The Flag Heritage Centre
High may your proud standards gloriously wave!
Scotland’s flag is a beauty – a classically simple design of a white diagonal cross, or saltire, on a blue background. It’s both instantly memorable and stirringly evocative, with symbolism evoking St Andrew, who according to tradition was crucified on an X-shaped cross. Its true history is obscure, but this is amply made up for by an old legend linking it to Athelstaneford, the village that now claims the title ‘Birthplace of Scotland’s Flag’.
The tale tells of a nearby battle, fought in the Dark Ages when the Lothians were part of Northumbria. An army of Picts and Scots was about to face a much larger contingent of Anglo-Saxons when a diagonal cross of white clouds appeared against the azure sky. The Pictish king Óengus, taking this as a sign of heavenly support, vowed that if he won (which he did) he would make St Andrew his kingdom’s patron saint.
First recounted by late medieval chroniclers, this origin story was given a new airing after the 20th-century rekindling of Scottish nationalism. Local historian and novelist Nigel Tranter championed Athelstaneford’s claim to fame, and in 1965 a Saltire Memorial was erected in the kirkyard, along with a flagpole where the standard flies by day and night. Behind the church, a pennant flutters next to a beautifully restored doocot (pigeon house), the home since 1997 of the Flag Heritage Centre. It’s a little gem, dating from 1583, with a splendid outlook over the supposed battle site. Inside, the traditional story is elaborated in an atmospheric audio-visual sequence, featuring a narrative taken from Tranter’s novel Kenneth.
Like all the best legends, the story of the Saltire owes much to earlier myths, not least that of the Roman emperor Constantine and his vision of the Christian cross. But though it may not stand up to close historical scrutiny, it’s a picturesque tale to enjoy in a picturesque spot.
Address Behind Parish Church, Main Street, Athelstaneford, EH39 5BE, www.scottishflagtrust.com | Getting there Train to Drem and a two-mile walk; bus 121 to Athelstaneford | Hours Apr – Oct & 30 Nov (St Andrew’s Day) 9am – 6pm | Tip Half a mile south-west of the village at EH39 4SA, look out for the unusual, low-lying ruin of Barnes Castle. Known locally as The Vaults, it was begun in the 1590s to an innovative symmetrical design, but abandoned after the owner’s death with only the lower part complete.
The Museum of Flight
Reaching for the sky
If you think that a collection of 50-plus old aeroplanes sounds strictly for aviation geeks, prepare to have your preconceptions shot down in flames. Sited on a historic airfield with a potently evocative atmosphere, Scotland’s National Museum of Flight is winningly designed to engage the broadest possible audience. Its military, commercial and recreational aircraft (some of which can be boarded) are brought to vivid life in displays that focus not just on technological data, but on the filmed testimonies of individuals who were intimately connected with them – designers, engineers, pilots, crew and passengers. These are complemented by a variety of unique artefacts with their own stories to tell, and a choice of absorbing interactives for all ages where you can explore the principles of flight. Or perhaps try your hand at the virtual controls of Airship R.34, recalling the first ever aerial crossing from Britain to the USA, which began from this very airfield in 1919.
The museum opened in 1975, but first hit the headlines with its acquisition in 2004 of what’s fondly known as Scotland’s Concorde, the elegant supersonic airliner that once flew champagne-quaffing jet-setters across the pond so fast that its tagline was ‘Arrive before you leave’. One particularly eye-catching item in the accompanying exhibition is the Senior Test Engineer’s airventilated suit, whose bizarre styling could have come from the mind of Jules Verne.
A more chilling milestone in the perennial quest for high speed is the tiny Messerschmitt Komet, a revolutionary rocket-powered German fighter plane of World War II that could reach 600mph. The model now at East Fortune was flown in June 1945 by Scotsman Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, one of the world’s greatest ever aviators, who recalled the experience in an interview at the museum shortly before his death at the age of 96.
