The first couple of weeks back at Hadrians wall campsite saw us tidying up the van, getting the MOT (New Zealand's warrant of fitness equivalent) and helping out around the campsite. The first weekend in May was a long weekend and the site was full. Luckily the weather was okay, but we had near constant rain after that weekend for the next 10 days or so.
On the 14th of May we went away for two nights into Scotland. Our first stop on route was a town called Jedburgh. There are some picturesque Abbey ruins in the centre of town as well as two other attractions that we visited. The first was the the Castle and jail museum. From the 12-15th century a castle stood on the site which constantly changed hands due to wars between the English and Scottish. The Scottish reclaimed it in 1409 and destroyed it, so it could never fall back into English hands. In 1823 a jail was built on the site and the museum tells the story of the town's history and the jail. The museum was interesting, especially two videos we watched about the town's traditions including the game of handba.
Jedburgh Abbey
The Castle and Jail museum
The other attraction we visited was the Mary Queen of Scots house. The Queen stayed in this house in 1556 and there is now a museum about her life. This museum and information is well laid out and I really enjoyed this little museum.
Mary Queen of Scots house
We left Jedburgh about 4.30pm and drove to Melrose, a nearby town with Abbey ruins. We took a quick walk around outside the gates as it was too late to go in. Luckily you can see a lot through the fence.
Early evening we continued to Falkirk. We went to see a new art installation called the Kelpies installed to celebrate the opening of a new canal.
Melrose Abbey
The Kelpies
We also had a look at the Falkirk wheel (which we visited with Dale's parents two years ago) and there were also two minature kelpies on display there too.
Next we went into the Trossachs, a National park with many lochs (lakes). We spent the afternoon driving, visiting Loch Katrine, Lomond, Ark and Venachar.
Our final day before we returned to the campsite we went to New Lanark. It is a world heritage site preserving a cotton mill built late in the 18th century. Robert Owen bought the mill from his father in law in 1800 and was a firm but fair boss, shortening working hours and improving conditions. He built a school in the village insisting on education for children up to 12 years old, provided night classes, dances and lectures. The mill closed for business in 1968 and was sold to a firm for scrap, but instead was luckily saved and restored. I thought it was a good value attraction at 8.50 pounds and we spent 5 hours there looking in the various buildings, watching videos and looking at the exhibits.
We made a stop halfway home to the town of Lockerbie to visit the garden of rememberance for the Lockerbie bombing*.
*In 1988 a PanAm flight crashed on the outskirts of town, killing all 270 on board and 11 Lockerbie residents when a wing section of the plane hit their homes. The plane was destroyed by a terrorist bomb as it flew to New York City.
