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September 4, 2016

Eastriggs, Gretna and Quintinshill, Dumfries and Galloway

A week’s holiday near Dumfries – lovely Sykes Cottage. I won’t blog the whole holiday, but there’s a couple of churches to come. I will blog a museum, a Church Hall, and a railway accident – a day exploring on Monday 29 August 2016. The Devil’s Porridge Museum at Eastriggs remembers all those who worked in the WW1 ammunition factories that stretched across from here, through Gretna, to Longtown – a distance of about 9 miles. We knew quite a lot about them from the play Timbertown Girls which we saw in Carlisle last summer – see my blog. The...
Categories Railway History/Scotland/World War 1 Comments: 0
August 21, 2016

Glasgow – St Andrew’s Catholic Cathedral

There was a cheap deal on Virgin Trains, and a day return from Crewe to Glasgow for £14 is not to be sniffed at. On time into Glasgow, and time for a walk. I had never been down to the Clyde, so walked down the side of the station to the river. It is not the most beautiful river, but there is a bridge leaflet here. The piers are those of the first Caledonian Railway Bridge, built in 1878 and demolished in 1966. The current railway bridge is the 1905 Caledonian Railway Company’s ‘New Clyde Viaduct’. Before opening it was load tested...
Categories Railway History/Scotland/World War 1 Comments: 0
June 30, 2014

Paisley Abbey, Scotland

Having been to Arran we had a night at the Premier Inn in Gourock, then decided to go to Paisley. A municipal museum which has some good stuff and needs more visitors – http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/webcontent/home/services/leisure+and+culture/arts+and+museums/els-jcp-paisleymuseum “You ought to go and see the Abbey” one of the staff said, so we drove round the town and managed to find a parking space. We followed the sign for the shop and cafe, and coffee and fruit cake increased the sugar levels. Then we went into the Abbey – wow! Jan was a very welcoming guide, and pointed us in the right direction....
Categories Outside Northumberland/Scotland Comments: 0
June 30, 2014

Arran, Scotland

Julie and I had a few days on Arran. We failed to get into any churches, but did have a trip on the paddle steam Waverley around Holy Island. (The photo above is from Waverley’s website. The island has its own website http://www.holyisland.org). It (including the lighthouse cottages) is now a Buddhist retreat centre (he looks a happy chap on the website). They want a volunteer vegetable gardener – time for a career change? We had a beautiful sunset over Machrie Standing Stones and the bay outside the Best Western Kinloch Hotel at Blackwaterfoot http://www.bw-kinlochhotel.co.uk. Highly recommended. Then a couple of nights on the mainland...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Scotland Comments: 0