UK Archives - Page 3 of 59 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

America, Countries, UK

Your own American Revolution in Britain

19th May 202619th May 2026 funtime65

Now you don’t have to visit Boston or Philly, though you should… you can have your own American Revolution in Britain.

Like much else in life I turn to TV historian Lucy Worsley to fill in those very few gaps in my knowledge.

And now I’m armed with the new knowledge from her TV show Lucy Worsley Investigates the American Revolution.

Of where the Patriots had their footprint on British soil.

I aim to explore what’s in my backyard.

Naked truth about Franklin

Lucy brings us naturally to the house where Benjamin Franklin lived from 1757 to 1775.

And where Lucy tells us he would announce himself to Londoners.

By drawing the shutters and standing breathing in the air in his birthday suit.

As well as its many artefacts and pointers to the Founding Father’s place in American history.

You can participate in a funky game the inventor, ambassador, writer and raconteur created.

Out of electricity and the King’s head.

Which all sounds a good idea… common sense really.

The Unofficial Founder

And so thought Thomas Paine, once of the English shires.

Now you probably wouldn’t associate Thetford, Norfolk as a hotbed of revolutions.

But it was here and in Lewes, Sussex that firebrand Paine first started pedalling his sedition.

Before, with Franklin’s help he decamped to the American colonies.

And published his best-seller Common Sense.

Down with the Crown

Standing tall: Putting Paine on a podium

With zinger lines such as…

‘There is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned.

‘And that is the distinction of men into kings and subjects.’

More of which you can learn for yourself at Bull House, his residence on the south coast of England.

And wrote his first political pamphlet The Case of the Officers of Excise.

Part of the first national unionised action anywhere in the world.

While if you want to travel, you can make your way to Paine’s homestead of Thetford for an obligatory selfie in front of his statute.

Countries, Sport, UK

Nobody rivals the Cotswolds for horsey sets

18th May 202618th May 2026 funtime65

And if you’ve caught the Jilly Cooper equestrian bug then let us tell you… nobody rivals the Cotswolds for horsey sets.

So come with us and follow in the footsteps of Rupert Campbell-Black and Taggie O’Haray on our Central English Horsewolds tour.

Acceptable in the Eighties

Tetbury: Rivals revives the decade of shoulder pads and jodhpurs in the quaint rural village of Tetbury.

Where its good burghers transformed Long Street’s independent shops with Eighties-style frontages.

Replacing road signs with Cotchester ones and even hanging banners to welcome Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Georgian church St Mary’s, doubles as the parish church of Cotchester for a key wedding scene.

While the Grade II listed Berkeley House on the Chipping stood in as the home of American TV producer Cameron Cook.

Beyond its screen credentials, visitors can expect antique dealers, gastropubs and the eccentric Woolsack Races each May.

Cotswolds’ rich tapestry

Chavenage: Grade I listed Elizabethan manor Chavenage House just outside Tetbury, is one of the Cotswolds’ vaunted screen sets.

The honey-stoned 16th-century property served as The Priory, home to Aidan Turner’s TV presenter Declan O’Hara.

And we can arrange group reservations and wonder at the fine 17^thcentury tapestries.

A Polo mint

Polo Country: Chukka this our way… Cirencester Park Polo Club, set within the magnificent Bathurst Estate.

The Beaufort Polo Club was a filming location for Series 2 with lessons and courses through its polo school.

King of the Castle

Lord of the manor: Berkeley Castle. Credit: Nick Turner

Berkeley Castle: Where any Rivals fan worth their money will tell you the Rutshire Cup polo match was filmed, in episode 1 of season 2.

Built in 1153, the castle remains the home of the Berkeley family today, over 24 generations later.

Once you’ve spotted it in Rivals, go visit the castle yourself from spring-autumn and take a guided tour.

Stop off at the Kitchen Garden café and gift shop, or visit the LEGO Brick History exhibition on now until 10 June.

Supersonic

Aerospace Bristol: Home to Concorde Alpha Foxtrot, the last Concorde to fly.

