Scotland

On Saturday 29th October we drove from York to Scotland. People tend to be a bit disparaging about the Scottish weather, and it did actually start to rain as we crossed the Scottish border!

Our first stop was to a place near Borgue, Dumfries and Galloway where we were spending a night with Richard 'Ripper' Ryall and his wife Carol. Ripper was the Second Master (equivalent to Deputy Principal) when I was at Bearwood College, and also happened to be my rugby coach for a season when I was playing for Reading Ladies. It was great catching up with Ripper and Carol and checking out their lovely country estate. That afternoon we went for a good walk to the coast, before a very nice meal out in a local pub.

The next morning Ripper, Carol and I took the dogs for another good walk while Will caught up on some work. After lunch Ripper headed off to coach his junior rugby team at the local club, and Will and I hit the road for Stirling.

We had booked a very nice Airbnb apartment a few minutes walk to Stirling Bridge, and also very close to the city centre. To be fair, Stirling is such a small place that anywhere would probably be close to everything else!

 

Will spent Monday working at the University of Stirling, and I spent the day exploring, learning a bit more Scottish history as I went!

Stirling is a very pretty city (its status changed from town to city in 2002 as part of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee celebrations). My abiding memory of the city is that it is full of 'old stuff' and also full of people who say the 'F' word an awful lot, and who speak so fast and in such a dialect, I could barely understand it as being English! 

I did love the pedestrian only Stirling Bridge. 

The area around Stirling castle was also very picturesque, with nice views looking out to the Wallace Monument. It was nice to visit Stirling Castle as it is the name of one of the houses at the school in which I currently teach (which is, itself, named after Queen Margaret of Scotland).

 

I enjoyed some more very nice Autumn colour.

The cemetery and old stone church near the castle was very interesting to wander around. Coming from such a young country like New Zealand, I find it amazing how old some of the inscriptions on some of the headstones are. A lot of them are from before New Zealand was even 'discovered' as a country!

 Here are a couple more lovely old buildings...

 And a statue of Rob Roy thrown in for good measure!

 

Will enjoyed his day at Stirling University. The following day it was back down the M6 to England, and more specifically, Lincoln.