St Andrews Museums

I was looking for a cheap day out on the bus and took a direct service to St Andrews in the northeast of Fife. The ancient university town is known worldwide as the home of golf and draws visitors from far and wide. It also played a major role in the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and was a destination for pilgrims. I had two museums on my hit-list today, one of which was new to me and the other I hadn't been inside for many years. Both offered free entry. A journey of an hour and three quarters brought me to the bus terminus, located next to the former railway station site (now a car park).

It was a short walk to Kinburn Park, where St Andrews Museum is located within an attractive Victorian neo-Tudor mansion, built in 1854. The house and grounds were acquired by the local council in 1920 and the site used for various purposes over the decades, functioning as a telephone exchange during WW2 and later being leased by St Andrews University. The museum opened in 1991 and charts the history of the old seaside town. The surrounding land contains a bowling green, tennis courts and a children's play area. The main exhibition is structured around an A to Z theme, with each letter presenting objects and images from the collection. And what better place to start than with St Andrew himself! One of the 12 apostles, some of his bones were allegedly brought to the town in the early Middle Ages. The presence of Andrew's relics at a shrine within the cathedral prompted many pilgrims to make the journey on foot. A modern walking trail - the Fife Pilgrim Way - traces the approximate route they would have taken after crossing the Firth of Forth. St Andrews Cathedral was consecrated in 1318 and was the largest church in Scotland. King Robert the Bruce attended the ceremony and reputedly rode his horse down the main aisle! The building was ransacked during the Reformation and fell into ruin. Parts of the structure can be viewed today, although the fate of Andrew's bones remains unknown. A carved wooden panel bearing the town's coat of arms was on display. It featured a wild boar, at one time a common animal in this area. A famous St Andrews man is David Wilkie. Not the recently-deceased Scottish swimmer who won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, but the painter known for depicting ordinary people engaged in common activities. Wilkie (1785 - 1841) gained a strong local reputation before moving to London. He travelled extensively overseas and was eventually appointed as painter to King William IV, being knighted in the process. Wilkie's death on a voyage home from India was commemorated by the Turner oil painting Peace - Burial at Sea. A copy of a town map from John Geddy (circa 1580) showed the medieval street pattern that has changed little over the years. Most of the houses in the historic town centre date from the 16th to the early 18th century. The municipal boundaries expanded in Victorian times as the population increased and the erection of council-owned housing estates began in the 1920s. I disputed the museum's claim that St Andrews once boasted Scotland's oldest purpose-built movie theatre. The Cinema House opened in 1913 (running until 1979) but the Hippodrome in Bo'ness, West Lothian, began life in 1912 and was successfully re-opened in 2009. Unfortunately the Cinema House was demolished in the 1980s but the New Picture House (directly across the street) is still trading, although its future hangs in the balance. An entertainments company - owned by golfer Tiger Woods and singer Justin Timberlake - provoked a public outcry by announcing plans to turn the 1930 A-listed building into a sports bar.

More than 12,000 people signed a petition against the proposal, forcing the company to backtrack and rethink the concept. Fife Council are currently considering an application to retain some cinema space and convert the remainder to alternative leisure use. The town achieved a sporting success in 1960 when St Andrews United Football Club lifted the Scottish Junior Club - a tournament for teams in the regional leagues. The lads defeated Greenock 3-1 in front of 35,000 fans at Hampden Park, Glasgow. To date, only a handful of Fife sides have ever won the long-running trophy and my dad was one of the spectators on that day. He also attended the semi-final when an incredible 20,000 people turned up to see St Andrews defeat local rivals Thornton Hibs at Stark's Park, Kirkcaldy. Another significant event of the 60s was the calling of the final train at St Andrews Station. The town was once connected to a Fife coastal rail loop but this arrangement was dismantled in 1965 - a great shame as it would be a popular scenic run today. A stump was left in place between St Andrews and Leuchars (on the East Coast Main Line) but British Rail closed the link in 1969 and removed the tracks. There has been strong campaigning in recent years for the town to be reconnected to the national network by reinstating the five-mile Leuchars spur. Feasibility studies have been undertaken but as yet the government has been unwilling to commit hard cash to the project. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Leven sat at the southern tip of the coast loop and basically suffered an identical railway fate to St Andrews. At the time of writing, new passenger services to Leven are expected to commence imminently, following the rebuilding of the link to the trunk route after an absence of more than half a century. Let's hope the transport authorities now turn their gaze to the north of Fife. There are many points in favour of bringing trains back to St Andrews. A large population of students, most of whom don't own cars. The high-profile golf tournaments and general tourism market. The fact that many people who work in the town cannot afford to live there. The St Andrews rail proposal is a different business case to the Leven reopening (which was based on economic regeneration), but it's just as deserving. Golf is inextricably linked to St Andrews - which features six courses (three of them designated as championship standard) on the seaside links and another on the east side of town. All are owned by a trust and open to the general public, although you do have to prove your golfing credentials in order to play the prestigious Old Course, and availability is decided by ballot at peak times of the year. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club is based in St Andrews. It is a strictly members-only institution (founded 1754) which has its headquarters by the first tee on the Old Course. For many years it was closely involved in the governance of the game, although since 2004 that function has been performed by a professional body.

