HIGH up on the hill, we can see the past. Over there, at the bottom of the slope, was where the British army was camped out, and there, on the horizon, is where the Jacobites gathered, and down there, in the ordinary-looking fields, is where many of the dead are buried. The year 1745 is still here. We can see it.

But we can see the future from here too. At the top of the sloping land leading away from the hill, mechanical diggers are gouging earth out of the land. In a few weeks, the foundations for hundreds of houses will be laid here and eventually a new town will emerge. Many of the houses will stand on the line that the Jacobites followed as they marched into battle. To that extent, it is the future erasing the past.

For Dr Arran Johnston, whos standing on the hill surveying the scene, it is all very disturbing. Dr Johnston is director of the Scottish Battlefields Trust, which campaigns to protect battle sites from destruction or unnecessary development, and he is deeply concerned about what is happening in parts of the country.

Take the site of the Battle of Prestonpans for instance, where were standing now. The battle in September 1745 was Bonnie Prince Charlies first encounter with British Government forces and it could not be more important, historically, socially and culturally. It was short and bloody and brutal and ended with the Jacobite force triumphing over the British army led by Sir John Cope. In the years that followed, the battle has also been celebrated and mythologised in songs, poetry and books, including Walter Scotts Waverley right up to the television series Outlander. It may not be as famous as Culloden or Bannockburn, but it matters just as much.

Up on the hill at the centre of the site, Dr Johnston tells me why. Above us is a flagpole flying Bonnie Prince Charlies personal standard, a square of white on a blood-red background. The flag would have been flown on the battlefield to alert the princes men to his whereabouts. It wasnt common in the 18th century for kings, or kings-in-waiting, to lead on the battlefield in this way, but Charles knew he had to win hearts and minds. He knew he had to be down on the ground with his men.

The men would have been volunteers, says Dr Johnston, people inspired by the Princes PR, and they came from a huge range of social backgrounds. They would have been almost exclusively Gaelic-speaking though and they came mainly from the Outer Hebrides and central Highlands. Some people in the local area of Prestonpans supported them and secretly helped; others were deeply opposed. This wasnt England versus Scotland, this was Scots against Scots.

His arms sweeping across the landscape, Dr Johnston tells me what happened on the day of the battle. The core of the battlefield is the fields down there, he says, pointing towards the open land near the railway line. He slowly turns round, speaking as he goes. The Jacobite army arrived there and moved across into Tranent. The British army was down in the fields and overnight, guided by a local lad, the Jacobites moved across into the fields on the lower ground. Most of the killing was done down there and the British army survivors were squeezed to where the railway line is now. The British casualties were some 300-500. For the Jacobites, it was much lighter only around 40.

In many ways, the landscape is still much as it was on the day of the battle, although there have been some pretty profound changes as well. At one time, there was an open cast mine here, right behind the main road through Prestonpans, and there are still signs of its industrial past, including the pylons that cut a line across the fields and housing. What really worries Dr Johnston though is the new town being built up on the hill.

Three thousand houses will cover the line of the Jacobite march, he says. I would prefer them not to be built there, but we were never going to win a fight to stop it, so we worked from a very early stage in the process to make sure there was acknowledgement in the planning of the significance of the site. There should be something physical there to mark the battle and at the very least there should be echoes in the naming of some of the town.

The bigger problem, says Dr Johnston, is the almost complete lack of protection given to Scotlands battlefields. Since the Prestonpans housing scheme was given the go-ahead some 15 years ago, Historic Environment Scotland has published an inventory of important battlefields, but it effectively amounts to little more than a list. Many campaigners are also concerned that Historic Environment Scotland, which is a government agency, doesnt have the independence needed to fight for battlefields; and theres a fear that the development at Prestonpans, and at other battle sites such as Killiecrankie and Pinkie Cleugh, demonstrate that the planning system is not up to the job.

This is certainly what Dr Johnston believes and he would like to see significant changes to offer greater protection for battlefields.

Battlefields in Scotland are not legally protected, he says. Thats the baseline and why not? is the question I keep asking.

There are a lot of challenges involved with battlefields, he goes on. They are landscapes, not structures, so theres an interpretation challenge. Its a big area so inevitably there are all sorts of developments and changes that will be constantly happening. Theres also a huge diversity of sites so its hard to come up with a policy that fits everywhere.

But also, youre dealing with relatively slippery things people dont stand still for long during battles so that means that one part of a battlefield is very important during the fighting and then becomes less important 10 or 15 minutes later. There can also be differences of opinion. Where do you define a battle? Do you start with the first shot being fired? Armies dont magically appear they will have had to camp there the night before so they are difficult things to delineate.

All of this can make it hard for historians to define the area of a battle; it can also be hard to engage local people and make them care about the site.

There are people who say, there are immense pressures for housing, so does it matter if were creeping into a battlefield? and I have a great deal of sympathy with those arguments, says Dr Johnston.

But you have to say: can you demonstrate that what you are trying to achieve, or develop, cannot be achieved somewhere else, on a brownfield site? We are not trying to stop stuff happening and turn the clock back. What were saying is can we have a respectful relationship between the future and the past.

What particularly saddens Dr Johnston is that the future has so often won out over the past. Look at the Battle of Langside for example, which was fought in 1568 between forces loyal to Mary Queen of Scots and an army acting in the name of her son James. Drive through the Battlefield area of Glasgow now and other than the name and a monument at the top of the hill you would never know the battle had been fought there.

Similar pressures have been felt elsewhere. Wheres Bannockburn? says Dr Johnston. Theres a museum but its not the battlefield, its not where the fighting took place. So a visit there is about a visit to the statue and the museum, but to me, that puts more layers between you and reality rather than bringing you closer in. Its much easier to tell that story when youre on a site and youre saying, it was here.

