Mike Gerrard's Blog

Posted by Mike Gerrard

I've recently finished writing a book of what in my view are the 50 best places to visit in Europe. It was a challenge compiling the list – you should try it sometime – and although I never thought about the UNESCO list when I was preparing my own, many of the ones I chose had been singled out by UNESCO for special status.

When I checked their list I was surprised how many there were in the United Kingdom, and how few there were in Ireland – just two! Given the beauty and history of that country, I find it astonishing.

Just out of interest and for the record, here first is the list for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland:

• Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd
• Durham Castle and Cathedral
• Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast
• Ironbridge Gorge
• St Kilda
• Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
• Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey
• Blenheim Palace
• City of Bath
• Frontiers of the Roman Empire
• Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church
• Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church
• Henderson Island
• Tower of London
• Gough and Inaccessible Islands
• Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
• Maritime Greenwich
• Heart of Neolithic Orkney
• Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
• Derwent Valley Mills
• Dorset and East Devon Coast
• New Lanark
• Saltaire
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City
• Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

By contrast Ireland has only two sites on the UNESCO list, which seems unbelievable. They are:

• Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne
• Skellig Michael

Posted by Mike Gerrard

Browsing on Amazon the other day I found a book called "I Never Knew That About England". It's one of a series of books by Christopher Winn, with other titles covering London, Scotland, The English, Wales, Ireland, and The Irish. If they're all as entertaining as this one, I'll be reading them forever more. The England book is full of fascinating and unusual information about the 39 counties of England, arranged alphabetically from Bedfordshire to Yorkshire. Each chapter has only a short list of places covered, but they're the places about which the author has found out most of the fun facts he is obviously keen to share with the readers. Then each chapter ends with a page or two of short anecdotes about that particular county. About my own county of Lancashire I learn that it's the place where the first steak was dubbed "Sir Loin", the county where the Quakers movement was founded, and where the Spinning Mule and Spinning Jenny were invented, though the author misses the fact that the geographic centre of Great Britain is near a phone box at Dunsop Bridge, and he also (tut-tut) mis-spells the name of my home town! It's St Helens, not St Helen's. Among the stories in the book you'll discover where the first garden gnome in England appeared, where the first true aeroplane flight took place, and hear about England's first speeding ticket, where a policeman was able to catch up with the speeding car on his bicycle. "I Never Knew That About England" is the perfect book for trivia fans, and compilers of pub quizzes everywhere. It's published at £9.99 by the Ebury Press. You can also sign up for a newsletter at the official I Never Knew That website. *

Posted by Mike Gerrard

Not many people can get to call themselves Travel Writer of the Year, and it's time for me to have another go in the annual award competition from the British Guild of Travel Writers. I've never won it yet, but last year my wife Donna Dailey was runner-up, and collected her award and prize at the BGTW Awards Dinner at London's Savoy Hotel in November. I can't tell you how proud I was when she stepped up onto the stage, especially as some of the articles in the portfolio she submitted were written right here on her pages at Suite101. Yesterday I was Googling 'Travel Writer of the Year' to see what came up (OK, it was a distraction from actually writing anything), and was amazed to find a video of Donna receiving her award posted on YouTube. You can take a look at it here. The prize was generously donated by the Cancun Convention and Visitors Bureau, but sadly didn't include a trip out there (for two, of course!) We're both busy getting our entries together for this year's Travel Writer of the Year Award, and will be keeping our fingers crossed from now until November 9th, when the results will be announced at at the Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel in London.

Posted by Mike Gerrard

I was recently in Durham and as well as seeing the magnificent Cathedral, the famous Durham Miners' Gala and Crook Hall and Gardens in Durham itself, I also saw the wonderful Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland. Several of these attractions have got together and agreed some discount deals for visitors this summer, to help everyone who's facing up to the credit crunch.

Some of the deals on offer include 2-for-1 admission to places including Auckland Castle, the Weardale Railway, the Tanfield Railway, Barnard Castle, the Bowes Mseum, Crook Hall and Gardens, Durham Castle, the Treasures of St Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral, Prince Bishop River Cruises, the Botanic Garden, the North of England Lead Mining Museum at Killhope, Durham's fabulous Oriental Museum, and several other attractions.

There are other offers too, such as free admission for kids at Hall Hill Farm, shopping discounts, and 10% off selected bike rides with North of England Trike Tours.

The full details are available on the Durham Tourism Partnership website by clicking this link, and you'll also be able to download the discount vouchers. Well done Durham, I say!

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Read here all about the Durham Miners' Gala.

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Posted by Mike Gerrard

I've long wanted to see the Durham Miners' Gala. I grew up in St Helens in the north of England, which is best-known for glass-making. But there were collieries too, and with an uncle and a grandfather who both worked in the coal mines I've always been aware of the tough and dirty work that the miners do in the pits.

Although we were a long way from Durham, their annual Miners' Gala was not just a physical get-together for the Durham miners, but was a spiritual gathering of miners from everywhere in Britain. Whether you lived in a mining town in Lancashire or Yorkshire, in south Wales or Scotland, you were there supporting the miners in Durham, as they celebrated the work they were proud of, and remembered their colleagues who had lost their lives.

So to be in Durham last Saturday was a very special day for me. It's rare these days to see such a gathering of working men, especially as the last coal mine in Durham closed in the early 1990s. The miners who helped to build Britain will never be forgotten, though, and it was heartening to see so many young people in the brass bands, continuing the musical traditions, and to see the older men proudly marching. And if there was an occasional tear in my eye, it must have been caused by the wind blowing in off the River Wear.

To read more about the Durham Miners' Gala, click here.

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