Cross my heart, it's true

The weather being fine, LotH and I went off to have a look at a large but anomalous earthwork in the neighbouring county. Chesters is in East Lothian and, like so many similar places, it gets its name from castra - a camp- a reference to the large imposing fort like structure with its concentric walls to be found nearby.







The only odd aspect to the place is that as a defensive redoubt it woud have been useless as it is closely overlooked by a higher hill from where it would have been easy to lob missiles over the walls

Not very easily defended !

The explanation given on the information board is that it was built during the Romano-British period by the local tribe who were allies of the Romans and didn’t need it for defence so it was purely for prestige. This doesn’t sound right. If one was looking to build a site to show off wealth or social standing, it would still be built on the highest point.

Looking at the view across the flat fertile Lothian fields to the sea which is due east and where the sunrise would be very obvious with Berwick Law, that conical volcanic mount, acting as a marker, I wondered if it had been an older pagan religious site which had been taken over by the Otadini who were probably Christian in the Roman period.
Whatever the reason, it is an impressive monument.

The nearest village is Athelstaneford where, according to legend, a combined army of Picts and Scots of Alba defeated the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria and secured the Lothians for the embryonic nation that was to become Scotland. Apparently Oengus, the Pictish king of Alba, had seen a symbol of the St Andrew’s cross in the sky and vowed that if he achieved victory he would adopt is his nation’s symbol.

A view across the battle site to Berwick Law

There is a heritage centre in a 16th century doocot behind the village church overlooking the battle field.
The doocot

Lo and behold, as we climbed to the top of Chesters, two vapour trails formed a X- shaped cross in the sky.

Perfect timing or what.

Young and old come forth to play, on a sunshine holiday

I picked my first bramble of the year and the hedgerow goosegogs and wild rasps are well ripened. There is no doubt we are moving into the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. Fortunately the “maturing sun” has also been in attendance so we took a day out to introduce the grandchildren to our own local version of the Galalpagos….the Farne Islands.



Castles had been the theme of the holiday with Alnwick Castle doubling as Hogwarts and Edinburgh with the one o'clock gun making everyone jump. The little castle on Holy Island was much more Enid Blyton ...A children's sized castle.

The morning was spent beach-combing and fossil hunting on Lindisfarne, then a boat out to the outer Farnes. The fossils looked like crinoids and belemnites and they were scattered all over the shingle and shoreline rocks





Fossils

The grandsons weren’t much interested in Saint Cuthbert or the ecclesiastical ruins except as a site for impromptu hide and seek. The trip on the boat was another matter, especially the fast outward journey with a massive bow wave and wash.
This late in the year, most of the puffins had left to resume their pelagic existence with only a few juveniles remaining and the terns had begun their marathon journey to winter, or summer, in the Antarctic. There were kittiwakes and shags aplenty and a large number of gannets displaying their diving skills.
For the boys the highlight had to be the grey seals, waiting for the breeding season to begin around about October and immensely curious regarding the boat, though they must be used to gawping tourists by now Seals

A flock of golden plover, more than a hundred strong flew in to land on one of the smaller islands, some were still wearing their striking summer plumage of black and white “waistcoat “ standing out from the gold back and wings but many had assumed their dowdier winter look.

The islands are the furthest fingers of the Great Whin Sill, the hard rock splits into columns like a miniature Giants Causeway, the cause of many a shipwreck, but we made it safely back to Seahouses. Ice-creams and doughnuts in the sun let us feel we could hang on to the summer holidays for just a little longer





Kittiwakes on columns

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.!