Windsor

Bidston Hill, Birkenhead, Wirral

Bidston Observatory

Focus Point 8 on the Heritage Trail

This beautiful grade-II listed building sits proudly on the ridge of the hill watching over the Windmill, Park Wood and Bidston Village. It is visible from both Wales and Liverpool.

The Observatory was built in 1866 when Liverpool Observatory had to relocate due to the expansion of Waterloo Docks. The building was made using the stone mined during the creation of the cellars, the deepest of which (36 feet or 10.97 meters) maintains a constant cool temperature. Over the last 140 years the Observatory has undertaken a diversity of tasks, many of ground-breaking importance.

The Lighthouse

Focus Point 9 on the Heritage Trail

Bidston’s first lighthouse was built in 1771 as a replacement for a previous lighthouse situated a quarter of a mile out to sea at Leasowe. The remaining lighthouse at Leasowe (which still stands today) and the new lighthouse on Bidston Hill were known as the “Sea Lights”. Together they provided a leading line to guide ships through the Horse Channel, a safe passage between the treacherous sandbanks of Liverpool Bay. The building was 55 feet high and had five floors. The top floor was the lantern room which contained a single parabolic mirror (a bowl-shaped mirror which focuses the light from the lamp into a powerful beam) 12 feet across. The parabolic reflector was invented by William Hutchinson, Liverpool’s Dockmaster. Bidston’s reflector was the largest of its kind and one of the first to be installed in an operational lighthouse. The lantern burned a gallon of oil every four hours and could been seen twenty-one nautical miles out to sea. 

The lighthouse is now privately owned and is often open to the public. It has its own web site.

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Portmeirion

Bremen, Germany

The City Municipality of Bremen

Museums

Llandudno, August 2013

Gold Wing Light Parade     in Llandudno

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Stuart's GOLDEN WING

Llandudno Toboggan Run at Ski Centre

Belgium 2013

Day 5, Visit the Scottish Highlands

Day 4, Skye

 the Isle of Skye

At 1,656 square kilometres (639 sq mi), Skye is the second-largest island in Scotland after Lewis and Harris. The coastline of Skye is a series of peninsulas and bays radiating out from a centre dominated by the Cuillin hills (Gaelic:An Cuiltheann). Malcolm Slesser suggested that its shape "sticks out of the west coast of northern Scotland like a lobster's claw ready to snap at the fish bone of Harris and Lewis" and W. H. Murray, commenting on its irregular coastline, stated that "Skye is sixty miles long, but what might be its breadth is beyond the ingenuity of man to state".

The Kyle Railway Line

Having done the other lines, this is certainly the one, that does the sea and mountains of Scotland best. There are some truly stunning views.

The Skye Bridge

TATE ;)

The weather could have been better, but the view were great.

The scenery was stunning with one mountain after another. The whole trip was one eye opening sight after another.The young lady selling the certificates to raise money to rebuild a signal box was so knowledgeable and a pleasure to listen to.

Poems Of Skye

A Summer in Skye In 1864 Alexander Smith, poet and essayist, spent six weeks on the island of Skye. Inspired by his stay, this prose poem celebrates his life, the life around him and the history and nature of the island.

Magical Isle of Skye ©

Sonja Nic Rafferty 

Germany 

2005 

 Once again I walked on Scotland’s hills and glens 

The magic of my ancestors’ myths pulls me like no other land 

Now being back in the country of my birth nothing left than to pen 

Still feeling the sand of a white beach in my hand 

I took the Highland bus to Inverness and then to Portree 

The Isle of Skye touched every corner of my Celtic heart 

For I spotted a breathtaking landscape in front of me 

My soul was ripped into pieces because I didn’t want to depart 

So I greet you from across the mighty deep ocean 

How I miss the seagulls cry high above the bay 

When I will hear it again I haven’t the faintest notion 

Oh, I trust my innermost feelings never ever betray 

Magical Isle of Skye please invite me again next summer 

At the end of your rainbow must be a wonderland 

Rescue me from always being the sad latecomer 

I just have to come back and discover more of my fatherland 

In the moment I only can paint pictures of my memories 

Of the sunset on the Isle of Skye and the dark blue sea 

Teach me more about the Scottish history of past centuries 

Today I cannot imagine another isle where I would prefer to be