Keep following the brown signs

A blog post about brown tourist signs.

I was pleased to hear that my fellow blogger, 'dull' person and fan of the quirky Amanda from Follow The Brown Signs was back in action after a hiatus.

We've always been interested in straying off the beaten path and even before we found out about Follow The Brown Signs we would look for and find different things to see and do while out and about on our travels.

Finding out about Amanda's mission and website in 2011 gave us even more ideas as well as another outlet for us to share tips and stuff from our own quest.

Just last week I spotted a brown sign, followed it and found a Pumpkin Garden!

Check out the Follow The Brown Signs website for more information and inspiration.

Here's a selection of brown tourist signs from our adventures.

Crazy Golf at Callendar Park in Falkirk, Scotland

A visit to the Crazy Golf course in Falkirk's Callendar Park.

The final of the fourteen Miniature Golf courses we visited on our holiday in Scotland was at Callendar Park in Falkirk. The course became the 576th visited overall and the 233rd unplayed course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Unfortunately as we visited after spending the day out in Glasgow it was closed when we arrived. It looked like a good layout and similar to courses we've played in Motspur Park in London, Wimbledon Park and Wythenshawe Park in Manchester.

You can follow the Brown Signs to Callendar House and the park too.

Link:
- Falkirk Community Trust - Callendar Park website

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - List and links for all Miniature Golf courses visited to date
- Scotland

Milestones and Brown Tourist Signs spotted in Upper Largo, Scotland

Spotting some more points of interest on our travels.

On our way from St Andrews towards Kirkcaldy during our tour of Scotland in April we drove through the villages of Upper Largo and Lower Largo and noticed a few interesting signs and milestones.

At the main junction in Upper Largo there were a pair of Brown Tourist Signs pointing just to ‘East’ and ‘West’, rather than any particular sites of interest! I believe these are for the Fife Coastal Tourist Route. They are also another set of signs spotted for the Follow The Brown Signs website.

A pair of Brown Tourist Signs in Upper Largo, Scotland

At the same junction of Main Street, Saint Andrews Road & South Feus was a milestone that showed distances to 15 places, the closest being Mounturpie at ‘no miles away’. I wonder if The Milestone Society has it logged on their database.

A Milestone in Upper Largo, Scotland

Having a 'wander' around Upper Largo on Google Street View you can see that above the Milestone there are another couple of Brown Tourist Signs, along with the other side of the milestone. One of these Brown Signs showed that 'Scotland's Secret Bunker' was 11 miles in the direction we had come from!

In Lower Largo we saw a ‘Welcome’ sign which stated that Lower Largo was twinned with Robinson Crusoe Island! A little research showed the South Pacific Ocean island to be “The most famous "deserted" island in the World” and the inspiration for the book Robinson Crusoe after the Scottish Sailor Alexander Selkirk, who hailed from Lower Largo, was stranded on the island for four years, four months! The twinning connection was made in 2004 to mark the 300th anniversary of Selkirk's marooning on the island!

Links:

- Follow The Brown Signs

- The Milestone Society

- Largo Area Community Council

Related Blog Posts:

- Visiting a further 49 Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in England and Scotland

- Unplayed Minigolf Courses on our Roadtrip to Scotland & Back

We Spotted a Brown Tourist Sign for a Milestones Museum in Basingstoke...

One of the Brown Tourist Signs we spotted on our way to the launch of the new minigolf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre

...although the museum is of the living history variety, rather than a museum of milestones!

Another brown tourist sign spotted for the Follow the Brown Signs website though!

We didn't have time to visit on this occasion as we were heading down to Southsea.

Links:
- The Milestone Society
- Follow the Brown Signs
- The Milestones Museum, Basingstoke

Related Blog Posts:
- A Landmark On Our Travels - Photographing Our First Milestone
- The Brown Sign Way - A Website and Blog Dedicated to Tourist Attraction Signs

Crazy Golf at Alexandra Palace in London - Course played #282

On Monday 19th December 2011 Brad Shepherd and I made a visit to Alexandra Palace to have a play of the Crazy Golf course set up there.

The 18-hole course became the 282nd played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Playing hole 10

Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd playing hole 3 at Ally Pally

Brad and I faced-off in an 18-hole one-round contest on the course. Over the front-9 holes I scored 15, with Brad hitting a 23. Brad struck back on the back-9 and scored a 22 to my 26. However, I managed to defeat him 41-45.

The course is owned by Moneypenny Events and features some of the holes/frames as the Minigolf courses we previously played at Devonshire Square in London (#155 & #155.5/visit 199b). The company also own the course that has appeared at the o2 (#210).

Photos of the course:

Alexandra Palace is also home to an interesting looking Pitch & Put Miniature Golf Course. Some of the holes are played up/down hill! There is also a Putting Course there. They are both on the 'to play' list, hopefully sometime in 2012...

Links:
- Minigolf & Crazy Golf in London
- Alexandra Palace
- Crazy Golf at Alexandra Palace
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour