Today would have been the start of a now cancelled 4-day Highland tour. My clients are from abroad and wisely cancelled their tour in the light of the coronavirus. As a matter of fact for the past weeks all we did was receiving cancellations and refund them where prepayment had been made. Usually at this time of the year we fill our diaries with bookings for the year.
It is not easy to keep up your spirits and of course I am not alone. So is what I did the past two days:
Sunset over the river Tay 18/03/2020
Yesterday I had routine visit of my farrier to trim my horses’ feet and in all this madness it was lovely to do something I have pretty much done every six to eight weeks all my life. Since the weather was nice I did ride the horses, seeded some vegetables, attempted to fix my bike and then went to see a dear friend for a lovely dinner. On the way there I managed the above shot.
Phantom our psychiatrist in disguise of a cat
I forgot to add that cuddling the Phantom is part of routine life and truly enhanced now since we are more at home.
Today I started my day with online yoga (yes, at 6.30 am as I was awake in any case). Heart Space or also known as Kilted Yoga closed their studios but maintain livestream online classes which are truly fabulous.
Next I ventured out on my homebred horse “Me & My Monkey” to trail around the estate. There was frost on the ground but with the lovely sunshine it turned into a soul-saving retreat. Join me for it in pictures while I am heading out into the sunshine again. Keep sane, eat well and stay healthy!
Along the Tay looking direction DundeeMonkey getting ready for a yiehaaRiver Tay direction NewburghForrestryOh, yes, and on my return this parcel from my mum was delivered. Should there still be toilet roll in Germany????
I had an early start this morning as some students were making their way home. There is no face-to-face teaching at the University of St Andrews in the near future. After that I went back to the South Street taxi rank and for the first time in my taxi driver life I managed to run the battery flat by simply charging my phone, listening to the radio and being static for way to long. It was about 11 am by that time.
I got rescue by my boy friend thankfully.
Near Crail, DoocotView of East Sands, St Andrews
Next I dropped off an envelop with money for someone in need- just to give the car a run. After that I ventured into the hell of shopping to get my hands on some flour and a thermometer. At both I failed badly and gave up.
View towards St Andrews from West Sands
Fed up as I was I entertained myself with a walk on West Sands and managed to reach the taxi before the rain came on again. Still sitting in the rank now. Waiting for another run just before 16 hrs and will head home therafter.
Dunes of West Sands The endless vastness of the beloved West Sands today
The above headline is not quite strictly true yet. We will serve our customers at Starfish Travel as long as we can and I have just this morning brought some clients to the station. However, not many people do travel and quite rightly so.
For the foreseeable future I will have more time on hand than I have had for years. To stay healthy I am planing to do some nice things- an action I would advise everybody else to do too. I know these are worrying times but worrying as such just does not help.
So my goal is to explore my surroundings in different ways. Yesterday I went to meet a very dear friend of mine and since I had the time I used my old bike
On my bike then I live along the coastal path near Newburgh and my meeting point was Abernethy so I cycled 11 miles with great joy and some rain.Beautiful Ballinbreich CastleMy road to Abernethy (though looking back to Dundee here) View towards Newburgh
On my way back I managed to obtain a flat tyre just outside Abernethy. I decided to divert this into a walking tour and actually go onto the gorgeous coastal walk Start of the coastal path at Newburgh Had it not rained I might have stopped for a wee picnicView onto the TayPlaying area
I walked all the way over to Lindores Abbey Distillery when my partner got in touch to say that he was on his way home. I would have had another 2 hours walking ahead of me and he offered to pick me up. As it was raining a rather good idea.
Lindores AbbeyLindores AbbeyAnother lovely view over the river Tay Lindores Abbey
Lindores Abbey Disitillery – sadly closed when I got thereCoastal path in Newburgh The Bear of Newburgh (can you spot it?)
To conclude it was lovely being outdoors and you do not need to go far to truly find peace. It counteracts anxiety well and it is lovely to share with all of you.
All taxis in Scotland are regulated by the local council. All vehicles used for Starfish Travel are fully licensed and insured taxis. Once a year these vehicles require additionally to the MOT a taxi test. This one below has just today (10/03/2020) passed its taxi test and it therefore allowed display a so called called yellow plate.
