TORN A GRAIN? NO! JUST SPRAINED A LIGAMENT.

 Another month, another walk. I can't remember when I last wrote that in a blog, but it was true. A new normal, quite a lot like the old normal.

Jimmy and Jacque had sorted out a walk around Croy and Tornagrain. I could not go, because I have hurt my ankle, but non-attendance has never stopped me writing the blog before, so here goes. Susan and Robin were also absent as they had a better offer from family and who wouldn't take that up?

The rendezvous was the village hall car park at Croy - from the Gaelic - cruadh - meaning hard place. A hard lot in a hard place.

Jimmy had two walking poles, looking like an old man. I had tried that same approach the day before but could only shuffle and shamble about 500 yards. I'm sure he would manage a bit more than that.

Dave had apparently heard some kind of viral joke and regaled the assembled masses with it. Unfortunately, Sharon can't remember any of it, so I have no idea if it was funny, or not.

On the basis of the audience reaction, it would appear not.

Sharon assures me that these chickens were really huge. They look normal to me, but I'm no chicken expert. I do know, however, that the domesticated chickens we see are descended from Asian Jungle Fowl. What I didn't know was that they were named by some Latin speaking Weegee. Their proper name is Gallus gallus domesticus. There are about 24 billion chickens in the world making them one of the most widespread of domesticated animals. So, you might think, hens are not as rare as hen's teeth. Well, you would be both right and wrong. Hens don't have teeth, but every hen retains the genetic coding to actually grow teeth, like their ancient fossil relatives!

The burning question is - which came first, the chicken or the egg?

That's a whole other story. 

Would you like to hear it?

You would?

Here goes.

This is, of course, a philosophical causality dilemma, arising from the fact that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. Philosophers have been pondering this from ancient times - how to overcome the difficulty in expressing a sequence of events where each event seems to require the other event to happen first. Aristotle decided that there was no answer as the sequence went back forever and, therefor had no origin. However, the good old Christians settled things by deciding that god had created the chicken and the eggs followed on from that. So, there.

Of course, as with so much in the Bible, that turned out not to be true. 

If you look at eggs in general, hard shelled eggs were around for millions of years before chickens evolved, so the answer is - the egg.

It is still the answer if you look at chicken eggs in particular. This is because chickens evolved rather than being created by the hand of Maradonna and at some point something that was not quite yet a chicken laid an egg that was a chicken egg. Basically, the egg came first, but it was laid by a bird that wasn't a chicken.

I bet you're glad you wanted to know that, and that I gave you the short version.

Moving swiftly on from chickens, the next sight of interest was Croy Primary School. Note the old bell tower on the roof. Sharon had visited this school many times and had never noticed the bell tower. Croy old school was built in 1872 and catered for primary and secondary pupils until 1972, when it became primary only. The old school was demolished in 1998 and the bell tower was incorporated into the new school which opened in August of the same year.

No need for maps or navigation, just follow the sign.

On round the edge of the field.

There were some very extensive views onto the Firth.

Best to take advantage of the views before the trees grow up and obscure them.

A gas pipeline safeguarding zone. Generally, it is not a good idea to build anything on top of a gas pipeline. They also prefer that trees and the like are kept away from the pipes to lessen any chance of root damage. That is why there is a fair amount of empty space around this marker post.

There was not so much room around Maureen when she opened up her little treasure box of sweeties. In fact, Maureen was so moved by my plight that she sent some sweeties home with Sharon to give to me. That was very kind, Maureen. I am sure you sent a good handful of goodies. I have to say, however, that the one sweetie and the pile of empty wrappings that was handed to me, was a bit of a disappointment. I think the chocolate smeared all over Sharon's face was a bit of a giveaway. 

Fortified by sweeties, they pressed on.

A wee gate leading to....

....a wee empty house. From the OS map this is Culaird, which is an unoccupied house belonging to Moray Estates. In the late 1870's this was a thatched building occupied by the estate forester. It was, apparently in good condition. That is not the old forester at the side of the house, but Agnes looking for bats.

Ticks are a bit of an occupational hazard on Dinosaur walk. Just make sure you inspect all of your nooks and crannies after a hike.

From Culaird to Tornagrain. At the time that Culaird was occupied by the forester, Tornagrain was described as a group of several cottages including a Smithy and a Carpenter, with the houses partly slated and partly thatched.

Now, it is a Georgian fantasyland, where you can live in a pastiche of Georgian architecture, safe in the knowledge that you are following in the footsteps of Empire, slavery and huge gaps between rich and poor. The Georgians believed that all souls were equal under god. Luckily, that didn't extend to bodies, so slavery, social division and bondage was OK.

Happily, there won't be many slaves buying houses here.

Torr na Greine is Gaelic for sunny mound - a bit like Sunnyside along the road.

The bird is The Pelican in her Piety. This is a frequently used motif, where the users wished to give the impression of self-sacrifice, charity and compassion.  It derives from the myth that grew up around pelicans on the Nile. It was believed that the female would tear her breast and the drops of blood would bring her chicks back to life after they had been killed by snakes. Some thought that the male bird was jealous of the chicks and killed them, The female returned after three days and resurrected them and this found a way into Christian mythology. In truth this probably arose when somebody mistook the pelican regurgitating food for the chicks, rather than tearing itself open.

