The Wittance May 2023

May 2023

The Wittance Around Scottish lochs with a camera Where to find fairies and folklore beings Books, music and gigs What Scotland did first Writing, videos and photographs all about Scotland and the Scots

Read, Watch, Listen Inside

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The Wi

Hello again and a very warm welcome to our second e and radio programmes either from or about Scotland.

It is our intention to bring the best views of this incredib always punches way above its weight. We will bring you that you have always wanted to go to or will become big

We have videos on a host of items, live music, Scots l There are audio tracks bringing you podcasts and radio hear the shows or stories in their original format and pro

We are always looking for material from outside of S example, inside this issue we have a report and pictures not have a big event like that but your ancestors may ha where ever you happen to be in the world today. We wou

Currently The Wittance is free but we will be introduc so have a wander through our pages and pull out section

If you missed the April edition read it here.

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Wittance

edition. The Wittance is full of articles, pictures, videos

ble little country tucked away in the North Sea but u great photography transporting you to those places g ticket items on your bucket list.

language words or films exploring the countryside. programmes as they were broadcast enabling you to oduced by those that are lucky enough to live here.

Scotland that have a definite Scottish theme for s from the Bundanoon Gathering in Australia. You may ave stories to tell of their journey that led to you being uld love to hear that.

cing an annual subscription fee of £25.00 – but not yet, ns and let us know what you think.

Editor & compiler Bruce Patterson

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Feature writer Kate MacRitchie

What’s Finger Print Files of Henry Faulds The story of fingerprinting, a Scots missionary and ancient Japanese pottery

Gothic Grandeur and Ghosts

Join Kate MacRitchie wandering around Crawford Priory in Fife

Scots Words Videos Wie Alice

Alice brings more Scots language words, when, where and how to use them.

The Antiquities of Fortingall

Ed Moore tells a tale of a Yew tree, Pontius Pilote, Billy Connolly and David Bowie

Around Scotland With A Rod

A Tour around the country with Pete Foster, fishing rod in hand.

Local Access Paths A guide to walking around the hills of Scotland

Home To Roost An explanation of the dreadful Tinker experiment from Shamus McPhee

Highland Tapestry Local people, young and old, and their new legacy creation.

A Fairy Field Guide Scottish fairies and where to find them explained by Kate MacRitchie

Inside The Beltane Festival An ancient spring festival still being celebrated today

Scottish Firsts Adhesive stamps and natural selection

Bundanoon Highland Gathering Words and pictures from Australia

Pull Out Sections Scottish Lochs Scotland has over 30,000 lochs enjoy a few of them beautifully shot by photographer Duncan J MacPherson

Books and Music Our favourite music of the moment and some of the books we have come across recently

Podcasts & Radio A selection of audio stories, music and programmes from Scotlands finest

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Fingerprint Files of Henry Faulds Henry Faulds was a

Scottish doctor, missionary, and scientist most noted for the development of fingerprinting and the ability to identify people through these prints.

Henry Faulds was born June 1st, 1843, in Beith, North Ayrshire. His parents, though initially wealthy, lost much of their fortunes following the City of Glasgow bank collapse in 1855. Due to this, Faulds was unable to continue his education for want of funds and was forced to drop out of school aged 13. He went to Glasgow and found employment as a clerk to help support his family.

After working for several years, Henry decided to enroll at the Facility of Arts at Glasgow University when he was 21 to further his education. Here he studied mathematics, logic, and the classics. When he was 25, he realised that his true passion was medicine, and went on to study this at Andersons College and graduated with a physician's license.

Following his graduation, Faulds became a medical missionary for the Church of Scotland. In 1871, he was sent to India, where he worked for two years in Darjeeling in a hospital for the poor. On July 23rd, 1873, Faulds received a letter of appointment from the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to establish a medical mission in Japan.

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That September, Faulds married Isabella Wilson and the newlyweds departed for Japan in December.

Faulds established the first English-speaking mission in Japan in 1874. He soon became fluent in Japanese and started tutoring medical students at the local university. Faulds helped to introduce Joseph Lister’s antiseptic methods to students and Japanese surgeons. In 1875, Henry helped found the Rakuzenkai, Japan's first institute for the blind. He

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continued his work in Japan and helped massively in the medical field. Faulds halted a rabies epidemic and helped stop the spread of cholera.

Whilst in Japan, he founded and became the surgeon superintendent of Tsukiji Hospital in Tokyo. By 1882, his hospital managed to

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treat approximately 15,000 patients annually.

In the late 1870s, Faulds started to become involved in archaeological digs in Japan. On one of the digs, he noticed fingerprints imprinted on ancient pottery. He began to study modern fingerprints and became convinced that the pattern of ridges was unique to everyone.

Shortly after these observations, his hospital got broken into. The local police arrested a member of

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staff that Faulds believed to be innocent. Faulds decided to take it upon himself to compare the fingerprints at the crime scene to those of the suspect and found them to be different. With this evidence, the police released the suspect.

To promote the idea of fingerprint identification, Faulds wrote to Charles Darwin with his ideas.

Darwin passed them on to a relative, Francis Galton, who passed them to the anthropological society of London.

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ublishing.com In 1880, Faulds published a paper in ‘Nature’ magazine on fingerprints. In his article, he wrote how they could be used to catch criminals and suggested how this could be executed. However, the following month, Sir William Herschel, a British civil servant based in India, wrote to ‘Nature’ explaining how he had been using fingerprints to identify criminals since 1860.

Some years later, a paper stating that Herschel had suggested forensic usage before Faulds was delivered to the Royal Institute. A bitter controversy between the two men arose and prompted a battle of the letters between Faulds and Herschel that continued until 1917 until Herschel admitted that it was Faulds who first suggested the forensic use of fingerprints.

Once this was settled, Faulds moved and worked in London as a police surgeon.

In 1922 he sold his practice.

Rudolph Teusler bought his

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clinic in Tokyo and renamed it St Luke's International Hospital.

Henry Faulds passed away in March 1980, bitter at the lack of recognition he had received for his work. In November 2004, a memorial was held in Beith town center close to where he was born, to honour his memory.

In 2007, a plaque acknowledging Faulds work was unveiled at Bank House near Wolstantons St Margarets Churchyard, where he's buried. Another plaque was unveiled in 2011 at his former residence.

Despite his lack of recognition at the time, it is fair to say he is now honoured and remembered for his transformational discovery, among other things in the medical field.

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Crawford Priory: Gothic Grandeur and Ghosts

By Kate MacRitchie

It’s an overcast but pleasant day for a stroll through the Fife countryside. You amble by the River Eden and into the mixed woodland, letting your feet lead you.

You stumble, crash through a shrubby knot of trees — and catch your breath. A forbidding structure rears before you: a decrepit priory, abandoned and vast. Left to rot in depths of the wood like a hollowed-out ribcage, its ominous turrets are nearly engulfed by trees. Crows squabble amid its crumbling splendour. A tower casts a dark, cold shadow. Your imagination plays tricks,

placing a ghostly apparition in fine dress within an arched window.

You shrug off a shiver and return to the woods. A tangled path winds through the undergrowth, following it you stumble on a crumbling mausoleum. Verdigris tinged stone and rusty iron bars lend an air of sad neglect. Like the magnificent ruin nearby, the mausoleum is falling to bits. Foliage sprouts from the roof and tree roots threaten to tear the tomb apart. Snap. You look round to see a roe deer, lingering shyly between the trees. You lock eyes for a fleeting moment and feel a

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peculiar chill before it bounds away.

It could be the opening scene of a Gothic novel, but the crumbling ruin, aristocratic ghost, and lonely grave belong to Crawford Priory, a real-life marvel of opulent architecture. Venture deep into the woods near Springfield, Fife, and you’ll soon glimpse its sombre bones jutting ominously into the sky.

