The Wallace Monument was built by my wife’s father, as I explained to my children when they were young. You could tell because if you looked closely you could see he ‘missed a bit’! Capturing the brickwork means an early start for sunrise, but worth it.
When walking around a City your senses are seduced by bright lights, signs, noises and yes Lush – smells. Try looking up. The building walls, architecture, materials can reveal a City’s past, present and future. So ignore the shop chains and look-up for a new perspective.
Following on from the last article Glasgow Smile This is a new group of photographs of the City of Glasgow architecture and alcoves (nooks and crannies).
Glasgow smile, because there are some sights. Whenever I wander around the city with my camera I always see something interesting. Lately there are some new artworks painted on unobtrusive walls. And the city transforms from old red sandstone architecture to structures shiny and new.
Four thousand years ago a Neolithic conversation in Callanish went as thus:
“Why don’t we stand huge fekin’ boulders on top of this hill?”
“They weigh five heffers each! Why?”
“Lets do it on the longest….no shortest day.”
“Eh Why?”
“Lets put them into the same pattern as the lights in the night sky, as god commands.”
“Come again beardy”
“No look over there, that group of hills resemble a sleeping woman. Lets do that !”
“Have you been smokin’ kelp weed again hairy? Word to the wise, keep magic fire away from that face.”
“I know. We’ll knock-up a prototype stone circle here on this hill here then build a bigger one 1,000 beardlengths over there. In that one lets bury the bones of Morag the Mammoth”
Today we have no clear idea why Neolithic Scots created the stone circles at Callanish. Without written history things get lost. We excavate, scan, carbon date and take arial surveys to guess how it was done and hope it leads to why. I love follies and curiosities and some very special buildings. You might guess the how, but never get the why. Neolithic Scots – I salute you. What is your ‘Callanish’ ?
My base in Rheinigidale worked well on Harris, now its time to explore Lewis. I shacked-up in the Otter Bunkhouse in Uig which was clean, bright with nice views. Lewis is much larger with a huge coastline by comparison so no weather would stop my journey.