Perth galleries

A brand new museum opened in Perth last year. Based within the old City Hall, the facility showcases local history and also houses the fabled Stone of Destiny. Meanwhile, the old premises have been rebranded as Perth Art Gallery. Both buildings are currently hosting interesting exhibitions and I took a drive up to the Fair City with my mum. We parked in the Canal Street multi-storey (free on Sundays) and walked the short distance to the museum.

I have written about the history of the City Hall and the original museum building in previous posts. We were in town today to view a special display about Macbeth - both the Shakespeare play and the actual King of Scots who bore the same name and reigned almost 1000 years ago. Admission was a reasonable £7, with concessions admitted for a fiver. We took the lift up to the top floor and entered the exhibition. The eponymous stage character is not considered to be historically accurate and the play draws heavily on Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland - a popular history published in the 16th century. The author made use of texts from previous centuries, each with their own cultural context and political agenda. After centuries of retelling and creative additions, the bard's sources were far removed from the reality of the monarch who reigned from 1040 until 1057. Macbeth's troops did defeat King Duncan in battle but this apparently led to a peaceful changeover, unlike the increasingly desperate acts the dramatic character resorts to in order to retain power. The play opens with Macbeth receiving a prophecy from three witches on a misty moor. They inform the general that he will one day become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred on by his wife, Macbeth commits regicide and takes the throne for himself. Racked with guilt and paranoia, he commits further murders to protect his position, becoming a tyrant in the process. The bloodbath leads to insanity and finally death for the royal couple. A classic example of a Shakespearean tragedy. The playwright's career coincided with the Union of the Crowns, when King James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603. Shakespeare realised the importance of getting the new dual monarch on side and it was no secret that James harboured a great interest in the supernatural. Shakespeare was an old hand at securing royal favour and there is little doubt that Macbeth was written with James's Scottish background and fixation with witchcraft in mind. The work is thought to have been first performed in 1606. Theatre superstition has led to actors refusing to utter the real title, lest a curse be unleashed, referring instead to the Scottish Play. It continues to be performed all over the world. Dame Judy Dench (pictured above), memorably played Lady Macbeth in a 1970s production. We found the exhibition very interesting and some of the adjunctive tales were fascinating, such as the gruesome witch trials in North Berwick and Crook of Devon. As we had seen the permanent museum displays less than a year ago, we moved on to the newly launched Perth Art Gallery, a few streets away. The building dates from 1824 and until recently housed both historical artefacts and paintings. The empty space created by the establishment of the new museum has been filled by transferring the Fergusson collection from its own premises by the river.

John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961) was part of a four-person art collective known as the Scottish Colourists. The other members were Samuel Peploe, Leslie Hunter and Francis Cadell. Their prolific output spanned four decades, from the turn of the 20th century to the outbreak of WW2. Although not a homogenous movement, the group shared a common interest in French artistic developments and dabbled with different styles such as Cubism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Futurism. Growing up in Edinburgh, Fergusson enrolled at the Trustees Academy but became disenchanted with the rigid teaching style. He travelled to Morocco, Spain and France, where he met future Colourist Peploe. In Paris, Fergusson mingled with greats such as Picasso and Matisse in the café culture the city was renowned for at the time. By the 1920s, Fergusson was settled in a London studio. He subsequently moved back to Paris with his partner, the dancer and choreographer Margaret Morris, where they lived until the spectre of war across Europe once again loomed large. This prompted a relocation to Glasgow, where the couple resided for the rest of their lives, although they never married. Morris ran several dance schools and staged theatre productions. She also painted and one of her works is pictured above. Café Crystal, from 1920. She and Fergusson thrived on the lively bohemian culture in Paris.

Northumberland short break

My February half-term holiday is perfect for a long weekend getaway. Northumberland is an ideal destination as the top part of England can be reached in a couple of hours via the A1. We booked an Air B&B room in a hamlet a few miles outside Berwick and drove south on a Thursday morning. The routine is becoming well established: pull in at the Dunbar Asda for snacks and batter on to Budle Bay - a great location for birdwatching just over the border. You can park right on the shore and observe the ducks and wading birds. Today there were several shoveler swimming around in front of us.

