Scotland's Best Visits

31/05/2023

What a month full of adventures! May didn't disappoint. Always having a blissful time showing this beautiful country that I call home to guests and visitors from all over the world!
Edinburgh, Rosslyn, Ayr, Mallaig, Fort William, Oban, St Andrews, Inveraray, Culzean, Glasgow, Leith, loch Lomond ,Loch Ness, Loch Morar, Dumfries, Falkirk, (and a quick detour by Lyon and Dijon for a special Birthday) just off the top of my head... Heading to Aberdeenshire this week to start June.

Bonus point if you can name the two islands in the background 🤔😎⭐

Shout-out to all the lovely folks who I had the pleasure to guide around since the start of the season, you make my job extra special 🥰.

18/05/2023

More than 80,000 new entries into the prison registers for three historic Scottish jails can now be searched on ScotlandsPeople website.

https://www.historyscotland.com/history/scottish-history/80-000-new-entries-released-for-edinburgh-and-largs-prisons

08/03/2023

*** 🇬🇧ENGLISH🇬🇧 ***
From today "International Women's Day" and for the rest of the week, let's celebrate some incredible historical women. And because I'm based in Glasgow, let's focus on some remarkable Glaswegian heroes.

Did you know that Glasgow has only four statues of women... ONLY four! Two of them are situated in Govan, and one of them is welcoming you as you come out of the subway. Mary Rough was born in 1875 in the weaving village of Kilbarchan, about 15 miles west of Glasgow. She was a working-class woman, and like many other women of the Victorian era, she moved from the countryside to the big city to work in the mills.

This influx of people from villages to bigger cities such as Glasgow created housing issues as the tenements became quickly overcrowded. From 200 000 citizens in 1851, the population of Glasgow grew to over 1,000,000 by the 1920s, Glasgow became the second biggest city of the British Empire during the industrial revolution but also one of the most populated, while very little was built to house all the new inhabitants. Conditions were appalling, with families living in one-room flats, and diseases spreading to a whole neighbourhood in no time.

Then the First World War started, many men were fighting away from home, and women were left behind, taking over jobs, working in ammunition factories, earning less than their male counterparts, and raising their children. And this is when greedy landlords decided to raise the rent prices to a point that even working people couldn’t afford it, many working-class areas across the UK saw a rent increase of about 5%, however, working neighbourhoods in Glasgow, like Govan, saw a 23% increase! People were being evicted, starting with the elderly, the disabled and all people who couldn’t fight for themselves. By doing so the landlords had underestimated Glaswegian women.

In 1914 the Glasgow Women’s Housing Association was created, and Mary Barbour became the leading figure of the South Govan branch, organising rent strikes and resistance committees. Other women, also involved in politics such as Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan, Mary Jeff, became part of what was known as Mrs Barbour’s Army. Crowds started to rally behind the group of women, blocking building entrances, chasing landlords and factors down the street with pots, pans and trumpets to make as much noise as possible to shame them but also to warn other tenants of the evictions taking place within the area. Soon, the strikes spread to all the slums and industrialised areas of the city: Partick, Springburn, Parkhead, Townhead and many more - it didn’t stop landlords to keep pursuing evictions. Now angry marches grew to thousands of people at every corner of the city to the point that the Sheriff's Court phoned London to ask for backups. The government summoned Glasgow councillors to appease the situation and set up meetings to find a solution. A month later the government officially passed the “Rent Restriction Act” in 1915, stipulating that rent should stay at pre-war levels and should remain for the duration of the war.

However, once the war was over, landlords were back at it, but so were the women and men of Glasgow! This led to the creation of the “Addison Act” in 1919, 500 000 homes were to be built within the next three years. The different Housing Acts created as a response to the rent strikes stayed in place until the 1980s, when it was repealed by Margaret Thatcher’s government.

Mary’s activism and political career was only starting. She was also campaigning during the war for a peace settlement, speaking to a crowd of 70 000 people in Glasgow Green on May Day 1917, spreading the words of the Women’s Peace Crusade, another activist group founded by Mary and her friends in 1916. The WPC then reached the cities of Leeds, Birmingham, Bradford, and many more as well as Wales. Following the war Mary was elected as one of the first woman councillors of the city of Glasgow, she was also Glasgow Corporation’s first female bailie and later Justice of the Peace. She also initiated the Glasgow Women’s Welfare and Advisory Clinic with Dr Nora Wattie in 1925. A clinic for women, by women, with female doctors and nurses – the city’s first family planning.

