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A solo day trip through to Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, and one sometimes referred to as the "Athens of the North", mainly due to its cultural achievements, the monument on Calton Hill resembling the Acropolis,, but also because Edinburgh is blessed with a city centre of steep braes topped by plugs and ancient vents with a roller coaster skyline of steep basalt cliffs culminating in an 822 foot much studied volcano.
It's a great city for photography and I've been coming here for 50 years. I love the place.
Calton Hill.
Duddingston Loch.
Decided to go up Arthur's Seat, the ancient volcano that dominates the city around it in practically every view. Not only was the hill busy Edinburgh seemed to be heaving as well. Loads of tourists enjoying a beautiful sunny day.
The summit of Arthur's Seat,. 251 metres, but it seems much higher due to the vertical cliffs around the mountain. In some ways it is similar to Cave Hill near Belfast which is slightly higher but further from the city centre. Two great cities boasting basalt peaks with fantastic views from each summit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavehill
A side on view of the summit.
One from the other side looking down to the halfway meadows.
More tourists climbing up from the Gutted Haddie. A lot more wear and tear on the mountain since the last time I was here a couple of years ago but I usually arrive when it's under snow or covered in ice in the depths of winter.
Met this guy on a bike who was rolling it determinedly to the top. A man after my own heart as a few years ago I'd have done the same just for the hell of it. Quite a few posts in here feature me carrying a bike to the summits of rocky hills under 1000 feet.
These two girls also provided me with some scale as I always like to get little figures in my photo's for a bit of perspective. Painting pictures with a camera.
Same girls with Ocean Terminal district.
Edinburgh Castle and church spires.
St James Shopping centre and St Andrew's House. Two massive brutal feeling structures that complement each other nicely from this angle.
A view down one of the gullies on Salisbury Crags, a vertical escarpment boasting steep cliffs falling hundreds of feet to the road below.
The view looking over the edge.
Holyrood Palace, One of the Queen's houses when she is in Scotland although she usually stays at highland Balmoral.
Whinny Hill. A quieter part of Arthur's Seat away from the tourists.
St Margaret's Loch and the yellow carpet of spring flowering gorse bushes.
Easter Road, Home of Hibernian Football Club, one of the two main teams in the city, the other being Hearts.
A guy walking his dog high above the city. Only recommended if your pooch is very well trained. This is not an area to go over the edge into space unless you are teaching it sky diving. One of several Edinburgh posts.... to be continued.....
An appropriate matching video from Kate Bush and the talented MrMarrs reaching equally spectacular heights in the mountains.
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A view of Arran from Bute and a photo left over from the Bute trip that was too good to miss out.
The post today however takes place in the hills above Dumbarton where a cracking walk of a few hours can be had along the Lang Craigs Escarpment, (ancient lavas flows) then up the gentle slopes of Doughnot Hill to return down the beautiful Overtoun Glen and House back to the car. Alex and Alan had never been along the Lang Craigs escarpment before, despite much urging from me, but they finally succumbed and agreed to join me. Mainly because Doughnot Hill had a new trig for Alex although Alan seems more open to going anywhere interesting.
We arrived via the minor road at Milton off the A82 and parked in the car park at Overtoun House. I used to be on my own parking here ten years ago and you would rarely meet anyone else but now its firmly on people's radar. Cloud Altas was filmed here (the old folks home sections) and several other films. In the last 10 years I've noticed a huge increase in the number of cars going to places like this and on good sunny weekends it's becoming increasingly harder to get parked at beauty spots, Munros, country parks etc unless you arrive early. One of the drawbacks of everything being easily accessible in minutes on the internet I suppose. Another drawback of this I will highlight later. I suppose I'm as much to blame as anyone by doing this blog but I,m sure if I didn't someone else would take my place as there are hundreds of books, magazines, blogs, and accounts about the great outdoors nowadays. Changed days since Tom Weir, Hamish Brown and a few others had it to themselves as outdoor writers spreading the word about still remote and almost unheard of areas up north.
Immediately above Overtoun House, next to the suicide bridge for dogs, the Lang Craigs escarpment rises in a wall of shattered cliffs two kilometers long. Just to the right of the car park a stile leads over a wall and a faint grass path is followed to an obvious grassy ramp splitting the line of cliffs near the right hand end. A large detached curved finger of rock should be obvious sticking out from the cliff on the right once you climb higher on this grassy ramp. This leads you to the top of the escarpment then head left along the edge on a faint grass path.( well, it's still grass at the moment)
Alex and Alan near the top of the escarpment. This entire area is a jumbled mass of volcanic plugs, lava flows, geological oddities like the tiny Lot's Wife,and signs of glaciation.
