Wednesday 12th September 2018, Elgin
We walked into the town centre of Nairn yesterday and found it to be a lovely little town full of very friendly people, Almost everybody wished us good morning as they walked briskly into the breeze while their dogs chased balls amongst the sand dunes around the harbour.
Where the Scots get their shopping is something of a mystery. Delightful as the main street of Nairn most certainly is, there cannot possibly be sufficient shops to serve a community the size of the town. However, we were on the hunt for Nairns oat cakes. We'd quite expected to find a large factory but there was no evidence. Eventually we found what we had been searching for on the shelves in the Co-op! "Nairns Oat Cakes" read the big label. "Made in Edinburgh" read the small print!!! Gutted! Is nothing sacred?
Seeking solace we crossed to the very nice coffee shop selling morning rolls, tea cakes and scones. My next disappointment was discovering the Scots put sugar into their cheese scones! Definitely not the nicest scones I've tasted but Ian happily ate them. I think he'd have put jam on it and never realised it was supposed to be cheese!
In the former Court House we discovered an art exhibition. We went in, as much to see the building as the paintings. As everywhere, we stopped to chat with friendly people. Some of the paintings, mainly of local landscapes, were excellent but we also discovered an exhibition of prints made from woodcuts. These were of particular interest to us and we were also delighted to find a typeset copy of Nelson's prayer on the morning of 21st October 1805 before the Battle of Trafalgar. It could be published today as the Code of Practice for whichever party wins the battle for Brexit.
Tollbooth. Nairn. Scotland.
Book and Arts Festival. Nairn. Scotland.
Book and Arts Festival. Nairn. Scotland.
Around the little port we found a surprisingly large development of small houses and cottages established by the fishing cooperative originally to house wives and children of fishermen who had died in service. The area is quite charming with pretty gardens surrounding independent cottages of attractive local stone with low slate roofs. The narrow streets must have ensured everyone knew everybody else and presumably provided communal support. There was an area for net making and repairing operated by the women. The women were also responsible for gathering bait and preparing the fishing lines and smoking the fish - which included the acclaimed Nairn spelding - and then selling them around the locality from a basket carried on the back and known as a creel.
Fishertown. Nairn. Scotland.
Fishertown. Nairn. Scotland.
The coast consists of moving sand dunes which resolutely refuse to stabilise. Trees have finally managed to take root and the dunes around the harbour are now stable with trees, birds and animals but westward along the coast the dunes continue to move, with the off-shore sandbar encroaching on the harbour at the rate of one mile per century.
We felt we'd got slightly under the skin of Nairn and found it a very pleasant little town, spoilt only by the ugly, sprawling ghetto of bungaloid holiday chalets where we'd been obliged to camp overnight, standing in rigid lines along the estuary side and around the port. It is overpriced but most of all it is badly planned and a complete eyesore.
Nearby lies Cawdor. We recalled that Macbeth was Thane of Cawdor. So Shakespeare set his play locally. This was confirmed for us when we discovered that the nearby little town of Forres was the last place in Scotland to burn women as witches.
Tollbooth. With market cross. Forres. Scotland.
Mechanic's Institute. Now town hall. Forres. Scotland.
We stopped to seek some evidence of the event but the town had nothing obvious and was of limited charm so we continued towards Lossiemouth, known primarily because of the large RAF air base stationed there.
We found Lossiemouth to be a rather strange but pleasant place. It is the first town we have ever found that seems to have absolutely no shops! Where do people obtain their essentials for living? It is actually quite a large place with wide, clean roads and lovely large stone houses set in well kept, attractive gardens. There is a regular bus route around the town and the air base is a couple of miles outside of the town. The roar of the planes echoes over the town as they take off and land.
Though the air base is presumably the most important feature of Lossiemouth today, it is its earlier history as a major fishing port that we were interested in. Down on the quayside we discovered the fisheries museum where we spent a couple of hours discovering so many diverse aspects of the industry. One of the museum staff was a former member of the fisheries board and now volunteers in retirement. He was very knowledgeable and answered our every question in great detail. The herring industry was once the mainstay of the town. Coopers produced barrels from wood imported from Norway. Fisherwomen on the quayside gutted the fish and packed them into barrels when their menfolk returned to port after facing sometimes horrendous weather out on the herring banks. We watched a video taken from the wheelhouse of one of their fishing expeditions. It was appalling with gigantic waves breaking continuously over the deck and wheelhouse! The seas are home not only to the herring but also to dolphins, seals and sperm-whales as well as mackerel, skate, haddock and various whitefish. Once packed the women were paid (in 1912) three pence a barrel for their work, but this was shared between three. The barrels where then exported to the Baltic countries. (I don't understand this really. Surely the countries surrounding the Baltic had their own fishing industry?)
The museum also had a deep sea divers outfit. This was so heavy I could hardly lift one of the metal boots! Early deep sea divers would have oxygen piped down to them and would go slowly down, weighted with iron disks slung to their chest and back, a huge brass helmet and lead weights around their waist. It was a laborious and dangerous undertaking. Presumably it still is for real deep sea work. (Again I am unsure. I didn't think the North Sea was particularly deep but when I asked I was told it was deep enough to require divers to spend time in a decompression unit both before and after diving to avoid the hazard known as the bends!)