Address East Fortune Airfield, East Fortune, EH39 5LF, +44 (0)300 1236789, www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-flight | Getting there Bus 121 from North Berwick or Haddington to museum entrance | Hours Apr – Oct daily 10am – 5pm, Nov – Mar, Sat & Sun 10am – 4pm; advance booking recommended | Tip Nearby Fenton Barns is a retail and leisure development based on the site of a World War I aerodrome that was re-established shortly before World War II; a few strikingly Art Deco-styled buildings survive. It’s home to a deservedly popular farm shop and café.
La Potinière
A
legend
in its own lunchtime
With its modest scale and domestic appearance, you could pass by La Potinière without realising it’s even a restaurant, let alone one of the most celebrated icons of the industry in the whole of Scotland. ‘The gossiping place’, as the name translates, is a long-time fixture of Gullane’s Main Street, dating back to the 1970s when David and Hilary Brown took over an old tearoom. Despite a lack of formal training, they succeeded in transforming the tiny premises into a unique venue for fine dining, gaining a loyal local following and eventually the coveted accolade of a Michelin star. Sunday lunch became so popular that bookings had to be made months in advance. There was dismay when the couple moved on in 2002, but after a two-year hiatus the much-missed institution was reborn thanks to another husband-and-wife team, Keith Marley and Mary Runciman. Both experienced chefs, they brought their own style and expertise to the table, and before long had established themselves as more than worthy successors. Two decades on, the restaurant continues to win ecstatic plaudits, whether from gourmand reviewers or customers rhapsodising on online platforms.
There’s a refreshing lack of pomp and pretension about the place. Its intimate proportions, unobtrusive décor, music-free ambience and discreet service all go towards focusing the attention on the simple appreciation of excellent food, prepared with consummate skill and perfectly cooked. The thoughtfully planned menu is limited to two choices per course, each based on fresh, top quality seasonal produce, locally sourced, including vegetables from the restaurant’s own garden. Typical dishes include seared scallops with ham hock terrine; an exquisite take on Cullen Skink (traditional fish soup); braised lamb shank with rosemary-scented potatoes; and ‘apple pizza’ from award-winning pâtissier Keith. All this at a price that won’t break the bank. Booking is, understandably, essential.
Address 34 Main Street, Gullane, EH31 2AA, +44 (0)1620 843214, www.lapotiniere.co.uk | Getting there Bus 124 or X 5 to Gullane (Maule Terrace) | Hours Thu – Sat lunch 12.30pm & dinner 7pm, Sun lunch 12.30pm | Tip If you’re in the market for a luxury country-house experience in an idyllic, secluded setting, you’ll love Greywalls Hotel. Situated to the east of Gullane on the edge of Muirfield Golf Course, the cosily elegant residence was built in 1901 as a holiday home for politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttleton. It was designed by the celebrated Sir Edwin Lutyens and is surrounded by a sixacre walled garden attributed to Gertrude Jekyll.
Inveresk Lodge Garden
A breath of fresh air
The leafy conservation village of Inveresk stands on a high ridge above the coastal town of Musselburgh – just 15 minutes’ walk from the bustle of the High Street, but worlds away in its affluent seclusion. As a site for upmarket dwellings, its origins go back nearly two millennia, when there was a comfortable Roman township here, equipped with baths and central heating. Much later, it became a favoured resort of the 18th-century Edinburgh gentry escaping from the crowded, noisome capital. They replaced the humble cottages of the single-street rural village with a series of showy villas, set within spacious gardens that made the most of the fertile soil and sunny slopes, all screened from view by high stone walls. In later decades this enclave – famed for its ‘salubrious air and beauteous prospect’, to quote local poet David Macbeth Moir – gained the soubriquet ‘Scotland’s Montpellier’.
Inveresk Lodge is one the earliest mansions in the village. Built at the end of the 17th century, it was donated to the National Trust for Scotland in 1959, together with its 13-acre garden, by the Brunton family, industrialists whose generosity also funded the construction of Musselburgh’s theatre. Though the house is closed to the public, the garden is open every day of the year, and after you’ve passed the long stretch of private properties on the way, it seems a huge privilege to be allowed access.
