The Ham Nomads

5 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Maybole, & Alloway, & Tarbolton, S Ayr; Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park —

Woke up after a good rest in our layby! Scotland is afore us!

We set off, and only a couple of miles up the road noticed an abbey, Crossraguel Abbey. Decided to pull in and have a look around. Good choice! You remember how we tracked Brian Boru through Ireland -- well, we now have the opportunity to track Robert the Bruce through Scotland. Crossraguel Abbey is a Historic Scotland site, which ties in with English Heritage. Because we are in our first year of English Heritage, entry is half price (in later years, it would have been totally free -- but who's counting!). This abbey was founded in the 1200s, and belonged to the Cluniac Order. In our first European Trip, in 1979, Warren made a point of visiting the Abbey at Cluny, as it was the source of the Cluniac Reforms of the early middle ages that he had studied in Medieval History, so this ties in well! But another claim to fame for this particular abbey is that it was where Robert the Bruce was christened.

Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

Driving on, in Maybole we struck roadworks and a diversion through the back streets of the town. Would have been easy, but for cars parked in places they shouldn't, and oncoming huge semitrailers. But we got through — but we never got back onto the A77! Instead, we wre on the B7024, quite a good road, and heading in the direction we wanted. You can't say the Hams don't fall on their feet. The B7024 took us into Alloway (just short of Ayr), and to Robert Burns' Birthplace. There's a beautiful museum there, devoted to Burns — well worth anyone making a huge detour to get to see it! And it's run by the National Trust of Scotland, so we had free entry! We walked around, immersing ourselves in Burns. We broke our rule again here and bought the official guide — it has the full text of Tam o'Shanter, one of his best loved poems — it tells a ghost story based around the ruined Alloway Auld Kirk — which just happened to be over the road, so we could visit it. Must point out that Burns is best loved because he wrote in the Scots Language — some call it Lollands — which takes a little getting used to, but has a music of its own.

Burns Cottage

After wandering the museum for about an hour, we walked through the Poet's Path, which has statues — mainly weathervanes — illustrating some of Burns' poems, particularly To a mouse ('Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie'), and the aforementioned Tam o'Shanter. This took us up to Burns Cottage, where Robert spent his formative years. This has been turned into an educational centre, mainly for children, but the structure of the cottage has been put back to the way it was when Burns lived there.

Robert Burns Monument

Back down the road, and we visited the Auld Kirk before walking down past the inn (to the tune of bagpipes — there was a wedding going on there!) to the Robert Burns Memorial. This has only recently been take over by the National Trust, and is in the earliest stages of restoration. There had been water leakage for decades, which had come through beneath the layers of paint and effectively stripped the pant from the interior dome and walls. The structure has been waterproofed, but is now in the process of drying out before any further work can be done. This is a matter of years, not months, and in the meantime the Trust is working towards raising the £200,000 needed for the work!

Brig o' Doon

Went outside and walked the gardens — a very popular spot! The roses were in full bloom. There is a huge, glorious display of red roses ('My love is like a red, red rose'), and there is a small building towards the bottom which contains three statues, the three central characters in Tam o'Shanter. We left the garden at its bottom gate, and walked across the Brig o' Doon (The Bridge on the River Doon), which is apparently a favourite place for lovers' trysts, again because of the influence of Burns. When you hear 'Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon', it is this river he is referring to. We also wonder if the title of the musical "Brigadoon' has any relation to this place.

From here, we adjourned to the museum cafe for — you guessed it — coffee and scones.

Our Burns day was not yet over. In reading the information in the National Trust's guidebooks, we realised that the Bachelor's Club, in Tarbolton, about 8 miles to the northeast, was also a Burns site, so we set off for it. It's only open 2pm-5pm, 5 days per week — but luckily, today was one of those days. We got there at about 3.45. This building had been modified by its owner at the time to turn its upper two rooms into one large room, which he made available at no charge to people from the village. This was the place where the 18-year-old Burns went to learn to dance at the weekly dancing class (was it the dancing, or was it the young women??). He also used it a bit later on when he formed a debating club which met weekly. One of the rules for the club was that all members had to be bachelors, so this is why the club (and now the building) was called the Bachelors' Club. The same room was used by the Masonic Lodge into which Burns was later inducted. The caretaker/guide at this site was a true Burns fan, and he rattled off story after story about Burns and his family. He also rattled off performances (one could hardly call them less) of some of Rabbie Burns' best known poems! We spent a highly entertaining hour there!

It was now coming up to 5pm. We decided to set our sights for parts further north and, leaving Glasgow for our return southerly journey, we drove into the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. We drove on, up to Inveruglas, where we pulled off into a picnic spot on the banks of Loch Lomond to spend the night.

Loch Lomond

Distance driven — today, 93 miles ( 150 km ); to date, 3,660 miles ( 5,891 km )