It is exactly five years ago in 2018, on International Women’s Day, a statue by artist Andrew Brown was unveiled in the centre of Govan – to remember Mary’s legacy.

18/02/2023

*** 🇫🇷 FRANÇAIS 🇫🇷 ***
C’est dans la région de Perthshire, sur la route à l’ouest du village de Dunning que se situe le Maggie Wall’s Memorial. On peut y lire « Maggie Wall, brulée ici, 1657, en tant que sorcière ». Mais qui était Maggie ?
La chasse aux sorcières à particulièrement sévie en Ecosse entre le XVIe et XVIIIe siècle. En moyenne quatre fois plus de personnes étaient accusées comparé au reste de l’Europe. Environ 4000 individus, dont 84% de femmes, ont été dénoncées pour actes de sorcellerie, la plupart exécutés. Chaque condamnation et exécution était reportées dans des manuscrits officiels. Cependant, même si tous les rapports n’étaient pas précis et consciencieux, il y a toujours une trace de la personne inculpée, que ce soit avec une date, un nom, le lieux, et parfois dans d’atroces détails tel que la manière d’exécution, ou la quantité de tourbe utilisée pour la crémation. Pourtant, aucune trace de Maggie Wall dans la région.
The village de Dunning, comme beaucoup d’endroits dans tout le pays, a été témoin de la chasse au sorcières. En 1663, six femmes ont été accusées dont trois exécutées ; mais même ici, aucune trace de Maggie. Il faut attendre le XIVe siècle pour voir apparaitre sur une carte de 1829 « Maggie Wall Wood », et 1866 pour voir « Maggie Walls Monument » sur une carte officielle. Serait-ce un indice sur la date réelle du monument ?
Plusieurs rumeurs on fait leur chemin depuis l’apparition du mémorial sur les cartes. L’une d’elle serait que Maggie était une servante sur le domaine de Lord Rollo, là où le monument fut érigé, elle aurait eu une affaire avec ce dernier, et fut assassine en représailles, mais par qui ? Une autre rumeur serait que Maggie aurait pris part à une série d’émeutes contre l’autorité de l’Eglise Presbytérienne de Perth qui n’appréciait pas trop les sermons du Révérend de Dunning, les femmes du village se serait alors rebellées contre le groupe d’ecclésiastiques. Maggie en aurait-elle payer le prix fort ? Mais là encore, pas une trace de Maggie.
Aujourd’hui, le Maggie Wall’s Monument est souvent visité, utilisé comme autel pour accueillir un tas d’offrandes et pour se recueillir en mémoire des personnes exécutées injustement pour sorcellerie, cependant, le mystère de Maggie Wall persiste.

*** 🇬🇧ENGLISH🇬🇧 ***
As you drive on the B8062, less than a mile before entering the village of Dunning, you can spot the pyramidal monument, topped by a cross: “Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a Witch”. A rather peculiar sight. Who was Maggie? Who built the monument, and when? So many questions and speculations.

Witch hunting was particularly rife in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries with just under 4000 people (whom 84% were women) being tried and often executed. Even if records of legal proceedings were not necessarily the most accurate ones, there is always a trace whether with names, dates, places, as well as parochial archives. However, no sign of Maggie Wall in the area. In fact, Wall is more commonly found in the Borders and Orkney, but not in Perthshire.

The village of Dunning, like many places around the country witnessed witch trials. In 1663, six women were accused of witchcraft, three of them sentenced to death, but still no traces of Maggie. We have to wait until the 19th century to see on a county map from 1829 the mention of “Maggie Wall Wood”, and 1866 to see “Maggie Walls Monument” on an Ordnance Survey map, which could indicate that the “grave” was placed here more recently than the date written on the stones “1657”.