The Old Course can trace its origins back to 1552 and evolved naturally over the centuries without being subject to formal design, although some changes were implemented by head greenkeeper and professional golf pioneer (Old) Tom Morris in the late 1800s. Morris won the Open Championship four times and is also regarded as the father of modern greenkeeping, serving in this capacity at St Andrews for 39 years. His son - also Tom Morris - was golf's first prodigy, winning the Open on four consecutive occasions by the age of 21. He passed away suddenly just three years later and both men are buried in the churchyard of St Andrews Cathedral. Today, the Open Championship is one of golf's four "major" tournaments and St Andrews hosts the event every few years. My favourite memory is Costantino Rocca sinking a monster putt at the final hole (after duffing his approach shot) to force a play-off. Jack Niklaus - widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time - twice won the Open at St Andrews and brought down the curtain on his major tournament career here in 2005. The location on the North Sea enabled St Andrews to develop as a port and it was once a centre for fishing and trade with the Baltic States, the Low Countries and France. Activity began to decline in the early 19th century with the introduction of larger vessels unsuited to shallow tidal harbours. Commercial creel fishing for crab and lobster continues today and the town also attracts leisure craft. The Victorian period saw the area grow as a tourist destination, aided by the opening of the railway in 1852. Two golf courses (the New and Jubilee) were laid out in the 1890s and the amenities for visitors multiplied. I reached the end of the exhibition and in case you were wondering what was represented by the letter Z, no it wasn't a Roman zither buried under the golden sands, rather a reminder that some artefacts are pu-ZZ-ling when first discovered. Upstairs was a special display detailing the history of the Fife linoleum industry but I'd already seen this installation at the Kirkcaldy Museum and Galleries. I wandered along to the town centre, grabbed a bite to eat then strolled down to the Scores - a lengthy street that tracks the coastline and contains many university buildings.

I arrived here as a chemistry student in 1989 but swiftly decided it wasn't for me. The university of course featured in the town museum but I was now heading for a permanent exhibition dedicated solely to this ancient centre of learning. The Wardlaw Museum contains four thematic galleries and is named after the university's founder and first chancellor, Bishop Henry Wardlaw. Opening in 1413, the institution is Scotland's oldest university and the third-oldest in the English-speaking world (behind Oxford and Cambridge). Already home to a large cathedral with an extensive library, St Andrews attracted scholars before the university was formally founded. Bishop Wardlaw and King James I of Scotland secured permission from the Pope to open the new educational facility, which until the Reformation came under the authority of the Catholic Church. A large map in the first gallery depicted ancient universities around Europe. Bologna was the first to be established, in 1088. Universities - like all major public projects - have their ups and downs. In 1883, St Andrews was on the brink of closure with low student numbers. Change was required and women were admitted for the first time. Halls of Residence were constructed and the Students' Union opened for business. These developments took place in the 1890s and paved the way towards the modern university we know today. A display of six ceremonial maces contained examples fashioned between 1418 and 2014. A painting from the 1700s (artist unknown) showed students wearing the traditional red gown, proving the academic apparel dates back to at least this period. A small statue of Peter Pan was gifted to the university by the character's creator, JM Barrie, when he became rector in 1922. I proceeded into the galleries showcasing objects from the university's long tradition of teaching science and the arts. My eye was drawn to a set of Napier's Bones - an array of interchangeable calculating rods that used the principal of logarithms to vastly reduce the time required to multiply and divide large numbers. A forerunner of the engineer's slide rule (in regular use until the 1970s). Edinburgh-born mathematician John Napier studied at St Andrews in the 1560s and published his discovery of logarithms in 1614, releasing the "bones" device three years later, shortly before his death. He is also credited with making the use of the decimal point commonplace in arithmetic. Napier now has a university in Edinburgh named after him. The advent of mechanical calculating machines and, eventually, electronic computers rendered the large-scale manual application of logarithms obsolete but Higher Maths candidates must still learn how the process works. I moved on to the display about the work of Sir James Black (1924 - 2010), a Nobel Prize winner with whom I share both educational and social heritage.

