Sunday 22 August 2010

The Birthplace of Peter Pan


We went on holiday to Scotland this summer, and it was a very pleasant oasis of cool and damp following our long, hot summer of drought. The green made a vibrant contrast to our brown and yellow, and when the sun came out, you didn't feel obliged to run for cover. The reward for the changeable weather was a lush natural world and stunning landscape, with nature teeming from every pore.


We were staying in Kirriemuir, the hometown of JM Barrie, writer of Peter Pan, and were lucky enough to be staying in the cottage next door to his birthplace, pictured above.


Kirriemuir is known as 'the Gateway to the Glens' and I could not more highly recommend anywhere for a restful break. The traffic levels were non-existent, and the gentle pace of life was the perfect antidote to city living.


It will come as no surprise to some to hear that most of Scotland started out as a separate island from the rest of mainland Britian, and in prehistoric times the continental plates 'crashed' together. The rocks are radically different in composition, and this explains the different landscape of the highlands to the lowlands, and the 'granite city' of Aberdeen compared to the red sandstone of Edinburgh. Well, the Angus glens are formed on the boundary of that historic join. Where the two types of rock collided, you get the most fantastic waterfalls imaginable.


You can see salmon performing almost miraculous jumps up the waterfalls. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I couldn't have believed it. As well as stunning natural features, there were lush forests full of wildlife.



I have to say that it was very easy to start believing in magic too! The Glens are peppered with castles, both inhabited and ruined, leftover from the days when the fertile lowlands needed protection from raiders from the mountains, known locally as 'Caterans'. The one pictured below is a ruin at Inchmark in Glen Clova.


Scottish Heritage maintain some of the remaining ones, including this one at Edzell, which has been enhanced with a picturesque knot garden.


In keeping with the emblem of Scotland, wild thistles grow everywhere, and along with heather were fully in bloom, adding a purple tinge to the green and browns of the countryside.

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos and cometary. Thanks for taking us alone with you on your trip.
    I like the first picture with you and your children. It sounds like you all had a great time.

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  2. If you loved Scotland then you must try the Shetland Islands.... not Scotland as such but something completely different. See the colours... muted, soft and beautiful and the landscape of sea and loch, peat and rock. Learn the different markings of the ewes and their lambs: Mooskit and Shayla, Eeskit and Shetland Black. Listen to the sea birds call and the selkies song..... I have found a place that makes my heart yearn to return... so might you!

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