Boyd's photo diary. |
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Wed 30 May 2012
Sedbergh is a
town that starts early. Some shops are open by 7am and the small
marked as always open by then They use Wednesday as their market
day but this was the second charter they were granted in 1538 by
Henry VIII. Their first charter was granted in 1251 by Henry III
and was for Tuesdays. |
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Mon 28 May 2012
The 07:30am ferry,
MV Hebrides) arrives in Tarbert to take me back to the mainland |
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Leaving Tarbert it
is possible to see the bridge across to Scalpay. |
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Sun 27 May 2012
The Clisham
(Scottish Gaelic: An Cliseam)
At 799m it is the highest mountain in the Outer Hebrides. |
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From Sron
Carsacleit looking towards Sgaoth Losal while on the descent
from Clisham |
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Sat 26 May 2012
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Loch Faoghail at sunrise |
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The Callanish
Standing stones date from around 2000 years BC. I visited them
in the morning and had the whole place to myself. The low
morning lights was very atmospheric. I used a wide view of
several photos merged together. |
Dun Carloway, West
Lewis, is a Broch Stone Roundhose around 2000 years old.
The dry stone walling displays incredible quality dry stone
walling. The walls are 3m thick at the base and hollow, having
platforms and stone steps inside. Radio carbon dating of
internal remains indicate it was used up to around 1300AD |
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The Garenin Black
House Village on West Lewis was only abandoned in 1974 but the
Garenin trust restored the village in 1989 to a 'revived
village' status of nine buildings and one croft. |
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Butt of Lewis
Lighthouse.
First lit in 1862 and automated in 1998.
According to the Guinness Book of Records it is the windiest
spot in the UK.
The engineers were David and Thomas Stevenson |
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Wide
view of Port of Ness Harbour, Lewis |
Tiumpan Head
Lighthouse near Stornoway, Lewis.
In operation since 1900 it was designed and built by David A
Stevenson.
In 1956 her Majesty the Queen, with Prince Charles and Princess
Anne, visited the lighthouse and the 7 year old Charles sounded
the first blast on a new fog siren. |
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Amhuinnsuidhe
Castle was built in 1865 for Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore
on shore of West Loch Tarbert.
The amazing thing is that the public road goes right past the
front of the castle. I thought the Rolls Royce parked by the
front gave it a nice touch |
Amhuinnsuidhe Castle |
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Fri 25 May 2012
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Thu 24 May 2012
Today is my 4th visit to the Outer Hebrides
and the first time I've taken my car across on the ferry.
Previously I've left my car on the mainland and just gone with
my bike. |
aboard the ferry MV Hebrides heading for Tarbert on Harris. |
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Mon 21 May 2012
At lunchtime I
cycled to Withnell Fold to Mum's memorial bench. We fitted the
bench last year to remember Mum who died in 2010 at the age of
94. She was born 96 years ago today. |
Mum's memorial bench in Withnell Fold |
The Memorial Garden at Withnell Fold. Originally a mill lodge
(reservoir) constructed in 1843. In 1958 it was converted to a
memorial garden to commemorate those who worked at the adjacent
Paper Mill and died in 2 World Wars. |
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This morning I
was asked to take some photos at Whittle-le-Woods Primary School
as all 245 pupils would receive a commemorative mug to celebrate
the forthcoming Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. |
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Pupils from Whittle-le-Woods primary School with their new mugs.
Cllr Eric Bell and Cllr Bill Yates made the presentations. |
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Sun 20 May 2012
Today
was an open day to show visitors the work that had been done on
the excavations on the site of the old St James's Church site at
Dalehead near Slaidburn. |
excavation down to the boiler room |
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St James's Church before demolition in the 1930s |
site of St James's Church today |
Site survey |
Photo mosaic of the site in Nov 2011 |
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Seen on Town Lane, Whittle-le-Woods.
A horseshoe nailed to a wooden post |
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The Leeds and Liverpool canal at Whittle
Springs. This is the spot where the original Lancaster canal
went under the bridge to the right on it's way to Walton Summit.
It was opened in 1803 then subsequently the Leeds and Liverpool
canal was completed in 1816, joining the Lancaster canal at this
location. The Lancaster length fell into disuse and now only
runs as far as Town Lane. The rest of the line to Walton Summit
was filled in during the construction of the M61 Motorway in
1969. |
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Tue 15 May 2012
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I caught the 7:30am ferry from
North Uist to Uig on Sky to return to the mainland. On my way
home I called at the grave of Flora MacDonald on the west coast
of Skye.
On the grave of Flora MacDonald at Kilmuir, Isle of Skye, the
inscription reads:
Flora MacDonald
Preserver of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Her name will be mentioned in history and if courage and
fidelity be virtues mentioned with honour.
