Golf, History, and Nature in Scotland

 “I’ve never missed a putt in my mind.”   Jack Nicklaus

Carol writes:  It was with little fanfare and hardly a sign that that we crossed into Scotland 18 days after we had arrived in the UK.  We crossed our first firth of many just outside of Edinburgh by way of the bridge over the Firth of Forth (has such a lovely ring to it). 

We decided to bypass the city of Edinburgh for now and save our visit for the end of our Scottish loop, at which time the Scottish kids would be back in school, Edinburgh’s festival season would have run its course, and hopefully crowds would be much more manageable. 

Many weeks ago in a campground in France we had chatted with a Scottish couple who gave us lots of tips about places to go and things to see in Scotland, and one of their recommendations was to go to St. Andrews.  St. Andrews is known in the golfing world as ‘The Home of Golf’ and lays claim to be the place where golf was invented and has been played since at least the 15^th century.  The British Open is played at St. Andrews Old Course every 5 years and has been played there a whopping 28 times. 

So, for the golfing connection alone, we headed up the east coast to St. Andrews. 

We should have been paying more attention to the signs we had been seeing along the road that mentioned something about the “Ricoh British Women’s Open Championship,” especially the dates.  When we arrived at the St. Andrews car park, we were glad we had gotten an early start because parking spaces were already starting to fill up with fans for the Saturday round of the British Women’s Open Championship.  All that mattered to us was that we got a parking spot, not very easy for a 23-ft. RV in city lots built for small cars.  

As we headed toward the oceanfront course at St. Andrews, we detected a very happy, festive atmosphere.

Our walk took us right next to the 18^th hole where many a thrilling British Open match has been decided, past the little bridge that is a famous landmark at St. Andrews,

then a little further on to the iconic old clubhouse, where I proudly had my picture taken.

 

As all golf aficionados know, the St. Andrews course is right next to the beach

and is infamous for its many challenges with hilly topography, hellish bunkers, rainy days, and unpredictable winds.  In fact, despite the incredibly lovely and breezy sunny day we were having, we found out later that Women’s Open play was suspended shortly after noon because of high winds with gusts that were toppling some of the metal barriers.  Al and I were thinking to ourselves, “Isn’t wind just a part of the game?”  One of the course officials graciously chatted with us and explained that play has to be suspended in the interest of fairness when the winds are so powerful that the golfers’ balls are moved around.  Then it all made sense…

As we continued our walk into the town, we passed by displays and ruins depicting the role St. Andrews played in the religious conflicts of the 16^th century Protestant Reformation.  At that time St. Andrews was the focus of Catholic religious power, and Protestant conflict evolved over new ideas raised by Martin Luther and John Calvin.  The bishop’s castle was besieged

 

and the cathedral was destroyed.

It was interesting walking through the ancient cemetery attached to the cathedral grounds.  One of my favorite tombstone epitaphs was one for Margaret Stuart Hunter (d. 1917) that read:  “SHE DID WHAT SHE COULD.”

Next to the cemetery we briefly strolled past the most prestigious university in Scotland—the University of St. Andrews.  In the informative university museum we discovered that student life at St. Andrews is steeped in many ancient traditions, one of the most fascinating for me being the wearing of distinctive red academic gowns.  In recent times, two of St. Andrews’ most famous alums include Prince William and Kate Middleton, who went to university together St. Andrews.

When we left St. Andrews, we headed north along the east coast, then cut inland through the majestic Cairngorm Mountains.  We were finally seeing some of that fabulous natural Scottish beauty that we had been told about by so many people along the way.  We saw grand open vistas, grass-covered hills, small ski resorts that were closed for the season, and lots of sheep.

Heather and also fireweed, which I recognized from our trip to Alaska, were in full bloom and formed large patches of gorgeous purple carpets.

 

Balmoral, the Queen’s Scottish estate, is located in the Cairngorms.  I could easily understand why it is one of the favorite vacation spots of Prince Charles. 