Rumour goes that Maggie Wall was a servant for Lord Rollo on his estate of Duncrub, where the monument lies. She might have had an affair with the Lord and got murdered for it. Another rumour is that Maggie was part of a group of women who got involved in riots against the Church Authority sent from Perth. The preaching of Dunning Minister was judged too upsetting and unruly by the Presbytery of Perth, they wanted to put him back on the right path, but the women of the village were rather protective of their Reverend. Could Maggie have paid the heavy price for her rebellion? But again, her name or her ex*****on should appear somewhere – nothing.

Anachronisms and odd details are paramount, which made the search for Maggie even more difficult. In very strict Presbytery Scotland of the 17th century, it would have been a very risky job to not only set up a monument to a witch, adjacent to the road, never mind putting a Christian symbol at the top! The Saracen Head bar in the East End of Glasgow says to have Maggie’s skull on display, however very unlikely. If Maggie was a witch, her body would have been indeed burnt to make sure nothing could have been repossessed by the devil, only ashes would have been left. The writing on the monument seems to be topped up with fresh paint every now and then, but by who?

Nowadays people use the monument as a shrine to the many women tortured and killed for being wrongly accused of witchcraft. Passersby will often stop, being reminded of Scotland’s dark past, but to these days, the mystery still remains.

If you know more details about Maggie Wall’s monument or have some stories about Scottish Witches and Warlocks, feel free to share them in the comment section. And if you want to learn more about the Witch Trials, I would highly recommend having a look at Witches of Scotland website www.witchesofscotland.com.

23/01/2023

Wee video going around The Tenement House. Enjoy!

19/01/2023

*** 🇫🇷 Français 🇫🇷 ***
Nichée à quelques pas de l’école d’art de Glasgow au-dessus de la colline de Garnethill, l’immeuble dans lequel se trouve The Tenement House fut bâtit en 1892, et n’a vu passer que très peu de locataires avant d'être racheté par la National Trust for Scotland (un équivalent des monuments historiques en France).

Une de ses locataires était Miss Agnes Toward. Elle emménagea avec sa maman en 1911 et y restera jusqu’en 1965. Tout au long de sa vie Agnes avait pris pour habitude de garder quasiment tout, jusqu'à même créer des copies carbones des lettres qu’elle envoyait. C’est grâce à cette accumulation (qui pourrait être qualifiée d’excessive), qu’aujourd’hui nous avons un appartement entier, remplis d’objets témoins d’une période maintenant révolue.

Agnes était la fille de Agnes Reid, une couturière et William Toward un représentant pour une compagnie de métaux. La famille d’Agnes était considérée comme étant de la classe moyenne, ce qui leur a permis d’emménager dans un appartement très confortable pour le standard de l’époque. En effet avoir quatre pièces dont une sale de bain avec baignoire et toilettes était un grand luxe pour le début du 20eme siècle, quand la plupart des appartements avaient les toilettes à l’extérieur ou sur le palier, et devaient se partager avec les voisins !

Quelques années après avoir emménager au 145 Buccleuch Street, Agnes fut engagée en tant que dactylographe pour une compagnie de navires ; elle y restera jusqu’à son départ en retraite en 1959, âgée alors de 73 ans. Malheureusement, Agnes fut hospitalisée en 1965 et ne remettra jamais les pieds dans son appartement, elle décéda a l’hôpital en 1975.

Après son décès, le propriétaire voulait moderniser et nettoyer l’appartement afin de le vendre, mais heureusement, Agnes avait laisser dans son testament quatre chaises pour un amis de sa paroisse. Quand Sam Davidson visita l’appartement, il était accompagné par sa nièce, Anna, qui vit le potentiel et les « trésors » accumulés par Agnes. Anna décida d’acheter l’appartement avec tout son contenu. Elle y vécu pendant sept ans, ne changeant quasiment rien et garda tous les objets d’Agnes, sauvant ainsi une partie du patrimoine social Ecossais.

Après ces sept années, Anna vendit l’appartement à la National Trust for Scotland. Depuis, la NTS, travaille en permanence afin de restauration mais surtout de conserver ce lieu unique, figé dans le temps, depuis 1965.

Parmi toutes les propriétés de la National Trust, (en tous les cas celles que j’ai visité), The Tenement House est définitivement dans mon top trois. Certes ce n’est pas un château ou un palais royal, ni un grand domaine noble, mais l’appartement au 145 Buccleuch Street est néanmoins d’une importance nationael et une partie du patrimoine historique Ecossais.

