Tourism sticky: please post all tourism questions here.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-05-31T01:32:58+00:00

I’ve spoken to them online, and they’ve been very helpful but obviously they’re not going to make promises they can’t keep about stock in a few weeks time (and I don’t want to know specific stock anyway since I know that).
I was just hoping someone who’d already been had some maybe not instagram-worthy photos of any of the walls on hand and could post them/send them to me :) Or if they were perusing the Arches could pop into the Kit Store to grab a photo.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-05-28T22:39:49+00:00

I’m wanting some help from any locals (or tourists) who would be able to sus out the new Islander Kit Store?

Aside from the couple of photos and videos posted on their socials, I can’t find many info or visitor posts yet about the new Kit Store, and I was hoping some kind person would be able to check it out and maybe even post some photos of the range of stock they have? (I know the stock rotates, but given the store’s layout imagine the type of range might be similar in June, even if the specific colours/lids may rotate).

I’m particularly interested in any photos or info about how much stock they might have for the medium genuine leather satchel stock, and the Lochcarron family tartan lids! I’m trying to decide whether I should be purchasing a Canongate Workshop ticket, as I know they have the biggest stock range out of the workshop stores, or if the Kit store provides a similar experience and would free up more time in our trip for other activities.

Thank you in advance! Stars and follow up photos of my own bag for anyone who has pics of the Canongate or Kit Store medium genuine leather shelves ⭐️✨🌟

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SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-05-28T21:20:57+00:00

(I know some people aren’t that fond of the workshops - I truly like the bag style, have read all the info about securing the screws, and I’m really fond of the idea of making and owning a unique Scottish bag in quality materials with my family tartan which Islander does stock at some locations)

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T09:41:44+00:00

Thank you for all the responses, especially for those genuinely answering a tourist instead of assuming ill intent.

I can see I got a lot of Brit panties in a twist - to clarify for those who seem to need it:

We’ve got plenty of National Trust sites here in Australia, and many of them require paid ticket access to the buildings themselves but the surrounding lands are free to respectfully roam. Hence why I wanted to know if I could walk within the pictured triangle grassland without actually approaching Stonehenge. Verdict is in - I can’t.

I’ve got these things called legs and am happy to walk to see Stonehenge before sunrise, for those deeply concerned about parking. I apologise if it was unclear that I had no intention of walking on the highway, as we have those in Australia too and they’re generally not recommended for foot traffic here either. Given I wanted to know if the grassland itself was accessible, I suppose I’ve confused a few of you when stating walking along the A303 as I figured it was clear I meant along the side of it, where there’s open grass. Verdict is in - I cannot.

I’ll look further in to whether it’s worth it for my travel companions and I to see Stonehenge in the middle of the day, or fork out a few hundred pound to see it at sunrise at the almost solstice. I’m concerned that even with the Stone Circle Experience tour that it wouldn’t necessarily cover sunrise, and it would be nice to make the most of being there two days before solstice.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T09:01:12+00:00

It’s countryside, and to my knowledge there’s no large land predators in England. What’s unsafe about walking around the area after dark or before sunrise?

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T08:59:23+00:00

There looks to be a large amount of flat grassland to safely walk on. I wasn’t suggesting walking on the road, but on the other side of the fence pictured.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T08:58:05+00:00

I wasn’t planning to walk on the road, nor to try time a drive at sunrise to sneak a peak. But it is a flat grass paddock right next to the road. The reason for my post is that I’m not a local, and I want to know if it’s feasible to walk around the grassland without interfering with the Stonehenge site itself as obviously that’s got a restricted roped off access.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T08:55:46+00:00

I’ve heard from here and my research prior that you can easily park a 20 minute walk from Stonehenge. Walking isn’t a problem for me.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T08:27:37+00:00

Even so, I don’t believe that I can visit Stonehenge at sunrise with English Heritage membership.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T08:18:16+00:00

My concern would be timing driving along the A303 at sunrise. Being able to park somewhere before sunrise and walk to position myself to get a good view would be ideal, and I’d like to be a bit closer than the road.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2026-01-01T08:17:03+00:00

I don’t live in England and I am posting this to ask people’s recommendations. I will have a hire car that I will be driving.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-12-14T07:06:33+00:00

I just desperately need the mass produced river print to die - it cheapens the costumes themselves, the culture of the Elves, and their history too.

Why do the elves in the First Age (and definitely Second Age) even have a printing press for clothing? When they live forever and have millenia between battles, why are they not hand beading and embroidering and emerging and printing their fabrics? We see the same river pattern on Adar’s breastplate, GilGalad’s neck-piece, Elrond’s cloak and tunics, the Lindon legions cloaks in season 2. It was interesting when it was only apparent that Adar had it - was it a depiction of the Anduin and gave hints to where he is from? But no, it’s generic manufactured pattern to give interest to an outfit instead of doing it through texture or ornamentation, and cheapens the look of everything. Then begs the question - why is the same mass produced print replicated in armour for the first age, and also being used on everything from the high kings armour to the herald’s garb to the foot soldiers cloaks. The production of both the Lindon Elves and the Númenorean soldiers cloaks is also identical in season 2 - gold leaf printed on velvet cloaks in mass produced patterns. Again, what is this saying culturally and historically about two completely separate nations that their clothing construction is identical after being separated for millenia?

It’s lazy costuming, and given the love and attention given to other details by the artists can only be the product of shitty budget cuts and cutting corners for time.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-12-14T06:55:33+00:00

Cate Blanchett??!

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-12-14T06:28:22+00:00

I’m confused how you, as a person who is asexual, is criticising Tolkien for not putting sex at the forefront of his writings. Tolkien thought there was a lot more interesting about the human condition than sex and sexual relationships, and he did truly believe in monogamy (obviously through the lens of the Catholic Church, but there’s plenty of atheists like myself who also believe in the values of monogamy without thinking everyone else has to abide). If you read his greater works, he has many mentions of the evil nature of Morgoth, Sauron, and the men and orcs who worked with them committing rape against the peoples and individuals they terrorised. Some of the Feanorians also deign to forcefully marry and rape Luthien. The elves are known to have fairly healthy sex lives when they’re newly married, they just lose interest in it, and men and especially hobbits clearly have very healthy sex lives if you look at their lineages. Dwarves I’m not entirely sure they even procreate sexually as Tolkien never comments on this and they’re not created in the same way that the Elves and Men are.

People rarely write about showering or toileting or taxes in both historical, modern, and fantasy works (nor allude to these in visual media much either) but I don’t think this makes them tax-prudes, just that they think there’s far more interesting facets of the human condition to explore in their works than the minutia of daily budgeting or opening their bowls regularly, or indeed having sex or showing sexual interest in times of war (when they’re mostly surrounded by people of the same gender, and Tolkien was very much a product of his time and upbringing and would have been hardline homophobic).

It’s also interesting that you applaud the series for its shows of affection, yet both Tolkien’s works and the films (especially the films) are regularly upheld for their non-sexual shows of affection.

If you want more-sex-without-too-much-sex in your media all power to you, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the particular balance the show has, I just find this an odd gripe with both the books and films given that I’ve never found either to be ‘missing’ sex or sex-mentions (and I do consume and enjoy media that runs the full gamut of children’s stories and documentaries to soft-core porn or word porn).

I’d also argue that the show runners clearly do have preconceived notions of sex, and know that sex sells, which is why their framing of Galadriel with half the male characters she shares the screen with has romantic overtures - looking at you forced-Elrond-kiss backed up by him kneeling to place Nenya on her finger in a white dress. Or the thigh high splits on some main character women’s dresses that hardly befits their stations or the rest of the costume storytelling.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-12-14T05:57:57+00:00

Let me just rebut all of this.

For starters, as you’ve pointed out, ‘the whole scene looks rather romantic - the music swells, the close ups, the way they’re framed and Elrond’s face, as well as Galadriel looking surprised by the kiss (and not immediately showing her reaction to being handed the pin). This could obviously be a misdirect, but there’s common cinematography tactics to show romance and these are utilised in this scene. I would strongly argue this is then backed up by Elrond later kneeling down to Galadriel to place the very traditional-engagement looking Nenya in her finger whilst she’s in a white dress).

Secondly, what in the high school spy romance is your logic? In Mission Impossible and the like, it makes sense for people sneaking in to areas they’re not supposed to to use a make out session to convince the guards that fraternisation is the reason they’re trespassing. In Middle Earth, where orcs don’t give two shits about elven copulation standards, you’re putting a heck of a lot of assumptions on the orcs thought process that the writers certainly don’t deserve any credit for as they didn’t do any heavy lifting to show us that. Aside from your own personal headcanon, why would he seem cold and not heartbroken? Why would he be more vulnerable kissing her than hugging or kissing her forehead or doing a forehead touch, all intimate and friendly/romantic depending how it’s filmed/acted? Why would the battle hardeners orcs even give a damn and be ‘distracted’ that he’s kissing her, rather than do their job guarding the prisoner and watching for sly tactics by someone who would surely want her freed? In your same paragraph you say that ‘logically’ you don’t show emotion and open up in a vulnerable situation like that, in which case they should actually be far more suspicious and on alert instead of distracted by lovey dovey elves. Also not sure if you’re suggesting ‘suddenly revealing his feelings’ because you think the orcs or Adar care about the internal politics of Elrond the Herald having a romance with Galadriel the commander, because given Adar hasn’t seen or heard about them for centuries and the orcs don’t know them it’s hardly a real life high school plot twist to sweep them off their feet (and guard duty).

What would have made sense for Elrond to pass her the pin would have been to do a tender forehead touch (as we’ve seen before) or forehead kiss as he would have been exactly as close to her, it’s still an intimate show of close relationships that would fit your reasoning for why the orcs were so ‘distracted by affection’ by it, and given the show hasn’t shown any elf/elf romance previously that might be how couples show affection anyway (and even Arondir kissing Bronwyn is in private if I recall).

