The good lady is a keen gardener and when she heard that the Japanese Garden, at Cowden, Clackmannanshire was reopening after being a long time overgrown, we had to visit. The garden was first opened in 1908, but was closed to the public in 1955 and left to go to ruin. Thankfully the recent restoration is restoring the garden to its former glory.

Japanese gardens are very elegant. Despite the refurbishment still going on Cowden certainly is. There is an air of peace and harmony about the place. Japanese bridges are especially elegant. The first bridge below is by the path near the garden’s entrance. The second spans the garden’s large pond:-

Pagoda and bridge:-

Zen garden:-

Bench:-

The burn which feeds the pond:-

Path to bridge:-

Stones and ornament with bridge in background:-

Dunkeld is a village/town on the River Tay ten or so miles north of Perth. The bridge there which links Dunkeld to Birnam was built by Thomas Telford.

River Tay looking south from Telford’s bridge:-

This is a view of Telford’s bridge from the Birnam side of the river:-

And from the grounds of the town’s historic cathedral:-

The Cathedral was for a time closed to visitors but in 2018 we had a peek inside. Cathedral altar and stained glass windows:-

Just to the left in the photo above lies a memorial to the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the Scottish Horse who gave their lives in the two Great Wars. “1914 -1918, Gallipoli, Egypt, Macedonia, France. 1939 – 1945, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany.”

Below that are the words, “The souls of the righteous are in the hands of god. There shall…” the rest is obscured by the Roll of Honour. A barrier prevented me from getting any closer:-

In the square in Dunkeld itself is a memorial to the men of the Scottish Horse who died in the Boer War. I have previously mentioned it here.

Threave Garden lies just to the west of Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway and are in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.

The gardens are lovely, well worth a visit.

Pond and Japanese bridge:-

Japanese bridge (Threave House behind):-

Japanese Bridge from approaches:-

Cascade:-

I took a video of the cascade to get the full efefct:-

Threave House. I believe this is used as administration offices, now:-

Fuller view:-

Inverbervie, in Aberdeenshire, has two bridges spanning the River Bervie.

New bridge and old bridge. Old bridge to right and below:-

New bridge from start of old bridge:-

Panorama of new bridge from old bridge. The stitch doesn’t quite show the bridge’s bend:-

Old bridge from road. New bridge behind to left:-

Old bridge from new bridge:-

Son of the Rock Acres backs on to a former estate whose ‘big house’ has been turned into a hotel. There are extensive woodland walks round the place even though most of it has long since been converted into a golf course. A burn, the Back Burn, flows through it and on through the town of Markinch before eventually joining the river Leven.

I’ve just realised I’ve not really posted any pictures from the estate mainly because the good lady tends to use them.

Anyway, not far away – about three miles – at the edge of the village of Falkland, lies another estate through which runs another burn, which possibly itself feeds into the Back Burn. A signpost at the bottom of the path points to Maspin Glen.

This is that burn:-

And this is a bridge over it carrying one of the estate’s paths:-

The Kessock Bridge carries the A9 over the Beauly Firth at Inverness.

I took the photos when we were up north in April last year. They were maybe taken from too close as the cable stay towers, if not the cables themselves, show up better on the photo in the link.

From east:-

From west. Slight distortion to photo as it’s a stitch of two:-

From Havnegade.

A Bridge:-

Another Bridge. (The Standard Restaurant is to left here):-

Old Warehouse:-

On the way back up from our Oswestry trip we stopped at Kendal in Cumbria, which lies in the valley of the River Kent.

This rather nice bridge straddles the river towards the town’s southern end:-

Close by and just up from the river is Kendal Parish Church, Church of the Holy Trinity:-

This angled vie wshows the building off to good effect:-

Front view with clock tower:-

There is a lovely bridge over the river Avon at Evesham, called the Workman Bridge after the mayor under whose auspices it was built.

Workman Bridge from banks of River Avon:-

Roadway, Workman Bridge, looking towards Evesham centre. Belltower of Evesham Abbey to left:-

Weir Seen from Workman Bridge:-

I meant to put this photo of a war dead dedication in St Lawrence’s Church, Evesham, in my previous post. 2nd Lt Ernest Geoffrey Crisp, 15th Battalion Warwickshire Regiment, killed in action in France 16/12/1915, aged 24:-

I realised that we would be very near Ironbridge on our trip across England after the game at Oswestry and so couldn’t miss visiting the site of the first iconic construction of the Industrial Revolution.

The eponymous bridge is a beautiful shape. Imagine our disappointment when we found it swathed in plastic. It was undergoing repairs/refurbishment.

So, I have walked over the iron bridge – pedestrian traffic was allowed – but have not actually seen it.

We’ll just need to go back another time.

Still, it wasn’t a completely wasted stop; there was an extensively stocked second-hand bookshop in the village itself near to the bridge and a pleasing War Memorial.

Wolrd War 2 Dedication. “The Church clock was illuminated as a memorial to the followimg men of Ironbridge who lost their lives during the 1939-1945 war”:-

From south. Great War Names:-

From North. Great War dedication. “In grateful and undying memory of the valiant men of Ironbridge who laid down their lives in the Great War 1914 – 1919. We thank God upon every remembrance of you.”