Born into a mining family in Lanarkshire, Black grew up in Cowdenbeath, Fife and was educated at Beath High School (my alma mater). At the age of 15, he won a scholarship to the University of St Andrews where he studied medicine. Deciding against a career as a medical practitioner, Black entered the world of academia and research. Picking up many awards over the years, his moment of glory came in 1988 when he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine, along with with Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, for their work on drug development. Black had been instrumental in creating beta blockers, which greatly reduce the risk of heart attacks by slowing down a patient's heart rate. Mr Black spoke at my high school prizegiving ceremony that same year and a street in Lochgelly bears his name. The Wardlaw Museum also has a temporary exhibition gallery but the current display on Iranian art didn't appeal to me today. Instead, I headed up to the roof terrace which offered a fine view along the rugged coast. The museum is certainly worth visiting but probably best done as part of a day out in St Andrews when you also have other plans. I had a final stroll around the centre of town and went to catch my bus home. With the old railway station site being little more than spitting distance away and the trackbed still extant, a travel interchange could easily be set up here. Let's get it done!

Great Tapestry of Scotland

This astonishing artwork was first put on public display at the Scottish Parliament in 2013. Queues stretched around the block and 30,000 people visited in just three weeks. The Tapestry subsequently travelled the length of Scotland, appearing at over a dozen venues. We saw the 160 hand-stitched linen panels at Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Galleries and a large crowd was present. The overwhelming success of the national tour inspired the building of a permanent home for the embroidered masterpiece. Galashiels (Selkirkshire) now hosts the Tapestry in a purpose-built museum on the High Street. The Scottish Borders region has a rich textile tradition and few could argue with the decision to base the exhibition there.

The Tapestry tells the story of Scotland's history, heritage and culture – from the country's land formation millions of years ago, right up to 2013 when the last panel was completed. It is one of the world's largest community arts projects, with 1000 volunteers from all age groups involved in the creation. The people, places and events that shaped the nation's history are celebrated. The overall concept was designed by Edinburgh-born artist Andrew Crummy, who received an MBE last year for services to Scottish cultural heritage. I had arranged to drive my mum down to Earlston (Berwickshire) to visit her cousin and his family. I suggested we also take in the Tapestry as the two towns lie just eight miles apart by road. It would also give us the chance to view the artwork in a more relaxed environment, compared to the serried ranks of onlookers jostling for position at Kirkcaldy during the tour. We drove down the A7, passing the Scottish National Mining Museum in Newtongrange, Midlothian. This popular attraction occupies the site of the Lady Victoria Colliery (closed 1981). A visit is highly recommended. I spent many Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons in Newtongrange as a child and teenager. My dad reported on the stock-car racing for the Edinburgh Evening News and I even got to present two trophies at the opening meeting. The track was demolished in 1989 to make way for a housing scheme, which we saw today from the car. I didn't know the road beyond this point but it turned out to be a pleasant drive through gently rolling countryside. The Borders Railway follows the same course as the A7 and was clearly visible for most of the journey to Galashiels. Re-opened in 2015 as far as Tweedbank, the transport link to Edinburgh has proved highly popular and there are regular calls for an extension southwards. The original route - closed in 1969 - ran all the way to Carlisle. We pulled into a large public car-park near the museum in the centre of Galashiels and were surprised to see just a handful of bays occupied. In fact, the whole High Street seemed eerily quiet. A short walk brought us to the main entrance and the adult admission charge was £10.50. By now it was lunchtime and we had a sandwich in the ground-floor café - a nice spot flooded by natural light and seemingly popular with locals. The main exhibition was located in a spacious hall upstairs and a guide explained the layout. Rather than displaying the panels in long lines, they are grouped into several oval-shaped clusters, with each zone representing a different time period. The visitor centre opened in 2021.