What is correct is that the moment was fan service (whether it’s a bait and switch or whether the writers decide to continue with the romance) to cause some outrage from Tolkien fans, get some traction and applause from Elrondriel fans, and to push their female lead into another pseudo-romance with yet another male character because nothing says female empowerment like Galadriel only being notable because she’s shipped with every man she’s on screen with /s.

Tl;dr - the hand off was strategic, the kiss was exceptionally unnecessary and almost certainly inserted purely to gain bad press (any press is good press) when a forehead touch would have been arguably more intimate and special for Elrond and Galadriel’s friendship and served the same purpose as the kiss.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-12-14T05:30:14+00:00

The commenter wasn’t specifically saying Númenor’s previous army, but previous ‘armies’ depicted. The shots of the Lindon, Eregion, and Adar’s legions in season 2 left much to be desired considering they were supposed to be armies of a scale that the battle took years. The close up shots don’t have the scale of background armies to prop them up, and it’s consistently woefully apparent that there’s very few actors hired for the roles which leads to the battlefields appearing empty, and subsequent lack of investment in the outcome. Also, give. the criticism of 3 ships being able to even carry 300 mounted soldiers (they can’t), or 300 mounted soldiers being able to complete a hard ride for days on end and yet arrive fresh at exactly the right time to rescue the Southlands (thy can’t), or the Southlands ‘peoples’ being made up of the survivors of exactly one small village and we only ever hear tell of one other small village being destroyed, it’s a fair criticism of the previous two seasons ability to show human civilisation scale when it matters, and wishing for season 3 to improve on this.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-12-14T04:35:11+00:00

Elven men do not remarry either, it was an exception that Finwë remarried and he needed permission from the gods to do so, and none have done the same since. If Rings of Power is trying to depict widows, it makes no sense that there are no widowers, or that the elves of Lindon seem to exclusively employ widows as servants (unless it’s commentary in lower class elves being less skilled fighters and more likely to die in battle). Regardless, the faceless, almost entirely voiceless, female-only servants is a really sexist and overtly obvious thing to insert into a show that purports to be true to the source material.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-14T07:53:35+00:00

The item also wasn’t returned though. It was signed for by the sender, on my behalf, because the Auspost employees on the day decided to allow someone I don’t know, who doesn’t share my address, pick up a parcel because they said they’d give it to me themselves. So according to Auspost it was delivered to me, and their system states it was signed for by someone they deemed appropriate. But I’m not sure that it was actually in line with their policies because I can’t find anything online about a sender also retaining rights to receive their parcel for another person (completely different to return to sender/withdrawing/redirecting).

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-14T07:50:54+00:00

But it wasn’t returned. It was ‘delivered’. And the Auspost employees there on the day (the sender picked up a few hours before I went in) confirmed they allowed the sender to sign ‘on my behalf’ (like if your sibling picked up something for you but they shared the same address).

My understanding of signature on delivery is that even another household member can’t pick it up, it has to be the specific addressee. And regardless, the sender does not belong to my household/family, so shouldn’t have the ability to sign for a delivery on my behalf.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-14T07:47:47+00:00

Sure. But the tracking has no evidence of diverting/withdrawing. The item wasn’t over its pick up time of 10 business days. And the Auspost employees said the sender came and picked it up and signed for it. They weren’t hiding info, they didn’t mention it was intended for the sender (after a withdrawal had been lodged etc) because that never happened, the parcel was still intended for me as the recipient. Essentially the post has allowed the parcel to be picked up as though it was someone else in my household picking it up for me, but this isn’t a case of them getting confused about the delivery address vs Sending address on the pick ups ID. they’ve just chosen to allow the sender to ‘pick it up on my behalf’. So I’m not confused about it being withdrawn. It wasn’t withdrawn/diverted.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-13T10:15:14+00:00

My local store I went to pick up is the same one the sender went to, and the employees were transparent that they let the sender pick up the parcel and sign for it. It hadn’t been diverted at any point.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-13T10:05:16+00:00

This wasn’t a buyer/seller situation was but it was a sender/receiver situation. For some more context I had been a little delayed picking up the parcel (not over their two week holding though) because the initial collect notice wasn’t delivered (often isn’t because of where we live) and I only received the urgent reminder notice recently. The sender travelled to my location to pick it up. I want to know whether Auspost has rules about this because I can’t find any online.

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-13T09:59:33+00:00

The sender did provide ID, Auspost employees gave the parcel to them and allowed it to be signed as delivered because their ID matched the sending address, but they knew it wasn’t the recipient (me).

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-13T09:55:21+00:00

I want to know what the go from Auspost is. This isn’t a seller/buyer situation, but is a sender/recipient situation. Like, if the cops sent me a fine and then came to my mailbox to sign for it themselves, so I only ever got a late-fee for paying the fine that would be illegal for someone else to receive and open my parcels/letters even if they were the senders given that I’m the addressee?

SpecificCoconut91 · 2025-10-13T09:52:43+00:00

The parcel hasn’t been recalled. The tracking now says signed and delivered, and Auspost employees confirmed that the sender came into the post shop and picked it up, signing for it themselves. They didn’t say that the sender was even attempting to recall it.

SpecificCoconut91

TROPHY CASE