Architect of Faith or Devil's Architect?

April 1, 2023--Berwick's Elizabethan Walls

It is an oddity that Berwick-upon-Tweed's ancient architectural sites are seldom much heralded by travel guides.  Most tourists to Northumberland's northeast view Berwick more as an afterthought; something to see should time permit.  

Typically, they aim for the region's premier draw--the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, a tidal island lying about 13 miles south of Berwick on the North Sea coast.  A tidal island is part of the attraction.  

We too have explored tidal islands on earlier trips:  Davaar Island on Good Friday 2019 [https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2019/06/ficklness.html]; the Holms of Ire Easter 2022 [https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2022/10/solvitur-ambulando-it-is-solved-by.html]; Brough of Birsay off Orkney Easter 2022.  So yes, we are familiar with the allure of tidal islands.

April 1, 2023--Gun emplacements Berwick Walls

Dismissing Berwick as a destination in its own right is misguided.  For one thing, Lindisfarne is by any measure exceedingly over crowded.  Its 1000 acres (+/- 1.5 square miles at high tide) is crammed by over 650,000 visitors each year.  As for crowd behavior, it's nearly frenetic because day trippers only have about two hours on each side of low tide to crush onto the tidal island, check their boxes off and hustle back across the causeway to the mainland before the tide stands them.  The tide table is a crowd multiplier.  It concentrates Lindisfarne's average 2000 daily visitors into roughly four or five hours around low tide.  Those who elect to stay overnight, probably have a better go at visiting Lindisfarne less harried at high tide.  But accommodations, restaurants and pubs on Lindisfarne usually book full.

April 1, 2023--Berwick like Newcastle a city of bridges

Such crowds are never enjoyable.  Having already been to Iona, the Celtic christian mother church which founded Lindisfarne and christianity in the Kingdom of Northumbria [See: https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2019/03/euphemisms.html], we traded crowded Lindisfarne for a day-walk through Berwick on an intermittently light drizzly Saturday, April 1, our first day of exploration for 2023.

April 1, 2023--path along Elizabethan walls and forts, Berwick

Berwick Museum and Art Gallery's season opening day happened to be April 1, 2023, the same day we walked our circuits of Berwick's mighty Elizabethan walls.  Berwick Museum is housed in the Clock Block at Berwick Barracks.  These barracks (often referred to as Ravensdowne Barracks after the street end where it is located) are incorporated into the city's defensive works.  Our first foray to the barracks was along the walls path above and east of it.  The barracks has no access facing the path.  

April 1, 2023--Berwick Barracks from the Elizabethan Walls path

Later that morning, our second foray to the barracks was more purposeful.  We aimed for the museum, walking from Woolmarket up Ravensdowne to its tee intersection at Holy Trinity Church (Anglican) and Parade road. The museum entrance is just east of the intersection, through a wrought iron gate emblazoned by "The King's Own Scottish Borderers" coat of arms.  The royal regiment being stationed at Berwick from 1881 through the 1960s, after which the barracks were turned over for civic use...like the museum. 

April 1, 2023--gate to Berwick Barracks

The barracks alone are worth the visit but two museums are contained in them--a military museum of the Scottish Borderers and the Berwick Museum and Art Gallery.  Berwick Barracks was the first purpose built barracks in Britain since Roman times.   Designed by the famous architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (c. 1661-1736), construction began in 1717 in response to Jacobite risings.  The barracks were completed in 1721.  

Hawksmoor, a protégé of architect Sir Christopher Wren, would go on to be a leading English architect.  Considered England's finest Baroque architect, among the prolific Hawksmoor's designs are:  the towers of Westminster, All Soul's College in Oxford, Blenheim Castle, Old Royal Naval College, and a number of landmark churches like Christ Church Spitalfields in London. 

April 1, 2023--Berwick from a gun revetment 

Hawksmoor's church building began under Queen Anne in 1711, when the "Act for the building of fifty new churches" was enacted.  The alleged raison d'être of this Act was to serve London's burgeoning population growth--or rather the Anglican ones.  Conveniently, it also served to check increasing numbers of Catholics as well as Dissenters (Nonconformists opposed to state interference in religion).  

The 50 church building program was to be funded by a duty on coal imported into London.  Parliament already successfully levied a coal tax in 1670 for rebuilding St. Paul's Cathedral and the churches destroyed in the Great London Fire (September 1666).  But by 1718, the new 50 church coal levy was siphoned into general government revenues...a practice with which we are also unfortunately familiar.  

Without the set aside, interest waned especially as construction costs rose.  The project was pulled.  Of the 50 churches authorized, only 12 would end up being built.  Today, these are known as "Queen Anne Churches".   Of these, Hawksmoor designed and built six.  And he worked with John James, another architect, on the design of two more.  The "Queen Anne" churches are considered Hawksmoor's finest works.

