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Topping Off Our Tanks for the Day
Yet another belly-filling Scottish breakfast awaited us in Laura's dining room. I love the chewy bacon they serve here and Tyler has become a haggis fanatic.
Route Map
Once again we were treated to a fantastic full Scottish breakfast. Even though we were in a hurry to get to all the stops I had planned, we spent a good half hour talking to Laura and her mother. They had just returned to Scotland after living in Canada for some time. Laura was not the person I originally booked my reservations with back in February. She had bought the whole business and was somewhat new to all of this. We told her just how much we Melrose Abbey Ruined by Tourists!
All the evidence I need to prove that our drive from Stirling to the Scottish border was totally devoid of anything interesting is the fact that it was three hours between the previous breakfast photo and this shot taken upon our arrival at Melrose Abbey. enjoyed her hospitality and promised to write a very positive review of Castlecroft on
Trip Advisor . We thanked her for her great suggestions that we had heeded the day before, and then told her of our proposed itinerary after checking out. She gave us her stamp of approval and warned us of some more bad weather in the offing. As much as we would've liked to stay even longer, we had to get moving. Since every place we had visited so far was better than the previous, we couldn't wait to get to our Bed and Breakfast in Thirsk.
On that EF Trip of a few years back we had driven from Edinburgh to York. I fondly remembered the route as being full of interesting hillsides, farms, tiny villages and lots and lots of sheep. I recalled a cool little photo op at the Scotland/England border that I though the kids might enjoy. However, we were leaving from much farther West in Stirling and we were driving just a few days after one of the worst snowstorms in Scottish history. Instead of seeing acres and acres of lush green hills and vast pastures, all we saw were miles upon miles
Site of the Outer Buildings of the Monastery
Nothing but foundations remain of the auxiliary buildings that surrounded the main abbey building. It was here that the worksheds, kitchen, storage and gardens that supported the abbey were located. of white wasteland. Naturally, after a few minutes of this I was promptly the only person left awake in the car. Traffic was frustrating beyond belief. I seemed to constantly end-up behind a slow moving truck or even a few tractors as we headed South on the two lane "highway". I was constantly using the window washing fluid to clear the gunk from the vehicles in front of me. And on the few occasions where I did enjoy some open road, before I could get up to speed and make up for some of the lost time, inevitably I would encounter a road sign warning of speed cameras ahead. The English are very civilized in that way - they give you fair warning that there's a speed trap ahead. You just need to be constantly paying attention lest you miss the single sign alerting you to the upcoming speed zone. Twice I saw a bright flash when I passed near the cameras, but if it was me they caught, I still haven't received a ticket months later. Besides, if I were speeding it wasn't by much, believe me. In our POS VW with snow and ice everywhere, I wasn't up
This Chap Has a Lot of Work Ahead of Him
I don't think the maintenance man is expected to repair those shabby looking walls, but just trying to make the paths around the abbey safe for American tourists could prove quite a challenge. Even as he sprinkled salt and chipped away at the ice more snow fell. to playing Jackie Stewart out there. I was probably going too slowly if anything.
MY GPS said we'd be in the border village of Jedburgh in an hour and a half, but after two hours we were still half an hour away. A light snow occasionally appeared. On some sections of the road it looked like brief snow squalls had passed through leaving fresh, slippery evidence. About this time my passengers stirred. I told them that I had hoped to use our Historic Scotland passes to see all five of the old abbeys that were located in this tiny corner of Scotland, but because of traffic we were way off schedule. The weather was making me nervous too. Gail looked in my
Eyewitness Scotland tour book and read that nearby Melrose Abbey was a treasure we shouldn't miss. We agreed to forget the others and visit this one.
