Knitting and Stitching Show at the Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh
(http://www.theknittingandstitchingshow.com/edinburgh/)
Are you interested? We are arranging a mini-bus from the Castle Douglas area to go. If we can get over 10 we will get a discounted ticket for £10, and the minibus will cost £10.
Please contact Helen Bullock using our contact form if you are interested.
The Stewartry U3A bird watching group visited the hides at Threave Castle, near Castle Douglas to look for the first of the winter arrivals. A few skeins of geese were spotted as they flew south.
A select group met farmer Matthew Taylor to go around the site of the Edingham Munitions factory near Dalbeattie. This 300 acres site was used during World War 2 to manufacture cordite and nitro-glycerine. Many buildings still remain and also many of them are dug into the earth at the bottom of pits. These huge pits were all dug by Irish navvies who stayed on site, but the workers came in on the train as the old Dumfries to Stranraer line runs through the site and was one the main reasons it was located here.
It is a strenuous walk as most the area is now overgrown and only used for grazing cattle. Matthew told us many stories about the site which was purchased from his grandfather. It is still used for Army and Police training and is not open to the public – although there was evidence of some occupation by campers in the highly claustrophobic bomb shelter which Matthew’s aunt and father hated to go into during the raids.
We then moved on to the Newbarns archaeological dig where Jenny Roberts and her team are excavating three Bronze Age Burial Cairns. We are lucky that Jenny is part of our History Group and was able to make the site come to life. The main problem is getting the manpower to maintain the site and we could see that areas excavated only last year were already overgrown. The site also suffers from flooding from the local loch so some areas have never been excavated. Jenny also showed us some of the treasures that have been recovered from the cairns such as a horse bell and arrow heads.
The cremation pits (illustrated) are numerous and change size depending on the date when they were dug. Jenny is looking for volunteers to help excavate more of the site!
Ignoring the forecast of heavy rain Gardening Group 1 set off to visit two gardens in the Caulkerbush area which they had not visited before. The first garden was the Glensone Walled Garden located up on the hill above Caulkerbush with wonderful views of the Solway and Cumbrian Fells, in good weather but not on the day of the visit. Mr and Mrs Millar, the owners, took the group round the garden which they had cleared and replanted over the last thirty years. There is now had a wonderful selection of herbaceous plants, fruit bushes, apple trees and a prolific vegetable area.
Unfortunately while at the garden the very heavy rain started to fall and the group moved on to the Flower Festival being held in the lovely Norman style Southwick Church in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the church. This was an added bonus to the outing. The church was decorated with glorious themed floral arrangements at each of the windows and throughout the church. The tribute to the fallen of the Somme was particularly poignant.
In the afternoon, after lunch at Treats and Eats in Colvend, it was on to the extensive garden at Southwick House where the group were taken round by the gardener Robert Lyle and David his assistant. Again when visiting the formal walled garden the heavens opened but being wet if not soaked by now the group continued to the hedged garden with more flower beds and rose beds around an old lily pond where water lilies were in flower. The large glasshouse had fruit, vegetables and flowers including a hibiscus plant. The highlight of this visit was finding that the mature tulip tree was in flower with small, delicate flowers. The group passed the many new tree plantings around the large ponds before heading to the house for a welcome cup of tea.
A group of enthusiastic gardeners visited Dawyck Botanic gardens near Peebles to enjoy the spring colours.
The journey to the garden in brilliant sunshine was on A701 past the Devil’s Beef Tub, often mentioned by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, in his books. There was a welcome cup of coffee in the very pleasant café on arrival and in which members later had lunch- even being able to sit outside in the sunshine. The plant sale area was well supported!
Thomas Gifford, one of the garden supervisors took the group round the garden which was handed over to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1979. He described enthusiastically the work which the five staff have to carry out to maintain and develop the garden, including clearing any damage caused by the high winds which can bring down even very mature trees. When there is a heavy snow fall the staff go out with brooms to try to knock as much as they can off bushes to try to stop it breaking them or causing frost damage.
Although a couple of weeks early for some of the azaleas there were rhododendrons and other shrubs in flower, masses of bluebells below the trees and trilliums of different colours. The meconopsis were just starting to come into flower.
The garden which is more of a woodland garden or arboretum has a tree trail with many trees planted in the mid nineteenth century from seeds brought back by the plant hunters including David Douglas. There are huge specimens of sequoias, cypresses and oaks. A wonderful garden and worth a visit!
The rainy afternoon on Sunday 19th July didn’t quell the enthusiasm of 150 Stewartry U3A members and friends as they gathered at Castle Douglas Parish Church for a concert by the Solway Sinfonietta. The event started with strawberries and fizz in the Church Hall where we were ably entertained by the U3A Ukulele Group’s sunny sing along songs.
