HOLME IS WHERE THE 2006 ROSES ARE

 It was 20 years ago that we started this crazy walking adventure thing! Amazingly, we are still doing it and seem set to continue for some time yet. We may or may not manage another 20 years,  but we'll keep going as long as we're able. Fittingly, the 2006 Grammy winner for Song of the Year was U2's " Sometimes you can't make it on your own"!

I think we are also the living embodiment of something the surprisingly wise Taylor Swift said in 2006, - "I'm intimidated by the fear of being average". Well, we are far from that.

Almost as amazing about our walking beginning in 2006 is the fact that 2006 is a deficient number! I'm sure you all know that this means that if you add up all the numbers that can divide evenly into 2006, they will come to less than 2006 itself!

You want proof!? Well, the numbers that can divide evenly into 2006 are 1, 2, 17, 34, 59, 118 and 1003. They add up to less than 2006, but more astonishingly, they add up to 1234!

Can you tell what the theme might be?

More frighteningly, 20 years ago saw the birth, some might say spawning, of Facebook and Twitter. From then on, civilisation has embarked upon an inexorable slide into a morass of confusion and abomination that is of our own making and from which we will never be able to escape.

On a brighter note, it was a very cold and foggy morning when we started out walking from Croy village hall down towards the River Nairn. Croy's Gaelic name is Crothaidh which is variously suggested as deriving from a hard place or, perhaps, from the word for enclosing or gathering in a fold (as in sheep). The village hall, where we had parked, dates from 1907 and was paid for by local fund raising and a grant from the Carnegie Fund. Croy, itself is a much older place than that. It has origins stretching back to, at least, the Picts. Pictish jewellery dating to 800AD has been found in the area.

It was cold enough for the water drops on the trees to have formed into little ice droplets. As the day warmed up (comparatively speaking) these fell from the trees like tiny hailstones. You could hear them all the way round the walk.

The sun was coming through the fog quickly though, and lighting up this birch bark.

We still had to pass through the mix of sun and fog shrouding the trees lining what was once the route into Kilravock Castle. The fog was not quite as bad as that which disrupted the travel plans of thousands of people hoping to get away for Christmas 2006

In the beech woodland at the end of the line of trees there is an obelisk erected in 1846. The lands of Kilravock originally belonged to the Boscoe family. When Andrew Boscoe died in the 13th Century, the lands passed to his widow Elizabeth Bissett, who passed it to her daughter, Mary as part of her marriage to Hugh II de Ros, of the Rose family. The Roses became Barons of Kilravock in 1293, long before the castle was built. Kilravock was called Cill Rathaig - The church at the small circular fort. What makes the Roses interesting is that from 1293, title passed directly from parent to child without any other heir having to be found from outwith the direct family line until only recently. This is thought to be unique in Scottish family history.

The obelisk doesn't appear to commemorate any of the Roses. I don't expect that the builders of the obelisk expected it to be used by wee boys, like our grandson, Liam, to climb on. The problem with posterity is that you can never predict how the present will treat the past.

The obelisk has some plaques arranged on the sides. This one reads " Memory is a treasure which remains when all others are lost". There is a suggestion that the obelisk marks or remembers the various family dogs of the Castle. There are what appear to be later carvings of initials and dates which may refer to particular dogs.

The other plaques don't really help decipher the meaning of the obelisk.

If this is a memorial to dogs that is quite interesting, because, at the end of January 2006, the Chinese Year of the Dog began. People born in a Year of the Dog are supposed to be loyal, honest and trustworthy. They have a strong sense of justice and are reliable and protective friends. All of which goes to show that you shouldn't place a lot of belief in things like this.

Donald Trump was born in a Year of the Dog!

All around the obelisk and, indeed, throughout much of the woodland that we walked through, was a profusion of Hair Ice. This profusion belied the relative rarity of this phenomenon. It forms on rotting wood in broadleaved forests. It was described by Alfred Wegener, a meteorologist, who also discovered continental drift. Discovering what moves the earth and some very thin ice filaments shows a bit of breadth of interest.

It was assumed that the formation of the ice was influenced by fungus in the wood. This was finally shown to be the case in 2015, when the fungus Exidiopsis effusa was found to be the key to the ice forming. So, while it is ice, it wouldn't look like it does without the fungus. Notably, the ice does not form on bark, only on exposed wood.

Once we emerged from the trees onto what was once the eastern approach drive to Holme Rose House, we stopped for a little surprise cup of mulled wine to celebrate the New Year. Very welcome it was, too, so thanks to Jim and Jacque for that.

I can reassure Liam's parents that we, as responsible grandparents, can attest to the fact that the mulled wine was not alcoholic.

Of course, everyone was too preoccupied with the warming drink to notice the giant white space ship high in the sky behind us all. Of course, this had nothing to do with the explosion observed on the moon 20 years ago!

After that little refreshment, it was time to move on. Clearly, Maureen and Sue were distraught about the thought of more walking, or perhaps they were remembering that, in 2006, a farmer in Sudan was made to marry one of his goats!

The route then took us a little way away from Holme Rose House. This is an A-Listed Georgian Manor House. The Holme Rose family split off from the Kilravock Roses in the 15th Century. The house is not the most exciting Georgian Mansion to be fair, but it is impressive nonetheless. It is perhaps most notable for having been the house of Lord Gordon Campbell of Croy, who was a war hero and Secretary of State for the life of the Heath Government. He lost his parliamentary seat to Winnie Ewing of the SNP in 1974. Perhaps this loss had something to do with his views that he was prepared to see a weaker Scottish fishing fleet to facilitate the UK signing up to to the Common Fisheries Policy. He is also said to have been against using oil revenues directly within the Scottish Economy, and he forced Shetland to host an oil terminal with no direct benefits accruing to the islands.

By now, the weather had really brightened up and the sky was a remarkable blue. The white clouds looked like snow covered hills, but they weren't!

Just then, some geese flew overhead to complete the picture. It really made you glad to be out in nature, which was just as well. 20 years ago we had been issued with a warning that addiction to gadgets and dependence on technology would lead to a split in the human race, with a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass. I'm not sure where that leaves me, given I had taken the photo with a phone that was light years ahead of most technology that was about 20 years ago!

Nature is, of course, not all blue skies and honking geese. The woods around here had suffered badly from recent storms.

A giant of the forest reduced to firewood by an act of nature and a chain saw.

Earlier on January 2006, a strong earthquake near Athens had shaken the whole of the eastern Mediterranean basin. Mercifully, there were only 3 casualties. There might have been a few more trees felled.

It might have been sunny and bright, but as we got closer to the River Nairn, the sun was less intense and the frost still held seed heads in an icy beauty.

The Holme Rose early 19th Century walled garden is very large and once had a boiler house to heat glass houses and the like.

The garden is disused now and my attempt to look through the hole in the door was a complete failure. I guess I may be the dim-witted techno-fool.

 

There was more wind damage even in this more sheltered area. The storms had brought down this conifer. Jimmy assured us that it was 130 years old - he had counted the rings.

That meant it was about in 1896, which was a momentous year for many things. It marked the first UK conviction for speeding in a car. 8 miles an hour in a 2mph limit. Later in the year a woman became the first person in the world to be killed in a car accident.

European countries continued colonial adventures in Africa that are haunting us and the affected nations to this day. Some things never change.

Jimmy, the dendrochronologist, looking for more tree trunks. 

We were now walking on the bank of the 40 mile long River Nairn. It is important not to call it the Nairn River, mainly because the latter is in New Zealand!

Rivers and swings are irresistible  to young boys!

In fact, I think everyone finds rivers fascinating, so much so, that some guy once swam the entire length of the Amazon in 2007. That involved ten hours swimming for 66 days to cover the 4250 miles involved. Frankly, that's beyond fascination.

I don't think Sue and Maureen were contemplating recreating that feat.

Lunch time. The chosen location was Holme Bridge. This carried the eastern approach drive to Holme Rose. It dates to the early 19th Century. According to Historic Environment Scotland, the ruins of the Gate Lodge are masked by thick undergrowth.

Rather than picnic by the water, we went up onto the bridge.

Here we are. I did not take the photo, otherwise Liam would have been wholly in picture and he wouldn't appear to have his fingers up my nose!

I did take this rather more charming photo.

After lunch we were back on our way.

When I saw this I thought it must be some lost Māori's following the wrong Nairn, but it would have to be said that Māori art is a good deal more intricate and decorative than this. Interestingly, Māori fish motifs act as talismans (should that be talismen? - well, no it shouldn't) for travellers, embodying both practical wisdom and spiritual guardianship. We exhibit these strengths all the time on our walks.

Spookily, the fish is carved on a beech!

Through the trees we can see Kilravock Castle in the distance.

However, we needed to get up a wee hill before we got to the Castle.

The Castle seems to now be unoccupied, which is a bit sad given that the family had lived there since its construction.

The Castle Keep, with the flagpole, dates from 1460, which is when the Baron of Kilravock gained permission from the Lord of the Isles to build a defensive tower. The building has been added to and altered up until the middle of the 20th Century.

The Roses seem to have been quite a canny family. Bonnie Prince Charlie dined there before the Battle of Culloden. His cousin, Butcher Cumberland, stayed at the Rose town house in Nairn at the same time and then stayed at Kilravock after the battle. Rose is said to have justified this by relying on the tradition of Highland hospitality.

