 | If you wish to suggest a possible candidate for selected article, picture or quote, see here. |
Weeks in 2012
edit- Week 1
Hogmanay (pronounced [ˌhɔɡməˈneː]) is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. It is, however, normally only the start of a celebration which lasts through the night until the morning of New Year's Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January which is a Scottish Bank Holiday.
The etymology of the word is obscure. It may have been introduced to Middle Scots through the Auld Alliance. In 1604 the custom was mentioned in the Elgin Records as hagmonay. The most satisfactory explanation is a derivation from the Northern French dialect word hoguinané, or variants such as hoginane, hoginono and hoguinettes, those being derived from 16th century Old French aguillanneuf meaning either a gift given at New Year, a children's cry for such a gift, or New Year's Eve itself. This explanation is supported by a children's tradition, observed up to the 1960s in some parts of Scotland at least, of visiting houses in their locality on New Year's Eve and requesting and receiving small treats such as sweets or fruit. The second element would appear to be l'an neuf i.e. the New Year. Compare those to Norman hoguinané and the obsolete customs in Jersey of crying ma hodgîngnole, and in Guernsey of asking for an oguinane, for a New Year gift.
- Week 2
The Kingdom of the Isles comprised the Hebrides, the islands of the Firth of Clyde and the Isle of Man from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the Suðreyjar, or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the Norðreyjar or Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. The historical record is not complete and the Kingdom was not a continuous event throughout the entire period. The islands concerned are sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles during this period, although only some of the later rulers claimed that title. At times the rulers were independent of external control although for much of the period they had overlords in Norway, Ireland, England, Scotland or Orkney. At times there also appear to have been competing claims for all or parts of the territory. The islands involved have a total land area of over 8,300 square kilometres (3,205 sq mi) and extend for more than 500 kilometres (310 mi) from north to south.
Viking influence in the area commenced in the late 8th century, and whilst there is no doubt that the Uí Ímair dynasty played a prominent role in this early period, the records for the dates and details of the rulers are speculative until the late 10th century. Hostility between the Kings of the Isles and the rulers of Ireland, and intervention by the crown of Norway (either directly or through their vassal the Earl of Orkney) were recurring themes.
- Week 3
Sir William Wallace (Medieval Gaelic: Uilliam Uallas; modern Scottish Gaelic: Uilleam Uallas; Latin: Guillelmum le Walois de Scotia militem; died 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence. Although he was a minor member of the Scottish nobility, little is known for certain of William Wallace's family history. Records show early members of the family as holding estates at Riccarton, Tarbolton, and Auchincruive in Kyle, and Stenton in Haddingtonshire. They were vassals of James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland as their lands fell within his territory.
Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, and was Guardian of Scotland, serving until his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk. In 1305, Wallace was captured in Robroyston near Glasgow and handed over to King Edward I of England, who had him hanged, drawn, and quartered for high treason and crimes against English civilians. Since his death, Wallace has obtained an iconic status far beyond his homeland. He is the protagonist of the 15th century epic poem The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie, by Blind Harry. Wallace is also the subject of literary works by Sir Walter Scott and Jane Porter and the Academy Award winning epic film, Braveheart.
- Week 4
John Muir (21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914 was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. Born in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, his letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, was named in his honor. Other places named in his honor are Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier.
In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Because of the spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings, he was able to inspire readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks," and the National Park Service produced a short documentary on his life
- Week 5
The Torrs Horns and Torrs Pony-cap (once together known as the Torrs Chamfrein) are Iron Age bronze pieces now in the National Museum of Scotland, which were found together, but whose relationship is one of many questions about these "famous and controversial" objects that continue to be debated by scholars. Most scholars agree that horns were added to the pony-cap at a later date, but whether they were originally made for this purpose is unclear; one theory sees them as mounts for drinking-horns, either totally or initially unconnected to the cap. The dates ascribed to the elements vary, but are typically around 200 BC; it is generally agreed that the horns are somewhat later than the cap, and in a rather different style.
The artefacts were found together, but with the horns detached from the cap, "about 1820" and "before 1829", in a peat bog at Torrs Farm, Kelton, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, the context suggesting they were a votive deposit (the bog may once have been a pool or lake). They were given by the local exciseman to the novelist Sir Walter Scott, and long displayed with the horns attached to the cap at Abbotsford House, which was opened for public visits from 1833, soon after Scott's death. They are very finely designed and skillfully executed, and form part of a small surviving group of elaborate metal objects found around the British Isles that were commissioned by the elite of Iron Age British and Irish society in the final centuries before the arrival of the Romans.
- Week 6
The Jacobite risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by Parliament during the Glorious Revolution. The series of conflicts takes its name from Jacobus, the Latin form of James. The major Jacobite Risings were called the Jacobite Rebellions by the ruling governments. The "First Jacobite Rebellion" and "Second Jacobite Rebellion" were known respectively as "The Fifteen" and "The Forty-Five", after the years in which they occurred (1715 and 1745).
Although each Jacobite Rising had unique features, they were part of a larger series of military campaigns by Jacobites attempting to restore the Stuart kings to the thrones of Scotland and England (and after 1707, Great Britain). James was deposed in 1688 and the thrones were claimed by his daughter Mary II jointly with her husband, the Dutch-born William of Orange. After the House of Hanover succeeded to the British throne in 1714, the risings continued, and intensified. They continued until the last Jacobite Rebellion ("the Forty-Five"), led by Charles Edward Stuart (the Young Pretender), who was soundly defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. This ended any realistic hope of a Stuart restoration.
- Week 7
Yester Castle is a ruined castle, located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south east of the village of Gifford in East Lothian, Scotland. The only remaining structure is the subterranean Goblin Ha' or Hobgoblin Ha' (Goblin Hall). It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, recorded as such by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). Originally known as Yestred (from the Brythonic Ystrad, meaning strath or dale), the barony of Yester was granted by King William the Lion to Hugo de Giffard, a Norman immigrant given land in East Lothian during the reign of King David I.
The original stone keep, built before 1267, is generally considered to be by Sir Hugo de Giffard. A grandson of the first Laird of Yester, he served as a guardian of the young Alexander III of Scotland, and was by repute a magician and necromancer. Alexander III is known to have been at Yester on and around May 24, 1278, where he corresponded with Edward I of England. Following the Scots Wars of Independence, Yester was rebuilt as a castle of enceinte.
- Week 8
Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area. The town is situated on the northern edge of the Gleniffer Braes, straddling the banks of the White Cart Water, a tributary of the River Clyde. Paisley has monastic origins. A chapel is said to have been established by the 6th/7th century Irish monk, Saint Mirin at a site near a waterfall on the White Cart Water known as the Hammils. It may have been, along with Glasgow and Govan, a major religious centre of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. A priory was established in 1163 from the Cluniac priory at Wenlock in Shropshire, England at the behest of Walter Fitzalan High Steward of Scotland. In 1245 this was raised to the status of an Abbey.
The town, a former burgh, forms part of a contiguous urban area with Greater Glasgow, Glasgow City Centre being 6.9 miles (11.1 km) to the east. The town came to prominence with the establishment of Paisley Abbey in the 12th century. By the 19th century, Paisley had established itself as a centre of the weaving industry, giving its name to the Paisley Shawl and the Paisley Pattern. The town's associations with political Radicalism were highlighted by its involvement in the Radical War of 1820, with striking weavers being instrumental in the protests.
- Week 9
Caledonia is the Latin name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire. The etymology of the name is probably from a P-Celtic source. Its modern usage is as a romantic or poetic name for Scotland as a whole. The original use of the name, by Tacitus, Ptolemy, Lucan and Pliny the Elder, referred to the area (or parts of the area) also known as Pictavia or Pictland north of Hadrian's Wall in today's Scotland. The name may be related to that of a large central Pictish tribe, the Caledonii, one amongst several in the area and perhaps the dominant tribe, which would explain the binomial Caledonia/Caledonii. The name of the Caledonians can be found in toponymy, such as Dùn Chailleann, the Scottish Gaelic word for the town of Dunkeld meaning "fort of the Caledonii", and possibly in that of the mountain Sìdh Chailleann, the "fairy hill of the Caledonians".