The museum charged us a mere £1 each for nearly two hours of detailed exploration with a guide bursting with information he longed to impart. Upstairs there was a different aspect of town life. The first Labour MP Ramsay MacDonald was born in Lossiemouth in 1866. His house is still there and lived in by his granddaughter. She recreated his study upstairs in the museum with his desk, books and artifacts. She even decorated the room exactly as it had existed in his home. So the upstairs is devoted to the life and political history of Ramsay MacDonald and the reasons that led to the founding of the Labour Party.
Fisheries and Community Museum. Seine fishing in 1860s. Lossiemouth. Scotland.
Fisheries and Community Museum. Ramsay MacDonald's study. Lossiemouth. Scotland.
One rather sad exhibit in the museum was of a Dogskin Buoy. Before the advent of modern plastics, shipping channels in the harbour approaches were marked out by the skinned hides of small dogs bred expressly for the purpose! Call me oversensitive maybe but it seemed such a horrid thing to breed these dogs and then betray their trust by killing them. I suppose though, until modern plastics became available fishermen had to be hard and take suitable materials where they could. I'd just never come across this before and it shocked me.
Fisheries and Community Museum. Dogskin buoy. Lossiemouth. Scotland.
Fisheries and Community Museum. Memorial to those lost at sea. Lossiemouth. Scotland.
Nearby our map showed the coastal town of Cullen. I have been regretting, ever since we did not try the eponymous soup which we saw on offer back in Inveraray as we have not seen it since and were on a pilgrimage to Cullen to seek it out. The Fishermen’s museum guide told us we would not need to actually go to Cullen for this as they had it on the menu in the neighbouring cafe. By the time we left him it was 2.30pm and we were starving. Cullen Skink was indeed listed and we ordered a bowl of this northern speciality along with some Scottish oatcakes.
Cullen skink. Lossiemouth. Scotland.
Cullen Skink is superb!!!! we were lured by its name but if we never eat anything but Cullen Skink for the rest of our time in Scotland we will be in paradise! Its a thick, rich, creamy soup with finely shredded fish, particularly smoked haddock along with finely shredded cabbage. Contrary to expectation it did not taste particularly salty and, with home made oatcakes was incredibly sustaining.
Finally we took a walk around the town and along the sea front. Here we found the home of Ramsay MacDonald, a pleasant property overlooking the harbour and the sea.
Leaving Lossiemouth behind we made our way to Elgin where we are currently camped. It's a couple of miles out of town so we will head off now to see whether the pavements are paved with marble?
Friday 14th September 2018, Aberdeen
Well Elgin is a granite city so of course there is no marble there. It's all in the British Museum. However, the city does have the reputation of being paved with guineas. It was once considered the filthiest town in Scotland. This, to judge by current day standards would not make it particularly bad by comparison to many English towns we have visited. However, it was reputed to be so filthy the main square had five middens, was permanently flooded with sewage, and special flagstones were laid across the open space to enable people to cross it dry-shod. Eventually it became so bad it was completely relaid with new drains at such enormous expense it was claimed the city had been paved with guineas. Perhaps marble would have been cheaper after all!
Market cross and church. Elgin. Scotland.
Town drummer. Statue. Elgin. Scotland.
Fountain and church. Elgin. Scotland.
Houses, Elgin. Scotland
We liked Elgin. Coming from the north it looked a large town, as it undoubtedly was compared to everywhere further north. It had though only a couple of main streets with minor roads crossing between them. The main high street shops were all there and there was a modern, covered shopping complex. There were though quite a number of small, independent shops, pubs and cafes. There were also several large, handsome buildings that had once been banks or civic buildings. Incidentally, all the towns in Scotland seem to have their Tollbooth. We'd not encountered these before this trip. It is a civic building that seems to combine the functions of council administration and finance with that of maintaining law and order. It houses both the court house and the jail. Most towns have now turned them into tourist attractions with an art gallery and meeting rooms or else they have recreated the jail and allow visitors to explore the cells and learn gory facts about the inmates. Elgin has a cathedral that stands somewhat outside the town and there is a park surrounding it looking especially attractive on a sunny, chilly autumn morning with leaves tumbling to the ground.
Cathedral, Elgin. Scotland.
The medieval centre of the town where the local market was held is known as the Great Cross. It stands outside the church of St. Giles on the main square. Further up, towards the cathedral we found Wetherspoons occupying the “Muckle Cross”. It always seems to occupy the most prestigious building in whatever town it lays down roots. It was late morning but we decided on an early lunch of a vegetarian breakfast and some of their first-rate coffee. It was a pleasant place to warm up and fill up before continuing our journey across country on minor roads that took us through hidden villages towards Aberdeen.
It was around 5 pm by the time we finally reached the campsite on the outskirts of the city. How can it take me so long to drive less than a hundred miles? As usual I was exhausted. I guess it's taking the cross-country routes but at least we see the countryside.
