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.
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.
As I mentioned in my Abbotsford post, the house provides a free volunteer lead shuttle from Tweedbank Railway Station to Abbotsford, but also from Abbotsford to Melrose Abbey. As it’s volunteer lead this isn’t always available (check Abbotsford’s website for details/contact info) but happily the shuttle was available on the day I visited and the driver offered to take me to the Abbey when I was done at the house (I was the only person using the shuttle that day). The drive didn’t take very long and you’re set down in a car park opposite the Abbey. The shuttle doesn’t take you back to the station but the driver pointed to a bus stop nearby and said that was where I could get the bus back to Tweedbank (it wasn’t – but more on that later!)
Part of my reason for travelling to Scotland last year, and Greenock in particular, was to do some family tree research. My paternal grandmother was born in Greenock, her grandfather having been moved up there from Kent in the early 1900s to work at the Torpedo Factory which was, at the time, an extremely secretive job. My first stop therefore was to the McLean Museum where I had been hoping to find more information about the factory. There was, in fact, barely any mention of it that I hadn’t already found elsewhere – a veil of secrecy seems to still hang around the details – but there was plenty of other items of interest in the museum.
The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences is a free museum right next to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It was founded in 1728 after a Dr. John Woodward bequeathed his collection of almost 10,000 fossils, shells and archaeological artefacts to the University of Cambridge; Adam Sedgwick expanded on the collection and so when he died the museum was set up in his honour. The museum isn’t very large but is chock full of specims everywhere you look. The entrance (those with mobility issues can access a lift) has some lovely stairs decorated with these animals that make a nice introduction to the museum.
During my trip to Cambridge I visited three museums in one afternoon. It was hard to narrow down which ones to visit but in the end I picked ones based on general proximity to each other. It also helped that they were all free. The first one I visited was the Whipple Museum named for Robert Whipple who gifted his collection of scientific instruments to Cambridge University in 1944.
I’m on the Lakeside Arts mailing list so when I saw this exhibition advertised I immediately knew that I wanted to see it, and then proceeded to not find time to do so until it was nearly over (it ended on 7th January). Contemporary artists have come together to reimagine the Victorians through modern photography, sculpture and a surprising amount of taxidermy.
The Fitzwilliam Museum has been on my to visit list for a very long time and I made sure to fit it into my plans on this trip. Entrance is free but it is advised to book a timed ticket anyway for the exhibitions even though they’re also free. When I visited the exhibition was Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean and I had a ticket for opening time at 10am which meant I had plenty of time to wander around the exhibition and then through the rest of the museum without it feeling too crowded.
In that weird time between Christmas and New Year I decided to go up to the Lakeside Arts part of the University of Nottingham campus as there were a few free exhibitions running that I’d been meaning to go to before they closed and realised I was fast running out of time. This bears exhibition was in the Museum of Archaeology which you can find just along from the South Entrance to the campus – if travelling by public transport there’s a tram stop very close by.
On a recent trip to London I made the spontaneous decision to head out to see the Titanosaur exhibition at the NHM as I had a couple of hours to kill after checking into my hotel. The exhibit had been on my general to do list in London since it was first announced but I hadn’t been sure I’d be able to make it until I realised that the museum closed later than I thought it did, at 5.50pm, so I would be able to fit it in afterall.
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