Theme Week Firth of Clyde

22 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  10 minutes

Holy Isle from Lamlash © Colin/cc-by-sa-3.0

Holy Isle from Lamlash © Colin/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Firth of Clyde is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre Peninsula. The Firth lies between West Dunbartonshire in the north, Argyll and Bute in the west and Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire in the east. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran. The Kyles of Bute separates the Isle of Bute from the Cowal Peninsula. The Sound of Bute separates the islands of Bute and Arran.   read more…

New Lanark in Scotland

22 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Alex Liivet

© Alex Liivet

New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometres) from Lanark, in Lanarkshire, and some 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1785 and opened in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. Dale built the mills there in a brief partnership with the English inventor and entrepreneur Richard Arkwright to take advantage of the water power provided by the only waterfalls on the River Clyde. Under the ownership of a partnership that included Dale’s son-in-law, Robert Owen, a Welsh utopian socialist and philanthropist, New Lanark became a successful business and an early example of a planned settlement and so an important milestone in the historical development of urban planning.   read more…

Royal Mile in Edinburgh

16 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon appétit, Shopping, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  4 minutes

© flickr.com - Timo Newton-Syms/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Timo Newton-Syms/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Royal Mile (Scottish Gaelic: Am Mìle Rìoghail; Scots: Ryal Mile) is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert’s Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), describing the city “with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between”, and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook by R. T. Skinner published in 1920, The Royal Mile (Edinburgh) Castle to Holyrood(house).   read more…

National Covid Memorial Wall in London

10 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, London Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Polydeukes2020/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Polydeukes2020/cc-by-sa-4.0

The National Covid Memorial Wall in London is a public mural painted by volunteers to commemorate victims of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Started in March 2021 and stretching more than one-third mile (five hundred metres) along the South Bank of the River Thames, opposite the Palace of Westminster, the mural consists of approximately 240,000 red and pink hearts, one for each of the casualties of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom who died with COVID-19 on their death certificate. The intent was for each heart to be “individually hand-painted; utterly unique, just like the loved ones we’ve lost”.   read more…

Clacton-on-Sea in Essex

4 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Town centre fountain © Rwendland/cc-by-sa-4.0

Town centre fountain © Rwendland/cc-by-sa-4.0

Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, with a population of 53,200 (2021). The town is situated around 77 miles north-east of Central London, 40 miles east-north-east of Chelmsford, 58 miles north-east of Southend-on-Sea, 16 miles south-east of Colchester and 16 miles south of Harwich.   read more…

Pilton in Somerset

2 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Pilton Parish Church © geograph.org.uk - Skip/cc-by-sa-2.0

Pilton Parish Church © geograph.org.uk – Skip/cc-by-sa-2.0

Pilton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the A361 road in the Mendip district, 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Shepton Mallet and 6 miles (10 km) east of Glastonbury. The village has a population of 998. The parish includes the hamlets of West Compton, East Compton, Westholme, Beardly Batch and Cannards Grave.   read more…

Portrait: Richard the Lionheart, King of England

26 June 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: Portrait Reading Time:  7 minutes

Richard Coeur de Lion, Carlo Marochetti's 1856 statue outside the Palace of Westminster, London © Jonathan Cardy/cc-by-sa-3.0

Richard Coeur de Lion, Carlo Marochetti’s 1856 statue outside the Palace of Westminster, London
© Jonathan Cardy/cc-by-sa-3.0

Richard I, known as Richard Cœur de Lion (Norman French: Quor de Lion) or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Gascony; Lord of Cyprus; Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes; and was overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period. He was the third of five sons of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and was therefore not expected to become king, but his two elder brothers predeceased their father.   read more…

Full English breakfast

23 June 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  7 minutes

Full English breakfast © Oxfordian Kissuth/cc-by-sa-3.0

Full English breakfast © Oxfordian Kissuth/cc-by-sa-3.0

A full breakfast is a substantial cooked breakfast meal, often served in Great Britain and Ireland. The typical ingredients are bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and fried bread with toast and a beverage such as coffee or tea served on the side. Hash browns are a common contemporary but non-traditional inclusion. Ingredients may extend beyond these or include regional variants, which may often be referred to by different names depending on the area. While it is colloquially known as a “fry-up” in most areas of the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is usually referred to as a “full English” (often “full English breakfast”), a “full Irish”, “full Scottish”, “full Welsh”, and “Ulster fry”, in England, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively.   read more…

Cunard Building in Liverpool

18 June 2024 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  4 minutes

© Chris Howells/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Chris Howells/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Cunard Building is a Grade II* listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Royal Liver Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool’s Three Graces, which line the city’s waterfront. It is also part of Liverpool’s former UNESCO designated World Heritage, the Maritime Mercantile City.   read more…

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