From the Cairngorm Mountain region it was a short drive to the coast that borders the Moray of Firth that projects out into the North Sea.  Our next destination was Culloden Battlefield, where we would get a heavy dose of pivotal Scottish history, followed by our first taste of Scottish Neolithic history at Clava Cairns. 

“The harder I practice the luckier I get.”   Gary Player

 

 

Roman Times in Britain

"Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.”   Seneca, Roman statesman

Carol writes:

HADRIAN’S WALL:  Bisecting the isle of Britain at its narrowest stretch is a magnificent ruin called Hadrian’s Wall, a 73-mile stone wall built by the Romans under Emperor Hadrian in 122 A.D.  The wall served partly as a defensive military complex complete with Roman forts that were positioned at frequent intervals along the entire wall to deter the pesky Pict tribes from the Scottish north.  With the passage of 2000 years, many stretches of wall have disappeared beneath the sod; nevertheless, today the coast-to-coast 73-mile hike along Hadrian’s Wall is one of the most popular longer walks in England.  In fact, we saw many hikers carrying large overnight backpacks doing just that.  There were nifty little ladders installed over stone fences so hikers could cross along the route. 

We concentrated our visit to Hadrian’s Wall at Homesteads Roman Fort where some of the best sections of the wall were still visible and the ancient fort ruins remained quite spectacular.

 

 

Our tour guide pointed out the commanding officer’s house, which once had mosaic floors with an innovative heating system under the elevated floors.

There was a huge storage room that has been identified as a large granary, with elevated floors for air flow,

but the crowd favorite was a large communal latrine that once had running water.  Every grade school child on the tour could give the correct answer when the guide asked what the Romans used for toilet paper—answer:  a sponge on a stick.

 

There was only one short stretch of wall where it was permitted to walk ‘on the wall’—a stretch that was stabilized by a covering of sod.

For those of you that know about it—yes, we did take the short ride to Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall to view the iconic lone sycamore tree that was featured in the 1991 movie Robin Hood:  Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.

The Roman presence all along Hadrian’s Wall, especially at Homesteads Roman Fort, was certainly thought provoking, and the totally unspoiled countryside setting was superb as far as one could see.

 

CRAIGSIDE:  Many of our fellow campers like to tell us about favorite places they have visited.  A British man that we chatted with in our last campground told us most of the ‘house/castle tours’ just aren’t interesting to him, but there was one exception that he thought was very worthwhile, and that was the National Trust property called Craigside

 

Craigside sits prominently on a spectacular rocky crag in the Northumbrian hills.   The house is the fantasy creation of a Victorian industrialist and innovator named Lord William Armstrong.  His home has the distinction of being the first house to be lit by hydroelectricity.  As a result, Craigside had conveniences in the kitchen that were not found in any other homes of that era, such as an electrical rotating meat spit in the kitchen,

And--my favorite--one of the first automatic dish washers!

In the library were two of the first lamps to be lit by means of electricity.

There were luxurious heated Victorian spa rooms with a large beautifully tiled soaking pool where Lord Armstrong liked to entertain his visitors.

 

 

Many of the corridor walls were covered in gorgeous tile patterns, which added to the luxury feel of the home.

The most impressive area of the house was the upstairs suite of rooms that were built on a scale to entertain royalty, which Lord Armstrong did, with large formal hallways and a regal ballroom with a gigantic marble fireplace.

After an interesting morning at Craigside, once again we gave silent thanks for the Craigside tip that we had received from a fellow camper.  In 2-1/2 weeks our travels through England have taken us almost to the Scottish border, and we looked forward to entering Scotland the next day--finally!  Our game plan was to do a counterclockwise loop around Scotland, first heading north along the east coast to the very tip of Scotland as far as the roads would take us.  Our first stop along the Scottish coast was at ‘The Home of Golf’, hallowed St. Andrews…

“I’d give up golf if I didn’t have so many sweaters.”  Bob Hope

 

 

Last Days in Yorkshire and Northumbria

“Oats.  A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”  Samuel Johnson

Carol writes: 

THIRSK:  Caravan Club campgrounds can sometimes have very unusual locations, such as the one we stayed at in Thirsk in a grassy field just outside the fence of a racetrack.  Thoroughbred horse races were being run the next day, so we were asked to camp for one night in a lovely green field next to the racetrack fences so that the race attendees could use the Caravan Club campground as a parking lot.  Since we had no access to any of the campground services in this lovely field, the nightly fee was reduced and was a bargain at just 5£ (5 pounds is around $7.50).