Travel in comfort in one of our Mercedes Viano minibuses
I spent two days away from the news though we did bring some regular clients to the airport for the last time, which was very sad. Worse still the deaths in Scotland have gone up from 2 to 6 in only three days. There is quite an increase in comfirmed cases but reassuringly the test have also almost doubled. If you look at the table below you really wish you lived in the Highland ( source: https://www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/)
Figures for the UK are as follows:
As of 9am on 20 March 2020, 66,976 people have been tested in the UK, of which 62,993 were confirmed negative and 3,983 were confirmed positive.
As of 1pm, 177 patients in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.
A total of 7550 Scottish tests have concluded. Of these:
7228 tests were confirmed negative
322 tests were positive
6 patients who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) have died
Health board
Positive cases
Ayrshire and Arran
16
Borders
9
Dumfries and Galloway
10
Fife
12
Forth Valley
23
Grampian
19
Greater Glasgow and Clyde
91
Highland
6
Lanarkshire
41
Lothian
40
Shetland
24
Tayside
31
*Please note some cases from Grampian have been reassigned to Shetland as more information on cases became available.
Last updated on 20 March 2020. The latest numbers will publish at 2pm each day.
Stay positive, look after yourselves physically and mentally!
Second update 17/03/2020 Scotland has now 2 deaths and 195 recorded Coronavirus cases.
17/03/2020 A total of 4,895 tests have taken place of which 171 were tested positive in Scotland. Everybody is avised to not socialise and self isolate if you have any symptoms persistent cough and/or a fever. Stay safe, stay positive!
15/03/2020 Today’s Covet 19 figures for Scotland are 153 confirmed cases of which seven are in Fife. For the rest of the UK the deaths have climbed to 35 and 1140 confirmed cases. It appears that many flights are cancelled, a number of shops are or will be closed and fewer people are out on the street.
Starfish Travel and Starfish Taxis remain open for as long as we all remain healthy.
Stay healthy!!!
14/03/2020 If we felt some impact till now it is really impacting all aspects of life as of today. Shops announce closures, the elderly in nursing homes and sick in hospitals may not be visited. Thankfully the number of deaths (1) and recorded cases (121) have not drastically increased in Scotland though a newborn was diagnosed.
13/03/2020 Today we had the first death caused by Covet 19/Corona virus in Scotland. I am not sure if the number of recorded cases are still reported. Unconfirmed I have heard that St Andrews has one to three cases.
Yesterday we only had 36 confirmed cases. Sadly today (12/03/2020) cases have almost doubled and stand at 60. UK-wide we have 590 cases. There is a travel ban for EU countries to to the US starting at the weekend lasting a month. UK & Ireland are excluded from this.
Stay healthy!!!
Update on 9th of March 2020 Scotland has now 23 cases all of which can be traced to travel into affected areas. We are still in containment for now.
Today, 8th of March 2020 the UK has 206 people suffereing from the Corona virus. In Scotland the number of cases are 16. So, generally speaking still quite low.
As of today 4th of March 2020 there are 6 known cases of the virus in Scotland. The United Kingdom has 90 in total. As the virus is expected to spread there are likely to be more cases in future.
We do understand that people are worried about travelling in the face of this virus and we would strongly advise against travelling should you feel unwell or if you had know contact with people who are infected. However, there is no epidemic in Scotland or the UK for this moment.
Whisky is one of the things Scotland is famous for. If you have never tried it do it here.
Mostly Scottish whiskies are divided by six regions: Speyside
Lowlands
Highlands Islands Campeltown Islay
Lowland and Speyside whiskies are usually quite smooth the further north you go the smokier the palette will become and westwards you get ‘peatiness’, especially on Islay. Islay being an island of only 25 miles length but with eight whisky distilleries: true whisky lovers heaven!
We have divided our whisky tours by whisky region and added on a Fife Tour due to the fact that Starfish Travel is based in St Andrews, Fife- the Kingdom of Fife to be precise.
Fife traditionally had a high number of distilleries, most of them did not survive. Currently, there are a number of new distilleries, some of which I would like to specially name:
Daftmill Distillery close to Cupar, founded by two farming brothers and so exquisite that so far it has been almost impossible to buy their first proper Whisky.