Each piece of the Great Tapestry is accompanied by a detailed text description. To fully appreciate the nuances of the artwork and absorb all the written information, several hours of browsing would be required. We took our time walking round, looked closely at panels that caught the eye and read about interesting events. We learned a lot, but the sheer amount of material is overwhelming. I'm sure I could go back and easily find things I'd missed. Four very different rock formations were ground together to make Scotland. The last ice age ended around 9000 BC. Glaciers carved out the landscape we know today and early peoples arrived, most likely drawn by the migrations of animals that provided food, clothing and tools. It was a harsh life. Few of these hunter gatherers lived beyond 30 and women often died in childbirth. Burgeoning tree cover attracted new forms of wildlife that nested, burrowed and nibbled. Wild cattle and boar crashed through the undergrowth. Heavy duty predators such as wolves and bears found rich pickings. Around 5000 years ago, farming became established. Far easier to fence animals in and control their breeding, rather than chase them through the forest with no guarantee of success. The human population grew - apparently fuelled by porridge! Coarse wild foods damaged infant teeth, which prompted women to breastfeed for longer periods, meaning they didn't conceive during this time. Arable grains could be mashed up to provide a softer means of nourishment, allowing young children to progress more quickly to solid foods. This development shortened the birth interval and the pitter patter of tiny feet was heard more often. The first overseas traveller to formally record a visit to Scotland was Pytheas, a Greek explorer who arrived on British shores around 320 BC. The Romans came four centuries later, marching into Scotland and reaching a place they called Graupian Mountain, reckoned to be in modern Aberdeenshire. The disciplined legions quelled local resistance but Scotland was soon abandoned by the invaders. Hadrian's Wall was erected around 122 AD, marking the northern limit of the Roman Empire. Hadrian's successor Antoninus Pius oversaw the construction of a turf barrier - the Antonine Wall - across the Central Belt of Scotland but this project proved short-lived. The Gaels sailed over from Ireland, establishing the Kingdom of Dalriada in Western Scotland. Native Picts occupied the eastern and northern areas, while Britons controlled the territory to the south. Norse influence came in the form of Viking raids and the horned-helmeted seamen colonised the extreme north and made incursions into other parts of the country. Gradually these small kingdoms disappeared and modern Scotland coalesced. Princess Margaret of Wessex married King Malcolm III and bore seven children. She organised the regular ferry service across the Firth of Forth (which lasted until 1964) and eventually became Scotland's only canonised saint. One of very few women to have a leading role in our early history.

Only two shrines in Europe contained relics of the Apostles. One of them was dedicated to St Andrew, in the Fife town named after him. By the 1200s he was regarded as our patron saint and the Saltire (Scotland's national flag) is also known as the St Andrew's Cross. A grand cathedral in the town of St Andrew's was built to house the relics but was ransacked in 1559 during the Reformation and the bones of Apostle Andrew were lost. In the Middle Ages, Stirling was a key strategical location. The narrow route through the abundant marshland between the Firths of Forth and Clyde posed a significant challenge to advancing enemies. The fearsome Stirling Castle stands upon a crag overlooking miles of flat terrain and it was not easy for troops to find a way across the River Forth. When King Robert the Bruce routed the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, he had less than half the manpower available to King Edward II of England. Bruce however possessed extensive local knowledge and had the advantage of being able to choose the battleground, marshalling his soldiers superbly. Mum and I then learned some fascinating facts about the aftermath of the conflict. Flushed with success, Bruce led an invasion of England, laying siege to the border city of Carlisle. Stout resistance was offered but ultimately it was heavy rainfall that scuppered the raid. Unusually high levels fell across Europe in 1315 and Bruce's plans became bogged down. The army encampment was washed out and not much food could be sourced. It was in fact the beginning of the Little Ice Age that gripped Britain for the next four centuries. By 1317, the rain had relented but crop production took years to stabilise and around a fifth of the Scottish population perished due to famine. An ill-fated monarch featured on the Tapestry was Alexander III (pictured above) - who died in 1286 after falling from his horse at Kinghorn, Fife. Newly married, he crossed the Forth on a stormy night to be with his bride, Yolande of Dreux. Successfully landing in Inverkeithing, he rode along the coast but somewhere on the cliff path, the king's horse lost its footing and Alexander's body was found on the beach the following day. The Black Death pandemic raged through England in the middle of the 14th century - killing up to half the inhabitants - but didn't get its claws into Scotland to the same extent. Nevertheless, the consequences were dire. In one way, the disease did benefit Scotland's hard-won independent status, staving off the advancement of an invading army commanded by Edward III, grandson of Edward I who actually did subjugate the Scots.

