Fife and Scotland - the offbeat perspective

South-West Scotland

After several excursions to the South-West of Scotland, it's hard to see why visitors should struggle with roads that are invariably twisted with few long straights capable of letting one safely pass slower vehicles. The exception is the Dunfries-Glasgow road where three lane options made thgis easier and where we saw some of the most incredible and breathtaking motoring escapes. I'm not implying the road or route is bad or unsafe but it's clear there were some nutters using this route and where adherence to the Highway Code could not always be guaranteed. Every time we used this route, eight times in one summer, we were held up on account of an accident and in which the outcomes were probably fatal. Thankfully, this route has been upgraded in major fashion and where the use of CCTV cameras is proliferous. The route from the A74 to Stranraer was slowed by many trucks heading for ferries to Ireland.

It's been some time now since we made our last visit and maybe major progress has been made since that time. If so, it was desperately needed.

It would be unfair to say the South-West of Scotland is universally disappointing from the tourist point of view but in our excursions, there were times when it didn't seem worthy of expense or bother. The few exceptions were the book festival held annually in Kirkcubricht and where an exhibition of major artwork in the town hall had been the main reason for this visit. My stepdaughter also commended the 'Wicker Man' music festival. Moving to Northern England and close to a site near Carlisle, our visit to converted fort now serving as a visitor centre on Hadrian's Wall was interesting. We never did visit Castle Douglas and which is reputed to be an excellent venue. In a series of about a dozen excursions, we followed different routes and where the coastal route from Irivine to Stranraer was far better than most inland roads but just getting to Irvine was slow going. In fairness, local geology probably plays a large part as to why the road network was so poor.

In a similar way to that of other post war 'New Towns', Irvine was one of the five 'post war' New Towns' and one of these less reliant upon close proximity to Edinburgh or Glasgow. I was surprised to see that it hadn't flourished and expanded in quite the same way despite having a similar size of population. Nicola Sturgeon, deputy first minister of Scotland as of 2011, was born here. So was this author but many, many years beforehand! We visited the small town of Whithorn and saw the plaque dedicated to the memory of those lost aboard the 'Solway Harvester' scallop fishing boat in early 2000 whilst close to the Isle of Mann.

This far, I've mentioned the highlights but even before the painting exhibit which drew us back one more time, we had pretty much decided that there would be no further expeditions in this direction.

The garage near Stranraer selling sandwiches at an incredible £7.80 and a map book for £14.00 didn't exactly engender friendship but rather one of a rip-off culture. Gretna Green, famous for marriages of eloping couples from England during the nineteenth century, seemed more like a shopping arcade than anything of cultural interest. I expected a lot more from a major venue like Culzean Castle (pictured above) other than overpriced ice cream, scones and tea, but came away poorer and disappointed. Being cynical, I thought the best feature about it was the view and where one could look across the sea to the Isle of Arran but even this might be dependent on the state of the weather.

All in all, it seems like the A74/M74 leading from Glasgow to Carlile and connecting with the M6 terminating in London acts like a gigantic bypass road in which this large area of Scotland has suffered in some areas or benefitted greatly in others. I remain sure there are some magnificient gems that we failed to discover on our visits or else where many and much was destroyed in successive border wars over the years.

South-East Scotland

It's not surprising that many towns of the southern border of Scotland have traditional ties with the manufacture of woollen garments like Tweed (the name of the main river running through the area) and where mills in Galasheils, Hawick and Berwick were major employers in the nineteenth century. Between 1147-1482, the strategically important coastal town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed became a part of Scotland or a part of England depending on the year and where kingship switched thirteen times before its current agreed location approximately 4km (2.5 miles) south of the border in England.

While many comments about venues made above about SW Scotland in this gap between Edinburgh and the Border remain equally valid; road communications are generally better with the A1 forming a main artery towards London rather than bypassing it. The road links to many of the border towns are far better too. While Edinburgh has many exibits of note, there are few beyond that of Tantallon Castle and the Scottish Museum of Flight at East Fortune that can be considered of major interest. It's only one when crosses the border into Northern England that a real jewel in the form of Lindisfarne is discovered.