Could the answer be a moratorium on development? Dr Johnston doesnt think thats practical, but he does think the law needs changing. Currently, councils are required to consider the battlefield during the decision-making process, but it is a consideration only. Theres no pressure, for example, to consider alternative sites for the development.

Dr Johnston would like to see that changed. One idea is that battlefields could be zoned so that a central, important area cannot be developed or built on at all. The Scottish Battlefields Trust would also like to see a presumption against development of battlefields rather than the current situation where councils are only obliged to consider the impact on the site. Another idea is the creation of a sort of battlefields tsar: a truly independent person charged with protecting battlefields nationally and standing up for them to councils, developers and the Scottish Government.

According to Dr Johnston, the dangers of not doing any of this can be seen all over Scotland. He is very concerned, for example, about the plans to widen the A9 at the site of the Battle of Killiecrankie. Much of the damage to the site of the Jacobite victory in 1689 had already been done by the original building of the road but Dr Johnston and others, including Historic Environment Scotland, believe the widening of the road will further damage and undermine the battlefield. Its a textbook case of what is wrong with the current system, says Dr Johnston, and a demonstration of what happens when insufficient consideration is given to the effects of development on battlefields.

Theres another example of the damage that can be done to battlefields just five minutes down the road from Prestonpans at the site of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh near Musselburgh. Pinkie Cleugh is one of the lesser-known conflicts of Scottish history, but its importance is undeniable: some 10,000 men died. Fought in 1547, it also came at a time of military transition the men at Pinkie Cleugh fought with handguns but also longbows.

Standing by the side of the road in the middle of the site, Dr Johnston talks me through what happened. Mary Queen of Scots was a toddler. The king of England, Edward VI, was also a child and the English court decided this was the perfect opportunity to unite the crowns. The Scottish parliament said No, however, so the English sent an army of 17,000 men to force the marriage. In response, the Scots raised an army of between 20,000 and 30,000 and the two armies met at Pinkie.

Dr Johnston asks me to imagine what it was like to be there on the day of the battle. If we were standing where we are now in 1547, he says, we would be standing in the middle of thousands of armed English horsemen rolling straight past us, smashing into lines of Scots. The aim was to slow down the Scots enough so the English were able to deploy their guns, and they succeeded. It was a catastrophic defeat for the Scots. It was protracted, furious, physical fighting and the estimates of the dead vary from 6000 upwards.

Standing facing the east coast, you can see the open ground where the Scots were hunkered down, but turn around and face the upper ground that the English held and all you can see is youve guessed it hundreds of houses being built. Until six months ago, you could still see where the English were camped; not only that, you could stand where they stood and know that it was pretty much unchanged. But now there is scaffolding and a long line of generic houses. We could be anywhere in the UK.

There are two big disappointments for me, says Dr Johnston as he looks up at the houses. These houses have been put in with absolutely no consideration for the landscape, or the heritage, without any sense of the impact it has on understanding the rest of the landscape. But by doing it, they have also weakened the defensibility of the rest. His fear is that if we come back to the site in 20 years time, the rest of it will have been built over. You wont be able to read the landscape any more, he says. You wont be able to feel any connection to the events.

Dr Johnston still hopes this wont happen, and what we have left can be preserved. The country that we are now, he says, and our perception of it, our social norms, and even some of the political divisions that still linger hundreds of years later its been a long evolution and its often been driven at key moments by conflict and battle. He quotes Churchill: battles are punctuation marks in our national story. They matter. They should be saved.

As for how to win the battle to save them, Dr Johnston says further development of Scotlands battlefields will only be prevented and controlled if the rules are changed and changed quickly.

Its not about saying we are drawing a line around a landscape and it must stay as it was in 1547 or whatever, he says. Its about taking a sensitive approach to our landscapes the landscape is important and if you take it away, its no different from saying Ive just knocked down a castle.

Weve got an obligation to the past, he says, but weve got an obligation to the future too.

Read more:
'It's like knocking down a castle': The fight to save Scotland's battlefields - HeraldScotland

It has been more than 50 years since the ancient dry lake bed of Mungo revealed human remains which corroborated a truth Indigenous Australians already knew. When a geologist found the remains of Mungo Lady in 1968 and then Mungo Man in 1974, the findings showed that people had been living on the continent for more than 40,000 years.

If you want to walk in the footsteps of an ancient culture at the very spot where proof of their longevity was found, then Mungo national park is the place to do it.

The lake bed is still giving up its mysteries. A walk across the white sand to spot an artefact is the highlight of our trip to the Willandra Lakes region world heritage area in south-west New South Wales.

Once a month, you can take a Full Moon tour of Mungo national park to experience the thrill of watching a full moon rising over the Walls of China, a 17km stretch of sand and silt deposited over tens of thousands of years. These layers have been eroded by wind and rain to form a crescent-shaped lunette on the eastern shore of the lake.

Once in the restricted area of the lunette, our tour guide points out a midden with scattered shells and animal bones recently uncovered by the shiftings sands. The find indicates the inhabitants had cooked abundant seafood from the once-thriving lake before it dried up some 20,000 years ago.

When the lake was full it was a haven for wildlife and vegetation. Megafauna such as the diprotodon, a hippopotamus-sized relative of wombats and koalas, strolled the foreshore. As the lake dried up due to extreme climate change, much of the fauna and flora became extinct.

To stand in that vast, eerie landscape at sunset is to gain a tiny window into the ancient history of the continent.

The artefacts in this area are unique. They have been exposed not by archaeologists but by erosion, making it one of the best places on Earth to study ancient human life.

The areas three tribal groups, Mutthi Mutthi, Paakantji and Ngyiampaa, have given permission for guided tours of some restricted areas. Our guide advises us to look, not touch, and certainly not to remove anything.

