Martin's Mag.

On the way home from Scotland we made a diversion through Hull.

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A week in Dumfries and Galloway, in SW Scotland. We stayed in a farm cottage in Colvend, on the coast between Dumfries and Kirkcalbright. The weather was much better than forecast and we managed lots of walking but not much swimming. Actually, Lucy did all the swimming.

“Rushcroft”, Colvend.

Colvend Parish Church at sunset.

Kirkcudbright and St Mary’s “Isle” (it isn’t, really):

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Local beaches at Rockcliffe, Kippford and Castlehill Point:

Dumfries, Loch Kindar, New Abbey and Sandyhills Beach:

A walk around Castle Douglas and Loch Carlingwark, then drove up River Dee to Loch Ken and Dalry, through the Galloway Forest to Newton Stewart. Along River Cree estuary to Mossyard where Lucy chased (and lost) balls for a while.

Walked up through the Dalbeattie Forest and back down to Kippford. Later we drove down to the beach at Rockcliffe and Sally sketched and Lucy and I threw sticks for each other!

We walked from Allerford, through Bossington and along the coast and Sparkhayes Marsh to Porlock Weir, then back via Porlock. Afterwards fish and chips and bottle of Muskadet in camper at Dunkery Beacon overlooking Exmoor. Sophisticated or what?

We started at Clearwell Caves, ancient iron mines. The woods have “scowls” where iron ore was mined in the iron age (when else?), and the trees grow around stones, like the nearby “Puzzle Woods”.

I first met Jim Brady (not my late, missed, uncle of the same name) in 1982, after seeing his paintings in an exhibition in the foyer of The Old Vic theatre in Bristol. I subsequently bought these pictures of people from the St Paul’s and Montpelier areas of Bristol, where he lived at the time. We kept in touch for a year or two afterwards. I have wondered, from time to time since, what happened to him, but there seems to be no trace of him via Google, etc.  I hope he is still working somewhere.

Ten People by Jim Brady, 1982.

Mr Bert Brummage and Rastaman by Jim Brady, 1982.

John Cabot sailed from Bristol in the caravel Mathew in 1497, to “discover” Newfoundland (unlike all the people who were already there, waiting for him). We were walking down the south bank of the Avon when this ghostly replica, built in Bristol in the 1990s, slipped quietly upstream.