- 87,571
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
A little mini-break this time, not involving planes. And I mean mini-break - Mini-Cubicle went off for a week in Blackpool with her grandparents, so we took the opportunity to explore a little part of the country I'd never been to before.
Set sail... for SCOTLAND!
Day 1
We'd sorted ourselves a wee stop-off in Gretna in the evening - right on the very south-west land border of England and Scotland, but rather than starting our holiday from there we thought we'd pay a little visit to some bendy roads and sort-of-nearby sights.
And when I say bendy roads:
The white poles tell you how deep the snow is. Really.
And this is a 60mph limit road. Really.
First on the itinerary is "High Force" (County Durham, England). High Force is one of the biggest waterfalls in the UK, both in terms of flow and drop, though at only 70 feet from top to bottom, some of our members in countries with more... extreme geography might not be terribly impressed.
High Force... forcing.
Being the adventurous and naughty scamp that I am (they'd fenced the top off - and they charge you for entry. To a natural waterfall), I thought I'd go for a more interesting shot so, crossing the Tees...
High Force, from the top down...
View of the Tees upstream, from within the falls...
From High Force we headed North along some more bendy roads (so occasionally pointing Southwest to go North). Seeing as we were heading into Scotland, it seemed rude not to take a trip to Hadrian's Wall...
The Wall was built around 1900 years ago by the Romans at the then-Northmost-end of their Empire in Britain, to prevent raids by the naughty Pictish folk on the Roman Britains. It spanned about 80 miles between the Solway Firth in the West and the River Tyne in the East. Quite a lot of it has been lost to time and farmers (who used the stones from the wall on their land to make other structures for themselves), but significant parts of it remain.
Our crossing of it took place at Milecastle 49, on the Northumbria/Cumbria border:
Milecastle 49, looking east - Alba to the right, Caledonia to the left.
Looking out into Caledonia from Milecastle 49
And with that, on to Gretna!
At this point we're both in Gretna and, technically, England for a whole 10 more feet...
How do you know when you're in Scotland?
Day 2
Day 2 was planned so that we could go see daan and his baanhammer via the most direct, circuitous route possible. daan is North of here, so let's go... WEST!
West is Dumfries which, amongst other things, has the oldest Camera obscura in the UK. That sounds lovingly geeky... Let's hit it!
For the unaware, a camera obscura in this context is like a huge pinhole camera. The one in Dumfries is a converted windmill, with a lens on top. Light from all around goes into the lens mounted in the pinhole and down onto a white dish which the operator can adjust for height (and thus focus). On a clear day you can see all around the town of Dumfries (and it's quite spooky to see cars going through the middle of what looks like a still photograph) plus you can use it to safely observe the Sun.
The former windmill
The "pinhole"
The images - a little blurry 'cos of extreme darkness in the room + compact digital cameras sucking at low light conditions
And so we left Dumfries in a sort-of-north-westerly direction to head for Ayr. Well... almost to Ayr anyway... Some bendy roads aside (driving in Scotland is fun), there was a certain little diversion along the way we just had to visit...
The Electric Brae!
As the stone says, an optical illusion makes the slope you're on look like it slopes the other way. So if you park up at the stone and take the hand/parking/emergency brake off, you roll downhill but look lie you're rolling uphill. Before it could be reliably measured, folk thought that the island off the shore was magnetic lodestone and pulled your car uphill towards it (which it isn't, and doesn't):
The alleged lodestone...
One quick experiment later (there's a video - I couldn't be bothered uploading it yet), and we went off to Ayr and, thereafter, daan...
Nessie on Ayr beach...
Day 3
We decided for day 3 that, with the waterfalls and the camera obscura and the uphill-pully-sea-nipple, we hadn't quite yet been geeky enough, so hitched a ride in the Peugeot of Powaah to the Glasgow Science Centre. On the way we saw some Big Heids and a wireframe horse:
"Big Heids", brought to you by the guy who built this train out of bricks near Darlington:
Brick Train. Near Darlington. And nowhere near us. But I did take the photo and it's the same bloke who did the Big Heids above.
Wireframe horse. I have no idea of the back story to this.
And so on to the Glasgow Science Centre which is full of, amongst other things, hundreds of scientific toys for kids to attempt to destroy, a Plane_arium and a spinny tower.
A spinny tower? What?
It's a spinny tower, okay?
This tower, operated by four motors (though apparently just one would do the job - or 12 strong men - but they use four for smoothness and stability) turns so that the leading edge is always facing the prevailing wind. It can - and is currently the only tower in the world which can - rotate through a full 360 degrees, though it tends to always face the same rough direction since the wind generally always comes from the same sort of place.