According to Historia Brittonum the site of the seventh battle of the mythical Arthur was a forest in what is now Scotland, called Coit Celidon in early Welsh. Traces of such mythology have endured until today in Midlothian: near the town centre of Edinburgh stands an old volcanic mountain called Arthur's Seat. There are other hypotheses regarding the origin of Caledonia (and Scotia). According to Moffat (2005) the name derives from caled, the P-Celtic word for "hard". This suggests the original meaning may have been "the hard (or rocky) land" although it is possible it meant "the land of the hard men".
- Week 10
The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. On 11 September 1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth. De Warenne had won a victory over the aristocracy of Scotland at the Battle of Dunbar and his belief that he was now dealing with a rabble proved that he had greatly underestimated the Scottish forces. The small bridge at Stirling was only broad enough to allow two horsemen to cross abreast.
The Scots deployed in a commanding position dominating the soft, flat ground to the north of the river and waited as the English knights and infantry made their slow progress across the bridge. When the vanguard, comprising 5,400 English and Welsh infantry plus several hundred cavalry, had crossed the Bridge, the attack was ordered. The Scots spearmen came down from the high ground, quickly seizing control of the English bridgehead. De Warenne's vanguard was now cut off from the rest of the army. The heavy cavalry to the north of the river was trapped and cut to pieces (due, in part, to the strewing of caltrop's to de-seat the cavalry making them easy targets for the Scottish forces).
The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a shattering defeat for the English: it showed that under certain circumstances infantry could be superior to cavalry. It was to be some time, though, before this lesson was fully absorbed. Contemporary English chronicler Walter of Guisborough recorded the English losses in the battle as 100 cavalry and 5,000 infantry killed.
- Week 11
Cramond (Scottish Gaelic: Cathair Amain) is a seaside village now part of suburban Edinburgh, Scotland, located in the north-west corner of the city at the mouth of the River Almond where it enters the Firth of Forth. The Cramond area has a long history, with evidence of Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman activity. In modern times, it was the birthplace of the Scottish economist John Law.
It was once believed that Cramond Roman Fort was known to the Romans as Alaterva. A stone altar was dug up in the grounds of Cramond House dedicated "To the Alatervan Mothers and the Mothers of the Parade-ground." Early antiquarians interpreted the inscription as referring to the place where the stone was found, but this idea is no longer accepted among scholars, and "Alatervae" is presumably a native name for the Matronae, perhaps originating with the Tungrian cohort who erected the altar. In the centuries that followed the end of the Roman occupation, Cramond passed into the hands of the Votadini, who spoke Cumbric, a Brythonic Celtic language, and gave the settlement its name. Cramond is derived from the compound Caer Amon, meaning 'fort on the river', referring to the Roman fort that lay on the River Almond.
- Week 12
Fair Isle (from Old Norse Frjóey; Scottish Gaelic Fara) is an island in northern Scotland, lying around halfway between mainland Shetland and the Orkney islands. It is famous for its bird observatory and a traditional style of knitting. Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom. The island is administratively part of Shetland and lies 38 kilometres (24 mi) south-west of Sumburgh Head on the Mainland of Shetland and 43 kilometres (27 mi) north-east of North Ronaldsay, Orkney. 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) in length and 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) wide, it has an area of 768 hectares (3 square miles), making it the tenth largest of the Shetland Islands. It gives its name to one of the British Sea Areas.
The majority of the seventy islanders live in the crofts on the southern half of the island, with the northern half consisting of rocky moorland. The western coast consists of cliffs of up to 200 metres (660 feet) in height. The population has been decreasing steadily from around four hundred in around 1900. There are no pubs or restaurants on the island, and there is but a single primary school. After the age of eleven, children must attend secondary school in Lerwick and stay in a hostel there in term time.
- Week 13
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt FRS (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by slow-moving forces still in operation today. Lyell was a close and influential friend of Charles Darwin. Lyell was born in Scotland about 15 miles north of Dundee in Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir in Forfarshire (now in Angus). He was the eldest of ten children. Lyell's father, also named Charles, was a lawyer and botanist of minor repute: it was he who first exposed his son to the study of nature.
The house/place of his birth is located in the north-west of the Central Lowlands in the valley of the Highland Boundary Fault. Round the house, in the rift valley, is farmland, but within a short distance to the north-west, on the other side of the fault, are the Grampian Mountains in the Highlands. His family's second home was in a completely different geological and ecological area: he spent much of his childhood at Bartley Lodge in the New Forest, England. Lyell entered Exeter College, Oxford in 1816, and attended William Buckland's lectures. He graduated B.A. second class in classics, December 1819, and M.A. 1821. After graduation he took up law as a profession, entering Lincoln's Inn in 1820. He completed a circuit through rural England, where he could observe geological phenomena. In 1821 he attended Robert Jameson's lectures in Edinburgh, and visited Gideon Mantell at Lewes, in Sussex.
- Week 14
.png)
William the Lion (Mediaeval Gaelic: Uilliam mac Eanric; Modern Gaelic: Uilleam mac Eanraig), sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", (c 1143 – 4 December 1214) reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214. His reign was the second longest in Scottish history before the Act of Union with England in 1707, (James VI's was the longest 1567–1625). He became King following his brother Malcolm IV's death on 9 December 1165 and was crowned on 24 December 1165. In contrast to his deeply religious, frail brother, William was powerfully built, redheaded, and headstrong. He was an effective monarch whose reign was marred by his ill-fated attempts to regain control of Northumbria from the Normans.
Traditionally, William is credited with founding Arbroath Abbey, the site of the later Declaration of Arbroath. He was not known as "The Lion" during his own lifetime, and the title did not relate to his tenacious character or his military prowess. It was attached to him because of his flag or standard, a red lion rampant (with a forked tail) on a yellow background. This (with the addition of a 'double tressure fleury counter-fleury' border) went on to become the Royal standard of Scotland, still used today but quartered with those of England and of Ireland. It became attached to him because the chronicler Fordun called him the "Lion of Justice".
- Week 15
The Declaration of Arbroath is a declaration of Scottish independence, made in 1320. It is in the form of a letter submitted to Pope John XXII, dated 6 April 1320, intended to confirm Scotland's status as an independent, sovereign state and defending Scotland's right to use military action when unjustly attacked. Generally believed to have been written in the Arbroath Abbey by Bernard of Kilwinning, then Chancellor of Scotland and Abbot of Arbroath, and sealed by fifty-one magnates and nobles, the letter is the sole survivor of three created at the time. The others were a letter from the King of Scots, Robert I, and a letter from four Scottish bishops which all presumably made similar points.
The Declaration was part of a broader diplomatic campaign which sought to assert Scotland's position as a kingdom, rather than being a feudal land controlled by England's Norman kings, as well as lift the excommunication of Robert the Bruce. The Pope had recognised Edward I of England's claim to overlordship of Scotland in 1305 and Bruce was excommunicated by the Pope for murdering John Comyn before the altar in Greyfriars Church in Dumfries in 1306. The Declaration made a number of much-debated rhetorical points: that Scotland had always been independent, indeed for longer than England; that Edward I of England had unjustly attacked Scotland and perpetrated atrocities; that Robert the Bruce had delivered the Scottish nation from this peril; and, most controversially, that the independence of Scotland was the prerogative of the Scottish people, rather than the King of Scots.
