Bo'ness and Blackness

As we have travelled in the Stirling area we kept seeing signs for Bo'ness. This seemed an odd name on a sign, although not as odd as the Native American names  on street signs in Vancouver, Canada, which use the digit 7 as a indicator for a glottal stop.  This didn't seem that weird, but we did wonder  what Bo'ness was, or what it was an abbreviation for.

So we went to have a look.

Bo'ness from the harbou

The name, (quite obviously, don't you know) is an abbreviation for Borrowstounness, or the town (toun) near Beornweard's farmstead, which is near the headland (ness). Well, that seems perfectly reasonable, and also a good reason to just put Bo'ness on roadsigns, after all they would have to raise taxes to pay for all the signs saying "Near Beornweard's farmstead-toun-ness", and there would be safety hazards from distracted motorists trying to read all that while driving by, so Bo'ness it is.

Puddleglum

On visiting it Bo'ness turns out to be another really attractive waterside village. They have a harbour, but it is neither touristy with coastal attractions nor industriously filled with fishing boats, instead it is almost completely silted up and unused. There was a long-legged wading bird using it that reminded me inexorably of Puddleglum from the Narnia books (The Silver Chair).

The weather was very foggy but there was a lovely headland stroll through the woods along the waterfront. The river was so misty/foggy that it was really hard to tell the water from the beach, from the distant shore, and from the sky. The only way to distinguish the water from the shore is that the water has ripples in it, which move a bit. The water and the distant shore and sky, however, all just blend together.

We got into a conversation with some locals down by the harbour. They had a monster dog and several children. We were feeling peckish and ready for second breakfast, so asked for recommendations for a local bakery. "Just up around the bend and down the High, you can't miss it."

And we found the bakery, although it didn't seem to be quite where they said it would be. They had some hot, spicy and tasty meat pies which hit the spot, but while we were wandering around we encountered another bakery, and then a few minutes laters another one, and another. We never did decide which bakery was the really-recommended one, but the town had a plentiful supply-perhaps a bakers dozen of them. To finish up we found a Lidl's supermarket and went to their in-store bakery. We bought some of their excellent chocolate-hazelnut filled croissants and a cob loaf of seedy whole meal bread to take home.

Heading up into town we found a church with a crowned top and a lovely ferny wall.

 Bo'ness also boasts of the Kinneil Railway Steam trains. The British have an on-going love affair with steam trains, witness the train in the Harry Potter stories for example, and many others. The train was offering rides and a fancy tea, but it seemed to be an all-day affair so we passed it up and headed on for Blackness castle.

Blackness Catle 

The castle is on a headland that is, well, black. The rocks are black and the seaweed is black, so are much of the castle walls, so it seems well named.

Talking of seaweed, they had it for sale in tiny vials in the gift shop. we couldn't tell if this was supposed to be food, herbal spices, or simply decoration. In any case we were not interested. The castle was, however, a Historic Scotland site (we are members) and so we were guaranteed nice, clean and modern bathrooms. We did get a glimpse of the original plumbing facilities in the castle, but since it was simply a jutting out turret with a hole that dropped straight down onto the shoreline, we decided to stick with the modern version.

The castle has served many purposes in its life including a stint as an ammunition storage depot in the 19th century. We admired the hand cranked crane for loading boats onto the pier. It was quite a mechanical marvel with multiple gear wheels, each of which could accept a crank handle, so you can choose to raise the load slowly and easily or faster but with an effort.

The castle itself seems to consist entirely of staircases. I would not care to live in a castle. The rooms are small, very poorly lit and linked to each other by stony, twisted and staired passages. This does not change my pleasure in visiting them trying to understand the people and the history associated with them and enjoying the ancient sense of history and tradition seeping out of the stones (along with the cold and occasionally the moisture too, of course)

A castle and a seaside village in one day, plus at least one casual conversation with strangers with our prominent missionary badges; that counts as a definite win--and very relaxing too.