championships, which brings Highland Dancers from across the world, including Canada, America, South Africa and New Zealand. Cowal Gathering also hosts the Cowal Pipe Band Championship, which is the oldest pipe band championship in the world, having first been held at Cowal in 1906. Unbelievably, the Argyll Shield is also the oldest Pipe Band trophy in the world, and was donated to the competition in 1906 by Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s daughter. We also boast a juvenile solo piping competition. There is also international backhold wrestling with competitors from France and Germany and across the UK. And also an international heavy athletics championship, which this year will see teams from Austria and Germany and Scotland battle it out for the incredible Sutherland trophy. So the Cowal Gathering really is an excellent display of traditional Scottish culture, featuring some of the top competitors in all the fields from around the world. But it’s more than that. On the Saturday of the Cowal Gathering we also have a fantastic array of free family entertainment in what we call the top field area.   This includes the Cowal live music tent, which this year is headlined by Trail West, but also has fantastic bands like Torridon, Cala and Trávee playing. There’s also a live Ceilidh dancing tent, where you can take your partners and learn to do traditional Ceilidh dancing to the live band the Inverhooley Ceilidh Band. There’s also plenty for the kids to do though, with Artie’s Singing Kettle entertaining the very youngest kids, there’s a mountain bike track for the  middle-aged kids, there’s arts and crafts workshop for children. There is also, we are delighted this year to have The Clan, Scotland’s mountain bike stunt team are back, wowing everyone with their high jumps. There’s also Punch and Judy shows, clowns, balloon modelling, axe throwing. All kinds of amazing things for the family to do, that are all included in the actual admission ticket price. So, you can come to the Cowal Gathering and you can have a fantastic day out and it doesn’t need to break the bank, most of the entertainment that’s there is included in your actual admission ticket.

Dawn – If you’d like to find out more about the Cowal Gathering visit cowalgathering.com.

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Finally, here’s a bit more information from Ciorsdan Faga, who lives in Dunoon and works as a product development agent for the Argyll and the Isles Tourism Co-operative.

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Ciorsdan – Dunoon is the main town on the Cowal Peninsula.  It’s situated on the Firth of the River Clyde and is only about 90 minutes away from Glasgow, but it’s a world of difference away from it. It’s the gateway to the Highlands and it has an island like feel but with the benefit of both road and ferry access. There’s a beautiful wide stretch of promenade along the east and west bays, where you can walk along the seafront enjoying the surrounding sea and mountain views, and many of the locals will greet you as you pass them on the prom. There’s lots of great things to see and do in Dunoon. Dunoon has one of Scotland’s few remaining Victorian Piers, it has the Castle House Museum, the Burgh Hall, there’s the Benmore Botanical Gardens that’s close by, which is home to a world famous collection of plants. Dunoon is also the marine gateway to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, and a section of the park is actually located just down the road. There’s a host of cycling, walking and running opportunities in the hills and forest tracks that surround Dunoon, and if you’re a keen mountain biker in particular you should look up the Dunoon Project who have focused on developing the mountain bike trails on the hills just behind Dunoon. Also there’s great amenities in the town, such as a local swimming pool, a cinema, two supermarkets and there are great shops. There’s a whole host of events held in the town all year round, from local markets, music events, running and cycling events, artist open studios, a walking festival, the Argyll Rally, and of course the Cowal Highland Gathering, which actually hosts the Highland Dancing World Championships every year. You can find out more information about the events on the Dunoon Presents website and What’s On Dunoon website. Wildlife is also a big feature here, if you’re a bird lover it’s a dream; with Eider ducks, Cormorants, a variety of Waders and Birds of Prey. You can also see Porpoise, Dolphins, Red Squirrels, Pine Martens, the list goes on. There’s plenty of choice for foodies in Dunoon too, with a host of cafes and restaurants, and self-cater holiday makers can get excellent locally sourced produce in the local butchers. You can find out more on the Wild About Argyll website under the Dunoon and Cowal Section, and you can also find local accommodation through this site.  Dunoonhas something for everyone; culture, the outdoors, wildlife, adventure, events, family activities and local products. What more could you ask for?

Dawn – All links mentioned in today’s episode you can find on our website cluarantonn.com/scottishdigest, that’s c-l-u-a-r-a-n-t-o-n-n.com/scottishdigest. So that’s the end of today’s episode. We hope you have enjoyed finding out more about Dunoon. Join us next time for another wee slice of Bonnie Scotland

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Scottish Digest is a production of Cluarantonn.