At the very bottom of the tower, the whole structure narrows to a point just 65cm across (about 25 inches) upon which the whole load of the tower rests. The point rests in a similarly-sized cup and acts as a friction bearing - occasionally the whole 500 ton tower is jacked up and the two faces are greased.
And you can go up it in a lift. And yes, it moves while you're up there...
Looking across Glasgow from the tower - Ibrox (Glasgow Rangers)
Looking down the tower to the bearing. Yes, that's ALL it sits on. Really.
Pausing only for a brief round of ten pins and a late dinner at Ye Francis & Benjamin's Finest New Amsterdam Eaterie, we headed back for the daanland and Day 4.
Day 4
Day 4 was where the geek hit hardest. Day 4 was the day of...
For those not in the know, The Falkirk Wheel is, currently, the only rotating vertical boat lift in the world, bridging the height difference between the Union and Falkirk and Clyde Canals - something that used to be done with 11 locks and 4 hours, now takes just 3 minutes. Because the containers (caissons) weigh exactly the same with or without boats in them (Archimedes principle - one of the Wheel's 2 dedicated boats is named Archimedes), the whole mechanism requires very minimal electricity to operate - quoted by the tour guide at the equivalent of boiling just two electric kettles to move the 1000 ton total mass of the wheel (160 of which is in the caissons).
With the help of TB, what takes 3 minutes in real life now takes just 5 seconds
Keep watching - it'll unscrew itself...
In the meantime:
Wheel in action...
Also wheel in action...
A view down the Union Canal to the Wheel
On from one piece of legendary engineering in Scotland, we took a circuitous route to another - the two Forth crossings:
*Actual size
Pressing on towards Coldstream - still in Scotland by inches (and the River Tweed) - where we stopped the night.
Day 5
Day 5 was a new experience for both me and Mrs. Satnavwoman, who got a little upset when asked to display this:
ST220 - so good it walks on water
Yeeeeeees, a trip across the Causeway to Lindisfarne. For the uninitiated, Lindisfarne Causeway is tidal - 8 hours a day it's underwater, hence Mrs. Satnavwoman's discomfort. Lindisfarne is also known as "Holy Island" and contains more old stuff than you can shake an admittedly quite small stick at.
Lindisfarne Castle
Lindisfarne Priory
Lindisfarne Castle from Lindisfarne Priory
Harbour at Lindisfarne with tide ebbing
And with that it was back into the cars and a dull, but quick, drive home.
(some images may not load if Imageshack are being stupids - reload if necessary)
Set sail... for SCOTLAND!
Day 1
We'd sorted ourselves a wee stop-off in Gretna in the evening - right on the very south-west land border of England and Scotland, but rather than starting our holiday from there we thought we'd pay a little visit to some bendy roads and sort-of-nearby sights.
And when I say bendy roads:
The white poles tell you how deep the snow is. Really.
And this is a 60mph limit road. Really.
First on the itinerary is "High Force" (County Durham, England). High Force is one of the biggest waterfalls in the UK, both in terms of flow and drop, though at only 70 feet from top to bottom, some of our members in countries with more... extreme geography might not be terribly impressed.
High Force... forcing.
Being the adventurous and naughty scamp that I am (they'd fenced the top off - and they charge you for entry. To a natural waterfall), I thought I'd go for a more interesting shot so, crossing the Tees...
High Force, from the top down...
View of the Tees upstream, from within the falls...
From High Force we headed North along some more bendy roads (so occasionally pointing Southwest to go North). Seeing as we were heading into Scotland, it seemed rude not to take a trip to Hadrian's Wall...
The Wall was built around 1900 years ago by the Romans at the then-Northmost-end of their Empire in Britain, to prevent raids by the naughty Pictish folk on the Roman Britains. It spanned about 80 miles between the Solway Firth in the West and the River Tyne in the East. Quite a lot of it has been lost to time and farmers (who used the stones from the wall on their land to make other structures for themselves), but significant parts of it remain.
Our crossing of it took place at Milecastle 49, on the Northumbria/Cumbria border:
Milecastle 49, looking east - Alba to the right, Caledonia to the left.
Looking out into Caledonia from Milecastle 49
And with that, on to Gretna!
At this point we're both in Gretna and, technically, England for a whole 10 more feet...
How do you know when you're in Scotland?
Day 2
Day 2 was planned so that we could go see daan and his baanhammer via the most direct, circuitous route possible. daan is North of here, so let's go... WEST!
West is Dumfries which, amongst other things, has the oldest Camera obscura in the UK. That sounds lovingly geeky... Let's hit it!
For the unaware, a camera obscura in this context is like a huge pinhole camera. The one in Dumfries is a converted windmill, with a lens on top. Light from all around goes into the lens mounted in the pinhole and down onto a white dish which the operator can adjust for height (and thus focus). On a clear day you can see all around the town of Dumfries (and it's quite spooky to see cars going through the middle of what looks like a still photograph) plus you can use it to safely observe the Sun.
The former windmill
The "pinhole"
The images - a little blurry 'cos of extreme darkness in the room + compact digital cameras sucking at low light conditions
And so we left Dumfries in a sort-of-north-westerly direction to head for Ayr. Well... almost to Ayr anyway... Some bendy roads aside (driving in Scotland is fun), there was a certain little diversion along the way we just had to visit...
The Electric Brae!
As the stone says, an optical illusion makes the slope you're on look like it slopes the other way. So if you park up at the stone and take the hand/parking/emergency brake off, you roll downhill but look lie you're rolling uphill. Before it could be reliably measured, folk thought that the island off the shore was magnetic lodestone and pulled your car uphill towards it (which it isn't, and doesn't):
The alleged lodestone...
One quick experiment later (there's a video - I couldn't be bothered uploading it yet), and we went off to Ayr and, thereafter, daan...
Nessie on Ayr beach...
Day 3
We decided for day 3 that, with the waterfalls and the camera obscura and the uphill-pully-sea-nipple, we hadn't quite yet been geeky enough, so hitched a ride in the Peugeot of Powaah to the Glasgow Science Centre. On the way we saw some Big Heids and a wireframe horse:
"Big Heids", brought to you by the guy who built this train out of bricks near Darlington:
Brick Train. Near Darlington. And nowhere near us. But I did take the photo and it's the same bloke who did the Big Heids above.
Wireframe horse. I have no idea of the back story to this.
And so on to the Glasgow Science Centre which is full of, amongst other things, hundreds of scientific toys for kids to attempt to destroy, a Plane_arium and a spinny tower.
A spinny tower? What?
It's a spinny tower, okay?
This tower, operated by four motors (though apparently just one would do the job - or 12 strong men - but they use four for smoothness and stability) turns so that the leading edge is always facing the prevailing wind. It can - and is currently the only tower in the world which can - rotate through a full 360 degrees, though it tends to always face the same rough direction since the wind generally always comes from the same sort of place.
At the very bottom of the tower, the whole structure narrows to a point just 65cm across (about 25 inches) upon which the whole load of the tower rests. The point rests in a similarly-sized cup and acts as a friction bearing - occasionally the whole 500 ton tower is jacked up and the two faces are greased.
And you can go up it in a lift. And yes, it moves while you're up there...
Looking across Glasgow from the tower - Ibrox (Glasgow Rangers)
Looking down the tower to the bearing. Yes, that's ALL it sits on. Really.
Pausing only for a brief round of ten pins and a late dinner at Ye Francis & Benjamin's Finest New Amsterdam Eaterie, we headed back for the daanland and Day 4.
Day 4
Day 4 was where the geek hit hardest. Day 4 was the day of...
THE FALKIRK WHEEL!
The Falkirk Wheel
The Falkirk Wheel
For those not in the know, The Falkirk Wheel is, currently, the only rotating vertical boat lift in the world, bridging the height difference between the Union and Falkirk and Clyde Canals - something that used to be done with 11 locks and 4 hours, now takes just 3 minutes. Because the containers (caissons) weigh exactly the same with or without boats in them (Archimedes principle - one of the Wheel's 2 dedicated boats is named Archimedes), the whole mechanism requires very minimal electricity to operate - quoted by the tour guide at the equivalent of boiling just two electric kettles to move the 1000 ton total mass of the wheel (160 of which is in the caissons).
With the help of TB, what takes 3 minutes in real life now takes just 5 seconds
Keep watching - it'll unscrew itself...
In the meantime:
Wheel in action...
Also wheel in action...
A view down the Union Canal to the Wheel
On from one piece of legendary engineering in Scotland, we took a circuitous route to another - the two Forth crossings:
*Actual size
Pressing on towards Coldstream - still in Scotland by inches (and the River Tweed) - where we stopped the night.
Day 5
Day 5 was a new experience for both me and Mrs. Satnavwoman, who got a little upset when asked to display this:
ST220 - so good it walks on water
Yeeeeeees, a trip across the Causeway to Lindisfarne. For the uninitiated, Lindisfarne Causeway is tidal - 8 hours a day it's underwater, hence Mrs. Satnavwoman's discomfort. Lindisfarne is also known as "Holy Island" and contains more old stuff than you can shake an admittedly quite small stick at.
Lindisfarne Castle
Lindisfarne Priory
Lindisfarne Castle from Lindisfarne Priory
Harbour at Lindisfarne with tide ebbing
And with that it was back into the cars and a dull, but quick, drive home.
(some images may not load if Imageshack are being stupids - reload if necessary)
every time i go passed it on the way to falkirk ive always seen it go round clockwise,there should have been a scottish gtp pub meet 
.
