Updated Shire list and filled in map

It is slowly being filled in with blocks of purple.....................

# on map	Counties of Scotland	Date Visited	Where	Landmark visited
8	Aberdeenshire	10.4.11	Cruden Bay	Aviators Memorial
	Angus
12	Argyll	3.7.11	Appin	Castle Stalker
	Ayrshire
7	Banffshire	5.6.11	Dufftown	Clock Tower
27	Berwickshire	8.5.11	Coldstream  &  Greenlaw	Bridge, Marriage House, Town Hall & War Memorial
	Bute
1	Caithness	12.6.11	Scrabster	Ferry terminal for Orkney
	Clackmannanshire
	Dumfriesshire
	Dunbartonshire
	East Lothian
	Fife
4	Inverness-shire	15.5.11	Carrbridge	The Old Packhorse bridge
	Kincardineshire
	Kinross-shire
	Kirkcudbrightshire
	Lanarkshire
	Midlothian
	Moray
	Nairnshire
X	Orkney	12.6.11	Orkney Mainland	Orkney Wine Company
	Peeblesshire
	Perthshire
	Renfrewshire
	Ross & Cromarty
	Roxburghshire
	Selkirkshire
	Stirlingshire
2	Sutherland	12.6.11	Helmsdale	The Emigrants Statue
	West Lothian
	Wigtownshire
X	Zetland	15.6.11	Unst, Yell & Mainland	Most Northerly road & bus shelter            Shetland Bus memorial

Its a slow process when you have to work for a living.

Another Shire Ticked

2nd & 3rd July 2011

Saturday morning and I have to go to work, but the panniers were loaded up last night and are ready to click onto the bikes when we roll them out the shed.  Now is the time to ask, Why didn't we make the gate that wee bit wider?

Mike got the choice of roads I got the choice of where we headed.
Aviemore for coffee & cake well we would have had cake if I had ordered as it was we had posh coffee with a free refill at Pappa Rock its at the north end of the town.
Laggan where we turned of the main roads and headed inland as far as the tar would go, this is Mikes first night "wild camping"


Wild camp site at Corrieyairack Pass

 and as wild camp sites goes this one is WILD and REMOTE. 
BBQ & wine and only a few midgies to share it with.  It stayed light for what seemed like hours but that could have been the result of my early start. 
Being as there was no telly or midgies to swat Mike decided it would be a good idea to take a wee wander have a poke about in the nearby ruins which we think could have been part of General Wades barracks, followed the track into the woods we came across a fantastic wee bridge.

Melgarve East Bridge

This bridge was built around 1750 and restored in 1984, according to the nearby sign, a wee hidden gem like this makes the end to a perfect day.  Well to be precise the glass of river chilled white wine we had back at the tent was the perfect end to the day but this bridge just made us stand and think of all those that went before us along this scenic route thru Scotland.




Sunday morning we were packed up reasonably early had a few miles to cover today.  Today's thrill was being able to ride the bike for the first 4 miles of the day without the need to wear a helmet, well it seemed pointless we wont see anyone else, well not until we get further down the glen and the farms and fishery areas on the Spey.

A quick stop in Fort William for fuel then we head south towards Glencoe, one of our favourite places in Scotland, but this time we kept going bypassing it and heading towards Appin and Castle Stalker.

Castle Stalker

Castle Stalker and a wee bit of trivia
Local legend has it that
In around 1620 the Castle passed into the hands of the Campbells of Airds as a result of a drunken wager by the 7th Stewart Chief, Duncan, in exchange for an eight-oared wherry

Its now time to turn the bikes round and start the long ride home, its only the 2nd time we have been along the A85 from Connel ~ Tyndrum a bikers paradise, as is The Green Welly our next stop in Tyndrum.  The 3rd posh coffee of the trip and a browse in the shop then its on the bikes for the long 125 ride home.



Not only did we get to add another shire to the list visited, but we got to ride on a few of our favourite roads

A920 Huntly - Dufftown

A95 Aberlour - Grantown on Spey

A89 by Loch Laggan

A828 along the shores of Loch Linnhe

A85 Connel - Tyndrum

A85 Thru Glen Ogle  the bikes always sound great going thru here :-)

Well that was another perfect biking weekend, the scenery on the West coast of Scotland is hard to beat and we just happen to be lucky enough to live close enough to it to get there in a couple of hours.
Going to spend the next few weeks pouring over maps hunting for another perfect wild camping destination.

Another Shire visited

19th June 2011

Shetland the destination for our summer holiday, although the weather was far from summery, but then again what more can you expect when you are THIS far north.



Can we look for Polar Bears now



We did get much further north than here but this is just to prove we made it to this latitude.  There was a lot of rain, what felt like hurricanes, but the locals probably refer to them as a "few gusts", there was a night we feared for the tent, but with us and our luggage inside it it would have had to been mighty powerful to get us airborne.  We also had a few days with sunshine to rival any Mediterranean resort :-).

