SCOTLAND AND THE LAKE DISTRICT

We took the ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan on the west coast of Scotland and then drove to Coldspring, a quaint town just south of Edinburgh.  As we entered town we were met with these chaps strolling down the street.  Our first clue that we were, indeed, in Scotland.

Our cottage, Park End, is the old gate house to the Milne Graden estate which sits on the beautiful Tweed river.  In addition to golf we had hoped to do some fly fishing on their private beat (or fishery as they call it here).  Unfortunately, they have had very little rain (could have fooled us) so the river was quite low and the fishing very poor.  We therefore had to settle for a small walk along the river's edge.  Pretty tranquil.

Though there was no fishing to be had, we were able to play a bit of golf.  The weather, as usual, was spotty but we managed to get out and play a couple of the local courses.  

They were very pretty and we enjoyed them both.  Like many of the old courses in Scotland, there were old stone walls to contend with, washboard fairways and, on the parkland courses which these were, many, many trees.  We had played mostly links courses in Ireland and, as you will see a bit later in this post, we played one last one here in Scotland, so it was nice to have to contend with a few trees for a change.







Throughout this blog I have commented on the fields of bright red poppies, and yellow mustard and rape fields.  Well, here we found fields of purple.  We never did find out what it was  but it sure was beautiful.  This is a shot taken from one of the tee boxes at Hinsel Golf Club.

Our last golf related outing in this neck of the woods was to the British Open at Muirfield.  For those of you who watched it on TV, you know that the weather was spectacular and the course was very brown (due to the aforementioned lack of rain) which made for some very tough conditions.  To be truthful it looked a lot like Outlaw (our Desert Mountain friends will understand) in the summer.  Concrete fairways and glass-top greens.  Ah, we remember it well.   

Our last sightseeing stop was to the English town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed.  This is a medieval walled city that has changed hands between Scotland and England too many times to count.  Come to find out the River Tweed is the boundary between Scotland and England so it makes sense that this strategically placed town would be fought over.  Its fortifications have been in place and used for centuries.  In fact they are still used today in training exercises by the Royal Navy.  

It was a charming town and had many interesting buildings and churches.  

The Old Bridge which crosses the River Tweed is still in use today.  

In walking around we stumbled on the community garden.  It was great.  Everyone has their own plot and all sorts of vegetables are grown.  What a great idea!

After leaving Coldstream we headed north of Edinburgh to a small town called Cupar.  Our cottage this time was out in the country surrounded by fields.  It was again very charming but due to its remote location I had to go stand in the field across the road to make a phone call (great fun in the rain) and the internet was sketchy at best.  I was lucky to get an hour late in the afternoon but even then it would go in and out on me.  

While we had pretty good weather in Coldstream, it turned cold and wet when we arrived in Cupar.  Even so, we managed to get some golf in.  We had a break in the rain on Monday so we went out and played a local course.  




Tuesday we got rained out but luckily Wednesday morning we had some sun so we were able to go to Kingarrock (pronounced Kin-GAR-ock) for nine holes the way golf used to be played - with hickory sticks and either 1895 style balls or 1924 style balls.

This course was built back in the early 1900's by the Sharp family in front of their Mansionhouse on the Hill of Tarvit.










As you can see, the house and it's gardens are still absolutely beautiful and make for an idyllic setting of old-style golf.

So, here we go.  As in the old days, you start your round with a wee dram of the good stuff.  We liked this custom!

And, here is my bag leaning on the old wooden stand that you carry in the bag around with you.  There are only five clubs and it was quite a challenge trying to figure out how far (not very) you could hit the ball with each of them (we used the 1924 ball as it was closer to the era in which the course was built).  An interesting note is that in the early 1900's tees first came into use.  They were invented by a dentist from the States (!) and because they were red in color they were called "Reddies".  They came in a box that was about the size of a pack of cigarettes.

After our round we had a bit of ginger beer and shortbread - another custom of the day.

All in all, a very fun day.

Our last day of golf was spent on the Jubilee Course at St. Andrews.  We thought we were going to be rained out (forecast was for 90% chance of rain) but we had a late afternoon tee time and, lo and behold, when our tee time came up we actually had sun!

Here's Dale on the first tee.  

We actually played the front nine very well and were starting to feel a bit cocky. 

However, then we made the turn and the fog appeared out of nowhere.  We had to play the back nine completely blind.  Here's an example of what we faced.  This is a 150 yard Par 3.  We couldn't even see the front of the green.  We did have a course guide but trying to navigate long Par 5's (the women had four of them on the back nine - whinge, whinge) when you couldn't see farther than 120 yards was quite the feat.

