Scotland Day 2.2 - Cheese, Crail and St Andrews (w pics)

As I was driving towards Crail, I passed a sign to a cheese shop and factory. I threw a u-ey (or rather a carefully negotiated three-point turn on the narrow, stonefenced road, and returned to said establishment.

















I got to talk to the cheesemaker, who told me more about their cheeses. They make a Cheshire-style cow's milk cheese (dry, crumbly), and two flavoured versions - a smoked one, and one with garlic, sage, and annatto, as well as a Cheddar style. The Cheddar style one was glorious. A full flavoured cheese, with far far more personality that a mass-manufactured vintage cheddar. For a tasting plate (3 serves, total ~150g, plus accoutrements), I had the difficult problem of choosing two other cheeses from their marvellous selection. Naturally, I preferenced Scottish cheeses, and with the assistance of the cheesemaker herself, narrowed it down to a Roquefort-style, sheep's milk blue (St Duthuc), and a hard goat's milk cheese from Ayrshire, called Bonnet. Of the three, the Bonnet seemed the weakest (but as I nibbled the rinds at the end, I think it simply needed to warm to room temperature).

I was very glad I hadn't had lunch, as I was well and truly stonkered after all that deliciousness (which included a glorious relish, red grapes, apple, oatcake, and other stuff (I was told, but I was distracted by the cheeses).

After that, I went on to Crail, a very pretty seaside port, with a very pretty stone harbour.

I sat on the harbour wall and watched the incoming tide crash (whooomph) against the seawall, with the sun on my back and a delighted grin on my face. Note that the sea was incredibly calm - various birds were bobbing on the gentle waves. It would be incredible to experience in heavier weather!

On to St Andrews, where I had a very brief wander through the ruins of the once-great cathedral. (When consecrated, in 1318, it was the largest building in the country.)

The romanesque arches of the east wall (where the altar etc stood), viewed through the gothic processional entry in the west wall. The west wall was rebuilt three times, having succumbed to storms (~1272) and fire (~1378)

There was no explanation provided, but they clearly changed from a Romanesque (round) arch (left) to the Gothic (pointed) arch (right) at some point, perhaps reflecting a change in fashion by the time of the post-fire reconstruction.

I managed to cajole the staff member to give me a token to access the St Rule tower, even though they had closed. I then climbed the (?)336 steps to the top to look over the town of St Andrews. The tower is pretty much all that remains of St Rule's Church, which preceded the cathedral but the church was later used as a quarry for the rest of the town.

Of course, I managed to hit the video button, so all my intended photos from the top were short videos.

We were firmly encouraged to leave the grounds by 5:30pm (even though the sun was high in the sky, and the grounds were full of people).

Onto Dundee, crossing the very long bridge over the river Tay. I have almost passable internet in my room (definitely an improvement on yesterday), but I haven't got the patience at the moment to go through the tedious process of uploading the photos from my phone, then transcribing the code to add them here. This post was updated in Inverness.

I found a pub for a drink, (or three) but was a little late to order dinner (kitchen closed at 8:30pm), so got some chips from the F&C place next door on my way home. It's daylight savings, and a fair bit north, so even in late August, it's still quite light at 9pm.