With a new season of Game of Thrones on TV screens avid fans will be enthralled at the twists and turns of this epic tale. However as I recently discovered while staying on Islay, the inspiration behind many of the series’ most bloody moments come from the stories of our own Scottish Clans. The Island […]
Gruinard island is just off the mainland, in Gruinard Bay, along the A832 halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool. During WWII it became the focus of the UKs secret effort to find a weapon capable of defeating the Nazis. These experiments left the island so contaminated it was deemed out of bounds for almost 50 years. […]
Over the weekend of the 22nd to the 24th of August, Scotland’s Tea Festival will be hosting a series of events in Laurencekirk and Auchenblae in Aberdeenshire celebrating tea and Scotland’s contribution to the tea industry, particularly focusing on the life of local born man James Taylor, who was known as the “The Father of […]
For several years I’ve been planning to walk the West Highland Way, one of Scotland’s best known long distance walks that runs for 96 miles from Milgavie just north of Glasgow all the way to Fort William in the North West Highlands. I have just returned from finally managing to complete this incredible and iconic […]
Police mugshots of Dundee’s heaviest 20th century drinkers are set to go under the hammer next week. Published in 1905, the book depicts dozens of citizens who were banned from the city’s bars after flouting the era’s strict public drinking laws. Anyone convicted under the Inebriates Act of 1898 three times in the space of […]
A rare 19th century volume of lavishly illustrated clan fashion is set to go under the hammer in Edinburgh tomorrow. Part of auction house Bonham’s Scottish sale, Costume of the Clans is an illustrated guide that shows how tartan trews and kilts were historically worn. The book, which is numbered 37 of 500 copies, is […]
Intertwined and impenetrably linked to Scottish culture, poetry has a long and distinguished history in Scotland. And it’s a history that’s continuing to this day – Edinburgh was recently named the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, the publishing industry is thriving, the country has more literature festivals per capita than any other, and there’s […]
Celebrated annually around the world, April 6 is recognised as an international celebration of Scottish heritage and ancestry. Known as Tartan Day, the celebration marks the anniversary of the 1320 signing of the Declaration of Arbroath, sought to assert Scotland’s right to self-govern, and to lift the Catholic church’s excommunication of Robert the Bruce. As […]
The seat of Clan Boyle, also known as the ‘graffiti castle’, is set to reopen after a five year £500,000 renovation. Kelburn Castle near Largs, North Ayrshire was closed in 2009 following a fire in the roof. Extensive renovations have now been finished and it is to reopen at the start of April as a […]
With attention focused on the approaching 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, it’s worth taking a look at the events and figures instrumental in the lead-up to the momentous battle. Strangely absent from the legends surrounding Bannockburn is the role played by women, even though one largely looked-over heroine enabled Robert the Bruce’s claim […]
