Wednesday 22nd October 2008 - Summer 2008 Photography Tour Blog - Part 1
* * * * * * * * * *
For our summer holidays this year
Mireille and I decided that we were going to leave Germany in search of the more
historical side of Scotland, visiting many castles along the way as we moved
from one place to another over a period of 18 days.
With this blog I'm hoping to pull together the highlights of the trip in both
text and photographic form. The first few days were somewhat of a warm up for
what was to come, with us only snapping a few photographs here and there in the
Glasgow area of Scotland - first up was a run to Chatelherault Country Park
where you can find the "parterre" gardens at the rear of the main house. For
those that don't know what a "Parterre garden" is - A parterre is a formal
garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in
stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing,
usually symmetrical pattern. So there you go, hopefully you've learned something
new today by reading this blog.
Here's an image of the Parterre Garden in question, found behind Chatelherault
House in the Country Park:-
Lately Mireille was getting more and more interested in long exposure
photography, so we decided to make the most of what was a relatively clear sky
one evening to drive along to Strathclyde Park which was only a short 10 minute
drive from where we were staying, to shoot some long exposure photographs of the
old Mausoleum found on the Hamilton side of the Country Park. We shot several
different times of the Mausoleum, ranging from 5seconds up to 20 seconds, with
the sky showing up some awesome blues and reds, and the grass in front giving
off a wicked green at the same time.
Our first main day of shooting pictures found us heading into Glasgow for the
day where we planned to walk around the city, snapping photographs of various
places such as George Square, Central Station, The Tall Ship, Glasgow Green and
then finishing off the day at the Necropolis which sits up on the hill directly
behind the Tennents Beer factory in the city.
It was somewhat of a damp and dreary day on the most part, but we made the most
of the brief respite every so often from the rain to snap some pics from around
the city.
First up we have a photograph taken of the war memorial in George Square with
one of the two stone lions watching guard.
Our goal during the walk around the City was to try and shoot something that
little bit more unusual to what people would normally come back with when they
visit Glasgow, and I think on several occasions we managed to achieve this by
keeping our eyes open when passing archways and other such places not on the
normal list of things to visit.
At Central Station you have the two very different sections of building to see,
the stone roofed area as you first enter, and then once you walk up towards the
platforms you have the old skeleton style glass and metal beam section of roof -
the latter of which I wanted to grab some pics of while there.
The heavens decided to open up just as we arrived at the Tall Ship which is
found moored on the River Clyde, so a combination of umbrella, lens wiping and
hitting the shutter release button when the rain wasn't just so heavy helped
produce this next image. Funny thing is that I personally think that the very
moody sky makes this image even more impressive.
(I do have a tighter crop of the above image removing the stone, but it appears
that I uploaded the original image instead)
With the weather turning worse and worse we had to scrub Glasgow Green off of
the days list of places to visit as there was no way we could stand out in the
torrential rain shooting pics of the gardens, statues and fountain without
getting soaked and give in for the day. Instead we decided to visit my gran who
lives not far from the Necropolis, and after about an hour the rain slowed to a
more drizzly fashion and we grabbed the umbrella once again and made our way up
the hill to the Necropolis.
I'm not normally one for taking a camera along with me when visiting graveyards
or other such spooky places, but from a quick bit of research before we left
Germany it looked like there were some interesting tombs that we could
photograph, and had the weather been in a more forgiving mood then we would also
have had a great view overlooking the centre of the City and it's surrounding
area.
From the edge of the Necropolis as you walk up the hill you also have a great
view looking back towards Glasgow Cathedral and the Royal Infirmary (Hospital)
as seen below (it also gives you a quick breather as you walk up the pathway to
the top of the Necropolis).
The Necropolis itself was a very quiet and eerie place - quiet mainly down to
the rain keeping people inside their houses instead of venturing outside into
the wild weather, and eerie as the wind was blowing through the trees to give a
whistling sound coupled together with the distant noise of tyre on road coming
from the M8 Motorway. So many of the figures were missing their heads, which
seems to be quite a common practice for thieves over the years, with only the
figures placed high up on columns managing to keep their heads on top of their
shoulders.
