Helensbrough and Dunoon

Or perhaps this should be called The People and Places I Love

The day after we returned from Inverness, Nicky took Kathy to the Glasgow Airport at 4:30 am to catch her flight home. I really hated to see her go. She has been so much fun to travel with. Nicky said it was about a 20 minute drive to the airport. When I asked her how far away it was she said about 25 miles. I said we couldn't get there in 20 minutes. Nicky said we could. We did! It must be nice to be a police officer.

About a month before we came, Matthew spent several days with Nicky on the last days of his visit. Some of the pictures, including the one above, were taken by him on a solo camping trip on Ben Lomand. He took some really fine photographs and has given me carte blanche to use any of them I want to. The view in the photograph is of he and Nicky below Dumbarton Rock, on which Dumbarton Castle is perched and can be plainly seen from her kitchen window.

Nicky had to go into work for a few hours in the morning, but in the afternoon we drove across the Rest and Be Thankful to Dunoon so that Emily could see where we had scattered her Grandfather's ashes. When we lived in Dunoon we used to drive this road often as it was the quickest way to get to Helensburgh. I never got so used to the scenery that I could take it for granted. I have been awestruck every single time I have been over it. . This old military road was built by General Caulfield in the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, when the government of the day embarked on a road-building program to enable troops to be moved rapidly around Scotland. It served as the main road to the Western Highlands until the present road was built higher up the valley in the 1930. There is now a "high road" and a "low road" so to speak and traveling east, it ends at Loch Lomand. So there you go. You can still see little bits of the original road down in the valley between the hills.

Traveling west/south west you eventually end up in Dunoon, the small town where Jim and I lived for the two years we spent in Scotland. I have so many happy memories of the time we lived in there. When Jim passed away his wishes were that his ashes be scattered at sea. When we made our request to the Navy some of their stipulations made the kids and I uncomfortable, so we decided to scatter his ashes in the Holy Loch. The Holy Loch is located right outside Dunoon where the U.S. Navy maintained a forward servicing facility for SUBRON 14 from 1961 to 1992. Over the years there were several Submarine Tenders stationed there and Jim was stationed aboard the Nuclear Submarine Tender U.S.S. Holland from August 1978 until September 1980. When the Polaris Submarine's were replaced by the much longer ranging Trident Submarines the base was no longer needed and was closed.


Our Granddaughter Kristen found this poem on the internet and sent it to me because it describes the way he felt perfectly:

Last Wishes Of A Seafaring Man

Scatter my ashes on the sea

And as I float on crested wave

I want no tears or grief for me

Or duty visits to my grave.....

Don't bury me beneath the ground

No cold imprisoned tomb for me

Or headstone with an Earthy mound

That's not the place I'd want to be.

It's where the winds blow fresh and free

I know that I will lie content

The sea I love my cemetery

The waves my only monument.....

Dulcie Levene

After leaving the Holy Loch we decided to show Emily the pretty little village of Inveraray located on the shores of Loch Fine and the traditional home of Clan Cambell.. The castle has a real cinderella appearance and looks like it would be more at home at Disneyland than in Scotland. We didn't get out of the car in Inveraray and by the time we got to the castle it was closed to the public. Oh well, it was a lovely drive and Loch Fine very picturesque. I have some great pictures of Matthew and Nicky that were taken there in 1995 but there is just not room on this site for me to put up all the pictures I would like to. Maybe someday I will try to cobble together something for that 1995 trip.

putting up with the streetlight.with the streetlight.