As I hope this issue once again shows, we are spoiled for choice living in the British Isles. There are so many wonderful destinations to visit, whether on a staycation or visiting from overseas, and I hope our magazine will inspire you to extend your holiday - or book another! Highlights this issue include a wonderful 48 hours in Alderney, an epic journey through the heart of Scotland, from Edinburgh to the Caledonian Forest, and finding utter bliss at the new idyllic riverside luxury estate, Monkey Island, near Bray.
TAKE A WALK THROUGH OLD TOWN Edinburgh from Calton Hill is one of the most-photographed images of the “Athens of the North”. In the foreground stands a neoclassical memorial to the Enlightenment philosopher, Dugald Stewart. Down below rises an eighteenth-century new town that Edinburgh’s idealists built once it was safe to expand beyond the ancient fortifications. Walk down Calton Hill onto Regent Road at sunset and the view before you is as rich as any oil painting. Beyond Waterloo Place and all the way down Princes Street, spire after spire rises in the orange glow. Nearest are the towers of the Balmoral Hotel, then the spire of the soaring memorial to Sir Walter Scott, and beyond them the steeples of six or seven churches heading west out of the city. By day the Scott Memorial dominates this side of Edinburgh. The great novelist sits larger than life, in carved white marble beneath a huge, blackened gothic canopy that is reminiscent of London’s Albert Memorial but 25 feet taller still. Scott’s novels did so much to reinvent Scottish identity and boost Scottish self-respect after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellious army in 1745. Surely Edinburgh is unique in having its main railway station – Waverley – named after a literary character? (Edward Waverley was the hero of Sir Walter’s first novel.) The memorial overlooks parkland that was once a loch at the base of Edinburgh castle. It’s situated on Princes Street, named after the future George IV who, as Prince Regent visited Edinburgh in 1819. George was deeply unpopular in England at the time of his journey north but as the first member of the British royal family to pay a visit to Scotland since the humiliating defeat of 1745 he was overwhelmed by the enthusiastic reception he received from the people of Edinburgh. George’s niece, the much more popular Queen Victoria, is celebrated above the portal of the Scottish National Gallery which lies 150 yards further down Princes Street. By the time this Athenian-looking temple to the arts was opened in 1859 the British royal family had not just forgiven Scotland’s uprising but bought themselves a holiday home – Balmoral Castle – in the Highlands. Turn left to walk past the two single-storey neoclassical buildings that house the national collection and you will come to the Playfair Steps. These rise steeply up from the gallery towards New College, a medieval-looking divinity school beneath the castle. Both the college, the National Gallery and the steps that link them were designed by William Henry Playfair (1790 – 1857). Playfair’s work encompassed both the Athenian style of Calton Hill and the National Gallery and the turreted gothic style that was championed by Sir Walter Scott and those who read his novels and yearned for Scotland’s medieval past. At the top of the steps follow signs to Lady Stair’s Close. The narrow path passes under one of Edinburgh’s à BritishTravelJournal.com 85
