Down Along the Border - Part#1

I'm taking the opportunity of some decent early spring weather to get out for a run before a national lock-down is ordered. I suppose riding about on a bike neither risks getting nor spreading the plague. I did take the precaution of wearing gloves while refuelling - the pumps must be pretty dodgy.

There are a number of roads that cross the Scotland/England border - 25, I think. Here I'm doing the crossings and seeing if there is anything interesting at or near them. I'm travelling west to east.  

The first crossing is this bridge over the River Sark in Gretna.

Due to differences in the marriage laws between Scotland & England Gretna is know for weddings. The Old Toll Bar has carried out 10,000 weddings since 1830.

The border at the main west coast road - The M6.

The SV on the old Plump Bridge at the border near Springfield.

Old cast iron road sign

The Debateable Lands are a strange part of British history. For 300 years there was a small area of land on the border ruled by neither Scotland or England. In the area (only 10 miles long by 4 miles wide) lawless families or Reivers raided both kingdoms. The situation ended in 1552 when the Lands were divided between Scotland & England. The division was marked with a low, wide earthworks called Scot's Dike. It is now this plantation of trees.

St Andrew's church on the English side

There is a very spindly bridge over the River Esk to the church.

No crowds

The bridge was built for access to the bridge from a nearby stately home. No plebs allowed!

Kirkandrew Tower is a 16th century fortified house now a private residence.

Brewgel Punk Sanitiser

Here is a good story to come out of the current virus crisis.   

Scottish brewer BrewDog are making hand sanitser at their Distillery in Aberdeenshire. BrewGel Punk Sanitiser will be distributed free to those who need it. (story here)

Other distilleries are also making sanitiser - Verdant Spirits in Dundee, Psychopomp in Bristol and 58 gin in London - the most effective sanitsers being alcohol-based. (story here)

 

Raintown #3 - The Numbers are In

The Met Office has published the weather statistics for Glasgow and, as I predicted, records were broken.

In February 316mm (12.4") of rain fell - three times the average. This is the wettest February recorded easily beating the 1997 figure of 250mm. It is also the wettest month on record exceeding December 2006 which had 299mm of rain. The records are for the airport and date back to 1959.

The upside to the rain was that it was relatively mild with only a single day of frost.

The rain affected most parts of the country with some area still flooded. Despite the rain the effect on Scotland wasn't too bad. I think our hilly landscape means that there are fewer floodplains. 

Heavy rain affected most of the country

Some Local Sights

At long last the weather is not quiet so grim. Some blue skies and dry roads. It's too cold to go any distance but I get out locally when I can and here are some sights I snapped.

Strathaven Castle. This is located in the middle of a local town. It's an austere lump of stone. The gates were locked. Maybe because the building is dangerous.  

 I got some information on the castle from a book I bought recently in a charity shop.   

 
It was built in the mid 15th century and occupied until 1716. A grisly story is that when a wall collapsed in the 19th century a skeleton was found bricked up inside. Legend is that it was the remains of a wife who had displeased the lord of the castle. There is no proof of this.   

I fiddled with my camera settings to get this dramatic picture. This may look like a scenic Scottish loch but it's not. It's a flooded quarry near Airdrie.


Finally a bridge. Well, the remains of one. These are the columns of the Rotten Calder railway viaduct. This carried the branch line between Blantyre and East Kilbride. I passed near this for many years commuting to work but never saw it. It's located in a heavily wooded valley. Winter will be the best time to see it.  

 

Free Car

There is a new car in my driveway. A silver Citroën C3. The strange thing is that I've no idea how it got there. The keys were put through my letterbox. A present from an admirer? Maybe not. There was a service book from a local garage on the passenger seat so I assume that it has been returned to the wrong address.  

***Update*** the guy from the garage came and took it away. He got the right number but the wrong street.

Raintown #2 - Records Broken

Yesterday evening the weatherman confirmed my suspicions. With five days of this month to go it will be the wettest February on record. It seems as if it has rained all day, every day.

He said that the total, so far, was 11 inches (280mm) I downloaded weather data from the Metoffice (Glasgow Airport records since 1959) and with a bit of analysis in Excel I found the following:

Average February rainfall:     95.7mm   (3.8")
Maximum February rainfall: 250.2mm   (9.8") (1997)
Maximum monthly rainfall:   298.9mm (11.8") (December 2006)  

So this could not only be the wettest February but the wettest ever month.

Flooding in Paisley

So how does this affect me? Well I travel by motorcycle almost exclusively and it's mixed. I'm prepared for the Scottish climate so it's not an issue. I have decent waterproofs and although it's not nice, it's tolerable. On the plus side rain tends to mean it's less cold. There has been very little frost and only a couple of days of sleety snow.

In the News - "Ghost Ship" in Ireland

We are being battered by winter storms at present but an interesting story has come out of them

The MV Alta, a Tanazanian flagged cargo ship has washed up on the shores of Ireland. 16 months ago its crew were rescued by the US Coast Guard when it lost power in the mid-Atlantic southeast of Bermuda. It is thought to have drifted to the west coast of Africa then north, passing Spain, before making landfall in Ballycotton, County Cork.    

Story here