Looking around for somewhere to visit, my eyes returned to Kilmarnock, a place I visited early on in my retirement, in November. One of the places I noticed but failed to visit was Dean Castle and its Country Park. The castle and park lies to the east of Kilmarnock which itself is only 20 miles…
You can’t settle in Scotland without visiting a Highland Games so today I visited my first one, at Dundonald – the location of the castle I visited earlier on (A castle and a band (or two)). So a fifteen minute drive later, I was at the Games. At the Games, there were all sort of…
Just a post to document a couple of ‘adventures’ recently. Dundonald Castle First, looking through the Historic Scotland handbook, I noticed a castle not 15 minutes from home so, the first sunny day, I popped in the car and made my way to Dundonald Castle. The castle is not large (compared to Stirling) but still…
At last, after seven months of sleeping every night at the flat, the chance comes to get away for a few days. It’s technically summer (although the weather was unaware) so I decided to have a few days away and see some new four walls. I chose Stirling and Falkirk. First of all, they’re not…
A beautiful sunny week (if a chilly easterly breeze) means another trip to Glasgow. This time, since we are well into spring, I thought I would visit somewhere outside and headed to the Glasgow Botanical Gardens. First of all, I decided to take a trip on the underground/metro/subway. It’s much smaller than London – basically…
A gorgeous spring day and, with the car having passed its MOT and service, I decided to drive for an exploration instead of the train or bus. Ayr is easy enough to get to – half an hour down the dual carriageway and a free car park on the seafront. There is some interesting architecture…
A lovely, sunny (if chilly) day in February and time for a return visit to Glesga! It’s two months since the last trip and there are now nearly three extra hours of daylight to enjoy so it’s off on the electric train again. The previous trip was to two museums away from the centre so…
After the restful days over Christmas (so lovely to not have anything to do), I decided to take my first trip to Glasgow, to see how the rail system works and to get away from the locality for once. The train was straightforward – about half an hour from Kilwinning and a third off the…
Another chill but sunny day so I decided to try out my new Saltire bus pass and take a trip to Kilmarnock. First I popped along to the local museum, the Dick Institute, which was okay but not particularly large. Then to Kay Park to have a look at the statue of Rabbie Burns. Then…