Scotland - Day 10

We woke up on our last day with a touch of heart heaviness. We simply did not want to return home.

Our touring today would take us south of Edinburgh to visit a few ruined abbeys in the lowlands.

The previous day I had purchased an Explorer Passport at Linlithgow Castle. Had I understood the significance of the passport earlier in the trip, I would have shelled out the cash on our first day to purchase it. Historic Scotland is a preservation organization that maintains over 300 historic properties throughout the entire country. The Passport allows you to visit all of these sites for XX pounds depending on how many days you purchase the Passport to cover. With an average entry price of 3-5 pounds for the lesser sites and up to 10 pounds for the major sites, entry fees can add up fast. For 17 pounds each, we purchased a pass that allowed us to visit 10 sites in two days. We saved a bundle. I almost felt bad.

Historic Scotland is a tremendous government-run organization. "Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Executive, fully accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament." The care and professionalism of this organization and the importance it places on preservation is evident at each and every site. Each property has at least one steward who operates and maintains the site and educates anyone and everyone who has a willing ear. Each site we visited, no matter how remote, was emaculately cared for. Each steward we met was friendly and helpful and dedicated to preserving his piece of Scotland's heritage. I asked the steward at Crichton Castle how the smaller sites received funding because I assumed that the remote sites simply did not get the numbers of visitors necessary to maintain the sites on each site's individual income alone. I was correct. I was told that each site is responsible for raising it's own income from sales in the normally small, but ubiquitous, gift shop at every location. However, Historic Scotland recognizes the impossible pressure this places on remote sites that would never be able to raise the necessary monies to cover maintenance costs on their own. To offset the lack of income these remote sites are capable of raising, Historic Scotland pools a percentage of the income from major sites such as Edinburgh and Stirling Castles, which get hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and uses this pool to help support their remote properties.

About an hour South of Edinburgh off the A68, near Pathhead, in a gorgeous rural setting we found Crichton Castle. This castle ruin is open only during the summer months and can be found only on the Explorer Pass Map. It is remote and if the guest book at the castle is any indication, it only lures 3-5 visitors per week. Which is a tragedy simply because this castle, in particular, is one of a kind. It is the only castle in Scotland who's owner had incorporated Islamic decoration throughout the castle. Lord Crichton was a traveler. We signed the guest book and left our wonderfully helpful steward, David, to tend to his castle.

Tracey navigated us to her special stop of the day, the Lochcarron Woolen Mill in Galashiels. This is the premiere wool mill in the country if you are in the market for Cashmere. It's not cheap, but the quality is outstanding.

Melrose Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in Scotland, founded in 1136 by King David I. It is also the resting place of the heart of Robert the Bruce. The abbey ceased to function in the mid 16th Century after the Scottish Reformation. At this time, much of the Abbey was carted off by local peasants in search of good building material.

The remote local of Dryburgh Abbey, near St. Boswells and the River Tweed presents the tourist with an overpowering sense of seclusion. Dryburgh is notable because, unlike at Melrose and Jedburgh, most of the domestic structures remain visible. The Abbey church is largely gone, but here you can get a sense of what day to day life was like for the monks. Dryburgh's most famous entombed resident is Sir Walter Scott, Scotland's beloved Poet.

A few miles from Dryburgh we found Smailholm Tower. This 60ft tower house was built by a slightly paranoid Border farmer, named Scott or Pringle, who had tried to defend his family against raids from the Border brigands. According to the family history, he wasn't terribly successful. There are numerous stories of raiders carting off his family members to sell in the slave trade. This Tower was owned at some point by Sir Walter Scott's uncle and is said to be his inspiration for the romance of his poetry.

South on the A86 is Jedburgh, home of Jedburgh Abbey. It is notable for it's Romanesque and early Gothic architecture. It is also notable because it's location landed it smack in the middle of a whole lot of conflict. The abbey was built by King David I in 1138, as an in-your-face gesture to the British. King David wanted to prove to the Brits that the Scots could build a grand scale close to the often disputed border with England. He was tempting fate and the British. Needless to say, King Edward stopped at Jedburgh for a jolly sacking a few times on his numerous incursions north.

We arrived at our last stop, Glenkinchie Whiskey Distillery just as the doors closed. We would not be touring a distillery on this trip. A damned crying shame.

On our return trip to Edinburgh, we found ourselves sitting at a very busy T intersection waiting to turn right back onto the A68. Cars were flying by at high rates of speed. The road bent at the intersection creating a blind curve in both directions. Cars appeared very quickly. I looked left, then right, then left, then pulled forward a hair to see around a large blue truck... when I saw a car coming from the right. Rubber squealed across pavement. I saw the face of the other driver giving me the "what the [censored]" look as he sheared off the front of my rental car. Crunch. Plastic went flying. The other driver pulled his car off the road immediately, got out, and started hollering and flailing in anger. Oh shit. I pulled my car over behind his vehicle. I got out, tip-toed over, and I calmly asked if he was OK. "YES, I'm bloody fine...[numerous expletives]" He sat down in his passenger seat a few moments later, calms down, and suddenly says "Please forgive me, I don't mean to be angry, but I've been doing all I can to keep my car on the road.. please accept my apologies." I blurted "are you serious?" He turned out to be a hell of a nice guy. He said he had been driving this road for 14 years and had seen dozens of accidents at this intersection. He called it "the most dangerous instersection in Scotland". We cleaned up the plastic in the road, exchanged information, and parted company. The entire incident lasted 20 minutes.

You have probably figured out by now that the damage turned out to be cosmetic. My car looked like hell, but there was no damage to the engine. You may also be asking, "what about the police?" We called the local emergency number. David hung up my cell phone chuckling. "What did they say?", I asked. "They asked if there were any injuries?". "No", he had responded. The police told him, "You are on your own".

An hour later, I had returned the car to the rental agency and we were in a cab back to the Kew House.

There are few things as unenjoyable as returning a demolished car to a rental agency. However, I have to HIGHLY recommend buying the full insurance on a foreign rental. I filled out a one-page incident report, signed my name, and walked away from the accident as if it never happened.

And, I thanked maybe-there-is-a-god that no one was hurt.

Yes, we got lucky. There is, however, no reason to dwell on what might have happened. As for me, my ego had taken a beating. I had driven over 1500 miles on the wrong side of ridiculously narrow roads without incident, only to get hit 14 miles from our B&B - one hour of driving left. Shit happens.

That night we ate at a fantastic restaurant, in an old bank building, called The Dome.

The next morning we flew home.