Nisbet's Tower

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Our GPS worked wonderfully this time, pointing us directly to the Gunsgreen House, a former smuggler’s house and now museum. We would be staying in Nisbet’s Tower, a beautiful stone tower with bright red doors located right near the Gunsgreen House.

We pulled into the driveway of Nisbet’s Tower and decided to try the door before hauling all our luggage out of the car, in case anything went wrong. We had been given a code for the door, but our paper also said something about getting a key from the visitor’s center at Gunsgreen House. Since we had the code we figured there wasn’t any need for a key. I tried the code twice, but the door wouldn’t budge. Realizing how late it was, we ran over to Gunsgreen and knocked on the door. It was one minute to five and they weren’t supposed to close till 5:00, but no one answered. Without a phone number to call and no WiFi to get on to the Airbnb app, we sat in our car and wondered what to do.

Sitting in the car next to us were a mother and daughter who appeared to be eating ice cream. An odd place and time to be eating ice cream, we thought. My Mom knocked on their window and asked if they had any connection to Gunsgreen House, but they didn’t. They did seem to know quite a bit about the place and who used to work there, though, and suggested we go around to the back door to see if it was open or if someone could help us. When no one answered that door either, we saw a sign on the door with the housekeeper’s phone number and tried calling her. Unfortunately, our trac phone hasn’t been the best and we were unable to call the housekeeper.

The two ladies were still eating ice cream in their car when we walked back, but the mother jumped out and offered to help us. She said her daughter had tried calling an employee of Gunsgreen but realized they were probably on maternity leave, so they weren’t sure how to help us. When we told them that all we needed was WiFi to get onto the Airbnb app and connect with our host, they offered to have us follow their car to a nearby bar and restaurant that happened to have free WiFi.

We pulled behind them into an illegal parking spot and ran up the stairs with the mother to Oblo, the local bar. They were so kind there and had no problem at all with us using their WiFi. They even somewhat jokingly told us we could sleep on their couches if we couldn’t get into Nisbet’s Tower. Fortunately, our host was quick to respond and informed us that she would be sending the housekeeper out right away to help us get in. We thanked the mother for all her help and drove back to Nisbet’s Tower. The housekeeper was standing outside with the door open. She explained that we were correct, we didn’t need the key, and our code should have worked because it was the same one she used to open the door. She had me try our code, which once again didn’t seem to work. No wonder, I had been turning the door knob the wrong direction the whole time! I had to turn it very hard to the right to open the door. Having already broken one door lock on this trip, I was afraid to use too much force on the door knob when I had tried to open it to begin with. The mystery was solved, and we were glad to finally get into the cozy tower to get some rest for the night. The housekeeper allowed us to stay an hour later than normal checkout time the next morning, since we had gone through so much trouble.

A nice welcome basket containing some goodies and a package of gnocci and a jar of sauce was sitting on the kitchen table. We were so glad to have the gnocci and sauce for an easy supper. Since the tower has a combination washer and dryer, we decided to put our massive amounts of laundry going. It took us quite a while to figure out how to turn on the dryer since we are used to a washer and dryer being separate. Each load of clothes never did get very dry even after putting them going for large amounts of time, so we ended up draping them over a clothing rack and near the heater to help them dry. It was a long night, but we were thankful to have such a nice place to stay and delicious food to eat.

The history of Nisbet’s Tower is somewhat confusing. There was a book in the tower explaining its history, but even in that book there was a lot of conflicting information. It is said to have been an extra storage for smuggled goods, a dovecot, a coach house- all for Gunsgreen House, but another piece of the article stated it had nothing to do with Gungreen House and was nothing more than an elaborate gardening shed. Who knows. They do know that the outside of the tower has fake arrow slits, and that it was built by and named after the same man who built Gunsgreen House, John Nisbet. It was refurbished and now the inside is quite modern and cozy, and we were glad to have chosen to stay there. 

Muness Castle and Searching for Ruins

Friday, October 28, 2016

After a delicious lunch of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, we left Ordaal House to find Muness Castle, a castle on the southeast corner of the Isle of Unst, about 9 miles away from where we’re staying. This time we had a small map specifically for the Isle of Unst, and were determined not to get lost. Even though I’m terrible at figuring out maps, this one looked fairly basic and easy to follow. After the main road, a left turn, another left turn, and the castle would be at the end of a narrow, curvy road. To our great surprise, it actually was! So many of the tourist attractions and historical sites in Scotland have one sign on the road pointing to their general direction, and after that it’s up to you to figure out which road to turn or not turn on. Most of the time we haven’t found the promised historical sites and end up turning around and going back, but this time we did find it.

