We then walked round to the castle entrance, which is still very imposing:
The castle was attacked by cannon; the damage wasn't ever repaired:
The entrance reminded us all of the castle in Knightmare:
We had a good poke about round the castle. This is the passage to my favourite room:
(The doors are as small as they look - people were shorter then.)
This is the room itself:
It's haxagonal, with a giant medieval fireplace on one side. All the other sides have these deeply recessed windows with seats. I can imagine one of the Lady Ruthvens (the Ruthvens built this section) sitting at the window with her needlework. The room itself has rather a good view inland.
The rest of the casle is in various states of ruin. And for some reason I kept taking pictures of staircases:
Or ex-staircases, in the case of this spiral stair:
The same stair, looking down:
We left this section of the castle and went into the courtyard. This is looking back across the courtyard:
Then! We went...to the Cellars. Which are very impressive:
They had a section for storing foodstuffs and drinkstuffs, they had a section for storing non-food things, and they also had a bakehouse and a brewhouse in here.
A possible entrance to the cellars. The window through which you can see the electric light was the priest's room. I'm not sure why the priest could look over the cellars. (The poor man was all the way across the castle from the family's living quarters. He was right out on his own behind the Great Hall. With a view of the cellars.)
The priest's room itself was rather nice though. It had an alcove for Religious Paraphernalia, the aforementioned cellar view, and two windows with a view across to the sea.
Our stomachs then got the better of us, so we went in search of a picnic table. Instead of a picnic table, we found some very shot-at targets, and a replica cannon, which was rather nice. We did find a picnic table as well as some squirrels and a security person who was slinking about in a suspicious manner.
After scoffing the sausage rolls, we took a gentle perambulation back through the gardens. Dirleton has the longest herbacious border in Britain, apparently. It had some very pretty flowers:
The irises were stunning:
They were also furry:
Instead of getting the bus back to North Berwick, we walked back along the beach (the better to create an appetite).
This is the view of Fidra as you come out on Yellowcraigs beach. Robert Louis Stevenson lived in North Berwick for a while, and Fidra was his inspiration for the island in Treasure Island:
If you click through and then click on the picture to see it full size, you'll be able to see the rock arch which is known as the Grey Lady.
Here's what she looks like close up:
The lighthouse:
The beach is very nice:
The walk back to North Berwick is a deceptively long one. We rounded the corner, and looked back to Fidra. The waves from the North Sea were good.
Looking out to sea. In this direction, we're looking right down the Forth, out beyond the estuary to the North Sea, and Norway.
We're going in this direction. It doesn't look too far...but it's deceptive. There are two more beaches the length of this one before we reach our destination.
The islands off North Berwick are all in a nice neat line. They look so different from this angle!
We walked. And walked. And walked. We rounded a small rocky outcrop, and walked along another sandy beach, much like the first, but without the huge dunes. This is looking back the way we've come:
We're so much farther round that Fidra is beginning to take on its usual shape:
We came to another rocky outcrop. Hard to believe this is part of the same long sandy beach as in previous photos:
At this rocky outcrop, we met a family of Eider ducks, with ducklings. Eeeee!
The ducklings braved the waves very well, popping up through the surf like corks. (Rather indignant corks with roman noses, that is.)
Looking back the way we came. The rocks in the earlier photo can be seen in the middle ground.
The sun came out again, and the waves broke more gently on the beach, creating a reflection of the clouds in the calm water.
I love the way this photo turned out:
This is at Point Garry, where there is a cave. Once round this headland, we're on West Bay, and nearly at our destination: The Chip Shop. Nothing better than fresh fish and chips after a sizeable saunter along the shore.
Round the point, and heading for home. Half the town was in sunlight.
Looking at my back garden:
At this point, we headed straight for the chip shop, acquired the requisite foods, and sat at the harbour to snarf them down. We were somewhat pestered by seagulls, but some stern words (and stomping) dealth with them.
Later on, at the house, the sunset shaped up to be spectacular:
So we beetled back down to the beach, cameras in hand. At the top of the steps down to the beach (the lane ends in a platform that's about ten feet above the beach itself), there's a triangular platform formed by the space between the boundary wall of the lane, and the house next door. You have to climb a small wall to get onto it, but it makes an excellent sheltered place to sit and survey the beach. In childhood, it made an excellent and easily defended fort.
I got cosy with my back against the wall, and settled down to watch the sunset. It was spectactular.
The sun seemed to pause for a moment above the hills in Fife.
The colours on the beach changed as it slipped below the horizon:
Once the sun had gone down, a little girl appeared from one of the houses that the tourists rent for the summer. She ran down the beach, jumping and playing, evidently enjoying the last of the twilight and the space and freedom of the beach before it was bedtime. She ran down to the rocks and peered into the rockpools, splashing about. All of a sudden, it was time to go. A parent was calling her back up the beach. She skipped back up the beach, jumping high in the air each time.
Then, it was just us, sitting in our little nook, watching the empty beach. Fingers of cloud appeared over in the west, and began to snake towards us. They were high enough to reflect the gold light of the sun below the horizon. Fidra lighthouse turned, the light sweeping across the twilit empty beach, as it would all night. Time to go home.
We had a few more dramatic sunsets. Here's a red and pink stormy looking one:
Red at night, sailors' delight.
North Berwick has a varied selection of sunsets. No two are the same, and the colours are always wonderful. Here's a sample of some classic sunsets:
(Convenient seagull, there.)
Once the sun goes down, everything eventually turns blue. But sometimes the red and orange can be seen lingering over Fife, even when it's getting really dark:
This is the best sort of morning to wake up to:
On a day that promises to be hot and sunny, you can eat breakfast and watch the fishermen at work in the bay, before you put on your swimsuit and head for the beach, to go swimming in the nice cool water...