Not everyone heeds this warning. In the museum at the Mungo visitor centre, which houses a life-sized model of a diprotodon, there are letters from apologetic travellers who decided to send back the sand, leaves, shells or bones theyd collected.

Aside the visitors centre sits the Mungo Woolshed, an extraordinary 200-year-old building which documents the regions pastoral history.

The highlight of the visitors centre is a collection of human footprints said to be 20,000 years old. They were uncovered in 2003 during a routine survey of archaeological sites and carefully transported to where they now stand, preserved as they were found. They are the oldest footprints ever found in Australia and afford scientists rich clues as to how people lived at the time.

Flora and fauna youll meet: Red kangaroos, emus, wedge-tailed eagles, pink cockatoos and the stunning green-and-gold mallee ringneck parrot all inhabit the park. The arid landscape is speckled with saltbush, providing nourishment for the animals with its spear-shaped, succulent leaves.

Dont miss: The star of this region is the lunette, or Walls of China. Outback Geo Adventures offer a monthly full moon tour of the area, starting at sunset. In February and March of 2020, the moon will be at its closest distance to Earth called a super moon. The eight-hour tour includes meals, and is priced at $160 per adult.

If you cant time your visit with a moon rise, the National Parks and Wildlife Service offers several guided tours of the Walls of China, including sunset tours, with prices starting from $50 per adult.

Where to sleep: Mungo Lodge is a comfortable ecolodge and restaurant on the edge of the park, with its own landing strip for those who want to fly straight in. It offers a range of accomodation from deluxe cabins to a budget bunkhouse, caravan and camping sites. Prices start from $45 per person per night for budget accomodation, and from $295 per night for self-contained twin cabins. Inside the main building, which was constructed from local materials in 1992, you can relax in front of the fire or enjoy a meal in the large dining room and bar. The lodge also organises scenic flights and tours.

The main camp in Mungo national park has 30 spots for caravans, trailers and tents, but you must come prepared with drinking water, cooking water and firewood because it is a remote site with scarce mobile coverage and no power. It costs $8.50 per adult on top of the park entry fees.

Nearest hot meal: The Mungo Lodge bar and bistro is open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Good pub meals can also be had en route to the national park, at the Crown Hotel, some 130km away in Wentworth. The charming old pub opened in 1861, and the historic photographs on the walls tell some of the story of the town.

When to go: The best time to visit Mungo is during the cooler months as the temperature climbs well over 30C in the summer. The perfect time would be autumn or spring. Mungo Lodge closes over the Christmas period, from the 22 to 27 December.

Logistics: Mungo national park is a 9.5 hour drive from Melbourne, a 13 hour drive from Sydney, or an 8.5 hour drive from Adelaide.

The nearest airport, Mildura, is a 90-minute drive from the park on unsealed roads (although your sat nav or maps app will tell you it takes four hours). Mildura has direct flights from Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Broken Hill, and there are car rental options at the airport.

Bring a topographic map and a compass if youre camping or exploring on foot or bicycle. If self-driving, a four-wheel drive is recommended.

Take your best camera for unforgettable landscapes. A quick drive to Mungo lookout is a must as it offers the best views across the lake bed.

Guardian Australia was a guest of Destination NSW.

Here is the original post:
Mungo national park: where alien landscapes reveal ancient culture - The Guardian

It takes rare imagination to walk a raw parcel of land and find a golf course on it. With a touch of envy, four top architects toast four golf holes that really floor them but were dreamed up by another visionary.

By Bill Coore

My design partner Ben Crenshaw and I are both very fond of short par 3s, in part because they require accuracy and finesse more than power, and in that way they provide a rare opportunity for a golfer of lesser ability to compete and even succeed against a better player. The 11th at Pacific Dunes is a wonderful example of an architect working with the natural landscape, rather than trying to impose himself on the land, to create a short par 3 of rare beauty and strategic intrigue. The hole requires a relatively modest carry over a sandy area and a bunker to a green set in the dunes along the Pacific, but it allows for a wide variety of shot shapes, and the challenge is wide-ranging depending on the wind. There are numerous holes and original concepts, such as the Alps and the Redan, that we wish we had created. But anything we build trying to approximate those designs is merely a copy or a tribute. What Tom Doak has created here is an authentic original, with its own distinct identity. It is truly as memorable and inspirational a hole as any I have seen.

Coore is the co-architect of Sand Hills (No. 14), Friars Head (No. 26), Cabot Cliffs (No. 43), Bandon Trails (No. 87) and Barnbougle (Lost Farm) (No. 89).

By David McLay Kidd

A lot of people dont realize it, but Kingsbarns was farm fields, not dunes. The owner, Mark Parsinen, and the architect, Kyle Phillips, reimagined a landscape that might have existed in geologic history and essentially created a golf course out of nothing. I admire the entire course, but I especially love the 6th, a fantastic, drivable par 4 that offers the perfect balance of threat and opportunity. Off the tee, youre given a view of a sloping fairway that pitches away from you on a sharp diagonal. Simply putting the ball in play doesnt look too challenging, but bombing one across the tightest line and rolling it onto the green is a possibility too tempting to resist. If you dont pull off the shot, there is still a chance at redemption. But if you do, the result is positively delicious. The ball flight, bounce and roll might take 30 seconds or more, and with every second the shot can get better and better. But there is also the drama of uncertainty. Will the ball have enough to reach the green, but not too much so that it trickles over? Its a hole that presents you with a riveting strategic riddle. And I think of it often when I try to create a great short par 4.

McLay Kidd is the architect of Bandon Dunes (No. 80).