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Sprawling ivy, trees, and wildlife claim this once magnificent man-made mansion for nature, although the making of Crawford Priory can be credited to one woman: the gloriously eccentric Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford.

In the early 1800s, Lady Mary inherited a rustic hunting lodge and estate, built in 1758 for the 21st Earl of Crawford. A

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hunting lodge was much too humdrum for Lady Mary’s tastes, however, so she began a series of renovations inspired by Dunblane Cathedral.

Crawford Priory had no connections with the church, but for its deeply religious new owner it was to become a sacred place.

disturbances, hiding under the dinner table. It seemed she’d inherited a ghost with Crawford Lodge. Or could she have experienced an eerie premonition of how she’d come to haunt the building herself, when it was no more than roofless rubble?

From the beginning Lady Mary noted the hunting lodge’s strange atmosphere. Her dog would whimper and cower at unseen

Whatever “bad and awful auspices” brought Crawford Lodge into being, Lady Mary wasn’t deterred. She possessed an indomitable nature:

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ublishing.com “[…] her mind of a masculine order, her spirit high, independent, and unscrupulous, her temper haughty to those who did not understand, or presumed to contradict her prejudices,” claimed Lord Lindsay in his Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres.

Extensive remodelling transformed Crawford Lodge into Crawford Priory. Suits of armour glittered in the halls, dinners were held under dramatic vaulted ceilings, and beams of rainbow light patterned the floors from stunning stainedglass windows. A luxurious palace fit for an aristocratic lady and her pets. Because why ruin the peace of your newly renovated sanctuary with a husband and children?

Lady Mary flouted societal expectations by refusing to marry or become a mother. Instead, she

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welcomed a menagerie of animals into the Priory’s luxuriant interior, which included tame roe deer and a fox.

The roe deer was her favourite companion.

Every day she fed it a delectable mush of bread and milk, which she made by hand. The deer became attached to her brother George, Earl of Crawford — apparently, it would follow him home from the wood and sleep at his feet! Upon its death at the grand age of seven, Lady Mary buried the roe deer on the estate and erected a tombstone in its memory.

Predictably, society at the time were unsettled

by Lady Mary’s ambivalence towards marriage, and the time and money she chose to lavish on pets and servants instead of a family. Newspaper articles painted her as a reclusive

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spinster, claiming that she lived in “almost entire seclusion” with only birds and beasts for company.

However, Lady Mary showed devotion not only to her animal companions but to the servants who doted on her. In her will she left provisions for both servants and animals, in addition to donating a ‘considerable sum’ to the parish poor.

Such philanthropic acts seem part of Lady Mary’s character. Lord Lindsay noted in his memoir that she was a woman of, “kind attentions, acts of generosity, little minute delicacies, most unworldly and ideal, to every one with whom she came into contact,—of the judicious bestowal of money, in loan or gift, on the deserving[…]which may balance the remembrance of eccentricities.”

Not every commentator

remembered Lady Mary so kindly. One mused, ‘the cynical moralist might illustrate the vanity of human wishes by showing that whilst Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford has “built her soul a lordly

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pleasure-house” at Crawford Priory during her lifetime, her body now rests uncared for in a neglected and nameless tomb, the walls of which are crumbling into dust for the lack of a little pious

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care and reverent affection.”

Indeed, Lady Mary’s tomb has been disrespected several times, with teenagers daring one another to

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sleep inside its mouldy walls and vandals breaking open the coffin and scattering her bones.

Yet romantic imaginations might see this neglect as part of Crawford Priory’s gothic allure. For there’s life among the decay: birds and beasts still make their home here, crows wheel above the decaying turrets, and broken walls provides ample sprawling space for ivy and native trees.

Some believe the dead also roam Crawford Priory on windy nights. There have been various sightings of Lady Mary’s ghost over the years, lending an uncanny air to the ruins. Almost two centuries after her death, Lady Mary’s attachment to Crawford Priory and her animals remains unsevered (a spectral menagerie is said to loyally follow her steps!).

www.bruhupu After Lady Mary’s death, Crawford Priory then passed through the Earls of Glasgow to the Barons of Cochrane. Since the 1960s, Crawford Priory has slipped further into ruin each year, as though it were Lady Mary’s wilful spirit that held the bricks together. In 1968, due to insurmountable maintenance costs, the doors closed forever. It’s only taken half a century for the Priory’s gothic grandeur to rot into ruin.

Curved staircases, exquisite carvings, and antique tiles are laid bare to the elements. Glassless, arched windows loom above the rubble, reflecting only the swaying trees and moody sky.

Crawford Priory can be accessed on foot from Springfield, near Cupar.

The route heads across open fields to the wood.

Follow the track that

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ublishing.com crosses under the railway and head for the village of Pitlessie. After crossing the River Eden, follow the trail through farmland and past Coults Mill to reach the woodland where Crawford Priory is located.

The Priory is fenced off and though there are clear holes in the wire made by the intrepid, would-be explorers should note how dangerously unsafe it is to venture inside. Explore with care!

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Remember to take a detour to Lady Mary’s tomb, which lies in Lady Mary’s Wood, opposite the A914. You might be the only visitor pausing by the forlorn tomb to remember the extraordinary lady of Crawford Priory, a woman worthy of a Gothic novel or two. Or maybe the ghostly glimmer of a devoted deer will show that Lady Mary is still remembered by those she was kind to.

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Scotland in Pictures We don’t like to boast too much or too often but sometimes there is no option.

We live in a beautiful place. The misty Highland glens, rivers and lochs, forests of pine or oak, coastal villages, sea lochs and islands are a reality. They do exist and we are abundant in breath taking views.

Words can never do enough therefore we will show you in as many formats as we can, in an attempt to justify how spine tingling Scotland is, every day.

In this edition we have chosen water and some of our favourite lochs. We only have one lake in Scotland, it may appear in the future.

If you have any thoughts or comments let us know. If you want to contribute in any way to future displays please do get in touch.

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Over 30,000 Lochs!

Loch Ness is probably the most famous Loch in Scotland because it really does have a monster, as well as more fresh water than England and Wales combined.

Loch Lomond has a famous song and the biggest surface area but there are so many more lochs, but only one lake.

Over the next few pages we have have some stunning photographs featuring four of our favourites. With more than 31,460 lochs, at the last count, we will be showing you lots more in future editions.

All pictures are copyright of Duncan J MacPherson

If you have images that you would like us to feature contact us on editor@bruhupublishing.com

To see feature click

all our ed lochs here

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Books, Mus

Each month we will bring you th older books you have yet to read If you have any recomm editor@bruhup

Inside this month’s Books & Music pull-out Books on the Black Rood, a lost Scottish treasur favourite whisky. What story lies

We have children’s books, written Skerryvore, Lisbett Rus All available at the

This i button t

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sic & More

he best in new releases in print, d, gig listings and music videos . mendations, let us know. publishing.com

t section we have a raft of goodies for you. re, delve into the story behind the name of your s behind the words on the label?

n in Doric, music and videos from sso and Hamish Hawk. e click of a button.

is the to click

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Scots Words

Scots La

Scots is one of three languages used in Scotland t collection of Doric, Lallans and Scotch also known as

It has been spoken in Scotland for centuries parti Lowlands, Orkne

The Scottish currently carrying consultation befo Scots Languages support all Scots can read the cons document here.

Consul Docu

s with Alice

anguages

today alongside Scottish Gaelic and English. It is a s Buchan, Dundonian, Glesca and Shetland.

icularly in the Eastern and Southern parts, the ey and Shetland.

Government is g out a public ore considering a Bill to help Languages. You sultation

ltation ument

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The Antiquities of Fortingall

By Ed Moore.

The village of Fortingall lies in Highland Perthshire in Glen Lyon. This small place stands in the sequestered mountain vale on the lower part of the Lyon River, about 10 miles west of Aberfeldy.

Fortingall is the historic

something like: “Escarpment Church”, i.e., “church at the foot of an escarpment or steep slope.”

