Clava Cairns

Ruthven Barracks

Dunkeld Cathedral

Kirkgate Park & Loch Leven

 

A good sound sleep on the quiet car park at Helmsdale Harbour, up and ready to leave by 0945, no need to rush.

We called at the Tesco filling station in Inverness where we filled up with diesel, 65 litres, not quite a full tank, but nearly.

We purchased annual membership the Heritage Scotland to enable us to visit all the major sites on The Orkney Islands, it worked out a more economical way of visiting than buying individual tickets, so now we want to make the most of our membership and plan our return journey to take in some of the best sights in Scotland.

Our first stop is at the Clava Cairns, a group of 3 huge Iron Age cairns and standing stones, we eat lunch there is the car park. A truly remarkable site, huge cairns built so close together, this site must have had very special significance and associations for the people who laboured so long and hard bringing all those stones and placing them there. Many of the stones are too large for one person to move, so it was a great co-operative labour. In modern times it possibly equates to the building of a cathedral in the middle ages.

After lunch we move on to Ruthven Barracks, an impressive group of buildings on top of a hill that rises steeply above the surrounding countryside. 60 soldiers were housed in each block 10 to a room where they did their own cooking and laundry. They slept 2 to a bed. A tough life.

Next stop was Dunkeld Cathedral. There are two parts to this building, in the photo the part of the building covered by scaffolding is the part in the care of Heritage Scotland, the reminder of the building is in use now as the cathedral. Unfortunately it is not possible to visit the heritage part at the time of writing, but that may change as work proceeds.

Finally we move on to our overnight stop in the parking area of Kirkgate Park on the banks of Loch Leven. The final approach is along a narrow road with high speed bumps, not motorhome friendly at all. We park at the far of the parking area and enjoy our evening meal. There are a few other vehicles about, mostly dog walkers, until two more motorhomes appeared and stayed the night. A quiet location with good views over the loch.

Summary of motorhome journey