The first section, centred on an elaborate 17th-century sundial, is conceived in Arts and Crafts style as a series of ‘garden rooms’, each planted with a different theme designed to be at its colourful best in a particular season. Another enjoyable feature is the Edwardian glasshouse, just inside the entrance. From this formality, grassy slopes lead down to extensive woodland dotted with fecund apple trees and meadows interspersed with ponds, where you may well spot deer and other wildlife. Remarkably, the entire vast and gloriously refreshing expanse is managed by a single gardener.
Address 24 Inveresk Village Road, Musselburgh, EH21 7TE | Getting there Bus 26, 44, 108 or X 26 to Musselburgh (King Street) and a short uphill walk, or 111/A, 140, 141 or X 6 to Inveresk village | Hours Daily Apr – Sept 10am – 5pm, Jan – Mar 10am – 4.30pm |
Tip The delightful Shepherd House Garden is a minute’s walk away on Crookston Road. A private one-acre garden developed over more than 50 years by botanical painter Lady Ann Fraser and her husband, it’s open regularly to the public in aid of charity, via the Scotland’s Gardens Scheme.
Luca’s
Serving scoops of delight for three generations
Musselburgh folk are living proof of the adage that it’s never too cold for ice cream. Whatever the season, and however unseasonable the weather, the institution that is Luca’s café welcomes a constant stream of local customers, as it has done for nearly 120 years, to savour the cool, sweet dairy treat, freshly made on the premises to a time-honoured family recipe. These days it’s available in a vast range of gourmet flavours – though vanilla is still the number one choice.
The story of one of the most esteemed Italian ice-cream dynasties in Scotland goes back to the 1890s, when young Luca Scappaticcio left the poverty of his native Cassino and emigrated to Edinburgh. He found work in the kitchens of the North British Hotel, where a Swiss pastry chef taught him the art that became his trade. By 1908 he and his new wife Anastasia had saved enough to open their own ice-cream parlour, which they named the Olympia, along the coast in Musselburgh. As if the work of making the stuff wasn’t hard enough in those pre-refrigeration days, the couple initially had to walk there and back every day from their home in the city centre.
With all their children working with them from an early age, the business thrived and grew over the years to encompass a busy wholesale trade, additional cafés and roving ice-cream vans (including a special-occasion converted Rolls-Royce, reputedly bought from a Spanish nobleman). When in time son Tino took over, the family brand became known as S. Luca, their actual surname being judged too much of a mouthful for Scots, and today two third-generation Lucas, Michael and Yolanda, run their grandfather’s empire. Still on the original site, the café has recently benefitted from a makeover inside and out, with swish glazed brick and jaunty tiling that stylishly evoke the continuing company ethos of traditional quality for the 21st century.
Address 32 – 38 High Street, Musselburgh, EH21 7AG, +44 (0)131 665 2237, www.lucasicecream.co.uk | Getting there Bus 106, 113, 124, 125 to Luca’s or 26, 44, 48, 108, 111, 140, 141, X 6 or X 26 to Newbigging | Hours Daily, takeaway 9am – 10pm, café 9am – 8.30pm (last orders 8pm) | Tip If you fancy a preface to your Knickerbocker Glory, Banana Split or Chocolate Nut Sundae, the sit-in café has an extensive menu of savoury favourites including homemade pizza and pasta dishes (the macaroni cheese is deservedly popular) as well as burgers, salads, soup, sandwiches and all-day breakfast choices.
Prestonpans Battlefield
Charlie is my darling
The battle for which Bonnie Prince Charlie is best remembered today is, sadly, Culloden, site of his harrowing last stand and now a popular tourist destination. By contrast, the opening engagement of the 1745 Jacobite rising, at Prestonpans, is relatively little known, despite its momentous outcome – a resounding victory for the young Stuart prince and his Highland clansmen against the Redcoats of King George II. After less than 20 minutes of ‘action’, the Jacobites were in control of Scotland. One incidental effect of the alarm that this caused in London was the rapid adoption of the patriotic song God Save the King as a proto-national anthem.
