No. in Party   2
Visited    December 2000

Driving through the centre of Glasgow on Friday teatime was probably not the best plan... but we got to Helensburgh... eventually. After scaling the spiral staircase, the Landmark apartment is interesting without being spectacular, the main bedroom is certainly the high-spot.  Obviously there’s tons of Mackintosh stuff around, but there is also an excellent library of Walter Blackie books.

Unfortunately, as it was winter the house below was not open, but reports in the log book were good.

The Hill House is about as far as you can go up the hill from town, and has an impressive appearance. It needs to have in order to keep up with the Joneses - Upper Helensburgh has easily the most concentrated collection of magnificent houses you are ever likely to see. You can spend a day just walking around the streets and a number of the neighbouring properties are important architectural works themselves, notably Baillie Scott’s White House, virtually next door.

There were several very good places to eat including a refreshingly modern curry house and an Italian restaurant tucked away towards the western end of the strand; careful when you order though - my lack of understanding of basic Italian used on the menu provided me with a main course that was a virtual action replay of my starter except on a bigger plate - very nice all the same.

Glasgow is 20 minutes on the train and looked great in the evening with the Christmas lights on and ice-rink in the square; even better after a few jugs of Happy Hour cocktails.