The tidal island of Lindisfarne or Holy Island was established by Irish monk, St Aiden, when King Oswald of Northumbria made a request to the Christian settlement founded by St Columba on the Isle of Iona in 675. In subsequent centuries and years, the island was attacked by Viking raiders and where the establishment of a castle on the island and across the water in Bamburgh were built as defensive measures against future raids. Both casles are worth visiting and both are visible from each other during good and clear weather. In the picture, you can see a small room right at the top where this is possible.

The Isle of Lindisfarne isn't large and most of the land isn't sufficiently solid to encourage cultivation of any kind. The population is small at only a few hundred but the largest structure is the abbey and although largely in ruin, a small chapel still caters to the needs of religious pilgrims.

Despite the small island and population, the most popular export is Lindisfarne Meade, a kind of wine made from honey. Now, and before you ask, we're not talking about sickly and crude imitations like highly alcoholic beveridges like 'Buckfast', but rather a more gentle offering of superior quality. The small village has been beautifully maintained in a wonderful and traditional manner.

At the time of our last visit, questions were being raised about the capability of the local fire station; basically comprising a hut with a fire engine expected to be manned by a volunteer force in times of emergency. It was decided that a more experienced fire crew would be flown by helicopter from RAF Bulmer on the mainland in such cases of catastrophe.

As mentioned earlier, Lindisfarne is a tidal island meaning that it is not accessible to motor vehicles when the tides reach their highest point. In practice, it means crossing the causeway at low tide and plans to remain until such a facility is available during the next low tide. At FifeServe, we would thus advise some degree of planning and the best place to start is by clicking this link to the Northumbrian government web site in order to establish safe times when the causeway can be used. In a similar vein, the streets of Lindisfarne are small and where cars are encouraged to park in a green grass field outside the residential area. Although this wasn't a problem when I was a younger man, it would certainly present a major health challenge to me in modern times.

An encounter with fate - Pan Am Flight 103

In life, there are certain golbal events that promote the question of 'where were you when JFK was shot or else the attack on the twin towers of New York?' In the first case, I was too young to remember the event but in the second case, I was getting an optical check and having heard about the first plane en route to the opticians.

In the lead up to Christmas 1988, however, I was facing a difficult problem with my television sales and repair business. It was a 'good problem' in the sense that I had more orders for 'second hand' or used televsions than I could supply with all customers expecting delivery for Christmas. My usual suppliers were being equally pressed and unable to release any stock so I telephoned several potential suppliers and came to an agreement with a wholesaler in Carlyle. I agreed to pick up the stock on December 21st.

On the day before, December 20th, copious amounts of water poured into the passenger side of my Ford Escort Estate car and the local garage, Cordiners of Glenrothes at that time (now a Shell Petrol outlet) removed the heater assembly and sent it to Minerva in Kirkcaldy for repair. I was thus compelled to head south for Carlyle next day without any form of cab heating in the car. In fact, lying on the floor of the car; I could look up and see daylight above and resolved the issue of draught by sticking an old pair of Levi jeans into the hole. The journey south was undertaken in fine weather but the return journey was a nightmare.

Before leaving Carlyle, and with the car loaded to capacity, the dealer offered me a snack and tea but I was anxious to get home so I could accomplish much of the return journey in daylight and before problems of frost might become a serious issue. Even getting to Carlyle had frozen my legs and where a windy draft had bypassed the cloth stuffed into position to minimise it.

It turned out to be a good decision!

I was barely twenty minutes north of Lockerbie when the calamity happened and was reported on the radio, but by then, I was having problems of my own. The windscreen was icing over and the back window wiper; an extra feature for cars in these days; froze and failed completely. I had to pull off the motorway several times and stop to clear the ice and saw the massive race of 'blue lights' heading south and while the radio reports remained unclear about the extent of the disaster. At one point, I did see what I thought was odd bright reflection in the mirror but simply thought it was a trick of streetlights reflecting on the ice forming on the mirrors. That remains my best guess today albeit with some reservations. The standard radio fitted to the car wasn't great and there were many areas where all I received was static and noise.

It wasn't until I arrived home late that my parents were quick to explain their concern and about what had happened. Before going to bed in an exhausted condition, I saw the late news broadcast but it was next morning when the full horror of what had happened truly sunk in. Helicopter images showed that a large part of the northern bound carriageway had been destroyed and where I had driven over it just minutes before! Since then, I've wondered what might have happened if I had stopped for that cup of tea back in Carlyle!