Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds). Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC. One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882, when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust. Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings.[9] Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another 500 years.
The Roman Baths are a well-preserved thermae in the city of Bath, Somerset, England. A temple was constructed on the site between 60-70CE in the first few decades of Roman Britain. Its presence led to the development of the small Roman urban settlement known as Aquae Sulis around the site.
Nevis Range is the highest Scottish resort, with 20km of groomed runs on the north-facing slopes of Aonach Mor reaching 1190m. It has 11 lifts plus a long six-seat access gondola.
Glasgow (/'glæzgo?/, also UK: /'gl??zgo?, 'gl??sgo?/, US: /'glæsgo?, 'glæsko?/; Scots: Glesga ['glezg?]; Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu ['kl??as??xu]) is the most populous city in Scotland, and the third most populous city in the United Kingdom, as of the 2017 estimated city population of 621,020. Historically part of Lanarkshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland; the local authority is Glasgow City Council. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. It is the fifth most visited city in the UK. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as "Glaswegians" or, informally, as "Weegies". Glasgow is also known for the Glasgow patter, a distinct dialect of the Scots language that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Scotland, and tenth largest by tonnage in Britain. Expanding from the medieval bishopric and royal burgh, and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the fifteenth century, it became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. From the eighteenth century onwards, the city also grew as one of Great Britain's main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America and the West Indies. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the population and economy of Glasgow and the surrounding region expanded rapidly to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of chemicals, textiles and engineering; most notably in the shipbuilding and marine engineering industry, which produced many innovative and famous vessels. Glasgow was the "Second City of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, although many cities argue the title was theirs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Glasgow's population grew rapidly, reaching a peak of 1,127,825 people in 1938. Comprehensive urban renewal projects in the 1960s resulted in large-scale relocation of people to designated new towns, such as Cumbernauld, Livingston, East Kilbride and peripheral suburbs, followed by successive boundary changes. This process reduced the population of the City of Glasgow council area to an estimated 615,070, with 1,209,143 people living in the Greater Glasgow urban area. The wider metropolitan area is home to over 1,800,000 people, equating to around 33% of Scotland's population. The city has one of the highest densities of any locality in Scotland at 4,023/km2.
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W M Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), "...with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between", and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook, published in 1920. From the Castle gates to the Palace gates the street is almost exactly a mile (1.6 km) long and runs downhill between two significant locations in the royal history of Scotland, namely Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace, hence its name. The streets which make up the Royal Mile are (west to east) Castlehill, the Lawnmarket, the High Street, the Canongate and Abbey Strand. The Royal Mile is the busiest tourist street in the Old Town, rivalled only by Princes Street in the New Town.
Neptune's Staircase (grid reference NN113769) is a staircase lock comprising eight locks on the Caledonian Canal. Built by Thomas Telford between 1803 and 1822, it is the longest staircase lock in Britain. The system was originally hand-powered but has been converted to hydraulic operation. Neptune’s Staircase at Banavie, near Fort William just north of Loch Linnhe, is kept by Scottish Canals. It is the longest staircase lock in Britain, lifting boats 64 feet (20 m). It consists of eight locks, each 180 feet (55 m) by 40 feet (12 m), and it takes boats about 90 minutes to pass through the system. The current lock gates weigh 22 tons each, and require a team of at least three lock-keepers to operate the staircase. They usually operate on an "efficiency basis"; that is, they try either to fill each cut with ascending boats or with descending boats, or to allow for passing, i.e. a dropping craft to pass a rising craft on the same fill/empty cycle. Prior to mechanisation, the locks were operated by capstans, each with four poles, which had to make seven full revolutions to open or close a gate. Each gate leaf had two capstans, one to open it and another to close it. There were 36 capstans on the flight, and 126 revolutions were required for a boat to travel up or down the complete flight. With the advent of hydraulic rams and push-button control, transit times through the flight have been reduced from just over half a day to 90 minutes.[4] The base plinths of the original capstans can still be seen, although the capstans themselves have been removed.
The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, to Fife, at North Queensferry. It replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists and pedestrians across the Forth; railway crossings are made by the nearby Forth Bridge, opened in 1890. The Scottish Parliament voted to scrap tolls on the bridge from February 2008. The adjacent Queensferry Crossing was opened in August 2017 to carry the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth, replacing the Forth Road Bridge which had exceeded its design capacity. At its peak, the Forth Road Bridge carried 65,000 vehicles per day. The Forth Road Bridge was subsequently closed for repairs and refurbishment. It reopened in February 2018, now redesignated as a dedicated Public Transport Corridor, with access to motor vehicles other than buses and taxis restricted;[a] pedestrians and cyclists are still permitted to use the bridge.[8] Starting in or before 2021, Stagecoach Fife will be carrying out the first driverless bus trial to carry passengers in the United Kingdom along a park-and-ride route which includes the Forth Road Bridge as its main section.
Falkirk is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, 23.3 miles north-west of Edinburgh and 20.5 miles north-east of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the 2001 UK Census.
