Discovery

Dundee 2026 #5

I didn't know that, in a dry dock right next to Dundee's V&A, sits one of the great historic ships, RSS Discovery. She was built in Dundee and launched in 1901, the first ship designed specifically for Antarctic scientific research. Built with heavily reinforced wooden hulls to withstand pack ice, she was one of the last three-masted wooden ships to be built in this country, though she also has a steam engine. She carried Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their groundbreaking 1901-1904 Discovery Expedition, where she spent two years trapped in ice before she was freed. In 1925 she was designated a Royal Research Ship and returned to Antarctica to conduct extensive oceanographic studies to conserve whale populations. She has quite a history beyond that, which you can read about HERE.

Alongside the ship, there is a large and very interesting museum to explore, which I found much more fascinating than I expected to. It details not only Discovery's history but also various other Antarctic explorations and the ships involved, with lots of details, photographs, videos and artefacts. Many of these are well-documented and the stories of the men involved and the hardships endured are legendary. 

Once you've explored the museum you're free to board the ship and marvel at the strength of its construction - layer upon layer of massive oak planks and other woods, carefully designed to withstand the harsh conditions. You can tour the crew's quarters - the huge table in the officers' mess:

Captain Scott's cabin:

A bunk room for the sailors:

I was intrigued by the ingenuity of the design. 'Salt boxes' opened into the space between the inner and outer hulls. These were literally filled with rock salt, to soak up any moisture and preserve the timber. 

It asked you to consider things like what provisions they took with them, and how the holds were packed with supplies so that the ship was balanced and stable. 

I couldn't help but marvel at the resilience of the men - sailors and scientists - on the expeditions. They didn't have our advanced technology so, even in things like the clothes they wore, they had to be resourceful and ingenious to deal with the harsh conditions. They were geologists, naturalists,  oceanographers and photographers and the research they did was foundational to our understanding of the mysterious Antarctic region.  

 

Leeds Wagon Lifting Tower

I met a friend in Leeds recently. We had two objectives: 1) A coffee and a good catch-up 2) To find and explore the Leeds Wagon Lifting Tower mini museum. Both were achieved!

Just to the west of Leeds railway station there's a large area of development called Wellington Place, a  new urban quarter, 'blending high-specification office space with all the perks of the city centre: independent restaurants, enviable facilities and attractive outdoor spaces'. It is indeed quite an interesting area, with wide pedestrian boulevards linking modern high-rise glass office blocks. In the middle sits one of the last remaining pieces of history in this area: one of the twin towers that, using steam power and hoists, lifted railway wagons down from the rail viaduct that spanned the river and canal to deposit them in the Great Northern Goods Yard, at a lower level, ready to be unloaded. 

On the ground floor there is a tiny museum with old signs, photographs and sketches showing its history and how the area used to look between the 1850s and 1950s when it finally closed down. There were originally several rail stations in the city, belonging to the various railway companies. Eventually they were amalgamated into the existing Leeds station. 

It's a fascinating little piece of history and good to see a bit of Leeds' past restored and incorporated into the new urban quarter, part of Leeds' future. 

St Monan's to Anstruther

Back to the Fife holiday 2026 #7

The next day's walking promised to be much wetter, so it was on with the waterproofs! It didn't start off too badly, just drizzle, but by lunchtime the rain was pretty heavy. We joined the Fife Coastal Path more or less where the group had stopped the previous day in a village called St Monan's, another of the East Neuk fishing villages. The stocky looking building with the spire to the west of the village is its church, dating back to the 1300s, though it's no longer used for worship. It's known as the closest church to the sea in the whole of Scotland, perched on rocks. We didn't pass it so I didn't get to see inside. 

Along the seashore we skirted one of several tidal swimming pools that seem popular along the Fife coast. I'm not sure that they are all still maintained and used but their outline is clear. 

We passed the sole surviving (restored) windmill in Fife, built in the late 18th century to pump sea water into covered pans (see the ruins below). Coal from the local mine was burned in furnaces to evaporate the water and the salt residue was used mainly for food (fish) preservation. Production ceased in 1820. 

