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The Mackintosh House (Glasgow)
by catsholiday The Mackintosh House Hunterian Art Gallery University of Glasgow 82 Hillhead St G12 8QQ When we planned our mini break to Scotland one of the main things I wanted to explore was the artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his legacy in the city of Glasgow. We spent some time researching where the ... places were and what you were able to visit and get inside and this was one of places that came up as worth a visit. We had to plan our visits as some places were in one part of Glasgow and others on the other side or just out of the city . This is not actually the mackintosh's original house but it is a recreation of their home built within the Hunterian Art Gallery in the University area of Glasgow. We decided that we needed to visit this place on the afternoon when we arrived in Glasgow after our lunch at One Devonshire gardens as we could walk there after our meal. This was not that easy to find and we walked all through the university which was beautiful. We found one part of the Hunterian within the university but this house was over the road so we had to find our way out and across the road and in to the other part of the gallery. There is usually a charge to enter this house but on Wednesday afternoon after 2.00pm it is free and luckily our visit took place on Wednesday after 2pm. Admission to the actual gallery is free and while you are waiting for your tour time you can look around the gallery. Once it is time for your tour you are invited into a waiting area that is a little like a large lift and told what to expect and also that no photographs are allowed inside the 'house'. The gallery has the some of the most important Mackintosh works as well as the contents of their home in the recreated Mackintosh House. CHARLE RENNIE MACKINTOSH AND MARGARET MACDONALD MACKINTOSH Was a Scottish architect engineer, designer and artist and lived from 1868 t0 1928. He is probably Scotland's most famous artist/architect and I just love his work. I was unaware until we visited Glasgow that his wife was also an artist and in fact her work is also just as beautiful and very similar to his. She has created beautiful paintings, metalwork textiles and more, i was really amazed that not so much is known about her work and often her husband seems to be given credit for some of her stuff. Her name is Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh and she lived from 1864 to 1933. They really were an amazing partnership and this house was a blank canvas for them to unleash their creative genius. INTO THE HOUSE Although this is a reconstruction of the terrace the Mackintosh's lived in at 78 Sothpark Avenue, it is as faithful to the original in size and light as it can be but some less significant rooms have not been included such as the kitchen, bathroom and cloakroom. The furniture is all Mackintosh original and from the house or other houses he designed. You are first taken into the hallway with the false front door. From the outside the door can be seen about ten feet above the ground. The house was a terrace in Glasgow so narrow and tall. The hall is narrow and minimalist with cream walls and carpet .There is a large mirror entitled 'Vanity' on one wall and a window above the door to let in light. From here we were taken into the dining room which is far darker and the walls have honesty plants in silver painted on them which looked great. The dining table with a central runner also had honesty symbols on it and was the creation of Mrs Mac. The dining chairs were upright wooden and had very tall backs similar to those of Frank Lloyd Wright. In fact we noticed lots of similarities between the two and apparently we were not the first to remark about this fact. The walls were a sort of caramel colour and the furniture dark wood. There was also a fire place with wooden surround hiding lots of storage possibilities. Although it was quite dark and sombre I really loved the classy lines and elegant stencilling of the honesty symbols. We then went up one story to the large living or studio drawing room which was a wow! as soon as you walked in. It looked stunning, cools creams and light colours on the floor and walls. The lights were all Mackintosh designed and very art nouveau hanging groups of lights with metal shades. There was so much furniture that was unique and worth inspecting closely. You were not allowed to touch anything so cupboards that were open you could see into but those closed had to be looked at as they were. Mackintosh designed the furniture but had cabinet makers create them , I asked if he actually built them himself and received that answer. The room looked lovely and the furniture was certainly lovely looking but in fact I am not sure how comfortable it would have been to sit in the room as the chairs didn't look like those you would relax in with your feet up but maybe people didn't do that back in the early 20th century. The cupboards that were open had the Mrs Mackintosh rose painted on the insides. They were tall and elegant. The desks were very unusual as the top part was actually bigger than the base. They looked like a T shape with the bottom of the T being the