Goodbye Scotland, Hello Iowa

 May 10-12, 2025 

 

Heading home!

On Saturday May 10, we visited Cultybraggen Camp located in the village of Comrie, not far from Crieff.  The camp was constructed during the second Word War and could house up to 4000 prisoners of war, first Italian, then German.  It was named POW Camp 21.  It had a notoriously hard reputation, housing dozens of SS officers, members of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Marine Corps. 

Placard inside one of prison cells

After the war in 1948 it became a Ministry of Defense training camp.  Thousands of personnel in the regular, territorial and cadet forces were trained here until its closure in 2004.  In 2008, it was purchased by a local organization and is now a multi-use site benefiting the community and local businesses.  It also contains a Community Orchard, Community Woodland and a large area for allotments for locals to use as gardens.

VE (Victory in Europe) Day is observed on May 8th each year, and as part of this, the Camp had a large display of WWII equipment.  Army Jeeps, weapons, and German reenactors with Nazi uniforms were there to answer questions about their displays.  

 

WWII motor cycle

WWII Jeep

Weapons display

Reenactment's display

Land mines, etc.

Another Jeep with Alistair and Bonnie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Camp also has a permanent museum that is open to the public.  It is run by volunteers and financed by contributions.  

 

Uniforms, notice infant gas mask outfit

Old HF radio 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Field phone and Morse Code key

 Sue and I enjoyed doing a geocaching Adventure Lab that took us around the area educating us about the history of the camp.  We also enjoyed some cookies and cakes that were being sold by volunteers.

After spending a couple enjoyable hours at the camp, we traveled further west to the village of St. Fillans and to the shores of Loch Earn where "Mirror Man" stands just off shore.  Officially titled "Still", this three meter statue was created by environmental artist Rob Mulholland.   It is composed of hundreds of mirrored tiles.  Creator Mulholland said,  "I created STILL to symbolise the physical and spiritual relationship between humans and the natural world".  It is a major tourist attraction for this area.

Sculpture "Still"

Loch Earn and "Mirror Man"

We could not visit Scotland without going to one of their many distilleries.  So our final stop for the day was at the Glenturret Distillery, the oldest working distillery in Scotland, located in Crieff where Alastair and Kate live.  It dates from 1775!  We would have enjoyed the complete tour but it was late in the afternoon and the tours had ended.  But, the bar was open!  Sue doesn't enjoy whiskey, but Kate and I sampled a couple different types.  Follow the link above for more information about this historic distillery.  

 

 

Glenturret Bar

Our "shots" on keg table

Product display

Kegs for sale?

Outside distillery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  A great ending to another beautiful Scotland day.  Tomorrow our hosts will drive us to Edinburgh where we have reservations near the airport for our trip home.  But, there is still more to see!

Sunday, May 11th

Since we had an 8:30 flight out of Edinburgh Monday morning, we reserved a hotel within walking distance of the airport for Sunday night.  Sue wanted to see the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel.  Both were located on the way to the airport from Crieff.

Our first stop was the Kelpies.   They are an impressive sight, standing nearly 100 feet high and weigh 300 tonnes each.  According to Scottish lore, the Kelpies are shape-shifting water Spirits that live around and in the rivers and locks of Scotland.  They are said to lure travelers to their death.  These two are positioned among the canal locks and are partially submerged in the water.  There is a 1/10th size replica on the grounds near information and gift center that are mobile and can be used in different promotions.  To learn more about them, follow the link above.

Kelpies from the parking lot

 

 

 

1/10th scale Kelpies in the foreground

From the patio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sue, Alastair & Bonnie at the canal gates between the Kelpies 

 Video:  Kelpies grounds

 Not far from the Kelpies, is the Falkirk Wheel, the worlds only rotating boat lift.  This is an engineering marvel that takes the place of 11 locks (and the 44 associated gates that had to be opened and closed) used to raise or lower boats over 100 feet.  It claims to use no more power than it would take to heat eight kettles to boiling.  (I love the reference to tea kettles.)  It connects two canals, the Union canal down to the Forth & Clyde canal.  It is now one of Scotland's busiest tourist attractions, claiming more than 500,000 visitors per year.  They have turned this whole area into a family park to further attract visitors.  The link above will give you more information.

Video:  Falkirk Wheel 

Video:  Tourist boat entering Wheel 

Video:  Lifting the tourist boat 

Video:  Area around Falkirk Wheel and wheel moving.

 

 

 

 

 

 Alastair and Kate deliver us to our motel and we say our goodbyes.  I hope they realize how much we appreciated their showing us this most splendid part of Scotland.  Thanks to them and Terry and Chris, we have had a most memorable time here in the UK.  I hope we can return the favor sometime.

But like all good things, this too must come to an end.  Since it is a considerable drive to the Edinburgh airport, we had booked a hotel near the airport for Sunday night, so we can easily make our 8:35AM flight to Dublin, Ireland, Chicago and Mason City on Monday. 

Out total airtime will be a little over nine hours.  But because of layovers and time changes we will arrive in Mason City, Iowa around 6:15PM.
 

 

 

 

Our neighbor Larry, will pick us up there and finally, with great anticipation, we will return home.

We have been asked by several people how we enjoyed this epic adventure and if we would do it again.  The simple answer is no, we would not do it again.  We are not sorry for doing it, but it got to be a little long.  We will likely do more cruises, but not this lengthy, perhaps a maximum of a couple weeks.  

One thing is for sure, it makes you aware of what a wonderful country we live in and to appreciate the freedoms and opportunities we have.  But, there are many other countries that offer opportunities and their people take great pride in where they live and rightly so.  I would encourage everyone to make the effort to travel abroad and experience what we were so fortunate to do.  And for those that cannot, hopefully you got a vicarious look at what we experienced.

Until next time.....