Their cheerful and enthusiastic presentation of them was an ideal antidote for the gloom outside, and provided a welcoming prelude to the subsequent concert in the Church.
Solway Sinfonietta conductor Geoff Keating introduced a delightful programme including Albinoni, Handle, Mozart, Sibelius, Frank Bridge and Peter Warlock with insights into each piece which enhanced the enjoyment. The Galloway Mountain Rescue Team were on hand with demonstrations of their equipment and will benefit from the orchestra’s proceeds from the event.
Members of a Stewartry U3A Gardening Group visited Corsock House Garden on Friday 13 May, the first of their summer visits. The garden was at its Spring best with rhododendrons and azaleas in full flower with colours ranging from white to orange to yellow to purple and red . The many trees were just coming into leaf giving a wonderful backdrop to the colours below.
The group was escorted round the garden and woodland walk by Jamie Sessford, head gardener who, in addition to identifying the various shrubs and plants, explained the changes he is undertaking in the garden and the remedial work following the damage caused by winter flooding.
Members of the group were attracted by the animal statuary throughout the garden even stroking the lion. The baby hippo was thought to be the favourite!
Corsock House Garden is open to the public under Scotland’s Gardens on May 29 2016.
Early on a cloudless Spring morning members of the Arts and Crafts Movement Study Group set out for Kendal on a trip organised by Vanessa Enos to see furniture made by Arthur Simpson and to hear a talk about him by his biographer Hugh Wright.
We were doubly fortunate because staff at Abbot Hall Gallery allowed us to examine items in the reserve collections. We were taken to a private house whose owner has a large collection of fine pieces from the Simpson workshop and in the parish church we saw exquisite examples of the firm’s delicate ecclesiastical work.
It was particularly interesting to be able to compare Simpson’s work with that of Stanley Webb Davies of Windermere, an arts and crafts furniture maker of the next generation. Simpson’s reputation based on the excellence of his naturalistic wood carving is secure but his lack of formal training as a furniture maker is made obvious when his work is compared to that of Davies.
Some of us found time to see Rembrandt’s last Self Portrait, currently in Abbot Hall Gallery and on tour in the UK and Romney’s wonderful painting of the Gower children which captured the movement of dance as vividly as Matisse two hundred years earlier.
Dumfries House near Cumnock combines the neoclassical architecture of Robert Adam with the furniture of Thomas Chippendale and leading 18th-Century Scottish cabinet makers.
The 5 acre walled garden has been recently restored and there is a new formal garden design framing the front of the house. There is a new 500+ tree arboretum and lovely woodland walks.
We will leave Kirkcudbright Harbour Square at 9.00 a.m. and Castle Douglas Market Hill Car Park (coach stop outside Crown Hotel in King Street) at 9.20 a.m. We will return at about 4.30 to 5.00 p.m.
We have booked the guided tour of the house for 1.00 pm (note that there are only 20 places on that tour, there is another tour at 2.00 pm but not yet booked). There will be time to visit the grounds and have lunch beforehand.
The cost for the coach is £16, entrance and guided tour £9.00. The Coach House Café serves cold snacks or a light lunch.
If you are interested in this trip, and have NOT already been in touch please supply your name(s), email address, mobile phone number and whether you would like to be picked up in Kirkcudbright or Castle Douglas using our contact form
So many people said that they had never explored historic Carlisle that we arranged a visit on a blustery day in April.
We started at the Castle and were delighted that English Heritage’s site manager John Bonner was available to show us round. We spent 2 glorious hours exploring the most besieged castle in Britain. When you walk in to the outer ward you realise that it is still very much a working castle with a strong military presence and barracks named after various battles fought in by the Border regiments.
The
highlight is the keep, which hasn’t changed much since it was constructed in the 12th Century. We were lucky to be able to see the “Prisoners’ Carvings” close up and explore the cells (all of which are normally not accessible). John explained that these carvings were more probably the work of a jailer, as they show some knowledge of local nobility and heraldry.
We heard a lot about a Moravian engineer Stephan von Haschenperg, who seems to have been inept to the extreme when he built additional fortifications. Of course Mary Queen of Scots was the last royal resident of the castle paid for by Elizabeth 1.
After the Castle tour, the group split up and some visited Tullie House Museum, the Cathedral and other local sites. Tullie House Museum currently has a marvellous exhibition of Cumbrian artists and new permanent galleries of the Borders Reivers and Vikings. Old Tullie House has permanent galleries of its nationally important collection of pre-Raphaelite art. We can also recommend the excellent café which we certainly needed after absorbing so much local history.
If you haven’t visited historic Carlisle recently, we can certainly recommend it for a day out, especially if you have visitors. It is all a few minutes’ walk from the Main Citadel station and within a very compact area.