Scots Heritage Magazine Winter 2013

SCOTS Magazine WINTER 2013. £2.95

Official magazine of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs

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WINTER 2013. £2.95

Heritage

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Welcome

Ceud mìle fàilte O

ne of the great joys of taking photographs of Scotland’s great houses, and then writing about them too, is that I’m able to get a real feel for the development of our most treasured historical assets.

Nowhere was this more true than when I recently spent time at Rosslyn Chapel for a piece which appears on pages 64-71 and which I hope you’ll enjoy reading as much I as I enjoyed putting it together.

One of the most heartwarming aspects of the phenomenally successful restoration of Rosslyn was the way in which the private and public spheres came together for the common good.

As we enter the Year of Homecoming, the help of the state combined with the energy shown by the stewards of the chapel means that we now have a truly iconic building – and few buildings deserve that much-overused monicker more than Rosslyn Chapel – which is in pristine condition and which can boast the sort of worldclass visitor centre that’s entirely appropriate for a world-famous historical monument.

Here’s to more of the same as we ensure that we have safeguarded our past for future generations.

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Few buildings deserve that much over-used monicker of ‘iconic’ more than Rosslyn Chapel

Contributors RODDY RITCHIE The Inverness photographer has put together a haunting series of images of Stroma, the deserted island between the mainland and Orkney.

HAMISH MACDONELL One of the country’s foremost political journalists looks at the turning point of Darien, which provided the impetus for the 1707 Union with England.

GEORGIE BELL The ambassador for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society sings the praises of grain whisky.

e Yours ay

Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor, Contributing Editor

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Culture

10 PICTURE PERFECT Images from Birnam Highland Games 20 MAN OF WAR Sir Andrew Wood was the heroic first Admiral of the Scottish navy 56 TEN OF THE BEST Great Scottish soldiers 88 NORTHERN STAR Inverness is Scotland’s most northerly city and the jewel in the crown of the Highlands 96 ARTIFACTS The mysterious Callanish standing stones on the Island of Lewis

Clans

38 CLAN MACLACHLAN Euan MacLachlan of MacLachlan on preserving clan traditions

Insid

COVER Euan MacLachlan of MacLachlan, Chief of Clan MacLachlan.

Photo by Angus Blackburn.

98 BATTLE OF THE SEXES The contentious issue of female succession

46 BLUFFER’S GUIDE Ten fascinating Clan MacLachlan facts

101 WHISKY Georgie Bell in praise of grain whisky

48 HEARTLANDS Ten essential Clan MacLachlan landmarks

114 MCLETTER FROM AMERICA Why the diaspora are up in arms about Homecoming 2014

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Contents

60

Regulars 06 NEWS from Scotland and the Scots 17 LETTERS Your letters to the Editor

64 SUBSCRIBE To subscribe call +44 (0)1631 568000 or go online to www. scotsheritage magazine.com

Heritage

18 THE HISTORY MAN Allan Massie on the dumbing down of the Scottish education system 26 THE EVENTS THAT SHAPED SCOTLAND How the Darien Project led to the Union of 1707 30 PHOTO ESSAY Atmospheric images of the abandoned island of Stroma 50 UNCIVIL STRIFE The little known story of how the Scots won the English Civil War

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64 ROSSLYN CHAPEL The famous chapel holds many secrets in its ancient stones

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86 SUBSCRIBE Subscribe to Scots Heritage 102 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

People

60 ROYAL AND ANCIENT Howard Dean, Governor of Vermont’s royal lineage 80 STICK TOGETHER John and Mabel Sloggie craft shinty camans in Glangarry 82 TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY The dual life of novelist Robert Louis Stevenson

104 BOOKS Latest literary offerings 107 MUSIC The best in Scottish music 109 PUZZLES Pit your wits against our puzzles 110 SOCIAL SCOTS Who’s been seen out and about

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112 CLANS AND SOCIETIES

Captain William Kidd was Scotland’s King of the pirates

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News...

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News

Online propaganda A unique collection of original WWI posters will be given a new lease of life and made available online.

Around 300 posters were collected by Inverclyde Council’s McLean Museum during the First World War and immediately afterwards.

Assistant Curator Vincent Gillen said: ‘From 1914 the secretary of the museum Thomas Thomson had the foresight to write to the high commissions and embassies of the countries fighting against the Germans and their allies asking for examples of posters.

‘He was sent recruitment adverts and propaganda posters from Britain, France and Ireland as well as material from America and Canada. Some are very rare and all of them are in near perfect condition as they were sent directly to the museum and have been safely stored away ever since.

‘It really is a unique collection and one that I am sure will be very popular when it is available online.’

A Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £51,300 will allow the Inverclyde Council run museum in Greenock to scan the collection and make it available on the internet. The digital poster collection will be part of Scotland’s commemoration of next year’s centenary of the start of the Great War.

Left: World War I posters collected by the McLean Museum.

Above: A Scottish recruitment poster.

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News...

John Muir’s homepage The birthplace of the Scottish nature conservationist John Muir is to be opened up to people across the world thanks to a ground-breaking new digital scanning project. An expert team digitally scanned Muir’s childhood home in Dunbar, where he was born and lived his early years before establishing himself as a visionary champion of nature. The project is led by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and Historic Scotland, in conjunction with the John Muir Birthplace Trust. It forms part of a transatlantic project featuring Muir’s home in California and links to the 2013 Year of Natural Scotland, the 2014 Year of Homecoming and the centenary of Muir’s death. The scanning will help create detailed digital models, with photographs and a virtual 3D fly-through tour of Muir’s homes. This information will be used to develop mobile and PC apps that will connect the Scottish and American stories of John Muir, as well as other long-term projects. SNH will use the techniques that have already created a digital archive for World Heritage sites such as Skara Brae on Orkney, the Antonine Wall and landmarks such as Mt Rushmore and the Sydney Opera House. www.scotsheritagemagazine.com

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News

Nose job Above: John Muir (right) and John Burroughs.

Right: The popular statue of Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh.

The statue of Scotland’s most famous dog, Greyfriars Bobby, has received a facelift following a Facebook campaign that highlighted how the practice of rubbing the statue’s nose for luck was wearing off the colour. Bronze sculpture conservation and restoration specialists, Powderhall Bronze, undertook work to clean, re-patinate and wax Bobby’s nose to restore the black colour that had been lost over time.

Councillor Richard Lewis, the city’s Culture and Sport Convener, said: ‘Although Bobby has never been in any immediate danger, it was highlighted to us that the practice of rubbing his nose was starting to make him look a little scruffy. As one of the most famous – and most popular – statues in the capital, it’s only right that he looks his best at all times.’

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Image: The games are opened by the Blairgowrie, Rattray & District pipe band who march from Dunkeld Bridge into the park.

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Picture perfect

perfect Picture

Birnam highland games have been held annually in perthshire on the last saturday in august since 1864

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The caber is a spectacular heavy event involving a tree trunk weighing 150lbs

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Picture perfect

Images: Heavy events at Birnam include tossing the caber, throwing the hammer, putting the stone and throwing the weight.

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Above: The Kiltie Dash. Right: The Highland Fling. Far right: The pipes and drums.

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Picture perfect

The fun and culture of the games have ensured their popularity for over a century

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Letters

Letters

Move with the times

I have been following the debate about single sex golf clubs and have noticed that those who favour the status quo always use the fact that women-only golf clubs are thriving, e d i s t h g s as i n la r and invariably use the St Rule club in C b e th on thraence of a Gathering owf ritten in the k o St Andrews as an example. o l Alwaydsisappointing non-appge,athere has been mucrinhg. Reading such However, surely women in St min the With the Andrews had to form their own club been f Homeco o’ of the 2009 Ga s o a r h a t) Ye e e rn sc part of th to the inte ut the ‘fia because they were not allowed to edia abo do thanks Scottish m hich we can now mbers e m join other clubs in the town. Two ry g n (w old, a coverage the ster, with a . wrongs do not make a right. to is g ill d in h a ss e s re a th p thing w mile up nce le ll a pretty de o fu h rm a o w Scotland is synonymous with rf p e e u y th le p walk Apparentl prehensib having to otels, m h o ra ’s c o y golf and rightly so but we should in it sp c a ia e h ots d by th throug of the Sc kilts pped off g ri ving to sit n a g be evolving in a changing world. ri h a in e n e e b w r th . Afte ours – castle and eue for h vent on the castle u Tradition is one of those things e f q o e th w to o d to d a then h dise to get in d n in the sha – a a h ro se rc b u e a we like to pick and choose from; o m h rge Dear ocents ce of furnish a la these inn e last pie th to e n golfers from days gone by would a se rt ta to gh in time Editor and enou ow iving just kn rr I hardly recognise the manicured a , s. , re rk se u a o S P n u all? t’s Holyrood t from under their er with yo paid, but please le greens and fairways which we tt a m h g e u th o get What’s being b play from today. The high-tech ead, let’s ho didn’t Scotland! tractors w ther Gathering. Inst the pride n o Come on c l a c lo o d n y clubs and balls in use today e a n a m ld ir m re to ho h reaff there we ason not nce whic re e ri a only vaguely resemble what e s p a x t e a not use th at was an amazing tage. randchilg they would have used. y h m ri e w g h in te h celebra . Sure, ily, includ r Scottis d u m a o h fa in y e l Perhaps the only thing m w e s fe with time many of u New York rget the incredible ile was a M m l o a y fr they would recognise sadly r o R e v up the ever fo I came o e cost of the walk of us will th s, t e e is the single sex clubs. u y n o o d b n n a a d The Bolter ative e a little dren, an erchandis little altern We even moaned Brett Barclay, m a s re a o w m y Referring to Allan wasn’t the pla amend parents. re n e y fu th m t r u d Strathkinness, Fife.

