The reason we visited Ceres in September last year was to take a look at the Fife Folk Museum.

Entrance as seen from bridge over the Ceres Burn:-

Inside the museum there is a small section devoted to crime and punishment, including an old prison cell:-

Beside this are two notices relating to trials and punishment:-

This second one mentions jougs, a kind of stocks:-

On the outside wall at the other side of the building to the entrance is an old doorway beside which is an example of a joug:-

The carved motto above the door reads, “God bless the just.”:-

Bridge over the Ceres Burn from grounds of Fife Folk Museum:-

Reverse angle:-

This bridge carries the main road (B939) through the village over the Ceres Burn:-

Castlegate Street, Ceres:-

See my Falkland Palace post here.

The gardens are very well kept. I believe they try to make them as much like they were back in the days of the Stuarts as they can. You can easily imagine Mary, Queen of Scots wandering about under the trees.

Trees in garden:-

Palace from garden:-

Steps in Falkland Palace gardens:-

View from steps to gallery and tower:-

Gate to orchard:-

Bridge in orchard:-

Last August there was severe flooding in Balbirnie Park. The Back Burn even overflowed by Balbirnie Golf Club’s eighteenth green, probably due to that tree trunk stuck at the bridge. Part of the revetments had been washed away:-

Between Golf Club’s clubhouse and Balbirnie House Hotel the road was flooded:-

The area just at Balbirnie House (and Hotel) which had flooded in February 2020 did so again:-

During that brief time when lockdown was lifted last year we were able to go to Edinburgh and visit the Royal Botanic Garden there, using a pre-booked and timed ticket.

As she’s keen on gardening and gardens it’s one of the good lady’s favourite places.

Planting by hothouses:-

Monkey puzzle trees (araucaria):-

Path with acer:-

“New Zealand ” section:-

Path in Botanic Garden:-

Bridge over burn:-

Waterfall from bridge:-

Waterfall video:-

Burn from bridge:-

The gardens are worth a visit at any time of year.

Abut a year ago we decided to take a walk to try to find the Barrel Brig, an old bridge over the River Ore in Fife. It had been featured in a calendar we had of local scenes but we’d never seen it.

It’s not on the beaten track and we had to walk quite a distance from where we parked in Coaltown of Balgonie. The start of the path has a view over to Balgonie Castle (on the left of this photo):-

It turned out to be a longer walk than we had expected along muddy roads/paths and over a disused railway line before finally seeing the River:-

It was still a couple of hundred metres or so before we saw the brig itself:-

The path curves round to the brig:-

You can see it’s not a modern thoroughfare:-

Before taking that shot I did scout down to the bank to grab this photo:-

We then strolled across the (unparapeted) bridge to get the opposite angle:-

On the way back to the car I took this shot over the fields to Largo Law in the distance:-

It’s mostly the Queensferry Crossing, not the two older bridges, you can see in this photo. (The white sail-shaped objects in the distance are the bridge’s cable stays.)

Looking the other way from the garden area there is a view of and Dunfermline Abbey and, to the left, the remains of Dunfermline Palace:-

Dunfermline Palace:-

Another memorial on Perth’s North Inch (see previous posts.)

Memorial to the 90th Light Infantry, which was raised in 1794:-

The memorial was erected in 1883:-

Perth Bridge behind:-

An old joke has it that Perth is the smallest town in Scotland because it only has two inches. The North and South Inches are of course green spaces used for recreational purposes. They both border the River Tay.

We used to park regularly in the South Inch car park when we visited Perth. Nowadays we tend to use elsewhere.

As a result we one day strolled around the south part of the North Inch. A wall separates it from the river and on that wall is a plaque commemorating the men of Perth Co-operative Society who lost their lives in the two World Wars. It is inscribed, “1914 – 1919. To the lasting memory of the employees of the City of Perth Co-operative Society Ltd who fell in the Great War,” plus, “Also in grateful remembrance of those who sacrificed their lives in the Second World War 1939 – 1945,” and, “Their name liveth for evermore.”

From it there is this view of the river and Perth Bridge:-

Perth Bridge:-

On the same visit we popped into Perth Museum and Art Gallery. Among many other exhibits they have this old Pictish stone found at St Madoes/Inchyra in the Carse of Gowrie, Perth and Kinross.

In 2018 we visited Ironbridge, site of the eponymous iron structure. Unfortunately at that time the bridge was being refurbished and swathed in plastic. Last year on our way further south from Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden we returned. Lo and behold the bridge was revealed in all its splendour. A delightful sight.

The iron bridge at Ironbridge (Ironbridge War Memorial to right; see first link above):-

Closer view:-

Reverse view of bridge:-

River Severn from the iron bridge (looking east):-

(Looking west):-

Ironbridge village from the iron bridge:-

River Severn to west:-

River Severn looking to bridge from west:-

Sadly earlier this year the River Severn rose – not for the first time – and overwhelmed the temporary flood barriers that had been erected in an effort to prevent damage.