By Gil Hanse

Part of my rationale for picking the 4th hole at Fishers is that it would mean my team and I would have designed the rest of the course, in its amazing location off the tip of Long Island. Still, the 4th stands out to me for its bold use of a dramatic piece of land to create a composite template hole, with an Alps formation in the fairway/approach and a punchbowl green. While the hole is great to look at and play, it is also very strategic; it rewards the golfer who plays their tee shot along the right side of the hole with a better angle and a view of the flag if the pin is placed on the right side of the green. Although modern technology has taken the driver out of the long hitters hands, it is still a thrill to watch tee shots take flight here. This hole also includes my favorite walk in golf, as you crest the hill and look down into the green. The 4th hole at Streamsong Black, which my team and I designed, has a Punchbowl green that was partially inspired by the 4th at Fishers, as well as by other Seth Raynor holes. Whats impossible to emulate is the setting at Fishers. The view is so beautiful as to be distracting. But my focus is always on counting the balls in the bowl to see how everyone fared. Once Ive done that tally, I always pause to take in the incomparable view.

Hanse is the architect of Castle Stuart (No. 66) and Ohoopee Match Club (No. 98).

By Greg Norman

There are so many things to love about this par-5 hole, but what stands out to me are the simplicities and complexities rolled into one. The more straightforward approach is to play it up the left as a traditional three-shotter. But you can also challenge yourself to get there in two by taking a more aggressive line up the right, flirting with the out of bounds. That was generally my preference: to take it out over the white stakes and get my drive as far out there as possible. But, as with all great links holes, it all depends on the wind. If you miss a shot, you face a snowballing accumulation of problems. You might have to gouge out from a fairway bunker. Or youll bring Hells Bunker into play with your layup, some 80 or 90 yards short of the green. And then theres the green itself: Its a large, shared green with the 4th hole, and it has a ridge running perpendicular to you and a drop-off in the back. They can tuck the pin in places that make it all but impossible to access with anything but a perfect shot. And if you miss, youre left with a challenging chip or pitch. If you built a green like this today, theyd yell at you and tell you that you were crazy. But its a work of art. The entire hole. Im generally not one for copying or emulating other designs, but if I ever got a site that allowed for it, the 14th is the hole Id try to re-create.

Norman is the co-architect of Ellerston (No. T77).

Originally posted here:
I wish Id designed that: Four top architects on golf holes that are too good to be true - Golf.com

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Casino Gaming Equipment Market Forecast, Segmentation, Competitive Landscape And Elaboration On Industry Insights By 2028 - Industry Planning

Literary prizes do more than offer recognition and cash to writers and help readers decide what book to choose. They shape the literary canon, a countrys body of highly regarded writing. They help shape what the future classics might be.

But what if Africas biggest prizes are awarded by foreign territories; former colonial masters? Or what if African-born writers in the diaspora are routinely chosen as winners over writers living and working in Africa?

Debates have been raging over these issues in recent years, especially relating to the lucrative Caine Prize for African Writing.

The words award or prize imply that there was a selection process and the best emerged as winner. The awarding of value to a text through the literary prize industry involves selection and exclusion in which some texts and authors are foregrounded, becoming the canon.

The scholar John Guillory argues, in addition, for the need to

reconstruct a historical picture of how literary works are produced, disseminated, reproduced, reread, and retaught over successive generations and eras.

The issues are complex and the landscape is changing. My research covers how prizes create taste and canon but also the increasing role played by literary organisations to shape those prizes and hence the canon.

Writers organisations mainly provide a social space for writers. There are dozens across the continent. Sometimes they include a publishing avenue, workshops, fellowships and competitions. In general, they have aimed to fill gaps left by mainstream literary bodies such as publishers, universities and schools, and book marketers.

To understand the process of creative writing on the African continent its useful to focus on the interrelationship between prize bodies and writers organisations in contemporary literary production.

The Caine Prize for African Writing and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are two major awards for contemporary Africa that have been cited as significant in promoting up-and-coming writers to become global writers. Both trade in the short story.

The Commonwealth, an initiative of the Commonwealths agency for civil society, awards unpublished fiction. The Caine, a charity set up in the name of the late literary organiser Sir Michael Caine, only accepts already published work. The cash reward that comes with winning these prizes is a major factor in their popularity on the continent.

But they are also significant in the growth of the short story genre. This is why I am interested in the partnerships that have emerged between prize bodies and writers organisations. Together they are influencing literary production structures from creative writing training to publishing and marketing texts.

Both the Caine and the Commonwealth prizes have partnered with African based writing organisations like Ugandas FEMRITE and Kenyas Kwani? to organise joint creative writing workshops.

The Caine holds annual workshops for its longlisted writers. These mostly take place in Africa, working with local writers organisations. Sometimes the resulting writing is entered into competitions and in this way, the prize body both produces and awards literary value.

Many of these writers organisations are headed by people who were canonised through the international prize, and sometimes the writing trainers and competition judges are also previous winners.

With such links it then becomes important to analyse the literary texts produced within these networks with the awareness of the importance of a texts social, cultural and political context. The literary product becomes a reflection of the different systems of power at play.

A good illustration of this power play can be found in best-selling Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies short story Jumping Monkey Hill. It tells of a fictional creative writing programme for African writers run by the British Council. The story, set in South Africa, narrates the experiences of the writers, who are all expected to write about African realities in order to have their stories published internationally. The writers come to the workshop ready to learn how to improve their skills but encounter setbacks mainly because the trainer has a preconceived idea of what plausible African stories should be. These writers have to understand the power play in place and then make a choice.

Jumping Monkey Hill acknowledges the role played by the creative writing institution in the production of literature as a commodity that must fit market demands. For this reason, the increasing investment of African based writers organisations in the literary production scene can also be understood as a political move. It is also an effort to influence the literature coming out of the continent and shape the canon.