- Week 16
Feb2007.jpg)
The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland is a combination of three sites in Shetland that have applied to be on the United Kingdom "Tentative List" of possible nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage Programme list of sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind. The application was made by the Shetland Amenity Trust in 2010, and in 2011 the site became one of 11 successful UK applications to join the Tentative List, three of them from Scotland.
The application for consideration of "Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland" as a future World Heritage Site was made after the UK government called for nominations for entries to form the UK's new Tentative List of sites. The Tentative List is used as the candidate list by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) when considering new sites for inscription. A list of 38 applications in total was announced in July 2010, after which an independent panel of experts was to assess them, with a view to paring it down and submitting it as the UK's new Tentative List to UNESCO in 2011.
- Week 17
James Ronald Leslie Macdonald (1862–1927) was a Scottish engineer, explorer and cartographer. He served as a British Army engineer, rose to the rank of Brigadier-General and was knighted. A balloon observer as a young man, he surveyed for railways in India and East Africa, explored the upper Nile region, commanded balloon sections during wars in South Africa and China and led a major expedition into Tibet in 1903–1904. Macdonald was born on 8 February 1862 in Aberdeen and was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and the University of Aberdeen. He passed through the Royal Military Academy and was gazetted to the Royal Engineers in 1882.
As a lieutenant, on 15 May 1885 Macdonald was appointed to the corps of Bengal Sappers and Miners, Torpedo service, Calcutta on special duty as a balloon photographer. He served in the Hazara campaign of 1888, and also working in the Indian railway organization. Macdonald had spent seven years in service in India and was in Bombay in 1891 ready to embark for England on leave when he was offered the job of Chief Engineer of "the proposed railway survey from Mombasa to the Victoria Nyanza". He accepted, and continued to England to find out what would be involved. The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA Co) commission was to survey a railway route from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to Port Florence on the shores of Lake Victoria, roughly following the existing caravan route. The Survey began in December 1891, and took more than a year. Macdonald encountered many difficulties in his survey of 27,000 miles of possible route for the railway including sickness, attacks by ants, bees, lions and elephants, formidable physical obstacles and hostile Africans. All these took their toll on his carriers and other followers.
- Week 18
The 1994 Scotland RAF Chinook crash occurred on 2 June 1994 at about 18:00 hours when a Royal Air Force (RAF) Chinook helicopter (serial number ZD576, callsign F4J40) crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, killing all twenty-five passengers and four crew on board. Among the passengers were almost all the United Kingdom's senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts. It was the RAF's worst peacetime disaster.
Earlier on 2 June 1994 the helicopter and crew had carried out a trooping flight, as it was unsafe for British troops to move around in Northern Ireland using surface transport at the time. The mission was safely accomplished and they returned to Aldergrove at 15:20. They took off for Inverness at 17:42. Weather en route was forecast to be clear except in the Mull of Kintyre area. The crew made contact with Scottish military ATC at 17:55. Around 18:00, Chinook ZD576 flew into a hillside in dense fog. The helicopter had been carrying 25 British intelligence experts from MI5, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army, from RAF Aldergrove (outside Belfast, Northern Ireland) to attend a conference at Fort George (near Inverness) in Scotland. At the time of the accident Air Chief Marshal Sir William Wratten called it "the largest peacetime tragedy the RAF had suffered".
- Week 19
The Book of Deer (Leabhar Dhèir in Gaelic) (Cambridge University Library, MS. Ii.6.32) is a 10th-century Latin Gospel Book with early 12th-century additions in Latin, Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It is noted for containing the earliest surviving Gaelic writing from Scotland. The origin of the book is uncertain, however it is reasonable to assume that the manuscript was at Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland when the marginalia were made. It may be the oldest surviving manuscript produced in Scotland (although see Book of Kells), and is notable for having possibly originated in what is now considered a Lowland area.
The manuscript belongs to the category of Irish pocket Gospel Books, which were produced for private use rather than for church services. While the manuscripts to which the Book of Deer is closest in character are all Irish, most scholars argue for a Scottish origin. The book has 86 folios and measures 54 mm by 107 mm. It is written on vellum in brown ink and is in a modern binding. The texts are written in an Irish minuscule text, apparently by a single scribe. Although the text and the script of the manuscript place it squarely in the tradition of the Irish Pocket Gospel, scholars have argued that the manuscript was produced in Scotland.The Book of Deer has been in the ownership of the Cambridge University Library since 1715, when the library of John Moore, Bishop of Ely was presented to the University of Cambridge by King George I.
- Week 20
Cináed mac Ailpín (Modern Gaelic: Coinneach mac Ailpein), commonly Anglicised as Kenneth MacAlpin and known in most modern regnal lists as Kenneth I (died 13 February 858) was king of the Picts and, according to national myth, first king of Scots, earning him the posthumous nickname of An Ferbasach, "The Conqueror". Kenneth's undisputed legacy was to produce a dynasty of rulers who claimed descent from him and was the founder of the dynasty which ruled Scotland for much of the medieval period. The Kenneth of myth, conqueror of the Picts and founder of the Kingdom of Alba, was born in the centuries after the real Kenneth died.
When humanist scholar George Buchanan wrote his history Rerum Scoticarum Historia in the 1570s, a great deal of lurid detail had been added to the story. Buchanan included an account of how Kenneth's father had been murdered by the Picts, and a detailed, and entirely unsupported, account of how Kenneth avenged him and conquered the Picts. Buchanan was not as credulous as many, and he did not include the tale of MacAlpin's treason, a story from Giraldus Cambrensis, who reused a tale of Saxon treachery at a feast in Geoffrey of Monmouth's inventive Historia Regum Britanniae.
- Week 21
.jpg)
Sir Patrick Geddes FRSE (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner (see List of urban theorists). He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology. He was responsible for introducing the concept of "region" to architecture and planning and is also known to have coined the term "conurbation". An energetic Francophile, Geddes was the founder of the Collège des Écossais (Scots College) an international teaching establishment in Montpellier, France.
The son of Janet Stevenson and soldier Alexander Geddes, Patrick Geddes was born in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, and educated at Perth Academy. He studied at the Royal College of Mines in London under Thomas Henry Huxley between 1874 and 1878, and lectured in Zoology at Edinburgh University from 1880 to 1888. Geddes wrote with J. Arthur Thomson an early book on sexology, The Evolution of Sex (1889). He held the Chair of Botany at University College Dundee from 1888 to 1919, and the Chair of Sociology at the University of Bombay from 1919 to 1924. While he thought of himself primarily as a sociologist, it was his commitment to close social observation and ability to turn these into practical solutions for city design and improvement that earned him a ‘revered place amongst the founding fathers of the British town planning movement’. He was knighted in 1932, shortly before his death in Montpellier, France on 17 April 1932.
- Week 22
Lewis (Scottish Gaelic: Leòdhas, pronounced [ˈʎɔː.əs̪], also Isle of Lewis) is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides (an archipelago) of Scotland. The total area of Lewis is 683 square miles (1,770 km2). Lewis is, in general, the lower lying part of Lewis and Harris, with the other part, Harris, being more mountainous. The flatter, more fertile land means Lewis contains the largest settlement, Stornoway, and three-quarters of the population of the Western Isles. Beyond human habitation, the island's diverse habitats are home to an assortment of flora and fauna, such as the golden eagle, red deer and seals and are recognised in a number of conservation areas.
Lewis is of Presbyterian tradition with a rich history, having once been part of the Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles. Today, life is very different from elsewhere in Scotland with Sabbath observance, the Gaelic language and peat cutting retaining more importance than elsewhere. Lewis has a rich cultural heritage as can be seen from its myths and legends as well as the local literary and musical traditions. The first evidence of human habitation on Lewis is found in peat samples which indicate that about 8,000 years ago, much of the native woodland was torched to make way for grassland to allow deer to graze. The more striking great monuments of this period are the temples and communal burial cairns at places like Callanish.
- Week 23
Keir Hardie (15 August 1856 – 26 September 1915), was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Hardie is regarded as one of the primary founders of the Independent Labour Party as well as the Labour Party of which it later was a part. James Keir Hardie was born 15 August 1856 in a one-roomed cottage on the western edge of Newhouse, North Lanarkshire, near Holytown, a small town close to Motherwell in Scotland. His mother, Mary Keir, was a domestic servant and his father, David Hardie, was a ship's carpenter. The growing family soon moved to the shipbuilding district of Glasgow, where they made a life in a very difficult financial situation, with his father attempting to maintain continuous employment in the shipyards rather than practicing his trade at sea — never an easy proposition given the boom-and-bust cycle of the industry.
Hardie's first job came at the early age of 7, when he was put to work as a message boy for the Anchor Line Steamship Company. Formal schooling henceforth became impossible, but his parents spent evenings teaching him to read and write, skills which proved essential for future self-education. A series of low-paying entry-level jobs followed for the boy, including work as an apprentice in a brass-fitting shop, work for a lithographer, employment in the shipyards heating rivets, and time spent as a message boy for a baker for which he earned 4½ shillings a week.
- Week 24
The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the Royal Museum next door, with collections covering science and technology, natural history, and world cultures. The two connected buildings stand beside each other on Chambers Street, by the intersection with the George IV Bridge, in central Edinburgh. The museum is part of National Museums Scotland. Admission is free.
The two buildings retain distinctive characters: the former Museum of Scotland is housed in a modern building opened in 1998, while the former Royal Museum building was begun in 1861, and partially opened in 1866, with a Victorian Romanesque Revival facade and a grand central hall of cast iron construction that rises the full height of the building. This building re-opened on 29 July 2011 after a £47 million project to restore and extend the building, and redesign the exhibitions. The museum incorporates the collections of the former National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, and the Royal Museum. As well as the main national collections of Scottish archaeological finds and medieval objects, the museum contains artifacts from around the world, encompassing geology, archaeology, natural history, science, technology and art. The 16 new galleries re-opened in 2011 include 8,000 objects, 80% of which were not formerly on display.
- Week 25
The Monymusk Reliquary is an eighth century Scottish reliquary made of wood and metal characterised by an Insular fusion of Gaelic and Pictish design and Anglo-Saxon metalworking, probably by Ionan monks. It has been said to be the Brecbennoch of St. Columba (modern Gaelic Breac Bannoch or "embossed peaked-thing"), a sacred battle ensign of the Scottish army, used for saintly assistance, but is now thought not to be the object mentioned in historical records. Very few Insular reliquaries survive, although many are mentioned in contemporary records. It is an early example of the chasse or house-shaped reliquary, that became popular across Europe later in the Middle Ages, perhaps influenced by Insular styles. The Monymusk Reliquary is now empty.
It is characterised by a mixture of Pictish artistic designs and Irish artistic traditions (perhaps first brought to Scotland by Irish missionaries in the sixth century), fused with Anglo-Saxon metalworking techniques, an artistic movement now classified as Insular or Hiberno-Saxon art. The casket is wooden, but is covered with silver and copper-alloy. It was made around 750, probably by Ionan monks. It shows a combination of the Pictish and Insular styles which appear in manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 715 AD). The silver plates on the front and lid of the casket are decorated with beasts leaping and twisting, and biting at their tails on a spotted field, characteristic of animal style in Celtic art.
- Week 26
Hugh Clapperton (18 May 1788 – 13 April 1827) was a Scottish traveller and explorer of West and Central Africa. He was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, where his father was a surgeon. He gained some knowledge of practical mathematics and navigation, and at thirteen was apprenticed on board a vessel which traded between Liverpool and North America. After having made several voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, he was impressed for the navy, in which he soon rose to the rank of midshipman.
During the Napoleonic Wars he saw a good deal of active service, and at the storming of Port Louis, Mauritius, in November 1810, he was first in the breach and hauled down the French flag. In 1814 he went to Canada, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and to the command of a schooner on the Canadian lakes. In 1817, when the flotilla on the lakes was dismantled, he returned home on half-pay. In 1820 Clapperton removed to Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of Walter Oudney, who aroused his interest in African travel. Lieutenant G. F. Lyon, having returned from an unsuccessful attempt to reach Bornu from Tripoli, the British government determined on a second expedition to that country. Walter Oudney was appointed by Lord Bathurst, then colonial secretary, to proceed to Bornu as consul, accompanied by Hugh Clapperton.
- Week 27
James "Jim" (or "Jimmy") Clark, Jr OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. Clark was a versatile driver who competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapolis 500, which he won in 1965. He was particularly associated with the Lotus marque. He was killed in a Formula Two motor racing accident in Hockenheim, Germany in 1968. At the time of his death, he had won more Grand Prix races (25) and achieved more Grand Prix pole positions (33) than any other driver. The Times recently placed Clark at the top of a list of the greatest Formula One drivers.
James Clark Jr was born into a farming family at Kilmany House Farm, Fife, the youngest child of five, and the only boy. In 1942 the family moved to Edington Mains Farm, near Duns, Berwickshire, in the Borders. Although his parents were opposed to the idea, Clark started his racing in local road rally and hill climb events driving his own Sunbeam-Talbot, and proved a fearsome competitor right from the start. On 16 June 1956, in his very first event, he was behind the wheel of a DKW sonderklasse at Crimond, Scotland. By 1958, Clark was driving for the local Border Reivers team, racing Jaguar D-types and Porsches in national events, and winning 18 races.
- Week 28
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. The theory that they were defensive military structures is not accepted by many modern archaeologists, while the alternative notion that they were farmhouses is dismissed by some others. Although most stand alone in the landscape, some examples exist of brochs surrounded by clusters of smaller dwellings. There is controversy about whether or not brochs were roofed.
The word broch is derived from Lowland Scots 'brough', meaning (among other things) fort. In the mid-19th century Scottish antiquaries called brochs 'burgs', after Old Norse borg, with the same meaning. Place names in Scandinavian Scotland such as Burgawater and Burgan show that O.N. borg is the older word used for these structures in the north. Brochs are often referred to as 'duns' in the west. Antiquaries began to use the spelling 'broch' in the 1870s. A precise definition for the word has proved elusive. Brochs are the most spectacular of a complex class of roundhouse buildings found throughout "Atlantic Scotland". The Shetland Amenity Trust lists about 120 sites in Shetland as candidate brochs, while The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland identifies a total of 571 candidate broch sites throughout the country.
- Week 29
John (Johannes, Ioannes) Duns Scotus, O.F.M. (c. 1256 – November 18, 1308) was one of the more important theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages. He was given the medieval accolade Doctor Subtilis (Subtle Doctor) for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought. Scotus has had considerable influence on Roman Catholic thought. The doctrines for which he is best known are the "univocity of being," that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists; the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing; and the idea of haecceity, the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual. Scotus also developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued for the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
Little is known of Scotus' life. He was probably born in 1265 or 1276, probably at Duns, in Berwickshire, Scotland. In 1291 he was ordained as a priest in Northampton, England. A note in Codex 66 of Merton College, Oxford, records that Scotus "flourished at Cambridge, Oxford and Paris. He began lecturing on Peter Lombard's Sentences at the prestigious University of Paris in the Autumn of 1302. Later in that academic year, however, he was expelled from the University of Paris for siding with then Pope Boniface VIII in his feud with Philip the Fair of France, over the taxation of church property.
- Week 30
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930) is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award) and three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award). Connery is best known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Murder on the Orient Express, Dragonheart, and The Rock. He was knighted in July 2000. Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest Man of the Century".
Thomas Sean Connery, named Thomas after his grandfather, was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, to Euphemia McBain "Effie" (née McLean), a cleaning woman, and Joseph Connery, a factory worker and lorry driver. His paternal grandfather's parents emigrated to Scotland from Ireland in the mid-19th century. The remainder of his family was of Scottish descent, and both his mother's parents were native Scottish Gaelic speakers from Fife and Uig on the Isle of Skye. His father was a Roman Catholic, while his mother was a Protestant.
- Week 31
The Union of the Crowns (March 1603) was the accession of James VI, King of Scots, to the throne of England, and the consequential unification of Scotland and England under one monarch. The Union of Crowns followed the death of James' unmarried and childless first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England—the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The Union was a personal or dynastic union, with the Crowns remaining both distinct and separate—despite James's best efforts to create a new "imperial" throne of "Great Britain". England and Scotland continued to be sovereign states, despite sharing a monarch, until the Acts of Union in 1707 during the reign of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne.
From 1601, in the last years of Elizabeth I's life, certain English politicians, notably her chief minister Sir Robert Cecil, maintained a secret correspondence with JamesVI in order to prepare in advance for a smooth succession. Cecil advised James not to press the matter of the succession upon the queen but simply to treat her with kindness and respect. In March 1603, with the queen clearly dying, Cecil sent James a draft proclamation of his accession to the English throne. Strategic fortresses were put on alert, and London placed under guard. Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March. Within eight hours, James was proclaimed king in London, the news received without protest or disturbance.
- Week 32
John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolution. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day. He later served in the Imperial Russian Navy. During his engagement with HMS Serapis, Jones uttered, according to the later recollection of his first lieutenant, the legendary reply to a taunt about surrender from the British captain: "I have not yet begun to fight!"
John Paul (he added "Jones" later) was born on the estate of Arbigland near Kirkbean in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright on the southwest coast of Scotland. His father, John Paul (Sr.), was a gardener at Arbigland, and his mother was named Jean Duff. His parents married on November 29, 1733 in New Abbey, Kirkcudbright. John Paul started his maritime career at the age of 13, sailing out of Whitehaven in the northern English county of Cumberland, as apprentice aboard the Friendship under Captain Benson. Paul's older brother William Paul had married and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the destination of many of the youngster's early voyages.
- Week 33
The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational state school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves 1200 pupils drawn from four feeder primaries in the north-west of the city: Blackhall, Clermiston, Cramond and Davidson's Mains. The school's national profile has given it a flagship role in education, piloting such experiments as the introduction of the Certificate of Secondary Education, the provision of setting in English and mathematics, and the curricular integration of European Studies and the International Baccalaureate.
The Royal High School is, by one reckoning, the eighteenth-oldest school in the world, with a history of almost 900 years. Historians associate its birth with the flowering of the twelfth-century renaissance. It first enters the historical record as the seminary of Holyrood Abbey, founded for Alwin and the Augustinian canons by David I in 1128. In 1505 the school became the first in Britain to be designated a high school. In 1566, following the Reformation, Mary, Queen of Scots, transferred the school from the control of Holyrood Abbey to Edinburgh Town Council, and from about 1590 James VI accorded it royal patronage as the Schola Regia Edimburgensis.
- Week 34
Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (London, 24 May 1852 – Buenos Aires, 20 March 1936) was a Scottish politician, writer, journalist and adventurer. He was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP); the first-ever socialist member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; a founder, and the first president, of the Scottish Labour Party (1888-1893); a founder of the National Party of Scotland in 1928; and the first president of the Scottish National Party in 1934. Graham was a strong supporter of Scottish independence and in 1886 had helped establish the Scottish Home Rule Association, and while in the House of Commons made several attempts to persuade fellow MPs of the desirability of a Scottish parliament. On one occasion Graham joked that he wanted a "national parliament with the pleasure of knowing that the taxes were wasted in Edinburgh instead of London."
While in the House of Commons Graham became increasingly more radical and went on to found the Scottish Labour Party with Keir Hardie. Graham left the Liberal Party in 1892 to contest the general election in a new constituency as a Labour candidate. He supported workers in their industrial disputes and was actively involved with Annie Besant and the Matchgirls Strike and the 1889 Dockers' Strike. In July 1889 he attended the Marxist Congress of the Second International in Paris with James Keir Hardie, William Morris, Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling. The following year he made a speech in Calais that was considered by the authorities to be so revolutionary that he was arrested and expelled from France.
- Week 35
St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall dominates the skyline of Kirkwall, the main town of Orkney, a group of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. It is the most northerly cathedral in the British Isles, a fine example of Romanesque architecture built for the bishops of Orkney when the islands were ruled by the Norse Earls of Orkney. It is owned not by the church, but by the burgh of Kirkwall as a result of an act of King James III of Scotland following Orkney's annexation by the Scottish Crown in 1468. It has its own dungeon.
Its construction commenced in 1137 and it was added to over the next three hundred years. The first Bishop was William the Old, and the diocese was under the authority of the Archbishop of Nidaros in Norway. It was for Bishop William that the nearby Bishop's Palace was built. Before the Reformation, the Cathedral was presided over by the Bishop of Orkney, whose seat was in Kirkwall. Today it is a parish church of the Church of Scotland. The Orkneyinga Saga tells how bloodthirsty intrigue and saintly piety led to the Cathedral's foundation (summarised below). Other accounts tell a similar, though slightly less saintly, tale.
- Week 36
The Hebrides were settled early on in the settlement of the British Isles, perhaps as early as the Mesolithic era, around 8500-8250 BC, after the climatic conditions improved enough to sustain human settlement. There are examples of structures possibly dating from up to 3000 BC, the finest example being the standing stones at Callanish. Little is known of the people who settled in the Hebrides but they were likely of the same Celtic stock that had settled in the rest of Scotland. Settlements at Northton, Harris, have both Beaker & Neolithic dwelling houses, the oldest in the Western Isles, attesting to the settlement. The earliest written mention of the Outer Hebrides was by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in 55 BC. He wrote that there was an island called Hyperborea (which means "Far to the North") where a round temple stood from which the moon appeared only a little distance above the earth every 19 years, an apparent reference to the stone circle at Callanish. Other ancient writers such as Pliny the Elder, the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy, and Solinus (3rd Century AD) all seem to mention the Hebrides, attesting to some contact of the peoples there to the Roman world.
Norse control of the Hebrides was formalised in 1098 when Edgar of Scotland recognised the claim of Magnus III of Norway. The Scottish acceptance of Magnus III as King of the Isles came after the Norwegian king had conquered the Orkney Islands, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man in a swift campaign earlier the same year, directed against the local Norwegian leaders of the various islands. By capturing the islands Magnus III subdued the Norsemen who had seized the islands centuries earlier and imposed a more direct royal control. The Norwegian control of both the Inner and Outer Hebrides would see almost constant warfare until being ultimately resolved by the partitioning of the Western Isles in 1156. Although the Inner Hebrides, from 1156, known as the Kingdom of the Hebrides, was still nominally under the sovereignty of Norway, the leaders were Scottish in language and culture rather than Norse.
- Week 37
Government in Medieval Scotland, includes all forms of politics and administration of the minor kingdoms that emerged after the departure of the Romans from Britain in the fifth century, through the development and growth of the combined Scottish and Pictish kingdom of Alba into the kingdom of Scotland, until the adoption of the reforms of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century. Kingship was the major form of political organisation in the early Middle Ages, with competing minor kingdoms and fluid relationships of over and under kingdoms. The primary function of these kings was as war leaders, but there were also ritual elements to kingship, evident in ceremonies of coronation.
