Aberdeen – Wednesday 3rd July 2019

After leaving Dundee we headed up the coast, stopping in the pretty town of Stonehaven to take some photographs before ending up in Aberdeen, our destination for two nights. Aberdeen is sometimes referred to as the Granite City and it’s easy to see why when you first arrive in the city.  The grey buildings, which initially can seem rather stark, actually glitter in the sunlight and are an impressive sight.   The Waterstones here is in a modern shopping centre set over two floors. 

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Stonehaven

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My friend Tracy lives in Aberdeen, so she picked me up in the evening and we went for dinner at a lovely hotel at Cove Bay and then she took me on a tour of Aberdeen, taking me to the Torry Battery which overlooks the harbour. We then went to the University of Aberdeen which was founded in 1495 – it’s a stunning campus, and finally we drove up to Balmedie to the north of the city.  Thanks, Tracy. Cheerful

The University of Aberdeen

Aberdeen – the Granite City

Aberdeen Old Town

Dundee – Wednesday 3rd July 2019

Our next destination for two nights was to be Aberdeen.  We stopped in Dundee on the way.   Dundee is the home to the RRS (Royal Research Ship) Discovery and the area where she is moored is known as Discovery Point.  The ship was built for Scott and Shackleton’s arctic exploration. The area has had a lot of money spent on regeneration, including the building of a V&A museum, which was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.  It’s a very modern design which cost £80.1 million to build!  I wish we’d had more time as we’d have liked to have visited but we had other things to do on the way so reluctantly decided not to go in.  The Waterstones in Dundee is located in an attractive 19th century tenement building designed by architect John Bruce and is located on a side street near the town centre that leads down to the river.

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Dundee map

RSS Discovery

 

Dundee is home to The Beano, which is published by D C Thompson – we spotted these statues in the town centre – Desperate Dan with his ‘dawg’, and Minnie the Minx!

 

After leaving Dundee we headed to Kirriemuir.  J M Barrie, the author of Peter Pan was born in the small town and his birthplace museum is located here (sadly closed on the day we were there) together with a fountain dedicated to him and a statue of Peter Pan in the town centre. Ronald ‘Bon’ Scott, former lead singer of AC/DC who was born in Forfar but spent his early years here before his family emigrated to Australia.  There is a statue to him at the bottom of the town.

J M Barrie

 

‘Bon’ Scott

 

Dunfermline – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

Our final stop on our way back to Perth was Dunfermline – another former capital of Scotland.  The body of Robert the Bruce is interred in Dunfermline Abbey (his heart is buried at Montrose Abbey and his internal organs at Dumbarton!), and the Abbey bears the words ‘King Robert the Bruce’ around the top of the tower.  The Waterstones here is in a modern shopping centre called Kingsgate.  Above the shopping centre door is a tablet that commemorates the Great Fire of Dunfermline in 1624 which destroyed 66% of the town.

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Dunfermline Abbey

Dunfermline Palace (in the Abbey grounds)

Town Centre

Livingston – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to visit the iconic Forth Rail Bridge (officially this one is just called the Forth Bridge, but nearly everyone I’ve spoken to about it adds the word ‘rail’!), so we headed across the Firth of Forth on one of the two road bridges to go to South Queensferry where you get the best views.   Whilst we were that side of the river we carried on to the shopping centre at Livingston to visit the Waterstones, since it’s in the middle of a vast retail park and not somewhere we are ever likely to have visited otherwise.  Set over two floors, the shop has a large glass frontage and is modern and airy.

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Livingston map

The shopping centre has an amazing feature – HiRide – which is an assault course 13 metres above the ground!  I’d love to be brave enough to give it a try.

Queensferry (sometimes referred to as South Queensferry to distinguish it from North Queensferry on the other side of the river) is a pretty town to the north west of Edinburgh, and is the perfect spot to view the bridge from.  After all the years of wanting to visit it didn’t disappoint, and  I took a lot of photos of the bridge – here are just a small selection…!

Queensferry High Street

(Queensferry sign above used under creative commons licence from Wikipedia.  Photo credit Kim Traynor)

Kirkcaldy – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

After leaving St Andrews we headed south, following the coast road. We stopped at a picturesque little fishing village called Pittenweem, which is still an active port with a daily fish market.  After taking some photos we headed to Kirkcaldy for lunch.  Kirkcaldy is known locally as ‘Lang Toun’ – literally Long Town – and is the 12th largest town (in terms of population) in Scotland.  The Waterstones is located in a modern shop in the High Street in the centre of town.  We didn’t have long to explore here as we wanted to visit some more places in the afternoon.

Kirkcaldy map

Kirkcaldy

Pittenweem

St Andrews – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

Today we decided to spend the day exploring the Kingdom of Fife, which stretches from the Firth of Tay down to the Firth of Forth in the South.  Our first stop was the University town of St Andrews, whose most famous students must surely be Prince William and Kate Middleton – one of the coffee shops in the town claims they met there!   St Andrews, known as the home of golf, sits on the coast and the university there is the third oldest in the UK.  The town is very pretty with medieval streets and a lovely feel to it – we really enjoyed our time there.   The Waterstones here is in an attractive stone building and opened as an Ottakar’s in 2004 before they were bought out.