Somewhere along this stretch of coast we saw these vibrant orange rocks. Whether the colour was caused by lichen or by some kind of iron deposit I'm not sure, but they were very striking. 

As we approached Pittenweem along the coastal path we climbed up to a park, which had a small shelter covered in murals of local wildlife and boats. It was chucking it down with rain by this point so my camera was picking up rain spots. I put it away shortly afterwards and started using my phone, which is easier to keep dry! I liked the puffin picture, though I'm not aware that we saw any real ones on our travels. 

Having 'done' Pittenweem the day before, I didn't take any photos here and we didn't linger anyway, trying to make headway in the rain. This picture below is looking back, as we walked on towards Anstruther and Cellardyke.  

St Fillan's Cave

Fife holiday 2026 #6

The name Pittenweem comes from the Gaelic, meaning 'place of the cave'. In a sandstone outcrop above Pittenweem harbour, there is a natural cave, probably carved by an underground river thousands of years ago. It is linked to the Irish missionary, St Fillan, who is said to have lived here for several years around AD 640. Inside the Y-shaped cave is a stone altar where pilgrims visit and occasional services are still held.

Fillan is said to have lived in the cave for several years, writing sermons by the light of his luminous left arm! The cave is very dark and damp, so having his own bodily illumination must have been very helpful! 

The cave is next to the medieval wall of Pittenweem Priory, and later the monks carved a stairway and cellar into the solid rock of the cave, linking it to the priory garden. The cave was owned by the Priory from roughly 1221 until 1560, after which it became a fishermen's store and (so they say) a smugglers' hiding place. 

There's a painting in there, depicting St Fillan and another saint. 

The cave entrance is on Cove Wynd, a picturesque lane leading down to the harbour. To gain access, you have to borrow a key from a chocolate shop in the village. The entrance is through a low doorway and there is a small window cut into the rock to admit a little light. These are thought to have been added around 1600. 

The mural on the wall was designed and erected by children from the local primary school. The cave is a fascinating place, though I wouldn't like to have lived in there! 

Exploring Crail

Fife holiday 2026 #4

The planned walk for the second full day was from Leven to St Monans, about 13 miles. I'm sure it was beautiful but, having walked what was (for me) quite a distance the day before, I decided to err on the safe side and have a gentler day. I also wanted time to explore the area in greater detail and take a few, more considered photos, so I ambled around Crail all morning. It was bright and dry but freezing cold! I had to go back to base and put a few more clothes on, including my woolly hat, which I was glad to have taken with me. I'm not sure you should need a woolly hat in June but that's the UK for you! 

Beyond the harbour to the west there's a curve of beach, the end of which you can see in the photo above. I spent some time round the harbour, taking more note of the various old buildings. The large white building on the right was once the Customs House, a late 17th century building with crowstep gables. Some of the adjoining cottages are even older than that.

It was in the harbour that I spotted my first eider ducks - a mummy and two chicks. A true coastal duck, they are resident all around the Scottish coast and the far north of England. It's an amber listed species, meaning it requires monitoring but is not yet critically endangered or facing severe, immediate extinction risks. We saw quite a few of them on our walks and thankfully there appeared to be good numbers of chicks still surviving. 

There are some wonderful old buildings in Crail. Look at the one above, gorgeous red sandstone and rough hewn stones. The marker above the front door was, annoyingly, obscured by the creeper. I've looked it up online and found: 'The date stone above the front door of 'The Auld Hoose' reads 1686 but is actually a marriage lintel reflecting the earliest owners of this ancient house - George Dishington and Jean (or perhaps Isobel) Strachan. The house is actually older than 1686 and a part of the garden wall has been dated to 1540.'

Along Marketgate, you can see the old Mercat (market) cross, signifying the right of the village to hold a market. The shaft dates from the 17th Century. The cap and unicorn and the octagonal steps were added for Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887. It was here that important proclamations were read. Punishment was also served here, with miscreants attached by an iron collar to the cross.