Many archaeological remains have been discovered in the vicinity of the village, testifying to its antiquity.

center of one of Scotland’s largest civil parishes. Its Gaelic name is Fartairchill, which may be translated as

Yet little Fortingall is famous for two things primarily. The first one along the trail of time is a tiredlooking old yew tree which grows behind its protective railings next to the church and which rests its weary limbs on the stone walls there. Its branches overhang the burial place of the Stewarts

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of Garth. Having an estimated age of between 2,000 and 3,000 years, the “Fortingall Yew” is believed to be one of the oldest living organisms in Europe!

It first took root at around the time when David was King of Israel and would already have been a mature tree at the time of the traditional founding of Rome.

Aside from this, the yew remained witness to daily

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life in the hamlet over the centuries. It is said that in medieval times, many a Stewart clansman went out of his way to cut a branch from it before setting off on some warlike endeavor.

There was no better wood for bow-making. And even then, the tree was gnarled with age. By 1725, no more bows were being cut from it because bows were obsolete. But the local tradesmen, the shoemaker,

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and the blacksmith, knew that there they could get the choicest wood to fashion the handle for a tool or a dirk. And each year, when the month of May began, the village boys followed the ancient pagan custom of lighting the Beltane fire at its roots.

Perhaps they did it once too often, for the main trunk split apart. Within forty years the space between them had already widened so much that you could have driven a coachand-four-through the gap.

Welsh naturalist Thomas

www.bruhupu Pennant (1726-1789) recorded its girth in 1769 as still being an astonishing 56 feet.

In time, people were coming from far and near to see it – and cutting off pieces as souvenirs. But it was showing its years all too plainly. By the middle of the last century most of the remaining stem was no more than a shell, thirtytwo feet in diameter, with the center wholly decayed.

Drastic measures had to be taken to save it. Some of the surviving parts of the

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trunk were encased in supporting pillars of stone and a high wall was built around the whole tree, to keep the souvenir hunters at bay. So, the ancient yew of Fortingall can be seen to this day, huge, wellguarded and still growing!

The yew was a sacred tree of most of Europe’s pre-Christian religions. It was a symbol of everlasting life as well as valued in bow-making. Indeed, many

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Christian churches were built on the site of a pagan yew-grove. It is not very surprising that the traditional Scottish music group Battlefield Band paid tribute to one such yew tree in their song, “The Yew Tree” on their 1988 album, “Anthem for the Common Man.” Going forward down the tunnel of time, we come to the second thing Fortingall is famous for. According to

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fabricated legend, it was the birthplace of Pontius Pilate, where his father was said to have been posted as a Roman centurion guard at the nearby Roman camp.

Other stories say his father was an envoy who was visiting a local king, Metallanus, at his hill fort of Dun Geal. Experts point out several problems with that: the Romans did not establish a presence north of the Tay until around A.D. 80 and the earthworks

www.bruhupu which for centuries were assumed to be Roman are now understood to be a mediaeval homestead.

Pilate was born well before the Roman conquest and became famous in the biblical account of Jesus’s death thirty years before the Romans first reached this part of Scotland.

Although Pilate is the bestattested governor of Judea, few sources about his rule have survived. Nothing is

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ublishing.com known for certain about his life before he became governor, nor of the circumstances that led to his appointment to the governorship (c. 26 A.D.-36 A.D.). Several other locations, including villages in Spain and Germany, make similar claims as his birthplace.

This gives was to another mystery: how did this legend come about? As writer Jeremy Duncan points out, who linked Pilate and Fortingall in one sentence and with enough conviction to make it stick?

Could it simply be an insult dreamed up by a neighboring village and passed down the generations to show what a wicked place Fortingall was? A small postscript to this tale apparently occurred in 1902 when the church was in the process of restoration; workmen digging in the churchyard found a stone slab several feet down with the initials P.P. inscribed on it, and this

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was taken as proof that Pilate had not only been born in the village but had returned there to die.

Skipping to modern times, apparently knowing the legend, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly is said to have suggested that musician and actor David Bowie play Pontius Pilate “as a Scotsman” in the film, “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988). Bowie did not accept the advice.

References: Duncan, Jeremy. (1997). Perth and Kinross: The Big Country, John Donald Publishers Ltd. Edinburgh.

Fraser, Duncan. (1978). Highland Perthshire, Standard Press: Montrose, Scotland.

Gordon, Seton. (1973). Highways & Byways in the Central Highlands, Republished EP Ltd. McKerracher, Archie. (2002).

Perthshire in History and Legend, John Donald Publishers Ltd. Edinburgh.

Pennant, Thomas. (1979). A Tour of Scotland in 1769, Third edition.

Published by Melven Press: Perth, Scotland.

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Around Scotland with a Rod

by Pete Foster (Peapods’ Angling Adventures)

Scottish Sea Angling “Caledonia Caledonia my fair and bonny Caledonia, if I never cast a line from shores other than thine I will shake off this mortal coil a happy man”.

For the modern sea angler, this little country, the jewel in the crown atop the British Isles, offers first class sea

fishing from sparkling clear waters in the most amazing locations imaginable.

Come along for the ride as we take a clockwise trip of discovery around the Scottish coastal waters.

Heading west along the Euro route towards Stranraer, you are never

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more than a few miles from some of the best beach and rock fishing this region has to offer. Southerness boasts a massive holiday complex

Any month from November through to the beginning of March is prime time for fish up to 40lb and over but ignore this area in

with an expanse of open beach that promises quality Flounder and Bass fishing, a great spot for the family to spend a few hours together and the old lighthouse on the shore just has to be the perfect backdrop for family photographs. Further along the coast sit the famous rock marks at Colvend. For those in the know, the “Sugerloaf”, “Cows Snout” and the “Monument” are words synonymous with Cod, big Cod.

the summer and you miss out on great sport with Flounder, Ray and Bass.

The fishing port of Kirkcudbright, a thriving artist’s town these days draws visitors from across the globe to its museums, art galleries and unashamed splendour of stunning cliff top walks offering magnificent views across the Solway to Cumbria and the hills of the Lake District beyond.

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Walking the headland

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around Balcary gives the sharp eyed visitor the chance to spot the resident Porpoise as they break the surface, the rock marks below provide good fishing for Ray, Huss, Cod, Mackerel and Dogfish. The harbour itself and the grassy banks of the river Dee for comfortable Flounder fishing for all the family and being located right in the centre of town, non anglers are free to take themselves off to explore the sights. This area of the coastline alone is home to no

www.bruhupu less than six national and British shore caught records; testimony indeed to the quality of the fishing.

As we continue our journey westward the road meets and runs alongside Wigtown Bay. Here, Auchenlarie offers the angler one of those rare opportunities to catch Tope from the shore in summer.

Smooth Hound and Bass also patrol this shallow estuarine system hunting the mackerel and crab that are so prolific throughout the

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Heading further onwards, a slight detour to the left before Stranraer takes you down to The Isle of Whithorn. Apart from excellent rock and boat fishing for most species, the Isle has roots deep in Scottish history and lays claim to be the birth of Christianity in Scotland when St Ninian first stepped onto Scottish soil from Ireland to establish a religious order. The remains of his early chapel are still clearly visible on the headland overlooking the

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sea and each year, pilgrims attend a ceremony on the shore at the cave which bears his name.

A trip to the other side of Luce Bay takes you down to the Mull of Galloway, Scotland’s most southerly point. Along the way, you will pass numerous holiday villages, each with its own beach frontage that offers good general sport with Ray, Huss, Bass, Mackerel and Dogfish. From the Mull, charter boats will take you out from Drummore and West Tarbert into the bay for Tope, Ray, Cod, Mackerel,

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Pollack and the occasional Shark. The rock marks around the Mull itself are legendary for big Pollack and Conger eel and a more than even chance of a visiting Trigger Fish courtesy of the Gulf Stream.

From here, we head North and Portpatrick. If you only visit one place in the South West, let it be this one. The fishing along this stretch of coastline can be unsurpassed. Huss, Conger Eel, Mullet and double figure Pollack are regularly taken from the shore and returned but for many, the fishing comes secondary to the spectacular cliff walks offering magnificent views out over the water towards Ireland and the gothic ruins of Dunskey Castle rising out of the cliff face to stand like a silent sentinel overlooking

www.bruhupu the Irish Sea. Here, nature blatantly defies you to walk past without stopping to look at the colours and smell the freshness of the heather, mosses and lichens that are so prolific. Close your eyes for a moment, the call of Gulls and Oyster Catchers mingling with the sound of waves breaking over the rocks below and you are bound to linger here longer than you meant to.

Single, well trodden paths lead down to the more popular fishing spots while the more adventurous anglers head off the beaten track to find one of the hundreds of unfished marks that litter this shore line. The Esplanade at Greenock is the number one spot for a quick session in the Clyde, offering paved standing and fishing right out of the back of the car making it most suitable for children. The journey continues north and inland to run up the West side of Loch Lomond towards Oban, Glen Coe and Lochs Etive Leven, and Linnhe. The

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ublishing.com deep-water sea lochs that are so numerous on the Western coastline of the highlands not only provide outstanding fishing, the powerful scenery will really take your breath away as will the sightings of resident wildlife, Seal, Otter and Red Deer, each easily spotted by the quiet angler.

Oban is a mecca for big fish anglers looking to catch the fish of a lifetime aboard the various charter boats that operate from here. A trip into the Firth of Lorne and the Sound of Mull looking to

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hook up to one of the large Skate is the stuff dreams are made of. The reef marks here are not to be ignored; good fishing for Pollack is just a short steam away. Loch Etive has outstanding potential with Thornback Ray, Spurdog, Hake, Mackerel and Dogfish and can be fished from both shore and boat.

There is a launching slip at Taynuilt and from here, self drive day launches are available. Loch Leven and Ballachulish in particular is the spot for ray, conger eel and more, for it is on these shores that you walk in the footsteps of Kings!

The small island behind the Visitor Centre holds the final resting place for many of the Clan Chieftains that feature so prominently in Scottish history and folklore.

Just a short drive from here is the scene of the Massacre of Glen Coe. In February 1692, Robert Campbell along with his clansmen called on the MacDonalds of Glen Coe and were made welcome, fed and entertained for 10

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days before leaving only to return later in the dead of night to catch the MacDonalds completely by surprise and put them to the sword.

Further North, The Isle of Skye and surrounding regions will provide excellent opportunities with Pollack from both shore and boat and charter boats out of Ullapool will cater for most bottom species including skate. As we journey down the Eastern side, gearing up for the last push of our trip, we arrive at Aberdeen Beach, a pleasant change in terrain and arguably the best

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Flounder and Turbot fishing in Scotland.

Arbroath is a proven hotspot for boat and shore anglers in search of cod.

Local marks around Johnsaven and Usan, West Haven and Carnoustie fish very well with an Easterly wind.

Around Fife Ness, the scenery comes into its own.

Crail is a delightful picture postcard harbour village that has been photographed more than any other, Cod and small wrasse are the target here.

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At Cellerdyke, Anstruther and Pittenweem you will catch cod and wrasse from the fingers of skiers that jut out from the mainland. If being afloat is preferable, this area has dozens of charter skippers that will be happy to take you out and put you on the fish. As we near our journeys end and approach Edinburgh and the Forth Road Bridge, an opportunity to explore the depths and see the fish close up presents itself with a visit to the Marine Life Aquarium sitting on the banks of the Firth of Forth under the shadow of the Bridge. After a whirlwind tour of all that is good in Scottish sea fishing it can’t come any better than to sit back, relax and just enjoy.

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Local Paths & Access in Scotland The history of access in Perthshire and elsewhere in Scotland is an interesting one.

Scotland now has worldclass access rights that allow you to go just about anywhere in Scotland provided you exercise these rights responsibly. In practice, though, many of us like to walk or cycle along paths through the countryside. So how do we know where we can walk

and how did all these paths originate?

Ancient routes Our ancestors often used “more or less defined” routes to get around the country and avoid areas that were difficult to get through.

Some of these, like the old north-south route through Highland Perthshire can still

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ublishing.com be traced (at least partly!) on the map and on the ground.

A key route was the one from Dunkeld northwards, which went through places like Tulliemet, Edradour, Moulin, Loinmarstaig and Lycondlich.

Rights of way Scotland has always been a bit different to England in that there has generally been an acceptance that people can walk over open land and between towns and villages to go to church, visit neighbours, drive cattle, go to market etc. Over time, some of these routes became used on a regular

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basis. During the early decades of the 19th Century, some landowners started to prevent people from walking in the countryside.

In response to this, the “Association for the Protection of Public Rights of Roadway in and around Edinburgh” was formed in 1845 and, within two years, it was involved in one of the most celebrated cases in the history of access in Scotland.

John Balfour, a professor of botany at Edinburgh University led a group from Braemar down Glen Tilt where he met the Duke of Atholl and his ghillies barring the way. An acrimonious

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www.bruhupu Society, became involved in another famous legal battle which went all the way to the House of Lords. The ruling confirmed the status of Jock's Road as a right of way.

The Society still exists today and is now called ScotWays. You can find out more about its work here: https://www.scotways.com/.

encounter ended only when Balfour and his students climbed over a dyke and ran off down the glen. The lengthy lawsuit which followed vindicated the right of way through Glen Tilt and established the Association as a prime defender of such cases.

Forty years later the Association, by then renamed the Scottish Rights of Way and Recreation

Some of these rights of way are very old and the routes have been used for many centuries. ScotWays has created a website for many of these historic routes (see https://www. heritagepaths.co.uk/).

In practice, there have never been as many recorded rights of way in Scotland as there have been in England, partly because the requirement on local authorities to record them was never the same and partly because access to open land was never contested by landowners to the same extent as south of the border. However, Perth & Kinross still has one of the

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promoted path networks in Scotland.

largest networks of recorded rights of ways in Scotland and around Pitlochry many of the routes we use on a daily basis are designated as such.

Local path networks Back in the late 1980s, the local council were aware that many people came to the area to go walking and thought it would be a great idea to promote and signpost a network of paths on which people could walk and feel confident that they would be welcome and not get lost.

The Council set about developing a path network around Dunkeld & Birnam by liaising with the local landowners to gain their permission to develop and signpost routes. In July 1994 this was one of the first

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It soon became the first of several networks and was closely followed by Pitlochry and then the newly formed Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust developed the network at Crieff. All this was before the new Land Reform Act of 2003 and involved lots of negotiation and discussion with local landowners and communities. If you have one, have a close look at the Dunkeld and Birnam path leaflet - it was produced before the days of digital mapping and printing and all the tree symbols are individually hand drawn!

The Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust website has lots of information about the local path networks and other projects. You can download various leaflets from their website at: https:/ /www.pkct.org/downloadleaflets.

Core paths

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In 2003, the Land Reform (Scotland) Act was passed and at that point the right of responsible access to most land was enshrined in law.

Furthermore, local authorities were required to produce core paths plans to give the public reasonable access throughout their area.

Perth and Kinross Council managed to produce one of the most extensive plans in Scotland through lots of consultation with local communities. It’s available on the Perth & Kinross Council website at: https:// www.pkc.gov.uk/article/ 15439/Core-Paths-Planinteractive-map.

There are over 2,000km of core paths in Perth and Kinross and you can find out more about them here. This time although landowners were consulted and were able to object to routes the final decision was made by the Scottish Government and the core paths plan for Perth and Kinross was approved on 1 December 2011. This now forms the basis for many of the new

www.bruhupu path network leaflets that have been developed since then.

