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“Who possesses this landscape?
The man who bought it or I who am possessed by it?”

– Norman MacCaig, A Man in Assynt

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The Pilgrimage ….. The nine mile round trip walk

The Pilgrimage
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The nine mile round trip walk to Sandwood Bay is well worth the reward. This special place is about as remote (and clean/unspoiled) as any on mainland Britain, but the Vikings used it as a dock for their longboats and a rest area as they made their way around Scotland, the Picts lived here and, until the Clearances, Scots lived and farmed here. Each of them would have told stories about their lives that we can scarcely imagine, and it is of their existences and experiences I think of most as I trudge out here and take in the magnificent beauty of this little part of Scotland.
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🎶 Pilgrimage by Duncan Chisholm, which was inspired by the walk to Sandwood.
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#scotland #sandwoodbay #sandwood #highlands #visitscotland #scotspirit #thisisscotland #lovescotland #insta_scotland #hiddenscotland #scotexplore #loves_scotland
#ig_scotland #ScotlandIsNow #scotlandsbeauty #unlimitedscotland #takeninscotland #great_wide_somewhere #simplyscotland #scotlandmagazine #thescottishcollective

“Who owns this landscape? Has owning anything to

“Who owns this landscape?
Has owning anything to do with love?
For it and I have a love-affair, so nearly human
we even have quarrels. –
When I intrude too confidently
it rebuffs me with a wind like a hand
or puts in my way
a quaking bog or loch
where no loch should be. Or I turn stonily
away, refusing to notice
the rouged rocks, the mascara
under a dripping ledge, even
the tossed, the stony limbs waiting.”
- Norman MacCaig, A Man in Assynt
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I was lucky enough to be able to visit Assynt, easily one of my favourite parts of Scotland, with my friends last week. Showing them places like the Wailing Widow Waterfall from above and below was delightful - just wish I’d thought to suggest we pack our swimming things for the plunge pool below the waterfall!
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#scotland #waterfall #visitscotland #scotspirit #thisisscotland #lovescotland #insta_scotland #hiddenscotland #scotexplore #loves_scotland
#ig_scotland #ScotlandIsNow #scotlandsbeauty #unlimitedscotland #takeninscotland #great_wide_somewhere #simplyscotland #scotlandmagazine #thescottishcollective #nc500

When the clouds part, it’s a bonnie wee part par

When the clouds part, it’s a bonnie wee part part of the world, this.

📍 Coldingham Bay in pictures 1 and 2, and St Abbs’ harbour (a 15min walk around the coast) in picture 3.
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#scotland #coldinghambay #stabbs #scottishborders #visitscotland #scotspirit #thisisscotland #lovescotland #insta_scotland #hiddenscotland #scotexplore #loves_scotland
#ig_scotland #ScotlandIsNow #scotlandsbeauty #unlimitedscotland #takeninscotland #great_wide_somewhere #simplyscotland #scotlandmagazine #thescottishcollective

Jungle Fever. . Living for little golden moments o

Jungle Fever.
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Living for little golden moments of wonder with @_mermaid, in this case somewhere beautiful and near, in the anterior of two waterfalls, the closer of which was creating such a misty spray that it looks like we’re in the Amazon or somewhere deliciously exotic. Oh to be allowed outside again.
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#scotland #waterfall #visitscotland #scotspirit #thisisscotland #lovescotland #insta_scotland #hiddenscotland #scotexplore #loves_scotland
#ig_scotland #ScotlandIsNow #scotlandsbeauty #unlimitedscotland #takeninscotland #great_wide_somewhere #simplyscotland #scotlandmagazine #thescottishcollective

The Chesters, or Chesters Hill Fort, is a simple b

The Chesters, or Chesters Hill Fort, is a simple but stunning 2,000 year-old Iron Age hill forts, just to the east of Edinburgh and a little north of Haddington. It’s one of the best-preserved examples of such Scotland of an Iron age forts, but by no means one of the few - I’ve visited quite a bunch of these over the last few years and their ramparts, combined with the effort involved in creating these earthen works, is mesmerising.
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You’d be surprised by how big the top of the hill fort is, within what would have been five ‘layers’ / stages of high wooden walled defences. The effort there would have been in building a site like is forever amazing to me - it should remind us of how dangerous the world was, and the abilities of our ancestors, when tools were still so primitive.
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The defences here would have had to be rebuilt fairly regularly, bringing the community together and re-forging old social ties each time. What’s perhaps most interesting is that this hill fort was not built on the highest local hill. On three sides you have tremendous views, North to the Forth, as well as East and West, but not to the South, The Chesters is in the immediate shadow of a higher hill that would have provided ample opportunity to launch effective rock and arrow attacks. This suggests this hill fort was more for status than protection.
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It’s thought that the inhabitants of the Chesters Hill Fort were of the Votadini (Otadini) tribe, and/or that it lay within their territory. The Votadini were a Celtic tribe who had hill forts throughout South East Scotland and North East England. It’s thought the Votadini were allied with the Romans, whose power to the south was obviously significant, and that their ‘capital’ was nearby a Traprain Law, before becoming what is now Castle Rock in Edinburgh.
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#chestershillfort #eastlothian #visitscotland #scotspirit #scotland #thisisscotland #lovescotland #insta_scotland #hiddenscotland #scotexplore #loves_scotland
#ig_scotland #ScotlandIsNow #scotlandsbeauty #unlimitedscotland #takeninscotland #great_wide_somewhere #simplyscotland #scotsmagazine #thescottishcollective

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