10 ways Scotland influenced the USA!

10 ways Scotland influenced the United States of America – An infographic with some great facts about how Scotland and her people helped to shape the United States…

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Drumnacoub – A Bloody Battle in the Far North

Battle of Drumnacoub (between 1427 and 1433) This battle was an internal feud among the men of Clan MacKay but also involved some Sutherland men. A disastrous battle, it led to the loss of many senior members of the clan and most of the belligerents on both sides. The origins of the battle begin with […]

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Watching Scotland: A peek at the Scottish Green Party

In the last Watching Scotland blog we took a look at the Scottish Conservative Party, or (from an American point of view) the somewhat unfortunately nicknamed “Tories”. From a right of centre perspective we now swing over and investigate what is going on over on the left with Scotland’s fourth largest political party (out of […]

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Campaign to Return Scotland’s Birth Certificate

‘Scotland’s Birth Certificate’ describes the earliest surviving record of the country’s existence. This ancient document which is 1,000 years old is being held in the national library of France, where it has been since the 17th century. A campaign has been launched top return this unique piece of Scotland’s past returned to Scotland. MSP Margo […]

Sawney Bean and his tribe

No-one is absolutely sure if these gruesome villains existed, or if they were just English propaganda to blacken the Scottish name after the Jacobite rising, but if you had been traveling in Galloway a few hundred years ago, you probably wouldn’t have wanted to test the truth yourself! Sawney Bean and his wife were loving […]

The world’s most expensive kilt?

Pebbles based company Holland and Sherry are in the process of weaving what will be one of the worlds most expensive tartans. The tartan is to be woven from 100% Mongolian cashmere. This extraordinary fabric will cost around £200 a metre to the trade so it’s estimated that a kilt made in this tartan would […]

The Greatest Ever Leither?

There’s a competition running down here in sunny Leith at the moment to find the greatest ever ‘Leither’. The historic port of Leith to the north of Edinburgh (though now part of the city) has had more than its fair share of characters and names such as The Proclaimers, Irvine Welsh, Sculptor Paolozzi and the […]

New Japanese Tartan Design.

A brand new tartan has just been created for Japan. The colours reflect the spring blossom and the design also draws inspiration from Thomas Glover, the ‘Scottish Samurai’. Glover was born in 1838 in Fraserburgh, a north east Scotland fishing town, and became a leading figure in the industrialisation of Japan. He was the first […]