Sinclair Castle and other Exploration

On Tuesday (4/9) We went for a drive around the countryside. First we went to a couple of wee harbours where it was blowing its tits off, I think were getting the edge of a hurricane or something. Apparently the second one we went to Grant remembers well from his travels up here so I took a photo for him:

Then we went to some "Cairns". Gary said he couldn't really explain them and it was just easier to see them so I'll probably struggle here. Basically they are piles of rocks with rooms in them. But here's the kicker: people (archaeologist types) reckon that they were built 5000 years ago! Apparently remains of these things are all over the UK but these ones in particular are some of the best preserved. We have no idea what they were used for but animal and human bones were found inside. Its kinda creepy going into them too as even though it looks like a 10m diameter pile of rocks the room inside is probably less than 4 square meters in area so you have to crawl through a tiny opening for about 5m to get to it. So damn old. Makes me wonder what people in 5000 years will think of our houses!

After the crazy piles of rocks with rooms in them, we went to see the Sinclair castle, or what remains of it. I don't even know why I identify strongly with the Sinclairs, I have to go back at least two surnames to get to Sinclair. I suspect it is mainly because none of my other surnames have a Castle (that I know of) associated with them. It is pretty dilapidated (as you can see) but it would have been a pretty cool castle in its day, right on the edge of the ocean. No doubt it would have been pretty miserably at times too. Grant will be stoked to see that it has some scaffolding on it as well! We weren't brave enough to go and talk to the (apparently) crazy man with the Sinclair archives.

We then went to collect supplies for dinner so that Joanne could make an amazing dinner: for starters we had a scallop and black pudding salad. Sooo good. And (haters gonna hate) for the main course: "Chicken Tartan" which is haggis wrapped in chicken, wrapped in bacon. Keep in mind that haggis is sheep bits and pieces so what we actually had was sheep, wrapped in chicken, wrapped in pig. Sooooooo damn good. Yum.

After dins there was some drinking to be done, and Joanne produced a bottle of Whiskey liqueur from the local distillery "Old Pulteney". It was pretty damn tasty and we just drank it straight. Smelled like Whiskey but was quite sweet so the edge was definitely taken out of the whiskey kick. Apparently Lawrence's get argumentative when they drink whiskey but I am yet to fulfil that stereotype I think.