Tuesday 23 May 2006

More creepiness

How I envy Gail who is getting to spend her holiday in Scotland this
summer. When we went to the Glenkinchie distillery this morning, we had
to drive out of Edinburgh, and how breathtakingly beautiful the
countryside is here. The tour of the distillery was excellent. We learned even more
about the process of whisky making, building on last year's tour of the
Midleton distillery in Ireland, but it made us want to go out and travel
around Scotland.

This afternoon we went up to the castle, although we
didn't do a tour because we didn't really have enough time, but the
castle is equally breathtaking, it looks as though it is hewn into a
cliff of rock, just amazing. We went to the whisky heritage centre next
to the castle. Personally I felt that once you had made it up the steep
hill to the castle, a lone piper should have been waiting and
distributing a wee dram to every hardy tourist. God bless that piper.

Then back down into the city centre, to the Mercat cross, the 'Heart of
Edinburgh' for another tour of the vaults. This time it was just the
vaults for an hour. There are high electro-magnetic fields in the
Edinburgh Vaults under the South Bridge, and there has been a lot of
research done down there by actual scientists to show this, the big
question is, what causes it? I felt cold and as though the gravity were
heavier in there and slightly nauseous. I have felt this way in old
churches before, but then churches in Britain can very often be seen to
be built along ley lines, so again, difficult to say whether the
electro-magnetic fields are some natural phenemonon or whether they
build up as a result of human history or residual energies. It is a very
compulsive place and I would love to spend a night in there.

The small bit of Scotland that we have seen has been just so impressive.
We have been treated exceptionally well. The food has been great and
cheaper than in the south. The place feels cared for, old and looked
after. There is a real committment to green issues up here, even more I
feel than in the sunny south. There are 91 million casks of whisky
in Scotland, you can even live in one if you like. And two percent of
all whisky distilled is 'for the angels', so I'm guessing Scotland is
well watched over.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

so - have ye not been to Scotland afore? How daft of you!!! Even I (a rank Canuck) have been to Scotland three times and have covered most of it (except for some of the island altho I have been on the Isle of Skye.) I love it of course. My anccestors came from the Highlands, so I feel a wee connection, aye? AR

Anonymous said...

One summer I hitched from Pompey to Orkney! Took me two weeks and some VERY strange lifts! I did Skye with three Dutch guys and a huge bag of 'Herbal' remedy, Fantastic! and travelled to Rosslyn with with an elderly lady who had a laissez faire attitude to vodka and painted watercolours!
Brilliant!

Simmi