The University of St Andrews (established 1413) is Scotland's oldest seat of higher education. Our other ancient universities are Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The island groups of Orkney and Shetland were under Norwegian control until 1472. Their passing to the Scottish crown formalised the nation's frontiers that still exist today. The military disaster of Flodden in 1513 saw James IV killed in action, the last occasion on which this fate would befall any monarch in Britain. The large Scottish fighting force adopted poor tactics. With James in the thick of the melee, he could see nothing of the battle's course. His adversary - the Earl of Surrey - kept watch from a vantage point to the rear and dictated the necessary troop movements. The events at Flodden ushered in a century of instability in the south of Scotland - the age of the Border Reivers. Royal authority was weak and remote on both sides of the dividing line. Naturally, the Tapestry covered the Reformation in great detail. The King James Bible was completed in 1611, by which time Scotland and England shared the same monarch. Regarded as a literary masterpiece, the translation from Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin was of a very high standard and a vast number of common expressions in use today stem from this work. The complexities of the National Covenant and the resulting War of the Three Kingdoms were depicted. The financial fallout of the Darien Scheme was largely responsible for Scotland losing its standing as a political entity and the country was obliged to sign up to the United Kingdom in 1707. In an attempt to colonise part of the Panamanian isthmus, the staggering sum of £400,000 had been raised. It amounted to one fifth of the entire national wealth. The ultimate aim was to dig a canal to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the first expedition set sail in 1698 with 1200 people on board. Unfortunately, the settlers were inadequately prepared for the stifling insect-infested conditions of Central America. Their food stocks rotted and people began to die in large numbers. Only 300 survived the first summer. One ship limped back home with the news but arrived too late to prevent a second wave of emigrants departing. Disease took its toll and the colony was attacked by Spanish forces. The grand plan had turned into a complete disaster and the country was practically bankrupt. A political union with England was highly controversial but deemed the only workable solution. The repercussions have been felt from that day to this. Although the merger was hostile (at least in Scotland), it has to be said the economy improved greatly and many Scots progressed to successful careers within the expanding British Empire. Meanwhile, the Jacobite Rising began to gain traction. Much of this convoluted tale has been romanticised and mythologised over the intervening centuries (for example, it was never Scotland versus England) and this is not the place for a deep dive.

Suffice to say, the attempted restoration of the Stuart monarchy failed and Bonnie Prince Charlie never returned to these shores. One of the main reasons his army was able to penetrate England so deeply was the lack of detailed mapping and good roads. The government forces were unable to respond quickly to the fast-moving rebels. After the bloody denouement at Culloden, the Ordnance Survey was founded and the whole of the country (including remote Highland areas) closely surveyed. A mortal blow was dealt to clan culture and the native Gaelic language declined drastically. Adam Smith was perhaps the most influential thinker of the Scottish Enlightenment. The Kirkcaldy-born economist published The Wealth of Nations which is still considered highly relevant today. Throughout the 1800s, the Highlands were slowly emptied of people. Landlords sought bigger profits from sheep grazing and shooting estates. Many folk left for America, while others found work in the growing cities as the industrial revolution gathered momentum. A more charitable soul was Robert Owen, who ran a mill in New Lanark and provided ground-breaking living conditions for the workers. The complex is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I studied the panel dedicated to our national bard Robert Burns before moving on to the display about the Scotsman newspaper - founded in 1817. My dad spent 30 years of his journalistic career with this publication, which has been printed on a daily basis since 1855. Glasgow had outgrown the capital Edinburgh by the 1820s (the population eventually topped one million) and became known as the Second City of the Empire. Shipbuilding and heavy engineering took place along the banks of the Clyde, while other industries proliferated across the expanding conurbation. Education for all children was made a legal requirement in 1872 and literacy among the masses spread from Caithness to Wigtownshire. The Irish potato famine caused immigration to reach levels previously unknown in Scotland and many found employment in the Glasgow area. We were introduced to Scots who had made a positive impact in Africa. Missionary Mary Slessor escaped the slums of Dundee to contribute greatly towards women's and children's rights. She preached in Nigeria against human sacrifice and the abandonment of twin babies, learning the local language and gaining the trust of the indigenous people. Slessor is now honoured within the Hall of Heroes at the National Wallace Monument in Stirling, one of only two women featured.

Fabulous engineering achievements such as the construction of the magnificent Forth Bridge (shown left) gave way to the outbreak of the first truly mechanised global conflict. The horrors of battles such as Passchendaele led to vast human cost while territorial gains remained negligible. Women kept the wheels of industry turning while men were away fighting and in 1918 all females over the age of 30 were given the right to vote. This was adjusted to 21 a decade down the line to ensure parity with males. The nine-day General Strike of 1926 was called by the Trades Union Congress in an effort to halt a downward spiral of wages and conditions for miners. Many workers across the land walked out in sympathy but ultimately the protest failed to achieve any meaningful guarantees. The first Labour Prime Minister was a Scot. Ramsay MacDonald - the illegitimate son of a farm worker and a housemaid - was elected to the House of Commons in 1906 and served three terms of office in the top job between 1924 and 1935. War broke out again and Clydebank suffered two devastating air raids. The town was destroyed and 528 people lost their lives. The nearby shipyards (the actual target) survived relatively intact. The inaugural Edinburgh Festival was staged in 1947 and brought colour to a difficult economic period. The event now attracts people from all over the world and the popular Fringe programme has launched many brilliant careers in the world of entertainment. 1947 was also the year in which the National Health Service was rolled out across Britain. It may be creaking at the seams these days (due in no small part to the post-war baby boom reaching their twilight years) but - remarkably - it remains free at the point of use. How long that will be the case remains to be seen. Apparently half a million Scots were prescribed spectacles within the first year of universal care. I'm certain quite a few of them also stood in line to receive false teeth! The number of smokers has collapsed, from 80% of the population in 1954 to just one fifth today. I presume vape statistics are not included in the latter measure. The television network was expanded in the 50's and three ITV franchises - Grampian, STV and Borders - covered different parts of Scotland. The channels were originally independent concerns with their own branding and scheduling but the modern ITV regions across the UK share the same programming apart from local news, weather and some political content.

