May 22: Melrose and St. Abb's Head

Another amazing day, our last in Scotland.  We drove from the Tweed River Valley near Yair to Melrose Abbey, the ruin of an historic Cistercian Abbey and the burial place of the heart of Robert the Bruce.  With its rich red stones and collection of styles, it is aptly referred to as the heart of Scotland.  The sun was brilliant and warm, and I made it back into capris!  We also enjoyed the lovely walled garden run by Scottish Heritage next door, and our walk around the lovely town.  We next drove back to Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott, but it was closed in an attempt to "save it".  Alanna chose our afternoon site, and picked St. Abb's Head, the brilliant girl.  This is a working seaside fishing village, and was both fascinating and beautiful in itself, but it is also the starting point for an amazing cliffside walk to see the nesting puffins, kittiwakes and razor beaks.  The sun beamed down, we could look across the North Sea to the horizon, and we had a wonderful long walk.  Alanna fell down another rabbit hole, nearly stopping my heart.  Video below.

I forgot to mention that yesterday we saw both Cawdor Castle and Birnam, so we’ve Macbethed ourselves while in Scotland.  By the way, there is no evidence that either Macbeth or Duncan were ever at Cawdor, and certainly not in the modern castle.

Birnam Town.  I guess that's Birnam Wood up on the hill.

Cawdor Castle.

 We had a lovely chat with our hostess at the Airyfairy, and discovered that the cottage is one of 11 that belong to the estate at Yair.  The entire valley is very lovely, and we went out into the middle of the bridge to take a couple of pictures.  Every detail of the B&B was beautifully presented, and Alanna and I wished we had about a week to spend here.

Looking East from the bridge

Looking West from the bridge

The Airyfairy seen from the bridge.  The very large grey van is our car.

 

We drove through the blooming May countryside to Melrose Abbey, which is a romantic ruin, but during its heyday was the most powerful Cistercian Abby in Britain.  Under the Cistercians it was also the biggest sheep farm in Europe as well, and during a famine, the abbey was able to feed 4000 starving people for four months. 

Melrose Abbey from the graveyard side.	The big window in the Presbytery.
the transept	View of the roof
A gargoyle:  the bagpiping pig.	The cloister
The Heart of Robert the Bruce.  The inscription, taken from the original casket, reads "A NOBLE HART MAY HAVE NANE EASE / OIR FREEDOM FAILYE

 

Next to Melrose Abbey is a beautiful walled garden with an apple orchard and lots of flowers.  It is run by Scottish National Trust and has a centre that demonstrates how to dry flowers.  Alanna took most of these pictures.

 

We next attempted to see Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott for the last twenty years of his life, and paid for with the proceeds from his novels.  Scott set many of his novels in this area.  Unfortunately for us, we were greeted with a poster in the parking lot entitled ”The Plan to Save Abbotsford", and the site was closed.  I snuck in anyway and took a picture of the house covered in scaffolding, while Alanna took lots of pictures of the very friendly horses who lice next to the car park.  She is definitely not a scofflaw like her aunt.

Alanna got out the Scotland book and realized that there was a nature conservancy at St. Abb’s Head, and that birds were nesting there.  We felt that we’d like less driving and less rushing today, as we have a few super busy days coming up, so off we went.  It was a GREAT call.  We got to see a working harbour; a historic village, famous for its abstinent ways (there still are no pubs in the village); the site of an early medieval abbess who became a saint; and most importantly, an incredibly beautiful coast where birds were nesting in the hundreds.  Here is the video of Alanna extracting her leg from a rabbit hole, andI hope you will notice that she went in ABOVE HER KNEE, about ten feet from a sheer drop. 

A fisherman on the dock gave me permission to film his plaice.

This is a memorial to a storm that killed many fishermen from the village in 1881, and to the women and children left behind.

A view across the beach.  Unfortunately, one doesn't get the sense of how tall these cliffs are from this picture.

A nesting area for razorbills, on my highest zoom.  Thanks for letting me borrow your camera, Ian!

Looking out to sea.

The village from the other side, again on zoom, so that you can see the waterfall.  The manor house is the parge one surrounded by lawn.

St. Abb

Lots of gulls.

This statue of St. Abb is on the gate to the manor house.  It has a huge farm around it.  

 

We arrived at our B&B for tonight, near the town of Beal in Berwick-on-Tweed, and drove over the Tweed at this end – a lot larger!  We were held up waiting for a train, and got all posed with the camera to get a shot.  The Edinburgh/London train shot by us so fast, all 15 cars, that it was gone before we realized what was happening.  We are staying in a farm house that is over two hundred years old, with sheep out in the field below our window.

Tomorrow we are off to Lindisfarne!