I Do Like To Be Beside The Deeside

Back in November we took our last trip out in the motorhome before the winter set in. We headed up over Glenshee, through Braemar and Ballater to the village of Tarland where there is a great little campsite (one of a few still open in November).
We were given a great pitch for Vannie which was right next to the bird and squirrel feeders that the wardens put out. As we settled in for the night we had high hopes of seeing some wildlife at the feeders over the next few days
The next morning we got up bright and early and headed out on one of the many local walks in the area. We chose the woodland walk around Alastrean House and our first stop was at the impressive St Moulag's Church on the East side of the village of Tarland:

St Moulag's Church, Tarland

View from St Moulag's Church

It was a cold morning, but dry.......... so fair walking conditions as we headed into the woodland:

Path Through Alastrean Woods

The woods were not extensive and had reasonable paths, good for a short morning walk. There were some parts of the walking route that cut over open fields, and in some cases a new avenue of Beech trees had been planted to enhance the walk:

Avenue of Beech Trees

On the Alastrean Woodland Walk

We stopped here for a little while to enjoy the views and check for signs of wildlife:

View from Alastrean looking East

View from Alastrean looking West

Moira Scanning for Raptors

In truth there was very little wildlife about this morning, but I did manage to catch a glimpse of a Long-tailed Tit flitting about in a nearby tree:

It was pretty hard to capture it on video as it kept moving about.
We carried on along the path round the woodland until we reached Coull Road where we headed alongside the golf course and back towards the village. Here we saw some nice mushrooms (not the edible type) but we didn't dwell as the weather was starting to close in with clouds forming on the horizon:

Sulphur Tuft Mushrooms

Weather closes in over the hills

On our way back to the campsite we popped into a nice little cafe (Angie's) in The Square for a bite of lunch. We also paid a visit to the original Tarland Church, which had obviously seen better days:

Remains of Old Tarland Church

Oh! and we also saw this lovely gypsy caravan parked in someone's garden in Tarland:

Gypsy Caravn in Tarland

Made Vannie look very modern!
We had a relaxing afternoon back at the campsite and the rain didn't really appear, but it was very cold, so we had the heating on in the motorhome. In the evening we decided to go out for something to eat and enjoyed a delicious meal at The Commercial Hotel in the village (highly recommended).
We put the heating on when we got back to the motorhome after our meal and a few drinks, however the gas started to run out after a little while so we had to switch it off and head to bed before it got too cold. I didn't have a spare gas cylinder with me and it turned out to be the coldest night of the winter so far as the temperature dropped below zero.
When we got up in the morning it was absolutely baltic, so we got dressed very quickly. We had to go in to the village to get a new gas cylinder as the campsite shop didn't stock the one we needed, so we fired up Vannie and headed out. After we exchanged the cylinder it was back into Angie's Cafe for a hearty, cooked breakfast with lashings of hot tea to warm us up.
Once we were fed, watered and defrosted we decided to take a trip to nearby Ballater in Vannie:

View down Bridge Street, Ballater

Ballater Railway Station

One of the top places to visit in Ballater is the Railway Station, and strangely enough you won't find any trains there!
Like many other small branch-line stations Ballater closed in the 1960's as part of the Beeching cuts; however the good people of Ballater recognised it's historic significance as the nearest station to the royal residence at Balmoral. Having welcomed many royal visitors from Queen Victoria onwards it was a station with lots of history (and occasional scandal), and was turned in to a visitor centre with a restaurant and shops inside.
The original building stood for many years until 2015 when it was almost completely burnt down in a major fire. The challenge was to save and restore as many historic artefacts as possible so that the station could be rebuilt and re-opened as a visitor centre again; which it has been recently:

Moira outside the recently rebuilt Ballater Station

The Royal Coach at Ballater Station

Old Railway Bench

Old Railway Poster

More Old Railway Posters

The restaurant has been replaced by a small cafe where the seats replicate an old railway carraige:

Old Railway Carraige-style Seating in Cafe

And there is a very posh, Victorian tea-room which you can hire for special occasions, as well as an even posher dining room:

Victorian Tea Room

Victorian Dining Room

The station also had a very interesting visitors centre a shop; all in all the rebuilt station is a place worth visiting.
After a nice cup of coffee and cake at the station cafe (not the posh tea room!) we headed out to explore more of Ballater:

Glenmuick Church in the Centre of Ballater

Salisbury Road, near Ballater Golf Course

Salisbury Road was a lovely little residential street which ran alongside the golf course and down to the caravan park (which was closed for the winter). The River Dee runs past the caravan park, so we had a wander along the nearby riverside path:

River Dee at Ballater

Bridge over the Dee at Ballater

View down Bridge Street from Dee Bridge

It was nice walking around Ballater, but it was getting cold, so we jumped back in Vannie and headed back to the campsite at Tarland.
Back at the campsite I was able to have a look at the footage from my trail camera I had put out the first night we arrived, in the hope of capturing footage of the Red Squirrel which had been visiting the feeder near our pitch. I wasn't disappointed, and here is some of the footage stitched together to make a short video:

You may have noticed that the clips start of in black & white, that is because my trail camera films in infra-red when in low light, such as at night and early morning. I was determined to get even better video clips of the Red Squirrel, so I moved my trail camera on to a tree closer to the feeder. You can see how I got on later in the blog.
The bird feeder beside our pitch was also very popular with the local birds and I managed to capture some video of these visitors from Vannie's front window. Firstly the supposedly elusive Long-tailed Tits:

The Long-tailed Tits were not the only birds visiting the feeder; at one point we had three different types of Tit when a Blue Tit and a Coal Tit joined the Long-tails:

The Red Squirrel also put in an appearance, but the video taken through Vannie's window appears a bit fuzzy:

This was our last day at Tarland, so I was pleased we got some good views of the local wildlife. It was also good to have some heating in the motorhome that night!
The next morning we got up bright and early and packed everything up ready for the trip back home. I had decided to take a different route back home, heading up over the hills to Fettercairn using the Old Military Road that passes over Cairn O' Mount. It seemed like a more straightforward road that going over Glenshee, but it was pretty steep and windy in parts. A bit hair-raising in the motorhome (if I had hair to raise that is) but Vannie coped admirably:

Old Military Road to Fettercairn

Old Military Road at Cairn O' Mount

Vannie at Cairn O' Mount

We got home safely but I think I should have stuck to the Glenshee route.
I was able to check my trail camera footage to see if I had caught the Red Squirrel early in the morning before we left the campsite:

Not too shabby footage of Red Squirrel I thought.
Hope you enjoyed the blog, take care

Teddyedward

In Border Country

There are some people who believe that the Scottish-English border runs along the line of Hadrian's Wall, however that has not been the case since the Romans left. In fact the border line has changed many times over the last two millennia and if you want to see the most recent evidence of this you must pay a visit to Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Back in October we did just that, taking Vannie for another trip over the border (just) to Berwick on the banks of the River Tweed. We stayed in Seaview campsite in Spittal (just across the river from Berwick) and it really did have a sea view:

Looking over Spittal to the North Sea from Caravan Park

Mouth of the Tweed from Caravan Park

One of the first things we did was to explore the little village of Spittal (named after the medieval hospital that stood there) and in particular it's spectacular esplanade:

Moira on Spittal Esplanade

Looking out towards Lindisfarne from Spittal Esplanade

Looking back towards Berwick from Spittal Esplanade

It really was a beautiful beach with miles of golden sands, but too cold to fully enjoy it, so we had a hot coffee in the little seaside cafe rather than a cold ice cream.
The views across the sea to Lindisfarne (aka Holy Island) and Bamburgh Castle were stunning, this video might give you some idea of what I'm talking about:

I can imagine it would be a very popular beach in the summer, but in October we practically had the place to ourselves.
Later that day we took a walk along the banks of the Tweed, on the southern side, across the river from Berwick. This gave us some good views of the town and the bridges that connect it with Tweedmouth , Spittal and the rest of England:

Berwick on the mouth of the Tweed

The Old Tweed Bridge to Berwick

New Tweed Bridge and Rowing Clubhouse

Railway Bridge carrying Edinburgh-London Train

The railway bridge (or Royal Border Bridge to give its proper name) was opened by Queen Victoria in 1850 and carries the main east coast line from London to Edinburgh and beyond.
The original stone-arched road/pedestrian bridge (known as The Berwick Bridge) was built between 1611 and 1634 and would have obvious been designed for horses and carts as well as pedestrians. It now carries cars, but only one way i.e. only when leaving Berwick heading south.
The newer road/pedestrian bridge (known as The Royal Tweed Bridge) was opened in 1928 and is made of Ferroconcrete ( a concrete re-inforced with metal bars).
So just like South Queensferry, Berwick can boast three major bridges built in three different centuries. The rail bridge is probably the most impressive (just like SQ) and it was built by the Stephenson family (mostly famous for lighthouses):

Royal Border Rail Bridge

Happy 150th Birthday

Posing by The Tweed

Later on that afternoon I was intrigued by the large chimney down in the village of Spittal which was clearly visible from our view out the motorhome window:

View over Spittal (large chimney to right of church)

As the weather had improved in the late afternoon I decided I would go down to investigate what this large chimney was. When I got down to Spittal Point, where the chimney stood I discovered it was simply a large chimney, with no evidence of what it was used for?

