TRAVEL THE BACK DOOR WAY - Recently Updated Pages

Glasgow

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:48:45 CDT

Glasgow in Scots or Glaschu in Gaelic meaning "dear green place";) is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom.

The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands, and a person from Glasgow is known as a Glaswegian.

Glasgow grew from the medieval Bishopric of Glasgow and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow, which contributed to the Scottish Enlightenment. From the 18th century the city became one of Europe's main hubs of transatlantic trade with the Americas.

With the Industrial Revolution, the city and surrounding region grew to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of engineering and shipbuilding, constructing many revolutionary and famous vessels.

Today it is one of Europe's top twenty financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's leading businesses.

Edinburgh

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:43:56 CDT

The Old Town of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings.

One end is closed by the castle and the main artery, the Royal Mile, leads away from it, down to the now-ruined Holyrood Abbey. Narrow closes (alleyways), often no more than a few feet wide, lead downhill on either side of the main spine in a herringbone pattern. Large squares mark the location of markets or surround major public buildings such as St Giles Cathedral and the supreme courts.

The street layout, typical of the old quarters of many northern European cities, is made especially picturesque in Edinburgh, where the castle perches on top of a rocky crag, the remnants of an extinct volcano, and the main street runs down the crest of a ridge from it.

The topography for the city is known as "crag and tail" and was created during the last ice age when receding glaciers scored across the land pushing soft soil aside but being split by harder crags of volcanic rock. The hilltop crag was the earliest part of the city to develop, becoming fortified and eventually developing into the current Edinburgh Castle. The rest of the city grew slowly down the tail of land from the Castle Rock. This was an easily defended spot with marshland on the south and a loch, the Nor Loch, on the north. Access up the main road to the settlement was therefore restricted by means of various gates and a City Wall, of which only fragmentary sections remain.

East Wemyss

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:12:50 CDT

A village of Fife, East Wemyss lies on the Firth of Forth, 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Kirkcaldy. Formerly known as Castleton, it stands close to the ruins of 16th-century Macduff's Castle which was the home of the Wemyss family before they built Wemyss Castle. The village takes its name from the 'weems' or caves in the sandstone cliffs which contain Pictish and early Christian symbols.

Between 1898 and 1967 the majority of the people in East Wemyss relied on the nearby Michael Coal Pit for employment. The largest pit in Scotland at nationalisation in 1946, it was closed after an undersea fire caused the death of nine miners.

At the far end of the village you find the churchyard wall, complete with its imposing memorial dated 1703. Beyond the wall is Wemyss Parish Church, which was built in 1890. The church was brought from the Church of Scotland by the Wemyss Estate in 1972, who have since maintained the exterior of the building on condition it continues to be used as a church.

West Wemyss is a truly remarkable place. It has a very real and surprisingly significant history, and it has also had far more than its fair share of industrial dereliction and economic decline. But what makes the village remarkable is the way this decline has been reversed by the work of many partners and agencies in recent years: and especially by the work of the Wemyss Estate. It's all too easy to simply accept the sometimes rather negative image of Scottish landowners. But it is very nice to come across an example that helps redress the balance.

Methil

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:08:01 CDT

Methil is a town in the East of Fife, Scotland, situated near the mouth of the River Leven on the Firth of Forth between Buckhaven and Leven. Methil has an ancient history going back to the 12th century, and the town became a barony in 1572.

Although Methil's history stretches back for many centuries the town only really came to prominence towards 1900. It was at this time that the first dock was built at Methil and many of the local pits were sunk, most notably the Wellesley, which stood on the site of the present oilrig construction yard.

The sudden influx of mining families from all over Scotland during the first half of this century made Methil the 'melting pot of Fife. Different religions, cultures and nationalities mixed together giving the town a fairly unique identity. This, added to the speed at which the town grew and the presence of the docks inevitably led to conflict (usually on a Saturday night) and Methil gained an unenviable reputation as rough place, full of fighting miners and drunken sailors and with a prostitution problem which rivaled the bigger ports of Dundee and Leith.

Although there were problems many of the stories were exaggerated. Methil was also one of the busiest shopping areas in Fife. The High Street in Lower Methil once bustled with activity and many traveled from all over Scotland to visit the Wonderstore - a huge department store which took up a large part of the high street. The last big house building program was in the mid 1950's. This took Methil to it's present size, bounded in the north by the river Leven and merging with Methilhill in the west.

Buckhaven

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:59:13 CDT

Buckhaven is an old coastal fishing town on the east coast of Fife, Scotland. The town is often referred to by its inhabitants as Buckhind. A town in Wemyss Parish, Fife, Buckhaven is situated on the Firth of Forth between East Wemyss and Methil.