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***🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿English🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧***

Have you been to the Tenement House in Glasgow? If not, I highly recommend it!

Tucked away from the main thoroughfares, this NTS property sits at the top of Garnethill, just a few blocks away from the Glasgow School of Art. Built in 1892, the flat at 145 Buccleuch Street had only a few tenants before being bought over by the National Trust for Scotland in 1982.

One of these tenants was Miss Agnes Toward, she lived there from 1911, when she moved in with her mother, until 1965. During her life in the tenement, Agnes kept pretty much everything she had. She would certainly be described today as a hoarder, but thanks to her, we can now have a real glimpse of what it would have been to live in a tenement in the middle of the 20th century. From teacups, cooking ingredients, jewellery, furniture, wallpaper, and even letters and correspondence, 145 Buccleuch Street is full of memorabilia, that many Glaswegians, and Scots in general, would recognise - a real time-capsule in the heart of Glasgow.

Agnes was the only surviving daughter of Agnes Reid, a dressmaker, and William Toward a salesman. Being raised as an only child as well as having both parents working and from a middle-class background (although her dad died before moving to Buccleuch Street), they were able to afford the rent of a flat pretty big for the time. The Tenement House consists of a lobby with four rooms, which includes a living room or parlour, kitchen, bedroom, and even their own private bathroom with a bath and toilets; a real luxury at the time when most toilets in tenements would have been shared between flats, and often found outside in the back yard or under the stairs on the ground floor.

Few years after moving to their new flat, Agnes (daughter) started working as a typist for a shipping company, she stayed there until her retirement in 1959 aged 73. Sadly, she was hospitalised a couple of years later until her death in 1975. During the ten years that she spent at the hospital, the rent was still being paid, probably due to an agreement with her landlord.

It is after her death that another important woman, Anna Davidson, came to live at 145 Buccleuch Street. Anna came to visit the flat with her uncle, Sam Davidson, an elder of Wellington Church who Agnes had befriended some years ago, he was mentioned in Agnes’ will as the recipient of four chairs. The flat was in need of some modernisation and also deep cleaning; however, Anna was aware of its importance and decided to buy it straight away, with all of Agnes’ belongings. During the seven years she lived here, she barely touched anything, keeping all of Miss Towards’ objects saving an important piece of Scottish social history. After seven years, Anna sold the flat to the National Trust for Scotland and the rest is history (and a lot of restoration as well as preservation work!) The Tenement House has been open to the public since 1983.

Out of all the properties owned by the NTS (that I have visited so far), I would definitely place the Tenement House in my top 3, it’s not a castle, nor a grand estate, but it is certainly of national importance and part of our Scottish heritage. Also, a shoutout to Abigail, one of the NTS guides at the property who was a well of knowledge and enthusiasm, and who I had the pleasure to also meet during my visit to the Weaver’s Cottage at Kilbarchan, but that’s for another story.

11/01/2023

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧***ENGLISH***🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
House for an Art Lover started in 1900, with the announcement of a competition for Haus Eines Kunstfreundes by Alexander Koch in his German magazine Zeitschrift für Innendekoration. The brief asked the artists to submit plans as well as exterior and interior renders of a house suitable for an art collector. Although Mackintosh made it to the top three, his submission didn’t win as he did not submit the required number of designs for the interior. Disqualified he was still awarded a “purchase prize” for his innovative and unorthodox thinking. Indeed, like he did for Hillhouse in Helensburgh and other buildings throughout his career, Mackintosh designed House for an Art Lover starting by the inside and the function of each room, as in opposition with other architects of the time, building the outside first then filling the space within the walls. This results in an asymmetrical house yet very balanced design, mixing the codes of Scottish baronial architecture with modernity.

Fast forward to the 1980s, when Graham Roxburgh, an engineer working on the interior of nearby Craigie Hall (with an interior altered by Mackintosh between 1892 and 1908), has the idea of actually building House for an Art Lover. The construction began in 1989 but was on paused during the 1990s due to a recession. It’s only in 1994 that Glasgow city council and Glasgow School of Art joined the project in order to complete it. The house officially opened in 1996.

