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.

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!!