Summer in Scotland

Summer in Scotland.

Scotland greeted us with sunshine streaming in through the airport windows that became rain streaming, thundering, drenching as if we were in the tropics by the time we walked outside to wait for a bus. Welcome back to Scotland! To be fair, the weather hasn't been all bad. But the photo above was today on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. We had just been evacuated from the museum as the fire alarms went off. There were hundreds of umbrellas leaving the museum.

Our first 10 days are in Galasheils, a 50 minute train ride south of Edinburgh, in The Borders.

On our first day, still feeling jetlagged, we strolled around Galasheils and then walked about 8kms return along Gala Water (the stream that once powered mills in Galasheils) and along the Tweed River to Abbotsford. This is what we came for.

Abbotsford was once a simple farmhouse. But in the 1700s, lawyer and famous writer, Sir Walter Scott purchased it and began "renovating." I love that he followed his creative inclinations rather than the fashion of the day. But the result is rather over the top, certainly unique.

Abbotsford stayed in the family after Scott died in 1832 in a bed set up for him in the dining room following a series of strokes which left him unable to walk up the stairs to his bedroom.

The interiors of the downstairs have been kept pretty much as when Scott was alive. Including his 9,500 volume library, leather bound with his monogram and his smaller study off the library, which is also lined with books.

Scott's portrait hangs in the drawing room decorated by his French wife, Charlotte.

If you don't know who Scott is...google him. He is sometimes called 'the man who invented Scotland.' There are monuments all over the country to him. The main train station in Edinburgh is named after one of his novels. But more than that, he gave us phrases we use all the time including: apple of my eye, blood is thicker than water, what a tangled web we weave, and back of beyond.

I am ashamed to say I have never read any of Scott's many books. I really should rectify that. My impression of him is that he was a very nice person too, even though he was a huge celebrity in his day. US presidents and royalty were among those listed in the visitors book.

And he liked dogs.

Abbotsford's name comes from the ford across the river nearby which was used by the monks and abbots from the nearby Melrose Abbey. The 12th to 15th century abbey housed 50 Cisterian monks and 150 lay monks who did most of the manual labour including running the largest sheep farm in Europe!

Scott personally supervised work to save the abbey ruins and had his architect take plaster casts of many of the gargoyles to make copies which are installed in his armory and entrance hall.

Not even the call of nature interrupted spiritual service.

For some unexplained reason there is a bagpipe playing pig gargoyle up on the roof.

Melrose also has an interesting suspension bridge over the Tweed River and views of the Eildon Hills. 

And the first scones of the trip, complete with gum leaves on the table.