Scottish Encounters #2

Walking into South Queensferry, apparently at a dead-end.  Look right - dead-end.  Look left - dead-end.  Look behind - a tall smiling white-haired man giving us a go straight ahead signal.  Looking straight ahead and noticing a walkers lane overlooked before.

Standing at the start of the Fife Coastal Path.  Trying to figure out the meaning of a plaque placed at the crossroads.  What was that woman doing to that man?  A smiling man seems to appear from nowhere.  The enigma is resolved - as explained below.  He then shares with us the history of some of the objects in the near path.   He talks of the bombing of the bridge on the first day of World War II.  The efforts to save Edinburgh and cities on the Firth.

Getting off the train in North Queensferry.  Should we cross the overhead bridge and look for our reserved accommodations there?  Or, are we on the right side and should go this way?  And, then which direction?  Suddenly, a woman appears, again seemingly from thin air, and asks where we are going.  Tells us how to leave the train stop, and exactly how to find our hotel.  

Visiting St. Giles Cathedral (Scottish National Cathedral) .  Asking a guide about the Romanesque architecture,  She kindly gives us a tour pointing out items that we would never have found on our own.  When we tell her we are hiking the Fife Coastal Path and will be going to Saint Andrew's, she explains that it was the place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages.  We explained that members of our group been on the pilgrimage to Santiago.  She then confides that she has been there three times.  We  sense that we are kindred spirits.

Scottish word of the day:  Kirk - church

And, so it begins . . .

Liz, me, Emily and Ann

North Queensferry to Burntisland

Signage

In the Middle Ages, nefarious people would rob graves of the newly interred to sell them to medical schools.  They had to work fast because they were not embalmed and decomposed quickly.  During the first few nights after burial, families would pay someone to stand in a tower at the edge of the graveyard and protect the  remains of their loved ones.  This was called the graveyard shift.  This tower is located at St. Bridget's Kirk.

Plaque from the 1600's.  The beginning of the path is on the old Roman Road.  Tradesmen and farmers would pass this way to catch the ferry to sell there goods in Edinburgh, getting tipsy in the bargain.  The good women of North Queensferry would help with a little "wealth distribution". On the way back.