There are some really interesting architectural details, such as the Venetian window you can see in the lower right hand side of the elevation facing us. This was slapped into the wall in the later 18th Century and is a little anachronistic, if you ask me. The function of the window was to better light the Drawing Room.

What we could not see and what I did not know were there, were a pair of bee boles round the other side of the building. Aha! I hear you say, bee boles, well I never. Apparently bee boles are fairly common throughout the British Isles. They are little alcoves where bee skeps can be placed out of the wind and rain. Skeps were the forerunners of modern hives and were basically wicker or grass and straw baskets. They were not the most weatherproof, nor were they very efficient as they could not easily be inspected nor could the honey be easily removed. Hives were not invented until about the 19th Century.

Now, how is he going to tie this back to 2006?

Well! In 2006 about half of all the honeybee colonies in the USA vanished! This was labelled as Colony Collapse Disorder and it spread around much of the world. The cause is unknown, but is thought to be a combination of factors like pesticides, chemical contamination of food supplies or lack of genetic variation in colonies. Essentially the bees go off looking for nectar and don't come back!

I assume the bee boles are no longer in use. 

Adjacent the Castle is a garden with some very fine trees.

There is a very tall Sitka Spruce, which is the second tallest in the country, measured at 44.5 metres. There is a taller example at Fairburn House, near Muir of Ord.

These are tiny compared to the tallest tree in the world, which amazingly was discovered in August 2006! It is a Giant Redwood, at that time, reaching nearly 116 metres in height. It would take Usain Bolt ten seconds to run from one end to the other if it fell down. It is called Hyperion after the Greek Titan, who's name translates as the one above.

The Spruce is notable for its girth as well. This is always measured at breast height (dbh -  Diameter at Breast Height) or 1.5 above ground level. Whilst the tree has not been measured for some time, it was recorded as being 8.31metres - that's more than 27 feet. In fact, it is at least the whole 9 yards. It took us and some walking poles to link up round it! Obviously, as I was part of the human chain, I couldn't actually photograph the event!

There is also a huge layering or kissing beech on the drive out of the the grounds. It is at least 325 years old and is thought to be one of only 5 left in the country. The tree would have been there when Bonnie Prince Charlie had dinner before Culloden.

I neglected to take a photo! It is known as the kissing tree as the story is that one of the lairds had a tryst with a housemaid under the sheltering branches. Generations of lovers have carved their initials in the bark. More unfortunately, Jimmy tells us that walkers were injured when a large branch fell from the tree as they were under it, injuring at least one woman.

From the Castle, it was not too far back to the avenue of beech trees that we had walked along at the start. It was looking pretty good in the afternoon sunshine, although you can still see the frost where the sun had not reached.

We were soon back at the cars and it was a short drive to the Milk Barn in Croy for tea and a very sticky cake. Charlie joined us for tea and cakes, which was good to see. 

Liam, bizarrely went for ice cream and coke. The youth of today, eh?!

Thanks are due to Jimmy and Jacque for organising everything, including the weather. Thanks also to Liam for putting up with a pile of old people. What a really interesting walk that turned out to be.

So, hang onto the thought of what our new mentor Taylor Swift said and, don't forget.

These were the days!

Yes, this really was us on the first Dinosaur walk in January 2006!!

OUT OF THE ORD INARY IN ESTATE

Time for another weekend away. We weren't going far - Muir of Ord.

We woke up on Friday morning and discovered that it had snowed during the night. That didn't augur too well for our first walks. Our destination was somewhere beyond the fog and snow!

Undaunted, we set off to our rendezvous at Wild Gorse café at Belladrum. It sounds like a fairly modern and almost romantic name. In fact it is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Baile an Druim - Farm toun of the ridge. There has been settlement at Belladrum for millennia. From prehistory to Roman times up to the last 300 years, there are remains all around. The Romans are not generally thought to have made much inroad into the Highlands, but there are certainly signs around Nairn and there are records of a Roman coin hoard found near the site of the now destroyed Belladrum House. Of course, someone might have nicked the Roman money and buried it for later.

The Café is inside converted agricultural buildings. Given it was still sleeting when we arrived, we decided a cup of tea might help us warm up and give the weather a chance to improve.

 The former happened, the latter was a bit more patchy.

We couldn't really sit in the café all day, so we rose to the challenge and got out there.

We had barely set off when Charlie surprised us all by saying that he lived in this cottage for a time during his ill-gotten youth! It looked very cold and he confirmed that it was an ice box. It made his decision to travel to Germany in a camper-van quite understandable.

