Tyndal Bruce Monument Falkland & Barnhill Cemetery

[quagga64]

Went down to Jackies and got Lola and drove up the M90 to Dunfermline then East along the A92 towards Kirkcaldy, up through Glenrothes and Freuchie to Falkland, this is a rather complicated and busy way to get to Falkland and not the more straightforward route google maps suggests but its the way the cars satnav took me ! Drove through the tiny old fashioned village and parked at the stable buildings just through the gates of the Falkland estate. The aim today was a simple walk to try out the hiking app Komoot as I have been really unhappy with Outdooractive since I was forced to start using it after the takeover of Viewranger at the end of February this year. So with Komoot activated Lola and I set off at 10:30 for the Tyndall Bruce Monument which sits atop Black Hill on the estate. Followed the Maspie Burn for a short stretch going through the tunnel and then climbing up through forestry on good tracks to reach the impressive monument which was built in 1855 to commemorate the local laird Onesiphorus Tyndall Bruce, the weather was great and there was views out over the Fife countryside and up to East Lomond Hill. William phoned me while we were at the top, said Courtney had bought the big Honda jeep and they were at Aldis on their first trip out. We descended back down a different route paying a visit to a ruin called The Temple of Decision, a Victorian folly and also passing an overhanging rock outcrop with a seat carved beneath it known as The Witches Cave. It was an interesting short walk taking 2 hours 37 minutes and was 4.55 miles we were back at the car at ten past one, and Komoot seemed to work well but I have since found out its no use unless you pay for maps. Amazingly as we were driving out of the car park I saw Jez and his missus Jo walking right past the front of the car, He had asked me last week about any good short walks in the area and I had recommended Maspie Den and the Lomond Hills and they were just on there way back to the village having done East Lomond and then came down the Den, it was quite a coinsidense we were both there at exactly the same time and bumped into each other ! Next I wanted to carry on up to Dundee and visit the grave and house of Dudley Dexter Watkins so we set off up the A92 again crossing the Tay Bridge and driving through Dundee to reach Barnhill Cemetery at Broughty Ferry. Dudley Dexter Watkins or Dudley D.Watkins as he usually signed his work, was an illustrator/cartoonist for childrens comics and books active from the 1920s through to the 1960s. He was born on 27th Feb 1907 in Prestwich, Lancashire in England and as a baby moved to Nottingham where he was brought up, he moved to Dundee in 1925 to work for D.C.Thomson,s publishers where he lived and worked for the rest of his life untill his death on 20th August 1969 of a heart attack while drawing at his easel at his home in Broughty Ferry. During his career he drew comic stips for The Sunday Post newspaper and many childrens comics and annuals including The Dandy, The Topper, The Beano and The Beezer but he is most famous as the illustrator of The Broons and Oor Wullie which appeared each week in The Sunday Post as well as an annual each year at Christmas time, he was the artist for these from 1936 till his death in 1969. However my interest in him stems from his illustrations in Treasure Island, the classic story by Scots author Robert Louis Stevenson which he drew in the late 1940s I believe and was printed in D.C. Thomson,s magazine The Peoples Journal and subsequently published in book form in the early 1950s along with three other classics, Robert Louis Stevensons Kidnapped, Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe and Charles Dickens Oliver Twist. I had the Treasure Island book as a young boy and thought the illustrations were fantastic and spent many hours colouring them in with my felt pens over the years, I still have the two copies of the book I had when I was about 8 years old so these have been in my posession for around 50 years and I have since bought another two copies from e-bay as my original ones are very tatty and grubby and I have also aquired the other three novels to make up the set. When I learned a few years ago that the artist who,s work had brought me so many hours of pleasure not only in my youth but adulthood as well, not only lived but died and was burried just 77 miles from Armadale, I always had a mind to visit his grave and house to pay my respects. Barnhill Cemetery in Broughty Ferry, Dundee is a huge cemetery and I had done a bit of detective work online to establish roughly where the grave was, I had seen a photo of the headstone where a white house with a tall chimney could be seen in the background outside the cemetery walls so with help from google earth I was confident I could find the gravesite. On arriving Lola and I walked up through the grave yard and straight to the headstone 😁. Oddly his wife Doris isn,t burried along with him. Took a good few photos with the tripod and posed with a copy of the Treasure Island book which I,d brought with me although the photos arent great as the afternoon sun was directly behind the headstone making the inscription very dark. Met a guy called Lee who was walking round the cemetery with his little chihuahua Oscar and we had a good long bleather, he was a local man aged 61 and knew of Dudley Watkins gravesite and showed me the grave and headstone of Robbie McIntosh, drummer of The Average White Band who came from Dundee and were world famous in the 1970s and 80s, he is burried just 4 spaces along from Dudley, he died of a drug overdise in 1974 aged just 24. We stood and chatted for a good 20 minutes and Lola got on great with Oscar 🙂. From the cemetery it was a 15/20 minute walk to Reres Road where Dudley Watkins lived and worked in a large house, number 23 and which he named Winsterley. There is a plaque on the wall to pay tribute to his work for D.C. Thomson and I took a few selfies here as well of course. Then we went a wee stroll through Reres Park before heading back to the car and driving up to the top of Dundee Law which at 571 feet high gives great views out over the city and across the Tay as well as having a huge impressive war memorial, Lola was once again the centre of attention getting lots of affection from the women and children who were there. Left here abot quarter to five, had planned on another walk up to Kinnoull Hill & Tower at Perth but time was getting on so we just drove home.