And, of course, the backdrop for that raunchy opening scene of season 1 Rivals.

It is also reported to appear in season 2.

Aerospace Bristol is open year-round to visitors, and go once and your ticket is valid for a whole year.

Right royal party

Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel: The 150-year-old Grade II listed hotel is the backdrop to Rivals season 2 episode 1 where characters Declan and Maud O’Hara stay.

It has also welcomed famous guests over the years, from Winston Churchill to Cary Grant.

And you’ll have one up on them with your view, as the cheeky Well-Hung Lover mural by Banksy, just opposite.

And a cameo from Jilly

Cosy Club Bristol: The author made her own cameo in season 1 in the lavish setting ofCosy Club Bristol.

Visit this opulent restaurant for an Eighties feast of steak and chips, some sumptuous prawns and a classy cocktail.

And channel your inner Freddie Jones, aka Danny Dyer, in Queen Square, drove a battery-powered Sinclair C5 in season 1, too.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Keep walking to Edinburgh’s Johnnie Walker Experience

6th May 20266th May 2026 funtime65

Now I’ve had my share of distillery tours and that has taken me to keep walking to Edinburgh’s Johnnie Walker Experience.

The JWE for those who know the Scottish capital and Princes Street, and even those who don’t, occupies the old House of Fraser store.

Where whisky fans are kept walking and drinking through more than 200 years of Scotland’s most popular dram.

Now we’ll not try to bottle the history of whisky into this post.

And better visit the Scotch Whisky Experrience next to Edinburgh Castle on the Royal Mile for that.

Nor will we bring into the distillery and face to face with pot stills.

You can visit the any of the hundreds of whisky manufactures, big and small, across Scotland.

Bells and whistles

Instead take in the Johnnie Walker Experience in the hands of actress Rachel and guide Grace.

For the best bells and whistles interactive tour of the life and reach of the grocer from Kilmarnock in the west of Scotland.

Everyone’s whisky takeaway, of course, will be different but ours was an explanation of the distinctive square bottles.

To increase the amount of bottles that could be transported on ships from Britain to North America.

Of course, it’s what is in those bottles that is always more interesting.

And which makes listening to the science bit in any ways palatable.

Band of gold

To get you started JWE ask you to take a quiz in reception.

To find out what flavours suit you for your cocktails.

You get three and depending on the colour of your band it should reflect your tastes.

Although guess what, there is no whisky police to say what you can and can’t put in your whisky.

And this traditionalist was happy to try.

A pineapple-infused highball alongside a smoky bay leaf flavoured smoky whisky and spicy old-fashioned.

Tour de force

Now at the end of your 90-minute tour you will arrive, unsurprisingly, at the merch shop.

Where you can also buy the uisge beatha and at a 10% discount although at a ceiling of £400.

Which means you won’t be able to get a cut on the £15,000 bottle of 1978 Isle of Arran whisky.

Although you’ll be disappointed anyway as I’ve raided the Scary One’s House Refurb Fund.

KEEP WALKING

America, Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Trump rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky

1st May 20261st May 2026 funtime65

And because we (and King Charles) have his ear Donald Trump is rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky.

The US President is the toast of his late beloved mother Mary’s Scots homeland today after lifting prohibitive tariffs on uisce beatha.

Because he told us of ‘Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon.

‘In that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used.’

A toast to Trump

This year’s blond: ‘The Donald’ in New York

All very timely too as Favourite Cousin, New York Kath and Kentucky Cousin-in-law Mark fly in to see us in North Berwickety.

And we will be breaking out the Woodford Reserve he first introduced me too, and in front of tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby too.

The truth is that almost everyone who has enjoyed a drap of Scotch will also be drinking in the best of Kentucky too.

Because ex-bourbon barrels are used to mature over 90% of all scotch whisky today.

We have, of course, the half-Scottish 45th and 47th President to thank for cutting the cost of our national drink.