Both Charlie and Sharon took a path across the parkland, so as to cut their walk a good deal shorter. They had a look around the back of the house. I doubt if Charlie's bri-nylon pants adorned the whirly!

The start of the walk took us along the very quiet public road, which was easy walking and quite attractive with a dusting of snow.

It wasn't too long before we left the road and walked along farm tracks, passing some very impressive trees. These trees and, indeed, all of our walk, were within the designated designed landscape of Belladrum Estate.

The designed landscape is a classic example from the 18th and 19th Century. What is almost completely invisible today is what lies behind the grand setting. The land was, at that time, owned by the Frasers of Belladrum. They were hugely successful investors in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In particular, they made massive amounts of money from sugar plantations in Guyana. The farm buildings are said to exhibit clear architectural ambition which references James Fraser the Younger's profitable ventures in Guyana and his investment of these profits into Belladrum. James Fraser is thought to have made £40,000 in 1801, equivalent to over £56million in today's money!

The landscaped grounds were designed so as not to obstruct views to the north and west.

By 1802, Fraser owned 20 of the 32 plantations in Berbice. In 1803 he sold the Dochfour plantation for £49,000 (>£64million) He spent £26million at Belladrum!

Remarkably, Fraser eventually sold Belladrum in 1827/28 and was faced with bankruptcy shortly after!

Belladrum is now more famous for the summer music festival held here each year. This Band of Gypsies, or is it a Motley Crue, might just about fit in here.

Charlie and Sharon went down to the heart sculpture.

We didn't.

The formal Italianate Garden was built by James Merry an ironmaster and coalmaster. He was also a politician. There are ogee roofed pavilions at either side of the upper level of the garden.

The garden was built in 1858/9 and little did the builders, or the owner, think it would end up as the garden stage at the Belladrum Tartan Heart music festival!

The old Belladrum House was sited above the garden. It was absolutely colossal.

The gardens were very ornate, but there is nothing left of their grandeur.

Leaving the house site behind, we passed by the remains of an old tower or, more likely, a doocot.

We walked down through a nice line of trees towards the walled gardens, which are, as you might expect, huge.

Opposite the garden, on a little mound, is a temple. It is really a chapel and a mausoleum. It was built for Ida Merry in 1935 as a quiet resting place and a holy shrine. It contains ashes from family members and there are graves of other family outside the building.

The building itself is in the form of an elongated octagon, with a fishscale ogee roof. The ogee roof presumably references the ogee roofs on the pavilions at the top of the Italian garden.

The windows around the temple have inscriptions imploring us to exhibit the qualities of....

....Prudence...

....Fortitude...

...Justice...

...and Temperance. That's the one we might struggle with.

You can see the fishscale slates on the roof.

This remarkably shaped building is actually an ornate hen house, built in the early part of the 20th Century!

We were now back at the café, where we were going to have lunch, which turned out to be excellent. This was my really good Miso butterbeans on sourdough, with a zippy little chilli oil.

Dave and Jimmy obviously enjoyed their lunch or they were worn out from the walk.

However, this was not the end of the walking for the day. Well, not for most of us at any rate. We moved on to Beauly for a short walk down by the river. Firstly, we visited the Priory.

The impressive remains of the priory date from 1230, although the building we see now was significantly altered over the next 300 years. It was originally a Valliscaulian monastry. The Valliscaulians were a French order of monks, who fell out with the Pope in the 1510 and the monastery then became Cistercian. By 1560 it was thought to have had the roof removed and to then be used for burials only.

As you can see, it had begin to rain, but Jimmy cheered us all up with a story about a tailor in the village, who claimed he could spend the night there without fear of the devil grabbing hold of him. He apparently did spend the night and narrowly escaped the clutches of the devil, who left claw marks on the stonework. Jimmy could not find the claw marks, so this tale may be a tall story!

Someone who did spend time there was our friend John Keats. He visited the priory in 1818 with his friend Charles Brown, another poet and playwright. They wrote a collaborative poem called On Some Skulls in Beauley Abbey, Near Inverness. Not the most catchy of titles.

As a poem, it is quite long and it is basically a satire on religious life of the times. Keats and Brown address the skulls of the monks and priests buried here as if they were craniologists and are quick and brutal in pointing out their imagined faults.

You will be pleased to know that I will not seek to find a way of incorporating the poem into the remainder of the blog. However, it might be worth reflecting that Keats saw the holy men here as sharing the frailties of us all, noting that they are just like all the others in death. One monk is, for instance, chastised as one who 

"plied his glass, 

more strictly than he said the Mass."

There are references in the poem to the roofless priory and these serve to emphasise the ruin and damage of the priory following the Reformation as well as the eventual decay of us all.

On that cheery note, here is the roofless building.