The next day trip was centred around Edinburgh Castle which we planned to spend
most of the day visiting, with a brief walk down the Royal Mile to see what was
going on. We arrived not long after the gates opened in the morning, and after
the previous day of almost constant rain in Glasgow we were treated to a rather
dull early morning which turned into great sunshine in the late morning and
early afternoon, before deciding to open up the watering can once again in the
late afternoon.
You couldn't pay a visit to Edinburgh Castle and not be there for the legendary
one o'clock gun, which is fired every day (except Sundays) since 1861 when
Captain Wauchope first invented the "Time Ball". The cannon found there is now
the third cannon to be used - the first being an 18 pound muzzle loading cannon
which was fired from the Half Moon Battery, the second being a 25 pound Howitzer
which took over in 1953 and then more recently to the current L118 Light Gun.
Being a young lad growing up in Scotland from the mid 70's meant that every
Hogmany (31st December) was always when you would see "Tam the gun" making his
way over to the cannon bang on midnight to fire the cannon to signify the start
of the New Year, something he did every year from 1979 until his death in 2005.
With time marching on (no pun intended as the Military Tattoo was also on that
evening) we left the castle around 4pm to take a short walk down the Royal Mile
where we found plenty of performers taking part in the Fringe Festival which is
always found in this area when the main Edinburgh Festival is taking place.
]
Comedians, escape artists, dancing, singing, statues and live acts galore for
you to watch on your way down the famous street.
Next up on our list of day trips took us to the Stirling area where we would
visit Stirling Castle, The Wallace Monument and then also the Falkirk Wheel if
time (and weather) would permit.
Once again we were up and away first thing in the morning which gave us a head
start on the usual tourist buses full of bingo players that were getting out of
their normal life routine for a day. In comparison to Edinburgh Castle which we
visited the day before, Stirling Castle may not get the same level of attention
from tourists, but there is still plenty to see there and you could quite easily
blow the entire day there if you wanted to.
With Stirling Castle being that big further out into the countryside it is much
easier to shoot a photograph of how you find it, perched on the top of a huge
lump of stone as you can see below:-
Much like Edinburgh Castle you will also find awesome views from the Castle over
the local countryside - which in a stark contrast to Edinburgh means that you
get a whole lot more greenery included instead of an everlasting maze of streets
and houses.
Just outside the front entrance to the castle you will find a statue of Robert
the Bruce who had been left to stand guard over the castle and also of the
Wallace monument which you can see in the distance from his statue.
The Wallace Monument undoubtedly gets a great deal of added attention since the
film Braveheart came out in 1995, found only a handful of miles drive from
Stirling Castle you then find yourself having to either walk up a very steep
hill to reach the Monument, or be lazy as hell and take the courtesy bus that
runs every so often. Thankfully there was no argument between myself and
Mireille and off we set on foot to get to the top of the hill, helped on our way
from the half way marker by a lone piper on his bagpipes.
You are able to ascend a tight winding staircase to the top of the Monument,
stopping off on various floors to get an insight into the history of William
Wallace and Scotland's fight for independence in general to help you take the
knowledge you already have from the film and expand it in much greater detail.
One of my personal favourites was the floor which contained information and
busts of famous Scotsmen over the years and details of many items that have been
invented by Scots through the years such as Penicillin, Thermometers, Radar,
Anaesthesia, Continuous Electric Light, the Steam Engine and most importantly -
COlour Photographs.
Granted there are some weird ones thrown in along the way such as Logarithms and
the Self-Acting Fountain Pen, but it just goes to show how the people of
Scotland have been involved in furthering research and things we take for
granted today over the years.
From the very top of the tower (246 winding spiral steps from the base) you have
a great view looking back over the Forth Valley and towards Stirling Castle
where we kicked off our day.
