As it was our anniversary on Monday we decided to visit Jupiter Artland, a Sculpture Park and Art venue near Wilkieston in West Lothian.

At present it is hosting an exhibition of paintings/drawings by Tracey Emin under the collective title “I Lay Here For You.” These smaller works were split between the Ballroom and an exhibition space in the Park’s Steadings. I must say I’m not taken with Emin’s painting/drawing skills. The best bit about the Ballroom was the building’s ceiling.

The garden outside the Ballroom was pleasantly planted:-

There’s what looks like a paddling pool in the grounds. It’s not really. There are signs asking you to stay on the black area for a start. The estate’s “Big House” is in the background here:-

We also partook of lunch in the café. The menu was abit pretentious but the food was good.

On the way in you drive past some Charles Jencks landforms called Cells of Life. Below is a stitch from four photos:-

Closer view of Charles Jencks landforms at Jupiter Artland with a red bridge in middle distance:-

In our later stroll through the grounds we came closer to that bridge. It’s named Only Connect and is by Ian Hamilton Findlay:-

The Quarry by Phyllida Barlow. The colours on the columns are a bit faded but reminded me of totem poles:-

The Rose Walk is by Pablo Bronstein:-

One of the installations is Weeping Girls, created by Laura Ford. I didn’t photgraph that one as I found the figures rather creepy.

Signpost to Jupiter. I note the distance is given in USian. (Since a meter is a measuring device not a length the better spelling is kilometres):-

There is a Tracey Emin sculpture titled I Lay Here for You in the griounds.

To give some idea of the location here is a phptgraph of three bridges across the River Forth as seen from Jupiter Artland. The Forth Bridge (right,) The Forth Road Bridge (centre,) The Queensferry Crossing (left.)

Between the Town Ward and Inner Ward of Barnard Castle there is a strange thing to find inside a castle’s perimeter: a valley, seen below with the modern wooden bridge across it.

This ruin is to the left as you look in the above photo:-

Interior valley seen from the bridge:-

Valley from above:-

North west corner building (circular tower to right):-

From top of circular tower:-

Weir and bridge over River Tees from the castle:-

Closer view:-

Reverse view:-

Japanese bridge in the walled garden:-

Iron Balustraded Bridge in Glamis Castle Grounds:-

Three Witches Wood Carving:-

I forgot to put in my last post about Glamis these dolls, played with by the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon:-

From Edzell Castle (posts passim) we took a stroll along the road to the old motte and bailey and A graveyard which contained the historic graves of the Lindsay family. Just further along there was a car parki and on investigation we saw a signpost to Pirner Brig. This turned out to be a walk alongside a river which we later discovered is the River Westwater.

Before doing that we descended a fairly steep set of stairs to the river itself, which is very scenic.

River and Pirner Brig:-

River and rocks:-

We then reascended the steps and took the path which crosses the brig.

River from Pirner’s Brig:-

I took a couple of videos

This is a lovely spot, and more or less unspoiled.

The main body of Chesters Fort lies on a hill just above the river River North Tyne.

River from Chesters Fort:-

This shows the spot where a Roman bridge crossed the river:-

Eastern part of Hadrian’s Wall and bridge abutment:-

Closer view:-

Bridge information board showing how it looked:-

Between the bridge and the fort proper you can still see a part of Hadrian’s wall:-

Also down by the river are the baths the soldiers used:-

Lower part of baths complex:-

The town of Barnard Castle takes its name from the castle which sits on a promontory above the River Tees. At the time we visited going inside the castle required booking in advance due to Covid. As we hadn’t booked, we couldn’t go in.

Castle from town side:-

Entrance to Castle:-

Round tower:-

North face of castle:-

Panorama of castle from over the Tees. (The curvature is due to a stitch of two photos):-

Part of castle from the bridge over the Tees. Note town sign on the wall by the road:-

Castle wall from below:-

Looking north from River Tees bridge, castle on right:-

Castle from viewpoint by River Tees:-

Closer view. The bridge over the Tees can be seen to bottom right:-

Barnard Castle is a market town in Teesdale, County Durham. It lies beside the River Tees over which there were at least two bridges.

One of these is a relatively narrow traffic-light controlled bridge which lies just below the ruins of the mediæval castle (of which more later.)

The second I got to by walking along a path by the riverside. Its purpose is more obscure:-

On the way up to it we passed this weir:-

Weir and second bridge through trees:-

Last August I noted floods at Balbirnie Golf Course. The bridge featured in that post was sunsequently removed probably because its supports had been undermined.

In April this year I photographed the foundations of a replacement bridge.

The golf course itself was looking fine.

18^th fairway and green:-

The 10^th tee had some striking shadows:-

10^th tee and 18^th fairway:-

This clock was on a building at the entrance to the dock where our ship was berthed. The tower in white and the flagpole are also deco features:-

While wandering Bergen city centre I was delighted to see this building looming. Lots of deco hallmarks; curvature, rule of three, horizontals, verticals:-

These closer views also show up the building’s balconies:-

This bridge nearby certainly has a deco feel, albeit in a Scandinavian way:-

This one shows the ship we were travelling on (extreme right):-

Close up on lake with fountain:-

A road bridge in central Bergen from Mount Fløyen:-

Part of Bergen with sea inlets beyond:-

A distant suspension bridge (photo is fuzzy due to zoom function.) Due to its sovereign wealth fund – a legacy of the oil boom – Norway is festooned with infrastructure like this:-