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15 Minutes of Hourglass Sand

Scotland Day One Part 2

By Tineke Ziemer

May 19^th, 2017

The sands of forvie

Our next stop was at 'some' famous president of America's golf course, where he lives in a castle when he's in Scotland. I didn't take any photos of that. No thanks. However, beyond the golf course, I caught a glimpse of some beautiful sand dunes and started clicking away. Our gracious host offered to take us right to the sand dunes and I said, sure! On the way we saw Scottish deer in a field and with five photographers on board, you can imagine the chaos that ensued as we all tried to tumble out of the van and get shots before they ran away. Being in the very back seat of the 9 passenger van, I abandoned the idea of waiting for someone to get out, open the door and flip their seat forward so I could exit. Instead, I wedged my body in the small space between the van wall and the seat in front of me and managed to stick my head and lens out the opening in the door and bang off a few shots before they spooked.

We had fifteen minutes to explore the Sands of Forvie, which is the fifth largest sand dune system in Britain. We raced up to the top of one of the dunes and the views from there were magic, especially when the sun peeked out for a few minutes, turning the landscape into a dramatic oasis overlooking the ocean. (You can see a glimpse of the ocean in my first photo below. I was a little distracted with the sand, so I didn't think of getting any ocean photos! lol I mean, come on! I had 15 minutes!!!)

A few interesting facts about the Sands of Forvie:

The village of Forvie was once located here but had to be abandoned due to drifting sands.
During the World Wars, Forvie was a minefield, filled with British type C land mines, weighing 65 lbs each. Tragically, on July 27, 1944, Sapper Harry Dean (28) of 11 coy, Royal Engineers was killed while clearing the land of mines.
Forvie sands was used to train the Gordon Highlanders and Highland Light Infantry in desert warfare. Forvie Moor was also used to train soldiers in the use of tank grenades, anti-tank grenades and 2 inch trench mortars. Since the war, mortar bombs have been found across the moor and craters are still visible.
During soldier training, the moor was off limits to locals. However on Sundays, the locals could use the moor to collect birds eggs to use as food, and there was a plentiful supply of rabbits. On November 30, 1941, three local boys found an unexploded anti-tank grenade in a rabbit burrow that the army had been demonstrating to the home guard. One of the boys threw it away where it exploded causing him to lose sight in one eye.

(These facts are taken from wikipedia and there are more interesting things of note about the Sands of Forvie there if you care to read further.)

"The Sands of Forvie" (Sadly, this panorama is not available for voting because of its unusual shape)

Coming back with sand in our shoes and smiles on our faces!

Scottish deer in a Scottish field in front of a Scottish forest. Someone asked me, 'but do they have Scottish accents?!" Very good question! And where are their kilts?!

Another interesting first impression of Scotland came from their road signs, which are extremely low to the ground (see photo below.) Coming from Canada, where we have several feet of snow on the ground for at least half the year, this seemed highly impractical to me. But it turns out, even though Aberdeen is a little higher north than us, and known for its cold weather (even in summer the average temperature ranges from 9-16 degrees Celsius), they get very little snowfall.

An example of the low road signs in Scotland

That's a bunch of cock & bull

For lunch, we hit the Cock & Bull Restaurant, where they had the most amazing chandelier covered in old wine bottles above our table. We maaaaaaay have spent ten minutes taking photos before we even sat down. teehee. I was traveling on a budget and I'm not a big eater-outer, so I packed a lunch for myself and ate it in the van while we were driving. I figured I'd enjoy a nice cup of Scottish Chamomile while everyone else was having their lunch. Hokey dinah! That was the most expensive herbal tea I ever had in my life. 3 pounds. ($5.25 Cdn!) Tasted like normal Chamomile to me. I might as well have ate lunch. So, that was the last time I did that. It was very interesting seeing the unique array of foods that my friends partook of during that lunch. Haggis balls and skank/skunk-something-or-other soup. Maria had what looked like a mayo and corn sandwich with a side of popcorn! Eating in a new country is always such an eye opening experience. Audrey has photos of AAAAALLLL the food from the entire trip if anyone is interested.

While they finished dining, I grabbed my camera and explored outside, being sure to get a close up of that amazing ivy all over the walls. Enjoy the photos! And don't forget to comment with the title of your favourite image to be entered in today's draw!