Having arrived in a cloud of torrential rain, I awoke to find it was still there. It was just one of those damp yukky days. There were maps on the kitchen table when I arrived, and though none of them directly correlated with my quickly printed googlemaps I was eventually able to find a road which matched. It wasn’t too much fun in the rain, but eventually, by coming out exactly where I’d hoped and finding the fish and Chips shop on Georges Street. Though the food wasn’t as nice as I’d hoped, it made up for it by have some rather entertaining menu items. These included “wolfdog sausage” (which I would have tried had it not cost £5.50), “red, white or black pudding” - and since I know what black pudding is I really dread to speculate what the other two varieties might be - and perhaps most worryingly of all, “deep fried pizza”, which you get get whole or half sized. Hmm. Did give me the opportunity to pick up a tourist brochure, though.
I also caught a glimpse again of a building I’d forgotten when I arrived tired and hazy in the train station the night before. It looked for all the world like a mini colosseum, just sitting on a hill above the town. I made a mental note to check it out, but decided to walk along the pier alittle more. Found a fantastically named shop called “The Pointy Hat”, which was actually an ice-cream parlour. Though the ice-cream wasn’t anything special, he did give me directions to the Colosseum-like building, called "McCaig’s tower".
I don’t think I would never have found the road by myself, and it was narrow and incredibly steep, winding up the hill towards the tower. I was surprised that there was no notice or anything as I approached the tower, nothing which explained what it was or why it was there. The only information I could find out about it was a brief paragraph in the tourist leaflet, it was built as a memorial to his family by a man called John McCaig from 1895 until his death in 1902. Hi was a successful local banker, who in a rather public spirited enterprise built the tower in the winter only, in order to support the local stone masons who were out of work during that time. Quite a nice idea, really. It had some amazing views from the top, and happily when I got there the sun came out for alittle bit.
I also caught a glimpse again of a building I’d forgotten when I arrived tired and hazy in the train station the night before. It looked for all the world like a mini colosseum, just sitting on a hill above the town. I made a mental note to check it out, but decided to walk along the pier alittle more. Found a fantastically named shop called “The Pointy Hat”, which was actually an ice-cream parlour. Though the ice-cream wasn’t anything special, he did give me directions to the Colosseum-like building, called "McCaig’s tower".
I don’t think I would never have found the road by myself, and it was narrow and incredibly steep, winding up the hill towards the tower. I was surprised that there was no notice or anything as I approached the tower, nothing which explained what it was or why it was there. The only information I could find out about it was a brief paragraph in the tourist leaflet, it was built as a memorial to his family by a man called John McCaig from 1895 until his death in 1902. Hi was a successful local banker, who in a rather public spirited enterprise built the tower in the winter only, in order to support the local stone masons who were out of work during that time. Quite a nice idea, really. It had some amazing views from the top, and happily when I got there the sun came out for alittle bit.
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