Born at Milton South Uist 1722
Died at Kingsburgh Skye 4 March 1790 |
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Mon 14 May 2012
St Clements Church on South Harris |
Interior of St Clements Church |
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Fri 11 May 2012
I cycled from
Achamore to the west coast of Lewis and along the B8011 to where
it ends |
Local single Malt Whisky from the
Abhainn Dearg distillery. |
End of the Road.The slipway at Brenish on the west coast of
Lewis |
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Thu 10 May 2012
Last night I
arrived on the Outer Hebrides with my bike to head for the area
to the west of Harris and Lewis. This morning I caught the ferry
from North Uist to Harris and began to cycle NE into a head wind |
Stopping for a bacon butty and the 'Butty Bus' near the
Leverburgh ferry terminal on Harris |
Clach Steineagaidh Standing Stone on West side of Harris |
The Balallan Post Office always seems to be closed when I pass |
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Wed 09 May 2012
Drove to Uig on Skye where I left my car then
with my bike caught the ferry to Lochmaddy on North Uist. Before
leaving the ferry had to re-fuel. She took on board 74,000 lt of
heavy oil fuel. That 2 full road-tanker fulls. At busy periods
she will take 3 loads and that will only last about 3 or 4 days. |
The MV Hebrides arrives in Uig, Sky. |
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Tue 08 May 2012
This afternoon we said goodbye to an old
‘Whittler’. Janie Dodd was born on 14 Apr 1922 and died on the
29 Apr 2012 after reaching the age of 90. Janie had many
wonderful memories of local life in the 1930s and was happy to
share them. She was a ‘no nonsense’ woman who spoke her mind. |
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Mon 07 May 2012
Bank Holiday
Monday
This afternoon was the Whittle-le-Woods Duck Race. The event
takes place on Waterhouse Green and the Ducks float down the
River Lostock. Overcast conditions and a little rain didn’t stop
a record crowd turning out and by the time the main duck race
started at 3pm the sun was shining. Many events were there to
interest the crowd of all ages and the dance group ‘Stone the
Crows’ provided even more entertainment.
The top prize at the duck race was £500. The main event saw
1,000 plastic ducks floating down the river. |
Stone the Crows provide entertainment |
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the
crowds gather on Waterhouse Green |
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1000 ducks being dropped into the River Lostock |
the ducks are checked on their way |
Spectators wait on the bridge for the winning duck |
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Sun 06 May 2012
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During the
afternood drove to Tockholes with son Steve and went for a walk
up to Darwen Tower to see if the new dome was now accessible.
Fortunately it was though the door is very stiff and at first I
thought it was locked. |
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The New Dome in stainless steel |
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Darwen Tower is now open |
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This morning out for cycle ride
via Tockholes and Belmont. Stopped in Belmont to have a look at
St Peter’s Church.
I decided to have a look inside for the first time. It was built
in 1849 and consecrated on 1 April 1850.
The original Kirkland and Jardine organ is still in place. It
was constructed in 1853.
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The original Kirkland and Jardine organ is still
in place. It was constructed in 1853 |
St Peter's Church, Belmont |
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Sat 05 May 2012
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This evening called to see my
brother and his new (old classic) motorbike. The bike above is
his current model, a BMW F650 GS which has an 800cc engine and
dates from 2007. |
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This is the bike he's just
bought very second hand. It's a BMW R65, 650cc and dates
from 1979. It certainly doesn't look 33 years old. It needs
quite a bit of work doing to it as it's not been used for 5
years. |
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Thu 03 May 2012
After fairly
strong winds earlier in the week they’d subsided quite a bit
this morning so I decided to go for a cycle ride over Bowland
Knotts. Riding through Preston during the rush hour was
unpleasant and passing the long queues of cars made me glad I
wasn’t driving. North of Broughton the traffic eased and I was
able to enjoyed my ride to Lancaster where I left the A6 just
north of the University and headed through Scotforth to Caton. I
stayed on the old road but eventually had to join the busy A683
at Claughton. Fortunately it wasn’t for long and I left it to
joint the quiet B6480 to Wray. |
Here was
a wonderful treat. They had set up their Bank Holiday Scarecrow
Festival and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the exhibits which
were some of the best of all the various festivals I’ve seen
over the year. I was particularly impressed by the ‘dark humour’
of the ‘Titanic sinking’ and ‘swimming in a pool’ on the site of
the Memorial garden where the disastrous floods of 8 Aug 1967
swept several houses away. Fortunately there were no serious
injuries. I continued my cycle ride to the east along Mewith
Lane. There was hardly any traffic which made for a very
pleasant ride to Keasden Road and the climb up to Bowland Knotts.
The climb is about 3.5 miles long but not particularly steep.
Certainly not as steep as the Lythe Fell pass to the west. The
weather was fine with some sun but rather hazy. The profile of
Ingleborough was still visible as I reached the summit at 422m
(1,385ft). The descent through Gisburn Forest was quite cold and
I was glad to reach the bottom at Stocks Reservoir and have a
look at the recent excavations of the old St James’s Church that
was demolished in the 1930s. I continued through Holden, Sawley
and Chatburn to Clitheroe. I kept on the A671 through Whalley
and on to Blackburn and home. |
Titanic display in the site of the houses that were washed away
during the 1967 floods |
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Scarecrow flop |
Fishing through the ice. |
Wiff Waff comes to Wray - thanks Boris! |
The Squeeze is Hurting |
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The view looking north from the Bowland Knotts summit. In the
centre distance is Ingleborough, 9 miles away. |
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Profile of the route showing the Bowland Knotts summit. |
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Wed 02 May 2012
Wide view of Whiteside and Grasmoor from Thackthwaite, Cumbria |
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Tue 01 May 2012
Little Harwood is to the north of
Blackburn and had an interesting War Memorial |
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This interesting
stone inscription reads:
MOUNT - PLEASANT
REVEDGE
The Road at this Place was made by
Removing the Rock during
the Distress in 1826 & 7
[The spelling of Revidge is interesting as then they've used 'e'
and not 'i'] |
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In the 'County
of Lancaster - a history of Blackburn' the following is printed:
...the commercial depression increased rather than diminished,
and the state of the working population in the district was for
many months most distressing.
The adult male indigent were employed during the distress in
cutting a road through the rock on the summit of Revidge hill,
and at this spot a memorial stone is inscribed |
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