May 29th 2019 Hi, Monday 20th May It was time to leave Lisbon and head out north east into the Alentejo region as planned. After picking up our hired car at the airport we headed for Marvao but stopped in Castelo de Vide en route. This area of Portugal seemed to be littered with castles atop the hills, with a town or settlement adjoining it. The castle is referred to back as far as the 13th Century and major building work took place in the 14th century. The...

28th May 2019 Hi, My brother Donald has recently retired from his role as headmaster at Dilworth School in Auckland and is over in the home country for three months. Leaving from Manchester with sister Rachel and brother in law Brian we caught a flight to Lisbon. From a previous blog you may recall that Donald and I visited Porto two years ago and very much enjoyed the Portugal ex...

September 29th 2018 Hi, On my second weeks holiday following the 60th birthday milestone I had a sort of staycation based in Glasgow and managed to tick off a few sites on my list. The first was Abbotsford House in the Scottish borders. The home of the writer Sir Walter Scott, it was built in 1824. Scott is a fascinating character from Scottish history and in addition to creating many phrases which have found thier way into common usage in the english langua...

25th September 2018 Hi, Given that some of the family and friends were already in Kintail, it seemed opportune for us to get over to Raasay for a visit. Our grandmother Rachel MacLeod came from Oskaig on the island and we had visited as children on a number of occasions whilst holidaying in Skye to see our great aunt Kate who eventually lived to be one hundred years old. I had not been on Raasay since 1995 and sister Rachel had not visited since the 1970s. Nee...

September 25th 2018 Hi, The title of my blog, as you will know, is 'Travels from Kintail.' As the intro to the blog recalls, all the journeys in my life started with the first journey from Kintail, my birthplace. On 20th of September 1958 my parents left their home in Portree, Isle of Skye on a journey to Inverness where I was supposed to be born. In providence I arrived early and was born, safe and well at 1.25pm in the Kintail Lodge Hotel which is at the ...