In a land of giant peaks at the summit of the world, Mount Kailash doesn’t even figure in a list of the 25 highest… in yet it still manages to stand out from all the other mountains in the Tibetan massif. At approximately 22,000 ft above sea level, it is the most sacred site on…
Built by architects Thomas Telford and William Jessop in 1805, Pontcysyllte’s cast-iron aqueduct stands on 18 pillars at a height of 30 metres above the River Dee. Located on the Welsh-English border near the 18th century-road crossing at Pont Cysylltau, it is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the river in north-east…
The birthplace of Henry VII, Pembroke Castle is set idyllically on the banks of the Cleddau Ddu estuary and is a mighty fortress steeped in history. Extensively restored in Victorian times, it is dominated by a complex gatehouse on the outside and a huge circular keep inside. The walled town of Pembroke also contains many…
It’s now more than 50 years since Patrick McGoohan immortalised architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis’ magical seaside estate as Number Six in the television series The Prisoner, but largely as a result Portmeirion is as popular today as ever. The Mediterranean-inspired village was created from 1925-76 by Williams-Ellis to show how a naturally beautiful site could…
The Milton Keynes Brick Festival… sounds like something that might attract staff from Redrow, Persimmon or Barratt… but actually it’s more likely to appeal to their children since it is, in fact, a celebration of brightly-coloured, interlocking plastic pieces produced by a certain Danish toy producer. Featuring some out-of-this-world displays, such as an incredible large-scale…
What an egg-stremely interesting idea… creating a giant golden egg as the symbol of the transformation of a town on the move to escape the threat of destruction. The golden ovoid is a sauna, Solar Egg, created by Swedish “co-operative economic association” Riksbyggen and artistic duo Mats Birgert and Lars Bergstrom and installed in Sweden’s…
The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, celebrates the 10th anniversary of its topping out ceremony today, just over nine years since it first opened to the public on 4 January 2010. Soaring over the city at an impressive 828 metres, the towering structure is a marvel of not only engineering but also…
Originally constructed in 1907, the Brooklands race track was the ‘Ascot of Motorsport’ in its heyday and the place where speed demon Sir Malcolm Campbell cut his teeth as a racing driver. Built by local landowner Hugh Locke King on 330 acres of farm and woodland on his estate at Weybridge in Surrey, it was…
