Yesterday Mick had to spend the day booking the rest of our stay in Scotland as he had found that there was a vacancy rate of about 3% in hotels, B & B's and guest houses particularly on the West Coast which made finding somewhere to stay very difficult indeed.
It was good job we had a good internet service here as there was a lot of online searching to be done.
With most of the hard work on booking out of the way yesterday, we decided to go and have a look at Dundee. Dundee is a city and council area in Scotland. With a population of about 160,000, it is the fourth-largest city in Scotland. It lies within the eastern central lowlands on the north bank of Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea.
As with the Firth of Forth, the Firth of Tay has to have bridges for rail and road traffic to cross it.
We first went to look at a very old wooden ship the HMS Unicorn. Unicorns are the heraldic supporters of the Scottish Royal Arms, and an earlier Unicorn was the flagship of the old Scots navy. Almost every Scottish town has a Unicorn carved on the pinnacle of its ‘Merkat Cross’.
This Unicorn (the ship) had spent her entire working life in one port, Dundee and has now been there for 136 years. She is now firmly embedded in Dundee’s history. She was moored at the City Quay. We found the quay area disappointing in that most of the shops appeared to be given over to medical disciplines like physiotherapy, real estate offices and fitness establishments whose attendees were using the seats meant for visitors as push up props etc. Disappointing.
Mick went for a tour around the ship whilst Lyn spent some time catching up communicating with family in Australia.
After viewing the ship we decided to drive around the city to see if we could find some sort of lookout so we could look down on the city to get some idea of it's orientation. Mick saw a large monument on top of a hill across town so we headed towards it to see if we get to the top.
Eventually we found a road that appeared to be going in the right direction (upwards) and we eventually found ourselves driving up a hill to the top. It was signposted as The Law and we thought it had something to do with Legal Practice. Not so, as it turned out, as The Dundee Law, which may take its name from the Gaelic word for mound or more likely, from Anglo-Saxon hlāw meaning a (grave-)mound, is the plug of an extinct volcano which gives it its name. So nothing to do with barristers or solicitors, just a large volcanic mound.
Whatever, it was a marvelous vantage point to get 360 degree views over the whole of the city of Dundee, the Firth of Tay and the two bridges crossing the firth.
At the top of the summit was a beautiful war memorial dedicated to the fallen in both world wars.
After checking out a few other areas of the city, it started pouring with rain so we decided to head out of town and back to Crieff to have a look at Drummond Castle and gardens just a couple of klms out of town.
Unfortunately the castle, which is inhabited by the 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, was closed to the public. Fortunately the castle is best known for its gardens, described by Historic Scotland as "the best example of formal terraced gardens in Scotland" and when we saw them we were amazed.
Pictures are worth a thousand words so check them out.
It was good job we had a good internet service here as there was a lot of online searching to be done.
With most of the hard work on booking out of the way yesterday, we decided to go and have a look at Dundee. Dundee is a city and council area in Scotland. With a population of about 160,000, it is the fourth-largest city in Scotland. It lies within the eastern central lowlands on the north bank of Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea.
As with the Firth of Forth, the Firth of Tay has to have bridges for rail and road traffic to cross it.
We first went to look at a very old wooden ship the HMS Unicorn. Unicorns are the heraldic supporters of the Scottish Royal Arms, and an earlier Unicorn was the flagship of the old Scots navy. Almost every Scottish town has a Unicorn carved on the pinnacle of its ‘Merkat Cross’.
This Unicorn (the ship) had spent her entire working life in one port, Dundee and has now been there for 136 years. She is now firmly embedded in Dundee’s history. She was moored at the City Quay. We found the quay area disappointing in that most of the shops appeared to be given over to medical disciplines like physiotherapy, real estate offices and fitness establishments whose attendees were using the seats meant for visitors as push up props etc. Disappointing.
Mick went for a tour around the ship whilst Lyn spent some time catching up communicating with family in Australia.
After viewing the ship we decided to drive around the city to see if we could find some sort of lookout so we could look down on the city to get some idea of it's orientation. Mick saw a large monument on top of a hill across town so we headed towards it to see if we get to the top.
Eventually we found a road that appeared to be going in the right direction (upwards) and we eventually found ourselves driving up a hill to the top. It was signposted as The Law and we thought it had something to do with Legal Practice. Not so, as it turned out, as The Dundee Law, which may take its name from the Gaelic word for mound or more likely, from Anglo-Saxon hlāw meaning a (grave-)mound, is the plug of an extinct volcano which gives it its name. So nothing to do with barristers or solicitors, just a large volcanic mound.
Whatever, it was a marvelous vantage point to get 360 degree views over the whole of the city of Dundee, the Firth of Tay and the two bridges crossing the firth.
At the top of the summit was a beautiful war memorial dedicated to the fallen in both world wars.
After checking out a few other areas of the city, it started pouring with rain so we decided to head out of town and back to Crieff to have a look at Drummond Castle and gardens just a couple of klms out of town.
Unfortunately the castle, which is inhabited by the 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, was closed to the public. Fortunately the castle is best known for its gardens, described by Historic Scotland as "the best example of formal terraced gardens in Scotland" and when we saw them we were amazed.
Pictures are worth a thousand words so check them out.
The Unicorn 
Lyn and Tay Rail Bridge
Rain coming down the Firth of Tay 
Tay road bridge
View up the Firth of Tay
Memorial on the Dundee Law
Tay rail bridge
Road into Drummond Castle and Gardens 
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