Having returned from the Horton and Port Eynon RNLI station, we set off again in the opposite direction for this Taste of Gower walk and visited The Old Salt House which stands on the rocks at the southern end of the beach. Originally used, as the name suggests, to harvest sea salt, the building is now in ruins but has an interesting history which can be read at the link above.
View from a musket loop in The Salt House at Port Eynon
Before my walk this week on a planned day out in Edinburgh, I asked my uncle what might be the best thing to go see and he answered “Just go and see the place itself – it is all on different levels and that is one of it’s main attractions as a city“.
Water of Leith
At the entrance to the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art – Modern 1, we were met by this figure emerging from the pavement! This work is by Anthony Gormley and although one of the main exhibitions in gallery at the time was by Bridget Riley, as with Modern 2, there were other interesting things to be seen as well, including the building and its grounds.
Both Modern 1 and Modern 2 have mural projects in their stairwells – in Modern 1 it is a Douglas Gordan piece which lists all the people he could remember ever having met. The list stretches from the ground floor to the roof and looking over the banister gave me quite a woozy feeling.
We were lucky with the weather on our visit to Edinburgh and the light played a part in the art of this building just as it did in Modern 2.
Anthony Gormley sculpture
My walk this week takes place in Scotland. While on holiday there in the south west, we took a day trip to Edinburgh and returned via The Helix Park at Falkirk to see The Kelpies for ourselves, but more on them later in the week.
It is about 35 years since I was last in Edinburgh despite having been born there. It was a 2.5 hour drive to get there and we didn’t want to spoil things by trying to do too much. So we decided on two venues close together and a short walk in the city centre. The venues were both the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art – Modern One and Modern Two.
Modern 2 – the main exhibition was of drawing by Joseph Beuys, a very interesting show but it was essential to read all the accompanying notes in order to have any understanding of the work itself and how it related to his performance art. The museum itself is what my photos below focus on and it, too, was a fascinating place though with low light levels and a warm day, it felt rather stuffy and claustrophobic.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 – Stairwell Project by Richard Wright
With a final look across the landscape from inside Cairnholy chambered tomb and a last look back at its standing stones, we descended back down the lane through woodland to the car. If you are ever in Galloway, StillWalks Scotland and enjoy the neolithic era of burial architecture, this is a site worth visiting. Don’t let bad weather put you off, it’s worth it in the rain as well as the sunshine.
Looking out
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Back at the start of my walk this week and you can listen to the soundscape while viewing the images. The image below shows two parts of the same alleyway – despite the graffiti the walkthrough is kept pretty clean.
Hereford City Walk Soundscape
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Returning towards the starting point of my walk this week I passed All Saints Church of England church (which is also a cafe) and admired the stonework of the architecture. The patterns and textures of old stone combined with the insertion of more recent stone worked well for me. I was going to take a detail shot of some of the patterns and as I was selecting my angle a person slipped into the frame and huddled in the corner of the church for a smoke.
This is a distinct feature of any modern cityscape in Britain today – individuals or small groups of smokers huddling in corners to keep out of the wind or rain – it seems to me to defeat the purpose and is what enabled me to give up after our first child was born. Giving up smoking is not an easy thing to do but going outside every time I wanted a cigarette certainly helped me to do so. Good luck to those of you who are trying.
Church wall and smoker
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Not so much ignoring the signs as cropping them out – all these photos required me to either choose an angle or make a crop that avoided the inevitable street signs for restricted parking, no entry, and restricted access. I couldn’t avoid the cars and I didn’t want to avoid the peeling paint of the gable end brick wall to this building of formal design that is typical of this part of Hereford City centre.
I like the patterns, colours and textures of the wall at least as much as I do the flower displays.
Hereford Houses
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