Hopefully, this short,

condensed history of the development of path networks in Highland Perthshire encourages you to get out and explore them!

Use the links to find out more or just come out on a guided walk with Perthshire Treks and we can tell you all about it!

Find out more about our walking adventures on our website at: https://www.perthshiretreks. scot/ or follow/like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ perthshiretreks) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ perthshiretreks/?hl=en).

Richard Davison & Brenda Clough Perthshire Treks

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Get in Touch We would love to hear your Scottish stories. They may be reminiscences, family folklore or history, questions you need answered, photographs, anything that tells a Scottish story.

Do you feel Scottish?

How do you express your Scottishness?

Tell us your tale and how your ancestors got to be where they set roots and how you maintain that link.

Are you planning an event celebrating Scotland or our Celtic links and background send us the details and we can help you tell the wider world.

There is only one Scotland but it belongs to so many people all across the world, let’s tell that story far and wide.

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Home to Roost: Legacy of the Tinker Experiments

By Shamus McPhee

The Atholl Centre, Pitlochry, currently plays host to an exhibition with a difference, assembled by volunteers from local, grassroots Gypsy Traveller organisation, RAJPOT (www. rajpot.org.uk).

Tripartite in nature, it comprises display screens with photographs and documentation, irrefutable evidence of the much denied ‘Tinker Experiments’, storyboards showing the contribution made by Scottish Gypsy Travellers in Perthshire to the war effort during WW1, and a miscellaneous selection of my

paintings. These form part of the ongoing campaign by victims who, seeking redress, continue to press for an official apology from the Scottish Government.

In doing so, it is hoped that the exhibition will serve to raise awareness of the oppressive practice endured by the community, and commemorate what will be the 77th anniversary of the pejoratively entitled ‘Tinker Experiments’, fast approaching, on the 6th of May; coincidentally, the day of King Charles’ coronation.

Moreover, it is seen as striking a necessary blow for a community which has

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witnessed its visible presence and rightful place in the history of Scotland’s landscape maligned and negated.

To mark the occasion, an official launch was held, with food, song and much discussion, on Saturday, the 15th of April. Guest speaker, Dr Lynne Tammi-Connelly, whose emotive, insightful talk regarding the trafficking of her aunts to Canada, helped to put the historical mistreatment of Scotland’s Gypsy Travellers into perspective, took questions and showed a short accompanying Vimeo from the ‘This Land’ series of documentaries she has coproduced.

As a backdrop, the walls were caparisoned by portraits of those reared in the exPOW huts and army billets, in conflation with camp scenes, incorporating cultural identifiers such as tents or ‘gellies’, caravans and ‘vardos’, coupled with a few

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famous faces from the wider Gypsy community.

Despite Nackens (a term of self-reference commonly heard in our spoken tongue, Cant) or Gypsy Travellers, to use the officially adopted designation, having been around for the best part of a millennium, omission from the educational curriculum means that little is known about us or our history within wider society.

Recognition of our distinct, ethnic status was only bestowed upon us in 2008

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www.bruhupu “vermin”, until its closure in 1941. Determined to address past wrongs, I loafed into The Atholl Centre to see how the installation was hanging together, and whether there had been any mishaps.

(MacLennan v GTEIP).

Progress is hard-fought and attritional for us in all aspects of daily life. So, for these images to suddenly appear in the public domain, well, it has certainly aroused curiosity, as I found to my surprise recently.

Just as I was making my way out, I heard a voice beckon me, calling out my name. It was none other than Bruce, at Radio Heartland FM. After an informal chat – he expressed a desire to learn more about the exhibition across the way – I consented to pen a brief article which might place matters into their proper context. In view of the complexities in telling our history, and how best to approach it, the dilemma was very much one of where to begin.

The sun was unremitting as I wound my way back from Aldour, now re-named Black Spout Wood, scene of the segregated, industrial school where my mother and her siblings had been separated out on racial grounds, sprayed with DDT and referred to as

Persecution of Gypsy Travellers in Scotland, where the earliest official records of Gypsies in the UK are to be found (1505, compared with 1514 at Lambeth, England), has been omnipresent throughout the ages; a tranche of anti-Gypsy laws can be

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traced from the mid-16th century onwards.

Travellers had been rendered obsolete.

Being a Gypsy was punishable by hanging, drowning, or being pinned to a tree by one’s ears “on paine of daith”. Gypsies were to be branded and marked, in some cases, by having their ears lopped off. So began, by the 18th century, the process of shipping them off to the colonies as slaves and indentured servants.

Farms and estates, previously reliant on their labour, no longer required their loyal services. All areas of the Gypsy Traveller economy, from busking, hawking, making baskets, tin production, metallurgy, pearlfishing, berry-picking and scrap-dealing were targeted for removal, coming under constant attack.

The Industrial Revolution heralded the advent of new technologies, machinery signalled that the tin and wares traditionally produced

by Nackens, or Gypsy

Leading on from this, in 1894, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Secretary for Scotland, commissioned an Inquiry into ‘Habitual Offenders, Vagrants, Beggars, Inebriates, and Juvenile Delinquents’ and how best to remedy the problem, given the “increasing evil” they allegedly posed, abroad in mainstream society.

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The subsequent Report formulated several recommendations: “extirpation of this class and absorption into the labouring class”; the creation of

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segregated, industrial schools; children to be shipped into servitude, primarily to Canada and Australia, told their parents had either died, or abandoned them; others to be placed on correctional Mars ships; the creation of ‘reserves’ to contain them; the establishment of labour camps to make them useful to society.

An intensification of concerted efforts to eradicate Nacken, or Gypsy Traveller culture then ensued; a Cold War against the culture was underway. By 1917, the Departmental Committee on Tinkers had been formed, intent on how to, at once, make ‘Tinkers’ expedient to

www.bruhupu the war effort, and to forcibly settle and “anchor the Tinker” in one fell stroke.

The Committee drew up Administrative Machinery, including strictures to be imposed against nomadic families: “If parents refuse to settle and persist in wandering with their children, children to be committed to an industrial school, or placed under the care of suitable guardians.”

This was further endorsed by the Children Act, 1908, which banned camping in tents, living in caves, and insisted that children attend school for 200 calendar days per year. Enforcement by police and education authorities was seen as vital to ensuring compliance.

A genocidal programme of eugenics eventually culminated in the creation of the ‘Tinker Experiments’, initiated in 1946, the year of the Nuremberg Trials, no less.

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ublishing.com Orchestrated by the hand of the Secretary of State for Scotland, who granted authorisation on the 6th of May, 1946, Bobbin Mill, in Pitlochry, became the site of the earliest and longestrunning ‘Tinker Experiment’.

Intended to be deliberately sub-standard, for fear of “prejudicing the success of the experiment”, a Nissen hut was requisitioned under Defence Regulation 56A, stamped approval granted by the Secretary of State for Scotland, for this express purpose.

Collusion between government departments – the Department of Health, the Development Department, the Ministry of Works – and local authorities, the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church, the Aristocracy, and various charities, such as Quarriers Homes and Barnardos, was viewed as integral to the success of the mission to relieve society of “this grievous problem in our midst”.

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It was hailed as a prototype and model of ‘good practice’, soon to be replicated nationally – ‘Tinker Experiments’ burgeoned throughout the land: three in Wick, others in Ross and Cromarty, Aberdeenshire, many in Inverness-shire, several in Perthshire, Fife and the Borders. Soon, they were to be found almost everywhere.

To return to the oratory by Dr Lynne Tammi-Connelly, it is little wonder that she is haunted by the spectre of inter-generational trauma, which she describes thus:

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“According to emerging data, inter-generational trauma occurs when the effects of trauma are passed down between generations.

This can occur if a parent experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and those ACEs impact their parenting.

It can also be the result of enforced assimilation or other systemic oppression. The effects of inter-generational trauma have been documented in descendants of refugees, residential schoolchildren (First Nations Children in Canada) and Holocaust survivors.

