Dundas Castle (6 of 6)
This is a fairly impressive view, even for Scotland!
Starting on the skyline to the right - the pimple on said skyline (28 miles away) is North Berwick Law, one of a series of volcanic plugs that extend across central Scotland from Ailsa Craig to The Bass (just visible as a pale smudge).
Out in the Forth between the two nearer hills is the island of Inchkeith, sitting there like a great unsinkable battleship. During the Great War, someone thought "hang on, that place looks like a great unsinkable battleship" and along with other islands in the firth, put heavy guns on it to keep naughty German ships away. To the left of the 2nd hill, the towns of Burntisland and Kinghorn appear virtually merged together on the far side of the firth, in Fife.
Next come two features in line with one another, a sinister looking black building that looks like the CIA's Edinburgh office but is actually the Dakota Hotel and directly beyond it, the island of Inchcolm. It's a place I am yet to visit and am keen to do so. On it stand the remains of Inchcolm Abbey, dedicated to St Columba (who may have come here in 567) and founded in the 12th century, possibly by King Alexander I, who was shipwrecked here in 1123. There are also extensive military remains on the island, founded c1914. An anti submarine and ship boom extended right across the Forth at this point, to protect the ships of the Grand Fleet, most of which moored between here and the Forth bridges.
Between Inchcolm and Her Majesty's Naval Dockyard Rosyth on the extreme left, stand the three great Forth bridges. The first and arguably most impressive, is the magnificent cantilevered railway bridge, which celebrated its 130th birthday last year and is deservedly a UNESCO WH site. "Painting the Forth Bridge" is a colloquial expression for a never-ending task, coined on the erroneous belief that repainting had to be recommenced immediately upon completion of the previous coat! While that is not quite true, there was a permanent maintenance crew until very recently, when a new coating designed to last 25 years was applied. The bridge is expected to remain operational for another century. The central bridge is the road suspension bridge opened in 1965. Closed in 2017, it is now only used by public transport and cyclists. For all other traffic it was replaced by the 3rd bridge, a three towered 'cable-stayed' bridge, called the Queensferry Crossing, which opened in 2017.
Dundas Castle (6 of 6)
This is a fairly impressive view, even for Scotland!
Starting on the skyline to the right - the pimple on said skyline (28 miles away) is North Berwick Law, one of a series of volcanic plugs that extend across central Scotland from Ailsa Craig to The Bass (just visible as a pale smudge).
Out in the Forth between the two nearer hills is the island of Inchkeith, sitting there like a great unsinkable battleship. During the Great War, someone thought "hang on, that place looks like a great unsinkable battleship" and along with other islands in the firth, put heavy guns on it to keep naughty German ships away. To the left of the 2nd hill, the towns of Burntisland and Kinghorn appear virtually merged together on the far side of the firth, in Fife.
Next come two features in line with one another, a sinister looking black building that looks like the CIA's Edinburgh office but is actually the Dakota Hotel and directly beyond it, the island of Inchcolm. It's a place I am yet to visit and am keen to do so. On it stand the remains of Inchcolm Abbey, dedicated to St Columba (who may have come here in 567) and founded in the 12th century, possibly by King Alexander I, who was shipwrecked here in 1123. There are also extensive military remains on the island, founded c1914. An anti submarine and ship boom extended right across the Forth at this point, to protect the ships of the Grand Fleet, most of which moored between here and the Forth bridges.
Between Inchcolm and Her Majesty's Naval Dockyard Rosyth on the extreme left, stand the three great Forth bridges. The first and arguably most impressive, is the magnificent cantilevered railway bridge, which celebrated its 130th birthday last year and is deservedly a UNESCO WH site. "Painting the Forth Bridge" is a colloquial expression for a never-ending task, coined on the erroneous belief that repainting had to be recommenced immediately upon completion of the previous coat! While that is not quite true, there was a permanent maintenance crew until very recently, when a new coating designed to last 25 years was applied. The bridge is expected to remain operational for another century. The central bridge is the road suspension bridge opened in 1965. Closed in 2017, it is now only used by public transport and cyclists. For all other traffic it was replaced by the 3rd bridge, a three towered 'cable-stayed' bridge, called the Queensferry Crossing, which opened in 2017.