The unification of the Scots and Picts from the tenth century that produced the kingdom of Alba retained some of these ritual aspects in the coronation at Scone. While the Scottish monarchy remained a largely itinerant institution, Scone remained one of its most important locations, with royal castles at Stirling and Perth becoming significant in the later Middle Ages before Edinburgh developed as a capital in the second half of the fifteenth century. The Scottish crown grew in prestige throughout the era and adopted the conventional offices of western European courts and later elements of their ritual and grandeur. In the early period the kings of the Scots depended on the great lords of the mormaers (later earls) and Toísechs (later thanes), but from the reign of David I sheriffdoms were introduced, which allowed more direct control and gradually limited the power of the major lordships.
- Week 38
Perth (Scottish Gaelic: Peairt) is a city in central Scotland, located on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire. According to a 2008 estimate, Perth has a population of 44,820. Perth has been known as The Fair City since the publication of the story Fair Maid of Perth by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott in 1828. During the later medieval period the town was also called St John's Toun or Saint Johnstoun by its inhabitants in reference to the main church dedicated to St John the Baptist. The name Perth comes from a Pictish word for wood or copse. There has been a settlement at Perth since prehistoric times, on a natural mound raised slightly above the flood plain of the Tay, where the river could be crossed at low tide. The area surrounding the modern city is known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers since their arrival more than 8000 years ago. Nearby Neolithic standing stones and circles also exist, dating from about 4000 BC, following the introduction of farming in the area.
The presence of Scone Abbey, home of the Stone of Destiny where the King of Scots was crowned, enhanced the early importance of the town. Perth became known as a 'capital' of Scotland, due to the frequent residence of the royal court. Royal Burgh status was soon given to the town by King William The Lion in the early 12th century. The town became one of the richest burghs in the country, doing trade with France, the Low Countries and Baltic Countries for goods such as Spanish silk and French wine. The Scottish Reformation also played a big role in the town with the sacking of the Houses of the Greyfriars and Blackfriars, after a sermon given by John Knox in St John's Kirk in 1559. The Act of settlement later brought about Jacobite uprisings.
- Week 39
Sir William Arrol (1839–1913) was a Scottish civil engineer, bridge builder, and Liberal Party politician. The son of a spinner, he was born in Houston, Renfrewshire, and started work in a cotton mill at only 9 years of age. He started training as a blacksmith by age 13, and went on to learn mechanics and hydraulics at night school. In 1863 he joined a company of bridge manufacturers in Glasgow, but by 1872 he had established his own business, the Dalmarnock Iron Works, in the east end of the city. In the late 1870s he went on to found Sir William Arrol & Co., a leading international civil engineering business. In 1878, he secured the contract for the Caledonian Railway Bridge over the Clyde, and in 1882 he was awarded the reconstruction contract for the Tay Rail Bridge, which had collapsed in 1879.
His company went on to construct the Forth Bridge which was completed in 1890. At the time, the Tay and Forth bridges were the largest of their type in the world. They were notable not just for their size but also the use of steel in the Forth bridge, and the riveting method developed by Arrol to attach the girders to one another. The Forth Bridge bridge is, even today, regarded as an engineering marvel. It is 2.5 km (1.6 mi) in length, and the double track is elevated 46 m (approx. 150 ft) above high tide. It consists of three main spans of 1,710 ft (520 m), two side spans of 675 ft, 15 approach spans of 168 ft (51 m), and five of 25 ft (7.6 m). Each main span comprises two 680 ft (210 m) cantilever arms supporting a central 350 ft (110 m) span girder bridge. The three great four-tower cantilever structures are 340 ft (104 m) tall, each 70 ft (21 m) diameter foot resting on a separate foundation. The southern group of foundations had to be constructed as caissons under compressed air, to a depth of 90 ft (27 m). Both bridges are known for their high safety factors, a natural result of the under-design of the first Tay bridge by Thomas Bouch, and both bridges have recently (2008) been renovated.
- Week 40
Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie DBE (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish virtuosa percussionist. She was the first full-time solo percussionist in 20th-century western society. Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire. Her father was Herbert Arthur Glennie, an accordionist in a Scottish country dance band, and the strong, indigenous musical traditions of north-east Scotland were important in the development of the young musician, whose first instruments were the mouth organ and the clarinet. Other major influences were Glenn Gould, Jacqueline du Pré and Trilok Gurtu. She studied at Ellon Academy and the Royal Academy of Music, and was also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.
Glennie tours extensively in the Northern Hemisphere, spending up to four months each year in the United States, and performs with a wide variety of orchestras and contemporary musicians, giving over 100 concerts a year as well as master classes and "music in schools" performances; she frequently commissions percussion works from composers and performs them in her concert repertoire. She also plays the Great Highland bagpipes and has her own registered tartan known as "The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie". Glennie is in the process of producing her own range of jewellery and works as a motivational speaker. Glennie has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12. This does not inhibit her ability to perform at the international level. She regularly plays barefoot during both live performances and studio recordings in order to "feel" the music better.
- Week 41
Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most important religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic community by St. Columba, when Iona was part of the Kingdom of Dál Riata. In 563, Columba came to Iona from Ireland with twelve companions, and founded a monastery which grew to be an influential centre for the spread of Christianity among the Picts and Scots. The Book of Kells, a famous illuminated manuscript, is believed to have been produced by the monks of Iona in the years leading up to 800. In 806, Vikings massacred 68 monks in Martyrs' Bay, and Columba's monks returned to Ireland, and a Monastery at Kells: other monks from Iona fled to the Continent, and established Monasteries in Belgium, France, and Switzerland. In 825, St Blathmac and those monks who had returned with him to Iona, were martyred by a further Viking raid, and the Abbey burned.
Iona had been seized by the King of Norway, who held it for fifty years before Somerled recaptured it, and invited renewed Irish involvement in 1164: this led to the central part of the Cathedral being built. Ranald, Somerled's son, now 'Lord of the Isles', in 1203 invited the Benedictine order to establish a new Monastery, and the first (Benedictine) Nunnery, on the Columban foundations. Building work began on the new Abbey church, on the site of Columba's original church. A very early Nunnery, founded in the thirteenth century, of the Augustinian Order, (one of only two in Scotland - the other is in Perth) the Iona Nunnery, was established south of the Abbey buildings. The Abbey church was substantially expanded in the fifteenth century, but following the Scottish Reformation, Iona along with numerous other abbeys throughout the British Isles were dismantled, and abandoned, their monks and Libraries dispersed.
- Week 42
The Battle of Inverkeithing was a battle of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It was fought on 20 July 1651 between an English Parliamentarian army under John Lambert and a Scottish Covenanter army acting on behalf of Charles II, led by Sir John Brown of Fordell. Lambert's force was a seaborne expedition landed at Fife to get around the main Scottish position at Stirling. The battle resulted in a decisive English victory that gave Oliver Cromwell's forces control of the Firth of Forth and outflanked the defensive position of the main Scottish Army under David Leslie. After his victory at the Battle of Dunbar Oliver Cromwell went on to occupy large parts of southern Scotland. David Leslie, commanding the royalist forces, in recovering from the disaster at Dunbar, created a series of defensive redoubts in the centre of the country, effectively preventing the New Model Army from making any further progress in the campaign. Unable to push past Leslie, firmly entrenched at Stirling, Cromwell was quick to realise that Fife, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, was now the key of the whole campaign. Once across the Forth the English would be able to march on Perth and cut the Scots lines of communication with their northern hinterland, now essential for both supplies and recruits.
A seaborne invasion of Fife was a tricky operation. Early in 1651 the Council of State, the executive authority of the Commonwealth, had ordered the construction of special flat bottomed boats, which arrived in Leith in April. While this would enable men and horses to be ferried in close to the northern shore, it would take time for the army to land in sufficient strength to fight off a counter-attack. Leslie could easily move sufficient forces from his base at Stirling to throw the invaders back into the sea. Or, alternatively, he could wait for enough Englishmen to cross to Fife before falling on the weakened remnant at Edinburgh, and then sweep south towards England. This was a considerable risk; but the only alternative was another winter of war, which neither the Lord-General nor his men can have viewed with much enthusiasm.