Large Chimney at Spittal Point

Spittal Point did however proof to be a good place to view and photograph the area around the mouth of the Tweed.

Berwick from Spittal Point

Breakwater and Lighthouse from Spittal Point

Looking towards Spittal

Spittal Point Chimney at Dusk

I later discovered that the chimney was most likely associated with one of the chemical manure factories that existed there about a hundred years ago. Not sure I would have dwelt so long in this area back then.
I did enjoy my hour or so down at Spittal Point and with my binoculars I could see something (which I think was a Dolphin) swimming in the sea near to the lighthouse. I tried to capture it on video but it was very difficult, especially with the bright sunshine at my back making it hard to see clearly in the camcorder viewfinder:

Did you see it?
The next day we decided to take a walk along the ramparts (or defensive walls/battlements) that surround Berwick. Now these are quite substantial structures, which have developed over many hundreds of years, so it is only fair I give you a bit of history which will shed some light on their reason for existing.

• Many moons ago Berwick was a Royal Scottish Burgh
• In 1296 it was besieged at captured by Edward I (aka Longshanks or Hammer of the Scots) who proceeded to build a new castle and defences
• In 1318 the town was regained by the Scots, during the reign of King Robert the Bruce 
• The town changed hands several times over the next hundred and sixty years before English rule was permanently established by Edward IV in 1482
• Additional defences were added in the 16th Century to ensure town stayed in English hands
• There were less Scots/Anglo tensions after the Union of Scottish and English Crowns in 1603 (apart from the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 of course)
• Thereafter the defences were used more to protect against foreign invasion from the sea than Scots/Anglo rivalry
• The barracks inside the walls were built during the Jacobite rebellions and they served as home to The King's Own Scottish Borders from 1881 right up to 1963
• By 1964 there was no longer a military presence in Berwick 

So here are some views from the ramparts surrounding Berwick upon Tweed:

Cannon on Berwick Ramparts

Barracks within Berwick's Defences

Love the Serpent Benches

Cannons Built into Defensive Structure

At the north-west end of the Ramparts stands Megs Mount were you get some good views back down towards Berwick:

Down Towards Golden Square

Looking over the Rooftops of Berwick

Berwick Railway Viaduct

Towards the Mouth of the Tweed

This little video clip probably gives you a better idea of the panoramic views from the Ramparts and from Megs Mount:

One thing that did intrigue me when we were looking down from the ramparts was this little half-timbered building:

What is this?

When we got back down to the lower level closer examination revealed that is was a very early example of a public toilet.

Berwick's Oldest Public Toilet?

Information Plaque on Quaint Public Toilet

Unfortunately it was closed!!
After our walk along the town ramparts we headed down to the riverside and enjoyed a coffee by the water in the late afternoon sunshine:

Sitting on the dock of the bay

Lovely View of  Three Bridges

Enjoying a Coffee and Watching the Swans

Lovely coffee, lovely cake and lovely views, what's not to like about Berwick?
I never really did much wildlife watching on this trip, apart from the Dolphins and Swans of course....... and a few waders/waterbirds near the old bridge:

Berwick is also a good base for visiting other places, with regular trains to Edinburgh and Newcastle (and all stations in-between) there are lots of interesting places to visit. We took a bus ride (as the train doesn't go there) to Alnwick and enjoyed a good few hours walking around the town and had a nice pub lunch in the Black Swan.

Alnwick Town Archway

Horses Head outside posh clothes shop

Alnwick Railway Station, now an excellent Bookshop

We didn't go to the Castle or the Gardens as we did not have a lot of time and like any true Scotsman I wasn't going to pay all that money for an hour or so visit. We did go into the bookshop though and I bought a second hand book about the Steamers of the Forth (it wasn't just the folk fae Glasgow that went 'doon tha water' on a day trip you know!).
That about sums up our few days at Berwick.......... very enjoyable.......... would definitely do it again. I will leave you with a little video of a lifeboat exercise I filmed from the campsite, where the inshore rib left the main lifeboat and headed up river:

Good to know they are there if you need them.

Take Care

TeddyEdward