B fo te ike ppoin Massie’s excellent erland. bit of a h r with the moth were disa e in d th n k e a c g a s, to b g e et article on James III in some thin ark our tim at – a chance to g eritage. buy to m th r shared h if I u y tl o c the last issue of Scots a te x ra e b s we could a le nd Kelly’s athering w cots family and ce to none a Heritage magazine. tally, the G if it s second a the S se w f u a o e c c rs e n e b e b ri ar m a hero As a mere point of hole expe in next ye other me ont, the w not happening aga It’s rare that I read interest the reason On that fr at it’s gret it’s th something which t. that the King left the o sh have a re a e e there lik ey, USA . blows me away, so battlefield was that his was I’d b New Jers , ld a n o d c a thanks to Stuart Kelly for M y horse bolted. d An his feature in the last issue on He had to ride a Admiral Thomas Cochrane. It was grey, leaders usually did remarkable boys-own stuff that I read because the colour, easy from beginning to end and which to recognise, indicated their impor- Loving spoonful left me hungry for more. tance. James III, however, was not Alongside Limericks, which contain the almost impossible a good horseman. challenge to ‘keep ‘em clean’ – I love Spoonerisms. Wasn’t Bill Patterson, Sydney, Australia The animal, terrified by the noise, it Dr Spooner himself, on the occasion of another Queen’s set off at full gallop, jumped the Jubilee, who stood up at High Table before the Dons and SEND YOUR LETTERS TO Sauchie burn and the King fell off, Undergraduates at a celebratory College dinner, lifted his THE EDITOR, SCOTS HERITAGE MAGAZINE, FETTES obviously landing heavily in his full glass for the loyal toast and declaimed: ‘Gentlemen. Three PARK, 496 FERRY ROAD, EDINBURGH EH5 2DL armour.

Cheers for our Queer Old Dean!’.

EMAIL EDITOR@SCOTSHERITAGEMAGAZINE.COM Lady Mary McGrigor, Dalmally, Reverend Clifford Hughes, Rumbling Bridge, WEBSITE WWW.SCOTSHERITAGEMAGAZINE.COM Argyll, Perth & Kinross

r e t t e l Star

SCOTS Heritage No. 61 published July 2013. © Scots Heritage Media in partnership with Scottish Field.

Editor: Richard Bath Creative Editor: Heddy Forrest Deputy Editor: Tim Siddons Staff Writer: Morag Bootland Contributing Editor: Sir Malcolm MacGregor Designer: Mark Duncan Artworker: Andrew Balahura Photographer: Angus Blackburn Advertising Sales: Emma Craig Publisher: Wyvex Media Ltd SCOTS Heritage is published four times a year in February, May, August and November. ISSN 1445-6699

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y r o t s i h e h T man

Right: Allan Massie argues that an over-emphasis on equality has led inevitably to the ‘dumbing down’ of teaching.

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The history man

stem was once The Scottish education sy but not any more the envy of the world -–– Words Allan Massie

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cotland used to be famous for the quality of its education. Indeed, some English people still believe Scottish schools are better than English ones.

They’re probably wrong, or at least out of date; yet the belief has a solid foundation in history.

The Scottish commitment to education dates from the Reformation, and from John Knox in particular. What he set in motion in the 16th century would eventually contribute to the flowering of the Scottish Enlightenment which so influenced the Founding Fathers of the USA. Knox wanted to have a school in every parish; his commitment to education led to the Scottish idea of the ‘Democratic Intellect’, and spread literacy and at least elementary education more widely in Scotland than anywhere else in Europe. Scotland early on became a place where a poor boy might become a professor, minister of religion, lawyer, doctor or banker.

Robert Louis Stevenson, recalling his days at Edinburgh University, knew it as a place where ‘all classes rub shoulders on the greasy benches. The raffish young gentleman in gloves must measure his scholarship with the plain laddie from the parish school. They separate, at the session’s end, one to smoke cigars, the other to resume the labours of the field beside his peasant family.’ There was, he said, ‘a healthy democratic atmosphere to breathe in while at work’.

Stevenson may have exaggerated the extent of the social mix, but essentially he was right. There was a democratic element to Scottish education. Its characteristic figure was ‘the lad o’ pairts’, the poor boy whose talents and aptitude were identified by the parish schoolmaster, or dominie, and who was stuffed with learning so that he might proceed to university. Moreover, the boy’s parents were likely to approve. Robert Burns’s peasant father so valued education that he clubbed together with neighbours to hire a tutor for their sons. Thomas Carlyle was a stonemason’s son who won a place at Edinburgh University, walking to the city from his home in Dumfriesshire.

The system was democratic, but it was also elitist: a university education might be open to all, but only a select handful obtained it. Scotland might be democratic, but it was also meritocratic.

When the term ‘Democratic Intellect’ was proudly coined, the emphasis was on the noun rather than the adjective. There was no intellectual equality.

Quite the contrary. The idea of the elite – the chosen few – prevailed. But it was soon to

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be discredited, even while that elite flourished. In the late 19th century, not long after Stevenson wrote that essay extolling the mixture of classes on those greasy benches, Lord Rosebery, the most interesting and intelligent Scottish politician of the time, an aristocrat who spoke admiringly of ‘the democratic vitality of the United States’, deplored the change he saw taking place.

‘The lesson of our Scottish education was “level up”,’ he said. ‘The cry of modern teaching is “level down”… Every day the area of initiative is being narrowed. Every day the standingground for self-reliance is being undermined.’

The process has continued ever since, has indeed been accelerated. Elitism is a dirty word. Equality is prized rather than excellence. A system of comprehensive schools, based on the principle that one size should fit all, is a recipe for mediocrity. It is well-intentioned, but it works to the disadvantage of clever boys and girls from poor families. Those who might in the past have been identified as the lads, or indeed lasses, o’ pairts – young people of exceptional intellectual ability – are no longer plucked from the crowd to have their talents nurtured. Instead, they are left to sink or swim, and too many sink, denied the opportunity to rise from the ranks because the lesson of our Scottish education is lost; it is no longer a case of levelling up.

In the name of democratic equality, the idea of the Democratic Intellect is discredited because it smacks of elitism.

Yet true education is by its very nature elitist. A favourite sermon in the Scots Kirk used to take as its text the parable of the talents – an approval of elitism if ever there was one.

This is anathema to the Scots educational establishment now. The waste of human potential that results is wretched and deplorable.

The doctrine of equality is the enemy of aspiration.

This is not just a Scottish affliction. The same processes of levelling down, anti-intellectualism, and suspicion and resentment of elitism are evident elsewhere – even in the United States. But the consequence for Scotland is especially sad. The nation that once led the way in education now lags behind. The nation that used to pride itself on its commitment to excellence and intellectual vitality now wallows in mediocrity.

Those who might once have been identified as lads o’ pairts are no longer plucked from the crowd to have their talents nurtured

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Wood is surely a hero worthy of a Hollywood movie

Image: In one famous battle in the Forth, Wood defeated an English fleet of five ships.

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Man of war

war Man of

FIFER SIR ANDREW WOOD IS SCOTLAND’S ANSWER TO NELSON, THE FIRST ADMIRAL OF SCOTLAND’S NAVY AND A FEARLESS FIGURE WHOSE NAVAL PROWESS KEPT THE NATION SAFE FROM ENGLISH RAIDERS. SO WHY IS HE A HALF-FORGOTTEN HERO?

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s you enter Lower Largo in Fife, look left.

Up on the brow of the hill, like a sentinel looking out over the sea, stands the shell of a majestic 1750s home called Largo House. It’s been the subject of a recent bitter feud between locals and the landowner, but that’s only the latest installment in a remarkable history.

Nestled behind this visible shell, overtaken by encroaching undergrowth and barbed wire, is a dilapidated round tower, the last remains of Sir Andrew Wood’s castle, built around 1490 by English prisoners captured in battle.

From this spot above the Firth of Forth, Admiral Andrew Wood – ‘Scotland’s Nelson’ – would gaze across Largo Bay to Bass Rock after he retired once he could be of no more service to Scotland. From this Right: The Largo House location he could survey tower built by Wood. the waters where he Below: Wood made commanded his ships, a fortune by selling discarded Walrus tusks. The Yellow Caravel and The Flower, in which he earned his reputation as not only a successful merchant and entrepreneur, but as a pirate slayer and naval genius.

It was in the waters below Largo House that he commanded

the biggest ship of its time, The Great Michael. It was in this estuary that he fought his own Bannockburn, sending the English fleet homeward to think again after a battle that raged for two days. After this clash, he retired to this castle, and order his captured English prisoners to build a canal so they could row his battle-broken body to church on Sundays. This is surely a hero worthy of a Hollywood movie.

It was in the shadow of the kirk in Largo, next to the castle in which he would live out his later life, that Andrew Wood was born in a thatched cottage in the middle of the 15th century. From these humble beginnings, he left the village to learn his trade as a merchant in the Port of Leith.

Plying his trade in boats owned by others, Wood had bigger plans. At the time, the great fashion was for ivory carvings so Wood decided to satisfy this demand not with highly expensive elephant ivory, but with ivory from walrus tusks; a little bit like selling Prosecco as Champagne. He sailed to Greenland, where Icelanders discarded walrus tusks as they hunted for meat, loading hundreds of tusks into his ships and taking them to be sold at a huge profit in the German port of Lubeck.

Nigel Tranter, the prolific Scottish historical novelist, made Admiral Wood the subject of his final novel The Admiral, but then Wood had all the man-of-action qualities that draw writers like bees to honey. Wood honed his pirate slaying skills protecting his precious cargo from the English, French and Portuguese privateers lurking behind the islands in the Forth. When these pirates got too close to fire canons, Wood would personally lead his men in hand-to-hand combat, swinging heavy chains around his head as he engaged the enemy.

