After our lovely rest. We walked east along the coast to the ruins of an old castle. It was not raining but there was very slippery mud along the path from the previous days rain. The castle was built in the 1300's but was destroyed a few hundred years later when some vikings attacked it. The ruins were out on this finger of cliff with sheer drops of 50 feet on either side to craggy churning water. In its day, and the same is true now, access was only by foot on a steep hillside. In the castle you can see the remnants of several stories of rooms. The lower level can be accessed either by giant holes in the floor of the overlying rooms, or by what must have once been a spiral staircase, but is now a narrow spiral tunnel (how I got down). There was surprisingly little trash in the ruin. It seems like exactly the place I would have gone to build a fire and drink beer in high school...
On our way back, we decided to go into the town in search of Cullen Skink and a pint of cloudy cider. Cullen Skink is a very famous and beloved soup throughout the British Isles. It consists of smoked haddock and potatoes in a cream base with a pinch of nutmeg. We found what we were looking for at the Three Kings pub. I ordered a cider, when asked which one, I responded, "the cloudy one." One of the pub patrons responded " you mean, the stronger one!" with a bellow. Uh huh. My companion was unsure what to order. "A beer, which one is your favorite?" A tall man, well into his cups sitting at the bar recommended the IPA. "Oh, it's good then?" cups offered her a taste of his, which he had newly received. She tried it. She approved. He grinned. "You know it's a custom in Scotland that you have to marry a man if you take a sip of his drink?" Wonderful. Too bad she's already married. Darn.
The soup was wonderful, though a bit on the salty side. All the more reason to have a second pint of cloudy cider. After the pub, I took a nap and my companion walked along the beach. It was a very successful day.
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| The giants steps |
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| That's where the castle was |
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| ruined castle |
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| there's the lower story |
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| Cloudy cider! |
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