Contemporary African writers organisations are deliberately involved in canon formation by taking an active role in the production and distribution of literature. They understand that the uneven distribution of economic and cultural capital results in misrepresentations, or lack of representation, within the canon.

Writers organisations such as FEMRITE, Kwani?, Farafina, Writivism, Storymoja and Short Story Day Africa, among others, are active in the literary industry through publishing, creative writing programmes and providing access to major award organisations and international publishers.

They are, in the process, contributing to canon formation.

Short Story Day Africa, for instance, pegs its yearly competitions on the promise that the winning stories will be automatically submitted for the Caine Prize. In fact, the 2014 Caine winning story and one other shortlisted story were initially published in its anthology Feast, Famine and Potluck (2013).

In the African academy, creative writing is usually offered as a single course within a larger programme or is available only at selected universities. This has resulted in a market gap that has been quickly lled by writers organisations. They fill this gap by offering short term courses on various aspects of creative writing. This is in part because the local literary organisation possesses the cultural capital necessary to link writers to prize organisations and publishers, and therefore to global visibility.

Link:
African literary prizes are contested -- but writers' groups are reshaping them - The Conversation Africa

Essential Information

British Embassy/Consulate:(00 39 055 284 133;gov.uk). Approximately 3 million British nationals visit Italy a year so the website is up to date with information on events like heatwaves or volcanic eruptions, airport renovations, and any security issues. Check out the 'Living in Italy' entry too.

Tourist offices: There are tourism offices all over the region. Check out italia.it to find the one closest to you.

Ambulance: dial 118

Police: dial 112

Fire: dial 115

Currency:Euro

Telephone code:from abroad, dial 00 39, and then a zero at the start of the landline number; mobile numbers dont need a 0.

Time difference:+1 hour

Travelling times:Flights from London to Florence take about two hours and ten minutes. Pisa is another option with same flight time.

When greeting people, use the more formal expressions, Buon giorno or Buona sera instead of ciao.

When visiting churches and abbeys do bring something to cover your shoulders and when visiting during mass, be sure to be quiet and respectful. Dressing up for meals in nicer restaurants usually results in better service.

Beware the many speed cameras dotting Tuscanys back roads by respecting the limits. When parking watch for the coloured lines in general white are free, blue paid parking, and yellow for residents. Do not enter ZTL, zona traffica limita.

Here is the original post:
An expert guide to a weekend in Tuscany | Telegraph Travel - The Telegraph

Tim McKay is a conservationist, tree farmer, furniture maker, and writer who has lived in Peacham since 1977. Tim retired in 2010 from a career with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service field office in St Johnsbury.

Last month I described our first days in the western highlands of Scotland, based in Glencoe and then Ullapool. That was our wet introduction to a sparsely populated region of stark natural beauty with its rocky mountains, green glens, fjord-like lochs, and heather-covered peat.

We left Ullapool in the rain, headed north on the A835, a good road with two lanes, which in Scotland means two eight or nine-foot wide lanes with absolutely no shoulder of any kind. With Betsy chanting keep left, keep left and sucking in her breath whenever we met a truck, I continued my adjustment to driving a car that I wasnt used to on the wrong side of a too narrow road. It took intense concentration. Betsy was able to look around at the landscape of heathered peat-land punctuated by small isolated farms nestled on occasional spots of arable land, and too many lakes to count. Before long we joined the A837 and were along Loch Assynt where we stopped to check out the ruins of Ardvreck Castle, one of three generations of ruin at this site. The inconspicuous mound of a stone cairn is nearby, probably about 5,000 years old, while the more modern ruin of a large stone house from the 18th century stands just up the road. Layers of history are everywhere in Scotland.

Even rugged hills covered in nothing but rock and heather are pastured by sheep.

Heading west we drove into Lochinver, a small but important port, the commercial center of a large area of the northwest coast. That means that there is a convenience store, a gas station, MacKays Hardware, a caf, and a post office. In the eight-hour drive from Ullapool around the coast to Thurso there are no true grocery stores.

Beyond metro Lochinver, the road winds around the coast, up and down, hemmed in by rock, past little crofts (farms) and hamlets of a few houses. The road widens into a pullout wherever nature allows. According to Scottish custom for vehicles that meet on the single track roads, the car that is closest to a pullout backs up. With so many blind twists and turns and ups and downs, such encounters are common. Speed is not an option, although the locals and lorry (truck) drivers have become inured enough to the danger that they buzz right along. Interestingly, traffic deaths per capita are about eight times higher on our wide roads as on Scotlands narrow roads.

There are three villages worthy of the name along the northwest coast in the heart of MacKay Country. The westernmost is Durness which features a similar array of services to Lochinver. The village sits above Sango beach, one of a number of lovely sand beaches along the north coast. It is surrounded by the largest patch of farmland we had seen for days, several hundred acres in size. There are a number of working crofts, many of which offer rooms to the growing number of tourists. Other than yard trees, there are absolutely no trees for many miles; just heather, rock, and small lakes among scattered mountains rising to about 3,000 feet.

East of Durness is Loch Eriboll, a ten-mile long arm of the sea with deep water, well protected from the howling storms of the open sea to the north. It was used extensively by the Royal Navy during WWII, including as the site of the surrender of the last 33 German U-boats in 1945. Rising beyond Loch Eriboll, the road traverses a high plateau. It was raining as we drove under the heavy gray skies, the only color being the purple bloom of heather as far as the eye could see. We pulled off into a cratered dirt parking area near the ruined shell of a house. The glowering gray sky spit cold rain as we walked up to the house. I could envision a cold, wet MacKay ancestor trudging over this endless, bog covered plateau. Unbelievably, when we rounded the wall of the house, the interior walls were covered with fantastic graffiti murals. It was modern, artistic Scotland meeting the gray stone and harsh existence of ancient Scotland.

