Cultural Visits

[lewist]

Nick and I have spent the day at Culloden Battlefield, site of the last battle on British soil in 1746. We had a really good day at this NTS property.

It would be good to hear about other interesting cultural visits people make. For example, thundril, what about your visit to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow? We visited when we had a meetup in Glasgow.

[Sel]

heh...this Canuck has been to Culloden.

A lot of names from that battle can be found in my birthplace in Nova Scotia: Campbell, Sutherland. Grant, MacKay, Gunn, MacLean, MAcDonald, MacLeod and Munroe and many more. They left Scotland as a direct result of the Culloden loss and ensuing British rule. The first lot arrived on the Hector in Pictou NS on Sept 15, 1773.

I am a direct descendant of the Macleods of the Isle of Skye and the warring MacNabb clan.

[Sel]

So in answer to where could you go...how about Pictou Nova Scotia to follow the history of the immigrants there?

[Dave B]

Ah, hmm, Novia Scotia, mmm, New Scotland. Ah that's it, one of those obvious things one never really outs together in one's mind until the last bit of the jigsaw is put into place (know virtually nothing of Canadian history).

[petemster]

Culloden Battlefield : I've only been there once, and that was about 45 years ago -
nothing like the new visitor centre then !

It was a nice clear morning, my hillwalking friend and I walked on the moor -
no visitors or anyone around and, much to my surprise and disbelief, there was a distinct and
powerful atmosphere of deep pain and sadness. Very, very spooky.

[petemster]

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery :

My wife and I live about twenty-five minutes walk from here.
We do visit occasionally for a look round and for coffee and cake.

Off the top of my head, I find that it's my first impressions, as a youngster,
that are the most lasting.

Regarding the paintings, these can be a bit hard going unless you have a
particular interest in them.
By far the most striking and popular is the "Christ of Saint John of the Cross"
by Salvador Dali. It required significant restoration work back in 1961
after being attacked by a nutter. . . . Hmm.

In the museum the big stuffed animals were awesome, in the days before Longleat etc.

The glass beehive was amazing, where the bees entered through a hole in the wall.
It was missing for a few years but it's back again by popular demand.

For me, one of the most interesting exhibits was the Ghost Dance Shirt that had belonged
to a Lakota warrior at Wounded Knee. These were the shirts that had the power to
protect the wearer from ememy weapons, and you could clearly see the hole made by
the bullet that killed this guy during the massacre.
The Ghost Shirt and other artefacts were quite legiimately acquired by Glasgow in 1892
or thereabouts during a visit by Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, but they were returned
to the Lakota People following a request in 1999.

So what about the Kelvin Marbles ? . . . Aah. Hmm.

[animist]

this is quite an uninteresting response to the above. I went to Culloden in 2008 and am constantly wondering now how the Jacobites could have imagined that running over a boggy terrain could ever have won them the battle.

The next year I went to the Sutton Hoo exhibition in Suffolk, and TBH I would NOT recommend this - there was virtually nothing to see in the way of actual relics (the site is of a ship burial but the ship has rotted away), and almost everything on show was instead fabricated