Bonnie lad beats English at Culloden What if? Battle of Culloden The Scottish people (Scots: Scots Fowk; Scottish Gaelic: Albannaich) or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or Alba) in [...]
Who is Scotland’s greatest hero? With many tours under my belt over 20 odd years, it’s a question I have been asked many times. Here I list a few of the main contenders; in no particular order. I have a shortlist of my own, but how about you? All these are SCOTS. King Alexander [...]
Blood & Guts – Spartans of the North Who are the Macleans? Clan Maclean Scottish Gaelic: Clann MhicIllEathain is a Highland Scottish clan. They are one of the oldest clans in the Highlands and owned large tracts of land in Argyll as well as the Inner Hebrides. Many early MacLeans became famous for their [...]
Kintyre: castles and history speak volumes Kintyre extends 40 miles from Mull of Kintyre in the south, to Tarbert in the north. The peninsula is no more than ten miles wide, at Tarbert it’s just a mile. The name in the Gaelic Tairbeart, literally translated as "draw-boat" and as "isthmus", Tarbert was important for the [...]
Born near the Little Bay Oban OH-bən; not oh-BAN which a lot of people pronounce it as. An t-Òban in Scottish Gaelic meaning The Little Bay, is a town in Argyll and Bute. Despite its' small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, the town can hold [...]
Vikings on Loch Lomond Not as daft as it first seems, Loch Lomond is an INLAND loch, so what were Vikings doing there? More to the point, how did they get there? And aye, they caused bloody mahem. The Vikings in Strathclyde: The Hidden Heritage project commissioned a report by Dr. Elizabeth Pierce (Glasgow [...]
Ancient history, clans and wildlife, on Oronsay, the smallest island in Scotland Oronsay has furnished archaeologists with invaluable information about the Mesolithic period of prehistory, particularly about the diet of human beings for years. Three middens (waste tips) opened in the 1880s and have provided a piece of bone carbon-dated to 4600 BC and [...]
Will the real James Bond please stand up? Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, 1st Baronet, KT, CBE (1911 – 1996) was a Scottish soldier, writer and politician and was one of only two men who during the Second World War enlisted in the British Army as a Private and rose to the rank of Brigadier, [...]
Are you ready for this? It may freak you out, and contrary to what Liz may say, I wasnee around then. During the Devonian period (419 – 359 million years ago), Scotland lay south of the equator. Scotland was all above sea level and was in parts very mountainous. The Devonian saw the final stages [...]
Connel – the centre of the world. The thing you cannee miss in the village is Connel Bridge, a cantilever bridge that spans Loch Etive at the Falls of Lora. It was built to carry the Callander and Oban railway's branch line to Ballachulish that opened in 1903. Apart from the bridge, there is a [...]
