Back up in the South side of Glasgow in Nithsdale Road this time.

I’ve included two photographs of Sherbrooke – St. Gilbert’s church to show how a small difference in the angle and the light can make to the look of a building change. The actual church isn’t that old – about 110 years.

The third photograph is looking up to the Sherbrooke Castle Hotel, from where the first photograph was taken.

Out of Ayrshire again, but for a rather sadder occasion. We were attending the cremation, in Cardross, of the father of a very good friend. We repaired afterwards to the Clubhouse of the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club in Rhu, Argyll and Bute.

The building is very impressive, but needs money spent on it.

Glen Affric is a beautiful place – wild and reasonably desolate, well as desolate as the intrepid visitors make it!

We started walking along the south side of the loch, but turned back after 30 minutes since we could see the bad weather closing in.

Glen Affric Lodge and the gamekeeper’s cottage are currently being renovated.

Back in Ayrshire, we managed to get on a tour by Historic Scotland of their managed property of Rowallan Old Castle, near to Kilmaurs. I won’t go into the obstructive nature of the current owner of the estate, but access to the Castle is very restricted.

The relatively recent gatehouse.

The Castle from the front.

What is left of the original keep.

The main beams are original.

How temporary walls used to be made.

Original wood and colours – with the exception of the upper chimney which is painted plaster made to look like wood.

When we were over in Edinburgh, we took the opportunity to drive west along the River Forth to visit the Historic Scotland site of Blackness Castle.

This is a view from the South.

Looking from the top of the castle towards the East, downriver to the Forth Road and Rail Bridges.

Looking from the North Tower to the Central Tower.

On the way home from Sicily, we spent one day and one night in Rome.

A few photographs.

The ancient …

… and the modern Wedding Cake.

The Pantheon.

As with any city, you get traffic jams.

The Spanish Steps.

Last, but not least, the excellent restaurant we ate in that night.

We only had a few hours to spend in Palermo, waiting to catch the sleeper train back to Rome.

These are of the Palermo Cathedral – erected in 1185 by Walter Ophamil (or Walter of the Mill), the Anglo-Norman archbishop of Palermo and King William II’s minister, on the area of an earlier Byzantine basilica. By all accounts this earlier church was founded by St. Gregory and was later turned into a mosque by the Saracens after their conquest of the city in the 9th century. Ophamil is buried in a sarcophagus in the church’s crypt. The medieval edifice had a basilica plan with three apses, of which only some minor architectural elements survive today.

The upper orders of the corner towers were built between the 14th and the 15th centuries, while in the early Renaissance period the southern porch was added. The present neoclassical appearance dates from the work carried out over the two decades 1781 to 1801, and supervised by Ferdinando Fuga. During this period the great retable by Gagini, decorated with statues, friezes and reliefs, was destroyed and the sculptures moved to different parts of the basilica. Also by Fuga are the great dome emerging from the main body of the building, and the smaller domes covering the aisles’ ceilings.

We stopped here on our way back from Petralia. It was slightly more open!

Parrocchia S.Maria Maggiore – Chiesa Madre; from the Via Vittorio Emanuele.

There appeared to be no horizontal streets, only slopes everywhere.

Castello dei Ventimiglia. For further information look here.

How do you fancy this as your front door?

Chiesa di S. Stefano with its characteristic bell tower with polychrome CONCI. It is shaped like an irregular Greek cross and it was made in the first part of the 17th century. It preserves a prestigious wooden structure made by an unknown artist representing Saint Stephen (16th century) and a painting attributed to Giuseppe Salerno (1609).

We went to Petralia Soprana (high Petralia) as opposed to Petralia Sottana (low Petralia) because, at 3761 feet, it is the highest town in the Madonie. It was closed or so it seemed! It is said to be one of the finest preserved examples of a 17th century Sicilian town, developed in the Middle Ages.

Two views from the top.

Chiesa Madre – dedicated to Saint Peter and Paul.

The view from outside our room in the Villa Levante through an arch in the wall and showing the old town and the tower of Chiesa Parrocchia Maria Ss. Assunta.