Scotland is to welcome Pope Benedict XVI for his first visit to Britain on 16 September, which is St Ninian’s Day. The Pope begins his visit in Edinburgh, where a St Ninian’s Day parade will welcome him to the city. But who exactly was Saint Ninian, and what was his historical significance? The precise details […]
There has been a remarkable breakthrough in discovering Scotland’s origins. The ancient mound known as the Moot Hill in the ground of Scone Palace was once the site of the “lost” abbey of Scone, founded in 1114 by Alexander I, where Scottish kings are believed to have assumed the mantle of power on the Stone […]
The capture and rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong brought together three of the most colourful characters in the history of the Border Reivers. The impasse that existed between Sir Walter Scott, probably the most notable person to live on the sixteenth century Border, and Thomas Lord Scrope, English West March Warden, is a story of a clash of personalities of awesome proportions. Kinmont Willie? He was lost in the diplomatic wrangling. His capture changed nothing. He went on to reive until his death in about 1603.
A new series of stamps by the Royal Mail have been issued, depicting the Stewart monarchs who ruled Scotland between 1406 and 1603, the year of the Union of the Crowns. The series starts with James I (1406-1437) and stops at James VI (1567-1603) who went on the become the king of England, uniting to […]
By 1593 the feud that had existed between the Maxwells and the Johnstones, the two most powerful families in south-west Scotland, was to reach its zenith. The feud was long-standing as it had existed for over a century. Whilst the culmination of the feud would result in the Battle of Dryfe Sands which has already […]
Sir John Carmichael of that Ilk was murdered in June 1600 by a party of Scottish Reivers as he rode from Langholm to Lochmaben to attend a Warden Court. Sir John was born in 1542, son to an illustrious family which hailed from Lanarkshire. He was a direct ancestor of the Earls of Hindford. He […]
Kylekin is a small promontory that juts out of the east end of Skye and is crowned by the ruins of Castle Maol. The main wall of the ruin is an impressive eleven feet thick, but ended up defeated by the great storm of 1948. On Febuary 1st 1948, the main wall of Castle Maol […]
On the 8th of February, 1587 Mary I of Scotland was executed for treason at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. She was found guilty of conspiring against her cousin Elizabeth of England, and so after 18 years of confinement, Mary was eventually taken to the scaffold where she was beheaded at the age of 44. The […]
On the Caithness east coast, five miles north of the town of Helmsdale, you will see the ruinous remains of the once inhabited village of Badbea which saw its last resident leave at the start of the 20th century. The Highland Clearances affected thousands of Highland families who were made to move from their homes. […]
Glamis Castle near Forfar in Angus is Scotland’s, and one of Britain’s most haunted castles. However it is trying to distance itself from the paranormal stories that the place is famous for, and instead attempt to rebrand as a family-friendly visitor attraction. Glamis, a gift from Robert II to Sir John Lyon, is the ancestral […]
