(no subject)

[winterbadger]

So, I'm feeling antsy and my feet are feeling like wandering. So, of course, my thoughts turn towards my favourite destination. Given my paltry leave allowance, I won't be able to travel until May or June, which is a bother: by then it will be High Season, plus I've heard bad things about the midges in the Highlands. And I'll probably be able to afford just the one trip this year. On the "up" side, summer there will be nicer than here (any place is, pretty much), and spending a new season in Scotland (I've only been there in spring and fall up to now) it will give me more data for my emigration plans.

So here's my "bored? try this!" poll for this morning:
[Poll #668443]

Comments

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

If you go to the Shetlands you can bring your favo(u)rite Mazzie wool!

[azbound.livejournal.com]

See, my thought was if he went to the Shetlands he could bring his favo(u)rite Brooke her favo(u)rite fiddle banc....

[winterbadger]

Hmmm. Didn't know you played the fiddle...

[winterbadger]

If I had had one more day to do some shopping I would have brought you some from Skye! There was a little shop byt eh side of the road that sold wool and knitting supplies, but they were closed when I stopped.

[magaidhbhan.livejournal.com]

It's a great wee shop as well, with a little old Italian man sitting in the corner with his wee spinning wheel -- beautiful, beautiful yarns, both fine and artsy/chunky. It's funny, though, you'd think that given the number of sheep one sees running around in the highlands and islands that people would be selling wool at every corner -- but I've had a really difficult time finding decent yarns here, and almost none of the pretty ones have come from Hebridean sheep! Bizarre.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

The islands, and visit Callanish and any other sites with stone circles or cairns or the like...

[winterbadger]

Interesting: the voting is running towards the Western Isles and the Northern ones. Either way, a visit to somewhere I've read about.

My Outer Hebrides reading is so far limited to Christina Hall's wonderful memoirs To the Edge of the Sea and Twice Around the Bay (she has oen more, about her life as an army wife, but I haven't read it yet).

My Orkneys contact has been through the masterful King Hereafter and an episode or two of Oliver's Travels.

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

OK, first off, you are unlikely to notice much difference between spring, autumn, and summer in Scotland!

I've voted for Dumfries and Galloway, because no one goes there despite it being really lovely. It's tucked away in this kind og strange way that means in some ways it's at least as isolated as the Highlands. And also, I can hook you up with a very good deal on accommodation as my parents own a cottage there.

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

But I guess in the interests of fairness and balance I should also point out that Orkney is very nice (though you need some time to do it properly and therefore I personally wouldn't try to combine it with a trip to Shetland) and there are some truly astonishing bits of coastline in the northeast. And of course, there are LJ people who would buy you drinks if you came to the Edinburgh area. Wherever you decide, let me know and I will give you tips!

[winterbadger]

(though you need some time to do it properly and therefore I personally wouldn't try to combine it with a trip to Shetland)

Duly noted. The landscape of both looks so amazing, and the placenames are like something out of Earthsea. I mean, who could resist the temptation of an island named "Yell" or "Unst"?

there are some truly astonishing bits of coastline in the northeast.

I did a painting in secondary school of Dunottar Castle, even before I knew much about Scotland; I'd love to see that, and other sights along the east and north coasts. And I wouldn't want to miss Aberdeen.

And of course, there are LJ people who would buy you drinks if you came to the Edinburgh area.

Definitely an important consideration! :-)

Wherever you decide, let me know and I will give you tips!

Excellent! Thank you!

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

Dunottar Castle is one of my favourite places, and one my parents always take American visitors. Slains Castle is also wonderful (though I haven't been for years). It's well off the beaten track, set in really dramatic scenery, and supposedly inspired Bram Stoker when he was writing Dracula. I also seem to remember a rather lovely nature reserve, the Sands of Forvie (I think). And of course there are some beautiful little fishing villages - most famously Pennan, where they filmed "Local Hero". We used to spend a lot of time there and it is every bit as charming as it looks in the film. All that stuff in the northeast, and that's not even touching on Aberdeen (which I find less interesting than the places around it. Great coast for spotting dolphins and seals as well. Ooh, and even further north there are places like the Hill o'Many Stanes - which is pretty much as it sounds: lots of little stones, evenly placed, no one knows why. And I can't remember the name of the place, but there's this very cool little cove that you reach by this incredibly long steep flight of steps carved into the cliffs - we're talkign hundreds of steps, and the fishermen used to have to climb them with their catch - well, probably their wives did the carrying. Anyway, no golf carts for them!

[winterbadger]

I've voted for Dumfries and Galloway, because no one goes there despite it being really lovely. It's tucked away in this kind of strange way that means in some ways it's at least as isolated as the Highlands.

Ever since I read Five Red Herrings I've wanted to visit Kirkcubright, and since my grandmother's old chum Alastair Reid helped inaugurate Wigtown as "Scotland's Book Town" I knew I'd have to visit sooner or later.

And also, I can hook you up with a very good deal on accommodation as my parents own a cottage there.

Ooooh! Very good to know, if not this time for the future.

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

Kirkudbright is a very pretty little town (and one of those names the Scots invented to sort the tourists from the locals) and I love Wigtown, it's great fun to kick around of an afternoon. Their cottage is in Port William, which is right on the coast and about half an hour's drive from Wigtown (even though they aren't far in terms of mileage, it takes a long time to get anywhere on country roads in Scotland. Still, at least most of the ones in Dumfries and Galloway have the full two lanes rather than the single track with passing places more common up north)

[winterbadger]

Kirkudbright is a very pretty little town (and one of those names the Scots invented to sort the tourists from the locals)

*tries to recall* kuh-KOO-bree?

Still, at least most of the ones in Dumfries and Galloway have the full two lanes rather than the single track with passing places more common up north)

Still make me want a car like the Knight Bus in HP that can squeeze its sides in... ;-)