Things to see and do in Scotland...

25th - 26th February 2006

In a bid to try and do something useful with our weekends, Gav and I actually went and saw some cultcha last weekend.

Saturday

We thought it might be nice to go through to Stirling and see the castle and the Wallace Monument, and maybe have a pub lunch or something. But we got up a bit late, had a leisurely breakfast, took ages to get ready and didn't leave the house till 2pm. We wanted to be back by 5pm so as to watch the rugby (and, oh, how we wish we hadn't!), so that plan started well!

Stirling is only 20 miles or so from Glasgow, a short drive providing there are no roadworks. Which there were. And lots of traffic. But as you round the corner on the road approaching Stirling, you're met with a pretty spectacular sight - you just see a big mound in the distance (an extinct volcano, as our guide book told us) with a castle on top and surrouding houses. In the distance you've got the hills, some of which were snow-capped cos it's a wee bit chilly up here at the moment so it's pretty cool. As we were now very short of time, we decided to head straight for the Wallace Monument, which is about 2 miles north of the city and closes earlier than the castle so it seemed logical to go there first.

It's a monument to William Wallace who defeated the English at the battle of Stirling Bridge even though he was heavily out-numbered in...long time ago (I was obviously really paying attention! 14..something?) and it's what the film Braveheart was about. The Victorians decided a monument was needed so they built it in the 1800s. It's basically just a big tower on the top of a hill overlooking fields that have seen various battles between the Scots and the English over the last 1,000 years or so but it's pretty impressive. The view from the top of the hill is amazing and the walk up there is great if you think your bum and thighs need a bit of a tone up!

There are about 5 floors which are accessed by a narrow stone spiral staircase with those open slot window thingies that you have in castles, so as you go up, you get a pretty good blasting from the bitter cold Scottish wind. It's quite eerie cos it whistles up and down the staircase as well and right puts you off your already shaky footing! (Can you tell I'm not good with spiral staircases? It's not being able to see the top or bottom, it's just not right!) Each floor has a little exhibition on various aspects of why the monument is there, including obviously the story of William Wallace and his very impressive sword (taller than I am!), the controversy surrounding the buidling of the monument in the first place and busts of other famous Scots like Rabbie Burns (see below) and Lord Kelvin.

We worked our way slowly up, getting colder as we went and the final stop was the roof underneath the tower's crown. There's an open, raised platform up there to really appreciate the views. There wasn't much appreciating going on though cos we were lucky to escape with our lives! As soon as we came out of the stairwell onto the top floor, we were met with gusts of icy cold wind. Then it's a couple more steps up to the platform where the wind suddenly increased to gale force levels and almost blew us off! There were no railings or anything either, so a small child really could have been swept away. The design of the building seems to channel the wind in such a way that it all collects at the top. Or it's the ghost of William Wallace, blowing with rage at a bunch of English people tramping up and down his monument...

By the time we reached the top, it was time for the Monument to close so we scrambled all the way down the spiral staircase to the bottom, by-passed the gift shop and braved the cold outside. Funnily enough, going back down to the car park seemed much quicker than going up and by this time, it was time to go back to Glasgow. We decided to give the castle a miss and maybe come back the next day to give it the time and attention it deserves.

Sunday...

..started in much the same vein as Saturday - late lie-in, lazy breakfast, much faffing about so that it was, again, well into the afternoon by the time we could think about going anywhere. Stirling Castle was slipping out of sight and fast... Oh, well, we'll go another time. I decided to take Gavin to the People's Palace instead so's we could have a bit of a walk and maybe see something interesting if we felt like it. As soon as we got in the car, Gavin spotted something more interesting in the guide book so we actually ended up going to Scotland Street School Museum which is a very impressive Rennie Mackintosh building and museum of school life in Glasgow over the last 100 years or so.

It's a really nice place to visit. I love Rennie Mackintosh architecture so I definitely live in the right place! Scotland Street school was built at the beginning of the 20th century and was a school until 1979. It opened as a museum in the '90s after Glasgow was European City of Culture. It's really quite stunning and to have been able to go to school in a building like that would have been amazing. From the outside, at least. Once inside, you did really feel like a naughty child again! It even smelled of school. It's not a place that runs on a high budget, so some of the exhibits have a distinctly cardboardy feel to them and it's heavily directed at children, but it's still fun to see. They even had the old changing room with uniforms for you to dress up in if you were so inclined!

Again, we only had about an hour to look at everything, but that seems to suit our short attention spans quite well. It's just about the right amount of time to spend here as well, I think. We didn't have to leave the premises entirely when it closed so we were able to take plenty of pickies, as you can see. And that was our weekend. See, we don't ALWAYS sit around doing crosswords, playing scrabble and watching telly. :-)

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