With attention focused on the approaching 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, it’s worth taking a look at the events and figures instrumental in the lead-up to the momentous battle. Strangely absent from the legends surrounding Bannockburn is the role played by women, even though one largely looked-over heroine enabled Robert the Bruce’s claim […]
The Isle of Skye has been confirmed as a shooting location for the latest version of Macbeth to take to the silver screen. The Hollywood blockbuster, starring Oscar contender Michael Fassbender in the title roll, has received £200,000 worth of support from arts body Creative Scotland for several on-location shoots due to take place later […]
16th century Scotland was a dangerous place for those in the higher echelons of society. Apart from the likelihood of dying on the battlefield or being murdered as the result of a local feud, it was not uncommon to fall foul of the executioner’s axe. Death by execution was quite a common occurrence and was […]
Skene Loch is an eerie and forbidding place, particularly on cold evenings in the dead of winter – when the waters on the loch can freeze over. If you were to brave the icy conditions and venture down to the lochside and look across the frozen loch you might see what seems like a mysterious […]
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 […]