Also on Marketgate, one of the finest houses in the village, Kirkmay House, which sits in its own grounds within a large gateway. The Georgian Regency era house was built in 1817 by Robert Ingis, the owner of Kirkmay Estate. It later became a hotel and is now, apparently, converted into flats, which perhaps accounts for the blocking up of some of the original windows. 

Next door is St Mary's Church, parts of which date back to 1175. Its graveyard has many interesting tombs, with some  large family plots. I don't fully understand the history of the Scottish church but apparently John Knox preached here in 1559, starting a riot and setting a mob on a path of destruction of churches all the way to St. Andrews! Life is quieter now.

The church door was open but there was a man painting the door, with tarps spread on the floor and paint paraphernalia all over. I judged it best to leave him to it and not try to barge through his working area - so I never got to see inside. 

Beyond the church, on the edge of the village, I found a charming community garden and woodland, quite idyllic, with flowerbeds and lawns giving way to a sinuous walk through a wood bisected by a little stream. Volunteers were busy planting out bedding plants and their friendly border collie came to suss me out and see if I was worth 'herding'.

For me, the most fascinating of Crail's buildings is 'The Doocot' or dovecote. It's a 16th century 'beehive' doocot, with 700 nest boxes, used to house pigeons that provided food - meat and eggs - and whose droppings were used for tanning leather and making gunpowder. In 1503 King James IV ordered all local lords to build doocots to help provide food for the community but, as the years progressed, there were complaints that pigeons from neighbouring properties were eating grain before it was harvested. By 1617 another law was necessary, restricting doocots to owners of land that produced enough grain within 2 miles of the doocot. This was to ensure that the pigeons fed on the landowner's own crops. The building has recently been extensively restored. 

The Doocot stands at the far eastern end of Crail village, overlooking the rocky coastline. There's a large wind farm out to sea, which you may just about be able to discern on the horizon.

Watch out for the rain!!

The story in the stones

There are a few houses at the top of Saltaire's Victoria Road, built of stone blocks that I find fascinating. (There may be others similar in the village, though I can't say I've noticed if there are.) The blocks have a striated pattern, presumably caused when they were originally quarried. Over the years of air pollution in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the stone has become blackened. (Some of Saltaire's building have had their stonework cleaned back to the original honey colour but these don't appear to have had that treatment.) The striations show up really clearly and almost look like some ancient written code. There is actually an early medieval alphabet called Ogham - found primarily on stones and monuments in Ireland, though I saw some in a church in Wales (see HERE). The striations remind me of that. 

Lights, Camera, Brontë

The Spring exhibition at East Riddlesden Hall is: Lights, Camera, Brontë: East Riddlesden Hall on Screen. Capitalising, I suppose, on the current frenzy around the new film version of 'Wuthering Heights', it 'uncovers the Hall's starring role in over a century of film and television adaptations of Emily Brontë’s iconic novel'. 

It seems the first version of 'Wuthering Heights', filmed here in 1920, was a silent black and white movie, starring Milton Rosmer as the brooding Heathcliffe and Ann Trevor as the wild free-spirit, Cathy.  A bit of a bodice-ripper, by the looks of the still (below)...  Sadly, the film itself has been lost. Some of the rooms in the Hall have been reimagined for the exhibition using the surviving screenplay, still photos and the director's notes to recreate aspects of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. 

The Hall has a genuine connection to the Brontës, as it was saved from demolition (after a twenty year fight) and donated to the National Trust in 1934 by the Brigg brothers, local historians and philanthropists, who were also instrumental in setting up the Brontë Society and the first Brontë museum in Haworth in the 1890s. 

East Riddlesden was also used for filming in 1992 for the 'Wuthering Heights' version starring Ralph Fiennes, and in 2009 for an ITV version. It has featured too in Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life', 'Sharpe's Justice', 'Lost In Austen' and Channel 5's 'Anne Boleyn'. 

In the kitchen there's this huge grain ark, used for storing grain to make bread. It would have held enough to bake about 190 loaves.