As promised, here is a selection of pictures of my travels when I stayed at Ferintosh the week before last. The full set will be uploaded to my photo blog site at www.fotothing.com/cleftref .

My last full day I took the bike for a run to Lochmaben and Lockerbie.

This is the last set from that trip but again not only nostalgic but also emotional.

The name of Lockerbie is known throughout the world for the disaster of Pan Am flight 103 on 12/23/88. I knew it before this and therefore it has an additional meaning for me. This was my first visit since the disaster and I found a mix of emotions - to see a town carrying on with its life, looking to the future rather than the past and yet the past hitting me with the changes I found. I saw no signs to a museum or remembrance of the disaster, which made me think that Lockerbie carries on with its life though no doubt the griefs and remembrance are there.

Lockerbie Town Hall spire. It is in a style common to many Scottish towns, yet seems a symbol now of something extra special.



The Town Hall. I went to the nearest chipper and had a fish supper with Irn Bru that I ate sat on my bike, enjoying the scene and observing life going on.

That is the amazing thing about tragedy (OK I am philosophising now) but life does go on and the dead would wish that it should.




This hit me about change. This building was once the Regal Cinema where I once saw the film Confessions of a Taxi Driver - now it is a tandoori restaurant! Made me think about change and how some things are not always static, yet you contrast them with those things that have endured.



Lockerbie Railway Station. This is on an entirely different line to the station in Dumfries - here is the main London-Glasgow railway line. Many trains pass through without stopping but it does have some stopping express services. My main remembrance is a funny one - I was on a train which should have stopped at Lockerbie (a train that was to split at Carstairs with part going to Glasgow and part to Edinburgh). The train shot through Lockerbie without stopping then it applied the brakes and went backwards back into the station.

I remember laughing at the mistake the driver had made and the looks of suprised horror on the faces of those who had been standing on the station to take the train and their relief when it returned. Yet, in a way it is a symbol of what was to come - disaster and overcoming it and that is as true in New York as in Lockerbie.



The last shot is the rear of the Lockerbie Town Hall. It is for me, and many others, a powerful symbol of continuity amidst change. For me it is the symbol, just as Ground Zero is, of life going on in the midst of horror, and I recommend it to all those who visit the area.



Ok that's the end of the current series. Hope you have enjoyed at least a few of the pictures. I had a fantastic four days and three nights, seeing new haunts as well as revisiting old ones and the good weather did not go amiss!