From the proceeds of his trade, he built his own

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Man of war

Wood had all the man-of-action qualities which draw writers like bees to honey

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ship, based on the cutting edge design of a Portuguese caravel, and named it The Yellow Caravel.

Wood was also a masterful politician, inviting James III to launch The Yellow Caravel from the Port of Leith. The King appreciated the need for Scotland to be strong on the seas and saw Wood as the man for the job. His two 300-ton merchant ships were put into the service of the nation and were to the fore in the Anglo-Scottish war of 1480-82. As a result, in 1482, James III knighted him the Baron of Largo and made him Admiral of the Scottish navy.

The late 15th century was a turbulent time in Scotland, with nobles constantly plotting against the king; but Wood remained so loyal that he was described in The Biographical Dictionary of the Eminent Men of Fife as ‘famed in the history of this country no less for his faithful adherence to his sovereign when abandoned by his nobles, than for his courage and naval skills.’

During the uprising of 1488, James III was killed at the Battle of Sauchieburn, but in the fog of battle nobody was sure where the King was. The nobles suspected Wood of harbouring

This was Wood’s Bannockburn, fought within sight of the huge crowds lining the shores of Largo and Fifeness

the King, and sent for him. In the presence of the Lords and the future James IV, who had taken up arms against his father, Wood answered that James III was not on board his ships: ‘But would to God he were there safely, and I should defend and keep him from the traitors who murdered him.

I hope to see the day when they are hanged for their evil deeds.’

Like his father, the young James IV recognised the need for Scotland to have a strong naval force, and commissioned

Wood to build The Great Michael.

The greatest ship of its time, this enormous ship was 250 feet from stem to stern and was armed with 300 guns. It was said that ‘all the carpenters in Scotland worked upon her for a year and a day’, and that every oak in Fife and every tree on Wood’s extensive lands was cut down to build the leviathan.

In those days, English ships made frequent incursions into the Forth, but Wood gave the English such a thrashing, capturing five

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Words Hamish Macdonnell

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So beguiling were the arguments in favour of the colony that Scots great and small rushed to invest

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The Darien scheme

darien A disaster called

THE DARIEN SCHEME WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SCOTLAND’S GREAT IMPERIAL TRADING VENTURE. INSTEAD, IT WAS A DISASTER WHICH LED DIRECTLY TO THE UNION OF 1707

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o a present-day audience, the arguments sound familiar: ‘Scotland can stand on its own as a proper trading nation in the world’; ‘Scotland can break free of England’s grip’; ‘Let’s be ambitious and see what Scotland can do on its own’. But rather than being arguments for Scottish independence, these were actually the claims made by the Scots advocates of the Darien scheme more than 300 years ago.

The more romantic of us look back to the battles of the 13th and 14th centuries when searching for the events that defined Scotland. But as important as Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace were, it is arguable that no other event in Scottish history had such a long-term impact as Darien.

The scheme, initially dreamt up by the Scotsborn financier William Paterson, to set up a trading colony on the isthmus of Panama, was such a wildly ambitious plan that, had it succeeded, it would surely have kept Scotland independent, prosperous and out of the United Kingdom. But its failure propelled the

broke and chastened nation into union with England.

Darien, or New Caledonia as the Scots called it, was a strip of land which was proposed as the site of Scotland’s first and only colony. In theory, it was a great idea. A settlement here would be hugely influential, controlling trading routes between the Atlantic and Pacific and between North and South America. It was the same principle, in fact, that much later led to the construction of the Panama Canal.

The late 1600s were difficult years for Scotland.

The country’s economy was small, its range of exports very limited and it was in a weak position in relation to its powerful neighbour. With England making great gains thanks to Left: William Paterson came up with the idea its colonies and traders, Darien was seen of a trading post at as a way for Scotland to become more Panama. Above: The independent in trade, finance and foreign office of the Darien Company in Edinburgh. influence. Indeed, so beguiling were the arguments in favour of the colony that Scots great and small rushed to invest. The Royal Bank of Scotland – which came into being as SCOTS heritage winter 2013 27

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Map courtesy of maps.nls.co.uk

Left: A map of Darien, which the Scots called New Caledonia. Above: An optimistic sketch of the settlement.

a direct result of the Darien adventure – recently released historic documents which show the true scale of that investment.

This remarkable collection of books, papers and records, which were loaned to the National Library of Scotland, provide handwritten details of every one of the 2,000-plus speculators and the amounts each contributed to the subscription scheme.

One volume shows that towns vied with each other for the kudos of raising the most, with some investing a substantial part of their communal wealth. Edinburgh and Glasgow raised £3,000 each, a phenomenal sum for 1696 before either city was the trading hub they became in the 18th century. But they were matched by the wealthiest landowners: the Duchess of Hamilton also subscribed £3,000.

Groups of tradesmen and professionals also banded together. The Faculty of Advocates, for example, raised £1,000, and the Royal College of Physicians £200. Subscriptions were not confined to the wealthy,

though. The Incorporation of Skinners of Edinburgh put in £300 and William Stewart, clerk to the Custom House in Leith, invested £100.

Once £400,000 had been collected (£44 million in today’s money), which represented a quarter of all the money circulating in Scotland at the time, the investors sat back and waited for a return on their investment – only for things to go very badly wrong.

Five ships set sail from Leith in 1698, carrying 1,200 men. They made landfall four months later and set about constructing a settlement, building a fort, a warehouse and accommodation huts. They also cleared land to grow yams and maize. But agriculture proved difficult, the climate was harsh and the local tribes were hostile. Worse, there was little or no passing trade and many of the men were dying as

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The Darien scheme

This was the beginning of the modern world for Scotland in some ways.

Soon it had one of the most advanced business cultures in the world

dysentery took hold of the camp. Nevertheless, letters home were full of assurances that all was going well.

Soon, just a quarter of that first expeditionary group was left alive.

The truth about what was happening arrived too late to stop a second voyage of 1,000 men leaving Scotland in 1699. They arrived to a scene of devastation; although some worked hard to put things right, in-fighting, apathy, drunkenness and sickness all took their toll on morale.

In the end, after more than 2,000 deaths and the loss of almost all the money, the scheme was abandoned. Many Scots blamed a lack of co-operation

by England and outright hostility by Spain for the failure – both had refused to supply the colonists or to permit trade with them. Whatever the reason, the ignominious end to the project effectively crippled Scotland’s ability to do anything like that again.

Not only that, it prompted a reluctant acknowledgement that Scotland could not compete with England in terms of colonial trade and that, if they couldn’t be beaten, maybe joining them wouldn’t be so bad an idea.

Scots nobles appealed to England to wipe out the Scottish national debt and stabilise the currency.

Westminster refused the first request but it did agree to give the Scots pound a fixed value against the English pound. This helped bring the two economies closer together and, with many Scots families and

nobles effectively bankrupt, it eased Scotland’s passage into the Act of Union of 1707.

Not every result of Darien was a step backward, however. As Ruth Reed, RBS’s archive manager, explains, Darien helped to establish a system of shareholding in a big company, a development that was to become invaluable through the 18th century.

‘This is the beginning of the modern world for Scotland in some ways,’ she says. ‘This was the first time Scotland organised a really big company with lots of shareholders; we can see how they administered that and the shareholdings, even the failure and the payment of debts. Skip a generation and Scotland had become one of the most advanced business cultures in the world.’

The establishment of the Royal Bank of Scotland was also a direct result of the Darien scheme. One of the terms of the Act of Union was the payment of compensation to those who had lost out. The Equivalent Company was set up to administer the compensation. But when it found it had money to spare, the Company started a bank – the Royal.

Darien was hugely influential in Scotland’s development in the 18th and 19th centuries, helping push the country into a partnership with England that proved crucial for both countries. It also shows that events which define the direction of a country, can also have unexpected consequences – some of which were most definitely to Scotland’s benefit.

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images Roddy Ritchie

Stroma Lost in time

The abandoned island of stroma, off scotland’s north coast, is a remarkable time capsule of a lost way of life

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Bygone Scotland

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hotographer Roddy Ritchie has had a lifelong fascination with the abandoned island of Stroma, one of two islands between Caithness and Orkney.

Its last two families left the island in 1962, and since then an island which once had a population of 550 has been left to gently decay.

‘It is a beautiful, haunting island with the voices of its former inhabitants still palpable in its strange and empty landscape,’ says Ritchie.

‘Most of the islanders’ homes are derelict, but some still have touching mementos and artefacts of their former lives. I’ve photographed the decaying remnants of a scattered community that lived in a world of its own, and hope that the images will serve as a cultural reminder of what society should value in a shrinking world.’

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It’s a beautiful haunting island, with the voices of its former inhabitants still palpable in its strange and empty landscape

Above: One of many ruined farmhouses on the island, which is 3.5km long by 1.5km wide. Right: The phone never rings, but there are still Stroma stamps so visitors can send postcards.

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Bygone Scotland

Most of the islanders’ homes are now derelict, but some still contain touching momentos and artefacts of their former lives

Left: Fishing buoys in the fireplace.

Above: The detritus of everyday life.

Right: A fishing skiff is left to rot.

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These are the decaying remnants of a scattered community that lived in a world of its own

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Bygone Scotland

Top left: A ruined farmhouse with neighbouring island Swona in the background.

Above: A Victorian portrait of an islander. Left: An old tap. Right: The island’s only residents now are sheep.

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Above: The Swilkie lighthouse, built by the Stevensons, warns of the violent tidal race and whirlpool at the north end of the island. Left: This tractor is gradually being claimed by the island. Top right: A discarded spoon.

Right: The unlit stove is a poignant reminder of the families that once lived here.

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Bygone Scotland

STROMA ON MY MIND Five facts about Stroma

POPULATION At its height, the population of Stroma was 550. This fell to 375 by 1901 and declined throughout the 20th century. Many islanders left to work on the construction of Dounreay power station in the early 1960s and the two remaining families left the island in 1962.

