Hello all,
We are now blessed to be in St. Augustus Abbey, Scotland for a few days. The Abbey is on the shores of Lock Ness. We may have seen Nessie but cannot be sure as Nessie swims very rapidly and mostly underwater. St. Benedict's Abbey used to be a fort that was constructed on the Lock Ness between 1729 and 1742 during the uprising of 1745. In 1867 the Estate was leased to the Benedictine Order of Monks and they converted it from a fort to this Gothic Abbey. In future years a church was built and also Gothic cloisters and a lawn. It was used as a school until 1993 and the monks taught in the school. It is now home vacation cottages and apartments. The walls were falling down so had to rebuild some of the walls. We are renting a two bedroom apartment in one of the newer areas connected to the Abbey. We have access to a pool, outdoor chess board, activity room with a huge pool table and reading area. The pool is located where the old Abbey Chapel used to be in the Abbey. Our apartment looks out upon a nice green lawn and just a short walk from Lock Ness. We took a walk this morning. Before we returned from our walk along the lock, we had rain, sleet and snow within a 10 minute time span. We had a relaxing time in the pool and sauna area this morning and then returned to our apartment and made a nice breakfast before we drove along Lockness to Inverness . We stopped at the ruins of an old castle on the bank for Lock Ness and then spent some time in Inverness before we took the scenic "track" road back to Fort Augustus. On the way back we saw about 20 or 30+ Red Deer fairly close to the road.
Had a very nice dinner at the Boathouse here on the Abbey property while we looked at the beautiful mountains and waters of LockNess.
Now to tell you about our trip here from Lakenheath. We stopped and walked about a town called HOPE and then traveled over the mountains to Lancaster. We stopped in Lancaster on our way north as Pat had traced her relatives back to that area. The Lancaster Golf and Country Club which used to be Ashton Hall where Pat's relatives were traced back to. We were just in luck as met a gentleman who was just finishing his golf game so took us into the private club and we were able to walk about the inside of Ashton Hall. ( please see George's blog) for more information. We were looking for a place to eat in Lancaster and found a man named Richard who was walking down the street and he walked with us several blocks and took us to this neat restaurant called the Merchant that was build in an old wine cellar. We then headed toward Edinburgh Castle and spent the night on the way. Walked around Edinburg and had a nice breakfast in one of their pubs that was recommended to us
by Norin, a person we just stopped on the street AGAIN and asked about a place. He walked with us several blocks to take us to the correct area. It seems that everyone that we meet and ask questions is just so glad to walk with us even if out of their way to show us where to go. He also told us about THE ELEPHANT HOUSE where J. K. Rollins would sit in the second floor and write her Harry Potter books. SO of course we visited the Elephant House Cafe. We left Edinburgh and went to St. Andrews Golf Course...where golf began in the 1800's. Then we headed to Oban where we had reservations at a B&B. SO...we drove from the East Coast of Ireland to the West Coast in about 3+ hours. When we arrived at Grove House, we were greeted by Billie who was a gem. Bille showed us our room and brought wine and warm towels to refresh ourselves. Then told us where we could get a good local meal. The Grove House was immaculate and the rooms were all decorated with beautiful linens, fresh flowers and lovely sitting rooms. Our room had some pink color so even our hairdryer was pink!! We also had some homemade candies with water in our room. What a cozy room. Billie wrote down the information that we would need to catch the ferry in the morning and other information that would help us discover the Island of Mull. The next morning , Karen, the owner made us a delicious fresh breakfast and there was a cereal and fruit and smoothie bar that was amazing. Karen even had fried Tomatoes just like Nannie Kit would make us when we visited with her in London when we were stationed in Germany and would go to London to see Nannie Kit! Karen was also just so welcoming and full of knowledge about the area. We had a nice ferry ride to Mull and took the scenic routes about the island...(the roads were like bicycle paths). Saw beautiful countryside and many more sheep and the Highland long haired cows. We did not make it to the ferry to got to Iona Island, we had missed the ferry and would not be able to make it back in time to catch our ferry back to Oban so we took another scenic route back to the ferry and returned to Oban on an earlier ferry. Billie recommended another local place for dinner and it was such great local food. We were having our dinner and Karen and her husband came in and so we chatted for abit.
Imagine being at a restaurant in Oban and meeting someone we knew!! Another wonderful breakfast was made for us by Karen the next morning and we also found out that Billie sang so with lots of encouragement , Billie sang for us and the other guest at our breakfast table. Brought tears to our eyes as her voice was just so beautiful. Encouraged her to go on "England's got Talent"!! We hope to see Billie and Karen in Tucson when they come to visit America. We felt so at home that we could have stayed at Grove House for several more days.
We left to travel to Fort Williams which was about an hour up the road on our way to Fort Augustus. We had stopped at Glenco as were going to take the scenic route north. We were on the road from Glenco amazed at all the beautiful mountains and water falls when we were going to pull into a roadside parking to take pictures when all at once we were sitting on the side of the road wondering what happened. The van had decided that we were sighseeing so he was going to go around us in a "no passing" zone and hit us which sent us to the oncoming traffic lane and he went and ended up on the guard rail. Tom desperately worked to keep control of the car as he lost the breaks as the car just shut off. We certainly had St. Christopher and our guardian angels with us. The drivers door and back door were smashed in and Tom's window shattered and there was glass all over the car. It also looked like the frame may have been bent. We were just blessed that there were no cars coming around the corner when we went into the oncoming lane. The police were amazing and helped us by calling the tow truck and ambulance to check us out. They also helped Tom call our insurance. The other driver was not injured either thank goodness. The police sited the other driver for reckless driving. The tow truck driver and the staff at the office helped us get a taxi to take us to our hotel. The taxi driver also said he would drive us to Inverness the next day to pick up another car. Maim who was the taxi driver was so nice and he is also a tour guide and shared with us that he was the driver for "the crew of the Harry Potter" when they filmed in the area. He was the personal driver for the producers. We told him about Molly liking Harry Potter so the next day he brought us a film schedule and signed it so we can give it to Molly. We were so blessed to not have been injured except for muscle aches. We thank you all for all the travel prayers as know that helped keep us safe , the Lord looking out for us and also Tom's awesome driving to try to keep control to keep us safe. We picked up another car in Inverness on Thursday and drove back here to the Abbey.
Today, we drove back down to Glenco and finished taking the drive we were taking when we were hit.
Today we had another nice dinner at a local pub that was recommended to us...and once again we were not disappointed.
Tomorrow we will leave the Abbey early in the morning and go south again to Cairnryan to catch the Ferry to Belfast, Northern Ireland. We will spend the night near the port tomorrow night as will be leaving to go to Belfast at 1130.
We are keeping you all at home in our daily prayer and thank you for keeping us in prayer as we know that prayer keeps us safe. Still have to have George show me how to do the pictures on my blog as Alaister helped him.
We were able to FACETIME with the grand girls today....always makes our day.
We continue to laugh a lot as we continue our adventures. We do realize that our pictures cannot do the scenery we are seeing justice but we will continue to keep trying to get the best photos we can.
We are also still continuing our adventure of figuring out how to use the various showers and washer/dryers in the places we stay.
We are so glad that we decided to stay here at the Abbey for a few days...certainly a piece of history looking about the halls, grounds and the grave yard along with each having Lock Ness just across the yard.
LORD, CONTINUE TO KEEP US SAFE ALL THE WAY THERE AND BACK HOME AGAIN. AMEN ~Unknown author~
Sending our love and hugs,
God Bless,
Tom and Maryann
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