Squiffy Profile
I can't believe I only discovered this site in 2018. I discovered the World Heritage List back in 2004 and it formed a major focus of my free time for a good decade or so. I never knew that there was such an active community of fellow like-minded nerds out here.
My visits have pretty much fallen off a cliff since 2015 as I have discovered there is a limit to what is responsible or feasible with a young family. Since my honeymoon I've only managed to visit three or four new sites (the 'maybe four' being Pont d'Arc where I visited the replica cave but didn't sneak into the actual inscribed area). So my reviews will be limited to newly-visited sites or ones I have previously visited but are lacking in reviews on the site.
And as my family grows up, hopefully I'll be able to drag them along as I recommence my quest ("Hey kids! Who wants to go and see some German Modernist housing estates?")
Recent Reviews Squiffy
Ironbridge Gorge
Squiffy UK - 18-Jul-22
Swollen by the night’s rains, the River Severn flowed smoothly through the valley. Above it the delicate lattice-work arc of the bridge leapt like a salmon. Day-trippers crossed the span. The scene was reminiscent of that painted over 240 years earlier by William Williams – all that was missing was a rowboat of magnificently behatted ladies beneath us on the river. The entire scene was quaint, almost pastoral, with the river rolling below the tree-garlanded hills and the stonework of Ironbridge village’s church glowing in the late afternoon sun. Yet my thoughts turned to a different painting – Philip James de Loutherbourg’s Coalbrookdale by Night, where the heavens are lit up by the infernal flare of forge and furnace
Read OnChatham Dockyard and its Defences (T)
Squiffy UK - 05-Sep-21
Just as the pandemic hit in early 2020 a new £20 note entered circulation in the UK. The portrait on the reverse of the banknote is of the 19th century artist JMW Turner and behind him can be seen details of his 1839 work The Fighting Temeraire, Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, 1838. This picture depicts a once-grand ship of the line, famed for its performance at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, masts bare, being hauled away for dismantling by a low dark churning paddle-steamer. It represents the replacement of the age of sail with that of steam. More generally, it represents the passing away of greatness. It provided a sombre leitmotif to my visit to Chatham Historic Dockyard
Read OnGwynedd Castles
Squiffy UK - 03-Aug-21
We picked our way through the low dunes to a suitable spot on the sand where we could spread out our picnic blanket. Keeping a wary eye on the ever-circling gulls we unwrapped our fish and chips, an impulse purchase after a long sunny day. The heat had died down slightly and the Conwy river flowed swiftly out through its wide estuary before us, sailboats straining at their anchor ropes. Thickly wooded hills rose beyond the estuary and the sun danced off water, mast and tower. For the walls and towers of Conwy stood opposite, the very picture of a classic movie castle. The view before me was deeply romantic – and yet also a symbol of oppression.
Read OnThe Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales
Squiffy UK - 30-Jul-21
The single-track road to Cwm Ystradllyn wound further into the contours of the Welsh hills, the cottages and farmhouses becoming fewer and further apart with every bend. It was as if the terrain itself was muffling the intrusion of the modern world. A low rusted gate hung apologetically by a wooded dell through which a stream tinkled; it squeaked as I pushed it open. Cast-off shards of loose slate, as grey as a pigeon’s back, clinked sonorously beneath my feet as I climbed to slope. And there, at the top, surveying the wild moors, stood a towering structure. Four strong walls, three storeys high, punctured by rows of romanesque arched windows, only its roof missing. Nesting birds twittered from the gables and nodding glacier-blue harebells blanketed its foundations
Read OnBalaton Uplands Cultural Landscape (T)
Squiffy UK - 04-May-21
A cool September breeze riffled the branches of the fringing trees as I swam out into Lake Héviz. It was definitely better to be in the water than out on the manicured grass. 38 metres below the centre of the lake hot thermal water gushed forth from a fissure, meaning that the lake was roughly the temperature of a municipal swimming pool. And much like a swimming pool, I was not alone. Around me people swam, floated or just splashed in the shallows. And to my right, patients in white towelling robes sat out on the decking of the spire-roofed spa that projected out into the lake on piles like a British seaside pier. However no municipal pool I’ve ever visited has required me to periodically untangle my feet from water lilies or strings of algae.
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Squiffy
- Country
- UK
- Most Impressive
- Petra. Not very imaginative I know, but I just love ancient sites
- Proposal
- I definitely believe there is scope for a transnational serial nomination of Brutalist buildings.
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 23.03.23
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Visited WHS
Rating StatsDamascus 5Petra 5Palmyra 4.5Serengeti 4.5Te Wahipounamu 4.5Aleppo 4Wadi Rum 4Bosra 3Novgorod 3Tiwanaku 3Forth Bridge 2.5Nessebar 2.5Paphos 2.5Quseir Amra 2.5Um er-Rasas 2.5Carthage 2Meknes 2Saltaire 2New Lanark 1.5Mazagan 1Reviewed WHS
- Ironbridge Gorge
- Gwynedd Castles
- The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales
- Los Glaciares
- Kunta Kinteh Island
- Saloum Delta
- Petra
- Um er-Rasas
- Quseir Amra
- Wadi Rum
- Paphos
- Tombs of Buganda Kings
- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
- Stone Town of Zanzibar
- Kilimanjaro National Park
- Ngorongoro
- Serengeti
- Crac des Chevaliers
- Aleppo
- Damascus
- Bosra
- Palmyra
- Te Wahipounamu
- Saltaire
- Kew Gardens
- Edinburgh
- Forth Bridge
- Jodrell Bank Observatory
Visited TWHS
- Ancient Greek Theatres (T)
- Azraq (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Buenos Aires – La Plata: Two capitals of the Culture of Modernity, Eclecticism and Immigration (T)
- Casablanca, Ville du XXème siécle, carrefour d'influences (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Chott El Jerid (T)
- Dahab (T)
- Dahshour archaeological area (T)
- Ellis Island (T)
- Extension of the World Heritage Site "Historic Centre of Prague" with the important Monuments in its Vicinity (T)
- Fortress of Spinalonga (T)
- Gorge of Samaria National Park (T)
- Historical Lisbon, Global City (T)
- Knights Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta (T)
- La Moneda Palace (T)
- Lake Titicaca (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Les passages de Bruxelles / Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (T)
- Les Plages du Débarquement, Normandie, 1944 (T)
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise et leur territoire: Nimes, Arles, Glanum, aqueducs, via Domitia (T)
- Massif du Mont Blanc (T)
- Minoan Palatial Centres (T)
- Moulay Idriss Zerhoun (T)
- Mount Vernon (T)
- Petrified Forest of Lesvos (T)
- Pharaonic temples in Upper Egypt from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Sarajevo - unique symbol of universal multiculture - continual open city (T)
- The Dunejec River Gorge in the Pieniny Mountains (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- Torres del Paine and Bernardo O'Higgins National Parks, Region of Magallanes (T)
- Trakai Historical National Park (T)
- Via Appia 'Regina Viarum' (T)