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I hope that these images will serve as a cultural reminder of what society should value in a shrinking world

STORMY SEAS There are very dangerous tidal races and whirlpools at the north and south ends of the island, which lies in the Pentland Firth. There are 60 known shipwrecks off Stroma, the latest from 1994.

LIGHTHOUSE Built by David and Charles Stevenson, the lighthouse warns ships about the treacherous Swilkie whirlpool. It was machine-gunned by a German plane in World War II. VISITING A new harbour was constructed at the southern end of the island in 1961. A boat from John O’Groats runs wildlife tours for two months in the summer.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The name comes from the Norse ‘Straumey’, meaning ‘island in the stream’. Owned by the Kennedy clan in the 17th century, it was the subject of an ownership dispute between the earls of Caithness and Orkney.

They resolved it by taking venomous adders from the island to Caithness and Orkney; the ones on Orkney died, so the island belonged to Caithness.

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Words Tim Siddons Images Angus Blackburn

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When I became Chief I was aware of the huge responsibility I had to conserve the estate

survivors The great

hemmed in by their powerful neighbours the campbells, and dispossessed after culloden, CLAN MACLACHLAN’s focus has been on survival in a tough neighbourhood

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Clan MacLachlan

Image: The 25th Chief of Clan MacLachlan at Kilmorie Chapel.

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Clan MacLachlan

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s Chief of Clan MacLachlan, Euan Maclachlan has worked hard to preserve not only the clan name but also its lands and buildings – situated in Strathlachlan, on the shores of Loch Fyne in Argyll – which have been threatened by both financial constraints and the Scottish weather.

The eldest of six, Euan was always destined to be Clan Chief; a role he took on in 1996 on the death of his mother, Madam Marjorie Machlachlan. Prior to that he spent a couple of years in Glasgow working for his father’s plastering business and then, in 1972, he returned to Strathlachlan to run the estate farms.

‘When I became Chief I was already aware of the huge responsibility,’ explains Euan, ‘to conserve the estate and also to help clansmen discover their roots.’

Indeed Euan is regularly visited at his home, ‘new’ Castle Lachlan, by overseas visitors, ‘many of them unannounced’, he laughs.

‘I always give them a tour and a good few minutes of my time.’

The best way for a MacLachlan – or one of the variant spellings of the name – is through the Clan MacLachlan Society, which was established in 1979 by Euan’s mother, the 24th Chief. The society currently has around 1,200 members spread across branches in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The society produces its own magazine, Clan Lachlan, which has run to over 70 issues.

The society also has its own sennachie, a professional genealogist, Tom MacLachlan – one of the original

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founders and former chairman of the society.

‘He holds over 20,000 records of MacLachlan family history, which is incredible,’ says Euan.

‘Most of it is handwritten and we are in the process of transferring it into a digital format.’

Every five years there is a ‘big gathering’ at ‘new’ Lachlan. The next gathering is in June 2014, a three-day event which will also combine a community festival.

With regards to the estate, Euan and his family have worked tirelessly to preserve what is left of the MacLachlan lands. ‘We’ve managed to keep our heads just about above water for 1,000 years,’ says Euan. ‘This was not always an easy task – especially in the 18th century surrounded by Campbells,’ he laughs.

Of course Euan is also fully aware that if it wasn’t for a Campbell there would be no MacLachlan lands at all. ‘The English sequestrated our lands after Culloden because of our support for Bonnie Prince Charlie,’ he explains, ‘but the Duke of Argyll gave them back in 1747 – not a popular decision by all accounts but one for which we are grateful.’

In 1942 after the death of his grandfather, Euan’s mother, Madam Maclachlan was forced to sell off 12,000 acres of land to pay the death duties. ‘From that moment on we have had to operate within very tight financial constraints; it has been very much a working existence,’ explains Euan.

Like a number of Scottish estates, diversification was the key to Strathlachlan’s survival.

This began in the late 1960s with the transformation of a ferryman’s cottage on the shores of Lachlan Bay into Inver Cottage Restaurant, which is still going strong today, and a caravan park, which provided a vital supplement to the income generated by the estate farms.

Other revenue streams have been created from forestry, house building and, more recently, a biomass woodLeft: Euan Maclachlan outside chip plant – with other renew‘new’ Castle Lachlan able schemes being explored. in Strathlachlan.

Half of Euan’s home also operates as a holiday let, a successful initiative that began around twenty years ago. ‘It provides essential income to literally keep the roof on the house.’

As well as consolidating MacLachlan lands for

Keeping our head above water was not always an easy task – especially when we were surrounded by Campbells

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the future, Euan has also turned his attention to conserving the clan artefacts of the past, in particular the spectacular ruin of Old Castle Lachlan, which occupies a rocky headland overlooking Lachlan Bay on the east side of Loch Fyne. It was built as a fortress in the fifteenth century, although there has been a castle on that site from at least 1314.

As well as a focal point for the many visitors to the area, the castle is important architecturally. It is surrounded by a large, double-skinned curtain wall, the walkways of which provided excellent views down the loch – which was vital during the time when the MacLachlans dominated the area prior to the Campbell ascendancy. Inside, the castle has two tenements around a central courtyard; the western tenement housing the Great Hall and Solar, the two most important rooms.

About ten years ago a bridge was built to allow the general public easier access to the castle and the wilder and unspoilt areas of land around the coast.

Unfortunately it was washed away last November, and over the years the ruin itself has become increasingly more fragile and dangerous to the public.

‘It had always been my desire to conserve the ruin before it fell down completely,’ explains Euan.

The present plan to consolidate Old Castle Lachlan actually began over ten years ago with a smaller project to conserve the ruin of Kilmorie Chapel, part of a medieval church close to the old castle, and the burial ground of the MacLachlan chiefs. One of the last remaining buildings of its type in the west of Scotland, it was in a very poor state. Driven by members of the Clan MacLachlan Society, the Lachlan Trust was set up and led a successful campaign to raise £100,000 in funds and grants, with the project being completed in 2006.

‘We had no intention of stopping there,’ explains Euan, ‘and we turned our attention immediately to raising funds for the conservation of the Old Castle.’ A conservation report was drawn up, Right: Euan which estimated costs of around £2 million Maclachlan in to fully consolidate the castle as a ruin. And front of Old Castle with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Lachlan.

Historic Scotland, The Wolfson Foundation, donations from clan members and some pro bono work, this project is now well under way.

The importance of the project goes way beyond the consolidation of a couple of old buildings in the MacLachlan estate. It is also as much about conserving the beauty of the whole area, as well as helping to maintain its economic

Euan has turned his attention to conserving the clan artefacts, and in particular the spectacular ruin of Old Castle Lachlan on Loch Fyne

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Clan MacLachlan

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Clan MacLachlan

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In the later 1800s ‘new’ Castle Lachlan was transformed into the Scottish gothic style, popularised by Sir Walter Scott

Above: The MacLachlans supported Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden. Below: The famous photograph of Castle Lachlan by George Washington Wilson.

and social viability, by providing added incentives for people to visit the area beyond the draw of its stunning natural beauty and wildlife.

One of these incentives is a heritage trail, which is being created by a series of connecting pathways between each of the historic buildings, improving access with boardwalks, rebuilding the bridge to the old castle and providing information for selfguided walks. Further down the line there will also be guided walks and various organised events. The Trust is also working with the local primary school to get the children’s input into a children’s trail.

The trail will also highlight one of the most fascinating aspects of the estate: that it is very much a post-Culloden, designed landscape, much of it influenced by Sir Walter Scott. In the later 1800s ‘new’ Castle Lachlan was transformed into the Scottish gothic style and the land immediately in front of the new was altered. The river was straightened, land was reclaimed around the bay and avenues of trees were planted. The old castle ruin became sort of like a folly at the bottom of the garden.

The landscape was thus transformed into a romantic parkland that complemented and was complemented by the more rugged natural environment. This was captured in the late nineteenth century by the Victorian pioneer of photography, George Washington Wilson, whose photograph of Old Castle Lachlan became one of the most massproduced photographs of its day. Not only did it cement the castle and this part of Scotland within the popular imagination, it also ensured that visitors would flock to the area and continue to do so.

So, by the beginning of summer 2014 the new bridge and heritage trails will be built. In a couple of years time the ruin of Old Castle Lachlan should be consolidated and the lands of Clan MacLachlan preserved for the future. ‘We’re a close-knit family, and we all do our bit for the cause,’ says Euan. ‘So I’d like to think that the MacLachlans will be keeping their heads above water at Strathlachlan for another 1,000 years.’

CLAN MACLACHLAN WWW.2014MACLACHLAN CLANGATHERING.COM

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guide Bluffer’s

Right: The ruins of Old Castle Lachlan on Loch Fyne. Below: It is said the clansmen knew their chief had fallen at Culloden when his horse returned alone and swam across Loch Fyne.

TEN IMPORTANT FACTS THAT EVERY ASPIRING MEMBER OF CLAN MACLACHLAN SHOULD KNOW

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The first evidence of the clan’s ownership of lands dates back to 1292. It was Gilleskell MacLauchlan who received a charter of his lands in Ergadia from John, King of Scots. Between 1306 and 1322 Gillespie MacLachlan received the ten pennyland of Schyrwaghthyne or Strathlachlan, and other lands in charter from Robert I of Scotland.

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Clan MacLachlan takes its name from Lachlan Mor, who is said to have lived on the shores of Loch Fyne in the 13th century. Tradition dictates that his roots lay in Ireland and that he was the descendent of the O’Neill family. Aodh Anrothan, son of Aodh Athlone O’Neill, is said to have married the Heiress of Cowal and Knapdale, a princess from the Royal House of Argyll. Other clans claiming to be descendants of the MacLachlan clan include: Clan Lamont, Clan MacEwan of Otter, Clan MacNeil of Barra and the MacSweens.

