I always set off with a specific destination in mind but one of the things I like most about this Brown Sign Bagging malarky is coming across a sign for something I didn’t even know existed that then turns out to be something quite marvellous. Past examples include the Clava Cairns and the Aberlemno Stones, …
The Bee Gees surely need no introduction, whether it be for their melancholy chamber pop of the 1960s (New York Mining Disaster 1941’, ‘To Love Somebody’, ‘Massachusetts’) or as world-conquering disco gods in the 1970s (‘You Should Be Dancing’, ‘Night Fever’). It is in the latter guise that they now strut the promenade in Douglas …
My next stop in St. Andrews is the town’s eponymous and spectacularly ruined cathedral and priory. Like St. Andrews Castle it is a place I have not been for decades, but in this case not for want of trying. It always seemed to be closed when I was in town, either because the cathedral / …
I never need an excuse to visit St. Andrews, the utterly charming university town on the east coast of Fife, but this particular visit was prompted by a book I have just finished reading, The Castilians by VEH Masters. This novel follows the fortunes of the fictional Seton family caught up in the Scottish Reformation …
Back in February I went to the Vikingar visitor attraction and the Battle of Largs monument in Largs, Ayrshire, and while there spotted a brown sign for Skelmorlie Aisle. This is something I had never heard of before but coming across things I didn’t know existed is one of the things I like best about …
Dunure Castle stands on a rugged promontory overlooking the Firth of Clyde and is located about five miles south of Ayr. The castle itself may not match the splendour of other ruined promontory-dwellers such as Urquhart Castle or Dunnottar Castle, but the view it commands is spectacular. To the west and ever so slightly north …
I’m still Mauchline, still in Burns Country, and I can’t believe I had never heard of Mauchline until last week, as it is clearly as much Burns Country as the more celebrated Alloway. Burns may have been born and spent the first seven years of his life there, but his life here – no more …
Burns Country 7: Burns House Museum to the Highland Mary Monument Read More »
It’s another blazing day in sunny Scotland, with the temperature hitting 33°C / 91.4°F during my journey. That’s within touching distance of the legendary summer of ‘76’s recorded peak of 35.9°C / 96.6°F, and way too hot to spend all day in the car, so I am not straying too far from home. I’m heading …
Burns Country 6: The Bachelors Club to the National Burns Memorial Read More »
I have avoided covering gardens in this blog for the simple reason I know nothing about them. My ability to identify flowers is limited, I have no inkling about which plants are best for which seasons, and I have any zero understanding of plant care beyond ‘If it looks a bit brown water it’. My …
Inspired by stumbling across Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s grave in the Southern Necropolis, I decided to see if any of his works, or more specifically, any of his interiors, survived, and was delighted to discover that Holmwood House met that criteria. Better still, it was owned by the National Trust for Scotland (of which I am …
