Greetings folks! This blog is coming to you live from the Outer Hebrides and will follow my travels on my first trip straying from the Scottish mainland. I’ll be spending most of my time on the Isle of Barra with Clan Macneil, where I’ve been invited to attend a special ceremony at Kisimul Castle. I’m […]
With an overabundance of stunning landscapes and picturesque castles, it’s no wonder Scotland is a favourite calling card for film and television location scouts. Here are my top five Scottish locations featured on the silver screen: Inveraray Castle – Downton Abbey Featured in the nail-biting finale to the third season of Downton Abbey, the stunning […]
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 […]
A leading DNA expert has shown that the celtic hero Somerled who was credited with driving the Vikings out of western Scotland was himself descended from a Norseman It had always been believed that Somerled was descended from an ancient royal line going back to when the Scots were living in Ireland. A few years […]
“A well tempered man, in body shapely, of a fair piercing eye, of middle stature and of quick discernment.” Somerled is the first known historic figure of the medeival Hebrides. He was celebrated as a purely Celtic hero, but like all good heroes, his story is a gloss of myth and legend. His name in […]
