Islay McLeod
All is revealed

We thought it was a difficult one. The question: which famous
tourist attraction towers over the sights depicted in my photo-essay last Thursday?
     We received a pleasing variety of theories. David Menzies ventured that
I was in Rothesay with Great Cumbrae as the 'towering' background. Miller Caldwell asked 'Was it Muirkirk?'. Aidan Martin: 'Falkirk Wheel, by any chance?' (hey, watch it, I'm a Falkirk bairn – Ed). Margaret Humfrey, although she had not been there for many years, wondered if my photographs showed the suburbs of Fort William. Francis O Young plumped for Dumbarton Rock. Congratulations to these worthy contenders.
     Some came fairly close. Mark Cargill, John MacLeod, Edward Andrews, Richard Quinn, David Rattray, Heather Johnston, John Higgins and John Marjoribanks all chose the Wallace Monument, while David Key suggested the Robert Bruce statue at Bannockburn.
     But is wasn't so difficult after all. We had no fewer than 25 winners, each of whom will receive a stylish Scottish Review pen, as soon as the consignment arrives from the suppliers. The answer: Stirling Castle from the Raploch estate.
     The winners are:

Norma Allan
Dauvit Broun
Alan Brown
John Campbell QC ('that will be Stirling's p and j, the Raploch estate)
Allan Farmer
Linda Floyd
John Gordon
Margaret Graham
John Harrower
Kirstie Holt
Gordon Logan ('although regrettably, there are other possibilities')
Rev Mhorag Macdonald
Paul McKinlay ('I stayed in Stirling at uiversity and the football team used to train around those streets. I always thought it was really juxtaposed')
Billy Mitchell
Dick Mungin ('please despatch winnings by Securicor')
Robert Naysmith
Mike Nolan
John Pelan ('looks like the lovely Raploch')
John Price ('I've always been struck by the contrast')
Professor Ian Ralston, OBE
David Robertson
Craig Weldon ('seems obvious, especially as the Ochils amd the Wallace Monument can be made out in the background of the last picture')
Alan Willoughby ('really enjoy your photo-essays, they brighten up the day even if they are of urban decay such as this')
Hamish Wilson
Brian Woodhouse ('unfortunately they could have been taken at literally hundreds of similar neighbourhoods all over Scotland")

All is now revealed. Here is Raploch in all its glory with the castle in the background.

More from Raploch tomorrrow. It's not all bad!

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All photographs Copyright Institute of Contemporary Scotland, 2010