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The crest badge used by members of the Clan MacLachlan carries the Latin motto Fortis et Fidus, which translates as brave and trusty. The symbol on the badge is a castle set on a rock issuing from a crest coronet of strawberry leaves. The clan’s badges, which were used to identify clan members, feature two plants, the rowan and the lesser periwinkle. The pipe music associated with Clan MacLachlan is Moladh Mairi or In Praise of Mary.

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When the magnates of Scotland signed their allegiance to Edward I of England, historian G.W.S. Barrow says that Gillespie MacLachlan also appears on the Ragman Rolls. The clerks of that time had some difficulties spelling the name Lachlan. So they rendered the name by some form of a more familiar name, Rothland or Roland. Thus, unnoticed by historians of the MacLachlan clan, Gillespie MacLachlan figures on the Ragman Roll as Gilascope fiz Rouland, de counte de Perth.

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One MacLachlan tradition is thought to date back from the era of the Crusades.

The laird of Strathlachlan (Maclachlan of Strathlachlan) and the laird of Strachur (Campbell of Strachur) would attend the funerals of each other and ‘lay his neighbour’s head in the grave’. This tradition was thought to originate from the Crusades, when it is said the heads of these two families went together in war, and each solemnly engaged with the other to lay him in his family burial ground if he were to fall in battle.

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The MacLachlan clan is not the biggest, but it is considered to be one of the oldest. About 90 percent of the MacLachlan clan can be found outside Scotland with branches in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

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Clan MacLachlan

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The last of the male line of MacLachlan clan chiefs was John MacLachlan, who died in 1942. John MacLachlan was succeeded by his daughter, Marjorie MacLachlan, the 24th chief of the clan. In 1979 under her, the clan MacLachlan Society was formed.

When Marjorie died in 1996, her eldest son Euan John MacLachlan became the 25th chief of clan MacLachlan and Baron of Strathlachlan.

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Thirty-four years after the Clan MacLachlan Society was founded, they now have over 1,200 members worldwide. The society’s genealogist, Tom McLachlan, holds over 20,000 family history records of MacLachlans and their relatives.

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The MacLachlans supported the Jacobites and the chief was killed at Culloden. It is said that after this final Jacobite defeat an English warship sailed up Loch Fyne

and bombarded the castle. This may or may not be true, but either way the castle was abandoned and has remained uninhabited ever since. It is said that the clanspeople knew that their chief had fallen because his horse returned alone from the battlefield and swam across Loch Fyne to get home – it refused to leave the castle and remained there until it died.

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A clan can’t go without a castle, so in the late 18th century a new castle was built which is still the seat of the clan today. Donald Maclachlan oversaw the construction of the house which was built in the Queen Ann style and which was then transformed into the baronial house that it is today at the end of the 19th century. The new castle is a ten minute walk from the ruined old castle which dated back to the 15th century.

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lands Heart

TEN PLACES THAT ALL MEMBERS OF CLAN MACLACHLAN SHOULD VISIT BEFORE THEY DIE

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The ruins of Old Castle Lachlan

Lachlan castle has been part of the history of the MacLachlan clan since the Middle Ages and was the clan seat for over 900 years.

The exact date of construction is uncertain but historians think it was probably around the 13th century. The design of the old castle was unique in Scotland.

On the outside of the castle there was a large keep. Inside it comprised two large tenements connected along the north side with an open court between them. Overall the castle had four storeys, cellars and battlements.

The castle overlooked the eastern shores of Loch Fyne.

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THE NEW CASTLE LACHLAN This is the current residence of the clan chief, Euan John MacLachlan. It was built in the 18th century after the MacLachlans were forced to flee their previous residence and to this day it remains the seat of the clan. The house is surrounded by 1500 acres of ground and has a livestock farm, hill ground, woodlands and three miles of coastline.

The MacLachlan residence is divided into two sections: there is the private residence of the clan chief and his family, while the southern part of the building facing the Loch is available for rent on a self-catering basis.

INVER COTTAGE RESTAURANT Situated on Lachlan Bay, close to the Castle Lachlan, Inver Cottage restaurant was a former ferryman’s cottage which was renovated in 1968 to the design of distinguished Glasgow architect Geoffrey Jarvis, a draughtsman who dedicated his career to conserving historic buildings. The restaurant is now run by a granddaughter of Madam Marjorie Maclachlan – it is very much a family affair.

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CULLODEN The MacLachlans were loyal Jacobites.

Lachlan MacLachlan, the 17th chief of Clan MacLachlan, led a Jacobite Regiment consisting of 115 MacLachlans and 182 MacLeans of Mull into battle at Culloden in 1746 alongside Clan Mackintosh and Clan Chattan. He lost his life during the battle. There is a fascinating visitor centre at Culloden, where you can learn about the battle through interactive exhibits and displays and walk out onto the atmospheric battlefield.

2014 Clan Lachlan gathering and Strathlachlan Festival

The Clan MacLachlan Society will host a festival that celebrates the special heritage and culture of the clan, Loch Fyne and Scotland. The festival will include dancing, eating, drinking, highland sports, sheepdog demos and walks on historical sites spread over three days. The celebrations will start on 20 June 2014 and will go on until 22 June in the grounds of New Castle Lachlan.

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Clan MacLachlan

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CORUANAN On the south east bank of Loch Linnhe, midway between the town of Fort William and the narrow Corran of Ardgour, Coruanan was the home of the hereditary standard barers to Cameron of Locheil, a family of MacLachlans said to have been the earliest cadet branch of the Strathlachlan family to leave Cowal.

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ST BRIDE’S CHAPEL

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This late medieval chapel in Kilmorie, Argyll is the resting place of the chiefs of the clan MacLachlan. Many of the older graves are covered by stones decorated with highly ornate carvings. The roof of the building was removed so that it would not be taxed. The chapel was likely part of a medieval church, the stones of which, tradition says, were used in the construction of the present Strathlachlan parish church and possibly the present Castle Lachlan.

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MEMORIAL CAIRNS As well as the famous memorial at Culloden, there are cairns all around the world in memory of fallen soldiers, including MacLachlans. Several MacLachlans were members of the Black Watch regiment that are remembered by the cairn at Fort Ticonderoga in New York. The MacLachlan name appears on the cairn atop Grandfather Mountain in Linville, North Carolina. Each clan represented contributed a stone from their ancestral castle in order to build the monument.

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Auchentoshan distillery

It is believed that it was a MacLachlan who established the Auchentoshan Distillery at Dalmuir in 1800, to the north west of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde. This is where the MacLachlan triple-distilled Lowland single malt was produced. Auchentoshan translates as the corner of the field. Unusually for a Scottish distillery, Auchentoshan practices triple distillation.

Loch Fyne, Argyll

The old and new castles are situated by Loch Fyne, probably Scotland’s most famous sea loch. The loch stretches north from the Clyde Estuary and passes Ardrishaig and the south entry of the Crinan Canal. Not only will you find both Lachlan castles and therefore the clan’s history there, it also provides other attractions like; fishing, sailing, diving, golf, beautiful walks, glorious gardens and a vast array of wildlife. The loch is probably most famous for its oyster fishery and restaurant.

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scots heritage

Words Alisdair McRae

strife Uncivil

WAR

contrary to cromwellian propaganda, The ‘English’ civil war was a british conflict which was settled decisively by the scots

The Art Archive/Alamy

Image: At the Battle of Marston Moor in Yorkshire in July 1644, Parliamenary and Scottish Protestant forces defeated Prince Rupert’s Royalist army.

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It was a war which also consumed and changed Ireland and Scotland

Uncivil strife

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here’s a lot in a name, and that’s certainly the case with the English Civil War, which was for years known as either the Great Civil War or, as recently as the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Great Rebellion. For this was no internecine English affair: it was a war which also consumed and changed Ireland and Scotland. And although Cromwellian England would never admit as much, it was a war whose outcome was determined by the impact of Scottish troops.

The Scots fought in the ‘English’ civil war in huge numbers and without the contribution of the Scottish Army of the Covenant it is almost unthinkable that Cromwell’s Ironsides would have prevailed or that Charles I – the king of both England and Scotland – would have been beheaded.

The impact of Scottish troops on the war was encapsulated by one particular Scottish regiment which long ago caught my attention: Colonel Hugh Fraser’s Regiment of Dragoons. They were central to the key moment in arguably the most important battle of the first civil war at Marston Moor when, without the swift and decisive action of a bunch of Highlanders on that day in July 1644, England’s history could be very different indeed.

The background to the unsettled domestic situation in Britain at this time was the 30 Years War which had raged across Europe for a quarter of a century. It pitted the Imperialist Hapsburgs against King Gustavus Adolphus’s Protestant Swedes.

Large numbers of Germans fought on both sides in a conflict fought on German soil which would reduce the male population of Germany by almost half and destroy one third of all German towns.

Gustavus made up for his lack of manpower by employing Dutch, German, English and Scottish armies. The most sought after troops were the Scots, of whom Gustavus said: ‘No troops could be better fitted, morally as well as physically, for desperate undertakings, than these Scots.

They proved hardy, frugal and sober soldiers.’

While their warriors were honing their martial skills in Europe, at home King Charles tried to introduce the Anglican Book of Common Prayer into Scotland in 1637. When the Dean of Edinburgh began to read from the new Book of Prayer in St. Giles Cathedral, rioting began, legendarily initiated by the street-seller Jenny Geddes throwing her stool at his head. The disturbances led directly to the drafting of the National Covenant in 1638 to bind the country to the defence of the Protestant religion. Word was sent to Scottish forces fighting abroad that officers were needed back home, and a flood of experienced, battle hardened troops return to its shores, under the command of officers such as Field Marshal Alexander Leven and SCOTS heritage winter 2013 51

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Major General David Leslie, trained at the cutting edge of military technology and tactics.