Oil and gas were discovered under the North Sea bed in the late 60s. This provoked an energy boom and Aberdeen became the centre of the industry, with property prices to match. Scotland still benefits from this revenue although it's very much a case of diminishing returns as the climate agenda gathers pace and the political mood towards continued oil extraction changes. The phasing out of fossil fuels will however take many years and floating rigs will remain a common sight in the northeast for the foreseeable future. Vast reserves remain and renewable energy - for all its plus points - is nowhere near ready to supply all the country's needs. A rather less successful economic tale is that of the Linwood car plant in Renfrewshire. Opened in 1963, the factory lay close to a rail depot and production focussed on the Hillman Imp. A direct competitor of the ubiquitous Mini, the Imp initially proved popular but sales dropped off due to concerns about reliability. Half of the total output was delivered within the first three years and the drop in demand led to the small Scottish car being withdrawn in 1976, with the factory closing its doors five years later. I remember the Imp well and there's no surer sign of ageing than seeing common cars from your childhood make the transition to collectors' items. Linwood became a byword for national industrial decline and went on to feature prominently in the lyrics to the Proclaimers hit single Letter from America. The five post-war new towns (Glenrothes, East Kilbride, Cumbernauld, Livingston & Irvine) grew around technology and light industries. They were granted local authority status to promote development and were laid out with plenty of open space and green parkland. The Scottish National Party began winning parliamentary seats in significant numbers and a 1979 referendum on devolution was narrowly defeated. A majority of Scots supported the motion but the small print required 40% of the actual electorate to say yes. Nowadays we have our own government in Holyrood and arguments rage over whether (another) vote for full independence should be held. I wish I could say our 1978 World Cup campaign was more successful than the devolution matter but the trip to Argentina - with Ally McLeod at the helm - turned out to be a failure, albeit in typical Scottish sporting style, a glorious one. McLeod had Pied Piper qualities and whipped the nation into a frenzy, proudly proclaiming he would return with the trophy. Two poor opening results left us requiring a three-goal victory over world champions Holland to progress to the next round. When Archie Gemmell shot the Scots 3-1 ahead with an amazing solo goal, the dream was reignited. I vividly remember my dad bouncing around the living room and throwing me into the air as we watched on television. Unfortunately the joy was short lived and the match finished 3-2 in our favour. Not enough take us through but a notable victory over the great Dutch side of that decade. Dad was a proud man 15 years later when he met Ally McLeod at a Cowdenbeath match when the legend was in charge of Queen of the South. Despite several attempts, Scotland still haven't made it past the group stage in a major tournament but hopes are once again building for Euro 2024 in Germany.

The bitter Miners' Strike of 1984/85 signalled the end of an era. Never again would we witness such a titanic dispute flare up across Scotland, or indeed the entire UK. Working-class society changed forever as the National Union of Mineworkers was crushed by the Conservative government of the day, led by Margaret Thatcher. Although the industry was already declining by the coming of the 1980s, many men were still employed in large-scale pits across the Central Belt and trade unions remained a powerful political force. By the end of the decade however, deep mining had been decimated and our final pit closed in 2002. Prolonged industrial action is now a thing of the past, with the 1993 Dundee Timex strike generally considered to be the last to involve mass picketing and major disturbances. The Tapestry certainly offers something for everyone and your knowledge of Scottish history will be significantly improved by visiting. The downstairs gallery had a temporary exhibition on Paisley patterned textiles but we gave that a miss as we were so overwhelmed by the main attraction. A feast of epic proportions awaited us at John and Bilen's in Earlston. John is my mum's first cousin and his wife hails from Ethiopia, therefore the food on offer is always intriguing (and suitably spiced!). En route we drove below the end arch of the mighty 19-span Leaderfoot Viaduct. Standing well over a hundred feet above the River Tweed on slender columns, it carried a line that linked the East Coast route to the main Borders Railway via Duns, the county town of Berwickshire. There is no public access to the top but it's an amazing sight to behold and I'll definitely have a closer look next time.

North Norfolk Railway

Britain has over 200 heritage railways. They range from industrial locos pulling a guard's van along a short stretch to rakes of vintage coaches winding their way through miles of pleasant countryside on routes with several preserved stations. British Rail withdrew the final steam stock in 1968 and you would have to be over 70 years old to vividly recall this form of traction in regular service. Many heritage operations use diesel power, either exclusively or to supplement the traditional choo-choos. I would experience both on my visit to the North Norfolk Railway - a five and a half mile line with three stops.

The railway connects Holt to the coastal resort of Sheringham. It operates from mid-February to mid-November, with running days being more frequent during the warmer months. I boarded at Holt, a small town of a few thousand inhabitants. The peaceful terminus lies on the outskirts and there is ample parking for visitors (donation requested). The platform and buildings are in an excellent state of repair and great attention is paid to period detail, something true of all three stations on the route. The present Holt Station is actually a faithful recreation of the first facility, which existed on a different site closer to the town centre until demolition in 1964 following closure of the line to passengers and freight by British Rail. Part of the trackbed was sold to Norfolk County Council who used it to carry the new A148 Holt by-pass. The original route continued southwards for five miles to a major interchange at Melton Constable, where connections branched off to King's Lynn (via Fakenham), Norwich and North Walsham (onward to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft). These offshoots have now gone, leaving just the heritage corridor. Norfolk suffered badly from the post-war railway cuts, particularly the cross-county routes. I had booked a rover ticket online the previous day for £18. This would allow me to hop on and off whenever I wanted to. A train was getting ready for a 10.45 departure as I strolled on to the platform and I found myself a (well-sprung) seat in one of the classic carriages. The railway is active during the Easter school holidays and two steam locomotives were on duty today. Additionally, the timetable showed a heritage diesel railcar service shuttling back and forth. The line is single track with a passing loop at the middle station (Weybourne). Soon we were chuffing along through woodland and gliding past fields. Many heritage routes (including this one) are restricted to 25mph in order to stay within the most basic (and cheapest) category of health & safety regulations. My plan was to ride all the way to Sheringham, have a wander around the seaside down and then backtrack to Weybourne, before completing the final leg to Holt. This schedule would allow me to spend time at all three stations. The NNR is affectionately known as the Poppy Line, which is probably a useful marketing slogan. The 19th-century poet and theatre critic Clement Scott coined the term Poppyland - referring to the unspoilt coastal area of North Norfolk where the red flowers grow in abundance. The train halted at Weybourne and on the final push to Sheringham, a wonderful vista (pictured below) opened up. From the high embankment, I could gaze across the landscape all the way to the sea.

I visited the souvenir shop at Sheringham Station and bought a handful of postcards. The train I had arrived on was due to head back in 25 minutes, once the locomotive had been moved to the other end. I opted to take the following service, which gave me an hour and a quarter to have a look around town. This was ample time as the station is centrally located and the seafront just 500 yards away. On the other side of Station Road is the present main-line Sheringham Station, which sits at the end of a line from Norwich (via Cromer, where trains must reverse). Some explanation is required here. British Rail snipped out the tracks from Melton Constable to Sheringham in 1964 but services from the latter towards Norwich were retained. This left the inconvenience of a level crossing on a busy road and the decision was quickly taken to close the original station (which had opened in 1887) and build a new terminus across the street. This project was completed in 1967. Meanwhile, the fledgling North Norfolk Railway Ltd purchased the dismantled trackbed from Sheringham (old) to Weybourne. Work began on rebuilding the line and the first heritage passenger trains were launched in 1975. I followed Station Road and High Street down to the promenade. The compact town centre was bustling and I looked for somewhere to eat. I settled on a takeaway from a café called Norfolk's Pie Man. I bought a chunky hand-made Norfolk pasty - a blend of minced beef, potato, onion, carrot and swede encased in golden puff pastry. I popped into a fruit shop across the road and then took my food back to the station, where I sat at one of the picnic tables on the open Platform 2. There was no building on this side as it was demolished back in the 1960s when operations were scaled back. There are plans to rebuild the structure with materials salvaged from the derelict Yarmouth Beach Station (torn down in 1986 to create a car park). The footbridge across the tracks is a replica, installed in 2016. As I enjoyed my lunch in the sunshine, the heritage railcar came and went. I planned to take this option for the final part of my return journey. The level crossing between the two Sheringham stations was restored in 2010, thereby linking the Poppy Line to the national network. Designed for occasional use, the reconnection is used on a dozen days per year to accommodate visiting rolling stock and occasional charter trains.