There are some notable burials here, including Hugh Fraser 3rd Lord Lovat, who was killed at the Battle of the Shirts in 1544 at the north end of Loch Lochy. It is a bit of a tale, but suffice to say it was called the battle of the shirts, because it was so hot, both sides took off their chainmail and fought in their shirts. That might explain why there were only 5 Frasers and 8 MacDonalds left standing at the end of the day!

Remaining fully dressed, we went walking towards the river, where we spotted the Haggis Racing Team trailer. 

There was not a haggis in sight. Just round the front of the house was this nice wee Lotus Elise, suggesting it wasn't haggis that were racing, but cars!

We soon left the houses behind and headed towards the river.

At this point the Beauly is still tidal and it lies in a long established meander. Meanders are often found nearer the mouth of a river than its source. They are caused by erosion on one bank and deposition of soils on the opposite bank. These actions lead to more and more sinuous water courses. Indeed, the meandering of a river is measured by the degree of sinuosity. This is measured by the ratio of the length of the river and the straight line between two end points. If that ratio is more than 1.5 then the river is officially meandering.

It is also quite attractive to look at.

We walked a short distance beside the river on a raised bank, probably constructed to prevent flooding. There had been significant flooding here in 1849.

Once off the raised bank we came to what appears to be a crossing point on the river. It was thought to be an old cattle droving crossing and there was also a ferry here at one time. The straight road leading from here back to the village is called Ferry Road.

There is archaeological evidence for a pier sited near the house on the opposite bank.

It was pointless waiting for the ferry, because we were going in the opposite direction.

Further round the meander in the river we are faced with an island. The suggestion is that this was once a peninsula and the flood of 1849 cut through the peninsula leaving an island behind.

It was quite an attractive spot and Jimmy was certainly drawn to it.

There was a hint that there might be beavers here. Beavers were released into the catchment of the river in Glen Affric earlier this year. That is some distance away, but the press coverage noted that there had been escapes or unauthorised releases of beavers near Beauly over the last decade, so this might well have been the work of beavers.

From the river bank, we crossed over the field back to the village.

Just as the sun was beginning to go down. behind the trees.

That was the end of our rather damp walking day.

We made our way to the hotel, where we had a warming cup of tea and a truly delicious biscuit in our rooms.  This was swiftly followed by drinks around the fire. After more drinks we had a really good dinner in the dining room. A quiz, set by Jimmy, rounded off the evening.

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Incredibly, the next morning was all blue skies and sunshine after such a dreich day yesterday. A much better day to take a photo of the front of our lovely hotel - The Estate of Ord. The hotel was formerly known as Ord House and had been a small hotel years ago. Construction of the house is said to have started in 1602, but it has been substantially altered over time. There is a date stone from 1637 over the entrance carrying the initials JMcK. It is a Category B Listed Building. Much of what you can see appears to date from the 18th and 19th Centuries.

JMcK would most likely be John McKenzie, the owner of Ord Estate in 1637.

The house and much of the estate was sold out of the McKenzie family just after the Second World War (when the house was used by the military).

The house also has fictional connections to the Frasers as it is said to be the inspiration for Lallybroch, home of Jamie Fraser of Outlander fame. Sharon, I'm sure, did mumble something about me being almost the image of Jamie!

Leaving Lallybroch behind after a good breakfast, we drove west to the Aigas Community Woodland. Aigas derives from the Gaelic Aigeis which means Place of the Gap. This might reasonably refer to the way the river Beauly is enclosed by rock faces in this vicinity.

We parked up at the community wood car park and set off uphill into the forest. The trees we can see today are a mixture of what is left of a much older and bigger woodland and more recent planting in the 1960's. Before that, the woods had been landscaped by the Victorians to form a more attractive recreational area. Then the best trees were felled during both world wars. We would be walking on some of these Victorian paths.

The first part of the walk takes us up past the first fairway on the 9 hole Aigas golf course, which many of us have played. Indeed, it was a surprise not to find any of our wayward balls.

From the broad forest track, we moved on to the Ladies Walk, one of the Victorian paths. I assume this was once a bit wider and slightly easier to walk on in a crinoline skirt.

There were some windblown trees about, but at this point, they were not really a problem.

When Victorian ladies walked here, they need a bridge to get over the burn. The burn is called Allt Cuil na Caillich which translates as the burn of the old women's corner, which doesn't appear to make much sense. In this case there is no old woman marked on the OS map. There is, however, a Loch Cuil na Caillich noted in the historical records on the other side of the glen. There is a hut circle there and indications of an iron working site. These, though, are on another stream, which is a branch of Allt Cuil na Caillich.

In other words, I haven't a clue where the name came from.