When King Charles’ army moved to subdue the Scots in 1639 in what became known as the Bishops’ Wars, his men were dismayed to find themselves facing a well-trained, disciplined and motivated army rather than a rabble of militia. Morale in the English camp collapsed amid rumours that the Scottish army overwhelmingly outnumbered the English.

The king had no option but to negotiate.

The abject failure of Charles to impose his will on the Scots, along with the huge cost involved, contributed to the revolt of the English Parliament and the start of Civil War in 1642. With the two armies deadlocked by 1643, Charles’ threat to draft in Irish-Catholic troops prompted Parliament to turn to the Scots, offering the promise of the Scottish Kirk system being introduced throughout Great Britain in return for military aid. A Scots Army of the Covenant duly marched into England in January 1644.

The Scots cut a swathe through the unpaid, poorly fed, poorly dressed – sometimes in rags and without shoes – English soldiers, many of whom had only bows and arrows while others were equipped from Wars of the Roses-era armouries. The Royalists in the north of England had no choice but to retreat, engaging in a scorched-earth policy to try and starve them into returning home.

They nearly succeeded. The Scots were held up on their march by terrible winter blizzards followed by uncrossable rivers swollen with snow-melt.

Eventually, towards the end of March, the Scots linked up with a Northern English army under Sir Thomas Fairfax and together they besieged York. However, the Scots had lost 4,000 men to disease, desertion and garrisoning towns captured en route, so the two armies could not surround the whole city until a third force, under the Earl of Manchester and his cavalry commander Oliver Cromwell, arrived.

The siege had only been underway for weeks when word arrived that Prince Rupert was riding hard to relieve the city. The allies marched to position themselves across his route, only for Rupert to detour west and relieve the siege without a shot being fired. The town’s garrison came out of the city, fell on the besiegers’ deserted camp, pilClockwise from above: laged it and got paralytically drunk.

Gen Thomas Fairfax; The allies now realised that Rupert had The Solemn League and Covenant; Charles somehow got behind them, so marched I; Riot against the with all speed back to Marston Moor where Anglican prayer book.

Rupert awaited them with his slightly smaller army. As cannon fire erupted from both armies across a dividing ditch, Fraser’s Dragoons and a Royalist regiment of musketeers both spotted a point that gave a commanding field of fire down the ditch. After a brief fire-fight, the dragoons took the position and drove off the musketeers.

By this time it was late afternoon and Rupert decided that battle would not commence until morning. Leven, however, was of a different opinion and at 7pm the Allies advanced. Fraser’s dragoons laid down withering fire along the ditch between the armies, clearing it of Royalist musketeers and light cannon, allowing Cromwell and the Scots horse to cross and advance towards Rupert.

The Scots centre crossed the ditch and engaged the Royalist infantry, but Fairfax’s cavalry on the right wing became snarled in a fire fight. Faced by concentrated point-blank musketry from the hedgerows, Fairfax’s horse broke and was driven from the field by the Royalist cavalry, who then turned to attack the exposed flank of the Scots infantry in the centre of the battlefield. They were already engaged with Royalist troops in front of them and it was surely only a matter of time before these infantry broke. Leven tried unsuccessfully to rally broken reserves fleeing the field, but, deciding that the day was lost, he too quit the field.

Fairfax, left only with a handful of horsemen, rode unrecognised across the field to the left wing to tell the allied troops what had happened on their right. On the left wing, Cromwell’s Ironsides’ advance had also stalled and when a Scot, Major General Crawford, rushed up demanding to know why the cavalry weren’t charging Rupert’s forces before the day was entirely lost, he was told that Cromwell had received a small bullet wound which grazed his neck and was unable to fight. Crawford immediately instructed that Cromwell be led off the field and that command of all horse be given to David Leslie.

Urged on by Leslie, the Scots and the Ironsides charged ferociously and broke Rupert’s horse who fled, the Prince himself hiding in a bean field to avoid capture. Leslie immediately spotted that the allied infantry centre, attacked from the front by Royalist infantry and from the flanks by repeated

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Uncivil strife

Morale in the English camp collapsed amid rumours that the Scottish army overwhelmingly outnumbered the English

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cavalry charges, was about to break. The Scots horse, Manchester’s horse and Fraser’s dragoons re-formed and raced across the field, engaging and destroying the Royalist cavalry, with the Royalist infantry centre collapsing beneath the onslaught of the re-invigorated Scottish centre. The day was won, and the only Royalist unit which refused to flee or surrender was Newcastle’s Whitecoats. They made a stand in a hedged enclosure and fended off all cavalry charges until Fraser’s Dragoons rode up and, using their short musket carbines, blasted an opening in their ranks which allowed cavalry to break through. Even then the Whitecoats fought to virtually the last man.

Immediately after the battle York capitulated and the Scots went north and took Newcastle, a city whose massive defences had never been taken by siege before, in a ferociously bloody attack. The Scots went on to besiege Carlisle and then Hereford, but then Leslie and his cavalry had to leave after a month to ride to Scotland where for the past year the Royalist Marquis of Montrose and his tiny force had crisscrossed Scotland capturing, destroying and pillaging town after town, defeating or avoiding every force sent to face him. His ‘Year of Miracles’ had delivered victories at Tippermuir, Perth and Aberdeen.

For Parliament the Marquis of Argyll feebly shadowed Montrose but always avoided engagement, so the Scots Parliament summoned two regiments from the Covenanter army in England, leading to an horrifically bloody encounter at Auldearn where the Covenanters lost 3,000 men.

That was followed by defeat at Alford in July and then, finally, a month later at Kilsyth the last Covenanter armies in Scotland were routed and slaughtered. Montrose, now master of Scot-

The Scots cut a swathe through the unpaid, poorly fed, poorly dressed - sometimes in rags without shoes English soldiers

land, issued a proclamation at Glasgow to summon a new Parliament in the king’s name.

Leslie, on hearing of Montrose’s victory at Kilsyth, left Hereford and rode north with 5,000 horse, including Fraser’s Dragoons. While Montrose marched to Selkirk on 12th September 1645, Leslie pitched camp at Melrose and, receiving intelligence of the Royalists’ location, surprised Montrose’s forces the following morning in thick mist at Philiphaugh and crushed his army once and for all.

The last shot fired, Leslie was diverted while the churchmen left in charge decided not to give quarter to the surrendering Royalists or their camp followers. A scene almost too revolting for description ensued: ‘The army was let loose upon them, and cut them all into pieces.

With the whole baggage and staff, which was exceeding rich, there remained none but boys, cooks, and a rabble of rascals and women with children in their arms; all those without commiseration were cut in pieces; whereof there were 300 women that, being natives of Ireland, were the married wives of the Irish; there were many big with child, yet none of

Left: General Monk.

Right: Oliver Cromwell’s statue near Westminster Abbey. Top right: The arms of Montrose.

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Uncivil strife

them were spared, but all were cut in pieces with such savage and inhuman cruelty as neither Turk nor Scythian was ever heard to have done the like; for they ripped up the bellies of the women with their swords till the fruit of their womb, some in embryo, some perfectly formed, some crawling for life, and some ready for birth, fell down upon the ground weltering in the gory blood of their mangled mothers.’

Having secured the north of England and stabilised Scotland, Leven’s army now marched south to Newark on Trent to join an English army in a siege of the last bastion of Royalist support. However, the Scots were surprised when King Charles, in disguise and travelling with a few close friends, placed himself in their midst at their siege camp. He clearly saw himself taking command of the Scots army and turning them against the Roundheads, but he had miscalculated. Instead, the Scots requested that Charles instruct Newark to surrender, then marched the king back to Newcastle before handing him over once they had received £400,000 in back pay.

Thus ended the first Civil War, a conflict in which Cromwell’s claim to have masterminded and led the Parliamentarians to victory at Marston Moor was pure propaganda. Leven led the army (in which 11,000 of the 17,000 allied infantrymen were Scots, as were 2,500 of the 7,500 cavalry), Fraser’s Dragoons secured the left flank, Leslie led the Scots horse which defeated Prince Rupert and relieved the Scottish central infantry in the nick of time. Cromwell just talked a good war.

If the Scots had never come southwards – or had turned up but not fought so ferociously – Rupert would have won the battle and, in all probability, the war. That one battle was the pivot upon which the whole conflict hinged, which is why it is the Scots who won this war. But then history is written by the winners.

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Words Tim Siddons

soldier

There was a

1

VIRTUALLY ALL OF WELLINGTON’S GENERALS WERE SCOTS AND ALMOST 50 VCS HAVE BEEN WON

BY SCOTS. MARTIAL PROWESS IS IN THE BLOOD - SO HERE’S OUR TOP TEN OF HOME-GROWN WARRIORS

4 Field Marshal Colin Campbell

Commanded the Highland Brigade in Crimea, where his ‘thin red line of Highlanders’ repulsed the Russians at Balaclava in 1854. Sent to military academy aged just ten, he first saw action under Wellington aged 15 in Portugal.

Despite regularly being wounded he distinguished himself in the Peninsula War, Nova Scotia, First Opium War and Second Anglo-Sikh War. He became Baron Clyde for his expert leadership of the relief army during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

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1ST EARL OF LEVEN

Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, began his military career in the Dutch army and transferred to the Swedish army where he served with distinction and was knighted by the Swedish King. He returned to Scotland in 1638 as Lord General in Command of the Covenanting army and quickly developed a reputation for his tactical skills. He took Edinburgh Castle, for example, without the loss of any life. He conducted brilliant campaigns in the Bishop’s Wars and for the Solemn League and Covenant, and was still in command and conducting campaigns at seventy years of age.

3

Lietenant General Sir John Moore

Moore first saw action during the American War of Independence where he distinguished himself in the Penobscot Expedition as part of a small British unit that held off a far larger American force. Moore furthered his reputation in Ireland, when in 1798 he helped to suppress the republican rebellion, but his greatest achievement was a training regime that produced the first permanent light infantry regiments in Britain. He was fatally wounded at the Battle of Corunna against Napoleon in 1809.