- Week 43
Sir Christopher Andrew "Chris" Hoy, MBE (born 23 March 1976) is a track cyclist representing Great Britain at the Olympics and World Championships and Scotland (at the Commonwealth Games). Hoy is an eleven-time world champion, six-time Olympic champion and a winner of a total of seven Olympic Games medals, six gold and one silver. With his three gold medals in Beijing 2008, Hoy became Scotland's most successful Olympian, the first Briton to win three gold medals in a single Olympic games since Henry Taylor, in 1908, and the most successful Olympic cyclist. He won a further two gold medals (in the keirin and team sprint) at the London 2012 Olympics, making him the most successful British Olympian of all time in terms of gold medals, and the joint most decorated athlete with Bradley Wiggins with seven medals in total.
Born in Edinburgh in Scotland, Hoy was educated at George Watson's College, a co-educational independent school in Edinburgh, followed by the University of St Andrews in 1996. He subsequently transferred to the University of Edinburgh, from which he graduated B.Sc. (Hons.) in Applied Sports Science in 1999. Hoy was inspired to cycle at age six by the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Before track cycling, Hoy raced BMX between the ages of 7 and 14 and was ranked second in Britain, fifth in Europe, and ninth in the world.
- Week 44
The ancient universities of Scotland are medieval and renaissance universities which continue to exist until the present day. The majority of the ancient universities of the British Isles are located within Scotland, and have a number of distinctive features in common, being governed by a series of measures laid down in the Universities (Scotland) Acts 1858-1966. The Universities (Scotland) Act 1966 uses the term 'older universities' to refer to St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The same act provided for the independence from St Andrews of Dundee, which was then granted a similar form of governance under its royal charter. In common with the other ancient universities of the United Kingdom, the Scottish ancients find themselves administered in a quite different fashion from these new universities (of which there are now fifteen in Scotland) and are granted a number of privileges as a result of their different status.
The currently existing ancient universities of Scotland are, in order of foundation:
- University of St Andrews – founded 1413 (incorporating the University of Dundee for most of its history until 1967)
- University of Glasgow – founded 1451
- University of Aberdeen – founded 1495 (see below)
- University of Edinburgh – founded 1583
Following the creation of the ancient universities before the end of the 16th century, no other universities were formed in Scotland until the 20th century. The first 'new university' of the era (see: plate glass university) was the University of Strathclyde, chartered in 1964 but having existed in various forms as an academic institution since 1796.
- Week 45
Saint Mungo is the commonly used name for Saint Kentigern (also known as Kentigernus (Latin) or Cyndeyrn Garthwys (Welsh)). He was the late 6th century apostle of the Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in modern Scotland, and patron saint and founder of the city of Glasgow.
In Wales and England, this saint is known by his birth and baptismal name Kentigern (Welsh Cyndeyrn). The derivation of the name is probably Brythonic *Cuno-tigernos from the stems *cun- 'hound' (Welsh ci 'dog') and *tigerno- 'lord, prince, king' (Welsh teyrn 'monarch') - both common elements in British names. The evidence is based on the Old Welsh record Conthigirn(i). Other etymologies have been suggested, including British *Kintu-tigernos 'chief prince' based on the English form Kentigern, but the Old Welsh form above and the Old English Cundiʒeorn don't appear to support this. The epithet 'Garthwys' is of unknown meaning. In Scotland and far northern part of England, he is often called by his pet name of Mungo, possibly derived from the Brythonic equivalent of Welsh fy nghu meaning 'my dear(one)'. An ancient church in Bromfield, Cumbria is named after him, as are Crosthwaite Parish Church and some other churches in the northern part of the modern county of Cumbria (historic Cumberland).
- Week 46
The name Kingdom of Alba pertains to the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II (Domnall mac Causantin) in 900, and of Alexander III in 1286 which then led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence. Little is known about the structure of the Scottish royal court in the period before the coming of the Normans to Scotland, before the reign of David I. A little more is known about the court of the later 12th and 13th centuries. Some of the offices were Gaelic in origin, such as the Hostarius (later Usher or "Doorward"), the man in charge of the royal bodyguard, and the rannaire, the Gaelic-speaking member of the court whose job was to divide the food.
The offices of court included:
- Seneschal or dapifer (i.e. the Steward), had been hereditary since the reign of David I. The Steward had responsibility for the royal household and its management.
- The Chancellor was in charge of the royal chapel. The latter was the king's place of worship, but as it happened, was associated with the royal scribes, responsible for keeping records. Usually, the chancellor was a clergyman, and usually he held this office before being promoted to a bishopric.
- The Chamberlain had control and responsibility over royal finances
- The Constable, likewise, hereditary since the reign of David I. The constable was in charge of the crown's military resources.
- The Marshal or marischal. The marischal differed from the constable in that he was more specialized, responsible for and in charge of the royal cavalry forces.
- Week 47
.png)
The birlinn (spelt bìrlinn in Scottish Gaelic) was a type of boat used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages. Variants of the name in English and Lowland Scots include "berlin" and "birling". The Gallo-Norse term may derive from the Norse byrðingr, i.e. a ship of burden. However, a local design lineage can be traced to the Broighter-type boat of Dál Riata, equipped with oars and a square sail, dating from the first century BC, without the need to assume a specific Viking design influence. The birlinn, like its larger counterpart, the long-fhada ("long-ship"), was clinker-built and could be sailed or rowed. It had a single mast with a square sail. Smaller vessels of this type might have as few as twelve oars, with the larger West Highland galley having as many as forty. For over four hundred years, down to the seventeenth century, the birlinn or its larger variant, the long-fhada, was the dominant vessel in the Hebrides. The birlinn appears in Scottish heraldry as the "lymphad" (a corruption of long-fhada).
In terms of design and function, there was considerable similarity between the local birlinn and the ships used by Norse incomers to the Isles. In an island environment ships were essential for the warfare which was endemic in the area, and local lords used the birlinn extensively from at least the thirteenth century. The Lords of the Isles of the Late Middle Ages maintained the largest fleet in the Hebrides. It is possible that vessels of the birlinn type were used in the 1156 sea battle in which Somerled, Lord of Argyll, the ancestor of the said lords, firmly established himself in the Hebrides by confronting his brother-in-law, Godred Olafsson, King of the Isles.
- Week 48
Francis Hutcheson (8 August 1694 – 8 August 1746) was a philosopher born in Ireland to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment. Hutcheson was an important influence on the works of several significant Enlightenment thinkers, including David Hume and Adam Smith. He is thought to have been born at Drumalig, in the parish of Saintfield, County Down, Ireland. He was the "son of a Presbyterian minister of Ulster Scottish (or 'Scots–Irish') stock, who was born in Ireland." Hutcheson was educated at Killyleagh, and went on to Scotland to study at the University of Glasgow, where he spent six years at first in the study of philosophy, classics and general literature, and afterwards in the study of theology, receiving his degree in 1712. While a student, he worked as tutor to the Earl of Kilmarnock. He was licensed as a minister of the Church of Scotland in 1716.
In 1729, Hutcheson succeeded his old master, Gershom Carmichael, in the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, being the first professor there to lecture in English instead of Latin. It is curious that up to this time all his essays and letters had been published anonymously, though their authorship appears to have been well known. In 1730 he entered on the duties of his office, delivering an inaugural lecture (afterwards published), De naturali hominum socialitate (About the natural fellowship of mankind). He appreciated having leisure for his favourite studies; "non levi igitur laetitia commovebar cum almam matrem Academiam me, suum olim alumnum, in libertatem asseruisse audiveram. (I was, therefore, moved by no mean frivolous pleasure when I had heard that my alma mater had delivered me, its one time alumnus, into freedom.) Yet the works on which Hutcheson's reputation rests had already been published. During his time as a lecturer in Glasgow College he taught and influenced Adam Smith, the economist and philosopher.
