North of the border

Leaving the house at 5.10 in the morning, I forgot my big camera when I went up to Scotland for a few days last week. I was left struggling with my phone camera, which was very frustrating as there were just so many interesting things that I wanted to capture. But I managed.

There’s little in Edinburgh Castle that’s domestic, only the room in which Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James I of England.

The small royal apartments were my favourite but the castle also offers fabulous views of Edinburgh and masses of military history, if that takes your fancy.

Although I’d been to Edinburgh before, I didn’t remember very much about it, so it was interesting to go around and explore the winding, cobbled streets of the old town. I’d love to go back and ferret around more in the little alleys and courtyards that they call ‘closes’ up there and explore more of the city’s ancient architecture. One thing doesn’t surprise me: that J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter here. There’s just so much inspiration in the very fabric of the place.

Edinburgh Castle’s tame gull.

From Edinburgh, we moved on to the Kingdom of Fife, only a short distance away across the Firth of Forth. I drove over the Forth Bridge and, although I’d heard on the radio that they had finished painting it, it certainly looked like they were still at work. Perhaps it’s the rail bridge they finished?

You still see many open doors as you walk the streets in St Andrews.

The university town of St Andrews was obviously very ancient with plenty of buildings dating back to the early seventeenth century but its present day incarnation is far too twee for me (and lacking an apostrophe, too upsetting for words…).

I wouldn’t want to study or work there but it takes all sorts, including royalty. I preferred Elie, on the coast to the south, which would be my seaside hideaway if I lived up there.

Elie at low tide

Anstruther was also a lovely find and we walked along the Fife Coastal Path from there to Crail – a real town with real people and a zero chintz factor.

Drying the washing on the harbourside in Anstruther.

Anstruther Harbour

The path from Anstruther to Crail runs alongside farmed land with everything from wheatfields, grazing sheep, cows and goats, to a free range pig farm.

For some reason these goats on the coastal path make me think of a nudist beach.

Crail seen from the Fife Coastal Path.

Lobster pots on the quayside in Crail.

With the exception of the lobster pots, the pictures on this page are all just as they came off my phone apart from some cropping because iPhone photos are too square for my liking. But I discovered by chance that if you edit images you’ve taken on the phone (this is an iPhone, I’m talking about) first – doing only minimal adjustment – and save them, then they are editable as Raw in Photoshop once they’re on your computer. Obviously, this can’t make them into better pictures, nothing can. But as the iPhone really isn’t very brilliant at subtlety, this at least it gives you a greater possibility of making improvements than the straight-up Photoshop options do, which is all you get if you do a straight upload from your phone. Next time, I really must remember to take the DSLR.