I did not know that Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet, was a Customs Agent, or Exciseman as they were known, who spent part of his career in Dumfries.  After a very welcoming evening with Richard and Celia the next morning saw us walking around Dumfries with them taking us to landmarks with a connection to Robert Burns.  There is a suggested route that takes in many of those landmarks.  (Was that enough of a plug Celia?)

After walking through the town centre, we cross the Devorgilla Bridge, built in 1431 to visit the Old Bridge House Museum. In Robert Burns’ time this was a pub.   While we were told at the museum that there is no currently known evidence that Robert Burns drank there, I think I should start a rumour that he did. His gregarious nature and his employment as an Exciseman, he would be required to visit such places.  After all I saw a sign on Pennsylvania Ave, between the White House and the D.C. Capitol in 2015, saying “Trump coming in 2016” and that turned out to be true, even though the sign actually related to the conversion of the Post Office building to a Trump hotel, it was doubly accurate. 

We bid our farewells to Richard and Celia as we head for the Scottish Highlands. The Irish rain has now become the Scottish rain, we do however seem to get gaps which we try to ride in, not always successfully. We by-pass Glasgow heading north towards Glencoe where we plan to meet up with Sarah, my cousin Jeff’s daughter, and her partner Liam. We have not seen Sarah in many years.  Time does fly.  They are coming south heading to the island of Mull, so Glencoe makes a good meeting point for both of all. 

It is interesting to travel the same road as we did back in September 2019 with totally different weather. Looking at the blog entry all I see is blue sky!  Still you take what you get and that makes it all the more interesting.

Sarah and Liam are well organised campers and soon have a brew going, with biscuits made to Jeff’s recipe to go to munch on. Great to have caught up. 

We spend the night camping at the Blackwater Hostel and Campsite at Kinlochleven. Located right next to the Kinlochleven Hydro-Electric Power station. Originally commissioned in 1909 to supply power to an Aluminium Smelter, it is still in use today generating green electricity for over 100 years. The hostel is perfectly located for the hiking trails that radiate from there including the West Highland Way.  Our tent seems huge compared to the tiny tents carried by the intrepid hikers including three walking from Lands End to John O’Groats. A drying locker provides the perfect place for our soggy motorcycle gear.  It is locked at night probably for security, but the overpowering smell of dozens of sweaty socks and rows of waterlogged clothing that greets you when the door opens would put off all but the most hardened pilferers.

This is the most Northerly point on our journey and we now head back towards Edinburgh in the rain. Seems an ongoing theme is emerging here. We will spend the night in Dunblane Hydro Hotel, we are over camping!  We arrive early at the hotel before our room is ready and a lounge is opened just so we can watch the Wimbledon men’s final.  Ah luxury.

With a wet weather front due to pass through our planned route south on Tuesday, we decide to delay our departure from Scotland by a day and take the train to Edinburgh instead of riding. We will leave Streak and Storm overnight and return to stay the next night. This turns out to be very beneficial as work in settling up for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival sees many parking spaces and roads near our destination being closed. We are visiting Anne’s nephew Matthew.

Matthew, a Dominican priest, lives in the Dominican Edinburgh Priory.  We are privileged to stay at the Priory for a night and gain a small insight to his life and that of the brothers. Thank you all for your hospitality. It is interesting to learn that the row of early Georgian houses, of which the Dominican Priory is one, would have been demolished if sold to the university some decades ago.  The recently built chapel annex to the priory shows what can be done to combine modern needs with older buildings.

We return to Dunblane the long way round via the Forth Rail Bridge.  This imposing and well known structure, which became a UNSECO World Heritage Site in 2015, was opened in 1890 and still carries trains, including ours, today. The trains do look small and insignificant running across the bridge when seen from sea level. It is interesting to note that there are two road bridges nearby spanning the Firth of Forth. The original Fourth road bridge reached the end of its useful life after only 60 years while the rail bridge is over  130 years old and appears to have weathered time better.

Back to the Doubletree Hydro in Dunblane, Streak and Storm waiting for us, and an upgrade to a penthouse, with rooms everywhere it seems. The lounge provided a great space to fully dry the tent, probably not what the hotel imagined we would use it for. Many thanks again to the staff who all provided excellent service during our stay.