A trail over Pictish Scotland. Bring your car or get to Inverness area by train
Itinery Sat 3rd September
06.35 depart Edinburgh Waverley
10.28 arrive Inverness or Tain
(then car to Inver, near Portmahomack)
12.00 lunch at Inver Restaurant
(then car to Tarbat Discovery Centre)
13.30 Tarbat Discovery Centre
16.15 leave by car for Nigg – Cromarty ferry
17.00 (or thereabouts!) ferry to Cromarty
19.30 dinner at Royal Hotel Cromarty
(then stay overnight in various B&Bs in Cromarty area; (the Royal Hotel is fully booked!)
Sun 4th September
09.00 Groam House Museum, Rosemarkie
12.00 lunch at restaurant to be determined
14.30 depart on Jacobite Rebel for 2 hour Loch Ness cruise
16.30 return to Inverness centre, maybe for a snack
18.57 depart Inverness
22.41 arrive Edinburgh
Chris says:
Enjoy a day by the sea at the Jurassic coast looking for fossils. Meet by the Heritage Coast Centre at 11.00 am. We are hoping to have a guide to tell/show us what to look for.
The beach is pretty rocky so wear stout footwear.
Join us for a lovely day out floating along the Thames for an hour. We will meet at 10.30 am at the Trout Inn, where cars may be left while we go on the 11 am sailing. (NB there are 2 other Trout Inns nearby so make sure you go to the right one). We will return to the Trout Inn for lunch and then go and have a look round Kelmscott Manor, an Arts & Crafts gem, and maybe finish off with a cream tea.
Brian Hopton has kindly given us permission to read some of the Sparkinson interviews, written by him, Jill Goulder and Paul Crisp, from “Ransome Centre Stage”. We are going to have three different ‘Sparkinsons’ and three interviewees this time.
If you would like to join us and have not already received the Zoom link here it is –
We need figures now as to who might be interested in camping at Holly Howe (Bank Ground Farm, Coniston, LA21 8AA as soon as possible as a deposit for the full amount is required soon if we are to go ahead. Proposed dates, but not yet set in stone are 7-14th August 2023. You may bring your own craft and the less hardy can stay at The B&B or self catering at the Farmhouse itself.
Contact paul-midtars@gmx.co.uk with an expression of interest as soon as you can.
We will meet up at 10.45 am at the hall, which is a mile or two off the M5, the opposite side to Taunton.
Bring food to share – it always turns out to be a feast.
Remember in Peter Duck where he comes aboard with his kitbag with a coat of arms on it? We thought it would be fun to have a go at making our own. Have a look in the book and think about what you would put on yours.
The cost of £6= per adult will be to cover hire of the hall and paper, card , felt tips etc., which will be provided, as will some examples of heraldic designs.
Also bring a favourite passage from one of AR’s books or books about him and read it out to everyone if we have time.
Simon Dell has kindly agreed to do another talk for us, all about the Tavistock Canal. Tars from different regions are very welcome to join us, just let me know so that Susan, the host, will have some idea of numbers to be let in – here is the link –
Diana is busy compiling a quiz based on ‘Picts & Martyrs’, which we hope will give those of us without elephant-like memories more of a chance of getting some questions right, by reading the book again first.
Here is the link if you like to join in, all welcome, but please let me know if you are going to join so that the host has an idea of numbers – thanks.
Time: Nov 25, 2023 03:45 PM London
Passcode: 297872
We are delighted that Alan Kennedy has agreed to give us another talk. Below is a synopsis to whet your appetite, and also the link to join us.
‘It is obvious that Arthur Ransome’s novels are filled with echoes of his own turbulent life. Were these parallels intended or were they simply a case of an author’s preoccupations leaking into his text? Do we risk reading too much into things and finding allusions where none were meant? These perennial questions have divided readers but an examination of the contacts Ransome made while working in Paris in the early years of the century suggests at least one radical answer. I claim Ransome’s fictional technique grew out of his deep interest in symbolist experiments in literature and his work can be read as very much part of that tradition.’
Topic: Alan Kennedy Zoom Meeting
Time: Feb 10, 2024 06:45 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82841162735?pwd=K0lHY0FJMEpzZ2F6TU91QzBjaFU0UT09
Meeting ID: 828 4116 2735
Passcode: 893329