Thursday 17 March 2016

Sunshine and Swagger

It was my husband's birthday last week, so we treated ourselves to a trip to visit Arran, the largest island in the Firth of Clyde. Despite growing up within striking distance of the island I had never actually visited it before so was looking forward to exploring a new to me destination.

Visiting Scottish islands in March can be a bit hit and miss weather wise but we were lucky to experience a glorious couple of days surrounded by sunshine and stunning scenery as you can see.



The mountains in the North of the island are known as the "Sleeping Warrior" as they are said to resemble a warrior lying on his back with his arms crossed over his chest. They certainly don't look like it from the photo and angle above, but maybe I can see a head and chest in the photo below.

Of course that could also be down to the power of suggestion :)

No powers of suggestion needed to spot the sheep in this photo though, aren't they the quirkiest bollards you have ever seen?

Clearly quirky is part of the island culture.


These cottages at Catacol, known as the Twelve Apostles, were built for local landworkers who were being driven from the land and encouraged to become fishermen. Each of the cottages has their own distinct window style. The idea was that if a wife wanted to signal her husband out on the fishing boat she could place a candle in the window and because of the different window shapes the husbands would know which of them was being signalled! I never read anywhere how successful that scheme was :)

Talking of success, however, I am pleased to report that our second trip of the week North of the Border was equally rewarding.

The swagger of the kilts, such as this, at Murrayfield to watch the annual Six Nations rugby match between Scotland and France was much improved by an impressive Scotland victory.


The beret wearing fans amongst us didn't have so much to cheer about by the end of the afternoon, although it didn't appear to dampen their spirits too much :)

Next up a trip to Dublin and the hope of a long awaited away win, keeping my fingers crossed!

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6 comments:

  1. Since my son married a Scottish lass and since they have lived in and around Glasgow for near 30 years, we have visited them at different times of the year. The once that we visited in March was absolutely the worst weather imaginable! It is cold, horizonal snow, wind. The one day that we went shopping had all the weather conditions possible: wind, rain, snow, sun. We decided March was not the season to visit Scotland. I loved it in June, but we usually tried to visit in September when the grandchildren were on holiday from school.
    Barbara Galloway
    Bjgalloway37743@gmail.com

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  2. The cottages look lovely I wish we were nearer to Scotland, such beautiful views!

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  3. what a peaceful island and the weather in Scotland has been perfect for a visit, I could easily live in one of those cottages but might struggle for quilting supplies

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  4. Lovely photos - you were very lucky with the weather! I've never made it to the islands but they're on my list (we set off once on a trip that turned into a complete disaster - not sure what Andy would say to trying again!!)

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  5. Happy belated birthday Mr. Celtic Thistle - gorgeous photographs! Those are the cutest bollards I've ever seen (ok, I admit that I had to look up bollards in the dictionary because I didn't know what they were, HAHA) - quirky squared :D

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  6. I'll admit to having to Google 'bollards', too. Love the story about the different windows and signalling the men.

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