A STITCH IN TIME OR JUST A DARNAWAY

We headed East again for our March march. This time we went to the walks around Darnaway Castle, about which there will be more later. So if you want to know about the castle, you will have to read a lot more of this stuff.

We parked up at a little car park with a sign for the Tearie Walks. This was just after Tearie Farm and just before Tearie Lodge and then Tearie Moss.I did attempt to find out why everything was so lachrymose, but to no avail. You would have to think that some great tragedy or battle took place in the area in the past and the outpouring of grief associated with that, gave the name to the Moss and surrounding buildings.

I did, however, note this tree, which looks like a weeping Ash to me, but I don't believe that this was the origin of the name.

 Once we were all done with our greetings and wrapped up warm, we were soon on our way.

It wasn't too long before Pam had to stop and delve into her backpack. I didn't want to be nosy and ask what she was looking for. At least she had a backpack, Sandra left hers behind and was reliant on Dave for even a morsel of lunch.

We were really striding out until we got to a really interesting set of fence posts. 

They were cast iron and had a ratchet system for tightening up the fence wires. They were clearly quite old and I, for one, had never seen their like before.

On the other side of the track was a clue. Francis and Liverpool. In fact, there was also the word Morton to the right of Francis and above Liverpool. Two football teams on one fence - amazing.

Even more amazing - I was able to track this down. The posts were cast at Francis Morton's ironworks in Liverpool, probably some time after 1859. In that year, Francis Morton was granted a patent for "improvements in the construction of fences, and the posts and pillars for the same, parts of which improvements are also applicable to the construction of gate posts or poles for telegraph purposes, or for signal posts".

Francis died before the 1871 Census and the business was bought over and wound up in 1898. All this from Grace's Guide to British Industrial History, which has 128,720 pages of information on early companies and their products and the people who designed and built them. I bet that's a riveting read on wet day.

Nearby to the Francis posts, was a flower that I did not recognise. We saw the same plant further into the walk. It is, in fact, Petasites Japonica, or Giant Butterbur to you and me. It gets very large and can be pretty invasive. It crowds out every other type of plant and the leaves get so big that Japanese children use them as umbrellas. The plant is apparently edible and is often used in Japanese cooking, a bit like Rhubarb or as a pickle.

 I was dispatched by Dave to investigate the ruins of a building hidden from the path. The rest of the group waited patiently for me to emerge with some startling theory as to the former use of the ruins.

 You can see the brick built walls, which are now overgrown. Unfortunately I don't have a clue what the building was and the OS map does not help and nor does the internet.

So, we set off again in ignorance.

 

The route took us towards the River Findhorn - Uisge Fionn Eireann in Gaelic. This would translate as the water of white or fair Ireland, which is a bit odd. The fair may relate to the fair (sandy) colour of the sediments at Findhorn bay. The Ireland is a bit more odd, but many place names that contain the word Eireann have been Anglicised to Earn, for example, Auldearn - Allt Eireann. Who knows?

In any event, there were some pretty spectacular sandstone cliffs along the edge of the river. These rocks are Devonian Sedimentary rocks and date from 400 million years ago, so it is no real surprise to see that they are a little fragile in places.

Our route takes us down to a large flat ploughed area along the banks of the Findhorn shown on the OS map as the Meads of St John.

Meads simply means meadow. The reference to St John derives from the chapel of St John the Baptist, the vestiges of which sit on the opposite side of the river from the Meads. The Meads were used as a jousting field. Darnaway Castle was in Crown ownership and Royal parties would visit and a bit of jousting would be just the thing to keep them entertained. Mary, Queen of Scots visited in 1563 and a jousting tournament was held to celebrate the visit. A canopy was erected in the oaks on the river bank to protect the ladies of the Court.

There are certainly some very large oaks still there, but it is not really likely that these are the same oaks from the mid 16^th Century. Assuming they were at least 50 years old to allow a canopy to be strung up, that would make them close to 500 years old.

Another view of the Meads. It turns out also, that the Earl of Buchan and Ross was not admitted to the jousting tournament as he had been excommunicated from the Church by the Bishop of Elgin. The Earl was better known as the Wolf of Badenoch and he apparently took the hump at not getting in and he rode off with his men and set fire to Forres and to Elgin Cathedral. A bit of an extreme reaction, I think.

Near the old oaks, there was a molehill, with a hole. Moles can dig significant lengths of underground tunnels. They can, apparently, dig at least a hundred feet as day and they are particularly active at this time of the year as the males dig a lot looking for females. The male is called a boar and the female a sow. The collective noun for moles is a labour.

Moles compact the loosened earth into the sides of the tunnel with their body. When they need to get earth out of the tunnel, they turn around and shovel the earth out with their hind legs. They dig forwards with special front paws that have an extra thumb. They eat mainly worms and other insects, which they can paralyse with their saliva and save up for later consumption. They have been known to store up to a thousand worms for a later feast.

Their fur is very velvety and this is so that they can move backwards and forwards underground without their fur being brushed the wrong way.

William Buckland, who was Dean of Westminster and a geologist and fossil hunter, died in 1856, but before that he was thought over his life to have eaten almost every animal that there was and he said that mole meat was vile.