A New Deal

But it his predecessor, the 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt who made it all possible.

When he stipulated as part of his New Deal that all bourbon whiskey barrels must br single-use barrels.

Which created a supply of barrels for Scots to pounce on to store their liquid gold.

And so Kentucky barrels became the standard containers for Scotch ever since.

Gracias amigos

Best family bar none: Johnnie Fox’s in Dublin mountains

Enhanced further by Spain’s decision in the Eighties that all sherry must be bottled on home soil, taking their casks off the market.

The rest as they say is history and science.

And for that bit we’ll turn to the whisky attraction experts this week.

The distilleries, the Scotch Whisky Experience on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and the Johnnie Walker Experience, on the capital’s Princes Street.

And now that The Donald is channeling his Scots half we humbly implore that he looks again at the ban on Scottish sheep lungs.

An integral part of our national dish haggis.

Because we know he takes calls from journalists… and reads Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel.com.

SLÁINTE AND MEET YOU IN THE BAR

Countries, Ireland, Pilgrimage, UK

Shrinecations near you

29th April 202629th April 2026 funtime65

And because we were on pilgrimage long before Gen Z turned it into a TikTok fashion here are our shrinecations near you.

All of which is timely, and not just because it’s never been a better time to get off the mad path the world has chosen.

But because ten years after we first explored the most famous trek of all, The Camino Way.

We’re following our own footsteps and taking on the Portuguese Coastal Camino with our go-to providers CaminoWays.

Traditional Caminos, of course, started outside our own doorsteps and that’s where we’re beginning here.

World Expeditions or its Euro brands, UTracks and Walkers’ Britain & Europe, kick us off.

On the BBC series Pilgrimage: The Road to Holy Island.

The Holy Island

We’ve been here before but we’ve never been worried about retracing our steps.

And Walk Northumberland Coast Path & Lindisfarne.

A seven-day self-guided with Walkers’ Britain & Europe.

Replicate the journey of the BBC’s celebrity pilgrims with highlights.

Including walking the St Cuthbert’s Pilgrim route over the causeway to Holy Island.

And visiting ancient castles at Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Lindisfarne and staying in fishing villages Alnmouth, Seahouses and Craster.

From £860pp, daily departures from April-September.

Man alive

And because the isle that Finn MacCool created, the Isle of Man, is more than just daredevil TT motorcyclists, walk this way.

As the bird flies the nine-day self-guided Isle of Man Coastal Path: The Way of the Seagull is a 100-mile route.

Walkers’ Britain & Europe will map out your walk which overlaps with many sections of the Raad Ny Foillan Pilgrimage Trail.

You’ll take in cultural heritage towns such as Castletown and Peel, while WB&E want us to try some sea swimming too.

You’ll pass the remains of Celtic chapels, clifftop carved crosses and remnants of island life in times gone by.

From £990pp, daily departures from April-October.

Mingle on the Dingle

And while I’ll probably be having a glass of wine before my red-eye out to start the Camino, our Irish pals do things differently.

Irish pilgrims would traditionally sail from the south-west for Finisterre, so for the hardy you could bolt on UTracks’ The Kerry Camino.

A six-day self-guided tour with UTracks in the Kingdom of Kerry.

And an exploration of the wild Atlantic coast on foot.

And the chance to immerse yourself in the music and culture of Dingle.

On a lesser-known camino which we’ll call the Camino with the Craic.

From £720pp, daily departures April-October.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Made in Scotland from girders for 125 years

25th March 202625th March 2026 funtime65

It’s our other national drink Irn-Bru and it’s been made in Scotland from girders for 125 years.

The bronze-coloured soft drink is so much part of Scots’ blood that brewers Barr have come up with a novel idea.

With a drop-inn parlour where you can have your love of ‘ra Bru‘ inked into your arm or wherever you want to mark it.

The story goes that Barr, then a makers of corks, tinkered with the idea of a tincture.

After seeing Irish immigrant steel workers sweating it out and refuelling with beer.

