Cambridge is full of small museums tucked away in university departments. I managed to tick off quite a few on my last visit to Cambridge but there were still some I wanted to visit which included the Museum of Classical Archaeology. Hidden away in the Faculty of Classics and up a short staircase (there is a lift available) the museum is free and contains over 450 plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture.
The Writers’ Museum was one of the main places that I wanted to visit in Edinburgh itself because I’d wanted to go here on my last trip to the city but ran out of time to do so. Free to enter the museum focuses on three Scottish writers – Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.
After finishing wandering around the Valley Cemetery rather than head back to the train station the way I had come I decided to follow a different route down that I learned afterwards was called the Back Walk. It was created between 1724 and 1791 and follows the outline of where the old city walls would have been.
There’s been a burial ground around the Church of the Holy Rude since 1129 but many of the members of the city were buried beneath the church floor until the practice was stopped in 1623 – because of the stench of the rotting corpses! The Valley Cemetery was opened in 1857 for the overflow of the church and the town of Stirling as a whole. It was designed to be an attractive place to visit with paths wide enough for carriages. It expanded so much that it spread into what became known as Mars Place Cemetery. This in turn lead to the adjoining cemetery coming to be known as The Old Town Cemetery.
Like a lot of people I was gripped by the Paris Olympics and Paralympics over the summer – watching sports I’ve never even heard of is always compelling. When I was planning my trip to Cambridge I noted that the Fitzwilliam was putting on an exhibition about the previous Paris Olympics that took place in 1924. The exhibition was free/pay what you wish.
The Church of the Holy Rude is directly next to Stirling Castle – I’d spotted its interestingly designed building on the way up to the castle and made sure to visit on my way back down. One of the church’s main claims to fame is that Mary, Queen of Scots worshipped here and her infant son James was crowned here as James VI of Scots in 1567. This church and Westminster Abbey in London are the only churches in Britain where a coronation has taken place and that is still used regularly for worship.
Last week I headed down to London for a couple of days to attend two exhibitions, the first of which was the Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery. Van Gogh is one of my favourite painters so when I saw the announcement I knew that I would be attending. The exhibition is being billed as a once in a century event and it was easy to see why, there are paintings on loan from galleries as far away as the United States and Japan and some that are in private collections and rarely ever seen in public. There were also paintings that are displayed together again for the first time since Van Gogh painted them.
Known as the Argylls, this regiment was formed in 1881 following the merger of two regiments, the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders and the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders which had each been created in the 1790s. The museum is a light airy space tracing the regiment from their foundation to the present day, including uniforms, weapons and documents. Access to the Museum is included in the admission to Stirling Castle.
Situated next to the entrance to the driveway down to Gedling House is the entrance to Gedling House Woods which I decided to visit after I’d been around the house. It was quite busy with dog walkers in the meadows area but I chose to follow the path through the woods and had them pretty much to myself, other than the squirrels.
Stirling Castle was another one of my day trips from Edinburgh. It was an easy train ride from Waverly Station lasting around 50 minutes and then a 15-20 minute walk from the station to the castle. Do note that the walk is mostly uphill, it’s not particularly challenging but if you have mobility issues you can catch a bus up to the castle. I had pre-booked my ticket which are timed entrance (as a member of English Heritage my ticket was free); generally an adult ticket is £17.50 online, £19.50 if bought when you arrive.
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