April 1, 2023--swans on River Tweed at Berwick

 

Hawksmoor's architectural genius for "manipulating volume and mass" suffered under reputational attacks. His moniker is either "Architect of Faith" or it's "Devil's Architect" depending upon how much one's views are shaped by propaganda.  Hawksmoor was fascinated with mythology, the mysteries of Egypt, and something called "sacred geometry".  This led to phantasmagoric claims by his detractors, such as the geographic locations of his churches supposedly align somehow in an occult message.  Bermuda Triangle and all that.

We too are familiar with this sort of thing today.  Rumors of such and such (usually without evidence)  leads 100% to this or that conspiracy.  In any case, Berwick Barracks was well worth visiting.  The crowd must have been elsewhere, as we had the place almost to ourselves.  When we walked up to its gate, a staffer was just setting out a sandwich board noting they were open for the season.  And so it began. 

 

 

Situational awareness--no Punching Judy's

On "Landing Friday" March 31, 2023 we cleared customs at Glasgow International quickly, as usual.  Exiting the terminal, we hopped aboard the 500 Express ("purple bus") which literally waits just outside the main doors under a covered street.  Off we dashed to Queen Street Station for Edinburgh Waverley, where we had a transfer from Scotrail to LNER (London North East Rail) for Berwick-upon-Tweed on the North Sea, our first destination.

April 1, 2023--Berwick-upon-Tweed

Glasgow's airport express runs about every ten minutes...they're quick.  So unless one is seriously cramped on connection time, there's little need to throw elbows to board it.  The next one works. Of course penciling a bit of cushion time is smart; still, one can't be too lackadaisical.  After all, the layover for the LNER at Edinburgh Waverley was 35 minutes.  So, that's the "controlling" timetable cushion.  How it's used is key.

Typically, we use Scotrail's "anytime-of-day" ticket.  Purchased online before going over, the price is basically the same.  "Anytime" tickets are insurance against missing a specific train slot...and Scotrail normally doesn't refund.  Not to worry, then, with an "anytime" ticket on highly trafficked commuter rail routes.  

We weren't hellbent for leather to make connections in other words. Glasgow-Edinburgh Scotrail routes operate about every 15 minutes.  During busier times of day, some are only 9 minutes apart.  This means at least three Glasgow-Edinburgh commuters run within that 35 minute layover at Waverley Station.        

April 1, 2023--Gardens on the Tweed below Berwick Train Station

We anticipated boarding the airport express bus 10 minutes later than the one we actually took.  Clearing customs and putting a bit of determination in our steps through the terminal, managed to shave 10 minutes or so.  But this was only due to the bus stance porter holding the express bus door for us.  He didn't have to do that.  We were the last to board that bus run, which put us ahead of schedule at Queen Street.  The time shaved was enough to allow us to board a Queen Street-Edinburgh commuter 15 minutes earlier than our actual scheduled train.

April 1, 2023--Berwick Cockle Shop, a famous candy

That's also the beauty of an "anytime" ticket.  It's not just for those running on the late side of a schedule.  Being early to Queen Street with our "anytime-of-day" rail ticket, we decided that waiting in Edinburgh Waverley was no different than waiting at Queen Street.  So, we boarded the Edinburgh commuter sooner than was penciled.  Again though, Olympic high-hurdle races out of the airport are generally not required...not for busier Scotrail routes. 

April 1, 2023--No optical illusion, these ancient buttressed walls really are leaning

Glasgow-Edinburgh routes were not the issue--trains are plentiful.  The issue was Berwick's timetable.  The LNER from Edinburgh Waverley arrived at Berwick at ~6:15 p.m.  This early evening commuter sweeps up most Berwick workers who are returning home from Edinburgh for the day.  Afterwards, Berwick station enters a night schedule and trains space further apart--an hour and a half or more on late night trains.

April 1, 2023--Berwick-upon-Tweed

As for evening trains, cautiousness when on foot and under pack is wise.  For one thing, double check before stepping off curbs near rush hour.  Scotland's traffic runs counter to what American pedestrians are used to.  And you'd be surprised how programed in muscle memory we become.  Winston Churchill made a similar mistake on a visit to New York in the 1930s.  He stepped off the curb after looking the wrong way and was hit.  He ended up with a broken arm.  Similarly, I nearly got smacked in a crosswalk doing the same thing in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 2017.  So, situational awareness.  Avoid problems before they happen.  