Continuing east, active peat harvesting was apparent. Peat has been an abundant fuel source for millennia here. These large northern expanses of peat are known as the Flows. More than 400,000 acres are covered by blanket bog covering hills and swales alike. Only a few species of plants can survive the cold, wet, acidic conditions, and when those plants die, they do not decompose. Instead, the next generation grows atop the old, a pattern that has continued since the glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago. The blanket of peat varies but is as much as 30 feet thick. The peat stores more than twice as much carbon as all the forests in the UK combined.

Descending from the plateau, the next inlet of the sea was spread before us, this time a shallow bay known as the Kyle of Tongue. Sitting on the tip of a ridge jutting into the Kyle, the ruin of Castle Varrich (once the stronghold of the MacKay Clan) commands a view over the Kyle, the village of Tongue with its collection of crofts, and the flows stretching away to the mountains.

The third village along this harsh coast is Bettyhill which sits on a rise above the mouth of the River Naver. An extensive sand beach with high dunes behind it marks the entrance to Strathnaver, a broad swath of arable land extending about 40 miles inland to Loch Naver. This was the heart of MacKay Country and about 1200 people lived on tenant farms in Strathnaver until 1819. Then the Dutchess of Sutherland, who owned the whole region, decided that sheep would be more profitable than the tenant farms. The people were told to clear off the land they had farmed for generations and the farms and hamlets were all burned. This was one of the more brutal episodes in what is known as the Highland Clearances.

Our destination was a white-washed stone cottage that we had reserved through AirBnB. After climbing east from Bettyhill and passing a couple of big wind turbines, the road to Kirtomy appeared on our left. The single-track road wound down a steep valley, emerging from the heather into green grass and a cluster of farms and scattered houses. Open to the sea stretching north toward the Orkney Islands, Kirtomy occupies a verdant bowl of arable land with heather-covered pastures rising all around. At the foot of the valley is a steep headland and a little stone beach featuring a ruined stone jetty that once hosted a small fishing fleet. Today the only boats in evidence are two lobstering dories pulled up on the beach.

Our first stop to delve into McKay history was the Strathnaver Museum in Bettyhill, where we picked up a guidebook for the Strathnaver Trail, a historical trail with 17 stops over the 20-mile length of the valley. From Bettyhill we drove south, up the Naver River, which is a renowned salmon fishing destination. The Trail stops have signage with a little history, from ancient cairns to the stone foundations of villages burned in 1819. We walked a mile or so through the woods to reach Rosal, one of the former villages. Sitting among the stone foundations I couldnt help wondering about ancestors who lived what we would consider a brutal existence on this land, and the ignominious end to the lives they had known, brought on by the Clearances.

The Strathnaver culminates at Loch Naver, typical of the many lakes dotting the Flows. The landscape is a cross between tundra and plains, with huge expanses of sloping heather rising to 3,000-foot mountains. Along the loch we came upon a logging operation underway in a 100-acre plantation of spruce. They were salvaging logs from a large blowdown, the result of hurricane-force winds that struck northern Scotland last year. The drive north from Altnaharra to Tongue was magical, with long stretches of purple flows; the classic Loch Loyal and its attendant mountain, Ben Loyal, begging to be climbed.

Back at our classic little cottage in Kirtomy, we cooked an early supper with the food brought from Ullapool, and then took an evening stroll. Writing in my journal I realized that it had been our first day in Scotland without rain.

The next morning dawned clear and I was up early, sneaking out for a walk up onto the hills behind the cottage. The only paths I found were sheep trails through the heather, but the ground was pretty dry and the heather only ankle-high, so I could walk anywhere. From the top of the hill I could look west to the mountains that mark the northern end of the Highlands, and north out to sea. Below me was the tidy valley of Kirtomy where I counted 24 houses, and two active crofts with stacked bales of hay and flocks of sheep in the pastures.

Later we took a walk down to the little stone beach. A wandering border collie tagged along, and a single sheep sadly looked at her mates on the wrong side of the fence. Near the beach stands a monument to the Kirtomy men who perished in two shipwrecks in the 19th century. Eight of the nine men were MacKays. Scrambling down to the beach, I wandered out onto the broken concrete and rock of the small jetty with its row of iron loops drilled into the rock. At one time there must have been over a dozen boats that called this tiny bay home.

As the weather turned back to wind and spitting rain, we decided to spend a quiet afternoon in the cottage with a fire in the stove. I particularly enjoyed a day without driving. In the evening we headed into Bettyhill for a nice dinner at the little hotel, overlooking the bay and its sand beach and dunes. On the morrow we would head south as my ancestors must have done. They would encounter a new and perhaps easier life. We would have a chance encounter with the Queen.

Tim McKay is a retired natural resource conservationist and current woodworker and tree farmer who lives in Peacham and occasionally wanders farther afield.

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The far northwest of Scotland | Features - northstarmonthly.com

It took all my courage to follow him, slowly shuffling along until I found myself hurtling down the hill, ploughing to a stop then starting, turning left sharply, wobbling a bit Dont lean back! I internally scream, I corrected myself into a long sweeping right turn and we were back at the bottom of the hill.

I dont know if Harry is appalled or pleasantly surprised, but then his beaming smile and a hand up for a high five said it all. I can do it. And it only took me 30 years to finally try it!

Arosa is a village of typically Swiss houses huddled around a frozen lake and surrounded by dense forest and mountains.

Its warm summers and snow filled winters make it a magnet for those with a passion for the outdoors and its high altitude pistes suit all ability levels, from the black run-loving ski demi-gods to those who have never strapped on a pair.

As well as boasting chic and spacious rooms inspired by the surrounding nature, the Valsana Hotel also offers its guests a rather beautiful spa.