The historic village of Bamburgh lies a short drive down the coast and the iconic castle dominates the local skyline. We had lunch in the Copper Kettle Tearoom, another of our favourite haunts. I plumped for one of the quiches on the specials board. The cost of living increases are very noticeable when you eat out. Adding in tea and cakes left very little change out of £40. That's what you have to pay for a nice lunch nowadays. With several hours to go until check-in time at our accommodation, we continued our birdwatching at Fenham-le-moor, a quiet coastal hide along a minor road off the A1. Although not officially open to the public, Nicole had sussed out online that anyone could stop by and access the facility. The elevated wooden platform looks across to Holy Island and we spent some time here scanning the mudflats and water. The sensitive intertidal zone is part of the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve. Birdlife and seals are supported here. We then continued down the main road to Alnwick, home of Barter Books. Housed within the old station building (services ceased in 1968), the second-hand bookshop is one of the largest in Europe and over 350,000 people visit each year. Open every day apart from Christmas, the stock is huge and many subjects are represented. From cheap paperback novels to antique volumes, you are sure to find something of interest. Hot food is served in the old waiting rooms. You could easily spend hours perusing the high shelving units. What are you waiting for? There are even model trains running around an overhead circuit! I picked up the prize-winning novel We need to talk about Kevin (which became a major film) and a travelogue investigating the current state of play with the Irish language. A man of diverse literary tastes I am. Our ensuite accommodation was room only, although we did have the use of a kettle. It would be a weekend of supermarket meal deals and porridge pots for breakfast, but I can handle that. Our quarters were comfortable and the host friendly. The plan for Friday was a drive out to Holy Island (also known as Lindisfarne), linked to the mainland by a causeway. We had been here a few years beforehand but planned to explore more of the ancient religious site. Access is determined by the changing tides and a morning trip was feasible.

Visitors are requested not to drive into the historic village and use the large public car park on the fringe instead. Holy Island is arguably the cradle of Christianity in England and it remains a place of pilgrimage in the 21st century. St Aidan and St Cuthbert were instrumental in founding the community and the latter is commemorated by the 62-mile St Cuthbert's Way - a walking trail across varied terrain, starting at Melrose Abbey in Scotland, where Cuthbert began his religious career, and finishing here on Lindisfarne. Indeed, we had spotted the wooden poles marking the way across the sands (pilgrims often do the final stage barefoot). There was also an emergency shelter on stilts for those who misjudge the tide times. The early Anglo-Saxon monastery was largely abandoned in the late ninth century due to Viking raids. Monks from Durham Cathedral founded a priory in 1093 and built a magnificent stone church, the remains of which are still visible today. We bought takeaway food from the village store and ate lunch on a bench overlooking the harbour, before walking round to the imposing castle. We encountered a birding group from Cumbria on an organised trip. The island and wider reserve contains half the world's population of Brent geese. A total of 50,000 ducks, geese and waders spend the autumn and winter in the area. Built atop a high rock, the 16th-century castle was garrisoned by government forces until 1893. It was strategically important during the English Civil War and Jacobite Rebellion, being briefly captured during the latter conflict. In later years, the fortification was used as a coastguard look-out station and by the turn of the 20th century, had been purchased by publishing magnate Edward Hudson as a private holiday home. Extensive renovations were carried out during this period. After changing hands a couple of times, the castle and gardens were absorbed by the National Trust in 1944. The building was still closed for the winter and we headed back towards the village. I had a look at the ruined 12th-century priory, now in the care of English Heritage. It too had yet to open for the spring but I could see the entire sight from behind the fence, including the precarious rainbow arch, which survived the collapse of the central tower. The priory fell into disrepair following the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 under King Henry VIII. Next door is the functioning St Mary's Church. Dating from between 1180 and 1300, it is the oldest building on the island still fully standing.

After the demise of the priory, St Mary's continued as a reformed parish church. A life-size elm sculpture (carved by chainsaw) entitled "Journey" stands in the south aisle. It shows six hooded monks taking St Cuthbert's coffin to Durham, where his shrine is located. The move occurred due to the threat of Viking invasion. We left the island before the tide returned and drove along to Bamburgh, where we parked by the sand dunes and had a breezy stroll along the beach. Our final port of call for the day was the border village of Norham, just a few miles from our accommodation. Sitting on the English side of the River Tweed, Norham has a couple of pubs and shops. We drove over the stone bridge to Scotland and parked for a short while. The crossing is one of three along the stretch of water that forms the frontier. Back on the other side, we stopped at Norham Castle (pictured below) for a quick look. Built and developed by successive bishops of Durham to monitor the lawless Anglo-Scottish border region, which sometimes erupted into open conflict. The defence post suffered serious damage in a 1513 raid led by King James IV of Scotland. The castle was forced to surrender but James was slain just weeks later at the Battle of Flodden and Norham reverted to English rule. The eventual Union of the Crowns in 1603 saw the castle lose importance and it gradually fell into decay. After passing through many hands, the ruins were place in the care of the state in 1923 and are now looked after by English Heritage. On Saturday morning we headed into Berwick town centre. Nicole wanted to visit a paper shop (for artwork, not a newsagent) and I picked up a couple of local ales from the delicatessen a few doors down. We found a traditional greasy spoon for breakfast. It had a Scotland/England theme and we scribbled out postcards to our folks after demolishing a large fry-up. After a walk along the High Street and a stroll by the Tweed (the river is wholly in England here), we decided to go back to the Holy Island causeway to get up close and personal with the wading birds. There are a few lay-bys where you can safely pull over for a while. The thin strip of tarmac passing through the vast salt flats takes you on a nature journey. Birds appear clearly in your binoculars that would be vague specks when viewed from the shore. Back down the A1 at Fenham, we were driving on the narrow unclassified road to the bird hide when a group of partridges hopped out of the vegetation. Even better, they were the native grey, rather than the introduced red. Our first sighting of this increasingly scarce game bird.

