Steve The Wandering Aussie

2023.05.06

They say here that todays rain is tomorrow’s whisky. So there will be no shortage in any conceivable future. I hold out this mornings blessing as clear evidence of this.
It’s also said that the value of the whisky in secret Scottish stores is greater than that of the gold in Fort Knox. Yet another fine tale where the truth is irrelevant.
We stopped at the small hamlet of Nigg for coffee and a look at the tartan and arts centre. We then headed north to the Tarbat peninsula where the Pictish Stone Display showed up to 3000 years of artistic remains. And the remains of murdered monks just to round out the collection. Lots with sword strikes to the mouth. Vikings? Angry wives? It seems there have been people here for 8000 years.
OR…. Do each of these places vie for position as the oldest (insert anything you like here) display in Scotland.
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Dunrobin Castle. Decadence at its finest. I remember being disgusted by the opulence of the Russian palaces in St. Petersburg but this is….. wow
The English commandeered the lands and deported or murdered or made slaves of the local true owners. The children froze and the people starved
We stayed for the falconry display, which featured a Harris hawk from the American deserts and then a local peregrine falcon. Have to admire the trust and synergy between man and bird.
The cloud cover was so low as we trundled ever northward that the windmill blades were obscured in the hills. At least the rain has stopped.
Further north to the village of Helmsdale where the local Lord had cleared the land of human inhabitants and trees and built a huge monument to himself so that even after death, he could keep his eye on extensive lands. Little fishing villages were ‘permitted’ as long as the taxes were flowing.
We checked into our Airbnb and had just started to relax when the neighbour, with a couple under the belt, came to complain our car was a foot and a half in the wrong place (no, there are no markings). It’s a sign of how narrow and congested the streets in the towns up here are.
All up, a quiet day for this aging traveler. Simply LOVING seeing Scotland again.