Continued...
Well, it's 10:30pm and the sun has only just gone down and we have to get the blog up to date! Where does the time go? The long twilights are very deceptive.
When last we saw each other dear reader, we were up a tower in the Rhins of Galloway. Did anyone actually click on the hyperlink? Great view!
Also, had enough time and bandwidth to upload the first video. Yay! Here it is. Fishing boat and seals at Ardglass, Northern Ireland.
Anyway, back in Scotland....
I had forgotten to mention that we managed to find the Kilmorie Stone in the corner of a little kirk in the middle of nowhere. This was the first recording of the conversion of vikings to christianity. Ha Ha! No more bezerking for those losers.
From here we travelled down the Rhins to Port Patrick, a sleepy little fishing village, and then over to Garlieston. We stayed in a great little campsite which was part little farm. They had a pond full of fat rainbow trout, big black English hogs and the usual chickens etc. The lawn around the pond was amazing, with thousands of tiny little black frogs in the very green grass, presumably hiding from the very fat trout. Hard not to step on. After a while you just didn't think about it... :)
We had a lovely ride from here around the coast to Rigg Bay and then on to Cruggleton Castle, which is little known but very historic. Originally built by the vikings, it was one of the most impregnable castles in Scotland. At one stage the English took it. William Wallace, William Kerlie and Stephen of Ireland climbed the cliff face in the dark and took the castle from the English garrison of 60 men. I couldn't even consider climbing it in the daylight! With a fight at the top? It's not surprising Wallace didn't have any trouble attracting men to his cause after this little escapade. Not much left these days unfortunately. Like most old buildings the local yokels quarried it for it's stone.
From here we visited Whithorn and Candida Casa before moving on.
I'll save you from too much Scottish stone by not posting the photos of the actual priory.
We really had a dilemma at this point. We had bailed on seeing Edinburgh when last up this way. Should we head north again or continue south via the Lakes district? Tough. There was good cycling to be had in either location we felt. The decision to head North again turned out to be a good decision. We had heard of the Seven Stanes, and felt they warranted a visit. The most interesting was called 'Glentress', so we headed there. I liked that the Glentress Stane had been carved in Klingon!
We drove straight there via Loch Ken, where we spent a night amongst the chav campers. 'Nuff said.
Glentress was fantastic. We drove up to the top of the hill, got the bikes out, rode off, took a wrong turn and ended up a the bottom of the mountain. Hmmm....
Then, R+1 discovered in his haste to get going he had forgotten to bring his ventolin inhaler - and really, really needed it. He says that was the hardest climb he's ever done, the last kilometre on virtually no oxygen. A new anerobic training exercise!
The routes were actually pretty well signposted (I always shut my eyes going fast downhill) and we didn't really have trouble again. Such a great place to ride and the camping was excellent. Not supposed to, but the facilities are really good and well looked after and 'wild camping' in Scotland is perfectly legal, unlike the rest of the uncivilised world! We had trouble dragging ourselves away when we were forced to face the fact that there was more to the trip yet....
In order to put it off one more day, we did a day trip to Edinburgh to see the big smoke. We'd been wondering where the tourists were as we had hardly encountered any the whole trip. Just holidaying locals and a few British Grey Nomads. Well they'd all gone to Edinburgh. I could not believe how many tourists were there from all over the world. Japanese.... they must've evacuated Fukushima to Edinburgh. There were so many people that they were walking in the road just ignoring the traffic, and it wasn't a mall. There was just no room for such large numbers of people to pass each other. It must be fairly usual, as we noticed a Chinese guy wearing a T-shirt that said "Get out of my way - I live here". Apparently is was a little more crowded than usual because the Tattoo was on the next weekend.
When last we saw each other dear reader, we were up a tower in the Rhins of Galloway. Did anyone actually click on the hyperlink? Great view!
Also, had enough time and bandwidth to upload the first video. Yay! Here it is. Fishing boat and seals at Ardglass, Northern Ireland.