On the rebuilding of Glasgow’s Central Station.

Which, of course, is the focus of more refurbishment after the destruction of Union Corner by a fire this month.

The Irn Age

Spell it out: Part of the Scottish landscape

Glaswegians of a certain age will, of course, recall that the Victorian B-listed building opposite the train station was adorned for years.

With signage of an Indian boy in a turban advertising Irn-Bru.

The Bru has prided itself on its promotions over these 125, second only to Coca-Cola, but first and ahead of them in sales in Scotland.

Traditionalists will fondly remember, for instance, the athlete on the bottles and then cans.

That being 19th-century Highland Games athlete of note Adam Brown.

But the Bru has moved with the times and we’ve travelled with them.

And it is barely remembered now that the strange misspelling has only been around since after the Second World War.

Prior to which it was Iron.

Barr had become worried over changing food labelling regulations after the war.

With the mysterious orange elixir containing only the minutest traces of iron and not being brewed.

Raising the Barr

For all of us who jealously protect our favourite brands (think Tayto in Ireland) we have our own in jokes which we can share.

Anywhere we meet fellow Scots and flush out the authentic ones.

By asking the likes of ‘I’m Thirsty, I’m very thirsty too… so here’s a drink that’s made for you, Barr’s Irn-Bru.

Of course, each generation has its own favourite ad, the young boy who lifts a girder after drinking the Bru.

A skit on The Snowman movie and the recent Fanny gag.

And it works too in American English as well as Scots English.

By gum

Now where once you would struggle to get the Bru beyond the northern bit of this British island it is widely available now.

With our other national drink even sponsoring that most northern English of sports rugby league… and you’re welcome.

Whether though, you’re prepared to mark yourself with an Irn-Bru tattoo really depends on how much it’s in your blood.

And pretty much every Scot does have it in under their skin.

But it is worth a try although maybe not say it tastes like bubblegum.

Unless you want to invite some kind of unpronouncable slur spat back at you.

Countries, Flying, UK

The Loch Ness MonstAer

24th March 202624th March 2026 funtime65

And to mark the Irish national airline carrier’s opening of a new route to the capital of the Scottish Highlands we trust some will claim that they have seen the Loch Ness MonstAer.

Only there is no such creature, and there I’ve said it, although there are no shortage of fluffy merch toys.

As we found out on a visit to the Loch Ness Centre where the Son and Heir left the glove puppet soothing toy he carried everywhere.

Among all the other Nessies.

Of course, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was the fabled Loch Ness Monster which put Inverness and its environs on the tourist map.

When, in fact, word of the beauty of the Scottish Highlands had long been known.

From forays from friend and foe alike over the century.

With no less a chronicler than Samuel Johnson waxing lyrical about its beauties on his 1775 A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.

Walking in Boswell and Johnson’s footsteps

Johnson commented on the diction of the Invernessians, to this day praised as close to ‘Queen’s English.’

Saying ‘The soldiers seem to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabitants.

‘And to have peopled the place with an English race.

‘For the language of this town has been long considered as peculiarly elegant.’

Johnson and Boswell were much taken by Inverness Castle, reputed home of Macbeth, and a particular fort nearby.

‘It was no very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rock so high and steep, that I think it was once not accessible.

‘But by the help of ladders, or a bridge.

‘Over against it, on another hill, was a fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished.

‘For no faction of Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any desire to continue his memory.’

All of which will be music to newbie Irish visitors to Inverness.

With the famously warty religious zealot no friend of our Celtic cousins either.

When we got our Erse kicked

Castle in the Aer: Inverness Castle down below

Today’s Inverness Castle may be different than the one B&J visited but you’ll still be able to take in the atmosphere on your visit.

Johnson goes somewhat off track though here.

With the kind of demeaning and belittling descriptions of the Invernessians which would have him cancelled today.

Although he helpfully reminds us that the Highlands and Islands is the home of the Gaelic or Erse language.

And stop giggling there at the back.

‘There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erse language is used, he notes.

