Scotland: Introduction
[This section is in the earliest
stages of development:2 May
2007
]
I have visited Scotland
many times, although nothing like as many as my proximity would easily allow.
Edinburgh
Many of my trips to Scotland
have been to visit Edinburgh. Built
of honey-coloured sandstone stone, the city is an attractive tourist
destination. The East Coast Main Line from London,
which passes through York and Durham,
arrives at Edinburgh’s Waverley
station, in the heart of the city. Walking out of the station deposits the
traveller on Princes Street, Edinburgh’s
high status shopping street. A shopping mall which is part of (or practically
part of) Waverley station is as good
a place as any to buy a kilt. Princes Street offers many
more retail opportunities and enticements.
Walking west along
Princes
Street
, past the Scott Memorial, in the centre of
the city, beneath the castle, is the Scottish National Gallery. The buildings
that make up the several galleries are attractive ‘neo-classical’, and I
visited an excellent Monet and the Sea
exhibition in one of them. The Scottish National collection, necessarily
focusing on the work of Scottish artists, I find less interesting than that of the
Modern
Art
Gallery
. A mile or two
north west
of here the
Modern
Art
Gallery
stands in grounds that are attractive, and here is a pleasant riverside walk
from the gallery. I love attending exhibitions in the
Modern
Art
Gallery
,
some of which have been highly memorable. Close by is the Dean Gallery that not only houses works by the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, but also re-creates his workshop. Somewhere close
by are the Botanical Gardens, which I visited in the
1980s.
Returning to the city centre,
Edinburgh
Castle (see below) is hard to miss.
I doubt whether I have ever been inside the castle, and have little desire to
do so. The view from the castle mound, however, is well worth traipsing up the
Royal Mile for, passing St Giles Cathedral half way along. The sheer quantity
of Scottish kitsch is not for the faint-hearted.
A little to the south east of Edinburgh city
centre is the new Scottish Parliament building that I have not yet seen, but judging
by the photographs I have seen uploaded onto the web, it will be the highlight
of my next visit. Close by is Dynamic Earth, a modern (millennium project type)
museum focusing on Planet Earth. For school children in
Edinburgh
Dynamic Earth is, no
doubt, entirely wonderful, and I should love to have had the opportunity to
visit something like it when I was a child. However, it is not so good that it justifies
a trip to
Edinburgh
. Beyond Dynamic
Earth is
Holyrood
Palace
, that I have not visited
[note to myself to check that there is public access to Holyrood].
Sitting quietly above it all is the grassy, windswept hill of Arthur’s Seat.
To the north east of the city centre is the cemetery,
made famous partly by some of its residents, such as the eighteenth century
philosopher David Hume, and partly because it is an excellent vantage point
from which to photograph
Edinburgh
and its castle. It is many years since I visited the cemetery: I should like to
photograph some of the gravestones.
Some miles north of the city centre is Queensferry and the
Forth
road and rail bridges. Both bridges are impressive structures, and the rail
bridge is not only highly photogenic, but has achieved iconic status for a never-ending
job that is so protracted that, as soon as it is completed, has to be restarted
at the beginning (“It’s like painting the Forth rail bridge.”)
Fife
The ancient Scottish kingdom of Fife had its court at Dunfermline. I feel sure that, had I been able better to identify with aspects of Fife history I might have been better impressed with what remains of Dunfermline's past glory. Further east is the town of Kirkaldy, for which parliamentary constituency Gordon Brown is the MP. Not far from Kirkaldy is the unremarable little town of Burntisland, to which my paternal grandmother emigrated in the final years of her life. I visited her there twice, and was unimpressed on both occasions.
Glasgow
I have visited
Glasgow three times:
once for a business meeting in Milngavie, once for a CND demonstration in Kelvin
Park, and once as a day trip from Edinburgh
to see the Merchant City
and the Burrell Collection. The Burrell Collection was interesting, the building in which it is housed is highly attractive, but is located in a part of Glasgow that is out of the way and inconvenient.
Arran
(in the Firth of Clyde) I spent a week walking to and fro over the island. It has a pleasant climate for a place so far north.
Loch
Torridon. I spent a week at the head of Loch Torridon, walking to and fro across the mountains. It is wild and rugged.
Dundee:
Tay Bridge I have walked there and back across the Tay Road Bridge. It was worth doing once.
Eyemouth. This is a little fishing village just over the border from England on the Nortrh Sea coast. It is little different from Seahouses in Northumberland.
p.g.h@btinternet.com