navelgazing.omphaloskeptic.net Journal

Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

< Previous: Hopping between museums | Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue | Next: To Edinburgh >

Stirling and Sharmanka Stirling, Scotland, Sunday, 02 August 2015 11:44pm

An excursion by ScotRail out to Stirling Castle today. It was a nice day trip. There were a lot of great views from the castle on its crag commanding the lowlands around the River Forth. Since it's summer in Scotland, half of the time those views were obscured by rainclouds and fog, of course. The castle itself played a pivotal role in several episodes of British history, as the English and Scottish crowns jockeyed for control over Scotland.

The audio guide did a good job of explaining a lot of the symbolism in the decoration, and there were interactive exhibits that explained what the castle would have looked like when it was built (layers of plaster and paint have since weathered off, and all that remains is stone).

Back in Glasgow, we went to the Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, which is a collection of "kinemats", sculptures with motors built into them, with lighting and music creating something like a mechanical circus or a very elaborate collection of cuckoo clocks.