Melrose turned out to be a great little town which happened to be almost deserted. The GPS took us right to the abbey where we found ample parking. For a short time the weather looked to be improving. It was extremely cold and blustery when we made our way to the entrance
I'm Not Thrilled with These Pictures
My photos came out clearly but the colors seem way of. I don;t remember the abbey looking this pinkish. It was an overcast day and the snow probably didn't help the camera adjust to the light. But I should've tried taking more pictures with different settings and then tossing off the ones that looked like this. of the abbey. I would've been satisfied just taking a few pictures of the ruined buildings from outside the gate, but a very affable warden invited us into the tiny gift shop and chatted with us about our trip through Scotland. Our passes got us inside the grounds where we spent a little over an hour checking out the fallen walls and charred remains of the 12th Century religious house. It had been started in 1136 by Cistercian monks on the remains of what had been an earlier religious site established in the 7th Century. Because it was a religious hideaway it doesn't exactly have that much historic interest since those dwelling here had given vows of poverty and anonymity. Its prime note of significance is that this was where Robert the Bruce's heart was buried. The abbey did not suffer as dire a fate as many other abbeys when Henry VIII when wacko and destroyed most of them in England. Even though he ordered thatMelrose Abbey be burned down, his troops didn't totally destroy it. The abbey survived until 1590. In the years between the reign of Henry and the death of the last monk, it had been burned
A View from Inside the Abbey
I like this picture much better than the previous ones. Note the snow that falls inside what was once the middle of the church. Almost none of the roof remains. down partially, bombarded by cannon and stripped of most of its relics during the many confrontations between Catholics and Protestants and Scots vs. English.
After freezing our hineys looking at and climbing over the ruins, we walked over to an adjoining corral where two horses initially ignored us. As designated horsewhisperer I summoned the two fillies over for a photo session. Princess Cassie was excessively interested and passionate about these two dopey creatures yet gave no thought to her own two little doggies cooped up in a kennel on the other side of the Atlantic.
After we failed to interest the horses in any of the weeds we pulled up on our side of the fence, we walked into an outer building of the old abbey that now served as a museum. By going in we succeeded in eluding the nasty winds, but with no heating inside we moved rather quickly past the various display items. Of particular interest to me were all the ancient Roman artifacts that had been excavated from a nearby settlement situated on the very fringes of the Roman Empire. The Romans found the Scots too troublesome to bother trying to conquer all of
Henry VII Was a Royal Pain
In 1544, King Henry VIII had Melrose Abbey torched, and it never recovered. Sixty of the monks, it is said, renounced Catholicism at the Reformation. The last abbot was James Stuart, natural son of James V, who died in 1559. By 1560, the abbey had ceased to function. Great Britain. To keep the Scots out they built Hadrian's Wall along the border. Most interesting to me was the fact that this settlement had to be on the wrong side of that barrier.
When we had toured the entire site we had to exit through the cleverly positioned gift shop. This of course added another 15 minutes to our visit. Once again I priced a number of history books and biographies that interested me, but decided to order them on Half.com once I got home.
When we got back to the car we immediately re-programmed the GPS to get us to Jedburgh. On that much mentioned previous visit in 2006 our bus stopped at the strategically situated last souvenir shop in Scotland. By European standards it was a huge tourist trap and we fell for all its trappings. But because it was a Sunday, we were unable to get that last bottle of Scotch or the crème liqueur that we sampled earlier on the trip. As soon as we reached the outskirts of Jedburgh this time we spotted that same tacky souvenir shop. We all needed the WC so it didn't take any effort to get everyone
I Never Understood How They Burned Down Stone Buildings
For a place that was supposed to be destroyed by the English it looks like a lot of the detailed stonework survives today. It's a testimony to the skills of the builders that even with half the supporting building gone the high walls still stand hundreds of years later. to come in. After doing our business we wandered all over the big store playing with all the silly stuff Americans bring back for disinterested friends and relatives. I set up camp in front of the Scotch and liqueur sample counter. No one was there so I was fortunate enough to taste a number of communion cup-size samples. Neither Cassie nor Tyler seemed all that thrilled with their samples, but I was impressed enough to buy two bottles of the crème liqueur. Awesome on ice cream.
After adding still more junk to our bulging suitcases, we headed less than a mile further South into the town of Jedburgh. Here the second of the five abbeys is located. We had only seen Jedburgh Abbey from a distance on our previous visit, but with passes in hand I was eager to get a closer look at this Augustinian monastery. Its history was very similar to Melrose Abbey's - desecrated on a number of occasions but never destroyed like the English abbeys that Henry VIII took vengeance upon. Jedburgh Abbey slowly died as Protestantism took over Scotland and the money to operate it dried-up.
