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The Most Ancient and Noble Order of the Thistle is one of the oldest orders in the United Kingdom; its conference is in the personal gift of the sovereign and not under advice from her government; and has a very exclusive and limited membership. Earlier this month a new knight was added: Prince William, Earl […]
Until relatively recently rural Scotland was dominated by a narrow clique of aristocrats and landowners; some of whom with titles, deeds and rights stretching back centuries. Often living in castles and mansion houses, these men owned vast tracts of land, counted in the hundreds of thousands of acres; dominated the local political environment and controlled […]
On the 20th of September 1746 the French ship, L’Heureux, sailed into Loch nan Uamh on the west coast of Scotland; it’s intention to rescue the beleaguered Prince Charles Edward Stuart and take him home. We’re all familiar with the prince’s abortive rebellion of 1745, his attempt to put his father back on the throne […]
On the 19th of May Edinburgh’s two great footballing rivals, Hearts and Hibs will meet on the hallowed turf of Hampden Park in Glasgow to contest one of the oldest sporting competitions in the world – the Scottish Cup. England’s version of this top prize, the FA Cup founded in 1871, is the oldest soccer […]
An interesting angle to the current debate on Scottish independence is what would happen to the British Flag, the Union Jack, should Scotland actually separate from the rest of the United Kingdom. It may seem a trivial point, but the flag and the union are so interwoven that it is worth looking at how it […]
The Scots are superstitious, and one of our most strongly held beliefs is that of the gift of second sight; the ability to predict events before they occur. Prophets, or seers, are well recorded in Scottish history and mythology from the Brahan Seer to Thomas the Rhymer; and this article looks at how their predictions cast a long shadow over the lives of people of Scotland
20,000 years ago Scotland, like much of the Northern Hemisphere was blanketed by a great ice sheet, over 4000ft thick in places; and the effect on our landscape of this event is huge. Ice ages occur in part because of astronomical cycles, and over the course of the last two million years the ice has waxed and waned over Scotland. The last 10,000 years have been warm and ice free, but the legacy of the glaciers upon our scenery and history is incalculable.
The Gaelic language, spoken still today in the Highland and Islands, has a very descriptive way of explaining the seasons and months of the year based on observations that take us back thousands of years to our ancient past. The months of the year reflect important annual milestones, natural cycles and religious ritual; and were an intregal part of farming life. The article takes you through the year, the seasons and the meaning behind the months and a chance to glimpse the world through our forefathers eyes.
Field Marshal, the Earl Haig was born in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square in 1861 and would gain fame and noteriety as the Supreme Commander of the British Forces during the First World War. Haig replaced Sir John French in 1916 as the conflict deteriorated into a war of attrition. At this time, the French were under severe pressure at the Battle of Verdun, so Haig launched the Somme offensive to drive back the German army. The battle lasted a little over 4 months, by which time the casualty figures had exceeded a million. Little gain was made, and Haig and his generals were blamed in many quarters for their ineptitude, and Haig himself became known as the Butcher of the Somme. A year later at the Battle of Passchendaele, huge losses for little success was repeated, but both battles had severely damaged the German army and their resilliance. In November 1918 Haig made the final breakthrough and effectively won the war.
Following the war, Sir Douglas Haig was promoted to the peerage as the Earl Haig; he was then instrumental in setting up the British Legion and the Poppy Appeal – two institutions with the purpose of raising funds and providing help and welfare for soldiers and their families, which is very much the legacy of this most controversial of Scotsmen.
For thousands of years the Scottish Highlands were covered in a forest known as the Great Wood of Caledon, an extension of the Eurasian Boreal Forest and the Wild Wood of folklore and legend. Today only fragments remain, isolated in the deepest reaches of the mountains, but exisit they do; and they offers us a glimpse into a lost world. The Caledonian Pineforest, is it is referred to today was systematically felled and burned over the last thousand years and today the remnants offer a last sanctuary for many rare and ellusive plants and animals, and are protected for the future. This is the story of that forest.
