Traquair + Melrose July 17+18

Tom, who kindly offered to drive me back to the starting point at 6:30 this mornng was ready at 6:10, and guess what?  So was I!  So off we went, and I was able to put foot to path at 6:30.

St. Mary's Loch:

Just so you don't forget that this is sheep country:

This type of stone construction never ceases to amaze:

About this yar tower, you may read below and become enlightened:

No, I did not.  I figured all there was to see was a dark space, and I was in a hurry to get to Traquair.

 Dancing tree branches:

It is EVERYWHERE!!  You really have to step fancy to avoid it.  But better this than the boggy moors!

Today, for the first time, I encountered a walker going in the opposite direction.  She was about my size only some fifty years younger, carrying a huge pack with tent and all, and wearing these little flip flop kind of shoes.  I could not believe it!  She was telling me about all her getting lost experiences, and I was thinking, "Girl, you have no idea what awaits!"  Hope she makes it.

The reason I was in a hurry is because I wanted to visit Traquair House, supposedly the oldest continuously inhabited house in Scotland and visited by twenty seven kings. (I assume that by "house" they mean a habitation owned by landed gentry).

There were lovely gardens in which was a bubbly fountain:

And a horse:

And flowers, por supuesto,  but I was eating a two-scoop ice cream cone while viewing las flores, por lo tanto, I could not take pictures.

The house would be of immense interest to those who have much curiosity about Scottish history, especially the Protestant Catholic conflict.  Why you can see the very bed Queen Mary slept in her last night in Scotland and the bedcover she and her ladies embroidered.

The toilet, apparently for ladies' use.  Men were supposed to use the great outdoors.

Now, THIS, as you can see, is a curling stone, made from granite that comes from Aisla Craig, the island I saw from the train window when I was traveling with the woman who runs one hundred mile races:

I have gained a whole new level of respect for curling.  That stone weighs a TONNE!

While I cannot keep up with the kings and queens and executions and heresies and treasons and all that, I was quite interested in the laundry with its impressive collections of irons:

Another deja vu, or, who says you can't go home again?

An excerpt of what the plaque says about the photo just below:

This is the Point of Resolution, a conservation project and a sculpture conservation.  The heather in the sculpture has been cut back to stimulate new growth, so providing a better food source for the grouse, particularly the black grouse.

Sculpture: from the Resolution Point, you will see a series of circles.  However, as you move away from the Resolution Point, you will see that they are not circles at all, but huge irregular elongated ovals (the largest is 150 meters long and only 30 meters wide).  The sculpture will keep changing with the seasons over many years

As you can tell, the picture was taken from the Point of Resolution!  The changing shape depending on your place of looking at it reminds me of the Torosaurus Rex in front of the Peabody.

Pine trees not in the outer circle!

Scenery today:

Lots of hills, easy way finding except when I started going up Hog Hill, which was NOT the way, and then at the end when I walked the final three and a half miles on the stupidest route possible.

This has to be THE place!  As far as I was concerned, it was where one has to make a sharp right:

Day just shy of 20 miles.  I am tired and wish I had planned a rest day tomorrow, which is when I  leave the Souther Upland Way to walk the circular Border Abbeys Way.  Rest Day will be on the 24th, after which, I will pick up and complete the Southern Upland Way.