Home Sweet Home

Now there's a confusing title for you... Home Scotland, or Home France?  Well, for this little ditty, I shall go with Scotland...

rather draughty, but I call it home

I took over 500 photographs during my two weeks in Scotland.  That's not bad going, even for me!  I shall concede, however, that 500 photos in one post may just be a tad on the WAY TOO MANY side, so I think a few posts may be the order of the day.  Well, order of the weekend, anyway...

I don't usually take the time to be a tourist in my local town.  It's my local town - I've been going there for as long as I remember... and more.  And, like most folk, I haven't really paid much attention to it...  Familiarity breeds, well certainly not contempt, because I love the town, but I guess you just get used to things being there and not looking at them any more...

SO... I embarrassed my DS (again) by taking photos about town when I was home... (Hai K!) 

The one up top is not, as you may have guessed, my home. It is in fact the ruins of the cathedral.  Building started on it around 1130, but thanks to several incidents, (e.g. shortly after the nave was completed, the west end of the cathedral was blown down in a gale in 1270. This was rebuilt in a slightly different position, where parts of it remain today. Then the English stripped the lead from the part-built roofs to make shot during the Wars of Independence. In 1378 the cathedral was badly damaged by fire and had to be extensively rebuilt. And in 1409 it was the turn of the end of the south transept to collapse under the force of a winter storm) it is now in a ruinous state.  Very picturesque, though!

cathedral centre, the roundel house left, and the pends right...

the roundel house with the typical fife/dutch gabling

Then we have the castle.  Poor old castle - there's not much left...

castle and castle sands, with the old step rock bathing pool

The site was fortified by the 1100s, and from around 1200 it was adopted as the main residence of the bishops and archbishops of St Andrews. As such, the Castle became the principal administrative centre of the Scottish Church and was the setting for some of the key events in Scottish history.

main range and gate

The Holy Trinity Church is one that I've walked past thousands of times, but never gone in... until now.  And I was much taken aback - it is very beautiful indeed...

autumn colours - beautiful!

erm - wow!

The church itself dates in parts from circa 1412 (March 15th, possibly around tea-time) and the stained glass windows (although being relatively modern) took my breath away...

:: sighs happily ::

And there's more of the town to show... but I shall leave them for another day... I'm nice like that!