Picnics and paddling

Today the  banks of the Allan Water river in Bridge of Alan act like a magnet for people as soon as the sun comes out.


 While in Dunblane this morning I popped into the recently re-opened Dunblane museum to see their new exhibition on the origins of map making in Scotland.

The first person ever to attempt it was Timothy Pont around 1583.
Robert Gordon a cartographer who knew him said:
(see extra).
“He walked and sketched the country, following rivers and natural features of the landscape and often facing dangerous conditions.
He listened to people stories describing them:” for the most part hostile and barbarous people, with a language different from ours.
He was often robbed by cruel bandits.”
 
Pont scribbled in the margin of one map:” Extreme Wilderness, Many woolfe in this country and black flies seen sucking men’s blood”.

The exhibition runs until end of April.