Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘Real’ Disney castle tops rare spot list
WWI medic’s remarkable sketches revealed
THESE sketches by a First World War hero show the grim realities of life in the trenches.
Now Pte Bernard Eyre Walker’s images are being published after great niece Sara Woodall learnt they were stuck in an archive.
Pte Eyre Walker risked his life as a Royal Army Medical Corps stretcher-bearer at the Somme in 1916. There he created 140 sketches of everything from gravely wounded Tommies to a booby-trapped body.
The medic, from Langdale, Cumbria, wrote in the mud-spattered diaries of the “repulsive and frightening” front line existence.
But he also told tales of sharing coffees with enemies.
The journals were salvaged by a German and returned after the war to Pte Eyre Walker, who went on to be a famed watercolourist.
On his death in 1976, they were given to Leeds University, where they remained until Sara found out they existed.
A Voice From The Trenches, 1914-18, From The Diaries and Sketchbooks Of Bernard Eyre Walker is available now.
A PINK tower house said to have inspired Disney’s Cinderella Castle has topped a list of lesserknown UK spots to visit.
Craigievar Castle earned its place in Lonely Planet’s top 10 list for 2021 for its stunning turrets and carved stonework.
Built in 1576, it was first owned by William Forbes who made his fortune as a global trade merchant.
But the National Trust for Scotland has run the estate near Alford, Aberdeenshire, since the 1960s.
Tom Hall, at Lonely Planet, said: “The pandemic caused us all to re-evaluate how we travel.
“Now is the perfect time to update that bucket list with some of these underthe-radar places you might have overlooked.”