June 17th, Pitlochry and the Tay Forest

It has been pretty misty, cloudy, and occasionally downright damp since we got here. In other words: just like home. Woke up from a pretty okay first night’s rest. We’ve been dodging jetlag by a combination of just going without sleep for a while and a little melatonin to help stay asleep, although this is the good direction; if I wake up in the middle of the night it’s also pretty late according to my body, so the real problem is not oversleeping, although there is a lot of light up here, like a lot; we’re pretty far north so it’s easy to miss bedtime becuase the sun doesn’t set until well after 11. Pack up the van, eat breakfast and hit the road. No need to worry about what we’re packing for the day- it’s all in the van so you can’t forget anything.

The first stop today is the Queen’s View. It’s a small overlook and park above Loch Tummel. We’re going to do more or less a big loop around Loch Tummel today. Driving today was a good bit easier; I’ve learned how wide the car is (very wide) and I’m not stressing myself out about going too slow. I mean, these tiny, 1.75 lanes wide roads where even some normal cars have to worry about passing each other in opposite directions have a sixty mph speed limit. Bonkers, yo. They also have a dashed midline, so if anyone is super impatient, they can pass me, and I pull off to the side from time to time in a layby so people can get past. Still, for the first time in a while, we’re not listening to some random mystery audiobook while driving as there’s just not enough processing capacity in my brain to manage it.

The Queen’s View is lovely, honestly. We stroll around in the woods and I spend a lot of time thinking about nothing in particular. Calm thoughts, smooth brain. This is super-important, as my work stress of late has been off the charts. That’s all I’ll say about that, I’m here to enjoy the moment, but this is a great start to a reset and recharge.

Then we head over to the Crannog Centre. A crannog is an iron-age (500 BCE in this case) dwelling on the water, like literally on the water, built on stilts over Loch Tummel. There’s evidence of at least 18 such houses on Loch Tummel, but nobody knows why they were built. There were more roundhouses built on land nearby, so maybe they’re sort of advertisement or something- “hey we have a village here, come trade.” The actual archaelogical site (nearby) showed evidence of Emmer, Opium Poppy, and a bunch of other stuff that probably came from what is now Iraq and Afghanistan. Check out a map of Scotland, Loch Tummel is pretty far inland, but apparently the trade routes go upriver. They also dug up one of the oldest pieces of textile from the British Isles, a 2/1 twill that we saw (according to the guide, it is a rare weaving pattern at the time, and it’s also quite uncommon to find fabric that’s that old given how quickly it would just rot away, but also? 2-1 twill is a common pattern for weaving the fabric you make into jeans, so these Crannogfolk were pretty stylish). The museum has artifacts from 2 sites, and there’s a village recreation with demostrations of blacksmithing, textiles, cooking, etc. The over-water crannog is under construction and will open in a few months, and they are making log boats as well.

Personally, I have thoughts about why the people may have chosen to live on the water. Someday I may share that series of short stories with y’all, but I’ve been chewing on a world where the Water still loves, or at least tolerates us, but the Land is furious. So all live on the water, in boats and stilted huts, and any who venture inland for too long do not return. There’s a couple other things going on in that world I’m happy about, so if I can get some time to get back into writing (stuff that isn’t travelogue) I’ll be working on that.

We learned some important lessons (although ominously: they’re not fully correct lessons as you’ll see soon… dun dun dunn) about checking opening hours. The next stop on our trip around the lakes was the Watermill bookstore, cafe, and art gallery. Nice bookshop (they didn’t have any of the paper books I wanted, but we did buy some paper maps and I got a little reading light, because the reading light in the van is too bright to use at night when Chrissy is sleeping). Some cake, a flat white, and then we learn that Castle Menzie closes in 15 minutes. Should have checked the opening hours before we planned the day, and gone the other way around the loch. Still, at least there’s the art gallery to go to. We head over and … they’re also closing at the same time, yikes! We did a speed-viewing of some paintings that I would totally love owning, or at least an opportunity to look at more; I’ll see if I can find the artist information and update this post with information about some great birch trees in a bit.

Across the way is a home goods store, with a lot of “handmade artisanal pottery.” I guess I’ve become a snob now. I need to really interrogate my feelings and the classism here, but I will note that the very nice mug we saw was handmade by an artisan in India, and cost only 17 GBP. Someone in that goods pipeline did not get paid what their time was worth, I will say.

Back to Pitlochry, but a different campsite. Dinner cooked (butter chicken, nothing fancy since I bought a jar of butter chicken sauce, so it was mostly cutting up stuff and cooking rice), still I’m impressed that I haven’t eaten in a restaurant yet. Cooking is something I enjoy, and the camper has a nice enough kitchen that I’m able to cook reasonably well in it (constrained by ingredients mostly). We took a short after-dinner stroll round the corner from the caravan park to cross the bridge over the river. Seems like weather always clears in the evening, maybe we’ll figure out how to take advantage of that.

Bonus photo: