You are almost on the edge of nowhere – in an area known as The Black Forest - at the point where the Westerly Pennines slip anonymously into the Cheshire plain. Nearby are places with names such as Wincle, Wildboarclough and Longgutter. Here is Luds Church (map ref 987656) – you will have to look hard to discover it. Often when I have taken friends to show them this strangest of places I have had to search again and again for the hidden entrance.

This is where they say the Lollards (condemned as heretics) hid out in the 14th Century – and it is easy to see why. Who would ever find this place without a map and a knowledgeable guide? Books will casually remark that Luds Church is ‘worth a diversion’. It is worth much more than that. Luds Church must be one of the weirdest and wonderful of places and deserving of more than a throwaway nod.

This natural cleft is over 100 yards in length and in height over 20 yards high in places. Here the light of day rarely reaches and damp mosses curl down from the walls. If you stop and listen, even on the sunniest of days, it is possible to hear the drip and drip of water from the ferns which cling to the sides of this cleft. Perhaps of greatest significance is that this spot has been identified as The Green Chapel – the very place where Sir Gawain met and battled with the Green Knight one new year’s day long ago.

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Posted by Rob on July 06, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is just about as far north as you can go in Scotland. You have already travelled on a 15 hour ferry to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Then taken a ferry from what is called ‘Mainland Shetland’ to the island of Yell. Crossing this you then take another ferry from Gutcher Pier to the Wick of Belmont on Unst – this is the most northerly inhabited island in the Shetlands (and therefore in the whole of the UK). Travel up the road to Haroldswick (the most northerly village in the most northerly island in the Shetlands) and there over looking the Bay of Haroldswick is just about the most luxurious bus shelter ever. There was nobody around when we happened upon this spot – and certainly not a bus in sight. The bus stop fully furnished, stands regally alone by the road; the computer is perhaps not the most modern but the television seems ready to be switched on and the arm chair very comfortable; recently fresh flowers have been arranged in a vase. There is an all round panoramic view, including Muckle Hoeg with its chambered cairn, White Haggle to the north and behind to the east - Haroldswick Bay.

A visit to the Unst Bus Shelter website (address below) reveals that this is the domain of local schoolboy Bobby Maculay who started to make the place a little more like home after a particularly long wait for a bus. Now the island's most popular tourist attraction, It has been featured in Bella Magazine, The Daily Mail, BBC Radio Scotland, The Press And Journal and the Shetland Times five times, as well being voted the best bus shelter in Britain by Buses Magazine (and they would know). What better place to wait for that bus which never seems to arrive and may never come.

Continue reading "Haroldswick Bus Shelter, Unst" »

Posted by Rob on June 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)