Wheels and Ladders

Tuesday 29 August 2017

Had a pretty good sleep last night – think my cold has finally turned the corner and only woke up once for a cough for a change.  Breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, cereal and juice and then we were packed up and on the road again before 9am.  Much cooler today – forecast says a maximum of around 16 degrees so we have dug out warmer jumpers and even put our rainjackets within reach.  Just in case.

Followed the Edinburgh bypass and the GPS took us right around the perimeter of Falkirk so that we arrived at it from the north rather than the east.  Funnily enough the signs to the Falkirk wheel wanted us to go that way too – not sure why – we still drove right through the town so it wasn’t a bypass as such.  Never mind, we arrived just after 10am which is when it opens anyway so we were on the first boat of the morning in order to actually go on the wheel.  It really is a wonder of modern engineering.  Each of the two gondolas on the wheel are capable of holding 250 tonne of water and, using Archimedes theory, it doesn’t matter whether there are boats in there or not, they maintain that weight and balance each other out as the wheel rotates.  The wheel takes four minutes to move boats from the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal.  If it wasn’t there, the canals would have to be linked by a series of locks that would take a few hours to negotiate.  Interestingly, the two canals used to connect much further to the east within the town but as the canals silted up and became unused during the middle of the 20^th century they were built over and could not be reopened when canals once again became popular later in the century.  The site of the Falkirk wheel is therefore constructed in an area that was once a tyre factory and so covering it in concrete to build a new canal system was not an issue.  There is now, with the popularity of the canals in Scotland for recreation and holidays, a regeneration of employment in the canal industry with all locks in Scotland having a lock-keeper.

Headed north to the site of the battle of Bannockburn.  It was pretty chilly here so raincoats were added for an extra layer of warmth even though we have so far only experienced a few light rain showers whilst in the car.  We walked up to the monument to Robert the Bruce and sighted Stirling Castle in the distance.  Amazing to the think it would have been a landmark for the soldiers over 700 years ago also.

Onwards to Doune and its castle which is famous for being used in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail as not only Camelot, but also Swamp Castle and, in more recent years, as Castle Leoch in the Outlander TV series (although interestingly, only the exterior was used and the inside kitchens etc so perfectly recreated in the studios in Ireland that many people think they actually filmed them at Doune also).  Doune is great in so far as you can wander and explore on your own with either Terry Jones or Sam Heughan whispering interesting facts about the castle or filming in your ear as you do so.  I like the fact that the Laird of Albany’s bedchambers had a lovely big fireplace and a handy privy but his wife’s had neither.  Apparently he had grand plans to build an extra wing on the castle and provide his wife with a lovely suite of rooms (presumably including fireplace and toilet facilities) but never got around to it.  Considering he died at the grand old age of 80 that suggest to me that he was a serious procrastinator!

By the end of our tour we were seriously hungry, it being after 2pm, so headed into the town of Doune and had lunch at Buttercup cafe – steak sandwich and a huge hot chocolate for me, a bacon and cheese Panini and milkshake for Larry.  Feeling sated and having also had a bit of internet we got back in the car and on to Gleneagles.  We drove into the clubhouse carpark and saw the fancy people coming off the links with their caddys.  Fabulous scenery but it looks as though the rough on the sides of the green is seriously rough heather and every green seems to have horrible slopes down into burns, lakes or bunkers.  Also, being a links course, there looks like there would be some serious walking to do, even if you were clever enough to head straight down the greens and not have to zig zag down them like I would!

Continued on and past the outskirts of Perth.  Larry wanted to drive in to the city centre to get a photo of a Perth sign.  Jenny convinced him that the attractions of Perth city centre (none) didn’t warrant the effort so was in Larry’s bad books for a while.  Good humour was restored with a stop at the Stewart Tower dairy farm for an icecream.  You could tell it was a dairy the minute you stepped out of the car – a distinct aroma of cow fills the air – but by now the sun was shining and the shop sheltered us from the wind so we sat outside and ate our icecreams (mine was a jammy dodger one complete with whole jammy dodger biscuit!) watching the goats annoying each other and the ducks sleeping in the sun.

Jenny took over the driving for the final stretch up the road to Pitlochry.  We found our B&B and checked in and then went for a walk with the steps through the garden taking us straight down to the main road.  From the map it looked like the fish ladder was just over a bridge but it ended up being a good hour long hike from our hotel and a big circuit so we ended up getting our exercise for the day after all.  It was very interesting though, as well as being very picturesque, so it was worth the effort.

Made our way back to our room to put our feet up for an hour or so and then down to the closest restaurant we could find where we shared a pizza as neither of us were that hungry after our late lunch.  Yet another show about Diana’s last days/funeral etc on the telly to watch while we write the blog, download photos and have a cuppa before bed.