- Week 49
Eric Henry Liddell 16 January 1902 – 21 February 1945) was a Scottish athlete, rugby union international player, and missionary. Liddell was the winner of the men's 400 metres at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Liddell's Olympic training and racing, and the religious convictions that influenced him, are depicted in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. Often called the "Flying Scotsman" after the record breaking locomotive, he was born in Tianjin (Tientsin) in North China, the second son of the Rev. and Mrs. James Dunlop Liddell, who were Scottish missionaries with the London Missionary Society. He attended school in China until the age of five. At the age of six, he and his brother Robert, eight years old, were enrolled in Eltham College, Mottingham, a boarding school in England for the sons of missionaries. At Eltham, Liddell was an outstanding sportsman, being awarded the Blackheath Cup as the best athlete of his year, playing for the First XI and the First XV by the age of 15, later becoming captain of both the cricket and rugby union teams. After moving to study at the University of Edinburgh he gained a place in the backline of a strong Scottish national rugby union team. In 1922 and 1923, he played in seven out of eight Five Nations matches along with A. L. Gracie. In 1923 he won the AAA Championships in athletics in the 100 (setting a British record of 9.7 seconds that would not be broken for 35 years) and 220 yards (21.6 seconds).
The 1924 Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. A devout Christian, Liddell refused to run in a heat held on Sunday (the Christian Sabbath) and was forced to withdraw from the 100-metres race, his best event. The schedule had been published several months earlier, and his decision was made well before the Games. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400 metres. On the day of the Olympic 400 metres race, Liddell went to the starting blocks, where an American Olympic Team masseur slipped a piece of paper into his hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30: "Those who honor me I will honor." The pipe band of the 51st Highland Brigade played outside the stadium for the hour before he ran. Inspired by this and the Biblical message, and deprived of a view of the other runners because he drew the outside lane, Liddell raced the whole of the first 200 metres to be well clear of the favoured Americans. With little option but to then treat the race as a complete sprint, he continued to race round the final bend. He was challenged all the way down the home straight but held on to take the win. He broke the existing Olympic and world records with a time of 47.6 seconds. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree after the Paris Olympiad in 1924.
- Week 50
.JPG)
The Dunkeld Lectern is a mediaeval lectern which was one of the most prized possessions of St Stephen's Church, St Albans. The 150 kg brass reading desk stood approximately 1.6 metres high and took the form of a large eagle with outspread wings with the bird perched on an orb supported by a turned shaft - an eagle lectern. Engraved on the orb was a Latin inscription - Georgius Creichton Episcopus Dunkeldensis. George Crichton (or "Creichton") was abbot at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh from 1515 to 1522, and it is believed that he was presented the lectern to the Abbey on being made Bishop of Dunkeld by Pope Alexander VI, but was subsequently plundered by the English invaders, subsequently lost (and recovered) in the English Civil War before being stolen by a group of Scottish nationalists. On both occasions the lectern was hidden in a grave. It remains the subject of dispute.
In the autumn of 1543 Scotland and England signed two agreements which are often referred to as "The Treaties of Greenwich". The first guaranteed peace between the two countries for a fixed period of time and the second affirmed that an arranged marriage would take place between Prince Edward of England, the son of Henry VIII, and Mary, Queen of Scots, soon after her tenth birthday. At the beginning of 1544 the relationship between England and Scotland began to worsen as it had done so many times before. The Scots reneged on the treaties which drove Henry VIII into a fury. His response was swift and brutal. He directed the commander-in-chief of the English army, the Earl of Hertford to "...put all to fyre and sworde, burne Edinborough town...[so it] may remayn forever a perpetuel memory of the vengeance of God...for their [the Scots] faulsehode and disloyailtye...over throwe the castle, sack Holyrod house". In May 1544, the English army arrived by boat to destroy Edinburgh. The army landed near the port of Leith from whence it marched on Edinburgh. The invaders pillaged and laid waste the town, and the surrounding areas and villages, excepting only the castle. They destroyed Holyrood Abbey and carried off much of its property as plunder. Henry hoped his aggression would force the Scots to accept the marriage treaty.
- Week 51
Edgar or Étgar mac Maíl Choluim (Modern Gaelic: Eagar mac Mhaoil Chaluim), nicknamed Probus, "the Valiant" (c. 1074–8 January 1107), was king of Alba from 1097 to 1107. He was the son of Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) and Margaret of Wessex (later Saint Margaret). Edgar claimed the kingship in early 1095, following the murder of his half-brother Duncan II (Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim) in late 1094 by Máel Petair of Mearns, a supporter of Edgar's uncle Donald III (Domnall Bán mac Donnchada). His older brother Edmund sided with Donald, presumably in return for an appanage and acknowledgement as the heir of the ageing and son-less Donald. Edgar received limited support from William II (William Rufus) as Duncan had before him; however, the English king was occupied with a revolt led by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, who appears to have had the support of Donald and Edmund. Rufus campaigned in northern England for much of 1095, and during this time Edgar gained control only of Lothian. A charter issued at Durham at this time names him "... son of Máel Coluim King of Scots ... possessing the whole land of Lothian and the kingship of the Scots by the gift of my lord William, king of the English, and by paternal heritage."
Edgar's claims had the support of his brothers Alexander and David — Ethelred was Abbot of Dunkeld, and Edmund was divided from his siblings by his support of Donald — and his uncle Edgar Ætheling as these witnessed the charter at Durham. William Rufus spent 1096 in Normandy which he bought from his brother Robert Curthose, and it was not until 1097 that Edgar received the further support which led to the defeat of Donald and Edmund in a hard-fought campaign led by Edgar Ætheling. Although Geoffrey Gaimar claimed that Edgar owed feudal service to William Rufus, it is clear from Rufus's agreement to pay Edgar 40 or 60 shillings a day maintenance when in attendance at the English court that this was less than accurate. In any event, he did attend the court on occasion. On 29 May 1099, for example, Edgar served as sword-bearer at the great feast to inaugurate Westminster Hall. After William Rufus's death, however, Edgar ceased to appear at the English court. He was not present at the coronation of Henry I.
- Week 52
World Heritage Sites in Scotland are specific locations that have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Programme list of sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind. Historic Scotland is responsible for 'cultural' sites as part of their wider responsibility towards the historic environment. The Environment Directorate is responsible for natural sites. There are currently five sites in Scotland, with a further six undergoing a process of formal evaluation. Informal discussion of a site for "Þings", or Norse parliaments has taken place.
St. Kilda is a small, out-lying archipelago of Hebridean islands which was inscribed as a "natural" site in 1986. In 2004, the site was extended to include a large amount of the surrounding marine features as well as the islands themselves. In July 2005 it became one of the few World Heritage Sites to hold joint status for its natural and cultural qualities. "Edinburgh Old and New Towns" were together inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1996. The former includes the medieval Royal Mile which runs from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and is bordered to the north by the neo-classical 18th century "New Town" which includes Princes Street. It is managed by the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust. "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney" includes Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness and other nearby sites. It was inscribed in 1999 and is managed by Historic Scotland. New Lanark was inscribed in 2001. It is a restored 18th century industrial cotton mill village in South Lanarkshire constructed by Robert Owen as an experiment in utopian socialism. The Antonine Wall was inscribed in July 2008. It is an extension to a wider series of sites in Austria, Germany and Slovakia entitled "Frontiers of the Roman Empire". The Wall is the remains of a defensive line made of turf c. 20 feet high, with nineteen forts. It was constructed after 139 AD and extended for 37 miles between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. The wall was overrun and abandoned soon after 160 AD, then occupied again for a brief period after 197 AD.