Despite its (for the time) Hi-Tech modernistic architecture, the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938, was home to a very traditional type of building, that of the turf-roofed dwellings of the clachans of Highland Scotland. I featured a postcard contrasting the new with the old – the Tower of Empire overlooking Highland village cottages – here.

Clachan is Gaelic for a small settlement. A previous such village had been one of the hits of the Scottish National Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, in 1911 and the population of Glasgow was keen to see such an exhibit revived.

Three of Brian Gerald’s art-drawn postcards of the 1938 Exhibition focused solely on the Clachan. As well as cottages the Clachan featured a ruined castle, a loch, with a lovely stone bridge over a burn running into it, and the occasional bagpiper strolling about:-

One of the cottages did double duty as the Exhibition’s Post Office:-

A couple of buildings in Kirkwall I missed on our 2017 visit to Orkney.

The Library:-

Closer view:-

Window and decal detail:-

Viking ship detail above a doorway of the Post Office:-

I found two Art Deco styled buildings in Kirkcudbright. There was one I didn’t though. I’ll save that for a later post.

Here are the two I found.

First the Co-op:-

The former Post Office:

Detail:-

Fort William’s War Memorial is situated in a green space just off the north end of the High Street.

The reverse of the memorial includes a name for the 1990-91 Gulf War.

A bit further south is a Peace Memorial. “Erected to celebrate the bond of friendship between Dudley, Hiroshima and Fort William and to commemorate the International Peace Cairn on the summit of Ben Nevis raised by the youth of these three communities.”

The other side reads, “A memorial from the youth of Hiroshima in the hope that the experience of 6^th August 1945 will strengthen our search for a peaceful world.” January 1^st 1968.

Still further south is St Andrew’s Episcopal Church on whose wall a sign says “Commonwealth War Graves here.”

The (one) grave is of Second Lieutenant H M Stapleton, Royal Tank Regiment, 1942.

In the West Highland Museum, off High Street, Fort William – which also has a fine exhibition on the Commandos (whose training ground was in the Lochaber area) along with Jacobite memorabilia – is a memorial mainly to the men of the Fort William Post Office staff who fell in the Great War. The wreath covers the wording for the Second World War.