The Kelpies are 30-metre-high horse-head sculptures depicting kelpies, standing next to a new extension to the Forth and Clyde Canal, and near River Carron, in The Helix, a new parkland project built to connect 16 communities in the Falkirk Council Area, Scotland.
Windermere Lake Cruises is a boat company which provides leisure trips on Lake Windermere in the central part of the English Lake District. It is based in Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, and has supported commercial traffic for many years. In the early 19th century sailing packets operated the length of the lake carrying both passengers and goods. The first steamship on the lake, and indeed on any lake in England, was the paddle steamer Lady of the Lake, launched in 1845 for the Windermere Steam Yacht Company. In 1847 a second company, the Windermere Iron Steamboat Company, put into service the Firefly, following that by the Dragonfly in 1850. After some years of competition, the two companies merged as the Windermere United Yacht Company in 1858. This company introduced the steamers Rothay (1867) and the Swan (1869). The Rothay was the last paddle steamer built for use on the lake, with all subsequent vessels being propellor driven. In 1869 the Furness Railway opened its branch from Ulverston to Lakeside station, intended as an interchange between train and steamer at the southern end of the lake. The railway company had already purchased shares in the Windermere United Yacht Company, and in 1872 it took full control. In 1871 the Furness Railway had purchased the steam barge Raven, which in addition to carrying cargo to houses, hotels and businesses around the lake, also served as an ice-breaker for the passenger steamers. Other vessels introduced after the Furness Railway took over the yacht company include the Cygnet (1879), Teal (1879), Tern (1891), Swift (1900) and Britannia (built in 1879 and acquired second-hand in 1909). The Rothay was scrapped in 1891 and the Britannia in 1919. In 1923, with the grouping of the railways, the lake steamers came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). The LMS built two motor vessels for use on Windermere, the Teal (1936) and the Swan (1938). The Raven was sold out of service in 1927, and is now an exhibit at the Windermere Steamboat Museum, whilst the earlier Teal was scrapped in 1929 and the earlier Swan in 1938. In 1948, the Windermere steamers came under the control of the British Transport Commission as part of the nationalisation of the British railways, passing to the British Rail Board in 1963, along with all other railway related shipping services. In 1970 the British Rail shipping services were rebranded.
The Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway (L&HR) is a 3.2-mile-long (5.1 km) heritage railway in Cumbria, England. Location The L&HR runs from Haverthwaite at the southern end of the line via Newby Bridge to Lakeside at the southern end of Windermere. Some services are timed to connect with sailings of the diesel excursion vessels or steam vessels on Windermere, sailing from Lakeside to Bowness and Ambleside. Furness Railway operation of the branch line The railway is a former branch line of the Furness Railway (FR) and was opened on 1 June 1869.[1] The line was served by local passenger trains which started their journey at Ulverston on the FR's mainline from Carnforth to Barrow-in-Furness. The FR branch trains travelled east to the triangular junction at Plumpton and then turned north via Greenodd and on to stations at Haverthwaite, Newby Bridge halt and Lakeside. The FR's weekdays passenger service in July 1922 comprised eight trains in each direction. There were advertised train-to-boat connections that were established in 1869. During the summer season, excursion trains from Lancashire and elsewhere used the east-to-north side of Plumpton Junction to reach Lakeside, where their passengers joined the boat sailings on the lake. British Railways closed the line to passengers on 6 September 1965, and to all traffic two years later. A group of enthusiasts chaired by Dr Peter Beet formed the Lakeside Railway Estates Company, with the idea of preserving both the line and the former LMS 10A locomotive shed at Carnforth, to provide a complete steam operating system. However, although backed by then transport minister Barbara Castle, the need to build a number of motorway bridges and re-routing of the A590 road from Haverthwaite via Greenodd to Plumpton Junction, meant that the complete vision was unsuccessful. Beet acquired 10A in partnership with Sir William McAlpine, 6th Baronet, which became the visitor attraction Steamtown from 1967. The venture folded as a public access visitor attraction in 1987, but the preserved site was taken over by businessman David Smith to become the base for his West Coast Railway Company. Resultantly, Austin Maher became chairman of the LREC, which then re-opened the truncated 3.5-mile (5.6 km) L&HR as a heritage railway on 2 May 1973.[4] Maher and fellow L&HR director Jim Morris each bought one LMS 2-6-4T Class 4MT, Nos. 42073 (Maher) and 42085 (Morris), which eventually restored as L&HR Nos. 3 and 4 became the lines core steam power units. In fiction[edit] In Christopher Awdry's book "Thomas & Victoria", the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway is featured as the railway where Victoria worked before going to Sodor. In the Thomas the Tank Engine TV series, the railway was filmed for a series of short educational segments entitled "Down at the Station." In the adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel, Dumb Witness, by ITV for its television series, Agatha Christie's Poirot, the opening scene was filmed at the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, at the Lakeside terminus. The railway and Haverthwaite station are featured in the video to Never Went to Church by alternative hip hop band The Streets.
