Helensburgh

HELENSBURGH, twenty miles or so northwest of Glasgow, is a smart, Georgian grid-plan settlement laid out in an imitation of Edinburgh's New Town and overlooking the Clyde estuary. In the eighteenth century it was a well-to-do commuter town for Glasgow and also a seaside resort, whose bathing-master, Henry Bell, invented one of the first steamboats, the Comet, to transport Glaswegians "doon the watter". The tourist office is on the ground floor of the old Italianate church tower by the Clyde (daily: July & Aug 10am-6pm; June & Sept 10am-5.30pm; April & May 10am-5pm; early Oct 10am-4.30pm; tel 01436/672642).

The inventor of TV, John Logie Baird, was born here, as was Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who in 1902 was commissioned by the Glaswegian publisher Walter Blackie to design Hill House on Upper Colquhoun Street (April-Oct daily 1.30-5.30pm; NTS; £6). Without doubt the best surviving example of Mackintosh's domestic architecture, the house is stamped with his very personal interpretation of Art Nouveau, right down to the light fittings, characterized by his sparing use of colour and stylized floral patterns. The effect is occasionally overwhelming - it's difficult to imagine actually living in such an environment - yet it is precisely Mackintosh's attention to detail that makes the place so special.

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