4000 Miles In Scotland

Northern Advocate, 17 January 1948, Page 2

4000 Miles In Scotland

Mr Ross took the Flying Scotsman from London at 10 a.m. and reached Edinburgh at 3.30 p.m., covering the distance of approximately 393 miles at an average speed ol 70 m.p.h. “From Edinburgh, I went all over Scotland, travelling 4000 miles, not including 400 miles on foot.” Mr Ross continued. "I used the network of ihe Scottish bus system.

’’They never leave anyone behind. If one bus is lull another is put on, marked duplicate, and if that fills, a third bus is used for the remaining passengers. It’s a great system. "Some trips were guided tours and. in the double-decker buses, it is just the same as an observation car. Walking and busing I criss-crossed Scotland from Edinburgh, round the borders, to Perth and Inverness."

At Edinburgh. Mr Ross visited the floral clock in the public- park. The clock is composed of 30,000 plants, tells the time, and chimes every quarter hour. It is circular shaped and covers an area of about 14 square feet Leaving Inverness Mr Ross travelled to Easter Ross district and then to Wester Ross, “where the Mackenzies come from.” On a war memorial in a

village in the Easter Ross district 10 out of the 46 names were Ross.

From Edinburgh, Mr Ross progressed to Sutherlandshire and to John o’ Groat's, where the last house in Scotland is situated. Having reached the extreme north tip of Scotland he took a boat to the Orkney Islands and arrived at Kirkwall, on the largest island.

Mr Ross inspected the standing stones of Stensness, the Stonehenge of the Orkneys, and the marker in Scapa Flow, showing the place where the battleship Royal Oak was sunk by a daring German submarine in the early days of the war.

In the great naval base is an island resembling a> submarine, and which had been camouflaged as one during the war, Mr Ross said.

Returning to the mainland Mr Ross inspected the Harris Tweed Factory in the Hebrides. “The weaving of Harris tweed is done by looms in cottages, or workshops behind them," said Mr Ross, who brought home some samples of the tweed from the first stage of the process to the last. Harris tweed is sent mostly to Canada and the United States.