base and the flaps opening out for storage and work space. One was white and the other dark mahogany. The latter was only bought after a big appeal in 1979 for a world record price for the Mackintosh foundation. This room was very much a collaboration between both Macdonalds and the rose panel above the fireplace is her design as are the two roses in the tall white cupboard on the doors. In fact many of the designs I had previously thought of as CRM turn out to actually be MMM which was a real surprise to me. The stairway was not altered much except for painting and adding a new south facing window on the first landing to let in more light. The striped stair way led to a studio/bedroom which has not be recreated in this house. The Mackintosh's bedroom was another room that made you take a sharp intake of breath as it was so light and so modern looking. Fitted wardrobes with mirrors and very minimalist while a very slim mirror stand with small storage drawers on the side really took my eyes as it was beautiful, tall white slim and so elegant. A very simple table dressing table with a glass top and white sheer frilled curtain across its front was about the only other piece of furniture apart from the bed which was a white for poster in the foot of the T shaped room . The carpet was a very pale cream or white and the overall effect was simple elegance. As you went up another level on the landing area were several art works by the artists and are part of the collection owned y the Hunterian gallery. The final part of this display is a recreation of a room designed by mackintosh for a client at 78 Derngate, Northampton in 1917. This was quite different from those in their house .It was vibrant stripes and very masculine in a very 1930s sort of look and not very appealing to me personally. This entire collection of CR Mackintosh's work was gifted to the University of Glasgow by his nephew in 1947. They also own the biggest collection of Margaret Mackintosh so if you are interested in the works of these two talented people then Glasgow is the place to come. I was very impressed with the house even though it was not actually the mackintosh's house it was a very faithful recreation and it gave a very good idea of their style and their work within the house from furniture through to creations on the wall and paintings. It was beautiful and would happily have lived in the house though a comfortable sofa might have been needed in the living room. I would thoroughly recommend a visit to the Mackintosh House if you are interested in art and architecture as well as furniture design and the work of Rennie Mackintosh and his wife. I was very taken with this place and was looking forward to seeing his other work in the next couple of days. Thanks for reading. This review may be posted on other sites under my same user name. ©Catsholiday Read the complete review |
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Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland)
by juicy_lucy Carrick a rede rope bridge We recently flew to Belfast and were staying close to The Giants Causeway so decided to go and have a go on this rope bridge. The attraction itself is about a 20 minute drive from The Giants Causeway and is well sign posted as long as you are going in the right direction. It is one of the ... National Trust attractions so members can access the bridge free of charge. For non members it costs around £5.00 for adults and I think about £2.60 for children. There is a decent sized car park and toilets close to the car park as well as the obligatory café and gift shop. Tickets are purchased at the small entrance kiosk and then visitors start the walk towards the bridge. It states at the entrance that the walk is 1km but we walked quite quickly and it definitely seemed further than a kilometre. The scenery on the walk however is fabulous, with views out to the sea and there are several view points as well as telescopes and binoculars for a fee. It should be noted that much of the path is uneven and there are several stone steps to negotiate so the walk would probably not be suitable for wheel chair users and may be difficult for people with pushchairs. Once at the bridge, there is another small kiosk type thing where a man is manning the bridge and telling people when they can go onto the bridge as it holds only 8 people at any one time. The bridge doesn't look to bad when viewed from the path but once close up, it does start to look a bit more scary. There is a very steep set of metal stairs down to the bridge and because they head straight into the ocean, I was definitely not liking it, and more especially because I was wearing gloves. My advise would be that regardless of how cold it is have bare hands to get a good and not slippery grip on the bars. The bridge itself is definitely made of rope but intertwined in the rope are metal bars and there is a very secure looking walkway across the bridge. However, that said, the sides of the bridge are just made of rope and at my height they come to just above waist height. Because of the metal and the fact that the bridge wasn't all rope, I was starting to feel a lot safer about this journey and stepped happily onto the bridge. All was good for the first few