Once a thriving weaving village and fishing port, it was reported as having in 1831 the second-largest fishing fleet in Scotland with a total of 198 boats. The fishing declined during the 19th Century but in the 1860s Buckhaven developed as a mining town. Although coal waste blackened its beaches and silted up its harbour it later became a Fife coast holiday resort.

Nowadays, it is classed as one of Fife's 'Regeneration areas' in need of regeneration socially and economically. Said to be descended from Norsemen who settled there in the 9th century, its fisherfolk bought an Episcopal Church in St Andrews in 1869 and transported it stone by stone to Buckhaven. Restored in the 1980s, this building was turned into a theatre.

Buckhaven Museum features the history of the fishing industry and other temporary exhibitions.

Dunfermline

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:48:22 CDT

Dunfermline is an ancient settlement located in an easily defended site on rising ground a little over two miles north of the River Forth. The name comes from the Gaelic "Dun Fearam Linn" which translates as "the fort in the bend of the stream".

Malcolm III, who married Queen Margaret in Dunfermline in 1070, built a fortress here, probably on the site of earlier Pictish defences that had given the town its name. Remains in the town's excellent Pittencrieff Park known as Malcolm Canmore's Tower probably mark the location of this fortress. But it was Margaret rather than Malcolm who was responsible for Dunfermline's strong growth through the medieval period. She liked it so much she founded a Benedictine priory here.

Dunfermline grew in importance with its Abbey and the impact on the town of the Reformation in 1560 was lessened by the continued use of parts of the Abbey as a Royal residence in the late 1590s by Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI. By 1624 over a thousand people lived in Dunfermline.

The story of Dunfermline over the intervening centuries was largely an industrial one. In the 1700s it became an important centre for the linen industry and by the end of the 1800s there were five coal mines close to the town in an arc from the west to the north. In the 1900s the naval bases on the north side of the River Forth provided considerable employment for the town.

Cupar

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:41:20 CDT

For much of the past millennium Cupar was the county town of Fife. It inherited this role from the coastal village of Crail in 1214. And it lost it to the new town of Glenrothes on the creation of the Fife Regional Council in 1974.

At about the time it became county town, Cupar also acquired a castle. This, too, was later lost, though its probable location, in Castlefields, remains.

Much of the early wealth so evident in the buildings you see in Cupar today was based on the wool trade, and on the town's central location as a market serving a large part of eastern Fife. This received a setback after the Black Death struck Cupar in 1350, and as a result some of the town's dominance was lost to St Andrews. On the whole, however, Cupar continued to do well and by 1827 a visitor recorded it as "a decidedly prosperous town".

A walk around Cupar today reveals a remarkably bustling town that remains the natural centre of a large part of eastern Fife. Much of the bustle centres on the shopping streets that converge on the Unicorn surmounted Mercat Cross.

Royal Burgh of Anstruther

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:32:16 CDT

Anstruther's association with the fishing industry has not been forgotten. The town is home to the Scottish Fisheries Museum which tells the story of Scottish fishing from the earliest times to the present day. Housed in a fascinating complex of buildings beside the harbour, displays include a recreated cottage belonging to a fishing family as well as a cronological series of displays charting Scotland's fishing heritage.

Anstruther itself is a fascinating town. Take a walk along the cobbled streets through a rabbit-warren of little alleyways and wynds and note the dates on the buildings. In High Street many of the shops still display original signs and advertisements for companies long forgotten. There are restaurants serving local seafood specialities and Anstruther Fish

Royal Burgh of Culross

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:27:11 CDT

A Town which Time has Passed By

To wander through the narrow cobbled streets of the Royal Burgh of Culross is to experience life from a past time. It is without doubt the finest and most complete example of a 17th and 18th century Scottish town.

The cobbled streets, lined with little houses with red pantiled roofs, converge on the Mercat Cross, the centre for the town’s traders. The ochre-coloured walls of Culross Palace, built from 1597 for Sir George Bruce, are topped with crow-stepped gables, overlooking its kitchen gardens and the Firth of Forth.

But Culross today is far from being a museum - it is a living and thriving community. Take time to explore every corner of this fascinating burgh.

You can find out more about Culross and its history in the Town House exhibition, run by the National Trust for Scotland, who restored many of the town’s buildings. The Trust also cares for Bishop Leighton’s Study, with its beautiful painted ceiling and corbelled Outlook Tower. Look out for the many quaint historic features on many of the buildings, such as the carving of a veiled woman on the crow-stepped gable of the house known as The Nunnery on Wee Causeway.

Burghs of Elie & Earlsferry

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:23:49 CDT

Trade in salted fish and agricultural produce with Europe made all these communities among the richest in Scotland. Today, although much of the fishing industry has long since disappeared, Elie and Earlsferry remain popular seaside holiday resorts.

