A Sassenach in Scotland: Part 2
Week of October 27
Hi! Welcome back to Week 2 of my adventures in Scotland! I can’t believe I am already at the halfway point of this trip. In contrast, time moved so slowly this summer…maybe because all I did was eat European pastries and sit at the beach…??
This time, I am still eating pastries (hehehe), but doing a lot more walking and sightseeing, so I am pleasantly worn out at the end of each day. It probably doesn’t help that the sun is setting so much earlier, too, especially this far north...
Anywho, Scotland continues to impress. Today, for example, I spent an hour riding the bus back to my hotel, and saw a seal, a golden eagle, swans, and shorebirds, not to mention sheep (lots of sheep!). Add in the mountains and the mist, and it continues to feel like I’ve stepped right into a fairy tale.
Alicia in Wonderland
As I said in last week’s post, I got a little lazy and didn’t cover Culross (pronounced Coo-Russ; apparently it is one of the few places that still goes by its Gaelic name/pronunciation) nor Auchterarder (pronounced Och-ter-Arder, with plenty of rolled r’s, of course!). So, I will start there without further ado!
Culross aka Cooruss
I left Edinburgh for Culross on Friday, October 18th. It was only 50 minutes by car versus 3+ hours on public transit (turns out this is a theme…Scotland’s public transit is spotty and sporadic, but somehow also expensive?…more on this later), so I paid a little bit extra for an Uber. It was a beautiful drive through the autumn countryside, albeit a little hairy while flying around a blind corner on those one-lane roads.
I ditched my luggage at my bed and breakfast, where I was advised to make a dinner reservation at the only pub in town, and headed to lunch followed by the Culross Palace, where apparently scenes from Outlander were filmed.
Culross is beautiful, right on the Firth of Forth, but oh boy does it have a troubled history, as well as a reputation as one of the most haunted places in Scotland. Something I did not know when I decided to visit - yikes.
From 1606 to 1775, coal miners in Scotland were all but enslaved*. If you were found wandering the roads and deemed a “vagabond” (i.e., poor), you could be captured and legally forced to work the mines ‘til you died, with any of your descendants also forced to work the mines ‘til they died. King James passed a law in 1606 that prevented coal miners (and a few other occupations, too!) from ever quitting.
*They were paid a pittance so it was not technically slavery
Culross also tried and killed 50+ people (mostly women) accused of witchcraft around the same time period. The same King James, it turns out, really didn’t like witches and thought that covens were out to get him when a big storm almost sunk his ship. Rather than blaming, idk the weather?, he wrote an entire book about hunting witches (no, not the King James Bible, although same same). I guess as king he didn’t have enough going on.
So, what does this have to do with Culross Palace? Well, the guy who built the palace was just as much fun as King James, and he both owned the local coal mines (and its workers)* AND was a leading figure in the town’s persecution and prosecution of said “witches.” He carved strange markings onto his chimneys to prevent witches from entering the house via his fireplaces, which I am sure worked great because that’s not actually a thing. He even had his house built maybe 100 yards from the mines so he could see them from all his windows and make sure his serfs were serf-ing.
*He leased the mine property from the local abbey, so I guess the church was a-okay with near-slavery too. Not surprising.
Anywho, when I entered the room with his portrait, I had a really spooky encounter. It sounded like an angry wasp was attacking me from over my right shoulder. I whirled around, startled, but saw nothing. I searched the entire room…and never found a wasp. I googled it later, and apparently others have noted odd experiences in this particular room. Happy Halloween to me.
Auchterarder
After my one night in Culross, I packed my bags and took a taxi to my next stop: Auchterarder. I was really, really, really bored during the pandemic, so I spent some time (ok, a lot of time) on Ancestry.com, and I had discovered that some of my family originated in this area. I wanted to see it firsthand. I planned to spend Saturday and Sunday night here, because I had somehow (luckily!) figured out that rural public transit basically shuts down on Sundays.
For better or worse, Auchterarder was a little dull. It is in a beautiful area of hilly farmland, but the town itself is one long line of tired shops along the High Street (what they call Main Street). I never walked the whole thing because whenever I went to do it, it started raining, and I believe it is something like 3+ miles from start to finish.
So, after quickly running out of things to do, I popped over to neighboring Perth on Sunday for a few hours since, surprisingly, the bus was operating after all. There was not much to see here either, but their free museum did have some interesting Pictish and Gaelic stone carvings. Exhibits also included skeletons dug out of ancient burial chambers, like: because they are ancient, it’s okay, definitely nothing amoral about this! Museum-skeletons always make me so uncomfortable. I really hope that I’m never dug up and put in a glass case in a museum some 2000 years in the future…and you may be thinking, “Alicia, you’ll be dead so who cares?,” but I plan to be the vengeful type like George Bruce who had coal-slaves and now sends fake-hornets after people.