Stretching over 800m, its relaxation pool is bordered by views of the snow covered mountains, the two saunas, one set at an eco friendly 60 degrees, are made from reclaimed wood and have windows that act as a portal to the icy, white world outside. As well as several treatment rooms, a yoga studio and gym, the spa is the perfect place to unwind after a day on the slopes.

When it came to my day of skiing I was lucky enough to have my own private instructor, Harry, who was precise and encouraging in his teaching.

Having never skied before, and being the only one in the class, it was hard to gauge exactly how I was doing, because the lesson seemed to move very quickly.

When I questioned if I was doing it right, he pointed out a lady who, after starting her lesson at the same time as me, was still getting to grips with walking sideways up the hill.

Suddenly I felt a sense of accomplishment and although I was sweating from head to toe and completely breathless I let out a euphoric purr of happiness.

After a few more times up and down, Harry left me to it.

And then I could finally enjoy gliding through the snow, taking in the views as the sun popped its head out from behind the clouds over the mountains.

I took a deep breath of the bracing air and came to the conclusion that I really should have tried this 15 years ago.

Arosa is ideal for hiking, but when over a foot of snow covers the land what is one to do? Thankfully Tschuggen Grand hotel can provide guests with an experienced guide and snow shoes (not the tennis racket size ones youd imagine) and you can spend the morning show shoe hiking through the pistes, foothills and picturesque landscape.

I endured a 7km hike through heavy snow, high altitude and generally not being as fit as I thought I was, before arriving at the very welcoming final destination of Alpenblick.

If youve been skiing before youll be well aware of these cozy little fire-lit chalets high up in the hills, a welcome respite for the hungry hiker or skier.

This was all new to me and I simply couldnt get over such a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

I devoured warming German sausage, pickled veg and crispy fries dipped in bubbling three cheese fondue paired with a crunchy salad and Swiss white wine.

Back down the mountain, it was time for a bit of relaxation.

Tschuggen Bergoase spa is set over three floors and dominated by the vast, warm pool stretching over an entire floor with jacuzzis and massage fountains.

If you swim through the curtain at one end you are taken outside to a higher temperature pool where you can literally reach out and touch nature (when I was there this was two feet of snow). I immensely enjoyed swimming in what felt like a nice hot bath while catching falling snow on the tip of my tongue.

Valsanas restaurant, Twist, combines modern food trends and todays desire for a healthy, happy lifestyle.

I had the pleasure of eating here twice and made my way through so many intriguing flavour combinations including fillet of veal with dill, cauliflower and miso, slightly smoked Luzern beer pork belly, and a rocket and olive oil desert (yes, desert) which were an absolute triumph of culinary design.

After four days of fine wine, sumptuous food, adrenaline pumping activities and relaxation I had to admit something to myself.

I am a fully fledged sun worshipper, I hate the cold and will count down the hours until Summer is here and I can lie on a beach somewhere.

But Arosa has changed me, now the thought of hurtling down a hill and stopping off for some fondue seems more appealing than a booze cruise.

And a hot chocolate on my balcony snuggled up in a blanket with a loved one watching the snow fall seems more romantic than watching the sunset covered in sand.

Am I completely converted?

Well no, probably not.

But if youve never been on a skiing holiday before I would wholeheartedly recommend you give it a try.

As they say, its never too late to learn something new...

Valsana Hotel & Apartments, Arosa, has rooms from 420 Swiss Francs per night based on two adults sharing on a B&B basis.

SWISS flies direct from Manchester to Zurich, all-inclusive fares start from 67 one-way.

The Swiss Travel Pass offers unlimited travel on consecutive days throughout the Swiss Travel System network by rail, bus and boat. Prices from 171 in second class.

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Warming the soul and learning to ski in Switzerland - Manchester Evening News

The leaves have fallen. The songbirds have flown south. Days are short. And the tourists have fled.

With skeletal trees and a biting wind, November, at first glance, is a bleak month in Maine. But if you take a moment to embrace the quiet, you might be surprised at the subtle beauty that this time of year holds.

On a woodland trail, ice is forming, its crystals knitting intricate patterns over puddles and ponds. A red squirrel sits on a fallen tree and munches on a pine cone. Vibrant green moss coats the forest floor. A woodpecker drills into bark for bugs.

After a busy fall foliage season, the number of hikers quickly dwindle as the temperatures cool during November. And in that lull of activity, a special peace can be found on the trails.

So if youre longing for some fresh air and solitude, bundle up in a fleece and some blaze orange to be visible to hunters who might be sharing the woods with you and hit the trails.

Sunkhaze Meadow National Wildlife Sanctuary in Milford

Easy to moderate

The Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge protects the second-largest peatland in Maine and contains several raised bogs or domes, separated by streamside meadows. Sunkhaze Stream bisects the refuge with its six tributaries, creating a diversity of wetland communities. The unit in Milford covers 11,485 acres.

Carter Meadow Road Trail is one of five short hiking trails scattered throughout the refuge. Hiking the entire thing is about 2.2 miles, including the short span of woods road that leads to the loop trail. At the far end of the loop, the trail leads to an observation platform on the edge of Sunkhaze Meadows Bog.

Access is free. Dogs are permitted but must be kept under control and picked up after. Hunting is permitted. For more information, call 207-454-7161 or visit fws.gov/refuge/sunkhaze_meadows/.

Directions: From Route 2 in Milford, turn onto County Road, which starts out paved and quickly transitions into a well-groomed dirt road. You will pass several gated drives. At about 6.4 miles, park in a small parking area on the left. There a kiosk contains refuge trail maps. To find the trail, walk southwest on the road (back the way you came) for a few hundred feet. The gated Carter Meadow Road is just after Little Birch Stream on the same side of the road as the parking area. Walk past the gate and down the road 0.3 mile, passing a few private camps. At the end of the road is a small red building. You can start the hike of the loop trail from the right or left of the building.

