Qype: Finlaystone Gardens in Langbank
Langbank – Arts & Entertainment – Day Trips
I have visited Finlaystone Gardens on a good number of occasions over the years. I try and visit at least once a year but in reality the pattern has been more like once every two or three years. I had a guided tour of Finlaystone House by Lady MacMillan back in the 1990s. The house is now closed to the public being occupied by, I believe the son of the MacMillans, his wife and family.
There is a charge for admission to the estate, currently at 4 pounds per adult. This was the first thing I noticed on visiting recently where the sign at the entrance has the current price tacked over the previous one, a warning perhaps. In previous years I have used the estate’s honesty box, outside the shop.
We had hoped to have lunch at Finlaystone since there is a cafeteria but the lady in the shop informed us it is closed over the winter months. We were standing opposite the old laundry wondering what to do. I had my camera and had just taken a photo of the laundry when the lady from the shop, who must have been spying on us out of the window, came out and told me that I could not take photographs of the estate and resell them and that I could not take photographs of the house since there were children inside. A calendar had been made by someone she went onto to tell us in illicit fashion and had caused a lot of trouble.
First, let me say that I never visited Finlaystone for the purpose of taking photographs to resell, nor had I any intention of taking photos of the house since I knew it is no longer open to the public. The old laundry is some distance away from the house.
But if a person had made a calendar then surely that is a good and creative project involving much work and money in making the finished product.
Such a product if successful would also be a source of free marketing for Finlaystone Estate too so I cannot understand the attitude of the estate forbidding any private commercial photography from enterprising individuals.
One change I noticed was the number of signs on the estate around the centre with “have you paid” aggresively in your face.
My partner wanted to leave after the woman accosted us, as well as being affected by the army of signs demanding to know if we had paid the admission fee.
There are some shop units in the former stables. One was of interest to us being concerned with skin care by organic means. I am uncertain as to whether you have to pay the admission fee to visit these units.
We might have gone inside the shop and even made a purchase but we decided we wanted to get out of Finlaystone without visiting the estate. We found the experience disappointing and distasteful.
I won’t be back!
Check out my review of Finlaystone Gardens – I am grian1954 – on Qype
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