The theory advances that intergenerational trauma alters the expression or functioning of our genes, their switching off or on – think of fight, flight or freeze – in successive generations,

www.bruhupu demonstrating the continuing impact of collective traumatic actions or events. An impact which manifests physically (autoimmune conditions and so on) and emotionally (such as inability to form lasting personal relationships, low self-esteem and mental illhealth).”

Notwithstanding various appeals to the Scottish Government, to address the legacy issues it has engendered, the response has been lacklustre and viewed by community members as intransigent.

Perhaps, the exhibition at The Atholl Centre, Pitlochry, epicentre of the ‘Tinker Experiments’ can shine a light on the long-awaited need for truth and reconciliation. We are still here, a visible presence. Still waiting for justice.

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Examples of Shamus’ Artwork at the Exhibition

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Podcasts a

The Wittance is a fully interactive m a whole variety of platforms, files an can bring you radio shows and podc very own ears.

This month we have Scottish and C the original community owned stati word podcasts.

We are keen to hear your voice too would like to push out to the wider S we will be delighted to feature and p

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Listen

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and Radio

magazine which allows us to access nd playout options. This means we casts from Scotland right to your

Celtic music from Heartland FM, ion in Scotland and two spoken

o, if you have recorded material you Scottish world please get in touch, promote it a future edition.

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n Here

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A New Highlands & Islands Tapestry Over the last six months groups and individuals in Highland Perthshire have been involved in helping to create and stitch one of the panels for the new Tapestry of the Highlands and Islands.

The Heartland group includes those living within the area bounded by Killin, Rannoch and Pitlochry.

The group is made up of around 40 adults and more than 40 primary school children from within the Heartland area who have been busy over the last few months, with embroidery, applique and cord making, to create the 1m square panel.

The Heartland panel is one of the 52 being produced for the Tapestry of the Highlands

and Islands project.

Originally part of a larger group, the numbers and area involved became too large so a second panel was created

by Andrew Crummy MBE for those living in the Heartlands of Highland Perthshire.

We understand that around half the completed tapestry panels will be exhibited, on a rotating basis, in a gallery within the North Tower of Inverness Castle with the others being displayed in community venues across the Highlands and Islands as part of a new Tapestry Trail.

The design and theme of the Heartland panel is Faith based around a Celtic cross.

This is surrounded by smaller

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individual pieces of embroidery, known as Journey Stones, which illustrate some of the various aspects of faith and belief in lives past and present, as well as the myths and legends, history and geography of Highland Perthshire.

The ideas for individual Journey Stone designs were

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chosen and designed by those who stitched them, using a piece of linen and 10 or 11 very short lengths of wool of different colours and occasionally a very small piece of tweed, as being all the materials provided.

Some stitchers had never done embroidery before, some had experience of other crafts and some had

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much greater knowledge but all were welcome to participate.

The youngest stitcher was age 4, the oldest aged 96, and the project involved individuals from all decades of life and who live right across the Heartland area of Highland Perthshire.

Children from two primary schools were involved in making lengths of cord from the wools in colours of their choice. These have all been used on the Heartland tapestry panel to surround and frame some of the journey stones.

The layout of the Journey Stones developed naturally into a journey around HighlandPerthshire, depicting Christianity as it spread from the west, as well

as various other faiths and beliefs including myths and legends about giants and fairies, about history and science, individual’s stories, and also illustrating the natural beauty of creation throughout the Heartlands.

The design was already provided for the creation, stitching and embroidery of the central cross along with three different tweeds. Again some cord was made, but using much more muted colour, and four different Celtic knot designs were stitched on to the ends of the cross and then embroidered.

The idea and design for this came from an old lichen and moss-covered Celtic cross, as well as other stones and walls, and illustrated the

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ublishing.com diverse colours that nature provides. The central circle, along with the four smaller circles, were then designed and stitched to pull together all the colours of nature and creation.

It was planned to embroider the area outside the central cross in vivid colours, as a contrast to that of Celtic cross itself. There are four small brightly embroidered panels which depict Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the authors of the four Gospels, and are illustrations taken from the Book of Kells. There are also five other small panels, or “jewels”, surround the cross, embroidered to represent the natural colours in agates, geodes or other semiprecious stones found in Scotland.

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The tapestry is being created as part of the Spirit of Highlands and Islands project, a partnership project between The Highland Council and High Life Highland, which is being delivered in collaboration with VisitScotland.

The Spirit of Highlands and Islands project will encourage visitors to explore and experience all parts of the Highlands and Islands, as well as inspiring them to attend and support festivals and events, visitor attractions and outdoor locations across the area.

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www.bruhupu will benefit from a £30m investment to support its redevelopment from the Scottish and UK Governments, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and a range of other partners.

The Spirit of Highlands and Islands project is supported by a grant from the Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund (NCHF), led by NatureScot and funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The Spirit of the Highlands and Islands project is part of the Inverness Castle project.

The Castle, opening in 2025,

The Inverness Castle project is part of the Inverness and Highland City – Region Deal, which is a joint initiative supported by up to £315m investment from the UK and Scottish Governments, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and University of the Highlands and Islands, aimed at stimulating sustainable regional economic growth.

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The Wittance is a monthly online magazine.

If you missed the April edition enjoy it here.

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A Fairy Field Guide Kate MacRitchie

No wee “cowran, tim’rous beasties” here! Although Scotland’s fairies are plenty sleekit! If you’re exploring Scotland this spring, there’s a chance you might bump into one. In Gaelic they’re known as the sìth (pronounced ‘shee’) or ‘the guid folk’ in Scots.

from hill and waterfall to loch and sea — even abandoned mills may lay claim to a loyal brownie. One of Scotland’s most famous Munros, Schiehallion, is Gaelic for ‘fairy hill of the Caledonians’ and a giant is said to dwell with its conical mass.

Signs of them abound in Scotland’s place names,

Scotland’s fairies have a reputation for darkness.

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ublishing.com Souring milk might be the least of their misdemeanours in a criminal record that encompasses theft, kidnap, vandalism, and seduction.

Fairies have even been at the centre of an infamous murder trial in the 1890s.

Its fair to say that fairy nature is neither good nor bad, but a sliding scale between mischievous and murderous!

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once cast their spells in the oak groves.

Ghillie Dhu dwindled with the loss of their habitat as more and more of Scotland’s woods and forests were harvested for timber. The last Ghillie Dhu was seen in Gairloch, in the late 1700s, when he provided shelter for a lost child.

From the fickle to the downright ferocious, our ‘fairy field guide’ will help you stay on the guid folks’ good side!

The Ghillie Dhu Fairies are deeply connected to nature, being guardians of the wood, waterways, and sea. The Ghillie Dhu is one of Scotland’s famous fairies, as old as the ancient Caledonian Forest he inhabits. Shy and solitary he presents little threat to travellers, and guards the precious trees which were sacred to the druids who

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One used to live inside the ancient Yew tree at Fortingall, in Highland Perthshire, a tree thought to be over three thousand years old.

If you went to Brownies (a section of the Girl Guides) in your youth, maybe you were a proud Ghillie Dhu! Brownies work in ‘sixes’ or groups. Each group is assigned the name of a fairy or woodland creature. The

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group motto of the Ghillie Dhus in Scotland was, “Ghillie Dhu it is our name, We guard the bairns and lead them hame.”

So, if you do find the elusive Ghillie Dhu or ‘darkhaired lad’, be assured that he is gentle and means you no harm.

Selkies Selkies are mystical fairies of the sea. In the water they appear as seals and onshore they shed their skin to reveal bonnie human forms.

Without their sealskins they can’t return to their homes in the kingdom under the

waves. Many selkie stories end tragically when a fisherman forces a selkie woman to be his wife and bear him children by stealing her sealskin. Of course, at the first opportunity, the selkie reclaims her sealskin and returns home, despite the love she has for her children.