steps until I got close to the centre of the bridge and the wind got hold of the bridge and it started to swing. Definitely made of rope and not a completely stabilised bridge! Suspended 30 metres above the wild water and with a 20 metre walk across it was not a pleasant feeling. Once at the other side there is a short walk to the top of the cliff. Again, absolutely spectacular views across the ocean but with no fence it's definitely not for the faint hearted as it's a sheer drop into the water. After standing on the cliff for a while, its time to cross the bridge again and take the walk back for a well deserved cup of tea! The rope bridge is open every day of the week but opening times differ at different times of the year. The weather is obviously instrumental in decisions about the bridge being open, so its not open on very bad weather. VERDICT... This is something I am glad I did but don't know that I would want to do it again. Fabulous scenery, a great walk and an exhilarating experience. Recommended if in the area. Thanks for reading Daniela xx Read the complete review |
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Cotswold Wild life park (Burford)
by MelissaRuth For forty years the Cotswold Wildlife Park has been a place that I have periodically visited and it was definitely popular with my primary school as the location for school trips, to the extent that by the time I was eleven or twelve I was pretty fed up with going here as I knew it inside out. When I had my own children the visits ... recommenced and our latest visit was on a beautiful Friday in August when we introduced my 2 year old nephew to the animals here. He absolutely loved it and ran excitedly towards the different animal encounters. It maintained his interest throughout the whole day and he didn't even need to have a sleep as he was so busy. My own teenagers still enjoy it, probably as we didn't overkill it for them with so many visits as I was subjected too, and it was their choice for where we took their cousin for a day out. I think they would have still been happy to go here again even without the attraction of entertaining a little one. **Location** The Cotswold Wildlife Park as its name suggests is in the beautiful Cotswold region of England about a 30 minute drive to the West of Oxford and near the pretty town of Burford. It is located on the A361 and also is easily reached by car from Swindon and Cheltenham. The park is not serviced by a bus route. As you enter the park you will drive past llamas and antelopes before reaching two pay kiosks. Make sure you have your money or cards in the car with you and not in the boot as you pay from the car before parking. It was a busy day as we arrived just after the ten o'clock opening time but the queue quickly dispatched as extra mobile ticket sellers were also taking entrance money. We were then directed to the nearly carpark. This is a large grassy area of parkland with lots of large shady trees and compacted earth driveways across it. I'm not sure how this would fare in wet weather, but there was no sign of mud and churned up ground so I assume it has not been a problem. There is a smaller paved carpark too which was being used for people with mobility difficulties but maybe is used for others on quieter days too. **What is there to see* Once parked there are several different ways into the park so no matter which area of the park you are in you are not far from your car so it is easy to pop back for picnics etc. As you have paid before parking there is no issue with re-entry to do this. The parkland where the animals are housed is based around a large Cotswold stone country house. The cafe and a brass rubbing centre occupy the ground floor of the house. One of the things that I was so pleased to see and hadn't remembered as vividly from past visits was the beautiful planting that exists throughout the park. I was almost more interested in looking at the bright and cheerful displays of flowers that existed throughout the park than the animals - they obviously take a huge pride in the appearance of the park; there are great swathes of tall beautiful but not too formal plants. Our first stop was the rhinos as these were the animals that my nephew was adamant that he had come to see. They share a large open area with the zebras which would once probably have been the front lawn of the house. There are three rhinos and quite a few zebras including a cute two month old foal. The Cotswold Wildlife Park is famous for its collection of four giant tortoises who live near the rhinos and were surprisingly active during this visit. One is new, but the other three have been at the park longer than I've been visiting and I don't think they've changed at all! Continuing on we passed camels as we headed for the lion enclosure where you have a great view of the lion and lioness through glass panels. Giraffes are a new addition to the park since we were last there and I was very impressed with the visitor experience of their home. A walkway has been built alongside the enclosure leading you up to a height where you are eye level with these tall beasts, both indoors and outdoors. I have never been so close to a giraffe's head before. Cheetahs are the last animal in this area and by now you are at the far side of the rhino lawn and have a great view of the house with the wildlife in front. Ostriches are on your route back towards the house and we then diverted into a woodland walk area where there were many types of exotic looking ducks as well as the more colourful flamingos and even some 'big bad wolves' that our little 2 year old was so impressed with that we had to make a return visit. Wallabies, tapirs and some strange pig type animals were all also living in this section of the park. Next came the children's farm area where we spent a long time and it was definitely the favourite part for a small boy. Indoors there are large pens with rabbits , guinea pigs and chickens and cows. These animals are free to wander into their outside pens but as it was so hot we found them inside where it was cooler. Outside you can head into the goats area and play with the goats. Lots of small kids (goat and human) seemed to be having great fun running and rolling down the little hillocks in this section. Shetland ponies, donkeys and some incredibly noisy pigs who had spotted lunch on its way were also popular here with the children. Signs encourage handwashing at the sink provided after touching the animals. Back in the stone outbuildings of the house we had a quick trip into the reptile house spotting an assortment of iguanas, snakes including the most deadly black mamba, baby crocodiles and two large crocs. As it was so hot the only other indoor area that we chose to go in was to see the bats who occupy one of the barns, but because it was so dark we found it quite hard to see them. I usually enjoy the insect house even though it is fairly small. I'm fascinated by the ants as they carry their enormous cargo of leaves in a long procession across their tank and also love to see the tarantulas and other spiders and butterflies. I think there is also an aquarium. In the centre of this courtyard area are more tortoises but of a much smaller variety this time and also some gibbons that were great fun to see leaping around. The walled garden was another area that we definitely didn't want to miss as the penguins live here with feeding times at 11.00 and 4.00 and they're always fun to watch diving in and swimming. Meercats and birds are also to be found here and as we entered one walk through aviary we were surprised to find a gorgeous little owl right in front of us just waiting to pose to have his photo taken. This garden is one of the most spectacular from a horticulture point of view. Spiky cactus and hot bright colours are visually striking as well as lush lawns and foliage so I spent quite a bit of time photographing these. Quite a few of the smaller monkey species are popular as you leave the far end of the walled garden and then a lemur walk where you can get right up close to the lemurs, if they'll let you, as you wander through their habitat. We were told that as it was after lunch nap time and warm the lemurs weren't quite as active as normal, but we were happy with the ones we saw. A mother was sitting nursing twin babies and then decided to walk off with one clinging to her front and one to her back; this definitely needed to be photographed. We also saw one leap right up onto the wooden rail that edged the path giving the people walking past a start. Be warned that this closes at 3.30 so don't leave it too late as it would be shame to miss this. It will also be busy at 12.00 when the keepers give a talk. After seven hours worth of activity on a perfect summers day we were too tired to visit one area of the park where if I remember correctly there are large birds such as vultures and monkeys as well as the train station. I can't believe we missed going on the train, but we did wave to it many times throughout the course of the day as it wound its way around the various areas of the park. It has 4 quite large coaches so appeared to fit lots of people on at any time, but didn't have room for buggies so we would have to have left this behind at the station. It costs £1 per person for a trip around the park. **Need an icecream** A day at the zoo wouldn't be complete without an icecream and these along with other drinks and snacks can be brought from the cafe in the main house, a kiosk just outside the walled garden and one near the camels. There were icecream van type soft cornets or assorted lollies and I had a really nice tub of a locally made icecream. I failed to take notice of the prices though as this was Grandpa's treat. The cafe sells a good selection of food with things like sausage and chips for about £6 and a variety of sandwiches. The menu looked to have a reasonable selection at prices that I would have been happy to have paid had we not have taken a picnic. Tea was £1.30 and coffee £2.00 with fridges of cold drinks with juice cartons and fizzy drinks from a dispenser at £1.50 and also bottles of alcoholic drinks such as cider at £2.80. There appeared to be plenty of seating inside and wooden benches outside which could be used for those eating in the cafe or for picnics. It is an ideal place to take a picnic as there is no shortage of pretty shady spots to sit out on the grass and throughout the park there are benches to stop at. **Other facilities** Toilets: we found these located in the same areas as the food kiosks. The ones I used at the cafe and walled garden were clean and I didn't have to queue despite it being a busy day at the park. They contained baby change facilities. My Dad reported that the mens at the cafe smelt really foul towards the end of the day. Paths: pathways generally are a compacted sandy coloured material which was quite smooth and easy to push the buggy over. We saw a couple of wheelchairs and a mobility scooter moving around without difficulty. The Young Disabled Unit that I used to work in came for trips here regularly as they found the facilities to be good and as there are no hills at all it is easy to access all areas. Wheelchairs can be loaned from the Manor House. Shop: on this visit we avoided this at all costs as we didn't think we'd ever get my nephew out again as he loves toy animals and the shop is full of those. The shop is close to the carpark and very large. It also usually has clothing items and other souvenirs such as T towels and ornaments with animal themes. Playground: I've always liked this playground that sits next to the cafe. My girls were disappointed that the slide that they thought was huge has shrunk and had to be persuaded that they had grown. It was also taped off, presumably because it is metal and it was very hot. There is also one of those old style rocking horses that I used to love and a circular climbing net as well as swings and much more. A carousel ride costs 80p for a very short turn. **Admission* The park is open from 10am and all visitors must leave by 6 although most facilities close at 5. Last admission is at 4.30. From October to April it closes at 5 or dusk. Adults cost £13 and children 3 - 16 and OAPs cost £9 My daughter has a Blue Peter badge and this is one of the places that she was able to get in for free. Unfortunately they do not accept Tesco day out tokens for payment. People who are blind do not have to pay. There doesn't appear to be a family ticket but you can buy season tickets with a family one costing £220. These prices seem very reasonable for a full day out. Most of the viewing areas are outdoors so I would recommend going on a dry day to make the most of your money. Address: Bradwell Grove, Burford, Oxfordshire. OX18 More details can be found at http://www.cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk/in​dex.htm **Summary** The Cotswold wildlife Park is not a huge zoo and doesn't have every type of animals, for instance there are no elephants, tigers or bears. However it does have plenty of animals to keep you amused for a full day out and all in picturesque surroundings. The enclosures seem to be a reasonable size and I didn't have any concerns about the welfare of the animals. It is perfect for small children and adults who will also appreciate the surroundings and is also recommended for older people and those with mobility problems as the area to walk is not vast as it is with larger zoos such as Whipsnade. Most age groups from toddler to teen, parents and grandparents were present in our party and we all thoroughly enjoyed our day out here. Despite the weather now being a bit cooler The Cotswold Wildlife Park would make a great day out at any time of year. This review also appears on Ciao under my same user name, Melissa Ruth. Read the complete review |
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3 reviews Sightseeing National / Oystermouth Road, Swansea SA1 3ST. Tel: +44(0)1792 649126. |
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1 review Sightseeing National / Plantasia is Swansea’s hi-tech ‘hot house’ development which boasts one of the finest collections of plants in the country. Location:Park Tawe Centre, Swansea, Wales. Tel: +44(0)1792-474-555. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm |
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1 review Sightseeing National / Conservation Centre is the first national conservation centre in the UK. Whitechapel, Liverpool L1 6HZ. Tel: +44(0)151 478 4999. |
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Bayham Old Abbey / Sightseeing National / Frant / East Sussex |
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1 review Sightseeing National / Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland, EH25 9PU. |
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1 review Sightseeing National / The ruins of this once powerful courtyard castle lie just to the south of Rosehearty, Grampian. |
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2 reviews Sightseeing National / Slains Castle is situated about 1 mile from the small village of Cruden Bay, which is about 25 miles north of the city of Aberdeen on the north east coast of Scotland. Slains Castle offered Bram Stoker the inspiration for his legendary Count Dracula. |
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1 review Sauchen, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, AB51 7LD. Tel. Sauchen (01330) 833463. ADMISSION PRICES: castle, garden and grounds, adult £6, concession £4.50, adult group £4.80, child / Sightseeing National /school group £1, family £16.50. Garden and grounds only, adult £2, concession £1.3 |
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