In the river there was sign of a Dipper. Does that make this dipshit?

Agnes posing by an apposite sign.

 Dave emerges from the Roan pool, from where two salmon of 8 and 10 pounds weight and a kelt were taken in the previous few days.

 Next stop was the Scur pool, scur presumably being another name for scour, as seems likely given the location of the pool on a sharp bend in the river.

Dave took us down to the riverside for our lunch stop without so much as a glance at the sign at the top of the steps. Lunch can be enough of a risk, without the additional perils of rock and debris falling on you halfway through your sandwich.

Notwithstanding the lunchtime danger, it was a very nice spot indeed, perhaps one of the nicest we have ever had. The river had scoured out the sandstone on the opposite bank to form an abri, or stone shelter. This would be just the sort of place you could imagine Ayla and Jondalar stopping for a bit of afternoon delight and fishing. If you haven't read the Clan of the Cave Bear books, that will mean nothing to you.

Hugh decided to indulge in some callisthenics.

Here we are sitting down to enjoy our lunch.

 Ayla and Jondalar had left some art for us to enjoy.

Dave was regaling the local gnomes with his tales of the riverbank.

The tree roots were in search of water. No doubt it was partly this action which helped to prise loose rock and debris onto unsuspecting heads below. 

You could see the various layers of sediment that had turned to sandstone on the opposite bank.

You could also see the rare Black-Throated Diver that turned out, upon examination of the photo, to be a much more common Cormorant.

On our bank there was otter sprain - a sure sign that an otter had customarily enjoyed his or her lunch here as well. The presence of the cormorant and the otter would indicate lots of fish in the river. Apparently otter spraint, or shit, smells quite sweet when fresh - like a cross between fish and lavender. Doesn't sound so sweet to me and any way how close would your nose have to be to be sure?

The view upriver from lunch. It really was a nice spot.

We soon left the river after lunch and headed into more gentle agricultural and wooded land. As might be expected in mature woodland, the signs of life and decay are everywhere. This is Many-Zoned Polypore, which is common on dead wood, although I have never noticed it in the live TV pictures of Parliamentary debates. It is not edible, but it contains an immune system boosting agent and it is used in medicine. 

A fine specimen of an Oak.

 Not quite so fine specimens of humanity.

Note the crack and sag in the middle of the bridge.

 This is the Speedie Burn as viewed from the bridge. It was canalised and the cascades were built into the burn, probably not for flood alleviation as thought at first, but more likely to provide a pleasant noise of running water as the burn had a designed walk from the Castle to the Walled Garden dating from before the 1860's. Just goes to show what you can do when money is no object.

 We did not really know what this was, but the more romantic among us though it a fairy house. In fact it is a well. It is the Ladies Well - no apostrophe, Janet. That is because it was built by the Ladies of Darnaway Castle, allegedly. It provided a copious flow of fresh water ideally suited to domestic use. 

Maureen and Agnes preferred the fairy house explanation.

 This is the Castle stable block, unusual in itself as it is two storeys in height rather than the usual one.

The chapel attached to the Castle, dating from the early 1800's.

There was a peacock which wouldn't stay still for me to get a decent photo.

 Rather than walk into the Castle we skirted round it and followed Dave's Arne Saknussemm style directional clues. 

 More fungus and a wee Holly tree growing out of a diseased Beech. The fungus is probably Ganoderma australe - basically a southern bracket fungus. It is not edible, but they are sometimes used in Oriental medicines. 

There's been a murdurr, Mr Taggart.

Richie and Agnes really liked this tree and the questionable denizens.

We started to get some fine views of the Castle.

The Castle occupies the site of the first castle, which was built by the first Earl of Douglas, who came by his title in 1397 through marriage. Attached to the present castle is the Great Hall which can accommodate 100 men and is the only remnant of the castle built in 1450. The castle passed to the Stuarts in 1562 and their descendants still own it and vast amounts of land and property roundabout and elsewhere in the world. Mary, Queen of Scots visited the Castle in 1562 and held a Council there. At this Council she summoned Sir John Gordon to to surrender his castles at Findlater and Auchindoun and she invested her half brother Lord James Stuart as the Earl of Moray. The Gordon castle at Strathbogie was ransacked and the new Earl of Moray used some of the looted furnishings to fit out his new home at Darnaway. When they say all property is theft, it literally was the case.

 The present house was built in 1802 for the 9th Earl of Moray. It is a category A Listed Building.

Meanwhile, Maureen inspects a rather less grand construction.

Heading away from the Castle and toward the cars and we get some fine sights of the red stems of Dogwood. Dogwood is very hard and has been used to replace Persimmon in the making of some golf clubs - woods.

Just to show that there is a bit of money attached to being related to old royalty, this is the kennels at Darnaway. Not yer average dog house!

 Finally, we head for the cars along an avenue of Dogwood, which is quite apt as the wood is often used to make walking canes 

Once back at the cars, we were soon off to Brodie for tea and cakes again.

Thanks to Dave and Sandra for all the organisation of a really good walk.