• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Edinburgh
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

Edinburgh EH1 2NE
0131 225 9846

ident7 said
My favourite destination in Scotland
I've always loved Edinburgh Castle ever since I visited as a kid.

The Castle absolutely dominates central Edinburgh. I've often wished I could visit Edinburgh with someone who has never been before just to be able to go onto Princes Street with them and say 'Look right' and see their face when they see this amazing castle that towers over the modern shopping street.

The last time I visited they gave you this audio guide thingy (Can't remember it was a CD player or some other device) so you could explore the castle in your own time and in your own way if you didn't want to go on one of the guided tours.

Expensive but well worth it. I've actually not visited the castle on my more recent trips because I've had other business in the city and I want a whole day to explore when I next go to the castle.

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Aberfeldy
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

Aberfeldy PH15 2HY

ident7 said
Great history lesson
I visited the Scottish Crannog centre as part of a course I was doing several years ago.

A Crannog is a kind of house that was built over water. At the Scottish Crannog Centre they've rebuilt one of these next to where a real one was located. Besides going into the Crannog and hearing about how it is believed people lived 5000 years ago, there are also displays and demonstrations of how the people did routine daily things.

A great place to visit for those interested in Archaeology - and even if you're not, the surround area is just stunning. Scottish Scenery at its best.

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Glasgow
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

Glasgow

ident7 said
A very interesting place to visit
It seems extremely strange to recommend people go and visit a cemetery, and it's a place I never thought I'd visit, but living in Glasgow you often hear about the Necropoils. It's sometimes featured on TV and it's almost always mentioned on leaflets and booklets about Glasgow as a place to visit.

Being a 'City of the Dead' strangely I hardly thought about people being buried all around me when I visited. What stikes you is the amazing architecture. It's such a shame that often we don't put the same thought into modern buildings people have to work in as those in the past put into buildings they'd be buried in or under.

I went on my own, but there are tours run both by Friends of the Necropolis and Glasgow City Council's Park service

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Edinburgh
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

Edinburgh EH12 6TS
0131 334 9171

ident7 said
Great day out for the family
Edinburgh zoo serves quite a large area of Scotland since Glasgow zoo closed several years ago. If you are from Glasgow and go to Edinburgh by bus then you know that almost all buses stop there on the way making it quite convenient to get there.

Of particular note are the polar bear. I've seen it there several times but never realised that apparently it's the only Polar bear in a zoo in Britain. But as mentioned by another reviewer, it's pretty sad to see it alone there. it could really do with some company.

There's nothing quite like seeing the size of some of the big cats like the Jaguar and the tiger so close.

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Edinburgh
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

Edinburgh EH2 2QP
0131 473 3898

ident7 said
Very helpful
As a visitor to Edinburgh rather than a resident, I found the tourist board office very helpful on my first visit. I didn't need to ask the staff for anything on that particular visit but I found it well stocked with the leaflets I needed and it was great to hear all the accents of the visitors to Edinburgh you hear in there.

on the occasion I was there it was packed with people but then that was the height of the Festival and it is right in the best place on Princes Street.

The two triangles of the sign for the Princes Street Mall in front of it are really striking and make it really easy to find if you know to look for them.

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Glasgow
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

Glasgow G3 6BY

ident7 said
One of Glasgow's finest Parks
At some points, you can walk straight through Kelvingrove park and barely notice it, but it if you walk around all the paths with a leaflet you'll find a lot of statues and interesting monuments.

It's very well maintained and the beautiful river Kelvin runs through it meaning there are several bridges where you can get great view of the surrounding area.

Located in the park is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, a children's play area, a skateboard park (Usually full of teenagers on bikes and skateboards - Although this is covered in Graffiti strangely it no way detracts from the parks beauty - I think it would look much worse with the original grey concrete), and the old bandstand that many people have for years campaigned to be restored.

A great way to get from Galsgow city centre to the west end is to walk through this beautiful park

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Glasgow
• Category: Sightseeing and Attractions

Glasgow G12 OUE

ident7 said
Great little park
The Botanic gardens gets its name from the greenhouses on its grounds like the recently restored Kibble Palace glasshouse. Inside are a variety of tropical plants and even a little pond with tropical fish inside.

But outside there is a great little park with an area dedicated to children, and a path that will take you down to walk beside the River Kelvin. You'd usually be very unlucky if you don't see a squirl (Usually expecting you to feed it something). Also on the riverbanks is Ha'penny Bridge House, a small brick building which is the river HQ for 'Friends of the River Kelvin' who do various things to watch over the river that runs through the Botanic Gardens.

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Glasgow
• Category: Education

Glasgow G3 6NH
0141 330 1835

ident7 said
Great place to learn and visit
Glasgow University's main Gilbert Scott building Towers over the west end of Glasgow. While some people think the building is picturesque I personally find it a bit too dark and Gothic for my liking. But inside it's great to visit. It has inside the Huntarian Art Gallery and Museum that's well worth a look. Sadly they decided to remove Milly the Dinosaur (a life sized T-Rex statue that was only meant to be temporary but became much loved and protested about when they removed it) that stood outside near the main entrance for many years.

The campus is a mix of great old buildings standing next to (mostly ugly) new buildings. The Boyd Orr building is a disgrace to architecture yet it stands just across the road from the Botanic building which was much worried over when it caught fire a few years ago and only the façade could be rescued.

Also on campus is the Macintosh House with its strange door several feet off the ground because of the way the surrounding area has been reshaped.

The worst part of the Glasgow University campus is the main road that cuts it in two. Without that it would be a quiet and quite enclosed centre of learning/

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Glasgow
• Category: Arts and Culture

Glasgow G1 3LX
0141 221 6362

ident7 said
Interesting but out of the way
I’ve know what ‘The Lighthouse’ was since they opened it years ago, and I knew it was very close to the very streets I often use in Glasgow City Centre, but I was always been put off going to it by its location. It may be in a historic building, but it seems you have to enter it by going down an uninviting very narrow lane, or dodging traffic coming from a car park opposite it.

But once you get inside the design is beautiful and it’s well worth the climb up the spiral staircase. It’s a must for fans of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and for fans of architecture and design in general.

• Added: 22nd of September 2008
• Area: Glasgow
• Category: Shops and Amenities

Glasgow G1 5AX
0141 552 4601

ident7 said
Past its prime
When I was a boy, my Grandfather would take me to the Barras every weekend. We didn't actually buy much if anything, it was just an interesting and lively place to visit that was absolutely packed with people - and if there was anything you wanted to buy, the Barras was the place to find it cheapest.

Today pound shops and discount stores will often give you better deals. On the few occasions I've seen anything second-hand I’ve wanted in the Barras in recent years I’ve been quoted prices much higher that I could get the same thing from a discount store or ebay – even after haggling.

There are still bargains to be found in the Barras but it’s no longer the only place you’d find them as it once was.