Aberdeen to Portsmouth - South England - quick trip

The tripping around the UK really ended in Aberdeenshire and was followed by a quick trip down to Portsmouth for our crossing to France for the World Equestrian Games (WEG).   Staying the first night in the Northumberland area.

Kath here taking a short break in Corbridge on 24 August not far from our overnight B&B and also Hadrian's Wall. Look up Google for its history or our 2011 blog.

The countryside in that part of Northumberland  is generally sheep and cattle grazing, some more intensive than others with the occasional crop.

 Sometime just rough pasture.

 While other times more intensive farming.

As seen here and above.

It was then south through Lincolnshire and Norfolk where we had not previously traveled.  More industry and population requires more electricity where there is more reliance on coal (or maybe gas) fired plants.

 While not far away near Kings Lynn intensive crop production on fertile flats.

Crops vary depending on demand and price. Above a cereal and this view sugar beet.

Some hot house crop just seen in the picture.

Also isolated horticulture with a small area of flower production spotted.

 This picture to show "monoculture" as well as crop side by side.

 Brassica seed crop, probably rape seed for oil.

Pig hutches in the grain growing area.

Harvesting under way, the last row in this field. We stayed at a B&B at Bradford Combust, a short distance south of Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk.  They specialized in Strawberry growing, with some apple orchard but also leased some land out for cereal grain cropping.  From here it was a relative short trip skirting around the east of London to Portsmouth where we returned our rental car (or rather left it at the hotel car park for the company to collect) and stayed over night and boarded the ferry to France next morning.

Scotland: Skye to Aberdeen, the long way

Leaving Skye on 16 August 2014 we took a route through the North West Highlands to get back to the east coast at Inverness.  Firstly northward here at the head of Loch Carron from where we crossed a rather steep narrow road dropping into Loch Kishorn (really a sea inlet) then another mountain road to Shieldaig.

Lots of warning about the type of road yet a few campers were encountered on not much more than a single lane in many places.

An example of the hill road and the landscape along it.

Shieldaig tucked in next to the sea.

A small bench of flat rock on the foreshore as seen in occasional places around the coast and in particular Orkney.

As  in Skye remnants of earlier settlements but many isolated houses maintained.

 Often accompanied by these cattle particularly associated with the Highlands.  These ones doing a check of the remains of an old steading.

The road followed around Upper Loch Torridon and in this section cut into the rock cliff.

The rugged coast is illustrated in this view of inlets and peninsula together with mist emphasizing the deeply incised coastline.

Then a few houses are found on a more hospitable coastal bay.

 This one blending so well into the landscape as to be barely noticed until upon it near Annat.

It was then inland along the Glen Torridon where there was forest and woodland protection and restoration being undertaken.

Another view of the work along the Glen.

 Upon reaching the main highway from Inverness, on the east coast, to Ullapool, on the west cost, which most people travel we discovered this hydo lake about 10 miles up form the junction of the road out of the Strath Bran that we had traveled.

It was the reservoir for a rather complex linkage of the water system producing electricity for Scottish Hydro.

Not far downstream all on it own beside the road this delightful hotel and restaurant called Aultguish Inn. we were domiciled at a small B&B, a few mile down the road at the road junction at Gorstan.

 Next morning we took a short detour back up the A9 on the north side of Cromarty Firth to view Foulis house, the seat of clan Munro.  This was for the ancestral link to Raymond's great grandmother who was a Munro from Thurso, on the northern tip of Scotland.

A better view not obstructed by the roadside trees.

The view opposite looking out across the Firth showing the intensive cropping agriculture in the locality.

Between he A9 highway and the Firth is the Foulis Storehouse.

Where buildings have been restored and a thriving restaurant, gift and boutique food store is operated.

 It was then down to Aberdeen area and on the way encountered a heavy rainstorm.  Most of the crops had not been harvested and to get more heavy rain just added to the woes of the farmers.  The photographs are representative of the farming we saw along the north east from Moray Firth to below Aberdeen.

 Some areas a mix of uses including forest or woodland.  Wintering barns were also a feature on some farms.

Here a broader view of the mixed livestock area.

While other areas were dominated by intensive pasture and cropping on the better land with trees on the non cultivated area.

Some area were a monoculture of grain cropping.  Much of it supplying distilleries.