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St Andrews Map

St Andrews University

West Port and Pends Gate

St Andrews used to have several Gates, or Ports as the old Scots word would have it.  Two remain today, West Port (originally called So’gait Port) which is, as the name suggests, to the West of the town, and Pends Gate to the east.

St Andrews Cathedral

The Roman Catholic cathedral was the largest in Scotland.  It was destroyed during the Reformation in 1559.

Below – clockwise from top left:  College Street, Blackfriars Chapel, North Castle Street, St Andrews Castle

Perth – Monday 1st July 2019

Our next stop, for three nights, was the gorgeous city of Perth.  It sits on the River Tay and, with its gorgeous architecture, it is easy to see why it is called the Fair City.  We spent the first day exploring the city which was once Scotland’s capital and thought it was really lovely.   The city is bordered by two parks, North Inch and South Inch and is quite compact so it’s fairly easy to explore in a day.  The Waterstones is on the edge of a modern shopping centre in the middle of the city and is on one level in an L-shape!

Perth Map

Perth City

Clockwise from top left:  West Street Bridge, The Black Watch Museum, St John’s Kirk (outside),  St John’s Kirk (inside)

Clockwise from top left: River Tay, The Capital Asset – now a Wetherspoons but formerly a branch of the Perth Savings Bank, Perth Museum & Art Gallery, Rodney Gardens

St Ninian’s Cathedral

We were told by one of the very helpful guides, was the first cathedral to be built in Britain after the Reformation ended in 1648!  It was finished in 1850 and is very attractive inside.  Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the photos I took of it so I have used one of the outside taken from Wikipedia, under their creative commons licence, which was uploaded by user ‘Kilnburn‘.   

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Perth has a great sculpture trail.  Here are a small selection of those we spotted:

Nae Dae Sae Dark by David Annand (based on the poem by William Soutar)

Eagle of Perth by Shona Kinloch

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The Fair Maid of Perth Graham Ibbeson (based on the titular character of a Sir Walter Scott novel)

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Perth is a must-see for anyone visiting South East Scotland! 

Stirling – Sunday 30th June 2019

After our trip to the Falkirk Wheel we stopped briefly at a parkland area called The Helix in order to take a photograph of the Kelpies, the largest horse statues in the world!  They were designed by sculptor Andy Scott and stand an impressive 30 metres high. They are an homage to the horse powered heritage of Scotland and dominate the nearby skyline!

After this we headed to Stirling to visit the Waterstones – we didn’t have long there as it was now late afternoon so we just had time to visit the shop, which is based in a modern shopping centre, and then to have a quick drive around the town.  We visited Stirling way back in 1992 and spent the day at the castle, which we very much enjoyed.  Had we had enough time we would have gone back today.

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Stirling map

The Kelpies

Stirling

 

Falkirk – Sunday 30th June 2019

We had wanted to go to Falkirk for many years to visit the famous rotating boat wheel that connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal.  It opened in 2002 and re-joined the canals which had once been linked by a flight of locks until they fell into disrepair in the 1930s.  The wheel works on the Archimedes’ principle – the boats enter the gondola and the water is displaced to the weight of the boat, making the gondolas move in opposite directions (this is a simplified version of how they work!).  We booked to go on the wheel, and despite the dark sky, the afternoon stayed warm and dry and we had a great trip.

Before our visit there we just had time to pop into Falkirk town centre to visit the Waterstones.  It’s located in an attractive Victorian red-stoned listed building in the High Street.   Like other former Ottakars stores, it has one of Chris Burke’s murals behind the till.

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Falkirk map

The Falkirk Wheel

The image below was taken in 2004 by Sean Mack and appears on Wikipedia.  I have resized it slightly and it is used under the creative commons license.   It’s stunning – I think it shows the true beauty of the wheel.

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Falkirk Town

Lancaster King Street – Saturday 29th June 2019

I decided to ‘Click and Collect’ a book whilst I was Lancaster as they are often a pound or two cheaper this way.  In doing so I discovered that there were not one, but two branches of Waterstones here, which was lucky, as otherwise we would possibly have missed it!  Not that returning would be a problem as we really liked Lancaster, but there are so many others places to visit.  The Waterstones here is in a beautiful building underneath the Royal Hotel, which was originally built in the 1620s, and rebuilt in 1879 following a devastating fire.  Dickens stayed here a couple of times in the late 19th century.  I’m afraid there will be rather a lot of photos, and the side view is looking from a pub window…

Ground floor

Mezzanine

Lancaster Waterstones King Street

Photos below

1st Row – The Judges’ Lodgings Museum – built around 1625 it is Lancaster’s oldest town house. 2nd Row – Lancaster Central Library.  This beautiful building was built in 1932, although I think it looks older. 3rd Row – Pic 1 – Lancaster Central Library – Pics 2 and 3 – Lancaster Town Hall opened in 1909 and replaced the original town hall which is now the Market Place Museum. 

Lancaster Views!