When I discovered the late Queen’s cortege would be passing within twelve or so miles of my home on its way from Balmoral to Edinburgh I thought this is a bit of history (before her no monarch had died in Scotland since the father of Mary Queen of Scots) so we might as well go and see it. Something to tell the grandkid(s.) It would be the closest I’ll ever get to a reigning sovereign after all.

At first we tried to stand behind a crash barrier by the M 90 near Milnathort, Perth and Kinross, but a policewoman moved us on so we ended up on a motorway bridge. It wasn’t a good vantage point.

I did get a reasonable shot of the cortege approaching (the West Lomond Hill is in the background):-

However the close up I tried to get was too blurry. (The hearse was travelling at speed.)

I hurried to the other side of the bridge to snap this, which ended up very badly focused.

The convoy was actually quite large. This shows its tail end:-

It struck me when I downloaded it off the camera that it was fairly appropriate, though, as she was by that time gone. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor slipping inexorably into history (at 70 miles an hour.)

Strathmiglo is a village in Fife, in which comedian Ronnie Corbett once had a home. We pass it on a regular basis. The road on which we do that, though, bypasses the main street but the way we come in passes a road named Cash Fues as the land there once belonged to the ancestors of country singer Johnny Cash.

One day last year we took the time to stop for a look round the village itself.

This is the tolbooth, built in 1734:-

View towards East Lomond – the second highest hill in Fife. (The highest is the West Lomond.)

There is a wonderful monkey puzzle tree (araucaria) just off the main street – with the kirk beyond:-

By the entrance to the kirk is a Pictish stone:-

A plaque on the wall beside it has a description:-

The kirkyard in Upper Largo (Largo and Newburn Parish Church, see previous post,) has two War Graves and two war commemorations.

To left. In memory of John Patrick Oliphant Russell, Captain, Royal Artillery, died of wounds in Italy, 7/9/1944. Buried at Gradara, Italy:-

>

Ralph Frederick Baxter, 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Sussex Regiment, killed in action, France, 25/9/1915, aged 18 and John Edward Baxter, 2nd Lieutenant, Scots Guards, killed in action in Italy, 16/10/1944, aged 19:-

Serjeant T Simpson, Pioneer Coprs, formerly Royal Artillery, 10/8/1946, aged 46:-

Lower Inscription. In loving memory of Thomas Simpson, died 10th August, 1946:-

Lieutenant W A Freeborn, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, HMS Victory, 31/7/1944:-

We took a diffeent way home from normal and had this unusual view of East and West Lomond, Fife’s highest hills from the Star (Star of Markinch) road:-