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The Great Britain Guide

Weird & wonderful · Central Scotland

Scotland's eccentrics: pineapples, kelpies and lawnmower-shaped towns

The unexpected side of Scotland's heritage — folly architecture and modernist sculpture in equal measure.

Edinburgh and the Highlands get the postcards but Scotland's middle belt is where the country's strange streak hides — a pineapple-shaped 18th-century summerhouse, two 30-metre stainless-steel horse heads, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh's never-quite-built fantasy domestic dream finally realised.

Places in this guide

Right bank of the R Forth - geograph.org.uk - 199483★ Iconic📷 2

Follies · Central Scotland

The Dunmore Pineapple

An 18th-century garden folly topped with a giant stone pineapple — Scotland's strangest building.

Forth ^ Clyde Canal, Helix Park - geograph.org.uk - 7571539★ Iconic📷 3

Memorials & monuments · Central Scotland

The Kelpies

Two 30-metre stainless-steel horse-head sculptures — the world's largest equine sculptures.

↗ thehelix.co.uk
North Wood, Pollok Park - geograph.org.uk - 4275841Flagship📷 3

Historic houses · Central Scotland

House for an Art Lover

Mackintosh's never-built 1901 design, finally realised in Glasgow in the 1990s.

Carmuirs West Junction Box - geograph.org.uk - 1834599★ Iconic📷 3

Canal locks · Central Scotland

The Falkirk Wheel

The world's only rotating boat lift, lifting boats 35 m.

Matrix board - M73 southbound - geograph.org.uk - 7741277Flagship📷 3

Theme parks · Central Scotland

M&D's Theme Park

Scotland's national theme park at Strathclyde Country Park.