April 1, 2023--Berwick

For that reason, we did not want to traverse the 8/10th mile walk from Berwick Station to our accommodations across an unfamiliar city at dusk, much less after dark, as would have been the case had we booked a later train to Berwick.  Even though you may have some cushion, give some thought to situational awareness.  Don't invite trouble by wandering under pack late evening.  Manage your scheduled connections.    

In our 2023 sojourn, we were (mostly) blessed with fair weather.  But that was not evident as we debarked at Berwick Station to begin our walk across town to our accommodations at Premier Inn on Sandgate.  We were welcomed to the North Sea coast under a light drizzle (or heavy mist).   

It was more damp than anything else, so we opted to stretch the legs, having more than enough daylight remaining.  The walk helped to orient us.  Truth be told, light drizzle or not, it was a treat to walk Berwick as the ancient city  metamorphosed from its work week to Friday night in front of the weekend.

Being at the end of a transatlantic flight and an equally long "Landing Friday" with train connections, the weather was not that bad.  Had it been, we would've taken a taxi (since a couple of them were queued at the station).  A fall back plan, so to speak.  But having sojourned to Scotland at Easter many times, a fail-safe taxi was not necessary.  "The weather's fine" to quote the Beatles.  Besides, we're no Punching Judy's.

April 1, 2023--River Tweed at Berwick--atop Meg's Mount (Elizabethan battery)

How we schedule "landing day"

Our 2023 sojourn began routinely.  We left Seattle Thursday (March 30th) and landed at Glasgow on Friday (March 31st) afternoon.  Catching the airport "purple bus" (500 Express) to Queen Street station, we boarded Scotrail/LNER bound for Berwick-upon-Tweed, our first 2023 destination.  Before posting about Berwick, a few words on how we normally schedule travel to Scotland.

April 1, 2023--the medieval bridge Berwick upon Tweed

Typically we fly out on Thursday late afternoon/early evening and land internationally on Friday late morning/mid-afternoon depending on the flight.   We like to think this "saves" expending vacation weekdays.  Getting from Seattle to most destinations in Scotland that lie beyond the international airport will consume the best part of two days.  That's just the way it works.

April 1, 2023--Royal Border Bridge (rail) designed by Robert Stephenson

Unless one plans to stay in or near Glasgow, landing day Friday will normally be consumed to get to where you are going in Scotland.  This is especially true if one books rail or bus out of Glasgow.  Some routes may take 3 or 4 hours aboard train or bus, and perhaps longer.  Incidentally, we've taken both (depending on where we were headed).  Cost and travel time are comparable.  Both (Buchanan Bus Station and Queen Street Station) are located near each other and both are on the 500 Express bus route from the airport.  The main difference is that it is easier to walkabout on the train (to the 'loo for example), a benefit after being cooped in a transatlantic seat for 9 or 10 hours.  That said, buses are usually not crowded, whereas trains can be.

April 1, 2023--medieval ramparts demolished by Victorians for bridge

It is also true that Fridays consumed in travel connections even if one books a commuter flight, given layovers and so on.  Oddly enough, sometimes one may find the train or bus arrives faster than a commuter flight given layovers and taxis or buses from the destination airport.  

Anyhow, scheduling landing day travel connections with a mind toward recovering at least some of the jet-lag while in motion is smart.  

No longer youthful, it does take us time to recover an 8 hour time difference.  Lastly, landing day Friday with the in-country travel connections means waking Saturday morning with a less harried local weekend schedule before you.  It works best for us.  Marking a sharp line to the start of a vacation...Saturday morning usually.

April 1, Berwick guard house

As for Berwick, it is today "temporarily" located in Northumberland...formally, it is "of" England since 1482 when Edward IV captured it.  From about 1018 (Battle of Carham) on River Tweed, Berwick changed hands about every 15 years...up to Edward IV's refusal to return it.  In its day, Berwick was a principle port for Scotland and the Tweed valley, with a considerable trade in smoked salmon to Europe for example.  Today, with a population of about 12,000, Berwick is the main North Sea coastal town between metropolitan Newcastle-on-Tyne (England) and Edinburgh (Scotland).  It has long been considered part of The Borders.

April 1, 2023--Berwick castle tower

We started our sojourn in The Borders at Berwick, arriving in a light drizzle Friday early evening after we transferred from Scotrail to LNER (London North East Rail) at Edinburgh Waverley, the main train station for most of Scotland's connections southward into England.  Government owned Scotrail does not operate from Glasgow to Berwick, as  the route crosses current national borders.  The same situation is true on the western side of Scotland.  TransPennine Rail operates out of Glasgow Central for connections to Carlisle and points south into England.

From Berwick Train Station we had a small walk in town (according to google map ~8/10ths of a mile, and allegedly a 12-minute walk) to Premier Inn at Sandgate.  Under our travel bags configured as backpacks and an on again off again mist/drizzle, the walk seemed longer.  