This being New Year's Eve we shouldn't
Use Your Imagination
I can almost picture the stain glass in the remains of the old arched windows. This is the South Transept. have been surprised when we walked-up to the abbey and found it closed for the day. Having seen Melrose Abbey close-up none of us were too disappointed. We were able to get a pretty good view of the place from outside the fence. From what we could see there wasn't much there other than some crumbling walls and a graveyard.
We took a short walk around the quaint little one street town. All the shops were closed except for the Co-op market. We went in and restocked our soda and crisps supplies. I bought an interesting pre-packaged sandwich of bacon, chicken and cheese on rye bread. Cassie got a fashion magazine for the long drive to Thirsk.
We made one last stop in town at the tourism office. Here we grabbed a handful of brochures for future visits and read a little about the history of the area. The helpful ladies working there answered all our questions about driving times, weather conditions, where to go on New Year’s Day and what to expect later that night on New Year's Eve.
It was about 3:15 when we finally left Jedburgh. My Garmin Nuvi assured me that we'd get
It Feels Like Somebody's Watching Me
My super zoom let me get a better look at the abbey gargoyles hovering above us. to Thirsk by 5:30. I still don't know what happened, but it seemed that the longer we drove South, the later and later our arrival time. I had my eyes peeled for that giant stone marking the Scottish-English border, but there was so much snow piled up on the roadside, we never got to see it. None of the roadside rest stops were plowed. We followed the GPS' directions, but once again we were stuck behind slow buses and a Walmart truck the whole way. As the sun began to set snow began to fall. When we reached the environs of Newcastle the snow turned to freezing rain. Keep in mind we were still driving on our racing slicks which were totally devoid of tread. Before long we got waylaid in rush hour/New Year's Eve traffic on the beltway looping around this busy industrial city. At one point traffic crawled to a stop where the icy highway dipped down into a valley then climbed up a hill. Forty years of driving in wicked winter conditions taught me that the best approach is to just keep moving or you too will get stuck. We probably did nothing for English/American relations when
A Dead Decaying Building and Dead Decaying Bones
I was a little surprised to see a good number of 19th Century gravestones in the cemetery of an abbey that closed in 1590. Apparently Melrose Abbey became a hallowed and revered site where prominent people of the area wished to be interred for eternity. I gunned our station wagon up the incline using the shoulder half the way up the hill. None of those limeys were gonna stop us Yanks.
After that bottleneck the traffic actually cleared for us. I can't be certain now but I have the funny feeling my Nuvi was sending us the long way around Newcastle. I had e-mailed our hosts in Thirsk a few weeks before our trip telling them to expect us around 6:00. It was after 7:30 when we finally arrived in Thirsk. I immediately loved this little village. The roads and buildings were wet, not snowy, and the amber light cast from the streetlights gave the old town an otherworldly glow. Such a tiny little place had a quite a collection of well -signed and dimly lit businesses and homes.
We couldn't figure out where to park on the narrow street of the
Gallery Bed and Breakfast , so we found a temporary spot in the town square. All around us were brick and stone buildings facing in on the square. All were dark and glowingly illuminated by those faint orange-yellow street lights. The light rain falling made me recall some of those creepy old English villages in
This is the Best Picture of the Lot
The subject matter isn't the best but the colors came out accurately on this photo. My light sensor got very confused by the white snow, grey sky and dark building. old black and white movies.
The Hound of the Baskervilles or
The Werewolf. Some of the locals coming out of the pub directly in front of our car gave us such wicked looks that I was concerned we might have chosen the wrong place to stay. We might be staring at pitchforks if we hung around too long in the town square.
Fortunately once we walked into the ultra-low doorway (Tyler and I both banged our heads) of the Gallery, the proprietor, Kathryn, graciously greeted us and showed us all around her magnificent place. The five of us were the only guests and occupied all three upstairs rooms. We had the run of the whole establishment which included a rather well-stocked video and book library next to the cozy breakfast nook. Our rooms were recently renovated yet still retained their Olde English charm. Brand new flat screen TVs , clean modern bathrooms, big comfortable beds and excellent heating in each room. The kids' room was especially spacious and featured a bathroom that was separate from the main room thus allowing one of them privacy from the other when natured called. Our tour concluded with Kathryn asking for our
A Mini Buttress
I'm not sure how this helped stabilize the structure, but it looked pretty cool. Perhaps a newer section was added to the existing building and this helped prop it up. breakfast orders and the time we'd be down to eat. We were worried about finding a place to eat this late on New Year's Eve, but Kathryn named a couple places on the town square where she felt sure we'd have no problem being served.
We were all starving by now so we wasted little time in moving the car to a parking spot directly across the street from the B&B and unloading. The spot I chose was directly in front of a private club. Even though there was a construction cone a few feet away, there were no "no parking" signs so I grabbed the spot. It was almost 8:30 when we walked back into the town square and started perusing the window menus of the various restaurants and pubs. Kathryn's dinner recommendation was at the
Golden Fleece Hotel . When we saw menu prices in the same ballpark with the cost of our rooms at the Gallery, we continued searching. A couple pizza places were open and we considered getting a couple of pies to go then eating in our rooms, but since it was Dougie's birthday, we kept circling the town square. Not too far away we encountered a
Scottish Gothic
Unlike Jedburgh Abbey which was built by the Augustinians, Melrose was a Cistercian site. The building was 258 feet long and 84 feet high at the highest tower. A Presbyterian congregation in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA has built what may be the last Gothic cathedral in the U.S. and patterned it after Melrose Abbey. rather crowded and lively spot called
"The Three Tuns" . The sandwich board outside listed a handful of specials for less than 10£. It looked like the perfect place for my birthday bash. Inside it was crammed full of teenagers quaffing brews and the usual assortment of high potency liquors such as Jaegermeister, Goldschlager, Jim Beam mixed with Red Bull or the like. In the far back of the spacious pub five steps led down into a quieter dining area where we were fortunate to find an empty table.
This time the rules of English pub dining were in effect: Gail and I actually did have to walk up to the bar to order our food and drinks. We had to pay immediately. Our food would be brought to us later but we stood at the bar waiting for our drinks. While we waited I was highly amused by the 16 year old lads attempting to look sophisticated and worldly while the possibly even younger lasses stood on the opposite side of the room trying to pretend there were no boys in the room. The night was still early so there was no intermingling of the sexes at this point. We hoped
The Heart of Scotland
Legend has it that the heart of Robert the Bruce, hero of Bannockburn, is buried here at Melrose Abbey. I suppose the abbey hopes that rumor is true since they went to the trouble of installing this expensive iron memorial. to be out of there by the time enough alcohol had been consumed for that purpose.
Our meals were reasonably priced and satisfying if not quite generous in portions. We didn't tarry long in the Three Tuns. After our second round of beers we decided to party in our upstairs rooms back at the Gallery. After a brief walk around the remaining section of the town square we returned to our B&B.
Down in the video library I grabbed a couple of interesting looking DVDs and we proceeded to Gail's room for a viewing party. We watched an extremely detailed video about the town of Thirsk and environs, then popped-in a Fawlty Towers DVD. When that ended and the ladies got their wish of watching
Elizabeth I with Dame Helen Mirren, I picked-up a coffee table book of photographs of the Yorkshires. Much was made of the fact that Thirsk was the home of the author, James Herriott. He wrote a series of books detailing his experiences as a Scottish veterinarian relocating to a provincial little country hamlet. “All Creatures Great and Small” was turned into a movie and a long-running PBS series. It reminded me of
The Rear of Melrose Abbey
This section of the building has held up the best over the years. Inside this corner of the structure it still looks like church services could be conducted today. a British “Green Acres” where all the wacky locals end up knowing more about life and surviving than the well-educated cityslicker that moved into their neighborhood. Most of the vet’s stories involve him working on pregnant cows, sick sheep, horny pigs and pampered pets. I assume most of the tales were based on real life events.
Before the movie ended and a half hour before the actual drop of the New Year's ball we were all nodding off. I think all of us were in bed before the tick of Midnight.
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