Scotland and City of York

Last week of August was spent visiting our friend Paul Seaman and family in Scotland and going with Paul on a short trip down to the City of York in northern England. It’s long been on our wish list to visit Paul and his wife Dionne and their two daughters. They live a short drive north of Edinburgh close to Kinross. I have been to Scotland a couple of times on excursions from Stockholm University and always found the nature of Scotland really beautiful. It looks a bit like Scandinavia but with more varied vegetation, and of course we in Scandinavia completely lack all the castles and ruins not to mention whisky distilleries found everywhere in Scotland. This time of year Scotland offers a beautiful purple landscape due to all the heather. We were extremely lucky with the weather during the whole stay and had sun most days and up to 25 degrees. The first day of our stay took us north to a stop at the Queen’s View and on to a guided tour at the Dalwhinnie Distillery. This is Scotland’s highest located distillery in the highlands’ Cairngorm National Park. Erik and I have been on 6-7 distillery tours at different distilleries but you always learn something new and of course the whisky differs. We had a tasting of three different Dalwhinnie whisky sorts. I really liked them!

Day two took us down to the City of York with some interesting sightseeing stops on the way. Paul was our designated driver, which was excellent because he has already done this road trip to York several times and furthermore used to drive on the left side. However, the first stop on our journey was a first time visit for Paul, too. This was the famous Siccar Point, the birthplace of Geology by Scotsman James Hutton. When he saw this unconformity he realised there is a time gap in between the Devonian Red Sandstone and the Silurian Grey Wacke. In fact, there is a time gap of close to 50 million years. I had already been there with Alasdair Skelton and Stockholm University but still really amazing to see geology unfold in such a spectacular way.

Next stop was the Holy Island and Lindisfarne, famous for the Viking Raid in 793, which is defined as the onset of the Viking Age. The following 70 years, the vikings continued their seasonal attacks on the British Isles before they decided to try to settle on the island. York or Jórvík as it was called in Old Norse was one of the main viking settlements. The Holy Island can only be accessed at low tides by car, so you have to plan your visit carefully. We found out that the Holy Island is a very popular tourist destination. It was almost impossible to find a parking lot. Along with a horde of other tourists we walked around this very interesting historical site. It’s easy to see how easily accessible the island and the monastery was to the viking ships and that the monks didn’t stand a chance. As a Dane with ancestors who apparently took part in the viking raids on England I felt very touched by this dark history and would have liked to have brought a memorial wreath. Next time. We hurried onwards to Bamburgh Castle, which can be seen from the Holy Island. A super impressive castle built on a volcanic sill and plays an important role in the series ‘Last Kingdom’. I haven’t seen much of the series but I have read the books by Bernard Cornwell, who is apparently descended from the real Uhtred(s) of Bebbanburg, the family ruling the castle. Our youngest dog, Jörfi and her litter mates are all named from characters in this ‘Last Kingdom’ world. Because we were short on time, we didn’t enter the castle, but next time I definitely want to set time aside for a visit. Paul told us that you can easily spend a whole day at the castle. There is so much to see and fun for kids. Finally, we arrived in York and our hotel in waking distance from the old city center. What a marvellous old city! Anyone with a hang for romance, fantasy and history will thrive in this city. I felt like I had entered the Harry Potter world with all these narrow streets of old houses with shops from the Harry Potter world. The cathedral is a impressive and majestic construction. So much to see that one day is not enough. We of course prioritised to visit the Jórvík Viking Centre and took one their tours. The old viking town is now well below ground and excavated by archaeologists since the 1980ies. You are guided through the various areas of the town where different trades took place using moving wax figures who speaks old Norse. They have also added the smells of the old town. Erik and I enjoyed the tour. It’s of a similar concept to what is done at the new Viking Museum in Stockholm, but with a different story from an English perspective (and not the glorious viking raids ensuring gold and wealth in Scandinavia).

The third day took us past Hadrian’s wall on the way back to Scotland. Paul had chosen one of the best preserved parts of this old Roman wall. The wall that spans across northern England to keep the Scots out was built by Belgian Roman soldiers and it took them only 7 years to complete to whole construction of walls, watch towers and forts. The ruins left at the fort we visited tells of an advanced society with houses, bath house, toilets, and an inn. Not far from the place we visited is the location of the late Sycamore Gap tree (famous from the movie Robin Hood with Kevin Costner) that was sadly cut down by two youngsters. The visitor centre had a slice of the heart formed Sycamore Gap hanging on the wall.

The fourth day took us to destinations high on Erik’s wishing list of places to visit. Namely, the Doune Castle where among others the Monty Python movie ‘The Holy Grail’ was made. You could even rent coconut shells to re-enact famous scenes from the movie of King Arthur arriving at the castle, which we saw some Spanish-speaking tourists did. Other famous TV series like ‘Outlander’ and ‘Game of Throne’ have used the castle for film settings. Erik was thrilled to finally to visit the castle as a Monty Python enthusiast. Both he and Paul excels in reciting large parts of the dialogues from Monty Python. 🙂

In the evening, Erik and Paul went to visit a nearby quarry called the ‘Newbigging Quarry’. The reason why the quarry is interesting from a Swedish perspective is because it provided the sandstone for the pillars at the entrance of the cathedral in Gothenburg. When the cathedral burned and the pillars were damaged, the quarry extraordinarily re-opened to provide the same sandstone – although the quarry had long been closed.

Finally, on the last day in Scotland we went with the whole family Paul, Dionne, Katie and Emily to Falkirk Wheel. Nearby is a second Roman fort and wall called the Antonine wall, which Erik and the others went in search of and found. I went straight to the Falkirk Wheel, which is an impressive work of engineering from the Millennium. It’s a lock to bring boats from 26 meters’ height difference from a lake to a canal.