WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. This is a journal blog, an explore-blog, a bit of this and that blog. Sharing where the mood takes me. Perhaps it will take you too.

Menoxplorer [men-ox-plorer]; YAM at large once more

Big sighs.  When one has made a BIG purchase, it is the time between having said "okay I'll spend that money" to the time when the money actually exchanges hands and one can "open the parcel" which can be the most angst ridden.

Doing my best not to let the mind go haywire.  Have plenty to keep me occupied and reign it in.

Including this...























Dunoon (Dun Omhain) is a West coast, peninsular town in Scotland.

You can see from this basic image (borrowed from Google images and added to in Paint), that it is pretty much on a line with Edinburgh and Glasgow. Bute is tucked away behind it. The area is known as Cowal, after the impressive hills which lie within it. (What I like about this wee map is it also shows Galashiels - my birth town!)

Let me correct an error from yesterday's post; the car ferry does NOT leave from MacRoy's point.  It DOES leave from McInroy's point.  (Close but no ticket, YAM.)



You'll recall I took the foot ferry which leaves from Gourock. The photo up top is of the original terminal hall which stands on the sea at the end of the pier which forms the little outcrop where the red-line ends (at CSP.., I hope you are all paying attention, there will be questions later... ;~>)

copyright Yamini Ali MacLean
Immediately on boarding the boat one has the feeling of changing pace and place. Actually, being peninsular, there is of course a land-based road round to Dunoon; but that is definitely the longer route if you commute - and many do.  The foot ferry in particular feels simply like a water-borne bus! This modern ferry docks at the lower pier which is seen below the other on the above map as a single 'finger'.  The hotel sits right on the point of Argyll Street which you can just make out going off at 45 degrees just above the old pier.

Argyll Street is the main shopping 'drag' and is full of small, individual business.  The only 'chain' store evident here was a high street pharmacy chain.  This gives the whole place a sort of 'lost in time' feel and is an absolute delight.  Genuine window-shopping, knowing that one is seeing orignal and one-offs.  Well mostly.

Majority architecture is from around 150 years or so, with some modern interpolations.


This is the Burgh Hall. 

It is a building in which the National Mod has been held no less than seven times, the most recent being 2012.  

At the South end of the street, opposite the Victorian Pier is the Queen's Hall.  A rather less appealing architectural ediface but which does provide a good centre of entertainment.  

I noted that Ballet West will be performing Swan Lake there in a few weeks...hmmm wonder if I should buy tickets...?

You'll note that the main street is also all of three yards wide.  Traffic gets scary around 4pm, when the commuters get off the ferry and hoon off homewards. At least 10 cars per minute.

The afternoon I arrived (last Wednesday) I did my viewings of two properties.  One was outstanding.  Having originally taken a two night booking, I very quickly felt it necessary to extend that and there was no trouble doing this.  One reason was that I knew I wanted to fit in a second viewing of 2 Alexandria Terrace; the other was that I needed to satisfy my interest in going for a reviewing of the two key properties I had listed over on Bute.

So the Thursday was completely free.  It was also the better of the days, weather-ways. Come back tomorrow to see a bit more of my walking tour up the hill.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, Yam, you're making me crazy. I am not a particularly patient person, being known for my enthusiasms rather than my ability to only stand and wait.
    Well, I shan't be standing, as I'll be flying out to the west coast tomorrow, and will, I hope, be sitting most of the time.
    Check back with you when I can get my hands on a computer at the coast.
    Meanwhile, I do like the three-yards-wide main street of Dunoon. The Burgh Hall is lovely in all its grand stoniness.
    Luv, K

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please tell me the street is one way, and don't be so stingy tomorrow!

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  3. Cobble stone streets they look so good, where is the snow I expect snow.
    Merle..............

    ReplyDelete

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