Despite modern development, much of the battleground has survived as open land, though it was not until 2006 that a charitable trust was set up to protect the site, tell the story of the battle and promote its legacy. As a stage towards their goal of creating a living history centre, they’ve recently opened an absorbing little museum in the old Prestonpans Town Hall, where events include regular costumed interpretation days. On the anniversary each September the battlefield hosts a full-scale two-day re-enactment, but if you can’t make it then you’ll still find much to explore and ponder on the walking trail around its varied landmarks and monuments. One of the later encroachments on the site, a large coal bing (spoil heap), was landscaped into a pyramid in the 1960s and now serves as a commanding viewpoint, with comprehensive information panels.
Two of the most evocative spots are those near Bankton House, home of the battle’s most famous casualty, Colonel James Gardiner: a refurbished doocot, whose rather spooky interior houses a display on his life and times, and a memorial obelisk flanked by sleepy lions, erected in 1853 by the railway line to catch the eye of Victorian tourists on their way to Edinburgh.
Address For details of the battlefield trail, including a downloadable app, see www.battleofprestonpans1745.org. Museum: High Street, Prestonpans, EH32 9AY | Getting there Train to Prestonpans; bus 26, 111 or 124; the trail is signposted from outside the station exit on platform 2 | Hours Always accessible, except Bankton Doocot: daily 10am – 6pm. Museum: Sat & Sun 11am – 4pm | Tip Inspired by the famous exemplar in Bayeux, the 345-foot-long Prestonpans Tapestry (actually an embroidery, in wool on linen) tells the story of the battle. Stitched by more than 200 volunteers to a design by Andrew Crummy, it was completed in 2010 and has since been widely exhibited to great acclaim. Though as yet it has no permanent home, sections are on changing display in the museum.
Abercorn Museum
Time-worn relics of a hallowed place
Shielded in seclusion amid the tall trees and high walls of the vast Hopetoun Estate, the sleepy hamlet of Abercorn was a long way off the tourist radar until the huge transatlantic success of the Outlander TV series. Now, the droves of die-hard fans touring its filming locations who seek out nearby Midhope Castle (the fictional Lallybroch) generally also take in ‘quaint’ Abercorn churchyard which, in one episode, stood in implausibly for a cemetery in the US city of Boston.
Travellers keener on authenticity should, however, linger for longer than it takes to bag a selfie, for modest Abercorn was once a place of genuine and continuing significance. The atmospheric site may have accommodated a Roman fort during the Antonine occupation, but its greatest importance, believed to date from a visit by the missionary St Ninian over 1,500 years ago, was as a focal point for the early Christian church. A monastery and bishopric recorded by Bede, the venerable chronicler, were established here by the 7th century, followed around 500 years later by a substantial Norman parish kirk, among Scotland’s first. The handsome building we see today is, however, a largely 16th- and 17th-century structure, with extensive late Victorian restoration; little is left to conjure truly ancient times apart from a chevroned doorway in the south wall, now blocked, and a handful of tantalising, fragmentary monuments, on display in the little museum.
The most elegant are the incomplete sections of two impressively tall 8th-century crosses, carved with an orderly riot of interlacing enlivened by birds, beasts and vines, which survived only because they were reused as capstones for the parapet of a bridge over the Midhope Burn. Equally rare and intriguing are the massive 12th-century grave markers in ‘hogback’ style, thought to represent the roofs of longhouses or feasting halls for the dead. These mute stones may be dim shadows of their original selves, but they still speak volumes.