April 1, 2023--Elizabeth I built Berwick's defenses well...and deep

Incidentally, Premier Inn (the UK's largest hotel firm with 800 properties) is far and away our preferred hotel chain for our stays in the large towns or cities while in Scotland.  We book Premier Inn George Street in Glasgow each year, for example, the final night before departing Glasgow International bound for home.  First of all, it is clean, well-operated, quiet and economically priced.  Second, its hotel restaurants and pubs have a very good menu that is also reasonably priced.

April 1, 2023--Berwick walls; housing developed just in front of them

For full disclosure, we do hold a small investment in Whitbread PLC, the company that owns Premier Inn.  Even though a stockholder, I still cannot recommend Premier Inn highly enough.  Literally, we save money by staying there comparing dollar-for-dollar (or pound sterling) at most other competitors.  When Premier Inns are in places we are visiting, we use them as our base.

April 1, 2023--Garden allotments for Berwick residents

Incidentally, the company was founded by Samuel Whitbread (an English brewer and Member of Parliament) in 1742.  Whitbread amassed a fortune by the time of his death (over £104 million pounds).  His brewing success led to him being elected a member of Parliament...during the Revolutionary War.  After the death of his first wife, Whitbread married Lady Mary Cornwallis, sister of General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquesses Cornwallis, the same who surrendered to Washington and Lafayette at Yorktown in 1781 ending the war with America's independence.    

April 1, 2023--Russian cannon taken in Crimean War 1854

 Samuel Whitbread's commercial success was built upon demand for his strong black porter beer...and by his innovative understanding of economies to scale and industrial development.  Whitbread was first to use a rotative steam engine for his breweries (the Whitbread Engine which transferred beam movement into rotary movement.)  It  replaced a horse wheel.  

By 1796, Whitbread became London's largest brewery, selling over 200,000 barrels annually in part due to employing his industrial production equipment.  King George III and Queen Charlotte visited the brewery in 1787.  For perspective, that was at the time our successful American Confederation was winding down, having passed the landmark Northwest Ordnance of 1787 before the new US federal government formed around the ratification of the Constitution.  

April 1, 2023--Berwick's Elizabethan defensive walls

In any case, the walk from Berwick station gave us the opportunity to orient ourselves for the next day's explorations and to enjoy, if that is the word, a bracing North Sea onshore mist.  

Arriving somewhat worn at our hotel about 7:30 p.m., we opted for dinner and a pint at the hotel restaurant and then, lights out.

The conclusion of our landing day.

       

    

April 1, 2023--Berwick light, North Sea and Tweedmouth, in swells and light rain

Theory verus practice--the car hire

It's fair to say that in our Easter 2023 sojourn we visited more sites, in total number, than any other.  We definitely visited many but...not as many as we otherwise would have.  Before discussing those sites, some words are necessary about our transportation plan...namely, the car hire.

April 5, 2023--Gun Knowe Loch, Tweedbank, looking for a charging station

Readers of Whitley's World know we are big on planning transportation, and advocate car hires to reach rural or distant locations.  

Serendipity often misses the bus, so to speak.  Thus, it is wise be sure of your transportation options to avoid unnecessary hassle and overlong waits.  After all, vacation time overseas is valuable.  So too is the quality of that time.  Obviously, spending time stranded at a station or bus stance for hours is not exactly the quality time you pay a premium to go do. 

Even at that, best laid plans are no panacea to occasional problems, as our 2023 excursion demonstrated.

Travelers to Scotland have a number of transport options--train, bus, ferry, car hire, or a combination of these (as was true for parts of our 2023 excursion).  Hooking them together is challenging, but also part of the fun...like the Enigma Machine solving code.  Urban inter-city main trunk rail connections, such as  Glasgow-Edinburgh-Berwick, run every 15 minutes or so.  Those are easy.  Other routes, like the Borders Railway (which we used get to Edinburgh for a few days from Galashiels) are about every half hour.  So, tolerable waits.  But elsewhere, less so.   

April 1, 2023--Rail bridge on River Tweed, Berwick over which we crossed our 1st night

Scotrail's network is not uniformly available.  It doesn't service everywhere, especially not rural villages like those in the Borders just beyond the reach of the Galashiels railhead.  Unless one gets a car hire (i.e. car rental) bus transportation becomes a necessary next choice to travel to small villages (which often hold true gems for visitors and can be well worth the effort.)

We have found Scottish and English bus routes to be fairly reliable, normally within 10 or 15 minutes of the posted schedule in rural regions and pretty much spot on in the large cities.  The caveat being finding posted bus schedules at some stances.  You cannot always walk up to a bus stop and find timetables because local delinquents seem to think pulling timetables off the bulletin boards is humorous.  So know before you go.  That's easy enough.  Bus timetables and route numbers can be gotten online, and are actually accurate.  Word to the wise when time may be an issue if you must transfer buses.