There was the castle in front of us, standing tall and proud, though not as proud as it once stood in 1598, the year it was built.

We got out of our warm car and braved the fierce winds, and found a gate that lead us to the outside area of the castle. We walked around the castle and found another gate, and inside this gate was Muness Castle, with its door standing wide open. We later discovered that the latch on the door was broken so it could no longer stay shut. But we couldn’t help but think about who else might be in the castle, as we walked through the dark hallway of the first floor and heard the howling winds and creaking sounds and the crows cawing above us. There was no one else in the castle but our own imaginations

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I used the flashlight on my phone in rooms that were too dark to see as we made our way through the lower level of the castle. In one of the rooms, or cellars, large decorative stones and loopholes from the castle were on display.

In one area of the lower level was an awesome spiral staircase that is no longer in use because the top of it, now protected by barriers, drops off. Though there is still another staircase that can be used to reach the second story of the castle.

The second story is quite a contrast to the lower level because the castle no longer has a roof and has many windows upstairs, so the sunlight made every detail of the second story perfectly visible. 

I’m confused even now as I recall the various rooms of the castle, because there were so many. There are two hallways off the main upstairs area that lead to chambers, and one of the chambers contains the remains of a private staircase.

Muness Castle, designed by Andrew Crawford and built by Laurence Bruce, was burned by French raiders in 1627, and though it is believed to have been repaired, by the end of the 1600s the castle was no longer used. The Dutch East India Company rented the castle in 1713, and in 1718 the original owners of the castle sold it. In 1750, it was once again abandoned and never used again. It’s an amazing site to see, especially since so much of it is still intact. My favorite was how many nooks and crannies and doorways and windows the castle contained.

After touring the castle, we headed out to find Sandwick Beach, a beach not too far from the castle and clearly marked on our map. We couldn’t find it, but on our way to what we thought was Sandwick Beach, we saw five Shetland Ponies right near the road, and two more standing next to a barn. We slowed down since they were so close to the road, and opened our window. Two of them literally tried to shove their heads in our car window. It was hilarious. When they were done inspecting our car, all five of them stood right in front of our car, just staring at us, and eventually walked back to the barn.

Since we couldn’t find the beach, we turned around and headed back to Ordaal House. On our way, we saw a sign pointing to “Sandwick Sites and Viking Longhouses.” Though it didn’t say anything about a beach, we realized how close we were to the water and that this was just another one of Scotland’s confusing road signs. We made our way down a long farm type road and found another sign depicting the various historical sites you can see down by the water.

Though the wind was bitter cold, the walk was beautiful. Fluffy sheep of many colors surrounded us, and the water in front of us was a vivid turquoise.

We did indeed find the crumbled remains of two different buildings, though they didn’t have any signage so we assumed they weren’t the Norse Farm or Iron Age Building shown on the map. Later we realized that according to the map, they must have been those remains, and just didn’t have proper signage.

By the time we started walking back, the sky had some pretty pink clouds in it, but also some dark clouds straight above. It was a long walk back and we were very chilled and out of breath once we got back to our car.

Following the map, we found our way back to Baltasound (the town where Ordaal House is located). Though we didn’t have the directions from our host on how to get to their house, since we had already driven their once and assumed we could easily find our way back the second day, we turned on what we thought was the correct road. It wasn’t. The next road wasn’t correct either, nor the next. We continued to drive around in circles for about an hour. When you don’t have WiFi or a GPS that works properly and all the buildings around you look the same, it’s easy to get lost. Finally, we gave up and parked in the post office parking lot. My Mom walked into the post office and asked if they possibly knew where Ordaal House was located. She was relieved to find that they did, and the lady informed her that the map we were using was junk. It was great to know we weren’t that horrible at reading maps. We had been going the wrong direction around the bay the whole time. Needless to say, we were so glad when we finally reached Ordaal House. 

An Evening at Ordaal House

Thursday, October 26, 2016

When we pulled into the driveway marked “Ordaal House,” we looked around for a logical place to park so my Mom could knock on our hosts’ door and let them know we had arrived. She knocked, but there was no answer. We waited and there was still no answer.

