Flodden was fought just after Henry VIII came to the throne, a long time before he became the chubby, wife murdering tyrant so loved by novelists. It’s a battle that people tend to know very little about, but it’s a battle that changed – well world history. In 1513 Henry was suprisingly – young, handsome […]
Compiling 500 years of Scottish history is by no means an easy feat. Countless pages of history books burst at the seams with tales of battles, inventions, kings and queens, acts of law, migration, song – it’s hard enough to even pick where to begin. However, Scottish artist Martin Fowler has done just that, compiling […]
It’s official – Scottish actor Sam Heughan has been cast in the upcoming television adaptation of Outlander. In a statement released yesterday, American cable network Starz confirmed the casting after the news was leaked via Twitter last week. Heughan will play the role of Jamie Fraser in the drama series based on the international best-selling […]
Just off the A68 on the outskirts of the Scottish Borders, a small sign points towards the remnants of an ancient highway. Known as Dere Street, the road was once a bustling hive of Roman (and later Medieval) activity that connected York with the Firth of Forth. You have to use a fair amount of […]
With only one week to go until the beginning of the largest Highland Games held outside of Scotland, this years gathering at Grandfather Mountain is shaping up to be one of the biggest. The games are held in the North Carolinian high country over four days attracting more than 50,000 punters, and coincide with the […]
A renowned team of experts at the University of Dundee have revealed a 3D virtual image of Mary, Queen of Scots as she would have looked at the time of her reign. The image was released to coincide with a major new exhibition on the life of the iconic figure that opened at the National […]
If you still haven’t seen Episode 9 ‘The Rains of Castamere‘ in the latest season of Game of Thrones, you should probably stop reading this post right about now. It’s a well-known and begrudgingly accepted fact that Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin loves to kill off central characters. In episode nine of the […]
An English food historian has declared Haggis as an English delicacy, claiming the Scottish origins of the dish are as “made up” as tartan. Peter Brears has described Haggis as a ‘fine English dish’ in his new book Traditional Food in Northumbria, stating the food was made throughout England from the late 14th Century. Brears […]
Spiders at Dunollie Castle in Argyll & Bute, have been granted special protection from the workers during the castle’s £1.3 million restoration. European cave spiders, also known as Meta menardi, need very dark places to live, usually being found in caves and tunnels away from the light, but a colony have made a home for […]
One of the experiences that stood out the most on my Highland adventure a few months back was the amount of Scottish Gaelic I encountered. From road and railway station signs, to the greeting displayed on the entrance to McDonalds in Inverness, this was my first encounter with Scotland’s oldest surviving spoken language. It’s something […]
