April 25, 2005 - Scotland 2003: Getting Fitted for a Kilt

April 25, 2005 - Scotland 2003: Getting Fitted for a Kilt

It’s early Sunday morning August 10th 2003. After a mere four hours of sleep we woke and WS and I walked down to the Tesco Grocery Store for a Sunday paper, a refill on the wine, and some milk, bread and cheese. Back at the house we had breakfast and decided on a drive up to visit the Falkirk Wheel, the newly constructed engineering marvel that lifts small canal barges and boats from the Forth and Clyde Canal 35 meters vertically to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal. The former was opened on June 10, 1768, the latter was begun in 1818 and opened 4 years later in 1822. The Forth and Clyde Canal allowed boats to navigate from the River Clyde in Glasgow to the Forth at Grangemouth. En route a boat traverses 40 locks and 32 swing gates over the 35-mile stretch. The Union Canal ran 30 miles from Edinburgh to Falkirk without a single lock or swing gate to slow the travel. The canal system had been allowed to fall into disrepair by the mid-60s. By the late 1990s, it became obvious the canals represented an untapped recreational resource. The 84.5-million Pound Sterling Millennium Link was initiated to reopen the canals where they had been closed and refurbish the system of locks and swing gates that enabled unobstructed travel the length of the canals.

At Falkirk, a ladder of 11 locks had originally lifted boats from the Forth and Clyde Canal 35 meters to join the higher Union Canal. The Millennium Links would spend 17.5 million Pound Sterling to replace the 11-lock system with a more elegant engineering solution: the Falkirk Wheel. Two Massive wheels with two large tubs 180 degrees apart from one another. The tub at the top of the wheel opens to take on boats from the Union Canal while the tub at the bottom of the wheel opens to take on boats from the Forth & Clyde Canal. When both sets of boats have been loaded, the wheel slowly begins to lower the top tub and raise the bottom tub. With both tubs of equal weight gravity does most of the heavy lifting but a small electric motor does set the process in motion. The wheel takes about an hour to make the complete cycle. Watching the delicate, precise but painstakingly slow process is a moveable feast, perfect for a Sunday excision.

We arrived just as the wheel was completing a cycle and we watched as the Union Canal boats were slowly lowered to the 100-meter diameter circular basin that provides access to the Forth & Clyde Canal. We then toured the visitor’s center and as the wheel began its slow ascent we walked up the hill that separated the lower canal from the upper. At the top we watched as the wheel arrived at the top with an empty tub and opened up to allow a boat and tourism barge to load for the descent.

We had arrived just before lunch and as we were leaving we got a call from YS’s son MS, telling us he and his two kids, KS and SS, were at the Wheel and were about to leave. We caught up with them and visited for a brief time discussing details of MS’s wedding the following Saturday, the highlight of our visit to Scotland. The kids were getting hungry for a treat and the adults were looking for something a bit more substantial. We parted and drove back toward Cumbernauld with the aim of stopping at the Castle Cary hotel for a pub meal. We had taken the Vauxhall Vectra and I easily found the hotel. We parked and found the pub with only a small number of patrons. We seated ourselves in the non-smoking section. YS no longer smokes having given it up for a couple of years now. Respiratory trouble had plagued her early life. Once cured she had continued to smoke until recently when more aggressive health warnings convinced her it was time to quit. Among the foursome only WS continues to smoke heedless of the warnings on each package of his cigarettes warning him that the contents of the package could kill him. We ordered our pub lunch and waited for what seemed a longer time than usual even for the UK. The food finally arrived and we had our meal of stick to your ribs cooking.

Back home at Baldorran Court we made an early evening after a couple of glasses of wine. Monday morning we were heading out for Inverness and the little town of Strathpeffer—difficult to say after having a glass of wine and impossible if you have more than a glass. Strathpeffer is just north and a bit west of the larger town of Inverness, a busy seaport and shipping center for Scotland and England on the North Sea. It had begun to grow, thanks to the North Sea oil development in the 1970s.

We woke Monday morning and after breakfast, WS, IM and I drove to the town of Sterling—best known for Sterling Castle around which the town is built and for Robert The Bruce and the Battle of Bannochburn, where Bruce defeated the British forces led by Edward I's (Longshanks’) son, Edward II, the father having died of old age after living a charmed life. The purpose of the drive was to hire me a kilt for the wedding of MS and his longtime significant other LS on Saturday. We found a car park just as we entered the town centre of Sterling, parked the Vectra and walked the short distance to the men's clothing store that rented kilts—not just the kilt but the entire outfit including shoes, knee socks, belts—the whole nine yards. I had wanted to wear a kilt with the McLeod Tartan. But, this far south in Scotland, the only Tartans were the most popular and thus the ones in highest demand. I chose the Royal Stewart Tartan, my wife's family's Tartan, Kilts are rented because buying one will set you back about 700 pounds. Needless to say, my idea of buying a McLeod Tartan for wearing to the odd formal occasions back in the states—births, deaths, and marriages, was out of the question. Besides I had already bought a tuxedo that set me back $300 and I had only worn that once.

On the way back to the Vectra we stopped at a coffee shop for a pee stop. I ordered two lattes for WS and Me and a glass of milk for IM. We took turns going to the toilet as we waited for the Barista, a young woman, to prepare the two coffee drinks, having taken a table in the seating area of the shop. It was 10:00 o'clock on a Monday morning and there were only two other patrons who had just placed their order as we arrive, both European tourists—Italian I believe. They had disputed a charge with the Barista and she had admitted the mistake was her's.

We finished our coffees and began the walk back to the Vectra. IM and I both stopped at different ATMs en route to the car park to get cash for the trip to Inverness. We tried different banks to see if the rates were any different—none we could determine. The dollar was trading at $1.69 to the pound. We both took out a 100 pounds each. Back in the car park we paid our ticket and got back onto the M80 for the drive back to Cumbernauld and the beginning of our journey north to Inverness and Strathpeffer beyond.