The grey partridge flies with whirring wings and has a distinctive orange face. Despite the famous Christmas song, they are very unlikely to be found in a pear (or any other) tree, preferring to spend most of their time on the ground, eating a diet of leaves, seeds and insects. Once very common and widespread throughout Britain, our indigenous partridge has suffered serious decline and is now a Red List species. The intensification of farming practices has caused habitat loss and a reduction of insects as a food source. A sad but familiar countryside tale. A little robin watched us as we parked up and paid another visit to the hide. The final day of our holiday involved a National Trust property around 40 miles to the south of where we were staying. Cragside is described as the original "smart home" and the large mansion is surrounded by substantial grounds. William and Margaret Armstrong experimented with hydro-electricity and powered the estate with their own generators. Hydraulics drove machinery on tenant farms and a network of telephone wires enabled swift communication among the workforce. The big house was complete by 1882 and featured electric light, gravity-fed plumbing, central heating and water-powered gadgets - an unrivalled level of comfort. The entry price was £25 per person but you really get your money's worth. The scenery is breathtaking, the gardens are beautiful and the history of the entire place is fascinating. William Armstrong (1810-1900) was an engineer and industrialist who made a vast fortune from his development of hydraulic systems. He is also regarded as the father of modern artillery. Margaret Armstrong (1807-1893) had extensive botanical knowledge and she oversaw the planting of the estate flora. Cragside is obviously a popular attraction and thronged with visitors. The house was around a quarter mile from the car-park and gradually came into view through the trees. A self-guided tour started in the kitchen, which featured a water-powered roasting spit and a hand-cranked dumb waiter. There was even a prototype dishwasher positioned over the sink. Cragside's vegetable gardens and banks of heated glasshouses supplied fresh produce for most of the year. The Armstrongs were fabulously wealthy and liked to entertain. The rooms were exquisitely furnished and a huge private art collection was displayed throughout. It was the first property in the world to be exclusively lit by hydro-electricity and the library could be used round the clock for reading, writing letters and playing cards. This room was the first in the country to be illuminated by Joseph Swan's newly-invented incandescent light bulbs.

Luxurious Turkish baths were installed in the house and we admired the impressively tiled plunge pool. The Armstrongs had connections to the Japanese elite and many treasures from the far east are on display. The Crown Prince of Japan visited Cragside in 1953. The house has its own art gallery and I was delighted to see a painting that featured four cats. Normally dogs rule the roost in this respect. There was also a stuffed buzzard inside a glass case. William and Margaret collected work from contemporary British artists such as Leighton, Rossetti and Turner. Sadly, much of the portfolio was sold in 1910 to pay off debts incurred by Cragside's heir, William Watson-Armstrong, great nephew of the first laird. A series of misguided investments caused the financial problem. The family also resided at Bamburgh Castle, which had been purchased in 1894 and restored. Cragside itself had started out as a small hunting lodge retreat, but was extended in several phases, overseen by famed architect Norman Shaw. The house is built on a rocky outcrop and William Armstrong was familiar with the area from boyhood holidays. It was the perfect country retreat from the bustle of Newcastle, where Armstrong's engineering works was based. Considering be built the hydraulic mechanism that controls the famous Tower Bridge in London, Armstrong remains one of our least celebrated industrial thinkers. The drawing room has a colossal marble fireplace, running six metres from floor to ceiling and apparently weighing 10 tons. Guests from all over the world were entertained here, including the Royal Family. We passed through the billiard room, which featured heated seats. Unusually for the time, Armstrong did nor permit smoking indoors. The Owl Suite was refurbished in preparation for a visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1884. Hot and cold running water was installed in every room and a sunken bathtub was fitted, along with a private water closet for royal use only. It was a mark of Armstrong's reputation that the future King Edward VIII chose to stay in the home of an industrial magnate, who had not yet been made a lord. We thoroughly enjoyed the house tour. The innovative fixtures certainly spiced up the tramp from one palatial room to the next. Back outside, we crossed over the 45-metre iron bridge spanning the gorge containing the Debdon Burn. A six-mile carriage drive was built through the rugged terrain and an enormous rock garden and pinetum ringed the house. The estate has an astonishing 40-mile network of footpaths. Hydro electric power still lights the house today, generated by an Archimedes screw constructed in 2014. Cragside was acquired by the National Trust in 1977 after the 3rd Baron Armstrong gave the estate to the British government in lieu of death duties (he chose to live at Bamburgh Castle instead). Cragside now attracts a quarter of a million visitors each year. I followed the burn downstream as I wanted to visit the power house, while Nicole headed over to the café and giftshop.