Good and interesting link to the Clyde Plateau Lavas below. There are over 60 volcanic plugs between Dumbarton and the Scottish Riviera sunshine coast at Dunbar. Many of them were used as hill forts by the most powerful tribe in the area, the Damnonii, who ruled this district and much of the central belt when the Romans came and the remains of their defensive walls are easily seen in this great area for geologists and interested visitors. Many of them are photographed here which includes much more info than Dumbarton Castle itself. I love the title Gates of Sodom! http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Dumbarton-Rock-and-Castle
This is Dumbarton Castle from the Lang Craigs escarpment. Stronghold of the Damnonii then later the Britons. It may be no coincidence that the Roman advance up west coast Scotland halted at Old Kilpatrick just before they came in sight of the main seat of power -Dumbarton Rock. Reading accounts The Romans seem to have treated the Damnonii much like the Gurkhas today. Fierce and committed fighters so better to have them on your side rather than as an enemy.
I was also saddened to notice that the carpet of Rhododendrons that covered the ground below the escarpment has been halved in size to make way for deciduous woodland trees by a conservation body. I,m normally all for woodland trees but in this area I think it will obscure the open aspect of the glen once they get taller and the magnificent carpet of Rhododendrons was a sight to behold that attracted thousands of bumble bees and insects when in flower.
This is the area which has been burned and cleared. Photographed last year. The black marks are bumble bees.
Thankfully, some of the remaining rhododendrons sit higher up on the escarpment on rough, shattered ground and hopefully they will be left alone to continue.
This is the higher band. Please ...LEAVE THEM ALONE!
Normally, I'm on the side of conservation bodies but sometimes official policy should be relaxed in certain cases. Rhododendrons are seen as a pest nowadays but I can think of far greater plant species that pose much more of a threat. Indian Balsam and Japanese Knotweed to name a couple that spread far more aggressively than Rhododendrons.
Drinker Moth Caterpillar in the open grasslands. The adult moth of this UK species looks like a little furry teddy bear when its wings are folded. Check it out online if interested.
Think these are wood anemones though they are flourishing in open grasslands under Doughnot Hill every spring.
Doughnot Hill trig. 374 metres, with extensive views.
This is a lovely area as is Scotland as a whole but it is in danger of being swamped by a far greater threat than Rhododendrons. There is a small reservoir and dam just below this hill and it seems to have become a magnet for the outdoor drink and drug crowd. I don't actually mind that as it means they will die much faster than healthy people:o) What I cant understand is why, if they carry all their drink and rubbish up full and heavy... they cant carry it back down again when its five times lighter and empty. Many of my friends in the various clubs I've been in over the years liked a drink and a party but they still tidied up after them and carried any rubbish back to bins or house.
On the path up to the dam we followed a teasing trail of empty two litre cider bottles, the usual tossed away empty MD 20/ 20 and old favourite Buckfast and found this pile at the end of it in a modern day treasure hunt with an all too familiar outcome. Several large scorch marks had been burned on the short grass which used to be a favourite for picnics years ago and the remains of disposable barbeques were left lying around. I've seen this before at this spot and according to Saturday's Record the Bonnie Banks around Loch Lomond are in an even worse state with frequent stag parties and groups going up to get pissed on the cheap with cases of supermarket drink and park rangers threatened. I used to enjoy a good swally myself when I was younger on weekends away into bothies and camping but I always put any rubbish in bins afterwards and never caused any trouble. Mentality is one problem but another is really cheap tents, sleeping bags, camping gear and alcohol. Years ago tents and sleeping bags were far too expensive to leave them behind, even if you were that way inclined.
A typical roadside verge last week. Beauty spot UK anywhere. Rubbish just flung out of cars when driving along minor roads which you really notice cycling on a bike. Empty bins and lay-bys easily available nearby. I'm glad I,m the age I am and will die fairly soon. The human race needs help... or extermination.
From what I've read and the pictures I've seen recently Glen Etive has gone the same way every summer and the Loch Lomond park authority is talking about strict new regulations which is yet another case of the minority spoiling it for the rest of us as they will simply move the problem elsewhere. Meanwhile, over at the Hamilton Mausoleum the massive sleeping lions that generations of children enjoyed getting their photographs taken beside are now locked up behind high railings after vandalism to the monument. During the last prolonged summer heatwave we had a few years ago most of the grasslands surrounding Glasgow were set on fire deliberately which at least burned the mountains of fast food takeaway rubbish left scattered in the grass as well as all the wildlife too slow to escape the inferno. I, the fire brigade, the landowners, and most nature lovers I,d imagine, were very relieved when it started raining again after almost a month of dry weather.Truth is, a warm dry summer is not in the the United Kingdom's best interests. We need all the rainy days we can get to deter certain groups going into the outdoors who seem to treat nature as a toilet or a rock festival where someone else will clear up the mess left behind. No wonder a sizable percentage of the planet's wildlife is facing extinction in around 50 years time, kept alive only in zoos. The dirtiest, litter dropping nation in Europe? Shithole Britain. What's the answer? When will the culprits stop? When it's knee deep? Waist deep? Over their heads and they have to toss it upwards to get rid of it? When we are all swimming through lakes of human waste to reach the hills? http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sight-sore-eyes-stunning-loch-4081679
I normally try to highlight what's good about this country but the amount of litter I've seen recently this spring is already reaching epidemic proportions and Scotland and the UK rely on the tourism industry for a major slice of income.