I do know, however, that work has recently been carried out under the bridge to make or replace steps which mean that the burn makes a pleasant babbling sound.

Here we are at the bridge, listening to the babbling.

Just around the corner from the bridge, there are some really fine views over Loch Aigas and beyond to the hills above Drumnadrochit.

Loch Aigas.

From the viewpoint, we head away north west and the character of the landscape changes a bit, with more broadleaved woodland, stone dykes and grass. Just off the path is a lade and a sluice, but I cannot trace any information about what this was for.

Although the lade is concrete, the wooden sluice gate would suggest it has been there for some time.

The fertiliser bag is probably more recent!

We ended up in a bit of a more open landscape. The intention had been to walk around a loop to a Dipping Pond. However, when we had recce'd the walk, there were significant stretches of the path obstructed by windblown trees.

This is what it was like then and the forest manager confirmed to me later that they had been unable to clear these sections of the loop.

We could, however, get to the dipping pond from the short end of the loop without much trouble, so we did that.

It was very calm and sunny at the pond and the floating flowers of what looked like Water Hawthorn, were still in bloom. Indeed, if that is what it was, they will bloom for much of the winter. They are actually South African flowers and are considered invasive here. However, I cannot be absolutely sure of the identification.

It is a lovely spot, though.

Sharon, Sue and Liz did not walk to the dipping pond and, instead, carried on along the main route. They left an arrow, so that we would know where to go on the next loop. It should be said that the arrow was a bit superfluous, as they were standing at the junction anyway.

The rest of us carried on another, longer loop.

There were a few fallen trees about, which made it a bit of a trachle to get round.

Nonetheless, we endeavoured to persevere.

Some of the root plates of the windblown trees were huge. Generally speaking these coniferous trees are planted on shallow soils, which can make them susceptible to a bit of wind damage. 

We soon had to leave the main track and headed through the woods.

Sharon, Sue and Liz were waiting for us and took some photos of us emerging from the jungle.

Once on the track, we were going downhill to our lunch stop at Loch nan Losgann - The loch of the Frogs.

The loch is a bit more of a bog rather than a loch, but it was a nice spot for lunch.

Bog or not, there was a lifebelt, just in case someone falls in to join the frogs.

Unfortunately, the picnic site was in the shade a bit, so lunch was not a terribly long affair.

After lunch, it was a short step to the forest offices, depot and toilets.

This wasn't actually the toilet, I assume it was the cleaning materials for the real thing.

We were not alone!

There was a queue for the toilet, but there was some handy seats as well.

We were now on the home straight.

We were nearly back at the cars and the sun was still shining.

It might look lovely, but it was getting colder.

We had arranged beforehand to have a guided tour of Wardlaw Mausoleum.

We met with our tour guide, Erik, who lives next door to the mausoleum and, I have to say, is very helpful and personally invested in the place.

He took us through the churchyard and fairly quickly into the mausoleum.

The building is impressive and almost out of place for its setting in a small Highland village. The mausoleum is built on the site of an earlier church dedicated to St Mary. St Mary's church is said to have succeeded an even earlier church thought to have been removed in 1220. Clearly the site has been of some significance for a very long time.

You can clearly see the remaining gable of St Mary's church on the gable of the mausoleum. The mausoleum was built in either 1634 or 1722. The belfry says the later date, but local history suggests the earlier date. An even earlier date of 1618 is suggested as that was when the parish of Wardlaw was incorporated with Kirkhill. To confuse matters even more, archaeological works discovered the remains of a window in the west gable dating from 1341.

You can tell it was really old, because there was no central heating. It was fairly Baltic once you had been inside for a while.

The building was the burial mausoleum of the Frasers of Reelig. There is a rather grand memorial to Thomas, Lord Lovat, who died in 1699. He died in Skye and is buried in Dunvegan. This really was the culmination of an unfortunate life for Thomas, whose romantic shenanigans gave rise to a bit of distrust and problems with the family succession. His son, Simon erected the memorial, which it has to be said extols his own virtues rather more than those of his father.

It is probably fair to say that Simon was a bit more famous than his father.

Lord Lovat was a bit of a politician. He hedged his bets at the time of the 1745 rebellion, having been on the government side during the 1715 uprising. His vacillation had more to do with his personal desire to restore his fortunes and those of his father. His father had, he felt, been cheated out of his rightful succession to the Fraser Lordship. This trait was one that lasted throughout his life. He was known in Gaelic as an t-sionnach - the fox.

To cut a long and convoluted story short, he sent his son (also Simon) to join the Jacobite forces once it looked like they were going to be victorious, while the old Simon remained on the side-lines, just in case. 