About a week later a harvester working as rain came on sufficient to require windscreen wipers on our vehicle.

The B&B where we stayed at Kemnay, half and hour west of Aberdeen city managed only one day of harvesting for the week but had the grain drier operating most of that time.

Near to whee we were staying was Castle Fraser, a National Trust property so we took the opportunity take a look around.  It had an added interest because of Raymond's acquaintance with a NZ high country run holder who had been brought up there and who's family had bequeathed it to the trust.

Andrew and Kath in the walled vegetable garden which was exceptionally well kept.

Another view showing the wall.

 Arden House at White Rashes, a short distance north west of Aberdeen that Andrew and Gemma had just purchased.  Unfortunately they had been unable to take possession until the last day before we had to make our way south.  However we were the first to spend a night there, the day they got possession.

The view, showing in the foreground part of the 6 acres of land attached to the house, from the upstairs bedroom we used.  It was the only room with a bed at that stage and not much else in the house at that stage.

The next blog will be a quick trip from Aberdeen to Portsmouth to cross over to France.

The Isle of Skye

From Glen Shiel we crossed the narrow strait, now bridged, at the Kyle of Lochalsh to a self catering flat at Broadford where we stayed for a week from 9 August. Each day short trips were made to various points and it was not long before most roads had been traveled. Here is a very brief precis.


 

The alternative access to Skye, and only way before the bridge, was by ferry from Mallaig to Ardvasar.   The latter is close to the Macdonald stronghold on Skye, of Armadale where the ruins of the castle have been stabilized and an interesting museum established. 

The grounds have old exotic conifer plantings very well maintained even if some are of poor form.

 There are frequent streams coloured by the peat bogs from which they flow.

Crofters cottages abound many of which have been maintained.  Ownership by non residents or people who have moved to the isle.

No not a rice paddy but looks like it.  A natural wetland with a rice like grass.

 Skye has many people traveling there for outdoor recreation and it appears has a proficient search and rescue service.

 On the north western shores of the island the sea can be rough and the land misty and wet.

 Even these calves a looking a little chilly while the cow feeds on good pasture.

 While there are relatively small areas of good pasture much of the land is natural grassland or woody species.

 Shown here a mix of pasture and natural landscapes, generally crofts.

A few waterfalls add the the variety of water features.

 Higher slopes provide rough grazing,  In this case a few sheep graze.

While other softer types would prefer to be inside.

 Typical of a large part of the land in the central part of the isle.

 The an occasional building is located. Note electricity is widely reticulated.

A more hardy type happy with his environment.

 A closer view of the cottage above.

 Outside a community hall where crafts were being sold.

Another view of a farming area.

Although the vegetation was heather dominant it was being grazed by cattle in good condition as seen below.

 One of the larger streams...

... clearly showing the amber colouring from the peat swampland source.

 The next day, by this time the 14th August, we head toward the northern most part of Skye.  However on the way come across this little chap with his hairy mother.

 Once following the coastal inlets discover a variety of settlements and views.

 An un-grazed patch of heather displays its full colour.

The ferry terminal at Uig.

 Another view of Uig.  It was here we learned the electricity had gone off over the whole of Skye.  A cold salad was the order of the day at a very friendly cafe.

The Flora MacDonald saga is played out on the tombstones in the Kilmuir graveyard on the northern tip of Skye.  She died March 1790 aged 68.  In 1955 her great,great grandson placed a brass plaque recording the family members interned in the family mausoleum at Kilmuir to replace a marble one that had been taken away piece by piece by tourists - so recorded on the brass plaque.

Cliffs in the vicinity of "The Storr" just west of the road along the Sound of Raasay.

Another view of the jagged formation.

Further south the more typical rounded hills, under 720m above sea level (asl).

Saturday 15th August was the last full day on Skye, so something a little different.  At the end of a narrow road leading out from Broadford to Kylerhea this conning tower of what may have been a submarine.

It was not the only vessel that may have met misfortune in the vicinity. In the centre of this photograph the skeleton of a wooden craft.

A few cattle graze in the bay overlooked by a small settlement.

The forces of nature at work splitting the rock.

 The view looking north from the road on the return to Broadford.

The next day we leave Skye and our hosts Alan and Margaret Humphrey to continue our journeying in northern Scotland.