So, in summary, it was interesting to visit the area, but I probably wouldn’t go back. My ancestors never did, which probably says something.
Isle of Arran
Here is the point in my story where we get to talk about Scotland’s public transportation options, or lack thereof. Buckle up!
According to Google, it should have taken roughly 3.5 hours to get from Auchterarder to Brodick on the Isle of Arran: 1 bus, 2 trains, and 1 ferry. Based on this, back in September when I was making reservations, I thought it would be very manageable to travel to Arran, even if it did have several legs to the journey. However, Google did not tell me that:
Auchterarder’s buses run every 15-30 minutes…except to the nearby Gleneagles train station. In that case, the bus only runs every 2-3 hours (it’s not even a set frequency!?). The convenient bus - i.e., the bus where I could wake up at a normal, non-soul-crushing time - would have caused me to miss my 9:57 AM train time by a mere 4 minutes. So - I ended up taking the crack-of-dawn bus, and waiting at the train station for an extra 2 hours…in a waiting room with a broken heater. You’d think Auchterarder, where the food bank is the best looking building in town, would *want* tourists to visit via train??
Google really likes suggesting 5-7 min train connection times, even though the UK’s trains are notoriously late. I had to build in extra time myself, which added maybe another hour to Google’s time estimate.
Storm Ashley came through the area on Sunday night, with 60+ mph winds, and resulted in the cancelation of all ferries on Sunday. I thought I was in the clear because I was traveling on Monday, but mechanical issues popped up. I got the first notification of potential issues as I left to get my bus in Auchterarder, with the first ferry of Monday canceled for a bad bilge pump. One by one, each sailing bit the dust. I changed trains in Glasgow, headed for the port in Ardrossan, and I crossed my fingers that my sailing time - 3:20 PM - would be ok. I got to the ferry port and saw a big sign saying - nope! - the 3:20 sailing had just been canceled, too, but maybe - just maybe! - the 6:00 pm would hold. It was 1:15 pm. I sat and I waited in limbo for almost 3 hours, and was ELATED when they announced that the 6:00 pm sailing was taking place, and also infinitely grateful to the past version of self who booked a hotel 3 minutes walking distance from the port on Arran. I think if I had needed to take a bus on Arran, too, I would have just thrown myself into the sea at that point.
In total, my 3.5 hour journey to Arran took 12 hours! That night, I slept 11 hours after the hottest shower possible, because when the ferry pulled into port, I had to walk through a cold and blinding rain. I just had to laugh, because when it rains, it pours, etc etc.
Isle of Arran, though, was absolutely worth the pain. I would 100% come back here to do the Coastal Walk that is 65 miles and circles the perimeter of the island. The views and the wildlife are phenomenal, and because of its isolation from the mainland, most of the food is grown locally and is absolutely delicious.
I stayed three nights and left on Thursday, and spent most of my time riding the local bus (which is just as much of an illogical mess as in Auchterarder, except that in Auchterarder the bus actually shows up at the times listed on the schedule) and taking long walks based on directions in a semi-lucid hiking guide I borrowed from the front desk. But, it was so beautiful that riding the bus around the countryside (…when it showed up…) was a complete delight, and I didn’t mind getting lost in the woods a single bit.
Edinburgh (Again)
So, Thursday morning, with much hesitation, I hopped on the 11 AM ferry to head to Edinburgh for the second time this trip, which felt like a miracle not only because of Monday’s travel marathon, but also because they had cancelled the 2 earlier sailings that day due to a “high Hide Tide” (??? Isn’t the high tide always high???). Other than that, everything ran smoothly, and I made it to Edinburgh in about 3.5 hours, proving that Google Maps isn’t always wrong. I had an apartment for the night, which came with its own washer/dryer! Clean clothes are so underrated.
Wrapping Up
Once again, I am ending the newsletter a little early in the week (i.e., not going all the way to Saturday) because I probably wrote too much, even though there was a funny story I told my mom over the phone and she said “You have to put that in this week’s post!” but I am 99% sure that, even in all my verbosity, I forgot to include it here, chiefly because I can’t remember specifically what it was (let me know, Mom!). This is also a good stopping point because Friday morning aka yesterday I joined a 9 day tour of the Highlands out of Edinburgh - I am ecstatic to never look at bus and ferry schedules again - and it will be easier to talk about that all at once.
Have an amazing Halloween next week, send me pictures of your kiddo(s)/doggo(s) in cute costumes, and be sure to stay away from ghost insects!
Life is short, have fun!
Alicia xx
Such a fun read! Felt like I was right there with you!! Everything looks so peaceful and beautiful! Especially love the gorgeous clouds that enhance every photo!!!