For those of you who are wondering what just happened...I figure you've already had a lot of time jumping around this year as I keep switching from the present to various places/times in the recent past...so another interruption in linear time is not a big deal. I missed this entry util too late to correct before you saw subsequent posting. So here is our last entry from our trip to Scotland.
We learned about a couple ways that printing was actually done. the first is using this hand-operated press.
One of the first things we learned about was typesetting by hand. Here, you see what it looks like to see the type put in the form.
In the small town of Innerleithen, Scotland stand the print shop of Robert Smail. Founded in 1866.
The remains of the church sit in what is now a well-manicured cemetery.
Just along the A199 stand the Gladsmuir Church. Actually, there are two of them. The older one built shortly before the creation of the parish in 1695 stands to the north of the newer one which was built in 1839.
Just down the road from Coldingham is the small harbor of Eyemouth. There is a small restaurant there where we had lunch. The harbor mostly looked pretty treacherous to me.
The priory is only a few ruins and most of them are fenced off from the public to protect them. However, there are several gravestones worth a look.
Most of the ones one which you can discern any detail are no older than Victorian era.
Just a little ways north of Eyemouth in Berwickshire, Scotland is the village of Coldingham. Here we find the ruins of a medieval monastery. The church still stands and is a Church of Scotland, the rest of the priory is in ruins around it.
Instead of a dull, dirty grey as is usual in old stone churches, this place is vibrant and colorful. It a piece of antique eye-candy.
The detail in every portion of this place is simply amazing. The more I look at this photos, the more small carvings I see.
In a small town of Roslin, Midlothian, not so very far from Dunbar, we find an amazing 15th century chapel. The Rosslyn Chapel, founded 1446 by Sir William Clair.
As we continued back from North Berwick, we stopped at Whitekirk, no doubt named after the appearance of this small medieval church. While the original structure on this site dates to the 12th century, construction on the current structure began in 1439.
Tantallon Castle was begin in the 1350's by William Douglas, one of the most powerful men in Scotland. He inherited from his father and his uncle, 'Good Sir Jame' of Douglas, a close ally of Robert the Bruce. By 1358, he became the first Earl of Douglas, by which time the castle was well underway.
Above, we see the reconstructed bridge leading to the Mid Tower, the main entrance to the castle.
We took a drive up the coast of the Firth to the north and west of Dunbar to the small town of North Berwick. Here, we find the Scottish Seabird Center. It turns out that it mostly a place to have a cuppa (which we did) and few souvenirs (which we also did) and support the Center's activities. Town wasn't large or terribly interesting. But there were things along the shore that I found photo worthy. Above is a much closer view of Bass Rock that you saw the other day. It is white on top from all the bird poop.
There are many secrets hidden in plain sight in the cemetery. Above is a family history that started in the18th century and ended almost a century later.
We get a different view of the history of Dunbar when we visit the parish church. W. Archibald gave his young life for his country in 1944.
From the area around the castle, we see that the neighborhood has gotten a lot more crowded than it was in the 16th century.
Our next trip was to Dunbar, Scotland. This turns out to be an interesting place to visit. Across the street from our pet sit, is a golf course (naturally, we're in Scotland) and on the other side of it is the Firth of Forth. Out behind the clubhouse is a stone fence between us and Bass Rock. The flowers add just the right decorations.
On one of those mornings where there is a layer of clouds that does not reach the horizon in the east, we have clouds lit from below in the predawn sky.
