Scotland 2019 1: Bowness to Hermitage Castle

In the middle of August, Harriet and I set of for this year's odyssey.  Not Iceland (too bleeping expensive, having gone last year) but sunny Scotland instead.  Three days each in five different areas, some of which we knew but others being new territory.  Brace yourselves for another long and tedious travelogue, in other words.

We broke the journey north by staying with friends for a night in Bowness-on-Windermere.  There are no pictures from the first day as it was wall-to-wall rain, high winds and very poor visibility.  The storm had just about cleared by the second day, though, and we went for a short walk along the lake shore before heading off.

The original plan had been to visit one of the many Roman forts along Hadrian's Wall, but the weather was so changeable that we decided to take the scenic route to The Borders instead (A7).  By lunchtime we had reached Langholm, so it seemed as good a place as any to stop.

I'd no idea that Nancy Pelosi had relatives in Scotland, but they know how to make a mean (and cheap) toastie.

Everywhere has its claim to fame, but it seems that Neil Armstrong (no less) now considers Langholm to be his home town.  Well, he did in 1972 anyway, but may have had second thoughts since.

The light was sunny and harsh with fluffy white clouds, so I decided to use the Infra-Red camera for most of the afternoon.  Even Langholm looks spectacular in IR...

Back in 1980 I visited the Scottish Borders with some friends from University, just after graduation, and we stopped at Hermitage Castle on the way up.  The weather was cold, damp and dreary on that occasion, and I remember Hermitage as being in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  Well, it's still in the middle of nowhere, but at least the weather was a bit kinder this time.  Hermitage is an enormous monolith, and IR was able to bring out some of its darker side.

A short walk from the castle are the remains of an old chapel, which I hadn't visited before.  Not a lot to see, but a good view back to the castle itself.

For reference, here are a couple of colour pictures showing the castle and the chapel.  Somehow they look rather benign in the August sunshine, which wasn't really the atmosphere I was trying to convey.  The first image shows Harriet on the grass, and hopefully this gives some idea of the castle's scale.

Hermitage Castle is situated in the area hit by the Border Reivers, who must have been a real thorn in the side for the residents at the time.  In 1524 the Archbishop of Glasgow became so exasperated with the activities of the Reivers that he issued a "Monition of Cursing" (nowadays we'd call it a rant) against them.  Part of his curse is reproduced on the Castle's information board.

Not easy to read, but it makes slightly more sense when spoken aloud (i.e. phonetically).  I particularly love the way he wanted to "curse thair wiffis", since - presumably - the lack of an Internet connection might slow the Reivers down a bit.