Inchcolm Island and Abbey
Categories: places
Tags: photos, island, Inchcolm, abbey
Date: 23 September 2012 15:54:28
Yesterday I had big plans to do lots of work-related writing, but then the weather was so fantastic I thought we'd better make the most of it (we probably won't get many more weekends like this for a while!), so we headed out east to Queensferry and caught the Maid of the Forth ferry to Inchcolm Island, one of the islands in the Firth of Forth. Some folk from Ship of Fools had had a meet up there a few months ago, but as I was marking essays that weekend we didn't go that time, but the photos convinced me I really did want to see it at some point. The island is home to Scotland's best-preserved medieval abbey (it is 12th century, Augustinian) and also some gun batteries from the two world wars as the Forth islands were all used as defences, as there was so much nearby that were potential enemy targets (Edinburgh, the Forth Bridge, and Rosyth shipyard for starters). It takes about half an hour on the boat, they then drop you off for about an hour and a half then come and pick you up again. It is plenty of time to explore the abbey and the eastern side of the island, and I felt even with around 200 people on the island that it was really peaceful there. I'm definitely keen to go back sometime!
I took loads of photos, a selection of the best are in this flickr set.