However, he was ultimately tainted as a Jacobite sympathiser and eventually captured, tried and executed in London in 1747. He was originally to have been hung drawn and quartered for treason, however, this was commuted to beheading. He became the last person in Britain to be officially beheaded. Apparently, the timber stands holding the crowds of onlookers collapsed, killing 9 spectators, much to Simon's amusement. He apparently died laughing, thereby giving rise to the saying "to laugh your head off".

After his execution, the government had agreed that Simon could be buried at the family mausoleum at Wardlaw. However, they changed their minds when they considered that progression of a funeral throughout the land might give rise to more Jacobite sympathy. He was therefore buried at the Tower of London. Nonetheless, the rumour remained that he had secretly been brought back to Wardlaw in a lead coffin. This persisted until 2018, when investigation by the University of Dundee showed that the remains in the lead coffin were those of an unknown young woman.

Erik took us in small groups into the crypt to see the various lead coffins still in place.

This is Simon's double lead coffin - double because his body would have had to make a long and time consuming journey from London to Kirkhill.

There are other family members' coffins in the crypt as well.

I have given a much shortened (and perhaps error strewn) version of what Erik told us. He took a photo of us all outside the mausoleum, before we left to go back to the hotel for a warming tea and a scone.

I'm sure we all know a lot more about the mausoleum and its history than we did before Erik spoke to us.

Here we are relaxing in front of the fire after Agnes had joined us for dinner, but before we had an easy little quiz compiled by me, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed - didn't they?

Of course, drinking inevitably leads to an emptying of the bladder. I don't know about the ladies, but the gentlemen have the somewhat unnerving site of William Wallace staring at us while holding a big cistern!

I'm pretty sure that is Charlie's thumb at the left hand side of the picture which he took.

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A very cold start to our last day of walking and a goodbye to The Estate of Ord.

For some of us, it was also hello and goodbye to the fairy village in the garden. Some of the rest of us were too busy loading up the car to go and see the fairies!

Maureen can't resist a visit to the fairy world.

You can't have fairies without little toadstools.

Don't touch!

It was cold, so the fairies weren't out on the patio.

Jimmy, the fun guy.

I'm not entirely sure about the aesthetics of the Gothic door and the circular windows.

As for capturing Tinker Bell in a jar!!!!!

Susan and Sharon seemed to be very attracted to some old man.

When they finally came back to the cars, we managed to persuade George to take some photos of us all in front of his fabulous hotel.

Then it was time for us to say goodbye. We really did enjoy ourselves and we were very well looked after. Indeed, we liked it so much we have booked again for next year!

Our final walk was at Blackmuir Woods on the outskirts of Strathpeffer and we were soon on the way.

We quickly came to a couple of holiday lodges with wooden carvings outside. They had a bit of a Viking theme to some of them

This is Thor with his famous hammer Mjolnir. Thor was never hungry. He moved about the countryside in a cart pulled by his two goats. He could kill and eat the goats if he had nothing else to eat. Remarkably, he could also resurrect the goats in the morning and off he could go. That was all well and good, except for the time Thor shared his goat dinner with some starving peasants. One of them broke one of the goat bones to get to the marrow and the goat was resurrected with a limp. Apparently, Thor left the goats behind and took the two children of the peasants as servants.

Apparently, the act of breaking bones is a common theme in food rejuvenation myths. Once bones are broken the meal cannot become whole again the next day, whether it be a goat or herring! If you believe in resurrection, you better be careful who eats you the night before.

This sculpture depicts a berserker. These are a feature of Norse history. Whilst there was a theory that they fought bare chested without chainmail, the latest thinking seems to suggest the ber part of the name relates to bears rather than bare. The serk (or serkr in Old Norse) relates to shirt. basically, the suggestion is that these berserkers were worshippers of bears and wore bear skins or heads. They would work themselves into a frenzy (perhaps through hallucinogenic mushrooms) before going into battle safe in the knowledge that they had the power and invincibility of a huge bear. Frothing at the mouth and biting the edge of their shields is referred to in most of the historical texts. They would appear to have been used by various kings and lords as shock troops.

You wouldn't want to meet them in the woods.

Where we were going.....

Unarmed.....

Vulnerable..... 

Some of us unable to run.....

I don't know who this was, but I'm not sure he was impressed with Dave handling his tool.

Even the eagle was looking on disapprovingly, and not a hare out of place.

Onwards...

...and upwards we went.

Until we were directed downhill.

There was almost a fine view to the hills to the north.

At the bottom of the slope, we arrived at a maze. Actually it is a labyrinth because it consists of a single path and there are no dead ends, which means you can't get lost, which would be handy for Hugh. 

The Touchstone Maze was built in 1994 out of boulders that are millions of years old. They come from quarries all over the Highlands and Islands and represent the complex geology of Scotland.