With superb golf courses and watersports facilities, together with a fascinating history, a visit to Elie and Earlsferry will reap rewards.

The burghs of Elie and Earlsferry were united in 1929, but they were once separate burghs with very different origins.

Earlsferry is the older, dating from the 11th century. The Earls of Fife held land at Earlsferry and at North Berwick across the Firth of Forth. A ferry plied between the two, mainly for pilgrims heading for St Andrews. The village probably gained its name from an incident involving MacDuff, the Thane or Earl of Fife in the 11th century. Fleeing from Macbeth, MacDuff hid in MacDuff’s Cave near Kincraig Point until it was possible for local fishermen to take him across the Firth to Dunbar. The ruined building on the headland at Chapel Ness stands on the site of a medieval chapel run by the nuns of North Berwick is said to have been built by MacDuff in 1093 as thanks for his escape.

In contrast to the other villages of the East Neuk, Elie and Earlsferry stand on a sweeping bay with beautiful sands. Indeed, Elie has been awarded a prestigious Blue Flag for its beach, popular with holidaymakers, watersports enthusiasts and even cricketers.

Royal Burgh of St Andrews

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:21:40 CDT

St Andrews has a unique place in Scotland’s heritage. It takes its name from one of Christ’s apostles whose relics, legend tells, St Rule brought to this place. The town was an important religious centre in medieval Scotland and the bishops wielded great influence over church and state. Its priory was a centre of learning; Scotland’s first university was established here.

St Andrews was, and still is, a rich, bustling market town and many features of that time remain in the pattern of streets and wynds, and in the character of the houses and historic sites. One of the many attractions of the town today is the range of its shops and stores which offer both essentials and luxuries.

For many, though, it’s golf that brings them here, champion and dreamer alike. Others come for the beaches, the theatre, for the countryside and the coast. St Andrews is a special place - as you’ll discover. Take time to explore - on foot - and take pleasure at the surprises and delights you will come upon.

Burgh of St Monans

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:20:02 CDT

Trade in salted fish and agricultural produce with Europe made these communities among the richest in Scotland. Today, fishing boats still operate from St Monans, bringing in lobsters and crabs, and boats are still built on a small scale.

St Monans has a long history, based around the sea and the church. It’s traditional fishermen’s cottages with their distinctive outside stairs, known as forestairs, crow-stepped gables and red pantiled roofs, appear unchanged from past times. Take time to wander through the village perching precariously along the shoreline and hugging the harbour wall.

St Monans is perhaps the most typical fishing village in the East Neuk, huddled against the sea wall right on the edge of the shoreline.

The burgh was originally called Inverin, meaning the village at the mouth (inver) of the Inverie burn or stream (rin). St Monans took its present name from the presence of a shrine said to contain the relics of St Monan, the Irish missionary companion of St Adain. The shrine, which became known for its healing powers, attracted pilgrims and a settlement grew up around it to provide shelter, food and souvenirs. King David II visited the shrine in 1362 after being injured at the Battle of Neville’s Cross. His arrow wounds healed, and as a mark of gratitude he built a church, now a distinctive landmark on the shore west of the village.

Burgh of Leven

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:18:16 CDT

The Sun's Own Favourite Resort

So said Leven's publicity posters of years gone by when thousands of holidaymakers from Glasgow flocked to the town. Whilst the hordes have now gone, this ancient burgh at the gateway to the East Neuk remains a popular holiday town. Many still come to enjoy the town's long sandy beach and busy promenade with its amusements, children's play areas and cafés.

Today an impressive swimming pool and interesting parks complement the town’s traditional seaside attractions. Leven’s compact, bustling high street also has a wide variety of shops and restaurants and easy-to-find, free parking.

With magnificent views across Largo Bay and the Firth of Forth, and excellent accommodation, Leven guarantees an enjoyable stay by the sea.

Royal Burgh of Pittenweem

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:16:32 CDT

Today, Pittenweem is the main fishing centre of the East Neuk, a fact celebrated at the annual East Neuk Fish Festival held every August.

The town has a long history, dating back to the 7th century, which is very much connected to the sea. A walk around the town’s winding streets will reveal many treasures - a town whose name is as picturesque as its setting.

Royal Burgh of Dysart

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:14:11 CDT

Dysart is a picturesque coastal village on the shores of the Forth where the past meets the present, with historic buildings, cobbled streets and wynds, and a peaceful harbour where time stands still.

St Serf’s ancient church beside the shore, the 16th century Tolbooth, the whitewashed row of houses at Pan Ha,’ and the harbour which once welcomed tall-masted sailing ships are all reminders of the Royal Burgh’s colourful past.

