TRAINSPOTTING TOURS AND RENNIE MACKINTOSH PAINTINGS IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

After the announcement last year that Edinburgh has gained recognition from UNESCO as the world’s first City of Literature – the city is associated with such luminaries as Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson — come tours which dwell on the Scottish capital’s contemporary literary scene.

Trainspotting Tours, set up by former prison chaplain Tim Bell, focus on the works of Irvine Welsh. They take in some of the local sights of Leith, where the 1993 novel “Trainspotting” (now translated into more than 30 languages) is set, starting at the Port O’ Leith Bar, immortalised in Welsh’s “Porno”. Not recommended for children, the tours, which cost £8 and run regularly until December, depict the gritty port of the 1980s with good humour and bring the literature to life.
Website: www.leithwalks.co.uk

CHESHIRE GARDEN RESTORED TO FORMER GLORY
A walled garden in Cheshire, north-west England has been restored to its heyday appearance at the end of the 19th century. The six acres of the Walled Gardens, a small part of Tatton Park’s extensive gardens, includes glasshouses, support buildings and yards and would have provided an extensive range of produce for the Egerton family during the height of their social prominence in the the 19th century.

The restoration has included the replanting of fruit and vegetable gardens, rebuilding of vineries, fig houses and an orchid house. A range of other buildings, including a mushroom house, fruit store, grape store and root loft are also to be seen. The last stage of the restoration is the completion of a pinery and vine house, which has stood in the walled gardens since the late 1770’s and was built to accommodate the fashion for pineapples.

The focal point of Tatton Park, 30 miles from the historic city of Chester, is a mansion and Tudor Old Hall, set in 1,000 acres of parkland with lakes, tree-lined avenues and herds of deer. It is open all year and there is an admission charge. Website: www.tattonpark.org.uk

RENNIE MACKINTOSH PAINTINGS IN EDINBURGH
A new exhibition in Edinburgh will focus on a lesser-known side of one of Scotland’s best-loved sons: Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Today celebrated as an architect and designer – much of his best work can be seen in and around Glasgow – he was also a skilled artist. The exhibition, “Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Landscape Watercolours” is at Edinburgh’s Dean Gallery, 73 Belford Road (November 26 – February 5).

Towards the end of his life, Mackintosh painted watercolours in the south of France. He completed 44 paintings during this period and the majority are being loaned to the gallery from all over the world. Admission charge not confirmed. The gallery is currently showing the work of photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 6 – October 23).

Website: www.nationalgalleries.org

July 27, 2005   Posted in: Scotland