Small hamlets like Duddo (closest bus stop to the "nearby" Bronze Age standing stone circle) is four miles south of the Scottish Borders, in farmland.  In theory, it has a bus.  In practice, eh.  Scheduled rural bus services may be many hours apart...with no pub in sight even using 10X optics.  Simply put, remote sites in the Borders (some rich in historical interests) are practically unworkable by public transportation.    

 

April 4, 2023--at Melrose public lot trying to figure charging station out

Knowing that, the core of our in-country transportation plan for the Borders over Easter 2023 was a car hire.  We figured it would be a routine hire, as we've done three times on Easter sojourns there.  It wasn't.  Basically only one company rents cars in the Borders--Enterprise in Galashiels.  And yes, it's that Enterprise, the car rental franchise.  Unfortunately, our car hire did not fully cooperate with the goal of getting to several distant sites efficiently with our time. 

How so?  Well, the crux of the problem is a distinction between "theory" and "practice".  In theory, we had a crackerjack car.  In theory, it was an upgrade from what we ordered.  We were given a brand new Peugeot e-208..."e" as in electric.  Electric and French.  A "lib'ral" two f'er.  Despite a general disdain of most things French, I actually liked the car.  The Peugeot e-208 is among the most affordable quasi-luxury electrics on the market.  Its paint was deep and flawless.  It's Europe's top selling e-car.  Sporty, plenty of zip.  Comfortable. Nunnery quiet. Chock full of gee-gaws and gadgets; so many that the two of us had not figured out all the individual functions before we returned it.  In short, cutting edge tech.  Maybe too much so.

April 4, 2023 a little mudded from Eildon Hills in the fancy Peugeot 2-20

And there's a problem.  Seldom can one engineer away the human dimension.  Despite how advanced electric vehicles are.  Personally, they have been put on road perhaps five or ten years in front of the infrastructure necessary to make them useful.  Infrastructure like charging points, the single most important issue, needs to be resolved for foreign visitors to Scotland.  

No question we are at an inflection point, moving away from internal combustion toward electric.  Nearly mimicking history, electric models like the Peugeot e-208 are having similar issues to those in the world's first long distance field test of an internal-combustion engine automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen Model III.  On August 5, 1888, after trundling her two young teenage sons along, without telling her inventor husband or getting permission from authorities for the road trip, Mrs. Benz made her historical 120 mile drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim.  She literally invented solutions to mechanical problems on the fly.  

Then as now, fuel was problematic.  The Benz Model III used ligroin, a laboratory solvent that was only available at apothecaries (pharmacies) at the time.  So, Mrs. Benz used drug stores as her fueling stations.  Similarly, electric cars are restricted to charging stations...and that gets us into the human factor.  When we picked up the Peugeot from Enterprise, it only had 50 miles range remaining.  I had no choice.  It was the only car hire in the stable.  Still, one should think it would be let fully charged.  After receiving erroneous information about how and where it could be recharged, we were dispatched on a nearly week long tour supposedly with a 50 "unlimited" mile range.  

50 miles in no way is sufficient for a week long tour.  Charging the vehicle was paramount.  Little did we know it would be so laborious.  When we took the Peugeot from Galashiels, our first destination was a trek up Eildon Hills on foot from a car park.  After a tremendous vista, we drove to the public parking lot in Melrose, where a charging station was located.  We struggled to make sense of it.  It took standard credit cards, but nothing worked for us.  The card would be accepted, but the charging cable would not power.  We found out, belatedly, that we could not charge the vehicle because:  (1) we did not live in Scotland, and thus (2) did not have a Scottish Power account, nor (3) a Scottish bank from which to debit the charge.  Enterprise did not tell us this.  Apparently they did not know either.  Those kinds of thing ought to be figured out before letting an e-car.

April 4, 2023--run aground at the Melrose charging point

In all, we spent maybe three hours in Melrose fooling with it.  And still didn't.  Then an angel visited us.  A kind young woman who was parked next to us at the charging station.  One does find angels on occasion in time of need.  She was ours (and quite a baby doll too).  Clearly, she was well off, a professional (I believe she said certified accountant).  Her Mercedes e-model indicated that success.  She spent her valuable time calling Scottish Power and trying to resolve a problem that "an American couple" was having.  