The infrastructure on Platform 1 is an extended building that grew with the town it served until it became what we see today. Its most notable feature is the glass canopy, a splendid touch which originally featured on both sides of the station. The current passenger facilities include the booking office, waiting room and buffet, the latter housed in an area used to store luggage back in Victorian times, when vacations to seaside resorts became a very popular activity. The station shop was added in recent years and designed to match the period style. The railway survived a closure threat at the turn of the century. The lease on the Sheringham Station site was due to expire and the landlord expressed a desire to sell the land for redevelopment. The Poppy Line wouldn't have been viable without its sellable seaside destination but a fundraising campaign generated £300,000 to purchase the asset and secure the future. Happier news arrived in 2022, when the organisation received the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest civilian honour that can be awarded to a community group and the announcement coincided with the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Larger heritage railways often employ some full-time staff but the entire sector is heavily dependent upon people giving up their spare time free of charge. I caught a train to Weybourne and got myself a cold drink from the small shop (formerly the parcel office). There was a nice garden area with seating and a few stalls were selling books and assorted railway memorabilia. The station (pictured below) is over a mile from the village of the same name and has been used many times as a filming location. I sat on a bench and awaited the arrival of the diesel railcar. A few walkers passed by on a path that paralleled the tracks. Posters displayed information about the TV programmes filmed at Weybourne, including episodes of Seal Morning, Dad's Army, Hi-de-Hi and 'Allo 'Allo. I also viewed the surrounding countryside and general station layout from the top of the footbridge. My carriage chugged in and there were very few people onboard. Steam locomotives are obviously the top draw here. Formed of two coaches, the diesel multiple unit was built in 1960 and finally withdrawn in 2003. The "slam door" trains were once commonplace across the network but were replaced by carriages with central locking controlled by the driver or guard. The set running today was owned by the National Railway Museum and currently on long term loan to the North Norfolk Railway.

As stated at the start of this post, many people are too young to remember mainline steam and there is now great interest in vintage diesel rolling stock. For all the romance attached to steam, it is labour intensive and expensive to maintain. DMU's could be driven from either end and were ideal for commuter services. I probably missed a trick today by not sitting behind the driver as these old units have see-through cabs. We trundled into Holt Station, which dates from 1989 when the Poppy Line extension was opened. Initial facilities here were basic with just one platform and a wooden coach body serving as the ticket office. Since then the Holt site has been considerably developed into a complete working country railway station with a 1930s vibe. The main building was sourced from Stalham Station, which had been disused since 1959. There is no footbridge in place and you have to walk around the buffer stops to change platform. A replica goods shed houses a museum displaying a wide range of railway items. The station buffet and gift shop are situated to the rear of the ticket office. I really enjoyed my day out on the North Norfolk Railway and the experience is like taking a step back in time. Heritage lines can't exist without visitors and I was glad I had played my part. It should be noted that rail enthusiasts tend to account for a minority of the customer base across the sector. Family days out are the main source of income and finance is constantly required to keep the show on the road. For example, a quarter of a million pounds was recently spent on new track and point work around Weybourne Station. Strange as it may seem, the Poppy Line may play a role in a proposed modern transport scheme for the county. The Norfolk Orbital Railway would link up existing mainline tracks with two heritage operations (North and Mid Norfolk). The reopening of abandoned trackbeds (some of them already protected) would help complete the final quarter of the 83-mile circle. Quite often these types of scheme have more than a whiff of pie in the sky about them, but the website for the Norfolk Orbital project claims significant parcels of land have already been purchased. The general political transport climate (current Prime Minister notwithstanding) is swinging back towards railways, due in no small part to the climate agenda. Heritage routes may play a key role in this process since many are already linked with (or lie close to) the national network.

Perhaps we should see the railway preservation industry as a useful link in the chain rather than a open-air museum where grown men get to play trains at the weekend. That said, the present economics rely heavily on cherry picking. Heritage routes only open at times when the owners think a crowd can be attracted. Experts reckon not a single concern could break even if forced to run all year round. Many regular rail routes require public subsidy though. The balance between providing a public transport system and meeting the running costs will continue to stoke political debates - local and national - for years to come. I left Holt Station and drove the few miles back to Cley Marshes Nature Reserve where I had earlier deposited Nicole. I was eager to find out exactly what birdwatching delights I had missed, which turned out to be plenty. Such is life.