Dropping down the glen after doing the hill. The second summit we climbed is above Alex's head. Another volcanic vent: Dumbuck, which is still a working quarry.
Mr bagger here decided to climb the other volcanic plug, a small hill beside Dumbuck quarry and we were quite happy to join him. Gorse bushes and other scented shrubs making it feel like full spring here while snow still wrapped the high peaks in a chilly blanket. I,m never in any rush these days to go back up to winter again on the mountains as it will come soon enough and spring is such a brief season before the annual disappointment of a Scottish Highland summer.
Dumbuck arete from an unusual angle.
Looking down into the working quarry. On the way back we witnessed a freak vehicle accident that could have easily killed the person involved and it could have been any of us if we'd been a few minutes ahead. Don,t want to go into details too much but it was one of these random events that could be totally life changing and came out of nowhere. Much like the van that ploughed into me at speed a few years ago when it went straight through a red light. "What's for you will not go by you." my granny used to say. How true. The only time I wonder fleetingly if there is a God is moments like these. Luckily, the person involved was OK.
Video this week is one I promised to post a couple of weeks ago about anti- social behaviour. I like this band and it's a great classic song from the 1990s that's had almost 40 million hits but as soon as I watched this one on Top of the Pops years ago I thought "some nutter is going to copy this for real" and sure enough a few weeks later there was a spate of similar incidents with gangs running over a parked line of cars for fun. Not so funny if you had a repair bill to pay afterwards. I also remember a certain well known gang doing this with swords and knives in a busy city centre street at lunchtime with shoppers scattering for cover but they paid the price and got long jail sentences. Hope it was worth it. Not picking on this band as such as I like their music and the lyrics are good but this video did seem to raise the bar on extreme behaviour and many other "Rebel bands" hold similar anti establishment, F*** you attitudes. I know it's all part of the game with rock bands since the 1950s but I wonder if they would feel the same way if someone smashed their property up and had a bigger more threatening approach than they did and raised the bar even higher as has happened frequently with gangster rappers getting shot.Is this the world they want for their own children? Does that encourage ordinary people in the street to follow suit? There are enough nutters in society already without media endorsement and I seem to have encountered more than my fair share of them over the years. I,m not suggesting a Cliff Richard approach as I like edgy subversive music myself but what happened to being decent and reasonably polite in real life and more importantly, being creatively subversive rather than in your face aggression all the time?
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My annual tribute to "Spring" and also the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Dept who work tirelessly throughout the growing season to cheer people up with a cracking display of colour. Even if you are depressed about anything surely a visit to a park during spring or summer, with seasonal displays in the flower beds must lift your mood a little. And it is a free display...for the moment. Victoria Park Tulips.
Cherry Blossom in Knightswood Park.
Bluebells in Victoria Park next to the Fossil Grove.
Coot nest. I picked the three west end parks nearest my house but also three great parks for general interest, good photography, park wildlife and floral displays.
Kelvingrove Park. One of Glasgow's older parks with many statues relating to the Indian Subcontinent, Glasgow University nearby, and days of empire. With the latest election results an Independent Scotland may yet become a reality as Scotland already seems to be on a different path from voters in England in a major way.
Kelvingrove Park again and the fountain.
Made a friend.
Grey squirrel.
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Could well be a temple in India.
One of the back walks along the River Kelvin.
A detail on the statue to Joseph Lister in Kelvingrove Park. Eminent medicine man who made great strides developing techniques to cut down infections with antiseptics.Although from the Home Counties he worked in Glasgow and Edinburgh. His statue sits not far from Lord Kelvin's. The snake symbol around the pole goes back to Greek mythology. Many everyday symbols have ancient origins which may have been changed over time. For instance Isis ( Mother Goddess of magic and fertility) holding the infant Horus in her arms comes down to us today as the familiar image of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus. Many Christians are unaware that Mary is actually based on the earlier pagan deity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister,_1st_Baron_Lister
Fossil Grove. Victoria Park.
Kelvingrove. The pond. A modern Isis. All religions borrow from the ones that came before to persuade their followers to convert to the new model.
Kelvingrove Park again. Glasgow university tower.
The Cream Season. White Cherry Avenue. Kelvingrove Park in early May.
Getting in is easy... getting out is hard!
Magnolia Blossom.
Detail.
Primula parade.
Swans. Knightswood Park pond.
Tulips again.
Reflections in a puddle.
More tulips.
Wood pigeon eating.
Newly restored bandstand in Kelvingrove Park.
Scotland seems to have a perfect climate for Rhododendrons and all the parks have a multitude of specimens in a rainbow of different colours.
As I wanted a post filled with beauty, interest and colour I'll leave the pop culture influence video until next week and give you this instead as it's more in keeping with the rest of the post. Still out in mother nature( our old friend Isis again?) in all her glory these girls are currently touring throughout the UK. Wider public acclaim surely cant be far off now. Accomplished songwriters, guitarists, and vocalists with great harmonies they seem to have the full package. Mind you I said that about the wonderful Alisha's Attic who folded after three brilliant albums packed with catchy tunes. Often it's the middle of the road unadventurous stuff that sells best.