Armstrong piped water from the estate lakes to drive the turbines and generate electricity. As often happens with new and successful technological schemes, demand began to outstrip supply. To bridge the gap, a gas-fired engine was added in 1895. It ensured a steady supply of energy at peak times. Armstrong established a gasworks in the nearby village of Rothbury, which also benefitted the residents there. A battery house (charged by dynamo ) was built to store an emergency power supply, should all else fail. Armstrong firmly believed the country needed sources of energy other than coal. He was definitely ahead of his time in this respect. Additional artificial lakes were dug on the highest parts of the estate to keep up with the rising need for extra hydro power as the house was regularly extended. The generating station was staffed at all times and linked by telephone to the mansion and other outbuildings. Cragside was finally connected to mains electricity during WW2 when the estate was requestioned by the armed forces and used as an army barracks. I hiked up to the formal gardens, passing the ornate clock tower that formerly chimed at various stages of the day (Armstrong was a stickler for good timekeeping). One large glasshouse remains but is in need of urgent repair. The others were demolished in the 1920s. Growing conditions could be optimised by opening vents and rotating the plant-pots in order to ensure even exposure to the sun. I wandered back to the cobbled courtyard where Nicole was enjoying a coffee. We browsed the souvenirs and made plans to head for home. Cragside is a fascinating day out and the experience led to us signing up as members of the National Trust for Scotland.

Kellie Castle

Fife has a handful of National Trust properties. Armed with our recently acquired membership card, we set out to visit Kellie Castle in the north of the Kingdom. On the way, we stopped for an American Breakfast at the Glenrothes Wetherspoons and I even discovered a couple of new villages as we detoured around Leven, where extensive roadworks were in full swing. It was the opening weekend of the season for the castle and attached gardens. We arrived early and were offered a guided tour straight away.

Parts of the building date back to 1360 but the castle was completely remodelled in the late 19th century as a family home. The Lorimers spent their first night here in 1878 and their association with the 16-acre estate spanned a century. The T-shaped structure began life as a single tower house and has undergone countless additions and remodelling. Today's castle has three towers from different eras, with a central section connecting them. Various dynasties occupied the land until 1797, when no heir could be traced. The castle fell into disrepair until Professor James Lorimer acquired a long lease and sanctioned restoration works. The surrounding woodland now provides a home for foxes, badgers, roe deer and nesting buzzards. In springtime and early summer, the pathways run through a colourful carpet of flowers. An adventure playground is provided for the kiddies. Lorimer lectured in public law at Edinburgh University and his son Robert became a prolific architect - knighted for his achievements, which included the sensitive rebuilding of historic Scottish stately homes. His brother John Henry Lorimer became an acclaimed painter. Sir Robert's son, Hew Lorimer, found fame as a sculptor and purchased Kellie Castle in 1948 with his wife Mary. The estate was sold to the National Trust in 1970, with Huw and Mary retaining their own living quarters. The stable block was used as Huw's studio. This workplace can still be viewed today. The Trust purchased the Lorimer family artefacts in 1998 and many can be viewed during the castle tour. I marvelled at the intricate plasterwork on the ceilings and admired the various paintings, one by John Henry himself. After exiting the castle apartments, we popped round to the tearoom and enjoyed a cup of coffee at a table in the courtyard. You can also sit at the front of the castle and enjoy the vista across the meadow down to the sea. It was a fine morning and we bumped into Saffron and Dougie - two members of staff from our local RSPB reserve at Loch Leven. They are also National Trust members and we proceeded into the organic walled garden together. Filled with an array of fruit, vegetables and flowers, the large compound has many secluded spots and a selection of pot plants were on sale by the summerhouse. Fresh produce is also available for purchase at the relevant times of year. A great place to relax and appreciate the tranquillity. At one time, the garden would have supplied the kitchen in the big house.

Our aim is to average one National Trust location per month. This makes the membership fee worthwhile and allows you to learn about our heritage. In a nature depleted country, these vast estates provided a sanctuary for wildlife. We drove into nearby Anstruther but the seaside car parks were choc-a-block and instead we bought some food from the Co-op on the edge of town. A very pleasant day.