Lindores Distillery only started whisky production in 2017 but after a break of 523 years. The first record of distilling was in 1494!!!
There is also Kingsbarns Distillery founded in 2014 and now owned by the Wemyss family but brain child of of a local caddie Douglas Clement. The Wemyss also moved the production of their famous “Darnley’s View” gin from London to Kingsbarns. The name referring to the second husband of Queen Mary of the Scots. She allegedly laid eyes on him for the first time at the family’s home in Wemyss.
With the shorter days in winter taking lengthy drives into the heartland of the highlands become less joyful. Whereas in summer the sky literally is your limit (17.30 hrs daylight) by end of October we have 9 hour day deminishing to only 7 hours in December.
However, that should not stop you from visiting the amazing landscapes and people of Scotland.
We have therefore created some examples of a winter tour which will allow you to enjoy sunrise and sunset at equally amazing locations:
Take an hours drive within stunning settings to Glamis Castle and explore the Royal family links to this impressive castle. Have lunch here or somewhere on the way (your driver can advise on locations and book tables accordingly).
Enjoy a scenic drive along the costal route to Edinburgh centre and visit the Christmas Market, take a leisurely walk across the city centre, exploring Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile and New Town.
Enjoy a delightful lunch or dinner in one of Edinburgh’s many exquisite restaurants and return comfortably to St Andrews.
Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh,Holyrood Park & King Arthur’s SeatRoyal Mile EdinburghEdinburgh Castle
Some of you will remember this estate as Sandringham’s home in the series Outlander (and indeed it was this film location). In real life however this amazing house containing in the excess of 100 rooms -47 of them bedrooms- is still the family home of the Hope family who back in their heydays owned pretty much anything from Cupar to Haddington.
I volunteer once a week for a few hours at Kellie Castle which is owned and maintained by the National Trust Scotland. Once a year all volunteers are invited to a day out at another property, which this year was Hopetoun House .
Hopetoun House ready for Christmas
Hopetoun House is open to the public during the summer and because it is run by a private trust it prospers on many other activities, such as weddings, carriage driving or as film location. When we arrived it was just getting ready for the filming of a winter scene:
Winter scene at Hopetoun House
In summer you can follow the foot steps of Jamie and Claire from the series of Outlander when visiting the property.
We as NTS volunteers had the amazing opportunity of an extended tour through the house and some very educational insights into restoring tapestries.
The original Hopetoun House (which is still there but has been extended excessively) was build by an architect of the name Sir William Bruce, who also built Holyrood Palace (one of the current Queen’s residencies in Scotland). The construction took two years and was concluded in 1701. Only twenty years later William Adam was assigned to extend the house to what is now. It took him until he dies in 1748.
So let me share some of the less common knowledge items of Hopetoun:
The Riding House
Above you see the ballroom of today’s Hopetoun House which is frequently used for weddings and business functions. However its original purpose was a covered area for training Hopetoun horses. Opposite you can still see the stables which now serve as tea room – amidst those building is a water tower. The horses had running water before the humans did. Hopetoun also was one of the first properties to have electricity back in 1890
Marble selecting table
The above table was originally intended to give you a flavour of different types of marble you could choose from. However they were so much liked that they ended up being furniture in their own right.
Marquis of Hopetoun House
If you look at crowns in a property you can count balls, five and the owner is a Marquis, three if it is an Earl and a Duke did not have any balls
Does Hopetoun House have the oldest dictionary?
If you love books you could possible spend days if not weeks here.
A Dutch Clock with a mind of its ownOriginal paintings rediscovered
The above paintings were covered with several coats of white paint for many, many years. Meanwhile in the 1960ties another artist repainting the tower of which these are a ceiling and not knowing of the ceiling paintings he did keep the style…and theme
The most uncomfortable bed
This bed was created in case the king decided to visit. Unfortunately it dates back to a time when people slept in a seated position because they feared the devil would snap up their soul should the lie down…
Tapestry
Finally a picture of one of the many tapestries of Hopetoun House.
Apart from the house, the amazing grounds and views the estate also contains Midhope Castle which is a ruin and was in Outlander Lallybroch.