Selkies, or ‘seal-folk’, are native to the Orkney Isles where they often encounter humans. One of the bestknown romantic encounters between a maiden and her selkie lover is recounted in the haunting ballad The Great Selkie O’ Sule Skerry.

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The Loireag The loireag dwells on the moody slopes of Beinn Mhòr, South Uist’s highest mountain. She is fond of music and milk and will render a weaver’s web too thin if they sing out of tune!

Farmers were driven to distraction by the loireag, who cursed their cattle so that they couldn’t move.

Only an offering of milk or invoking St Columba would chase her back to her lonely, mist-wreathed mountain top.

In the words of Benbecula local, Mary Macinnes, “Benmore [Beinn Mhòr] was always eerie because of the 'loireag' dwelling there. The 'loireag' is a small mite of womanhood that does not belong to this world, but to the world thither. She was wont to drive the people out of their heart-shrine with fear.”

‘Loireag’ can be translated from the Gaelic to mean a shaggy cow, a plump girl, a pancake, a petrel or a watersprite, which perhaps says

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something about the fairies’ slippery characters.

Kelpie Fairies are notorious shapeshifters. Sometimes human-sized in stature and at times bearing little resemblance to humans at all. The kelpie is one such shapeshifter.

Kelpies are malevolent water fairies who can take the form of a beautiful horse or a handsome young man.

Beware! Both forms are designed to lure children or women to a watery grave. If you’re foolish enough to mount the kelpie you’ll find it impossible to tear free from its magical, sticky hide.

In human form, the kelpie is betrayed by the bindweed tangling his hair.

Kelpies can be found near any river or loch. If you have Clan MacGregor’s magical bridle to hand you might be able to tame the kelpie. At The Helix in Falkirk you can’t miss two of Scotland’s most famous kelpies, rearing

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majestically into the grey sky. Loch Coruisk’s waters, found at foot of the Black Cuillins on Skye, are said to be haunted by a kelpie.

Baobhan-sìth Visit the ruins of Slains Castle (Aberdeenshire) on a moonlit night and you might witness dark shapes wheel out of the haar to perch on its Gothic ruins. They are the castle’s baobhan-sìth; bloodsucking fairy women who

prey on local fishermen.

Baobhan-sìth also haunt lonely glens and moors.

Green of eye and dress, they captivate weary male travellers and lure them to dance before sinking needlesharp fangs into their prey’s neck.

Your best protection against these creatures of the night is iron. Fairies fear it's cold touch!

Slains Castle in Aberdeen supposedly inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula.

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ublishing.com Perhaps these fearsome fairies also inspired him to create Dracula’s bloodthirsty brides?

Luckily, fairies are extremely secretive. They dwell in Scotland’s sacred mountains, by misty lochs, and in lush, native woodlands. If you respect Scotland’s natural landscape, then you shouldn’t come to harm. One last word of advice: never wear green and never, ever call fairies ‘fairies’. They prefer to be addressed as

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‘the good folk’. An unearned title, perhaps, given their antics, but do you really want to risk the fairies’ wrath?

Want to read more about fairies? Contributor Kate’s short story collection Fireside Fairy Tales is inspired by Scotland’s fairy lore!

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The Beltane Festival Beltane is an ancient fire festival celebrated at the beginning of spring. It is not held according to the modern English or American calendar but by the cycles of nature.

Despite this, the festival is most commonly held on May 1st or about halfway between the spring and summer seasons. Beltane is

about honoring and rejoicing in all the earth's blessings.

There are many different Beltane festivals, traditions, and rituals. They typically revolve around the motives of fire, passion, fertility, and rebirth. Most rituals used are to protect people and animals from harm and involve the 'symbolic use of fire'. Rituals to protect crops

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ublishing.com and encourage growth are also known to be performed.

The Aos Si (often referred to as the Spirits or Fairies) are thought to be especially active in Beltane and the goal of most of the rituals was to appease them.

The earliest mention of Beltane is in Old Irish literature from Gaelic Ireland. According to early

medieval texts, druids would make two bonfires “with great incarnations” and drive cattle between them to protect them from disease.

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In the modern era, bonfires continue to be a dominant part of the festival.

In the 19th century, the ritual of driving cattle between two fires as described in Sanas Cormaic (medieval text) almost 1000 years before, was still practiced across most of Ireland and in parts of Scotland.

In the Isle of Man, people

ensured that the smoke blew over themselves and their cattle and when the bonfire had died down, they would smear themselves with its ashes and sprinkle it over

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their crops and livestock.

Burning torches from the fire would also be taken home and carried around the houses and farms.

It is clear from these rituals that the fire is alleged to possess protective powers. According to one theory, fire would be used to symbolically ‘burn up and destroy all harmful influences'.

Cooking food is also a ritual used at the bonfire.

There is usually a feast

www.bruhupu featuring lamb. Formerly this lamb was sacrificed but nowadays that is less common.

A caudle made from eggs, butter, oatmeal, and milk is also cooked on the bonfire.

Some of this mixture is poured on the ground as an offering. Everyone then takes an oatmeal cake called the Beltane Bannock and offers part of it to the spirits in return for protecting their livestock. Another part is fed to the animals that could potentially harm their

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ublishing.com livestock. After this ritual is complete everyone drinks the caudle.

According to 18th-century writers in parts of Scotland, there was a ritual involving oatmeal cake. The cake would be cut and one of the slices would be marked with charcoal. The slices would then be put into a bowl, and everyone, while blindfolded, would take one out. Whoever got the marked piece would have to leap through the fire three times or those present would pretend to throw them into the fire and for some time afterward would speak of them as if they were dead. It is believed that this is done to embody a memory of an actual human sacrifice.

Another tradition during Beltane is placing white and yellow flowers at doorways and windows. The flowers are also fastened to cows and the equipment used for milking. Such flowers are used to represent radiance, joy, and positivity.

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The May bush or May Bough is also popular during Beltane. This is a tree, usually a thorn tree, decorated with bright flowers, ribbons, and painted shells. They are sometimes paraded through towns, and it is customary to sing and dance around it.

At the end of the festival, the tree is burnt in the bonfire. This ritual is believed to bring luck to the village. In more modern traditions, a young woman from the village will also be crowned and adorned with flowers and wreaths. She is then known as the May Queen.

As a festival, Beltane had died out by the mid-20th century however, it has been restored as a cultural event.

Peebles in the Scottish Borders holds a traditional week-long Beltane Fair every year in June and since 1988, a Beltane Fire Festival has been held every year on the night of April 30th on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Scottish Invention of the Adhesive Postage Stamp Chalmers arrived in Dundee from Arbroath in 1809. His early training had been as a weaver, but he quickly established himself as a bookseller, printer and publisher of “The Caledonian” newspaper as early as 1822. He also had a passion for the creation of a more effective postal service managing to introduce changes to the service between London and Edinburgh which had a time saving of nearly a day in both directions.

From as early as 1834 Chalmers promoted the adhesive stamp which could be cancelled after usage. In 1837 a pamphlet on postal reform was published in London by Rowland Hill supporting the usage of the adhesive stamp which brought greater notice of James Chalmers proposals.

In 1840 the penny post was introduced across Britain with the introduction of the worlds first adhesive stamp – The Penny Black. Hill went on to receive great acclaim, a knighthood and a considerable fortune. Chalmers on the other hand died in 1853 in relative anonymity and is buried in the Howff, an ancient burial ground in the centre of Dundee.

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h Firsts Natural Selection before the Evolution of Darwin.

Patrick Matthew was born on a farm named Rome, near Perth in 1790. He was an agriculturalist who developed a theory on evolution and natural selection almost thirty years before Charles Darwin. Matthew published the book “On Naval Timber and Arboriculture” in 1831 which contained very similar ideas to that which were contained in Dawin’s “On The Origin of The Species” in 1859.