‘There is likewise an English chapel, but meanly built, where on Sunday we saw a very decent congregation.’

Go West

B&J seemingly don’t linger in Inverness, preferring to get on their journey to the remote Hebrides.

Saying: ‘At Inverness we procured three horses for ourselves and a servant, and one more for our baggage, which was no very heavy load.

‘We found in the course of our journey the convenience of having disencumbered ourselves, by laying aside whatever we could spare.

‘For it is not to be imagined without experience, how in climbing crags, and treading bogs.

‘And winding through narrow and obstructed passages, a little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burthen.’

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s last stand

Why B&J chose not to visit the site of the last battle on British soil, at nearby Culloden in 1746, we never learn.

Although it might still have been too raw.

But you can, and learn about the fate of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and how he too fled to the Western Isles.

Or the Jacobite Train, or Hogwarts Express over Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Or why they missed too the Clava Cairns, prehistoric burial site.

And the site of The Traitors UK castle at Ardross.

We’ll give them a pass on not knowing about the Victorian Market.

Or Scotland’s second-oldest bookshop and old church, Leakey’s.

Or not heading out to Chanonry Point on the Black Isle for dolphin watching.

And they actually do exist.

Take the Aer

Aer Lingus’s Inverness route will commence from 21 May.

With the new service operating twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays.

We found a sample return fare in May from €22.62.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Whisk yourself off to Britain’s best hotel

13th March 202613th March 2026 funtime65

Want to know where the best hostelry is… well, we suggest you whisk yourself off to Britain’s best hotel.

Maybe not where you expected but whisky island Islay is The Times’s choice of best inn on our islands.

With Ardbeg House, attached to one of the ten distilleries on the island.

Which means there is a whisky home for every 300 of the isle’s inhabitants.

And which is why it’s a magnet for those of us who love the uisge beatha, or water of life, the Gaelic euphemism for whisky.

Gael force

And big reveal here, that’s probably as far as my mastery of the Scots language stretches.

Not that you need it on the Inner Hebrides but it does help you feel more of an islander.

And which is why we bring my old schoolfriend and Gaelic scholar and wordsmith Martin around with us!

That and the fact that he was our friend Stewart’s best man when he married his Japanese sweetheart Hisayo back in the day.

With the wedding party all decked out in kimonos.

And us breaking bread and sake and wine and, yes, of course whisky at the Ardbeg.

Drams are made of this

The Ardbeg boasts 12 bespoke bedrooms and suites inspired by the distillery’s history.

With the owners promising that each has a secret miniature dram tucked away for you to find.

With clues to local myths embedded in the artwork, and subtle touches that nod to the island’s characters and folklore.

Several of the bedrooms can be set up with a king bed, or twin single beds in the Fèis, Creation, Legend, Wild or Rebel rooms.

Four rooms boast a separate sofa-bed – the Legend, Monster, Untamed, and Invention rooms with a third person costing an extra £65/night.

Signature dishes and nips

Of course you’ll be wined and dined with the best local produce.

Which means the Signature Restaurant.

With its pan-fried Islay sea trout, Ardbeg smoked venison pie, Islay cauliflower schnitzel.

Local hand-dived king scallops, and Islay duck cannelloni.

While the Islay Bar is the holy of holies for Ardbeg’s distinctive smoky, peaty whisky.

And altruistically they serve the best offerings from the other Islay distilleries.

As well as craft beers, small-batch gins, and island-made produce.

You can bus it, ferry it with CalMac or fly with Loganair with our friends at the Islay tourist board always there to help you.

Superior rooms at Ardbeg House are from £297 per room per night and £341 per room per night for premier suites.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

An Edinburgh beach resort that is the home of ice cream

11th March 202611th March 2026 funtime65

Bergamo’s is bellissimo, America’s awesome and the Caribbean’s chilled but it’s an Edinburgh beach resort that is the home of ice cream.

If you’re in and around the Scottish capital just now, then get yourself down to Oscar’s Gelato in Portobello.