As we made our way back down the steep hill from the Monument to the carpark
next to the visitor centre we decided that even though the weather was once
again turning worse, that we would continue on to Falkirk to have a look at the
Falkirk Wheel which was built to connect the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Union
Canal, and was opened on the 24th May 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II as part of her
Golden Jubilee celebrations.
We had a look around for about 20 minutes until one of the tourist boats left
it's mooring and made it's way into the lower section of the wheel ready to be
transported to the upper canal.
As an engineer myself it was something cool to see in motion as you can only
image the work that has gone into making it in the first place.
After the last three days seeing us visit Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and
Falkirk it was now time for the tour to kick into a higher gear as we prepared
for what would be the longest day of the full 18 day holiday tour as we made our
way over to Ireland.
I remember back in 2002 when I first moved to Northern Ireland with my job that
I could easily have return travel via either of the ferry providers for under
100 quid, these days you're easily looking at over 200, with it being closer to
300 during peak times of the year. To be able to pay a visit over to Northern
Ireland without forking out crazy money our plan was to do a 24hr return with
Stenaline, which had us leave Scotland around 4am and sail over the water to
Belfast Harbour.
Once we docked in Belfast we drove up via Antrim to the Giants Causeway on the
North Coast, where you can find the remains of an ancient volcanic eruption that
has left a large area of basalt columns as high as about 12 metres tall in
places.
From the Causeway it was a short drive along to Dunluce Castle which sits on the
very edge of the cliffs overlooking the sea, underneath the castle is a small
cave which is said to have been used in years gone by for smuggling goods into
the country.
From Dunluce it was another short drive to Portrush where we had hoped to get
into Barry's amusements to spend some pennies on the bandits inside, but it
would appear we were there too early in the day as all the doors were still
locked.
And from there another short drive brought us to the promenade in Portstewart
where we popped into the local chippy for some lunch...
...and then walked it off round onto Portstewart Beach just around the back of
the old Nunnery at one end of the promenade.
During lunchtime the colour of the sky gradually got more and more blue and this
then made for some amazing photographs at our next stop - Mussendon Temple &
Downhill House, which are buildings from 1785, the first of which was modelled
on the Temple of Vesta in Italy and carries the following inscription (in
Latin), "Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore. The rolling ship, and hear
the tempest roar."
The views along the coastline from the Temple can be stunning on a good day,
like we were so fortunate to have on our visit.
We made a quick stop off at Benone beach which Mireille was very surprised to
find out we were allowed to drive onto with the Monaro.
And then it was onward to Londonderry which would be our final stop off of the
day trip to Northern Ireland. We planned to visit some friends from my time
living there, but first to stop off in the centre of the city and explore the
city's historic walls.
The view from the walls over the Bogside area of the city gives the opportunity
to see a number of large murals on the side walls of many buildings as well as
the large white stone monument erected in memory of Bloody Sunday which happened
there.
All that was left was to meet up with my friends, get some dinner and make our
way back to Scotland via the midnight ferry.
Up until now all of the trips have had us based in Glasgow and setting off from
there each day, from now on it's time for the distances being travelled to
increase so far that we now have to stay elsewhere on our travels.
The next 4 days would see us drive up the West coast of Scotland, visit the Isle
of Skye, continue to the North West corner of Scotland, drive along the North
Coast of Scotland to John O'Groats and then come down the East Coast to Aberdeen
where we would be based on the third and fourth nights allowing us to spend the
4th day visiting several castles in the Aberdeenshire area of North East
Scotland - after which we head south to Wales via Blackpool and then onwards to
the final day in London before returning home to Germany.
Part 2 coming soon...
PREVIOUS BLOG ENTRIES
2008-10-20 - Some photos from Minnesota
2008-09-14 - Monaro On Tour Photographs
2008-06-26 - Integration, Supporting the Nation & Happy Anniversary Irmscher
2008-02-28 - Dr Remington Strikes Again and Life In Germany
2008-02-17 - Have I Just Done A Britney?
The images contained in this site are protected by copyright - no copying or use without prior written consent