So, that's our story of Scotland.  Even with the weather we do love this country.  And, in response to the request each town makes as you leave it, Haste Ye Back, we say, We Sure Will Try.

But before we leave these lovely British Isles we have one more stop to make and that is to the Lake District.  As we have shipped our golf clubs home we had hoped to do some hiking here but didn't hold out much hope as the forecast was for rain, rain and more rain.  However, we caught a huge break and, while it has rained steadily every night, we have had bright blue skies with big white puffy clouds.  So, we not only got some good exercise but we also saw some gorgeous country.  I will, therefore, close this post with a few of the pictures we have taken over the last two days.

See you in Italy!

IRELAND

We are now half-way through our countryside tour of the British Isles and I thought I would take a moment to talk about an extreme sport that is found here . . . . driving.  It truly is not for the faint of heart.  Whether in England, Wales, Ireland or Scotland the rules are the same.  You win if you make it home at the end of the day with no missing side view mirrors, dings or major damage.  As foreigners we are given a handicap - in addition to having to drive on the wrong side of the road, we also have to drive with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car so one's perspective isn't from the middle of the road, it's from the shoulder.  This makes going around curves particularly fun.

Now, the course.  There are three types of roads in this game.  Red, called major arteries, are about the width of three cars.  Yellow, called secondary roads, are about two to two and a half cars wide.  Then there are the whites which are known here as single track roads.  You got it, one car width but two way.  All roads, no matter how wide are never straight.  They not only curve they also go up and down.  There are no shoulders on these roads.  Hedge rows or, better yet, stone walls come right to the edge of the road.  And, cars are allowed to park anywhere which means for example that a red road can become a yellow road with no advance warning (sometimes at the end of a curve that you can't see around).  






In addition, cyclists here have the right of way and "share" the road with you, large tourist buses, trucks and farm equipment.  The really fun part, however, is that the posted speed limit on all yellow and red roads is 60 miles an hour!

Here are two examples of yellow roads.  Remember, you are legally allowed to travel at 60 miles per hour and right over that hill may be a parked car, a tour bus hurtling toward you or a couple of cyclists.

This sign, which you see all over the place, sums up the experience.  Yes indeed, oncoming traffic is normally in the middle of the road.


There are a couple of other games played specifically here in Ireland.  One is Gaelic football, a game played on a field and that is a combination of our football, soccer and basketball (there is some dribbling of the ball). Another is Hurling.  This game, the fastest of any game played on a field, uses bats with flat ends on which a small round ball is balanced while the players run up and down the field passing said ball to one another.  Interesting sport.


The third game, of which we partook and also played in Wales, is golf.  The venues for this game vary greatly and we sampled them all.  Note: for those of you not interested in the game of golf just scroll down.  The sightseeing follows.


Our first outing was to a local club called Dooks.  It was founded back in the 1800's and is on the Ring of Kerry.  A truly beautiful links course.  We had originally made a tee time for Tuesday but as rain was forecast (what's new) we called up Monday morning and asked if we could get out later that day.  No problem was the answer.  We just had to tee off after 1:00 as there was a Juniors' tournament going on that morning.

Here's a shot from the first tee.  It doesn't get much better than this.














And, here's Dale waiting to tee off on the third hole (we caught up with the Juniors).  

Even with the wait we played the round in just under four hours.





Now, on to Ballybunion.  Since this is one of the "known" courses we had to book weeks in advance and you play no matter the weather - no refunds.  So, on Thursday with gale force winds (about 3 clubs worth) and temps in the high 50's we set off.  




Note: no hat - there was so much wind we couldn't keep them on.

I admit, it is a beautiful links course.  But we didn't think it was any more beautiful than Dooks and we not only had to play in worse weather but it took us five hours to complete the round.  So, our lesson is if you don't care about playing the "name" courses, you can pick the day you play depending on the weather, play at your own pace and see some gorgeous courses.  And, you'll have a considerable amount of money left in your pocket for those pints of Guinness on the 19th!

And to drive (no pun intended) the point home, after leaving Killarney we stopped for a couple of days in Westport.  There we played Westport Golf Club where in 2002 Rory McIlroy became the youngest winner of the Irish Amateur Close Championship.  Again, made tee times the day before, played in three and a half hours and spent about $25 a piece to play.





As you can see, this is not a links course but a beautiful parkland setting.  

 It was really a nice change of pace and we could not have asked for better weather.  Finally we saw the sun and it actually was a bit warm walking and carrying our clubs (not that I'm complaining).

Our last golf outing in Ireland was at Mulranny Golf Club.  This was on our way out to see Achill Island.  It's only nine holes but you just drive up, sign in and put $20 in the box (no one's there - it's completely on the honor system).  And, you can play it all day if you want.  You do have to share the fairways with the sheep and the greens are fenced in to keep the sheep and other wildlife off them but it was a kick and we again had beautiful views of the beach and water.







