HOW TO TUNE A EGG AND OTHER SHANKIE CURIOSITIES

   February already! After the romance of Valentine's Day, we were off for a walk around Nairn. What better place to dispel the romance than meeting up at The Maggot car park? The Maggot is most likely derived from the Gaelic Magh which describes a plain or wide, flat area of land. It certainly is an accurate reflection of the land as it currently looks. The use of Gaelic in Nairn is sometimes disputed, but there is little doubt that it was important in the history of the town. Samuel Johnson, on his famous tour in 1775, took Nairn to mark the boundary of the Highlands as it was the first place he had come to with peat fires and spoken Gaelic.

Nairn is named after the river, and the Gaelic name is Inbhir Narann the mouth of the river Nairn, which in itself is thought to be the river of the Alders. Here is said river of the alders, with not an alder in sight. The pine needles are, I think, Corsican Pine, which does well in exposed seaside locations. It is native to the Mediterranean, notably Sicily. I bet it was feeling the cold today!

No matter the etymology of the place, it was pretty damned Baltic when we got out of the cars. The eagle eyed among you will note the presence of a guest walker. Yes, it was another Susan! This Susan is the sister in law of Jimmy, who happened to be staying with Jim and Jacque and couldn't find a suitable excuse not to join us.

The only way to get warm was to start walking. The route took us past the Thomas Telford harbour. Nairn was always an important fishing location, but the shallowness of the beach and narrowness of the river had been a problem preventing larger boats gaining access. The construction of a harbour by Telford solved that problem, The disappearance of herring, in particular, means the harbour is used primarily by pleasure craft nowadays. The flock of waders was a cluster or a fling of Redshanks.

Once past the harbour, we were walking along the seafront. The beach and frontage here was used to practice the D-Day landings. Many of the beaches around Nairn had been mined and they were cleared by using high pressure hoses to cover the mines with shingle before exploding them!

Looking back to the east.

The path along the front was extremely icy and discretion and a desire to avoid 'having a fall' led us to split up. Some of us walked along the beach and the rest went inland to walk through the fine buildings of the west end of Nairn. To get to the smart houses, we had to walk through the West Links park. Local opinion is that the original Nairn Castle was sited on a corner of the Links. It is said to date from the late 900's, which was quite a while ago.

The Links are part of the Nairn Common Good and they are a well used park area, especially in the summer.

Nairn has a very benign climate and it is one of the driest and sunniest places in the Highlands. The town became hugely popular in the 1880's with the coming of the railways to Nairn. This popularity is reflected in the scale of Victorian house building in the west end. To my mind, this area of housing is one of the finest in the Highlands, helped by the presence of mature trees. Charlie Chaplin clearly agrees, as he spent holidays here with his family towards the end of his life.

I wouldn't normally take many photos of occupied houses, but this one was once home to Dave's mother and it was he who painted the walls. He must have used the right paint as it seems to have lasted reasonably well.

I also made an exception for this, not so much for the house, but the gate and the name. The house is modern rather than Victorian, but it belongs to Sandra's retired dentist, so she effectively paid for some of the gate, at least. Note the name of the house..Dunfillin.

Charlie Chaplin never stayed at the Golf View Hotel, so he wouldn't have been too worried about being unable to play tennis today!

Just beyond the tennis courts we met up with the beach bunnies.

Off through the golf club car park.

Some wee birdies having a doss on the outfall pipe. I think these wee birdies are Dunlin, which are commonly found in coastal areas during winter, spreading to higher moorland for breeding into the summer.

We started to move away from the seafront to go inland. We crossed the golf course, looking back to the clubhouse. The golf course is well known and well thought of throughout the world. It was founded in 1887. The driving force behind the establishment of the club was RB Finlay, a barrister and local MP who went on to become Lord Chancellor. It was, of course, for men only, until the founding of the ladies section in 1922, by a Mrs Whitelaw. Her son, Willie, went on to become the Deputy Prime Minister under Margaret Thatcher. So, when I talked about the establishment of the club, I really did mean the establishment. Of course, our very own Hugh is a member here, and he is the veritable epitome of establishment.

Off we went across the fairway towards the practice greens and the far side of the course. Suffice to say, there weren't many people playing today and we were safe from stray balls. 

That's not to say that we didn't see any.

There was a genuine nest of balls, or, were they eggs? I was, by now, thinking of my lunch of an unctuous tasty egg mayo roll and these eggs had just ignited a burning desire on my tastebuds.

Dave and Jimmy were seriously contemplating pocketing a few balls for later use. However, decorum prevailed as such an act would certainly be frowned upon here. It would be worse than double tapping in an Olympic curling match.

Honesty is, of course, the best policy.  I feel there are more than a few politicians who could choose to follow such a doctrine.

We were climbing up from the golf course and over the remains of the East of Scotland Main Post-glacial Shoreline, that is, we were walking up the slope of the ancient beach. This was where the beach was in the Flandrian period, which started 12000 years ago. It was the result of the glaciers melting. They once covered Scotland to significant depths. So much so, that when the ice melted, sea levels rose, but the land began to rise, freed from the weight of all that ice. Indeed, that uplift from the isostatic depression of the land is still taking place today! About 6000 years ago, the sea level was much higher and the shore was much further inland than it is today. It illustrates what might happen if global warming continues and sea levels begin to revert to ancient heights. The golf course would become one giant water hazard.

You get a nice view, though!