Matthew took ownership of Gourdiehill Estate in 1807 at the age of only 17 after the death of his father. The estate grew thousands of fruit trees and grain encouraging his interest in silviculture. This discipline investigated the management, growth and development of forestry including the growth and control of new varieties and species of tree particularly for the construction of naval vessels.

He studied trees that withered without reproducing but then being replaced by fitter specimens and would be the first to put forward Darwin’s thoughts on the survival of the species through the fittest examples.

Matthew was also a member of the Chartist movement and campaigned for parliamentary reform, universal suffrage, vote by ballot and annually elected Parliaments.

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Our 2023 Gathering was a tremendous success.

Thank you to everyone involved, especially those who came to watch this great spectacle.

If you didn’t manage along have a look inside to see how it went.

We hope you can join us next time.

April 6th 2024

It’s taken 5 attempts to hold our 43rd gathering Brigadoon, beaten by Covid 19 for two years and in 2022 defeated by the horrendous weather, but once again old mother nature had the last say, it rained, just a fine Scotch mist, but heavy enough to be uncomfortable. Mother Nature may have tried but nothing was going to stop Brigadoon from going ahead as 11000 visitors participated in a wonderful day to celebrate all things Scottish.

The Chieftain of the day was The Rt. Honourable the 15th Earl of Loudoun (the honourable Simon AbneyHastings) Simon Abney-Hastings is an Australian Earl

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who is the current holder of one of the oldest Scottish noble titles, Earl of Loudoun. Earl of Loudoun is named after Loudoun in Ayrshire Scotland.

The Campbell’s of Loudoun are the oldest branch of the house of Argyll.

The Earldom was originally granted to the 1st Earl of Loudoun, John Campbell – Lord Chancellor of Scotland, by King Charles 1st in 1633 and has since passed down to Simon Abney-Hastings though the laws of succession when his Father Michael, the previous Earl of Loudoun passed in 2012. The Title is one of the oldest Scottish noble titles and it carries with it the right to carry the Golden Spurs (the emblems of knighthood and chivalry) at the Coronation of a British Monarch.

Our special guest for the day was His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia accompanied by his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley. They enjoyed Brigadoon so much in 2019

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(when they were Chieftain) that they couldn’t resist returning to enjoy another day of Brigadoon The Street Parade was sight to behold with 1000 participants, starting at 9.15am and featured 28 Pipe Bands, with some joining the more experienced pipe bands to gain confidence and self-esteem and they were wonderful. We had three newly formed Pipe Bands participating, our own Bundanoon Pipe Band, Presbyterian Ladies' College Pipes and Drums, Sydney, and Granville Boys High School Pipe Band, Sydney, (Photo attached) It was a wonderful experience for all of them accompanied by decorated children's floats and marching Clans At 10.00am, the Chieftain of the Day officially opened the gathering. During the opening ceremony, spectators are treated to a massed pipes and drums display with 550 bandsmen and women participating. The sheer magic of this moment with traditional Scottish music and the swirling of a myriad of coloured tartans has to be experienced to be believed.

As usual we had all our favourite events, Games, Scottish Country Dancing (you can even join in to the Dashing White Sergeant) Scottish Highland Dancing (Joy Reiher School of Highland Dance) Southern Highlands Kennel and Obedience Club, Bonnie Bairns and of course our Fiddlers Tent a very comprehensive and enjoyable list of events, something for everyone. A family friendly fun day out.

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The Clans attending were Clans attending Brigadoon 2023; Clan Donald, Clan Buchanan, Clan Henderson, Clan MacNeil, Clan Cameron, Clan Davidson, Clan Malcolm, Clan Young, Clan Farquharson, Clan MacEwan, Clan Edmonstone, Clan Gregor, Clan Campbell (15th Earl of Loudoun), Clan Fletcher, Clan MacLennan, Clan MacCallum, Clan Maclean, Clan Hope and Clan Sutherland (photograph attached) The Pipe bands performed individually throughout the day at 3 locations situated around the oval for the entertainment of the public. This is a time when the pipe bands can go out and let their hair down and play to entertain without having to comply to competition rules.

The Kilted Warriors were lifting the Bundanoon Stones. Modelled on the MacGlashen Stones. The stones used for the current competition are 115kgs, 120kgs, 125kgs, 140kgs and 165kgs. The stones are laid

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out five metres apart lightest to heaviest with each competitor having to lift all five stones on top of a wooden barrel four feet in height. The person who can lift all five stones on top of the barrels in the fastest time is declared the champion of the day.

The history of the stones goes back over one thousand years to the highlands of Scotland when a boy was considered to have reached manhood when he could lift two stone in weight from the bare ground onto the top of a stone dyke or fence as we know it. Most villages took part in this exercise and the stones varied from village to village. In the late 1970’s the lifting of the stones was brought back to life in Scotland with the introduction of the MacGlashsen Stones.

Bundanoon Stones Results 2023 1st Sean Gillen- Brigadoon Champion 2nd Tyler Helm 3rd Andrew Fraser 4th Macauley Tinker Australian Highland Heavy Weight Championships involved an outstanding field of heavy weight competitors. Events included the Caber, Stone Putt, Weight for Height, Weight for Distance and Hammer throw - five events fiercely contested to produce just one overall champion.

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Australian Highland Heavyweight Championship results 1st Terry Sparkes- Brigadoon Champion 2nd Macauley Tinker Joint 3rd Kurt Livens & Lance Holland- Keen 5th Jamie Muscat The closing ceremony is really quite spectacular lasting about 30 minutes (a real mini tattoo) with the finale of the Lone Piper and the Chieftain closing the gathering for another year, Brigadoon then fades back into the mists ready to reappear on 6 April 2024.

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The Wittance

A new online magazine focused on Scotland, Scottish people, events, news and history.

Click on the link below to visit the free April edition. Let us know what you think. editor@bruhupublishing.com.

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The Wit

Bundanoon is a comfortable 2 hour drive from Sydney and Canberra and the South Coast, which makes it the ideal location for travellers who just want to pop in for the day or for others who wish to stay and enjoy “Brigadoon” and the hospitality and culture of the Southern Highlands. With such an influx of people coming into the area, local businesses and the hospitality trade in particular have thrived to the point where there is hardly a room available and in most cases all accommodation is booked a year in advance.

The Bundanoon Highland Gathering is a non-forprofit registered charity. Once all our costs are taken into consideration and after appropriating a

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ttance management budget for the following year all surplus monies are distributed back into the local community coffers. The committee ensures that it recognises the commitment of those local volunteer and charities groups who give countless hours of labour to the gathering by disbursing monies raised on the day on a proportional basis to each organisation.

To date Brigadoon has disbursed about $1.4 million back into the local community.

Not a bad effort for a small volunteer committee Our volunteers never cease to amaze me, we are full of praise for our all the very hardworking, conscientious and dedicated volunteers who persevered to ensure that Brigadoon was once again an outstanding success.

It’s wonderful that some 30 plus organisations can get together and ensure a successful day is had and that visitors are made so welcome.

tance.scot

DATES FOR THE DIARY: 6 APRIL 2024 5 APRIL 2025

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This space could feature your games, gathering, celebration, concert, pipe & drum festival.

It could be a promotion for your event or a review, we want to see both.

Pictures, videos, audio files and words will maake your event look great and will be a great way of saying thank you to those that helped make sure the day(s) went well.

Send us the pictures and words, we will do all the rest. Give us plenty time to get it laid out for the relevant issue. We publish in the second week of each month.

For more information email Editor@bruhupublishing.com

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Interna Highland Game June

ational es & Gatherings 2023

Thank You! If you enjoyed this edition please tell all your friends and family.

You can send them their very edition of The Wittance, simply copy and paste this link and send it to whoever you want.

The Wittance May 2023 You can read more issues for free at www.bruhupublishing.com