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.

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.

Another Shire visited

Been a while since I had time update my yearly challenge but since my last update 4 new shires visited, but only telling you about 1 here.



# on map	Counties of Scotland	Date Visited	Where	Landmark visited
8	Aberdeenshire	10.4.11	Cruden Bay	Aviators Memorial
	Angus
	Argyllshire
	Ayrshire
7	Banffshire	5.6.11	Dufftown	Clock Tower
27	Berwickshire	8.5.11	Coldstream  &  Greenlaw	Bridge, Marriage House, Town Hall & War Memorial
	Bute
	Caithness
	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
	Orkney
	Peeblesshire
	Perthshire
	Renfrewshire
	Ross & Cromarty
	Roxburghshire
	Selkirkshire
	Stirlingshire
	Sutherland
	West Lothian
	Wigtownshire
	Zetland

Sunday 5th June 2011

Decided we needed to get out on the bikes, an ideal chance to visit shires and get another 2 landmarks for my Round Britain Rally.  I planned the route to take in 2 of Scotland's Ski areas, which in itself will tell you we were aiming high.  But first a nice run through the Angus Glens, some fantastic single track roads, shame about all the sand and gravel up the middle of them, think we will be back here later in the summer.
We were meeting up with our friends in Ballater so I finally get to ride the Bike over Glenshee, and from Ballater we head over The Lecht road, colder up here but the roads are GREAT. 
We really need to say a big thanks to the gentleman out for a walk near the village of Tomintoul, he gave us a rather strange wave, quick up with the head to scan the horizon for white vans and sure enough the unmarked camera car was sitting just a wee bit up the road, that man probably saved us a few pounds that day.
As usual with any ride over The Lecht we had to visit  The Old Fire Station cafe apparently the bacon rolls are to die for but so is the soup and millionaire shortbread.

Riders suitably refuelled then on to Dufftown, it had been my intention for a while to get a photo of the tower on the main street through the village its a bit quieter on a Sunday so easier to get the bike in there as well.
The Clock tower was originally built to house the village jail, its now used as the tourist information centre.
The clock  is known locally as "The clock that hanged MacPherson". MacPherson of Kingussie was an infamous freebooter condemned to death at Banff in 1700 for robbing the rich and giving it to the poor. The local inhabitants raised a petition for his reprieve but when the pardon was on it's way, MacPherson's arch enemy, Lord Braco, the Sheriff of Banff, put the clock forward a quarter of an hour to make sure MacPherson would hang. Sometime later the clock was removed from Banff and installed in Dufftown's tower.

Have to start heading home from Dufftown via Huntly to refuel the bikes, no more coffee stops for us now :-(.

Had a fantastic ride out with Hubby, Brian, Dianne, Chris & Mark (Sheena was lying sniffling at home), and today is the day that I proved to everyone else I ride with that I can concentrate when I want to and that it makes me go round corners a bit more ambitiously than usual.

Another county visited

# on map	Counties of Scotland	Date Visited	Where	Landmark visited
8	Aberdeenshire	10.4.11	Cruden Bay	Aviators Memorial
	Angus
	Argyllshire
	Ayrshire
	Banffshire
27	Berwickshire	8.5.11	Coldstream  &  Greenlaw	Bridge, Marriage House, Town Hall & War Memorial
	Bute
	Caithness
	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
	Orkney
	Peeblesshire
	Perthshire
	Renfrewshire
	Ross & Cromarty
	Roxburghshire
	Selkirkshire
	Stirlingshire
	Sutherland
	West Lothian
	Wigtownshire
	Zetland

The Old Packhorse Bridge

I think this is the remains of the bridge built in 1717, the cost of construction being a mind blowing £100.  Its main purpose was to ensure that funeral parties could cross the River Dulnain with dry feet when the river was in spate.

You are still able if you are very brave walk across this bridge and pose for photos, we didnt this time.  I would love to visit when the river is raging down this narrow stretch.

Posing on the pavement

We have spent the weekend camping, drinking cider & J2O and exploring the countryside around Cannich.  Stopped here on the way home a wee rest before the hairpins, twists and hills of The Lecht.

Not so lucky this weekend, we got soaked on the way home it could have been worse only had to ride from Ballater in a drookit state.
Its been good catching up with friends and hearing all about their travels in the past 12 months.