The route takes us through some nice woodland in the Achareidh area of Nairn. I am guessing that Achareidh comes from Achadh, Gaelic for field and Reidh meaning flat - a flat field. Certainly, it was very flat, but most of the field is now under trees or houses.

To the north east of the path are the grounds of the Newton Hotel, which is where Charlie Chaplin and his family holidayed in the 1970's.

There is a somewhat run down stable/farm block associated with the hotel right by the path. This was once an associated house attached to bays for 9 horses and 3 carts. It is a shame to see it so abandoned and apparently unloved.

Through the woods you can get a glimpse of the grand hotel.

We left the wooded path behind and took a short route through some 70's housing.

Then this route took us past another of Dave's Mother's houses. He hadn't painted that one.

We next came to the station, which was first opened in 1855. The line was extended to Dalvey in 1857 and then in 1861 the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway company was formed. In 1885/86 the Highland Railway improved facilities and extended and raised the platforms.

The station is notable as the last working example of Highland Railway Company signalling principles. There was a signal box at each end to work the points and signals and the key token levers for working the single line were located in the main station building. Such was the distance involved in getting from one end to the other, with a stop in the middle to operate the machinery, that British Rail actually provided the signaller with a bike!

At the same time as the platforms were extended in 1886, this iron footbridge was built.

Of course, that provided the perfect opportunity for the traditional bridge photo.

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   From the station, it was on to Cawdor Road, heading toward the river, by way of Mill Lane. There doesn't appear to be any remains of a Mill, but surely it must have been near here at one time. There is a very straight path leading off to the south of where we were. This leads directly to Firhall Bridge, which is now a public footbridge, but once carried piped drinking water into Nairn. Whether there was once a mill lade there I cannot discern.
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We were cutting that bit off the route to save a bit of time. We passed loads of snowdrops on the way to the bank of the river.

There were even more by the river itself.

A pleasant spot for a lunch. Boy, was I looking forward to my egg roll. I had boiled the eggs yesterday and Sharon was making up the rolls while I loaded up the car and dealt with any number of details. I saw her chop some spring onions, which I really like in an egg roll.

Can you imagine how crushed, nay, devastated, nay, bereft, nay, distressed and wanting I was, when I opened up my little sandwich bag to be confronted by a tuna roll!? Let me tell you, your imagination was as a pin prick compared to the yawning maw of grief that swallowed me up. A tuna roll! How could this have happened?

The answer was "I forgot about the eggs" and "just be quiet, get on with it, and count yourself lucky you have something to eat at all".

I may have laboured the point a little, but I just could not let the matter pass without bringing up my disappointment at every opportunity, much like I am doing now.

Here is the offending tuna roll. It was perfectly pleasant, but it wasn't a soft, yielding symphony of egg, mayonnaise, spring onion, salt and pepper, that would have been akin to Ambrosia brought by nymphs to my heavenly feast.

Still, I grudgingly ate it with only the odd mutter that threatened to bring the wrath of the gods upon my innocent head.

We carried on by the riverside until we got to Riverside Park, where little children, untroubled by my trauma, besported themselves without a care in the world.

The route took us under the 1857 railway bridge.

The path passes very close to the disused parish graveyard. Most of the burial stones date from the 19th century, with a few from the 17th and 18th.

The original parish church was built here in 1658 and then rebuilt in 1810, with the walled graveyard. Some skeletal remains have been found outside the wall, and these are thought to be associated with the older church.

Just when you think the riverside path is about to disappear like an egg roll, there is a wee path that takes you up from the river into the town, via what becomes Water Lane.

We can soon see the clock tower of the Town and County Buildings through the giant spider's web! The time was correct and, from my time of working in Nairn, that was one of the most important considerations of the local townspeople and their elected representatives!

The Town and County Buildings, or The Courthouse, replaced a run down Tollbooth and jail in 1818. The Tollbooth was in such a poor state of repair that even the prisoners complained in 1670! It was burnt down in 1716 by His Majesty's Forces who were keeping guard! The replacement was not built until 1818 and was then altered significantly in 1870.

Just to the right of the left hand lamp is the Market Cross. This was moved from its original site in 1757 and then moved again to the present site in the early 70's. The sundials in stone near the top are thought to be the Old Horloge stone about which very little is known.

From the High Street, the safety conscious among us went under the A96 road bridge, which was built in 1803. That replaced an earlier bridge from 1631, which fell into the river in 1794, The bridge that we see today has been repaired at least 4 times following flood damage.

Of course, going under the bridge meant that we walked straight along the river side path to see the swans which often nest at this point in the river.

Those who took the risky route across the busy A96, ended up following the public road down to the cars.

That was us back at the cars after a varied and interesting walk. From the Maggot we were off to Househill Café for our tea and cakes. We were joined by Jimmy's brother, David, who was doubtless glad to have missed the egg roll saga.

However, it isn't over yet!

Here is my lovely egg ready for breakfast. Whilst it was so good, it wasn't a luscious egg roll. It certainly made me feel a bit poetic, if not Shakespearian!

I thought to myself....

Shall I compare thee to a soft egg roll?

Thou art lovely, but harder and less temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling onions green,

And Sunday's roll hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the water doth boil,

And often is his golden yolk dimm'd;

And every ovum from mayo sometimes declines

By lunch or breakfast's course untrimm'd;

But thy lovely eggy taste shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that mayo thou ow'st;

Nor shall death brag thou lingered in his shell,

When in eternal rolls to time thou spread;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see

So long lives this and this gives life to egg rolls.