Although the house wasn’t built during Mackintosh’s life, the construction followed diligently the plans and drawings by the artists. I say artists, plural, as his wife Margaret was also involved in the design of the panels and soft furnishing for each room.

Today The house is set within Bellahouston park in the south part of Glasgow. As well as visiting the house you can also enjoy the restaurant and café or why not book the whole building for your wedding and other receptions? Wahoo factor guaranteed!

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🇲🇫***FRANÇAIS***🇲🇫
L’histoire de la House for an Art Lover ou plutôt en français, ‘La Maison pour un Amoureux de l’Art’, débuta en 1900, avec une compétition lancée par Alexander Koch pour le magazine allemand Zeitschrift für Innendekoration. La règle principale étant de produire des plans ainsi que des vues extérieurs et intérieurs d’une maison pour un collectionneur d’art. Malgré le fait que Mackintosh fut dans le top 3 des artistes sélectionnés, son design n’a pas remporté la compétition faute d’avoir fourni le nombre de dessins requis. Aucun des autres artistes ne gagnera, leurs designs jugés trop à la mode, ou manquant de finesse ; cependant Mackintosh fut récompensé d’un prix pour son design innovateur et sa façon peu orthodoxe de concevoir une maison. En effet, tout au long de sa carrière, Charles Rennie Mackintosh construit en commençant par l’intérieure : il pense davantage à la fonction de chaque pièce de manière individuelle, pour ensuite créer un tout, contrairement aux autres architectes de l’époque, qui eux créaient les murs extérieurs en premier. Le résultat : une maison asymétrique toutefois harmonieuse, empruntant les codes du style baronnial écossais, typique de la fin du XIXème siècle, y ajoutant modernité, subtilité et élégance.

Faisons un bon de plusieurs décennies pour maintenant nous retrouver dans les années 1980. Graham Roxburgh, un ingénieur qui travaillait alors sur la rénovation de Craigie Hall, une maison avec un intérieur en partie par Mackintosh, a eu l’idée de construire House for an Art Lover. La construction commença en 1989 mais ne se terminera qu’en 1994 (du a une récession économique du début des années 90) avec l’aide de la ville de Glasgow et de l’école d’art de la ville. La Maison pour un Amoureux de l’Art ouvrira finalement en 1996.

Malgré le fait que la maison ne fut pas bâtie de son vivant, les architectes et ingénieurs ont respectés à la lettre les plans et dessins des artistes. Artistes au pluriel, car la femme de Mackintosh, Margaret est responsable du design des panneaux, fresques et autres décors dans chacune des pièces.
Aujourd’hui, la maison est au cœur du parc de Bellahouston, dans le sud de Glasgow. Vous pouvez la visiter ainsi que prendre le temps au restaurant-café, ou pourquoi pas réserver la maison entière pour un évènement spécial ?

05/11/2022

Outlander fans, get your podcast on cause Sam Heughan aka Jamie Fraser is chatting to Jackie Bird about anything Scottish on this new episode! Enjoy

📻 New podcast episode ... with Sam Heughan! 😍 Jackie Bird chats to Sam about his love for Scotland and its historical sites, the impact of Outlander, his fantastic new book, and more! Listen now:
Listen on Spotify: https://fal.cn/3tkwD
Listen on Apple: https://fal.cn/3tkww

25/10/2022

Summer is definitely over, winter is round the corner. It's that time of the year where we welcome back the cosy blanket, with a nice crackling fire in the corner and most importantly, comfort food. So get comfy and enjoy this episode of The One Armed Chef, going around Fife, Glasgow and Edinburgh, tasting some of Scotland's finest food while chatting to local producers, chefs, and food enthusiasts. Dig in!

The One-Armed Chef is a travel and food show like no other, fronted by a host like no other. Giles Duley is a photographer, humanitarian and chef, and he ind...

23/10/2022

Welcome to Scotland’s Best Visits! or as we say here Fáilte! I'm Anaïs Paulard, a qualified Blue Badge Scottish Tourist guide. Whether it’s your first time visiting or you’re coming back for more, it will be my pleasure to tailor a tour around your interests and make your Scottish experience an unforgettable one. I hope to see you soon.

Can anyone guess where this photo was taken? Comment below :)