The Scotland Report

A hike up the Pentlands

            Hello,

Reporting from Coomhola, Ireland here following a week's stay in the Edinburgh/Penicuik region of Scotland. "Yes" and "No" posters, stickers and buttons spattered the Scottish cities as they approached the referendum on Scottish independence on the 18th. I got a taste of both sides of the debate, from native Scots and more recent arrivals. The issue is very complicated, but the concerns I heard from the "No's" center on the uncertainty of what will happen to the border with England, Scottish currency (currently the pound, which First Minister Alexander Salmond believes Scotland could keep when independent, though England disagrees) and the negative impact independence could have on the economy. The "Yes's" I've spoken to believe that independence would allow for more progressive governance and the removal of nuclear weapons from the country. In the end, the "No's" won. However, talk before the referendum was of a potential "neverendum" (never-ending referendum), though my new Irish host reports that the U.K. may consider extensive devolution of several of its countries/regions.

            While in Scotland I was hosted by four of my parents' friends (two households) from their Edinburgh/Midlothian days, and was able to meet a fifth in a café on a rainy Edinburgh afternoon. They kept me well fed with meals including tender asparagus in sauce and haggis pizza. The haggis was a first for me, but I'm not sure it entirely counts since I told myself I was eating a creatively spiced sausage.

            I spent most of my week in the town of Penicuik, about an hour's bus ride from the heart of Edinburgh. I went walking twice through the Penicuik House Estate -- woods, fields, and a river all rolling up to a palatial house now undergoing restoration after a fire that gutted the interior years and years ago. 

Penicuik House

Curling pond on Penicuik House Estate

The estate is also home to a garden dubbed "The Lost Garden" -- a substantial walled plot of land that has lain dormant and is partially planted with orderly rows of as-yet-unharvested Christmas trees (now at least three times as high as your typical Christmas tree). The garden used to have a mushroom house, glasshouses, living quarters for gardeners, and it supplied peaches to the Prince of Wales. The Penicuik Community Development Trust, with the help of young people and other volunteers, are reclaiming parts of the garden. While I was in Penicuik, their potato harvest was selling like hotcakes.  

            Open Doors day in Penicuik occured during my stay, with various buildings and organizations opening their normally private or off-limits spaces to the community. I lent a hand with a papermaking demo in the back of the Pen-y-Coe Press, former home of a post office and bank, current printing/stationary/bits-of-everything store run by the Penicuik Community Development Trust and volunteers. Passers through were treated to a firing up of the 50-odd-year-old Heidelberg Press, which whisks papers to and from the printing mechanism with a windmill-like arm and an impressive noise. Another Penicuik highlight was the film night at the town hall. The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin was lighter and more absurd than I expected from a movie about Germany under Hitler. One scene mocks Hitler (Chaplin), showing him perform a bizarrely graceful dance with a floating globe.

St. Andrews Cathedral

            I was lucky to have a host generous enough to drive me to St. Andrews to investigate the university there. I won't say too much about it. Pluses: the ruins of a giant old cathedral; the sea; a friendly, relaxed atmosphere; a shop with daring flavors of ice cream; and creative writing instructors who not only publish collections and novels, but also write for radio and television (a new avenue of interest -- writing for performance?). Minuses: rumors of St. Andrews being a) a bit boring, and b) expensive, with few scholarships; a strange abundance of American and possibly Canadian accents. I guess that last is only a somewhat minus, but it seems a shame to go to graduate school abroad and end up living in a pocket of people from your own country.

            The time I spent in Edinburgh city proper included a climb up Scott's Monument (cramped, dizzying, beautiful views), a visit to the National Gallery (a new discovery, John Duncan) and Museum of Modern Art (unsettling, good scone, bad sandwich), a trip up Calton Hill (a strange mishmash of buildings), wandering on the Royal Mile (touristy, interesting performance art, pretty T-shirts), and a quick walk to Edinburgh University (intimidatingly urban with nice, handy shops + big, gorgeous park nearby).

Edinburgh, with Scott's monument at left

            I feel like I have left out many kindnesses and several bits of interest because I'm not directly mentioning my hosts, but I send a big thanks to them for their above and beyond generosity, and I hope to meet them again in the future. For now, goodnight.