Inchcolm Island

Click on any photo for a more detailed view

It was a happy accident that we found Inchcolm Island. Ron had expressed an interest in visiting the port of Leith, and Regina picked up a brochure on Leith at the airport. An ad for a ferry service, Maid of the Forth, offered sailings to Inchcolm Island from Leith on a limited basis. Knowing next to nothing about the island, of course we decided to take the voyage.

We called and found that the only sailings this time of year were from Queensferry and the nice young lady on the phone, being a frugal Scotswoman, warned us in her lovely brogue that we did not want to take a taxi to Queensferry from where we were - since it would cost about $70. The bus, she told us, was a better option. And so it was. After some floundering, we found the right bus stop and figured out when we needed to be there. We took a 40-minute trip through suburbs and over rolling hills, including some farm land, finally ending up at Queensferry, where a mile-long walk through the town brought us to the terminal at the foot of the Firth bridge.

The Firth bridge, is an engineering wonder. It was completed in 1890, and was deliberately over-engineered. The tragic collapse of the Tay Bridge in the same year had killed 75 passengers and crew on a train that was on the bridge at the time. Firth Bridge, then, is one of the strongest and most expensive cantilevered bridges ever built.
The Maid of the Forth, which carried us to and from the island. Capacity was about 250 and there were probably 30 of us on the boat; we were happy to be with a small group with no other American tourists.
We passed a few small islands on our way; this is Haystack Island. LIke most of the others, it's a preserve for birds. Scotland treasures its native waterfowl, which include puffins and the omnipresent seagulls.

OK, now we're going to bore you with pictures of the Abbey because they were all so beautiful we couldn't choose which ones to show. It is believed that the Abbey was built on the order of King Alexander I in 1123, after he was sheltered from a storm by a hermit on the island. It is one of the oldest abbeys still standing and it seemed somehow fitting that we arrived on a cloudy day with occasional drizzle. There were always places where we could find shelter and listen to the rain hit the water below. In fact, when we had sunny weather the next day, we agreed that we were glad we'd seen Inchcolm the day before - and we couldn't even imagine being there in the summer, when it's inundated by groups of 200 people 3 times a day.

The picture on the right shows the barracks that were erected and used in the First and Second World Wars on the hill in the background. An inscription over the doorway to the Abbey, is translated from the Latin as , "May this house stand until an ant drains the flowing sea, and a tortoise walks around the whole world. " So far it's held up pretty well.

Regina checks out the "privy", at left, and then assumes the Abbott's seat. And then it's time to head up the hill.

Flowers along the path. Everywhere Scotland was still in bloom during our visit.
The Army demolished much of the old batteries in the 1950s, but the concrete aprons for the guns, viewpoints and the barracks are still visible.
View from the hill, with the Firth Bridge in the background.
Still another view of the Abbey. Notice the ruined arch of the chapel at left. That's amazing 10th century engineering.
A dramatic example of how the light affects photos. At the end of our trip, the sun came out and everything looked different.
The Edinburgh skyline on the way back to Queensferry. The peak at left is Arthur's Seat, which we climbed in 2001.

Return to Edinburgh '06

The view Atop Calton Hill

Aboard HMS Britannia

Finally, A Perfect Trip

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