CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The town of Melrose in the Scottish Borders is famous for the birthplace of Rugby Sevens and for the ruins of the 12th Century Cistercian Abbey.  The Abbey was founded in 1136 by King David I and it was largely destroyed by the English Army of Richard II in1385.  The Abbey was rebuilt and what remains is mainly from the early 15th Century and is reputed to be the most beautiful monastic ruins in Great Britain. Melrose Abbey is also the place where the heart of Robert the Bruce is buried. The Scottish King was buried at Dumfermline Abbey after his death in 1329 but the king requested his heart be buried in Melrose. An excavation was led to find a sealed casket, but it was not opened, and it was actually discovered by high school students involved in the dig. The casket was placed in a sealed lead cylinder, and was then re-buried in the abbey back at its proper resting place. We arrived for our visit late in the afternoon on Saturday 4 March and we pretty much had t...

Inchcolm is one of the four 'Inches' (Inch is the Gaelic word for island) in the Firth of Forth just off the coast of Edinburgh and Fife.  Inchcolm is the largest of the four and boasts a 12th Century Augustine abbey and also ruins of World War 1 and 2 fortifications that were built to defend Edinburgh, the Forth Rail Bridge and the Royal Navy dockyard at Rosyth. Inchcolm is  Innis Choluim in Gaelic and means Columba's Island.  St Columba, the Irish missionary, is said to have visited the island in 567AD and Inchcolm is known a the Iona of the East, after the island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland where St Columba first made landfall when bringing Christianity to Scotland in the 6th Century. We booked a landing trip on the ' Maid of the Forth ' which gave us 90-minutes to explore the small 22 hectare island that lies 1/4 mile off the coast of Fife.   We really lucked in with the weather as there was bright blue skies, warm  autumnal suns...