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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – cleek – Scotland

On The Road – cleek – Scotland

by WaterGirl|  November 6, 20205:00 am| 22 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

cleek

From a trip to Scotland in April 2019.

On The Road - cleek - Scotland 1
Victoria Street, Edinburgh, UK

First, a shot from Victoria Street in Edinburgh, said to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. It’s a steep, curved, cobblestone street, lined with old shops and pubs.

On The Road - cleek - Scotland
Mealt Falls, Skye, UK.

This is Mealt Falls, which falls off Kilt Rock into the ocean, on the Isle of Skye.

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Reader Interactions

22Comments

  1. 1.

    Amir Khalid

    November 6, 2020 at 5:10 am

    Now I’m wondering what Edinburgh locale inspired Knockturn Alley. Or maybe it’s in Glasgow.

  2. 2.

    RedDirtGirl

    November 6, 2020 at 5:13 am

    My mother is from Scotland. My visit to Edinburgh after college, back in the ‘80’s, was delightful.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    November 6, 2020 at 5:13 am

    Lovely!

  4. 4.

    Nina

    November 6, 2020 at 5:43 am

    My son is at university in St. Andrews, maybe I should stop lurking and send some of his pics

  5. 5.

    satby

    November 6, 2020 at 5:51 am

    Thanks cleek! Scotland is a place I hope to go back to again once Americans aren’t international plague rats unwelcome everywhere.

  6. 6.

    David Evans

    November 6, 2020 at 5:51 am

    Victoria Street is lovely. Mealt Falls makes me very nervous.

  7. 7.

    J R in WV

    November 6, 2020 at 6:19 am

    Only two photos, one urban, kinda, one quite rural, quite a sheer waterfall. But it covers Scotland pretty well, judging from the other photo sets from that area. Especially love the mist in the Edinburgh photo!

    Imagine walking down that street at 2 am wondering how the vote was counting over in the colonies?

    Thanks cleek. Pleasant visit to the Scottish realm!

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 6, 2020 at 6:44 am

    @Nina:

    I took some summer classes at St Andrews many years ago. I’d love to see your son’s pictures.

    Love Scotland, always have. Cleek’s photos bring back happy memories of long-ago trips.

  9. 9.

    MazeDancer

    November 6, 2020 at 6:45 am

    Excellent photos!

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    November 6, 2020 at 6:57 am

    First photo makes me want a mug of hot, strong tea in a cafe or a pint in a pub.  Wet dark weather, with shop lights and wet pavements.  Atmospheric.

  11. 11.

    Sab

    November 6, 2020 at 7:24 am

    @J R in WV: All my Scottish photos are full of fog. Loch on Skye where there is water, and possibly a mountain in the distance through the mist.

  12. 12.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    November 6, 2020 at 7:30 am

    Especially love the shot of Victoria Street

  13. 13.

    Sab

    November 6, 2020 at 7:44 am

    Isn’t Mealt Falls one of the falls that flow backwards when the wind is really strong?

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    November 6, 2020 at 8:00 am

    @Nina:  Please do!

    I recommend writing your introduction – and the text that goes with  each picture – in something like Word.  That way if something goes wrong with the form, all you have to do is copy & paste again.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    November 6, 2020 at 8:02 am

    Diagon Alley looks so charming, and the waterfall is stunning!

  16. 16.

    cope

    November 6, 2020 at 8:13 am

    @WaterGirl: And more Scotland…how great is this?  These two pictures capture the yin and yang of the Scotland I visited and worked in more than 40 years ago perfectly, thank you.

    A great start to a promising day.

  17. 17.

    Jerry

    November 6, 2020 at 8:31 am

    that first photo explains the debut Jesus & Mary Chain album so well

  18. 18.

    stinger

    November 6, 2020 at 9:29 am

    Never mind Harry Potter, that is one gorgeous image! Take out the cars and it could be 1819 rather than 2019. And nice to know what I might see if I ever get over the sea to Skye. Thanks, cleek!

  19. 19.

    The Moar You Know

    November 6, 2020 at 10:02 am

    First, a shot from Victoria Street in Edinburgh, said to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. It’s a steep, curved, cobblestone street, lined with old shops and pubs.

    I was standing right there eight months later in December.  My wife and I are in utter love with Scotland.  Trying to figure out if there’s a way we can move there permanently even though we are in our fifties.

  20. 20.

    JanieM

    November 6, 2020 at 10:19 am

    @stinger:

    Take out the cars and it could be 1819 rather than 2019.

    For many years I worked for a week a month in an office at the edge of Harvard Square. Sometimes on my walks I’d be at a spot in some side street where it was the same as you say: take out the cars and it could be 1819, or even longer ago than that. I tried to put myself in the shoes of a person 100 years hence (assuming the whole area isn’t under water by then) — who might be looking at the same scene and imagining the same kind of thing, while college students and tourists still thronged the place. Temporal hall of mirrors. Made me a little dizzy.

  21. 21.

    JanieM

    November 6, 2020 at 10:36 am

    @JanieM: @20 was about time passing, while the built environment (in some places) stays remarkably the same.

    But from another angle, Europe and the US are on different time scales in that realm. I remember on my first trip to Ireland being bemused at the sight of laundry hanging on ropes strung inside old stone ruins that were probably oh, eight hundred years old. To me the ruins were mythical. To the local people they were just…piles of stone, to be made useful in any way they could.

  22. 22.

    BigJimSlade

    November 6, 2020 at 11:45 am

    Thanks cleek – great shots! (But only 2?!) How’s your law doing? (on mark as ever, of course)

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