Today visitors can explore Dysart’s nooks and crannies, stroll along the shore to glimpse seals and dolphins enjoying the ever-changing waters of the Forth, or just sit in the sun in the harbour to forget the cares of the world.

The harbour was once a busy trading port, with ships bringing in timber, pantiles, wine and spirits and leaving with their holds filled with coal, and is now a popular centre for small boats and yachts. The roomy free car park is a good starting-off place for a pleasant stroll round the harbour area, giving visitors the chance to see the local Sailing Club members working on their boats, building new ones, or sailing in the Forth. This is also a popular spot for anglers who fish from the pier or from small boats for mackerel or sea trout, and lobster fishermen who set their creels.

Wildlife is plentiful, with seals, dolphins and porpoises putting in regular appearances, heron and ducks with their young at the water’s edge, and occasionally a fox or wild mink can be spotted.

Royal Burgh of Kirkcaldy

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:10:29 CDT

One of Scotland’s most ancient burghs, Kirkcaldy has a history stretching back to before the 11th century. It was the birthplace of the economist Adam Smith in 1723 and, five years later, the architect Robert Adam.

Kirkcaldy became an industrial centre in the 19th century, and was the first town to use the power loom, which revolutionised the weaving industry. In later years it became world renowned as the centre for linoleum production.

Today it is still a thriving community, a superb centre for shopping and has some of the finest leisure facilities available. Its unique attractions include the Links Market, the longest street fair in Europe, which takes place every April, and a superb museum and art gallery featuring some of the best of Scottish art and treasures.

With its surrounding coastal towns and villages fringing the Firth of Forth, take time to explore the lang toun of Kirkcaldy .

Royal Burgh of Burntisland

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:08:32 CDT

Burntisland's history is long and varied. As far back as prehistoric times, right up to the present day, the town's fortunes have been linked closely to the sea. The natural harbour over the centuries has been used for fishing, trade, shipbuilding and even a ferry terminal.

Sandwiched between the sea and Dunearn Hill to the north west, Burntisland is a mix of busy harbour, historic buildings that reflect the town's fascinating history and a busy seaside resort, boasting a coveted Blue Flag beach. Holidaymakers started visiting Burntisland in Victorian times, and the Links - the grassy stretch of land bordering the beach and sea - was alive with entertainments to amuse the early tourists.

But it has not just been tourists who have visited Burntisland. Scottish monarchs, possibly the Romans and certainly Oliver Cromwell all landed on the shores, and the town's illustrious residents have helped shape the future of nations.

Take time to explore Burntisland's streets to uncover an enthralling and colourful history.

Fife Coastal Path

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:05:58 CDT

The Fife Coastal Path stretches from North Queensferry in the south stretching for 150 kms to the Tay Bridge in the north.

Each corner holds another secret for you to discover, historic castles and caves, quaint fishing villages and award winning beaches. With rugged cliffs, long sandy beaches, internationally important estuaries and wildlife reserves, walking the Fife Coastal Path is an experience not to be missed!

www.fifecoastalpath.co.uk

TRAVEL THE BACK DOOR WAY

BFraser — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:35:18 CDT

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain

Have you ever wanted to travel on your own but weren't sure if you could. Just the word tour gives you visions of 14 cities in 14 days. Well then you've never heard of a Rick Steves' tour. As a Canadian one might think it would be a challenge using an travel company from the US, but Rick Steves' Europe travel company customer service people were great to deal with and very knowledgeable.

As a single person who likes to travel finding the right tour can be a challenge. Best of Europe in 21 Days, Best of France in 15 Days and Best of Village Italy in 14 Days were perfect. It provided me with the benefit of someone else doing the driving, booking our hotels and getting us access into all those key tourist places with hours of free time to see the things I wanted to see.

This kind of tour also had the added bonus of getting to make some great new friends.

Best of Europe Friends

Best of France Friends

Best of Village Italy Friends

Here are my trips through the back door:

Scotland - 2005 (travel on my own)

Best of Europe in 21 days - 2006

Best of France in 15 days - 2007

Best of Village Italy in 14 days 2007

Tips & Hints

Contact Information:

bbfraser2@hotmail.com

Best of Village Italy in 14 days - 2007

BFraser — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:59:26 CST

The famous poet Carlo Goldoni wrote, "If Italy is the garden of Europe, Tuscany is the garden of Italy."

Meandering through the rolling hills and lush valleys of the Tuscan countryside, you might get the feeling that you have slipped into a separate world - followed by the feeling that you do not want to leave.

Pour a glass of vino, cozy up and let this video take you on a romantic voyage alone gracefully curving roads, rolling meadows, vine-clad hills, and picturesque towns atop ancient foothills. Experience your own Tuscan Journey - and don't feel the need to hurry back.

Padova