The first stop on the cruise we took last year was … Dundee! It’s only about twenty-five miles or so away from Son of the Rock Acres but it cost £200 less, each, for us to board at Newcastle rather than embark a day later at Dundee. No brainer.

The ship’s docking point in Scotland’s fourth city did give me a view of the Tay Bridge I hadn’t had before, though.

To the extreme right of the above photo is the new V&A Dundee, better seen in the photo below with RSS Discovery and Discovery Point beyond V&A:-

Wandering round the city centre I came across these stone penguins having a wee daunder:-

Nearby was this plaque commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Great War. “Dedicated to the glory of god and to those men and women who in all corners of the world gave their lives in service of our beloved country. We Will Remember Them, 11th November 1989.”

Last April we visited Cowden Garden again. (There’s not much chance of another visit in the immediate future.) he garden had come on a bit in its development.

It takes a lot of work to achieve it but there’s something very relaxing about the way a Japanese garden looks:-

Lake and bridge:-

Zen garden, raked in the Japanese style:-

Ornamental stone:-

Lake and pagoda:-

Brigde over lake:-

Path and bridge over lake:-

Tree, lake and bridges:-

Small bridge and Zen garden:-

Closer view:-

Lunch was soup with bread and a coffee.

Cup, Cowden Garden café:-

The Back Burn runs through the Balbirnie Estate on its way from the East Lomond round Markinch and on to the River Leven near Methilhill. It’s good for walks – even when you’re not cooped up by a lockdown.

After wandering under the A 92 and through a wooded glen it runs past the eighteenth hole of the golf course built over half of the estate:-

Then down a cobbled slope:-

Under a bridge:-

On:-

And on:-

Before swinging under another bridge to make a turn under Stob Cross Road across to the railway line and down the east of Markinch:-

One of the things you might not expect to see in Fife but is present in the estate is a Giant Redwood tree:-

There’s a wildlife pond between the boarded path and the redwood as seen from near the burn:-

Balbirnie Estate has a lot of rhododendron plants. They’re just about on the point of coming into flower this year. This was from 2019:-

The original Forth Bridge (the only one which needs no adjective, ie the one which carries the railway.) Taken from South Queensferry on 1/11/2018:-

Forth Road Bridge with new Forth Road Bridge, the Queensferry Crossing, behind. Taken from South Queensferry:-

While at Rochdale we were taken on a day trip to Halifax.

On the M62 we passed Hollingsworth Lake:-

And under this elegant bridge:-

And in Halifax parked near these two contrasting bridges. Old and new:-

Huntly Castle (see previous posts) lies close to the River Deveron as it flows though the outskirts of the town.

There is a lovely old bridge – maybe built to provide access to the castle back in the day – over the river:-

From the bridge looking west:-

From the bridge looking east:-

Previously I have posted about the (relatively) new V&A building in Dundee here and, in the background, here.

V&A logo by entrance:-

Exterior curve:-

View to Tay Bridge through “tunnel”:-

Apparently the wind can sweep through the tunnel quite severely. View to city through tunnel:-

Overhanging River Tay:-

Exterior planting:-

Interior:-

View of Tay Bridge through slit window:-

I have featured Bakewell, Derbyshire before here and here. We passed through it again in September 2018, had a nice walk around and along the River Wye plus a good lunch in one of the cafés.

One footbridge and weir over River Wye:-

A second footbridge:-

Weir and old bridge:-

Old bridge:-

Fish and Duck:-

Fish (trout?):-

The good lady is a keen gardener and when she heard that the Japanese Garden, at Cowden, Clackmannanshire was reopening after being a long time overgrown, we had to visit. The garden was first opened in 1908, but was closed to the public in 1955 and left to go to ruin. Thankfully the recent restoration is restoring the garden to its former glory.

Japanese gardens are very elegant. Despite the refurbishment still going on Cowden certainly is. There is an air of peace and harmony about the place. Japanese bridges are especially elegant. The first bridge below is by the path near the garden’s entrance. The second spans the garden’s large pond:-

Pagoda and bridge:-

Zen garden:-

Bench:-

The burn which feeds the pond:-

Path to bridge:-

Stones and ornament with bridge in background:-

Dunkeld is a village/town on the River Tay ten or so miles north of Perth. The bridge there which links Dunkeld to Birnam was built by Thomas Telford.

River Tay looking south from Telford’s bridge:-

This is a view of Telford’s bridge from the Birnam side of the river:-

And from the grounds of the town’s historic cathedral:-

The Cathedral was for a time closed to visitors but in 2018 we had a peek inside. Cathedral altar and stained glass windows:-

Just to the left in the photo above lies a memorial to the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the Scottish Horse who gave their lives in the two Great Wars. “1914 -1918, Gallipoli, Egypt, Macedonia, France. 1939 – 1945, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany.”

Below that are the words, “The souls of the righteous are in the hands of god. There shall…” the rest is obscured by the Roll of Honour. A barrier prevented me from getting any closer:-

In the square in Dunkeld itself is a memorial to the men of the Scottish Horse who died in the Boer War. I have previously mentioned it here.