Address Abercorn Road, Hopetoun Estate, near South Queensferry, EH30 9SL | Getting there Off A 904, west of Newton; also accessible via the John Muir Way walking route and National Cycle Route 76. The museum is at the entrance to the churchyard | Hours Museum: accessible 24 hours (door bolted but not locked); church: Sun 10am for services | Tip Abercorn churchyard has some fine examples of 17th- and 18th-century gravestones carved with symbols of the trades of the deceased. Two miles away from this tranquil spot, the long-established New Hopetoun Garden Centre offers refreshment at its popular Orangery Tearoom, which has a terrace with views over themed gardens to the Firth of Forth.
The Burryman
A
prickly character with mysterious ancient roots
South Queensferry tends to be dominated by its panoramic outlook on the Firth of Forth and its monumental bridges. But for one day in August that magnificent trio is eclipsed, as all eyes turn to the spectacle unfolding in the town itself. Heralded by cries of ‘Hip, hip hooray – it’s the Burryman’s Day!’, a misshapen figure in a greenish-brown costume and floral bonnet lumbers through the streets, flanked by two helpers carrying flower-bedecked staffs to support his outstretched arms. He can’t lower them, as he’s covered from head to foot in sticky burrs – thousands of them – pressed on to his clothing that morning by family and friends, and clinging to him with a velcro-like grip.
It is to these prickly little customers – seed heads of the burdock plant (a type of thistle) – that the Burryman owes his name. Some claim it also recalls his original role, either as a ‘burgh man’ beating the bounds of the parish, or even as a bourreau – executioner and social pariah. In days gone by, similar burr-clad characters were paraded around other east coast fishing communities, including Buckie and Fraserburgh, in rituals to guarantee good fortune, or as scapegoats to purge evil. But the Queensferry Burryman is the only one to have survived into this century. And though no one can say for sure why or when the tradition originated, the local men who take on his unique mantle consider it a great honour.
These days his duties are limited to suffering the extreme discomfort of his itchy suit for a nine-hour walkabout, with mandatory stops at a series of hostelries and prominent addresses during which, although unable to eat, sit down or indeed ‘answer the call of nature’, he is obliged to drink up to 20 nips of whisky, through a straw. Up close, he’s an uncanny, heart-pounding sight that you won’t forget. Reach out and touch him gently, and he might just bring you luck.
Address South Queensferry, EH30, www.facebook.com/theburryman | Getting there Bus 43 or 63 to South Queensferry; train to Dalmeny | Hours 2nd Fri in Aug, 9am – 6pm. It’s the first event of the Ferry Fair gala week; local shops sell programmes with details of route and timings | Tip The picturesque, two-tier High Street is a good place to catch the Burryman during the last two hours of his walkabout. While you’re waiting, grab an ice cream from the deservedly popular Little Parlour (52 High Street). Queensferry Museum is also well worth a visit; displays include a replica Burryman, known as Frank.
The Falkirk Wheel
Archimedes’ principle still holds water – and how!
The list of facts and figures concerning the Falkirk Wheel is seriously impressive. The world’s one and only rotating boat-lift, this 115-foot-tall, 1,800-tonne colossus is the lynchpin of a £20-million complex that includes a tunnel, aqueduct, canal extension and locks. It was completed in 2002 as the centrepiece of the Millennium Link, an imaginative regeneration scheme that transformed the whole 71-mile length of two long-neglected waterways, the Union and Forth – Clyde Canals, with the ambitious goal of reinstating a fully navigable route across central Scotland between Glasgow and Edinburgh. This meant connecting the canals at a site near Falkirk where the two were adjacent – but separated by a difference in height of 82 feet. The link was once provided by a flight of 11 locks that took the best part of a day to negotiate. Now, the ingenious Wheel allows boats to cover the distance in just five minutes, by simply (!) picking them up from one level and depositing them at the other.
Comprising two opposing arms, each of which holds a waterfilled gondola capable of holding four boats, the lift is so finely balanced that it needs only minimal electricity, equivalent to that of boiling eight domestic kettles, to complete the required half turn. The key to the process is the age-old principle of fluid dynamics credited to Archimedes (of ‘Eureka!’ fame) – floating objects displace their own exact weight in water, so the load of 250 tonnes in each gondola remains the same, regardless of the number of boats being carried.