There are supposed to be fossilised fish and a dinosaur footprint visible on some of the stones, but we couldn't find them, which is not good for a dinosaur group.

Agnes standing on a very old stone. 3 billion years old, in fact. The stone, not Agnes.

I'm not very good at identifying lichens, and there are a huge number of them just lying about, seeming to do nothing. However, I think these are mainly crustose lichens of different types. I think they are pretty cool, though.

What makes them cool is that the are not actually plants. They are a mixture of fungi and algae, existing in mutual co-operation to grow and survive. The algae part makes sugars by photosynthesis, whilst the fungi make themselves a host for the algae. The host can absorb water from the air, which means the algae can grow in places like dry, almost sterile, rocks. They can find places to grow where nothing else can survive. Even if they do dry out, they can go into a sort of hibernation, until moisture becomes available again.

Amazing and fascinating to look at.

From lichens to leaves, we carried on downhill.

We did get some good views across towards Strathpeffer. This is Castle Leod. We had hoped to see round this building, but they couldn't take us.

Maybe another time.

A bit of a temperature inversion on the other side of the Strath. These occur in times of high pressure. Air sinks towards the ground, getting warmer and drier as it falls. It then traps colder air below the warm layer, like mist and fog. This means that if you climbed the hills you would get warmer rather than colder as would normally happen. That is the temperature inversion.

There was some rain and snow about, but luckily we avoided that.

When we got back to the car park, some of us went into Strathpeffer, while the rest of us made the short walk to Jamestown through the woods.

It is a pleasant woodland to walk through.

There had been some significant windblow here as well.

The main purpose of this little extra walk was to get to the Free Church at Jamestown. This roofless building is not overly old, but it is a bit interesting.

The location is a bit odd. It is actually sited at the junction of three parishes. This all relates to the Disruption of 1843, when tensions over the operation of the Church of Scotland came to a head. The Church of Scotland at that time operated on the basis of landowners having patronage over the appointment of ministers. A significant number of ministers felt this operated against the wishes of congregations and the spiritual independence of the church. In 1843, a breakaway group of ministers formed the Free Church.

In these parts, the minister of Fodderty parish, which included Strathpeffer, "came out", but his congregation largely remained with the Church of Scotland. In neighbouring Contin parish, the minister stayed and the congregation left. The Contin parishioners were refused permission to build a new Free church by the landowner of Coul estate. Both parishes then gained land from the Honourable Mrs Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth and built their joint church with Urray parish just outside the boundary of the Coul estate.

The church on the site was built in 1861/62, although there is a suggestion that this church replaced an earlier one of the site which had been destroyed by fire. The church continued in use until 1954. The roof was removed for safety reasons in the 1960s by the owners, a Colonel and Mrs Sym. They had a rose garden planted within the walls to commemorate their wedding anniversary.

The church building is really very impressive, which is a little surprising, because Jamestown does not seem to have existed until well into the 19th Century. Before that time the land was shown on maps as common grazing until it later became enclosed.

We probably should have taken the time to look around the rest of the village. It was a planned settlement, probably laid out and formed in the 1830's. Nobody knows who James was, so who was the town named after?

Interestingly, a project was organised by ARCH (Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands) and Strathpeffer Community Centre to record the physical remains of Strathpeffer and surrounding area. They have published a document recording buildings and structures in Jamestown. This is a fascinating read. This is a tiny taste of what is recorded.

There was no piped water in the village until the 50s. People used the village well, or had individual house wells.

There was said to be school behind the church.

Somebody remembers her family house had turf walls and a dry and wet midden out the back.

The village had a shop, post office and a tea shop.

One house at least has a tin roof, with old thatch below. The same house was once owned by an art teacher who moved an old railway signal box into the garden to use as his studio.

The village had two dumps.

One house was owned by ex-Naval Commander who used to hoist a flag on a pole in the garden for family occasions. 

There was a now destroyed aluminium house moved to the site after being used to accommodate engineers involved in local hydro dam construction.

One of Lord Burton's housekeepers at Dochfour lived in a room full of black and white photos and she kept a parrot.

There is a 1970's house on the site of an old pair of cottages which had beaten earth floors.

One house, now destroyed, was known to some residents as the Witch's House.

There is a sectional house next to the church which came from Wick. Another sectional building was transported on the back of a lorry from Glasgow 70 years ago.

There is a bit of open ground beside the main road known as Lazy Corner, where villagers would stand and chat.

An amazing read, as I say. I must go back and find the places referred to.

We returned to the cars and then into Strathpeffer for our lunch at Unwined, which was very good. After lunch it was time for us all to go home after a really good weekend with good friends, food, drink and, oh yes, walking.