Holiday Rally, Upper Largo, Fife
July 2006
Scotland is a beautiful place at any time but, if the weather’s good, it beats most other places hands down. And so it was - two weeks of glorious weather! Whilst England baked in temperatures of up to 35°C we were pleasantly cooler on our hillside retreat overlooking the Firth of Forth.
We arrived to be greeted by our marshal Neil wearing a kilt! Now there was a sight to behold. “I must have a pic of this for the website” said I, “You’d better be quick” said Neil, “it’s coming off shortly…..!”
Our site was a new one a few miles up the coast from Kirkcaldy and the views were really stunning. You could see for 60+ miles. To make it even better we had electric hook ups and enough space for each of us to swing a couple of eagles.
Fife is great place and packed full of attractions. Near the top of my list was Scotland’s secret bunker. OK it’s not a secret now but, during the cold war, it played a vital role in the country’s defence. It’s huge affair, on two floors and buried beneath a farmhouse. For some reason part of it is still manned 24/7.
The nearby fishing villages of St Monans, Pittenween, Anstruther and Crail are all very picturesque and St Monans has an old windmill once used for pumping seawater for salt extraction. Crail has an excellent museum and a harbour front shop selling fresh crab and lobster.
Some holiday rallies can have a fairly hectic schedule of organised activities but this one was much more relaxed and very much in keeping with the excellent weather. The first Thursday was however a little cooler and and, with Neil’s impeccable timing, coincided with our organised coach trip to Edinburgh. We took the opportunity to visit the Royal Yacht which is moored at Leith, a few miles north of the city centre.
Of course you can’t visit Scotland without visiting a distillery or two, so Neil had kindly organised a coach trip to the Edradour (pronounced Edradower) distillery near Pitlochry. Sadly for us the trip was not until the Tuesday of week two and we had to leave at the end of week one. So as not to miss out we motored up there independently. Edradour is Scotland’s smallest (legal) distillery and well worth a visit. They told us they had had to stop production as the weather was just too hot. Apparently the cooling water for the still condensers (which came from the adjacent stream) was just not cold enough for them to work properly! Fortunately this did not affect the nearby Glenturret distillery, home of the Famous Grouse experience tour.
Saturday saw the SOC’s own version of the Highland Games. Sadly, family commitments meant we missed this spectacle but, if anyone has any pics, I’ll happily publish a few.
Sunday brought the first week to an end. Unfortunately it also meant we had to leave - not without some excellent memories though.
Many thanks to the marshals Neil & Shelley Palmer and Martin & Cheryl Marks.
Terry Owen
click on the image to enlarge
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