A ride on the Wheel is essential to experience the brilliance of its engineering and enjoy the sweeping vistas. But its elegant design can equally be appreciated from afar as a vast kinetic artwork. In the words of chief architect Tony Kettle, the effect of the slowly moving curves and reflections is kaleidoscopic, and mesmerising to watch.
Address Lime Road, Tamfourhill, FK1 4RS, +44 (0)300 3730868, www.scottishcanals.co.uk/ falkirk-wheel | Getting there Train to Falkirk Grahamston, then bus 6 from Weir Street to Falkirk Wheel | Hours Visitor Centre open daily 9.45am – 6pm; boat trips on the Wheel daily from 10am (check website for seasonal closing hours) | Tip The Wheelside basin hosts a range of fun activities for all ages, including canoeing, bumper boating, waterzorbing (walking on water inside a large bubble) and splashing across a huge stone map of Scotland. Bike hire and Segway tours of the surrounding area are also available for those who prefer dry land.
The Grangemouth Mosaic
Unsung art treasure by two brilliant mavericks
The 1970s shopping precinct that dominates the centre of Grangemouth was planned with rather more sensitivity than most of Scotland’s modernist malls, incorporating leafy outdoor seating areas with decorative paving and airy, green-liveried arcades that mirror the layout of the old streets they replaced. Five decades on, it seems in surprisingly good shape, boasting rarities like a proper fishmonger and an enterprising craft studio alongside the usual budget stores. But the indisputable jewel in its crown is the public artwork that was literally embedded into the development in 1975 – a mural of such stunning quality that it should long ago have been designated a National Treasure.
The Grangemouth Mosaic was the result of a felicitous collaboration between two of the most individualistic Scottish artists of the 20th century, Alan Davie and George Garson. Davie was a native of the town, born in 1920; he travelled widely, first on a life-changing student scholarship and then throughout his long career, achieving worldwide recognition for his colourful abstract paintings with their highly personal language of esoteric symbolism. Garson was a blunt-spoken former shipyard worker whose rare talent as a mosaicist was recognised when he attended Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s as a mature student, and who went on to develop the technique into a creative art form of his own. It’s a tribute to his expressive skills that he succeeded in conveying both the vibrancy and the painterly energy of Davie’s design in his handling of the countless tiny smalti – hand-cut chunks of glass coloured with metal oxides – that make up the image. Set high on the drab wall of what was originally a two-storey department store, its shimmering colours and haunting atavistic motifs refuse to submit to the shouty, garish fascia of the charity shop that now occupies the space beneath.
Address York Square, Grangemouth, FK3 8BB | Getting there Bus 2, 3 or 4 to La Porte Precinct, or Citylink 909 to Beancross Road and one-mile walk | Hours Accessible 24 hours | Tip Grangemouth was once home to the vast but short-lived Central Scotland Airport, which became a state-of-the-art training centre for pilots during World War II. The Spitfire Memorial is a full-sized replica aircraft, unveiled in 2013 on the site of the airfield as a moving tribute to the 71 young men, from Poland and other nations, who lost their lives here while learning to manoeuvre the famous fighter plane.
Gilian Tait was born in Edinburgh and grew up in other parts of Scotland. She studied art history and painting conservation at the universities of Edinburgh and London respectively, and worked in the museum sector for many years before reinventing herself as a writer and photographer. She is the author and photographer of 111 Places in Edinburgh That You Shouldn’t Miss and 111 Places in Fife That You Shouldn’t Miss, and also contributed to 111 Places in Glasgow That You Shouldn’t Miss as photographer and editor. In her spare time she enjoys singing and performing in opera, operetta and musical theatre, and improving her Italian. She has lived in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town for nearly 40 years.
The information in this book was accurate at the time of publication, but it can change at any time. Please confirm the details for the places you’re planning to visit before you head out on your adventures.