The Moray Estates, were the landholdings of the Stewart family, who were immensely powerful in Scotland. Their landholdings were vast and widespread. The first Earl of Moray was James Stewart, illegitimate son of James the V, who was granted the title in 1562. Prior to that formalisation of the peerage, the lands were held by a variety of kings and earls, known as Mormaers. The first earl was actually not the first at all. The title had been created four times before and had fallen out of use or been set aside by various kings in the past. What is the case, is that the Stewart family were powerful people. As a family they, at times, held the thrones of both Scotland and England. The irony now is that the clan does not currently have a chief. The effect of that is to render them an armigerous clan. Clans are considered noble in Scotland and they derive their nobility from the clan chief. The Stewarts do not have a clan chief and, therefor, cannot be considered noble and so have no standing in Scots Law.

That must be a bit of a bugger, but I guess the land and money is a some compensation.

I somehow doubt that Merlin lives here. If you were Merlin, would you advertise the fact. There would be people knocking on the door at all times of the day and night, looking for swords, spells and sorcery. I don't think so.

Despite their shortcomings, there was always a certain elegance about the Georgian era.

The shop, which was a bit of a magnet for the walkers. Not the best example of a Georgian shopfront I have seen. You would be hard pushed to tell it was a shop, but it does have a pleasing symmetry about it, the five bays avoiding the unresolved duality that would have been the consequence of having only four.

Outside the door were the three wise monkeys. Naturally, there is a story behind this. They originate from Japan and were a religious symbol. It is a bit convoluted, but it seems that they can be taken to mean that you should hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil if you want to be good. It is also thought that they might actually be the opposite of that and that not hearing, seeing or speaking up against evil would make you a bad person. You would, effectively, be turning a blind eye to evil. Interestingly, Ghandi had a small statue of the three monkeys. So what, you might say. Well the so what is that Ghandi did not believe in owning anything, but he did own this little statue.

Lunch on an improvised bench. Can you spot the gap where the photographer was sitting? Or was that just a sensible bit of social distancing between Agnes and Liz?

Into the woods at Lochandinty. Lochandinty is a small lochan hereabouts. At the same time as Culaird was occupied by a forester, there was a partially thatched unoccupied cottage, called Lochandinty, in poor repair and owned by the Moray Estates. I cannot trace the meaning of Lochandinty, but I did see that the Moravian Orienteering Club stated that it came from the Gaelic for the lochan of the Polar bear's fridge. I don't believe that this is true.

 Another group photo, this time at a gate.

Can everybody look at the camera, please?

Everybody!

Yes, that means you as well, Pam!

There is a suggestion that there was a crannog at the east end of Lochandinty, but no firm evidence has ever been forthcoming to back up that observation by a local minister in the 1880's. The piles and stones seen by the minister might explain the information given by one of the local worthies to the Dinosaurs. He was saying that a farmer had been reversing his trailer and dumping stone into the loch. The trailer went out of control and dragged the farmer to a watery grave. You can see whirlpools there from time to time caused by the wheel of the trailer still spinning under the water. I'm struggling to believe this as well, but you never know.

Jimmy and Charlie passed on the matter.

A Monkey Puzzle Tree. If you want to know why it is called that, you weren't paying attention to the previous blog. If that is true, why? I spend hours making these things exciting, entertaining and informative. Sharon has to read the blog, before it is published and it isn't fair that she has to do this and you don't.

Well! A cuddy. Or perhaps a cuddie. Both spellings are acceptable. What is less accepted is whether this is actually a cuddy. The standard definition in the Dictionary of the Scots Language is a donkey or an ass and not a horse.

 It can also describe someone who is obstinate, stubborn, or perhaps a little less well endowed with wisdom than us Dinosaurs - Douglas Ross, say.

Common usage as a word to describe a horse is widespread in parts of the east of Scotland.

The final photo is of a house under construction. I say house, but it does have a striking resemblance to a second world war pill box. How do I know that? Well, because there is a Pillbox Study Group. What an amazing website they have. If there is ever anything you need to know about pillboxes, this is the place to go. 

It is often accepted that the first mention of these structures as pillboxes came from an article in the Scotsman from September 1917. The amazing thing about this article is that it refers to action by Bavarian stormtroopers to capture Inverness Wood. Yes - Inverness Wood. In Belgium. Locally known as Herenthage wood, I have no idea why it would be known as Inverness wood, except to say that it was part of the 3rd Battle of Ypres and many of the landmarks on the battlefield were known by Scottish names, Inverness Wood and Stirling Castle, for example. The regiment involved in the action was not Scottish.

There are pillboxes throughout the country and they were built to slow up potential invasion by German troops. A great number of them are better looking than this house.

What an interesting and exciting walk they seem to have had without me.

Well done to Jacque and Jimmy for organising it. Hopefully we will all make the next walk and all those to follow as we get back to Dinosaur normality - if there is such a thing.