Category: Scotland
Sweetheart Escapes at Europe’s Most Romantic Hotels
Sure, it’s all heart-shaped chocolate boxes and perky red roses on Valentine’s Day. But how do you resuscitate romance after those blood red blooms have wilted and the giddy high of champagne bursts like a bubble, leaving only a hangover behind?
Read on for four prescriptions for passion that will help you pump new life into a flaccid relationship long after Cupid has flown the coop with his Valentine’s Day Viagra.
Romantic sunset dinner for two on a private island? That should do the trick. Courtesy San Clemente Palace Kempinski Venice
New Lanark: Falling for Scotland’s Model Mill Town
Guest Post by Colin McAlpin
In the eternal search for self improvement, COLIN McALPIN travels to a unique Scottish World Heritage Site.
Looking across to New Lanark UNESCO World Heritage Site, South Lanarkshire
© VisitScotland
You know you have arrived at somewhere very special when you are immediately confronted by a sign proclaiming The Institute for the Formation of Character. Is someone trying to tell me something?
Such is my introduction to the hidden Scottish gem that is New Lanark, one of the country’s six UNESCO World Heritage sites. New Lanark is actually a beautifully preserved small town that nestles in a valley through which flows the River Clyde, a mere quarter-mile from Lanark and 40 miles from Glasgow.
Scotland’s Stirling Attractions
Stirling Castle. Courtesy VisitScotland / Kenny Lam, all rights reserved.
Guest post by Colin McAlpin
The man who holds Stirling holds Scotland. With this in mind, the Scots – under their legendary King Robert Bruce, he of the spider that inspired him never to give up – took on the English under King Edward II at the historic Battle of Bannockburn. Over two bloody days 700 years ago, Bruce routed them in what became known as the First War of Independence to establish Scotland as a nation.
A statue of Robert the Bruce stands atop Stirling Castles battlements, high above Stirling’s Old Town. Courtesy VisitScotland / Paul Tomkins,
all rights reserved.
Holding the charming city of Stirling – the site of the battle, 40 miles northwest of Edinburgh – became important to the Scots. Although created a city only in 2002 as part of Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee, Stirling has for centuries played an important role in Scotland’s often turbulent history, and many of its historic sites and monuments – such as the imposing Stirling Castle and the national monument to William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace – bear witness. (more…)