And sample from any of their 30 flavours from Biscoff (not a clue) to Bubblegum, in the best ice cream store in Britain.

Or their Best Open Flavour pistachio sorbet and Best Sorbet lemon and butter sorbet.

Although we all scream a different sound for ice cream, and our choice would be rum’n’raisin or strawberry.

Oscar’s ceremony

The choice of Oscar’s, which has been drawing in gelatophiles from far and wide since 2020, is fitting.

As Portobello has long held a special place in the ice cream world.

As it was here at 99 Portobello High Street that the 99 ice cream originated.

Back in 1922 when Stefano Arcari responded to a visiting Cadbury rep.

By breaking a large Flake in half and sticking it in an ice cream.

All of which fills the residents of my old stomping ground with pride.

Ice cream Porty

Alas, Cadbury doesn’t give Porty the credit it deserves.

And get this they would rather big up a rival claim, the Italians of mountainous Veneto.

With a rather more dramatic and histrionic story.

Italians party like it’s 99

That the 99 honours the final wave of Italian First World War conscripts.

Born in 1899 and referred to as ‘i Ragazzi del 99‘ (‘the Boys of ’99).

With the chocolate flake said to remind ice cream sellers of the long dark feather cocked at an angle.

In the conscripts’ Alpini Regiment hats.

All of which seems a little far-retched.

Countries, Culture, Food & Wine, UK

The world’s oldest check tartan really is English

9th March 20269th March 2026 funtime65

Geordies are oft tagged Scots with their heads bashed in… now add to that their claim that the world’s oldest check tartan really is English.

The back story is that we’ve just spent International Women’s Day with The Scary One and her mum in their English homeland.

In Alnwick in Northumberland, only an hour and a half from our North Berwick home on Scotland’s south-east coast.

And learning about how fluid our stories are, with Northumberland having changed hands countless times in Borders skirmishes.

Which must explain how check tartan plaid first showed up in the third-century AD before more northern peoples took it on.

On track in Alnwick

It has in truth been a two-way street between Scotland and the north-east English county.

And our venture into the Alnwick institution that is the repurposed train station and now bookshop/cafe, closed after the war, Barter Books … and which reveals all.

The best story: With the Scary One and her mum

With iconic Scots Oor Wullie and The Broons showcased on the shelves and Billy Connolly to the fore.

Read all about it

On the shoulders of giants: The greats of literature

Barter Books is of course, more than a second-hand bookshop.

One of the biggest in the country and expanded since it first opened 35 years ago.

With its most notable addition its renowned buffet from a room they never even knew they had but fell upon a dozen years after first opening.

And which we sit in today by an open fireplace and historical pictures from Northumbrian yore with The Top-Hatted Station Master purveying the scene.

The rest is gravy: The famous roast beef sandwich

It is here that we sit eating our roast beef and onion gravy sandwiches, recommended as indeed Barter has been by Daughterie, and coffee stout.

Everybody screams for ice cream

And if that doesn’t fill you up you can reward yourself with ice cream, cakes or speciality coffees from Paradise, the former Stationmasters office.

We are glad to have got a table at all as Barter Buffet can become busy and visitors have been known to queue to get in.

Perhaps it is because regulars to BB, 45 miles north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, clearly linger over their food, with a good book from the shop.

Of course, in the best company, it would be rude to read although when the conversation drifted I took in the artefacts, the top-hatted lamp shades.

And the pictures of what look like Scots but are really Northumbrians in those 3rd-century black-and-white check tartans.

Wham bam Bamburgh

Now you can easily spend the whole day, and Barter is open every day but Christmas Day, but any day tripper must take in the dramatic Bamburgh Castle before heading home.

Of course, we haven’t left ourselves enough time, and anyway we must always leave ourselves another reason to return and we will.

But before we go we take in the celebrated wooden-panelled Copper Kettle cafe in the quaint village.

And high teas with pots of tea that would sate any hungry hiker and scones and jam reserves or cake treats.