STUNNING Scottish scenes and buildings have been captured in a series of sketches by a leading architect to encourage people to take holidays in Scotland and boost the beleaguered travel industry.
With hotels, restaurants, cafes and attractions all hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Professor Alan Dunlop decided to take a fresh look at places that are marvelled over by foreign visitors but are often taken for granted by the local population.
The spread of coronavirus has left the tourism sector reeling and, with international travel still problematic, Dunlop thought it would be a good idea to highlight places people might enjoy visiting in Scotland instead of going on holiday abroad.
He has now portrayed a dozen of the country’s most iconic scenes for the new sketchbook, which is the latest in a series he began during the first lockdown after work stopped on his architectural projects.
This is the ninth in the series and follows his sketches of the Stevenson lighthouses, previously featured in the Sunday National and which the National Library of Scotland is interested in acquiring.
Castle Stalker by Alan Dunlop
He came to an end of the lighthouse series at the turn of the year just as he took a trip to Oban via Glen Coe and was reminded how beautiful the area was.
“When I was in Glencoe I thought really there is no more beautiful place in Scotland even when the weather is poor,” said Dunlop, a fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.
“I always take my sketchbook with me and so I did some drawings and caught it just as sun was setting. It was stunning so I thought let’s see if I can do a sketchbook series which looks at Scotland to try to encourage people to think about holidaying here.
“As there are problems with travelling abroad because of the pandemic I thought maybe a sketchbook called The Best Of Scotland would be really good to do. I thought that anything at all that supports hoteliers and people in the tourist industry would be something positive. With all these restrictions over travel we should really think about holidaying in Scotland,” said Dunlop.
The new lockdown has meant he has not been able to travel widely to sketch scenes but as he lives in Aberfoyle he has had plenty of scope with places like Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument on his doorstep.
Once the travel restrictions lift at the end of April he plans to take his sketchbook a bit further to draw more of the beautiful scenery that can be found all over the country.
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