Glennifer Braes Country Park

On our previous visit to Glasgow we found a wonderful "campsite" right in town, in the Burrell Collection's carpark in Pollok Park. Quiet. Secluded. Convenient. Bus service within a few hundred feet. Almost free. We arrived in the afternoon, deposited a coin in the pay-and-display, leveled the camper, and settled down for an enjoyable evening prior to touring some new sites in Glaswegia. We were beginning to think about dinner when the Park Ranger drove up, surmised what we were up to, and informed us, very politely, that, despite the absence of signage, over-night parking was not allowed. The police would be around to visit after dark, he said. Fortunately, Vicki had identified a back-up location, in the suburb of Paisley, west of Glasgow, high on a ridge overlooking the Clyde Valley. We liked the Glennifer Braes Country Park well enough that we spent three nights there. We drove to the Burrell and House for an Art Lover and used the Silverburn Shopping Center P&R for getting to the downtown. Oh yes, our stay in Glasgow was notable for another reason: we got the Grey Wanderer washed and waxed; for L7! It is now the White Wanderer.

Thus

Nice views

Hiking trails

Good signage

Wildlife

Nice views, too

Ditto

On To Scotland

After the castle, we drove a few miles out of Carlisle to a lay by we had identified as a possible night halt--and found ourselves just outside Gretna, Scotland. The next day, we drove on toward Glasgow, with two unsuccessful detours, one the World Heritage Site at New Lanark, the other a wall of neolithic inscriptions near Kilmarnock. We could find no adequate parking at New Lanark and so took a few pix and drove on. I found quite a few cliffs and walls on the River Ayr, right where the GPS said, but no cup nor ring marks. We drove on again. The third strike was called in Glasgow, but I'll cover that in the next post.

A few scenes from the early 19th century mill town/social
experiment of New Lanark

The brain-child of industrialist/socialist Robert Owen
(also of New Harmony, Indiana, fame)

You can check Owen and New Lanark out at the website:
http://www.newlanark.org/index2.shtml; tell them they need
to provide a coach park with parking for RVs

The only plausible wall I found for the neolithic inscriptions
was this; no cups, no rings, but signs of later habitation...

But I did have a nice hike along the River Ayr; even picked a
few wild raspberries

Carlisle Castle

Carlisle Castle is another old one, with much history, rather more of it about captives than warfare. We embedded ourselves in a turbuss tour, conducted by a member of the English Heritage staff at the castle.

Entrance, curtain, and tower of Carlisle Castle

One of the better tours we have been on...this
guy covered Carlisle from the earlier
Plantagenets to Bonnie Prince Charlie...about
800 years of English/Scottish history, in less
than an hour

The Keep

In the Keep, two small windowless rooms housed 60
prisoners, awaiting trial and execution, from the Battle of
Culloden (that's where the English put an end to the Jacobite
cause and the Pretender)

The only source of water was moisture
seeping through these two stones; you can
see where the prisoners licked them smooth

The executions were unusually brutal for the times, more on
the order of the Wars of Religion; in any case, tradition has
it that this is the source of "The Bonnie Banks of Loch
Lomond," that is, the prisoner taking the low road, the grave,
and his beloved the high road, life, back to Scotland; so they
say

Foundation remains of the tower where Mary Queen of
Scots was held for a time

Thank you note from Elizabeth Regina to the
castle master for keeping the Scottish (by
then, ex-) Queen safe and sound

Top floor of the Keep, very old graffiti by
castle guards keeping their watches

They don't build them like that anymore
department: downspout dated 1717...

Carlisle Cathedral

After Chatsworth we drove on a couple more hours, skirting the Peaks District, over-nighting at a lay by at Chunal Hill. From there we drove on the next morning, now skirting the Lake District--too crowded this time of year, even the northern bit that we saw in 2009--and headed for Carlisle, the last of our north-bound English destinations. The cathedral there is attractive, despite being more chopped-up than most. One enters the south transept, looks admiringly at the choir, ambulates around the ambulatory, takes in the elevation, the great east window, the organ...wait a second, aren't these things a bit askew? And then, back at the crossing...wait a second, where is the nave?

Squared-off east facade, nice window

South-side chancel

Nicely-carved choir

Elevation, two aisles, small gallery, small clerestory, painted
barrel-vault wooden roof

Nice to look at

East window...altar a little off center?

Organ..way off center? And not just the organ, the arches too...

Artsy shot of lancet windows

Back in the crossing, one of the older bits, with Romanesque arches and the
zig-zag stone work that makes you think the builders maybe had been to the
Holy Land or at least to Moorish country

Ditto; note the huge piers

The usual bronze model helps: it started out as an abbey church, 11th century,
then Carlisle became a cathedral city, 12th century, and it became a cathedral,
and then the Reformation came along, and later the Dissolution, and then
Cromwell and the Civil War...oddly, the Parliamentarians amputated the nave--
the peoples' part of the church--and left the priests' part intact; oh well

Fortunately they left the feline gargoyles intact

South-west view, showing the sawed-off nave; the red stone throughout--and
throughout Carlisle--is strikingly beautiful

Chatsworth House, 2013

The house is 18th century, and, as a ducal residence, imposing. I think I posted rather more of the interior in 2009, so have a look there for more.

Best boot-scrape yet; the snake is the family emblem; also a Christian symbol of
resurrection

Our founder: Bess of Hardwick, who did the first building
at Chatsworth; except for the other red-head, she was
probably the most powerful, certainly the richest, woman
of the Elizabethan age

Entry hall, from the balcony; the Apotheosis of Julius Caesar overhead
(a distant relative? no, these people were really into Empire in those days)

State room

Great illusionary art by Jan de Vart; just about everything in
the photo is painted; in the music room

Monarch's bedroom

Ladies' toiletry center

Great way to display your Delft: must remember...

OK, I am going to skip the Rembrandts, the Titians, the Watteaus,
the Poussins, all the rest: this is Josh Reynold's portrait of
Georgiana, fifth Duchess of Devonshire; one of several

And this the very famous "stolen" Gainsborough Georgiana;
she was the great lady of her age, trend-setter both in fashion
and politics; alas, as it was said, every man in Britain was in
love with her, except her husband, the 5th Duke; it's complicated;
read Amanda Foreman's Duchess or see the Keira Knightley
movie (filmed in part at Chatsworth); not pictured: the Duke
and the Other Woman

Interesting bedding

Room for three

Library

Formal dining room; see 2009 post for interesting tidbit

Sculpture hall

Parting shot of Chatsworth...we'll be back