Anyway, back in Scotland....
I had forgotten to mention that we managed to find the Kilmorie Stone in the corner of a little kirk in the middle of nowhere. This was the first recording of the conversion of vikings to christianity. Ha Ha! No more bezerking for those losers.
From here we travelled down the Rhins to Port Patrick, a sleepy little fishing village, and then over to Garlieston. We stayed in a great little campsite which was part little farm. They had a pond full of fat rainbow trout, big black English hogs and the usual chickens etc. The lawn around the pond was amazing, with thousands of tiny little black frogs in the very green grass, presumably hiding from the very fat trout. Hard not to step on. After a while you just didn't think about it... :)
We had a lovely ride from here around the coast to Rigg Bay and then on to Cruggleton Castle, which is little known but very historic. Originally built by the vikings, it was one of the most impregnable castles in Scotland. At one stage the English took it. William Wallace, William Kerlie and Stephen of Ireland climbed the cliff face in the dark and took the castle from the English garrison of 60 men. I couldn't even consider climbing it in the daylight! With a fight at the top? It's not surprising Wallace didn't have any trouble attracting men to his cause after this little escapade. Not much left these days unfortunately. Like most old buildings the local yokels quarried it for it's stone.
From here we visited Whithorn and Candida Casa before moving on.
Entrance to Whithorn Priory
I'll save you from too much Scottish stone by not posting the photos of the actual priory.
We really had a dilemma at this point. We had bailed on seeing Edinburgh when last up this way. Should we head north again or continue south via the Lakes district? Tough. There was good cycling to be had in either location we felt. The decision to head North again turned out to be a good decision. We had heard of the Seven Stanes, and felt they warranted a visit. The most interesting was called 'Glentress', so we headed there. I liked that the Glentress Stane had been carved in Klingon!
We drove straight there via Loch Ken, where we spent a night amongst the chav campers. 'Nuff said.
Glentress was fantastic. We drove up to the top of the hill, got the bikes out, rode off, took a wrong turn and ended up a the bottom of the mountain. Hmmm....
Then, R+1 discovered in his haste to get going he had forgotten to bring his ventolin inhaler - and really, really needed it. He says that was the hardest climb he's ever done, the last kilometre on virtually no oxygen. A new anerobic training exercise!
The routes were actually pretty well signposted (I always shut my eyes going fast downhill) and we didn't really have trouble again. Such a great place to ride and the camping was excellent. Not supposed to, but the facilities are really good and well looked after and 'wild camping' in Scotland is perfectly legal, unlike the rest of the uncivilised world! We had trouble dragging ourselves away when we were forced to face the fact that there was more to the trip yet....
The Princess and her carriage
R+1 Getting Air on the Single Track
In order to put it off one more day, we did a day trip to Edinburgh to see the big smoke. We'd been wondering where the tourists were as we had hardly encountered any the whole trip. Just holidaying locals and a few British Grey Nomads. Well they'd all gone to Edinburgh. I could not believe how many tourists were there from all over the world. Japanese.... they must've evacuated Fukushima to Edinburgh. There were so many people that they were walking in the road just ignoring the traffic, and it wasn't a mall. There was just no room for such large numbers of people to pass each other. It must be fairly usual, as we noticed a Chinese guy wearing a T-shirt that said "Get out of my way - I live here". Apparently is was a little more crowded than usual because the Tattoo was on the next weekend.
The Princess and the Castle
This guy turned out to be French. Viva le Auld Alliance...
Ah, a familiar face in the crowd.
It may look uncrowded here, but we had to wait 10 mins
to get this shot, and fight off the twenty people we made
wait behind the photographer for their turn.
Then it was quickly back to Glentress for an evening's riding, and then another quick run (or two) down the berms. Like I said, sad to leave.
Next, we're off to York but as it's getting pretty late here reader I've gotta leave it there and get to bed.
We'll be back. Stay tuned. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!
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