In the end, she wound up letting us charge on her account.  Darla did reimburse her £10 cash or some amount that was probably nowhere near the cost.  We didn't know.  But if we knew her name, we'd send her flowers.  Nor was that charge at Melrose enough to replenish the car's range.  It did permit us about 90 miles--to get us back to Galashiels that evening, and then on a circular trip the next morning in which we had made a commitment to visit Robin Elliot at Andrew Elliot Ltd (woolen mill) in Selkirk.  From Selkirk early that afternoon, we went to Jedburgh where we again attempted to charge the Peugeot.  An English woman at the chargers was also having trouble connecting.  We then returned to Galashiels, with yours truly hot under the collar.  Enterprise would get that @#!!*^^ car back in the morning I vowed. 

Girded for combat the following morning, we returned to Enterprise in Galshiels with the Peugeot.  But, they treated us too nicely for me to be incendiary about it.  I felt guilty.  So it is true, a kind answer turns away wrath just as Scriptures say.  The Enterprise manager took his Scottish Power card with us to the charging station at the Galshiels bus station.  The charge was on the company.  That was a nice gesture, but it still was not enough to gain us the full range (defined as +220 miles) on that fancy ride.  I think we only got to 160 miles.  So the end result was we had to conserve the vehicle charge by trimming a few sites we would've otherwise visited.  The car hire altered our plans.

When we returned the spiffy e-208 Easter Monday and dropped the keys in the drop box and boarded the Borders Railway for Edinburgh, that Peugeot had all of 30 miles range remaining.  So, had we not trimmed a few sites near Coldstream and Norham, it is likely we would've had to abandon the car roadside.  Without a way to recharge it, and many businesses including Enterprise closed for Easter Monday, 30 miles of range was far too thin for comfort considering real life sometimes imposes--traffic, detours, wrecks, stalls.

The Peugeot e-208 was nice; real nice.  A ball of fun.  It was just before its time.  It's average speed was probably about equal to that of Mrs. Benz's Model III.  Even if you do 65 miles an hour, if you have to spend hours recharging it, one sort of loses practicality as well as net speed.   

Wind and ruins

Our 2023 Easter sojourn to Scotland took us to the Borders.  100% British mainland in 2023; not so much as a single island.  That alone made the trip different from our usual Easter excursions to Scotland's islands.

April 2, 2023--Anglo-Saxon Christian crypt, St. Cuthbert's, Bamburgh 

Mainland are cities--with larger attendant populations and broader, deeper economies.  A push is perceptible on the mainland that is not usually felt in the islands.  Call it the daily bustle.  Being on the clock.

April 2, 2023--Sundial, St. Cuthbert's, Bamburgh

An analogy is the distinction in the windward "feel" from Scottish island heights facing the uninterrupted north Atlantic fetch versus the breezes and eddies felt in a Scottish glen.  

[See Wideford Hill, Orkney 2022 comments:  https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2022/05/wideford-leaning-wind.html.]  

This push is almost tidal.  It underlies rural Borders, its villages and towns.  Early morning, the Borders drain toward urban Scotland (principally Edinburgh); late afternoon the Borders refill.  Midday, between these surges,"High Street" in the towns is noticeably less busy, perhaps unfortunately so.

April 1, 2023--Berwick from Elizabethen Castlegate bridge 

Economically, distant commuting can be counterproductive.  Especially so in rural outlying regions, in Scotland as well as here in Idaho County.  For much of the eastern Borders, groceries are gotten in the city of Berwick, about half an hour's drive.  The northern Borders, the same applies to Edinburgh.  And Carlisle for the western Borders.

April 4, 2023--Melrose Abby ruin; pink sandstone

So, we noted differences, whether great or small, in our 2023 trip to the Borders.  We focused on "medieval" rather than "neolithic" or "iron age" as has been the case with our earlier excursions to the islands.  Being mostly medieval, the historical sites we visited on the mainland were more immediate, closer in time to us, and thus less puzzling than, for example, the neolithic constructions on Orkney.  Better said, the Borders are written and readable on history's pages.

April 4, 2023--Melrose Abby ruin

 

A commonality exists in all of these sites, island or mainland.  That is one of ruins.  Hopefully it is not emblematic of our own society today, but the dominant condition of the historical sites is one of abandonment and decay.  True in the Borders for castles and churches alike.  True in the islands as well.  It is a doleful commentary upon our own condition.  The kings died, their power dismantled.  So too Christians, their altars forgotten.

Our Easter sojourn in 2023 gave us much to reflect upon.  Salient questions are:  "Does Christianity still live?  Or is it only a ruin?"  We will address this in followup posts.

April 3, 2023--St. Cuthbert's Church at Bamburgh

         

On the border of eternity

Our pending pilgrimage to Scotland will be a different sort of trek.  No islands.  100% Scottish mainland. 