MAJOR GENERAL SIR HECTOR MACDONALD A Gaelic-speaking crofter’s son from the Black Isle, ‘Fighting Mac’ enlisted at 17 as a trooper and ended up as a Major General. Famous for his bravery, he fought in Afghanistan and won a DSO in 1891. He became a household name and was made a Colonel for his bravery at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898.

Knighted in 1901 for his part in the Boer War, he shot himself in 1903 after a scandal; 30,000 Scots turned up at his funeral in Edinburgh.

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There was a soldier

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William Wallace

DAVID STIRLING

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Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling was a 6ft 6in Scottish aristocrat and mountaineer who believed small teams of highly-trained raiders could inflict more damage than entire platoons, and founded the Special Air Service (SAS) in 1941. Riding shotgun on adapted jeeps armed with machine guns from planes, his SAS stormed Rommel’s airbases at night, destroying 250 aircraft, hundreds of vehicles, supply dumps and railways in 15 months. Finally captured, he was held in Colditz. Field Marshal Montgomery said he was ‘mad, quite mad’.

6 FIELD MARSHAL DOUGLAS HAIG

Opinion is divided on Haig’s martial qualities. For many ‘Butcher Haig’ was the donkey whose criminally unimaginative leadership led to the slaughter of almost two million British lions at Ypres, Passchendaele and the Somme, where the British army sustained the highest casualties in its history.

Yet US General John Pershing lauded Haig as ‘the man who won the war’ through tactics that were unavoidable and even1ST MARQUESS tually forced the Germans to surrender, avoiding further OF MONTROSE bloodshed. At his state funeral in 1928 he was widely James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, seen as a great general to rank alongside Wellington. aka ‘Great Montrose’, made his name as the Covenanter general who in 1638 captured the Marquess of Huntly and whose attack on the Royalists at the Bridge of Dee led to the Treaty of Berwick. It was as a Royalist, however, that the swashbuckling Montrose had his greatest military successes, his Highland army defeating the covenanters in six battles, culminating in the Battle of Kilsyth in 1645, where his army of 3000 foot soldiers and 500 cavalry beat an infantry of 7000 and 800 cavalry.

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MAJ GEN DOUGLAS WIMBERLEY Wimberley was an officer on the Western Front during the First World War and made his name as commander of the 51st (Highland) Division in the Middle East, most notably at the Second Battle of El Alamein in World War II. He is renowned for instilling in his troops a sense of unity and willing to fight. One of his methods for accomplishing this was to have as many Scottish soldiers as possible, who he encouraged to wear their respective tartans, hence his moniker, ‘Tartan Tam’. In 1942 he was awarded a DSO for his actions.

The most iconic Scottish soldier of all, Sir William Wallace was a knight who became one of the first leaders of the Wars of Scottish Independence 700 years ago. He famously led the Scots to victory over a larger and technologically superior English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, then became Guardian of Scotland until his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk in 1305.

Wallace was then captured, handed to the English king, Edward Longshanks, and hung, drawn and quartered for high treason.

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John Graham of Claverhouse

‘Bonnie Dundee’ was a Jacobite hero and the Stuart faction’s finest general, as he proved at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, where he led his Highlanders to victory over a far larger Williamite army. He also served Louis XIV in France and William of Orange in Holland with distinction, while his suppression of the Covenanters at Charles II’s behest brought the nickname ‘Bluidy Clavers’.

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Words Richard Bath

This mouldy old book was how I discovered that we’re descended from James IV

Left: Howard Dean, governor of Vermont. Above clockwise from top left: Dean is related to William Maitland, King James IV, Elvis Presley, passengers from Mayflower, Phineas (PT) Barnum, George Clinton, General William Sherman, Mary Fleming, the Marquis of Montrose, Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis.

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Genealogy

ancient Royal &

A CHANCE DISCOVERY LED HOWARD DEAN, GOVERNOR OF VERMONT, TO FIND THAT HE IS DESCENDED FROM KING JAMES IV – AND FROM LUMINARIES SUCH AS ELVIS PRESLEY

A

friend of mine used to work as a researcher on Who Do You Think You Are?, the television programme that traces celebrities’ roots. To judge by the often powerful stories that appear on the screen, you’d think that every famous person in America had equally eminent antecedents, but apparently this just ain’t so. In fact, many celebrities found that they had such boring family histories that it was impossible to construct a watchable television programme out of their quest so their story was quietly shelved.

Such an undignified fate, though, would never befall Howard Brush Dean III. The Vermont Governor and former Presidential hopeful has a

remarkable story, of how he isn’t just related to a king but is connected to a celebrated and longdead Scottish monarch three times over via the king’s mistresses. As if that’s not enough, this isn’t a family legend that’s been passed down from generation to generation: Dean only found out about his royal antecedents by complete luck on his first visit to meet his Scottish relatives.

‘Eight years ago when I was with my mother visiting her Maitland kin in Scotland, they brought out a mouldy old book of Maitland ancestors, and that’s how I discovered that we were descended from James IV,’ he said. ‘I was stunned. None of my immediate family had any idea about this, it was SCOTS heritage winter 2013 61

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all new to us. We knew that my mother’s family, the Maitlands, who were originally called Matulant and had emigrated from France in the 1230s, had served in the Scottish court as Chamberlains. I suppose being in such close proximity had opened them up to the predations of the king – and in Above: Dundrennan Abbey, those days what the king wanted, he got.’ the seat of the Maitlands. Top Such was Dean’s interest that he started right: Howard Dean with his digging into his family history. At every brother Jim and neice Andree, a student at St Andrews step he unearthed more genealogical gold: University. Below clockwise this year he discovered that he wasn’t from top left: Dean’s neice just descended from James IV down one Andree Dean and mother Andree Maitland; Thomas line, but through three separate historiPaine; Cardinal Beaton; cal trails. The most direct route, however, from the Maitland crest at was via James IV’s mistress Isabel Buchan, Dundrennan; President George with whom in 1502 he had a daughter, W Bush; Flodden, where so many of Dean’s ancestors died.

Lady Janet Stewart. She in turn had eight children, two of whom are particularly familiar to students of Scottish history.

Lady Janet later married Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming, with their daughter Margaret becoming one of the most controversial figures of her age. Reputed to be a witch possessing the power to cast spells, she was married three times to men of enormous wealth and influence: Robert Graham, Master of Montrose, by whom she had a son, John, the 3rd Earl of Montrose; Thomas Erskine, Master of Mar; and John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl.

However, the Fleming daughter to whom Dean is most closely related is Mary, who was

born in 1543 and became famous as one of the ‘four Marys’ who served Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary Fleming later went on to marry William Maitland of Lethington, hence Dean’s mother’s maiden name: Andree Maitland.

It’s perhaps indicative of the close-knit nature of Scottish society in the sixteenth century that Mary’s neice would also marry into the Maitland clan, with her older brother John, the 4th Lord Fleming, having a daughter named Jean, who would marry John Maitland, the younger brother of her aunt Mary’s husband, William Maitland.

But Dean’s relationship with Scotland isn’t confined to ancient history. As a 17-year-old he spent a year at school in England and hitchhiked northwards ‘with truck drivers from the north east of Scotland who were completely incomprehensible to me’, going via Hadrian’s Wall to Edinburgh, where he lay on his back in Holyrood Park ‘looking up at the hills and listening to the pipers – it was utterly enchanting.’

Since finding out about his royal heritage on that trip eight years ago, his niece Andree’s decision to attend St Andrews University (where she engaged in the very un-American activity of captaining the women’s cricket team) meant that he has had reason to return to Scotland twice in recent years.

He has used those visits as a chance to stage gettogethers with his Maitland family, a decision that found favour with his 84-year-old mother who

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assiduously keeps in touch with as many Maitlands as possible. ‘There would be three generations of us all together, with most of them having family names like Adam, Thomas and Andree,’ he said. ‘The only sad aspect was that as a tee-totaller for the past 32 years I couldn’t toast them all with a dram.’

While Dean can trace his paternal side back to the Mayflower (his forebears John and Mary Chilton were passengers on that famous ship and their descendants were whalers on the East End of Long Island in a village called Sagg Harbourside), he says that it comes as no surprise to find that, like the two thirds of American presidents whose lineage is Scottish, his maternal side has its roots in Scotland. ‘After all, in my personal life I’m a progressive, but as Governor I have a reputation for being very frugal economically,’ he laughs.

More remarkable still are some of the secrets held in his family tree. A remarkable American genealogical site called wargs.com details the an-

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tecedents of a host of major American politicians, including Dean, whose incredibly detailed 53-page list of ancestors includes some truly remarkable revelations. Elvis Presley is a distant relation, and so too are circus entrepreneur Phineas PT Barnum, Thomas Paine, US vice-president George Clinton, General William Sherman and President George Bush (who also has royal Scottish heritage).

Far more remarkable, however, are some of his Scottish ancestors. He is, for instance, related to Cardinal Beaton, the last pre-reformation Archbishop of St Andrews whose death in 1546 gave Scotland the St Andrews flag. Beaton burnt Protestant preacher George Wishart at the stake in front of St Andrews castle, an act which so enraged Wishart’s supporters that they stormed the castle and hung Beaton from its walls by a leg and an arm to form a macabre cross that became Scotland’s national symbol.

Dean is also related to Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, who was burnt at the stake as a witch while her young son was forced to watch as part of King James V’s feud with her powerful brother. And the common ancestor for all three lines that lead back to King James IV was Dean’s direct ancestor James Graham, the 1st Marquess of Montrose – or ‘The Great Montrose’ as he is often called – who remains one of the most controversial and celebrated figures in Scottish history. If Dean ran his political campaigns in the same manner in which Graham pursued his campaigns – he was a tactical genius who won remarkable victories at the head of a Covenanters army, then turned to the crown and had a profound effect upon the English Civil War – then it is little surprise he attained high office.