The North York Moors National Park was just outside of Thirsk, and we were eager to experience our first views of the famous English moors.  Small patches of heather were just starting to bloom with lovely little purple flowers.  We took a short hike out onto the moors and found a cozy picnic spot where we enjoyed the solitude.

 

We spent the weekend in a peaceful little campground surrounded by open-range sheep pastures,

just a few miles from the beach at Robin Hood’s Bay. 

We got caught up on laundry chores with a couple of loads in the Wonder Wash.  We served as a source of entertainment for our neighbor, who got a kick out of our laundry methods and chatted away with us while he put up his TV antenna.  We had some lighthearted kidding back and forth and joked with him that we had two loads of laundry done before he even had TV reception.

DURHAM:  The next day we headed toward Durham to see the famous Durham Cathedral, one of Britain’s best examples of Norman architecture. 

Durham Cathedral, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built as the final resting place of England’s beloved St. Cuthbert from Lindisfarne, a 7^th century inspirational leader of Christianity in northern England.  The other gravesite of major historical importance inside the cathedral was the tomb of Venerable Bede, an 8^th century Christian scholar who wrote the first history of England.  No picture-taking was allowed inside the cathedral. 

Since the timing was right, we decided to attend an evensong service at 5:15 in the cathedral.  As we waited for evensong to start, we had a sunny seat outside the church next to Durham’s ancient gravestones and a stately Celtic cross.

Music plays a big part of Anglican services.  We were told that the visiting choir that evening was from Glendale, Ohio, very near where I spent my childhood, so that was even more incentive to attend evensong, our first-ever Anglican service.  We enjoyed hearing the Glendale choir accompanied by the massive cathedral organ, and the entire service was a very moving experience in our seats in the intimate choir section of the cathedral.  I was surprised at the Anglican liturgical similarities to the Catholic faith that I am so familiar with.  Many of the prayer responses by the congregation were identical to those used in Catholic Mass.

LINDISFARNE (HOLY ISLAND):  In order to fully appreciate the life and times of St. Cuthbert, we decided to make a visit to his home on Holy Island, formerly known as Lindisfarne.  Lindisfarne has a special allure because twice a day at high tide the asphalt causeway is covered with sea water and Holy Island literally becomes an island.  We checked local tide tables and found out the next safe crossing time would be early afternoon, then we set off to see Lindisfarne Castle and the ruins of the old priory where the magnificent illuminated manuscript of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (known as the Lindisfarne Gospels) were written around 700 AD.  We hope to see the actual manuscript when we visit the British Museum toward the end of our stay in the UK.

The most dramatic feature on Holy Island was the National Trust site of Lindisfarne Castle, which has had a long and varied history dating back to the 16^th century, long after the time of St. Cuthbert and the priory monks.  Set into the bedrock of a prominent solitary hill, the most impressive feature of the castle is its location, with views of the North Sea from two sides. 

 

The rooms were furnished in early 1900s style from the era of its last inhabitant, a wealthy Edwardian bachelor from London who sought a quiet country retreat.

One of the most interesting parts of the tour was the lovely walled garden, all by itself in the midst of a stark and barren landscape, with only the local sheep for company.

The nearby priory ruins were once the home and original burial ground of St. Cuthbert.  The haunting skeletal remnant of previous glory was reminiscent of others we have seen, a victim of the dissolution of the monasteries, courtesy of King Henry VIII.

 

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”  William Shakespeare