On Sunday (01/08) Castle Sinclair Girnigoe will open to the public after a ten-year long restoration. The £700,000 facelift will try to help preserve the castle’s archeological and historical importance, and there are a further two phases planned, making the restoration a multi-million pound project which intends to turn Castle Sinclair Girnigoe into a major […]
Not all men in the 16th century Border Country were Border Reivers. Many endeavoured to live in peace but were inevitably caught up in the theft, feud and blackmail. It would seem Jamie Telfer was one who fell foul of the animosity and confrontation yet, in this incident, achieved a more than satisfactory outcome.
The name Cameron originates from the Gaelic words ‘cam’, meaning wry or crooked, and ‘sron’ meaning nose, suggesting that the progenitor of the Clan Cameron had a crooked nose! Cameron is one of the most popular in the Highlands, and the name of Lochiel, the Chief of the Clan, has always stood for everything that […]
If you’re walking through the Abriachan Gardens you will come across a heart-shape stone which is deeply embedded in the ground called the Font Stone. The flat rock has a hole in the middle which is filled with water. The stone is within the Abriachan Community Gardens, if you follow the path up through the […]
The capture and rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong brought together three of the most colourful characters in the history of the Border Reivers. The impasse that existed between Sir Walter Scott, probably the most notable person to live on the sixteenth century Border, and Thomas Lord Scrope, English West March Warden, is a story of a clash of personalities of awesome proportions. Kinmont Willie? He was lost in the diplomatic wrangling. His capture changed nothing. He went on to reive until his death in about 1603.
On the 4th of March, two of the ScotClans team (Amanda and Donald) went on a resource finding trip down and around the south west of Scotland. We took in a number of castles and places of interest along the way, as well as enjoying some beautiful scenery. When we set off from Edinburgh it […]
By the middle of the sixteenth century the Border Reivers had a strangle hold on the lands on each side of the English Scottish Border. None more so than the Elliots and Armstrongs of Liddesdale. Murder, theft, arson, blackmail and feud were the canker of the Border Marches. Whatever resources, initiatives or amendments to the […]
With temperatures plumetting, a low of -22°C is expected, with some saying that parts of Scotland will be as cold as the South Pole. However, it is currently mid-summer for the southern hemisphere, and -22°C is probably considered as balmy by the penguins. The coldest temperature ever recorded in the UK was -27.2°C on the […]
By 1593 the feud that had existed between the Maxwells and the Johnstones, the two most powerful families in south-west Scotland, was to reach its zenith. The feud was long-standing as it had existed for over a century. Whilst the culmination of the feud would result in the Battle of Dryfe Sands which has already […]
A portrait thought to be of Bonnie Prince Charlie, purchased by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery back in 1994 for £22,000, is in actual fact ‘probably his brother’, Prince Henry, the museum has conceded. After a two-year debate with London art dealer, Bendor Grosvenor, the National Galleries of Scotland have back down from its initial […]