Rather than centering our visit upon Scotland's remarkable Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age sites, this year our 2023 walks will immerse us in the early and late medieval.  Which is to say, we will actively seek out the ruins of castles and churches this trip.  Castles are normally more the haunt of tourists who venture to Scotland, with most limiting themselves to Edinburgh.  We plan to trek further afield, as has been our typical travel style.     

March 30,2018  Dunstaffnage founded upon native rock outcrop

This is not to say that in our previous sojourns we avoided castles or churches.  But, they were nearly all visited more as opportunity allowed.  They weren't the objective of our walks per se.  Dunstaffnage just north of Oban comes to mind as an example.  So too, Cubbie Roo's castle on Wyre in Orkney this past Easter.

April 15, 2022  Cubbie Roo's Castle on Wyre

March 16, 2017--Kilchiaran Bay

And to be sure, we've also "done" churches aplenty.  In fact, they are a motivator for many of our walks as we spend Idaho winter hours deciphering histories of the associated saints and sinners to add color and hopefully understanding to our springtime venturing.  

Our very first sojourn to Scotland, for example, took us to the serene seaside chapel of Kilchiaran on Islay [See:  https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2019/02/which-kieran.html and https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2019/02/ablution-at-bay.html].  Or to the remote and windy Kilnave, a holy site dedicated to a saint who lived so deep in antiquity the name of the founder is no longer known to human memory.  All that remains is an impossibly thin high cross that is wind worn and still chants in the gusts of north Islay.  [See:  [https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-lesser-known-neighbor.html]

22 March 2017--Kilnave Cross

Even so, our walks in Scotland have thus far mostly been directed at Neolithic sites, sites at the beginning of human settlement of the British Isles.  We simply have no Neolithic sites here in the "New World".  For that reason alone, they have been a draw to us, inducing a pilgrim's wonderment at the Neolithic enigmatic constructions which have somehow survived across the enormous abyss of time.  

That is stunning.  Or not stunning...that is perhaps the wrong word.  Prehistoric sites are humbling.  They silence the loudness of our modern arrogance and make our presumptions small in comparison. The prehistoric sites to which we customarily would walk bring to consciousness the essence of this thing called eternity.  

Scripture, it should be noted, also tipped its hat to the Neolithic, acknowledging these ancestors before the advent of Christianity.  For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn't see them, to hear the things you hear but didn't hear them.--Matthew 13:17.  That alone speaks volumes, works which doubtless will continue to go unread in our modern times.

But as to our 2023 sojourn?  We aim to visit the present remnants of organized Christianity, the ruins.  Principally, our objectives are historic sites from the first millennium after Christianity was introduced in Scotland...though this ignores introductions that occurred by happenstance, witnessed for example by the Amelia Ring.  [See:  https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2019/04/celtic-christian-sacred-sites-and.html]. 

Our interest for 2023 is the Christian era some 500 years after Celtic native Iona missionaries Columba and Aiden seeded Christian doctrine in Scotland.  This is a key departure from our normal itinerary.  In 2023 we are indulging sites that are squarely within recorded history, unlike our more typical Neolithic visits.  In most respects, names and faces in 2023 will be  known.  Their actions or inaction recorded.  Human folly, vainglory and even occasional courage and mercy.

April 16, 2019--Temple Wood Stone Circle at Kilmartin Glen

We plan to probe these stories of our Scottish forebears, both border reiver and borderer. We hope to return with lessons gleaned, and with the insight to apply those lessons to our daily lives; to this day, to this age here upon the edge of eternity.  Modern humankind has much to learn if it only would.        

 

March 21, 2017--Paisley Abbey

   

Resignation out of necessity

Some word is probably warranted at momentous turning points as this.  We live in historic times to be sure.  Though, it is often not so easy to tell that from our vantage in harried every day living.  Taking in the view (orienting the map so to speak) goes unnoticed in the clutter of cares.  

On occasion, it is rewarding just to pause awhile to appreciate the vista.  This we hope to do soon, to pull up and span the landscape of Eildon Hills from Scott's View.  Scott's View was a way stop for renowned Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott as he went about his business in the Scottish Borders.  It is said, so common was Sir Walter's brief pause at his favorite view that the horses pulling his hearse from his home at Abbotsford to his final resting place at Drybugh Abbey eerily stopped at Scott's View without command.  A last view, it is said.  

Since time immemorial the Eildon Hills have been the stuff of folklore.  Well before the arrival of the Romans by several thousand years, the Eildons were considered portals to the enchanted lands of the fairy folk.  In any case, following Sir Walter's lead, each of us should take more time to reflect...meditation instead of medication.        