I mean really, does it get much better than this?

So now on to sightseeing.  

Our first stop in Ireland was Dublin.  We spent a day walking around the town and found that one day was all we needed.  We cruised the Temple Bar area (many tourists and even more pubs), the cathedral district and the antique district.










We ended up at the Guinness Storehouse and toured it to see how the good stuff is made, had a bit of lunch and a pint and then walked back to the hotel.  

We were lucky with the weather.  It was overcast but no rain fell.








Then it was on to Killarney and once again we were met with some ugly weather.  We had three days for driving around to see the sights.  We took in the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula and the Beara Peninsula and for the most part it was so foggy and rainy that I couldn't get any pictures.  

However, we scheduled a day to walk the Gap of Dunloe and finally a bit of that Irish luck shone down on us and we had a brilliant day.  We were taken by cab to the starting point and then we walked the Gap (10 miles).  If you were not inclined to walk you could take a jaunty car.  Aren't they cute? 

This is an absolutely stunning part of the world and I am so glad that we finally had blue skies so I could try to capture its beauty.  Here are just two of the many photos I took of this fabulous place.

Once we reached the other side we had to have a way back and that was provided by a boat trip through the three connecting lakes.  The water level was low (not enough rain if you can believe that) so the return trip took one and a half hours but we didn't mind.  It was really great to just sit back and take it all in.














Again, brilliant scenery.  


And, don't you just love the dog?

Our last day in Killarney we toured Muckross.  It is a beautiful estate overlooking one of the lakes and it has acres and acres of gardens.  While there wasn't much blooming it was very peaceful just meandering around and enjoying the quiet.

The last stop in Ireland was Westport and it was a charming village.  Here is a shot of the river that runs through the middle of town.

It was here that we were able to sample a bit of the famous Irish music and what better place than Matt Molloy's.  If you've ever heard of The Chieftains you should know who Matt Molloy is.  While he wasn't playing the evening we went we listened to five very talented musicians and had a wonderful time.

Our last day in town we drove out to Achill Island and at the very tip is this spectacular beach.  We couldn't get over the white sand and the crystal blue water.  Stunning.  

Even the sheep were mesmerized.

So now we've left Ireland and traveled to our last stop, Belfast, in Northern Ireland.  We had two days here and had planned on touring the Antrim Coastline on Thursday and "doing" Belfast on Friday.  Lucky for us we read the local paper Wednesday night and found out that Friday was the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.  This battle took place over 300 years ago and was where the Protestant King William defeated the Catholic King James and assured continued Protestant rule in Ireland.  And, yes folks, it's still being commemorated today with a very large parade by the Orangemen (Protestant supporters of William).  The parade goes on all day and there is always violence.

So, Belfast on Thursday and Antrim County on Friday.

We took a hop on-hop off bus to catch the highlights and really there are only two.  The first are the murals.  

The Murals line a number of the streets and are also on the sides and fronts of buildings.  

The conflict here is both Political and Religious which makes for a very complicated situation.  The Protestants are the Unionists.  They want to stay under British rule.  The Catholics are the Homerulers and they want to be separate.  The murals tell much of the story and I wish we had had more time to study them

The other interesting thing to see in Belfast is the Peace Wall.  This wall was put up as a temporary measure back in the sixties during the Troubles.  It is still up and has been expanded over the years.  Unbelievably, it has been up longer than the Berlin Wall existed.  There are gates in it and they are open during the day but they are closed at night to mitigate possible violence.  There has been a movement in recent years to try to get the wall torn down but those who live close to it - on both sides - want it to stay up.  And, here is just a small part of it.

So, now we've seen Belfast and we are off on Friday morning around 10AM to see the beautiful coast of Antrim.  As we drive out of town we see scores of people queuing up along the parade route.

We indeed have a beautiful drive but have to go out of our way twice (by quite some distance) to get around a small coastal town that is completely closed to traffic because of an Orangemen's Parade.  The good news is that because of the delay we don't get back into Belfast until a bit after 7PM.  Here are just two shots of the coastline - very rugged.

So, now we drive back into town after a great day of driving and this is what we see - the aftermath of the parade.  Can you even believe this mess?  It went on for miles!

And, while I normally like to leave you with a lovely sunset or sunrise view, this is Belfast.  So, another part of "July 12" is the setting of bonfires the evening before.  Here is one of the pyres that was built just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  It's hard to tell but it's about three stories tall.

And here is a picture from the newspaper on Friday morning of what the skyline looked like when all of the pyres were lit and the bonfires were burning.

All I can say is . . . . what a city.

See you in Scotland.