Moderate

The Northern Headwaters Trail is one of the many trails that are owned and maintained by the Midcoast Conservancy. Forming a loop thats about 3.5 miles long, the trail travels along the ridge of Whitten Hill, the edge of a field and along the banks of the Sheepscot River. Along the way, the trail passes a large stone wall, a cellar hole and fruit trees all evidence that a homestead once stood on the property.

A part of the Sheepscot Headwaters Trail Network, the Northern Headwaters Trail is connected to the 5.3-mile Goose Ridge Trail, the 1.4-mile Hemlock Hollow Trail, the 0.5-mile Whitten Fields Trail and the 0.5-mile Whitten Hill Trail. These trails branch out to connect with other trails for a total of 19.2 miles of intersecting trails that span three preserves.

Access is free. Dogs are allowed, but they must be kept under control at all times. Hunting is permitted, though special permission from the land trust is required in some areas. For more information, call Midcoast Conservancy at 207-389-5150 or visit midcoastconservancy.org.

Directions: There are two parking areas from this trail. From the intersection of North Mountain Valley Highway (Route 220), Halldale Road and Freedom Pond Road in Montville, drive about 1.6 miles south on Halldale Road. The first parking area that you can use will be on your left marked with a sign that reads Whitten Hill Trailhead. The second parking lot is another 0.9 mile south on Halldale Road, also on your left. A short dirt road leads to this parking area, which is for the Northern Headwaters Trailhead.

Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island

Challenging

Both rising over 900 feet above sea level, Parkman Mountain and Bald Peak stand side by side on Mount Desert Island, east of Somes Sound, and their summits are so close together that hikers usually visit both in one outing. Located in Acadia National Park, the mountains both provide panoramic views of the stunning landscape of MDI and the nearby ocean, dotted with smaller islands.

Well-maintained park trails climb both mountains and span between their peaks, allowing for a loop hike that is a little less than 3 miles long. Carry a park map with you on your hike so you can confidently navigate any trail intersections.

All visitors to Acadia are required to pay an entrance fee upon entry May through October. Dogs are permitted on this hike if kept on a leash no longer than 6 feet at all times and their owners pick up after them. Hunting is not permitted. For more information, call 207-288-3338 or visit nps.gov/acad/.

Directions: Drive onto Mount Desert Island on Route 3. At the intersection after the causeway, veer right onto Route 198 and drive 4.3 miles. Veer left onto Route 198-Route 3 and drive 4.1 miles and park in the small Norumbega Mountain parking area on your left, which is about 0.1 mile past the larger Parkman Mountain parking area, on the right. The trailhead is located across the road.

This story was originally published in Bangor Metros November 2019 issue. To subscribe to the magazine, click here.

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3 hikes to embrace the quiet of Maine's off-season - Bangor Daily News

Having fun in Barbados is easy, butnot as easy as it used to be year-round in the not too distant past.

Today, during Crop Over, Independence, Christmas and New Year's there is no shortage of events, but for the rest of the yearit's a lull except when Festivals occur.

In this article, we're not throwing it way back with the Baby Boomersto the Plaza and the Empire Theatre, but we are throwing back to some spots that GenX and millennials will understand orlearn about today.

Here are 10 fun spots gone from the Barbados experience according to Bajans:

1. Three Houses Park

Every school had a tour that ended at this park. Sometimes as a child, you used to pray to get a venture to Farley Hill. But despite Three Houses being overworked, no one ever wanted a tour that ended at Barclays Park.

2. Sheraton Mall Park

When the food court had red and black lattice chairs and there was a homemade ice cream parlor, then there was also a theme park. It had a huge inflated slide and a spinning barrel. This little park could tilt your world and make you regret your earlier stop in the food court next door.

3. Chefette Holetown

Beachfront dining for under $20; where in the world does that happen? It used to happen along Barbados' platinum West coast.

4. Globe Cinema vs Vista

Cheap movies or expensive seats? The Globe Cinema used to own a corner of the market as Bajans in their numbers flocked to Weymouth when a new movie dropped. Do you remember when Titanic came out? Meanwhile, over on the South coast where Cave Shepherd is now located beside Esso Rendezvous, that was the location of The Vista. You could sit in the regular seats orthe balcony. These movies were more expensive but some people preferred this liming spot.

5. Coney Island

Coney Island theme park used to come to Barbados and shake things up. The Pirate's Boat rocked the stuffings out of some, and whatever was left the bumper cars knocked out the rest. It used to be situated near the Flour Mill along Spring Garden Highway, now the Mighty Grynner Highway.

6. The Circus

Lions, tigers, no bears!When the Circus came to Bridgetown, sometimes the big tent was setup on Deacons pasture alongSpring Garden Highway, now the Mighty Grynner Highway.

7. Ziplining

Aerial Trek Barbados is no longer open, but when it was, it was located at Walkes Spring Plantation and persons used to get hooked up and zip across the lines above theJack-in-the-Box Gully in the parish of St. Thomas.

8. Ocean Park

Have you ever seen a real, real, shark? According to Bajans, Ocean Park had real, real sharks, not the ones that sell in the fish markets.

9. Super X by Pizza House

Before virtual reality and 3D movies were a big thing, Barbadians had the Super X. This simulator used to shake and rock and take viewers on a great escape away from reality as they waited for their pizza to come out of the oven.

10 After Dark/Pent house/Club 360/Club Xtreme

The clubbing landscape is much smaller now in Barbados. Before, almost every night of the week Bajans and visitors to the island could find a party to attend.Gone are the nights of foam fetes.

What was your favourite chill spot or fun place out of those gone now?

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10 Places of fun gone from Barbados' landscape - Loop News Barbados