With Airbnb, hosts decide how they want to let you in to their guesthouses, and let you know via messaging on the website, depending most on whether their own house is located near the guesthouse or not. They might tell you to knock or call when you arrive and expect them to show you to their guesthouse, or tell you where the keys to the guesthouse are located, or give you a keycode to open the guesthouse door. Most of our hosts on this trip have personally let us into their guesthouses and shown us around. We thought that was the case with our stay at Ordaal House, but double checked what our hosts, Rob and Catriona, had said since they didn’t seem to be around anywhere. Just then, a silver car came speeding in to the driveway, and a middle-aged kindly looking man with a scruffy, graying beard jumped out of the car and came to meet us. He apologized and said he had to run and get his daughter from school.

We followed him around their house and to the guesthouse entry, which shared an enclosed porch with their back door. The enclosed porch was full of clothes drying on racks and other odds and ends. It seemed to be their storage place for stuff they didn’t know what to do with.

The guesthouse was nice, with a sitting area, full kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. It was another place with little heat, but he assured us that if we needed more heat we could simply flip a couple switches on a tiny metal stove with an artificial fire. We did need more warmth, especially after carrying our luggage in through 50mph winds and very cold, damp air. The stove did create a bit of heat, as it must have had some type of heating element and a fan.

With the butternut squash, red onion, penne pasta, dried sage, Double Gloucester cheese, and Shetland Dairies butter we had purchased at the local shop, my Mom started making supper. It was the first meal she had cooked since we started this trip, and it was delicious. The smell of red onion sizzling in butter filled the kitchen, and it was rather nice to not have to depend on just snacks for supper.

After supper, we eventually sat down to do some blogging and look at what we wanted to see the next day, our full day on the Isle of Unst. We heard a knock on the door- it was Rob, telling us that we might get to see a bit of the Northern Lights! We were excited because when we had first arrived, he told us that they had seen the Northern Lights the past two nights, but tonight would be too cloudy to see them. Well, it seemed that the clouds had cleared for us, because the dark blue sky was full of stars. It was extremely cold and windy outside, and I was already in my pajamas so it was even colder. We managed to stick it out for a while, and my Mom gave me her sweatshirt since it was so cold. I had brought my phone with for a flashlight, which we definitely needed as we tried to make our way around the house, hoping to see some of the lights on that side. We waited, but couldn’t really see anything but beautiful constellations and the occasional shooting star. Because of the wind and cold night air, we decided it was about time to head back inside. Upon entering the enclosed porch and shutting out the vicious wind, we turned around and saw what we thought was a greenish glow on the horizon. It was so hard to tell because our eyes were having a hard time adjusting in the dark, but we think we did get to see a bit of the Northern Lights after all! We also got to see a freakishly large, dark cloud zooming through the sky and changing shape as it moved. It was quite the experience.

I kept an eye out the windows the rest of the evening in case there was more to see, but it clouded up soon after we went inside. We worked on our blog again for a little while, then made our way upstairs to get some sleep. 

The Bothy: Milton of Tillynaught

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Something unique about Scotland is that they don’t use street addresses like we do in the United States. Their “addresses” can be as small as a town name and a postal code. Because of this, we had a hard time finding “The Bothy,” which was way out in the middle of nowhere. We passed miles and miles of golden fields full of scattered haybales, and eventually recognized the new metal bridge and the old train bridge that our host referred to, and found their driveway in between the two bridges.

When we pulled into the gravely, grass covered driveway, we looked around the area for a possible place to park our way too large Mercedes rental, and tried to figure out which building was the guesthouse and which one was their own house. We checked our papers to see if our hosts, Janet and Rod, had indicated what we were supposed to do when we arrived, and meanwhile they were standing outside our car waiting for us to open the door. Oops!

They got us settled into the cozy little bothy and lit the wood stove, and told us to feel free to roam wherever we wanted. We liked that. It was also nice to see two eggs for us on their kitchen table, and a small jug of milk in the fridge. We later found out that those two eggs were all they had gotten from their hens for the last two days. Out of 18 birds, they only get 1 egg per day. We felt spoiled getting two eggs!

After bundling up, we walked out and explored their property (and said hi to their chickens) and talked to Rod as he unloaded roof slates from his van. He told us about an old mill he had considered fixing up, but realized it was too much work due to flooding. He also told us about a path he had mowed down by the river right near their house and suggested we take a walk along it. It was a beautiful walk! We didn’t see any deer like he had said we might, but we did get to see the old mill and some ruins nearby. We walked inside the mill and found a small boat and some old bags of fertilizer and not too much else, other than broken floorboards from the second story.

The bothy was all warm and cozy with the fire still burning for us when we got back from our walk. We ate some delicious cheese and crackers for supper (off Janet’s adorable chicken themed dishes) and worked on our blog in the evening, then headed to sleep in the cozy bedroom full of chicken themed decor.