And even more photos…. Only Liam and Scott climbed this as it looked a bit high to me. From the base of this rather large rockery, we all enjoyed the quite spectacular views though (of the scenery, not Liam and Scott).
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Isle of Skye – Seals
Another post just of photos, these are the seals off the coast of the Isle of Skye, near to Duntulm. Very cute.
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Isle of Skye – Talisker Distillery Tour
It’s a few years since we went on the distillery tour, and I’m careful not to call it a brewery tour as I did keep referring to it as that, at Talisker on the Isle of Skye. I’m not really a whisky drinker, it’s a bit harsh for my very delicate palate, but I’m always willing to try alcoholic beverages.
Some barrels which were on the tour. On a side note, stout which has been aged in whisky (or whiskey if Irish rather than Scottish) barrels is some of the best going in my view.
After a tour of the facilities, which was genuinely interesting, it was time for a testing of the whisky. They gave us some old whisky, but apparently it can taste better with ageing.
Richard told Liam that it was a local distillery, although Liam questioned why there was Diageo branding on the walls….. I remember that some of the samples weren’t too bad, although some of us (primarily Liam and me) had no idea what the etiquette was about all this, and what the water was that went with it.
This is the whisky that we thought Richard should buy for his collection, it was priced at just £2,400.
This was the cheaper option that Richard went for.
But only after he decided that a distillery was a suitable working environment.
Pleased with his purchases, he chatted about them to a local.
All in all, it was a rather lovely tour, interesting enough even for those of us who aren’t whisky drinkers.
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Isle of Skye – Repurposed Cycling Helmets
I’m not really much into cycling (mostly as I find it tiring), so this seems a marvellous idea for cycling helmets….
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Isle of Skye – Portree (Portree Hotel)
This post is more just photos to remind me of a rather lovely week a few years back. This is primarily because I’ve forgotten what the six of us thought about this meal, although I don’t remember anything bad about it.
My soup and fish & chips.
I have no idea what Liam ordered for his starter, but it was followed by steak and probably some sticky toffee pudding arrangement knowing him.
I didn’t bother taking photos of what anyone else had, other than this one….
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Isle of Skye – Portree (Walk and Garden Centre)
Just photos on this post, this is Portree Harbour and we ended up at a garden centre, as that’s what most people do on a stag week…. To be fair though, it was at the end of the walk and I think that this was the cat that scratched Scott. We liked that cat.
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Isle of Skye – Portree (Map)
The official map of Portree was more amusing that it might have appeared at first sight…
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Isle of Skye – Fairy Glen
These photos are from Liam’s stag week a few years ago, the time allowed by the coronavirus means that this is the first time I’ve uploaded most of these. Fairy Glen is named for no other reason than it has a mystical feel to it and it’s a peaceful site, topped off by Castle Ewan. This is just a rock formation and has never been a castle, but it does look like that from afar and we’re visible in the photos after climbing to the top of it.
There are some spirals on the ground with coins and stones in the centre of them, although it seems that the local tourist authorities aren’t keen on this recent innovation. The whole surroundings are though quite magical, there’s a touch of the Hobbit about the landscapes.
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Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Sixteen
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Barrow Man
The dictionary defines this as “a man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts at Woolwich, who are principally employed in wheeling barrows full of brick or dirt”. Another dictionary from the period defines this, as well as a wheelbarrow man, as being anyone sentenced to work maintaining the roads. I’m not sure why the definition seems limited to Woolwich, although there were prison ships, or hulks, that were moored there during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, so I imagine it’s that.
The surname Barrowman during the middle of the nineteenth century was nearly entirely limited to London and Essex (with the one exception being the Newcastle area), which might also explain the limited usage of the phrase outside of the capital.
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Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Fifteen
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Barker
The dictionary defines this word as “the shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth Street, who walks before his master’s door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of ‘clothes, coats or gowns – what d’ye want gemmen? what d’ye buy?”.
The bow-wow shop is, according to the dictionary, a shop where the servant bites and the master barks, an interesting thought….
Monmouth Street in the eighteenth century was known for its clothes shops, later being lost and becoming Shaftesbury Avenue when that street was expanded. In a bid to bring back the name, Great St. Andrew Street was renamed as Monmouth Street in the 1930s.
