Just got back from the very north of Scotland, visiting an aging uncle and sick brother-in-law, checking up on stressed out sister, so not quite as much fun as it might have been. Although Caithness is as ever, the most beautiful place on earth. A county not to everyone’s taste to be sure, but if you have a hankering for wide open spaces, that can change in a moment from hushed sunny stillness to blustery winds, a place of pounding surf on terrifying rocks, where grey/green horizons stop only when they reach mountains shaped like a maiden’s breast, it’s the place to visit.
Problem is, takes two days hard driving to get there in a car. Actually we were lucky to get out. The winds and rain came on so bad on Monday, that making it back down the A9 was a real adventure. Though leaving by plane must have been even more of a trial, with Inverness airport shut down for a while due to volcanic action in Iceland. Don’t let anyone tell you the ash cloud doesn’t exist. I phoned my sister to let her know I’m home safely and her car’s covered in a fine grey powder and her husband’s stuck in doors - advised to stay home with the windows closed - in case he breathes in the stuff.
It puts my moaning about a drought in the south into its true perspective.
(The pictures are of Lybster harbour)
What a beautiful place it must be. Of course the names make me smile, because they are also the names from my Cape Breton home.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful words - you make me want to visit very badly.
Hi Lampie, sounds a beautiful place to visit, think my husband's cousin and his wife went near there for their honeymoon.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your sick brother in law, do hope he makes a good recovery soon.
All I know of Caithness is I think they make beautiful paperweights there! Doesnt look like I imagined Lampie!
ReplyDeleteOne of these days I'm going to go on a big, big tour of Scotland. I've only ever been to Loch Lomond and Edinburgh.
ReplyDeleteCaithness sounds such a beautiful name for a place, it must be beautiful.
xx
It is a very beautiful place from where one of my ancestors - a Sinclair - came. I have been there, hitch-hiking in the 1960s. That's what I remember the sunshine turning to squalls.
ReplyDelete