The Kilt. Just saying that conjures up images of HIghlanders walking through the Scottish Glens. it is one of the most recognisable national dress seen in the Western World. All over there are women, and men, swooning at the thought of a man in a kilt, c’mon readers I know you’re all thinking it and […]
Oh deary me, where on earth do I start. There is a story stating that, it was, in fact an Englishman who invented the small kilt, the forerunner of the kilt we wear today. This comes from a letter that was published in a popular pamphlet of the time ‘The Edinburgh Magazine’ in 1785 Now, […]
Back in 1820 or thereabouts there were two wee English brothers, born in Wales, by the names of John Hay Allen and Charles Hay Allen who moved to Moray, Scotland. After being there a while they changed the spelling of their name to Allan, to make it look more Scottish, but then shortened it to Hay. These two brothers are […]
Scotland’s been responsible for so many inventions that one wonders just where we would be today without them. We all know the main ones – golf, the television, the telephone, the bicycle, the steam engine (okay, we don’t still use that one but it sure was important) – but here are 7 equally interesting/important ones […]
The New Town in Edinburgh is a beautiful area right smack bang in the centre of the city, contrasting greatly with it’s counterpart the Old Town. One straight and neat, in fact considered to be a masterpiece of city planning, the other jumbled and confused but layered in history. Let’s take a look at a very […]
During the week we posted a picture we took when on a visit to the haunting yet beautiful site of the Battle of Culloden, which you can see below… We asked our many fans if they had ever been and if they could share their pictures in an effort to take a look at some […]
I am of the opinion that there is value in pre-colonial indigenous ideas about how to get on in this world and so they are worth exploring. I live in the midst of recognized indigenous cultures in every direction, as far as the eye can see. Some of these cultures are still alive; others just remnants disclosed […]
Scottish Gaelic in the United States truly is a marginalized language and culture, and it has been largely subsumed and reinvented on a very different Anglo-Scottish model. Thus, much of the discussion necessary to set the stage for expanded efforts at Gaelic culture and language recovery and revitalization tends to be a bit dark and more than a little uncomfortable. Such […]
If one looks at Scotland from a certain perspective, it is completely possible to identify two distinct worlds co-existing under one Alban sky. A close reading of north Britain human history reveals about 1,300 post-Roman years of a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, dynamic melting pot of Gaelic, Pict, Norse, Briton and finally Anglo Saxons and Normans. Rich, […]
I wrote a Not Your Father’s Gaelic blog post a few weeks ago wherein I expressed how nice it would be to have neighbors who are aware of and interested in their Scottish Gaelic heritage. Perhaps even neighbors with whom I could joke around in Gaelic! As it is, even my own (Italian American) mother’s eyes […]
