Jeremiah Watt

You wouldn't know this but JW is running a little on the tightside tonight........oh, the day was just fine its not that............whats that you say, was it the kids that fired me off............no, they to have been just fine. Its the danged BLOG, I have done this page now 4 times and right now makes the fifth. So lets hope the restworks from here. The morning seen us leaving Aberdeen rather early for this crew at least, we had decided that we wanted the get an earlier start on the day since we had a lot of Castles to see.

We stopped in one of the very quaint little towns that speckle this area along the north coast of SCOTLAND. And pulled in to a town with a very nice bakery. NOw I have to say that once again, Bakeries here are just not the same as we are accustomed to back home. NOw I hate to rag on my home country, I love it and all, but really folks we should have a Donut Revolt. I suggest maybe a Tartan CLAD BUNCH, BUT INSTEAD OF SAY THE PLAID THINGY........ maybe we could come up with a pattern that has donuts on it and Maple Bars as a background. We can tip over the sellers counters as they peddle the danged donut to us. You would join the revolt if you had a chance to taste some of this baking over here.

We had breaded meat pies for breakfast, and the words I know just do not do any of them justice. It sounds like this "what kind did you get me Mom? A WHAT............. for ME! JUst eat it and shutup, try it you may just like it. Crunch, crunch, crunch..........emmmm, crunch, crunch.............eyes roll back in enjoyment, crunch, swallow, and lick lips twice to be sure you got it all. Ohhhhhhh, you guys need to take a bite of this one it is sooooo good! Honestly, we have not hit a bad one yet. We start theday well fed, and looking over the ruin of Dunnottar Castle, shown here on a high sea island.

Dunnottar, biuld in 987 along the very coastal edge, it stands on a small island right off the coast. The sea walls jut upwards some 70-125 feet in places, sheer black Limestone rock faces. On top of this is build the huge fortification known as Dunnottar. This is a castle that has fell to two sieges, a full sacking by William Wallace, and a burning by the English.

Here was a castle that was by design a family fortification, built a t first by the Picts. It contained a full set of houses, and a Chapel and Abbey.

The inside of the Garrison was about 9 stories in hieght, and here we see the prison entrance for those to be tortured or be-headed.

The gable end of the Chapel that lays to the seaward side of this anctient fortification.

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Just one more of the very quaint cottages that are strewn about in the whole of this country it seems. Here we stopped becasue of the huge amounts of hand stacked rock walls that there were.

The view here is from the inside of the front door sill to the St. Andrews Cathedral. It just amazes me to think of how massive these constructions are, and how few tools were on hand when they were built. This Cathedral, was started in 1175, it is 330 feet from door sill to the inside of the back wall behind where the Cross would have sat. It has been estiated that the inside hieght of the Chapel roof would have been 70 feet. The hand cut stone columns were 12 fwwt in diameter and taperd to the top at 8 feet in diameter. Each column was a 12 ridged affair, not just a round taper. What truly amazing piece of architecture this was, sorry I do not know enough about the subject to do it justice with my descriptions.

This is a funerla cross used to mark a fresh grave and would have been moved around at one time for that pupose. Here it has found a permanent home in a area that at one time would have been an interior courtyard, and so it sits in an appropriate place I guess.

A little Lawn Bowling anyone, tougher than it looks. The balls are not exactly a true round, but ratehr they are an ellipse. But we didn,t have a ton of time to stand about and learn the finer points of lawn bowling, so we moved on.

It is just 166 red sandstone steps that separate you from the green sod and the top most point of the bell tower. Have a go at it, but do mind becasue the spiral does also tigthen as it winds its way to the sky above. And it is true, a spiral stair case with out window slots does make you very dizzy.

A look down the upper walls of what used to be the Cloister wing of the Abbey. It had a series of three rows of pointed topped arches, each diminishing in size as we got closer to the roof.

Walking the streets to the grounds of St. Andrews.

St. Andrews from a few blocks away is still impressive, and it can be seen for several miles around as you approach this area.

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A view from the top of the bell tower. We get the full panorama effect and see just how much stone was used in the construction of this town. It was so windy up top here, that most of us wanted to hit the turf below on our feet and not our heads, so down we went.

All the more reason to buy a used car in the UK, some of these liitle rigs are so cute they look like something you get in cereal boxes

Take a guess at what it is????????? Dave Brennon you are out on this one.

The back window of the Abbey Gilvain.

Good Night and God Bless