We rode the bikes to the most northerly point we could on a road.



Saxa Vord

 This is a  military radar and early warning centre, it closed in 2005, but as you see the big golf ball is still here so are they STILL watching?




From here we walked around the fence and got a good view of Muckle Flugga.  Some day I will return and get a closer up view, just have to pick a day with less wind.

Muckle Flugga in the distance, photo taken the day after the proposed boat trip, yesterday the sea resembled a bubbling pot of blueberry jam. 

Muckle Flugga                    

Caution may contain a geocache

When you visit Unst you by default visit a few of the Most Northerly icons in the British Isles, bus shelter, brewery, house & Post Office.  The post office hand franks all the post cards sent from there, when we arrived home we saw the special frank mark is a couple of cute puffins.

My official photo for my 2011 challenge is The Shetland Bus Memorial in Scalloway.  The memorial is constructed from stone from both Shetland & Norway which in my opinion is a fitting tribute to all those brave seamen who operated "this service"

Shetland Bus memorial Scalloway

My photo for my challenge, couldn't get Mikes bike in cos he didn't want to have it in the same frame as a wee learners bike

The "Bus"

Detail on the top of the memorial.

New Rubber fitted today

10th July 2011

Oops



This is the state of the tyre when we got home last weekend, my keys were hidden, but I don't think even I would have went out on the road with a tyre as naked as this one was.

When you check a tyre I think the idea is to check all the way round cos when we set out last Saturday the rubber was covering all the canvas, HONEST.

Yeah got some tread again

My ever so wonderful husband took the old naked tyre to the tyre place and came back with this one all nice and new with lots of tread on it.  Today he fitted it back onto the bike for me, gave me back the keys, then it started to rain.

To save face I think I will give him my bike so that the little rubber bits that stick up right at the edge will get scrubbed off and I will appear like a real biker when I go places.

Thank you darling for fitting etc and not telling me how much it all cost :-).

39987 miles when the new tyre fitted.

Short but Oh Sooooo Sweeeeeeet !!!!

Sunday 12th June 2011

Making our way ever further north, and the best ever excuse to have a ride round Orkney.

The first ferry to Orkney is at 1200 noon so we only get a short visit, but its long enough to do what we need to do.
A visit to Orkney Wine is a necessity, thankfully the tasting glasses are only small, as there were a few tipples we just HAD to try.  Eventually we settled on Sloe wine this is a new one for us and of course no visit would be complete without a bottle of Black Portent, we even treated ourselves to some shot glasses, think the only purpose of them is that we would drink a wee bit less every time you visit the bottle.

Parked at the Wine shop

We were fortunate enough to be offered a look around the winery, Emile van Schayk the owner took us on a guided tour of the The Winery ohhhh all that wine what a place to be locked in for a few days, and such a lot of choice.

Italian Chapel  Lamb Holm     Orkney

The Italian Chapel is right next door to the winery and well worth a visit, its hard to believe that this beautiful building was created from two Nissen huts, some paint and the imagination of soldiers far from their home land.
We had a lot of time to kill before our very late evening ferry 2345hrs, dinner in the Skippers Bar, took our time, then we went for a wander, found a couple of geocaches, then headed out to the ferry terminal.  A couple of other bikes, some cars and a whole host of noisy kids all bound for Shetland.

Furthest North on Mainland Scotland

12th June 2011

At last we are heading NORTH, will be riding roads we have never ridden on before, which in my book is always a big + point.

For a long time I have wanted the visit The Emigrants statue in Helmsdale, and what a Statue it is, very thought provoking.

Helmsdale

Blue skies the colour of our flag, Scotland at its very best. 

The poles in front of the statue do have flags on them, from the main countries the Scots were forced to flee to.

The kilted man is looking ahead into an unknown future, while beside him a boy is looking up to him for guidance or reassurance. The woman, wrapped in a shawl, is holding a baby and is looking back towards the home they have been forced to leave.

The Emigrants

There is an identical statue in Winnipeg Canada where it has been named Selkirk Settlers Monument

I had heard a lot about the road we would be travelling on today and it was not without trepidation that I headed North to the Berriedale Braes, Mike said "nowt here could be worse than the alps" and he was right, it was just a wee hairpin and a steep bit.  Had a quick visit to the Whaligoe steps another historical place on my long list of Scottish places I need to visit, but didn't have long enough to explore, we will need to come back to have a better look around and a walk to the bottom and maybe a struggle back up them.

We are now in Caithness, but I didn't get the time to find any historical places to photograph so I am going to just bore you with a photo of our bikes waiting in the line for the ferry to Orkney.

Waiting for the Orkney Ferry

Oh WOW what roads we found today hardly any potholes, nice bends & curves 2 more counties visited on my Scottish quest.