Clan chiefs have been sending out rallying calls to their Clansmen and Clanswomen all over the world to come and join them at the Edinburgh Tattoo this August. Rather than setting a fire on-top of a hill – this time they’re using the internet. Back in 2009 many of us remember the epic Clan March […]
It may be sister cities with San Diego, but what you might not be familiar with is Edinburgh’s more subtle connection with America’s Windy City. Sprawling 463 feet into the air at the bottom of Chicago’s famous ‘Magnificent Mile’ is the Tribune Tower, home to the Chicago Tribune and an epitome of the American architect’s desire […]
A wonderful story from a broadside (early version of a newspaper) from 1828, about a man who was auctioning off his drunken wife at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. Details of the extraordinary auction are held by the National Library of Scotland in its vast collection of broadsides, single newsheets which were distributed or pinned up […]
Edinburgh became the sister city of San Diego, USA in 1977. Sister cities were the result of an initiative by President Dwight D. Eisenhower who believed that twinning cities and connecting people at the community level would forge strong international relations and build trust which would result in a more peaceful world. These two cities shared […]
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 […]
271 years ago, a mere 12 miles from Edinburgh, one of the first and arguably one of the most important battles of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 took place. It was the first step in a campaign to place a Stuart back on the British throne. In the early half of 1745, Charles Edward Stuart or […]
The Royal Mile, one of the most famous streets in Edinburgh, runs from the castle all the way down to Holyrood Palace. When Edinburgh castle was first established this was the only accessible route, a natural ramp formed thousands of years ago gave access to a castle otherwise impregnable from the east. With the establishment […]
Living in Edinburgh we know the ghost tours well. You can’t go through a walk in the city centre without crossing paths with one, combination of pale faced tourists and giggling people huddled in the the back of the group avidly listening to their tour guide theatrically telling ghoulish tales of what terrible deed happened […]
Dalziel or Dalzell, as well as Bluidy Tam and the Muscovite de’il. He was a Scottish Royalist General in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Born in Linlithgowshire; the son of Thomas Dalyell of the House of the Binns, Linlithgowshire; head of a cadet branch of the family of the Earls of Carnwath, and of […]
Having seen dozens of top ten places to visit in Scotland, mostly compiled by tourist guides who’s writers have barely scratched the surface we felt it was time to weigh in with our personal view. At ScotClans we spend a lot of time travelling to parts of Scotland collecting stories and legends and capturing the […]