As for reflecting upon Scotland's near term political future, the word "surprising" comes to mind.  No other word describes the recent resignation of Scotland's longest serving First Minister (FM) Nicola Sturgeon. After 8 years at the helm, FM Sturgeon's resignation was undeniably a surprise, a Valentine's massacre of a sort.  No one was prepared for it.  Nor is Scotland well prepared for the outcome of the constitutionally mandated election, currently ongoing, to replace FM Sturgeon.  Scotland has until March 27, 2023 to decide where it will stake its future.   

These observations should be tempered.  Native Scots may well bristle at comments from abroad about their parliamentary doings at Holyrood.  Still, we humor ourselves as having accumulated at least a small opinionated voice in regards to Scotland's political affairs, having been many times to Scotland on our Easter sojourns.  As an aside, Holyrood is a "metonym" for Scotland's government.  It is similar to using Washington when referring to America's government.

With that grammatical note made, my opinion of FM Sturgeon's tenure is less than genial.  Sturgeon's government (under her SNP--Scottish National Party) has made a horrible mess of just about everything they've had their hand in...including the latest constraints upon grammatical pronouns it seems.  It is inexplicable, almost bizarre really, that Sturgeon's tenure in office would end in ruin upon the senselessness of a reactionary New Age cultural war...the garbled straits of "transgenderism".  "Woke" gone amok.  

The sad part is, it is not as if Scotland has no other more pressing needs to attend.  But, reactionaries do what they do.  Reactionaries, whether American, or Scottish, or any other, seldom afford themselves much in the way of reflection or meditation.  That's why they seem to always end up in messes. 

As to messes, the CalMac ferry contract comes to mind.  Ignoring the highly questionable aroma of kickbacks and contract corruptions, the people of Scotland's isles rely upon ferry transportation.  In many cases it is a matter of dire need, sometimes life or death.  Comparatively then, the fanciful reconstructions of pronouns (or for that matter re-plumbed personal bodies) do not even make the list of noble pursuits or sensible governance. 

Meanwhile, the necessary construction of two CalMac ferries remains five years overdue and some £112 million overrun.  FM Sturgeon's young protege, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, has continually shifted goalposts on the ferries.  No end in sight.  This debacle notwithstanding, Secretary Forbes (now on maternity leave) may be considered Sturgeon's most likely replacement come March 27.  SNP options are thin.  So it will either be Forbes or Deputy First Minister John Swinney.  For his part, Swinney promises a "rigorous approach" to the ferries that remain in the now nationalized Ferguson docks on the Clyde.  Taking on the role of Acting Finance Secretary (with Forbes out on maternity leave), "rigorous" Swinney permitted Ferguson shipyard to miss its deadline for filing its annual accounts.  And so it goes.

[Editor note:  On March 27, the less than competent minister Humza Yousaf was elected as FM for the SNP, Forbes placed second, and Mr. Swinney stepped down.]  

If it were only the ferries, maybe one could ignore.  But it's also bus lines, with routes being eliminated and possible strikes and protests over losing access to rural local public transportation.  Then, there's Scotrail, a rolling mismanagement that is now nationalized.  Its trains are vital to Scotland's economy.  They are also under rolling labor strikes.  Ditto the Highland airports.  To put it mildly, public transportation in Scotland is in disarray.  Then there are the teacher strikes, and the nursing strikes. 

 

FM Sturgeon could find nothing more pressing than to introduce transgenderism and continue to push an independence referendum despite the UK court's clear rejection of Holyrood's authority to do so?  Despite the 2014 vote (which rejected the SNP independence drive), it was understood that that would be a once in a generation vote.  Ah, but the SNP further shifts the goalposts.  Short generations in Scotland it seems...unless you're talking about the delivery of crucial ferries.

Bottom line, FM Sturgeon's resignation was the only way she could extricate herself and retain any dignity at all.  It's been 8 long years of nothing but a mess in the guise of forcing an ill-thought independence--one in which the SNP would of course remain in power.  Sensible or effective governance is apparently beyond the SNP's abilities.  It too should step down, en masse.  Roll up the banners. SNP clearly cannot handle basic governance over public transportation, public health, public education... 

So, what to do?  Paper over inadequacies and push an incomprehensible transgenderism bill.  That also failed, and so FM Sturgeon had no other way out, her resignation being too little too late.  It was illogical to push to be a new sovereign nation, not when so many of Scotland's basic needs have not been met by the very same political party seeking to manage Scotland's independence.  

By way of example, their latest independent plan calls for continuing use of the British pound until the SNP can come up with some sort of currency.  Maybe Bitcoin?  As if that's working well.  If CalMac ferries are any indication, an independent currency will take years upon years at an ever increasing cost.

Perhaps Holyrood should join us in our reflections at Scott's View.  Besides, tales of fairy folk in the Eildons are no less fanciful than depending upon the word of the SNP.   

“For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.”--Sir Walter Scott.