The other thing that strikes you forcibly about Dean’s family tree is not only the sheer breadth of the Scottish nobility to which he is related, but how many of them died grisly deaths. There were assassinations, burnings, hangings, poisonings, beheadings and, of course, a high proportion of his most distinguished forebears died at battles such as Pinkie and, in large numbers, 500 years ago at Flodden. In particular, the death if James IV at Flodden has ignited Dean’s interest in the much-maligned Scottish king.

‘I think James was actually a very successful king but he is remembered for defeat and death at Flodden, and that has coloured his legacy,’ says Dean.

Dean still has a reverence for his royal ancestor though, and believes it would be fitting for James’ remains, if finally found and identified, to be brought back to the Maitland seat at Dundrennan Abbey in Kircudbright, which is also the resting place for several of his other ancestors.

‘You’d need some rich Americans to finance the search but it would be a real tourist attraction if the body was found and brought back to Dundrennan,’ he said. ‘There’s no doubt James was a significant king though largely forgotten.’

The other thing that strikes you about Dean’s Scottish family is how many of them died grisly deaths

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scots heritage

Words & Images Malcolm MacGregor

stones The secrets in the

Thanks to dan Brown, the whole world has heard of Rosslyn chapel, but there are more mysteries to this place than the holy grail, the knights templar or any Da Vinci code plot twists

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Rosslyn Chapel

Tens of thousands of people visit the church each year, attracted by its links with the Knights Templar and alleged status as the home of the Holy Grail

Image: A £9 million project has restored Rosslyn Chapel to its former glory.

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Above: A carved angel. Rght: Lady Rosslyn. Bottom: The St Clairs arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066.

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ystery, legend and superstition are great marketing aides. Just ask Rosslyn Chapel, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world visit the church each year, attracted by its rumoured links with the Knights Templar and ancient religious mysteries, and its alleged status as the home of the Holy Grail. (Quite what the Holy Grail is seems to be anyone’s guess – possibly the goblet which caught the last drops of Christ’s blood, or the cup from which he drank his wine at the Last Supper).

But it wasn’t always like this. For a long time, Rosslyn lay in ruins, exposed to the elements, and forgotten by all but the family that built it.

Then, thanks to a certain book (and film), the chapel’s fortunes took a turn for the better.

But beyond its recent fame, the church has a fascinating story. It was founded in 1446

by William St Clair, the last Prince of Orkney, who was part of a remarkable family of explorers and adventurers.

Like many Scottish families,

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St Clairs have been here since the 11th century.

Rosslyn is now an international monument but it is also part of our personal history

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As the Reformation took hold, the chapel’s altars were demolished.

An angry mob further vandalised the place the St Clairs (or Sinclairs) came from Normandy with William the Conqueror.

William ‘the Seemly’ St Clair was a cousin of the Norman invader and fought with him at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The St Clairs then headed north, and their story is very much entwined with the history of kings, whether Scottish, English, French or Norman. In Scotland, William St Clair served Malcolm Canmore and was granted the barony of Rosslyn. Serving kings proved rewarding and his descendants followed suit. One, Sir Henry, was created 1st Prince of Orkney.

It was his grandson, William, who set the foundations for Rosslyn in 1446. The chapel was built close to the village of Roslin, on the burial ground of the St Clair family, with Rosslyn Castle, the family home, nearby. Sir William died in 1484, and his son, Oliver, completed the work.

But the St Clairs were Catholics, and as the Reformation took hold, the altars were demolished in 1592. In 1650 General Monk, a ruthless Roundhead commander, attacked Rosslyn and stabled his horses in the chapel. The destruction continued: in 1688 an angry mob supporting William of Orange further vandalised the place.

The chapel remained half-demolished until 1736 when General St Clair began the painstaking task of bringing it back to life.

The restoration work was taken up by subsequent Earls of Rosslyn, and in 1861 Sunday services began there again.

The following year the chapel was rededicated by the Bishop of Edinburgh.

This was no small rising from the ashes.

For 350 years the chapel ruins had towered over the North Esk river (‘ross’ meaning a rocky outcrop, and ‘lynn’ a waterfall).

Today much of that ancient feel remains.

All around are caves, woods and the

Left: Apprentice Pillar.

Above: The restored interior. Right: William of Orange’s supporters attacked the chapel.

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Rosslyn Chapel

meandering river. The ruined castle and nearby a battle site add to the folklore. It is no coincidence that writers, artists and poets – among them Burns, Johnson and Boswell, the Wordsworths, Turner and Sir Walter Scott – as well as Queen Victoria, should all make their way here. Photographers David Octavius Hill, Robert Adamson, Roger Fenton and George Wilson arrived with their glass

plates, hoping to capture some of its magic.

Throughout the late 19th century and up to the present day the chapel has needed constant attention; finally, in 1997, serious repair work was begun by Peter, Earl of Rosslyn, and his wife Helen. A massive steel structure was erected over the stonework to help it dry it out.

And then, in 2004, the world was gripped by Da Vinci Code mania. Rosslyn, where part of the action is set, became a magnet for fans eager to trace Dan Brown’s steps. A visitor centre was built and a new heating system was installed, along with state-of-the-art lighting. Rosslyn SCOTS heritage winter 2013 69

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Carvings of corn suggest that America had been discovered 100 years before Columbus

might be medieval but it has been brought blinking into the 21 century. As Lady Rosslyn told me, 16 years of living with dust and debris is finally over. ‘We’re so thrilled that the chapel has been brought back to life. All that history has been saved and Rosslyn can now claim to be one of Scotland’s best loved and most iconic buildings.’

With the scaffolding down and the steel roof removed, the mix of red sandstone and granite looks as good as new. It has cost several million pounds to restore, but it looks like money well spent.

This is not a large church, but it has a definite feeling of grandeur. As you enter the north door you sense that this is no ordinary place of worship.

Looking up, your eyes follow the carvings of flowers: double roses, lilies and stars. Then comes the altar, and the famed Apprentice and Mason’s Pillars. The Apprentice Pillar is the more ornate and controversial of the two. The story goes that the Master Mason went to Rome and returned to see the fabulous carving done by his apprentice.

Enraged with jealousy, he killed him on the spot.

All around, stone faces loom out of walls: the pagan green man, an angel holding the heart of Robert the Bruce, another playing the bagpipes, the Master Mason and his apprentice, bishops, cardinals, courtiers, carpenters – and so it goes on. An image of Sir William St Clair looks down serenely upon the choir. Architraves depict the seven deadly sins. Pagan myths and Christian traditions are intertwined.

Carvings of fruit and North American corn suggest that America had been discovered at least 100 years before Christopher Columbus got there, quite possibly by Sir William’s grandfather, Henry, 1st Prince of Orkney. Is it possible that all these stone people accompanied Henry on his voyage to the Americas, and that this is simply paying homage to a remarkable voyager and pioneer? A

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Rosslyn Chapel Venetian explorer named Antonio Zeno wrote of Prince Henry: ‘If ever there was a man who was worthy of immortal memory, it is this man.’

Maybe Sir William did just that, mindful of the remarkable explorations of his grandfather.

Over the ages additions have been made by the family. A memorial window was added to the baptistry in 1950, and is dedicated to Peter ErskineSt Clair and his stepfather, Wing Commander Sir John Milbanke. Both were killed serving in the RAF in the Second World War. The stained glass depicts a young man in flying suit and boots looking skywards, atop the family motto ‘Fight’.

Not surprisingly, tombs and heraldic coats-ofarms abound. One tomb is that of William St Clair who died in Spain while escorting the heart of Robert the Bruce to the Holy Land. It bears the floriated cross of the Knights Templar, the force which protected and guided pilgrims to the Holy Land.

The Templars were known as ‘the order of Poor Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon’, but they nevertheless accumulated great wealth and power. Inevitably, they became a threat to establishment structures and individual kings. King Philip of France, together with Pope Clement, had many of the Templar hierarchy arrested and executed in 1307. Two years later the order was proscribed, but not in Scotland, which kept its Templar links. The village of Temple is only a few miles from Rosslyn and there are Templar graves at Kilmartin in Argyll.

The chapel itself contains strong Templar images, such as the five-pointed star and the floriated cross.

More fantastically, Rosslyn is said to be a recreation of King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. It is suggested that the Mason’s Pillar and the Apprentice Pillar represent the entrance to Solomon’s temple.

Another story says that William ‘the Seemly’ carried back a piece of the cross or ‘holy rood’ from the Holy Land to Scotland. Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh is also named after this relic. It is a curious thought that the relics mentioned in the ancient scriptures should finally rest in Scotland.

Rosslyn’s links, documented or otherwise, with the scriptures and the Holy Land mean it is no ordinary Episcopalian church. But it has other connections that are worthy of celebration too – that of the St Clairs, for example.

Remarkably, that family has been a constant feature in the chapel’s history. As Lady Rosslyn says, ‘St Clairs have been here since the 11th century and we hope the tradition will continue. Although Rosslyn is now an international monument, it is also very much part of our personal history.’

The hard work in restoring Clockwise from top left: Rosslyn is paying off. In 1987 A blast of fame from The Da Vinci Code; some Lord and Lady Rosslyn’s eldest son was christened in the of the stained glass is spectacular; a fearsome chapel – the first since 1592. gargoyle.

Therein lies its story. Ultimately it is a family chapel, and one that tells the story of the St Clairs within the history of Scotland and Christianity.

ROSSLYN CHAPEL FACTS GREEN MEN There are 110 carvings of ‘green men’ in the chapel. With human faces and greenery all around them, these are thought to be pre-Christian symbols of renewal and fertility.

FILM & BOOK The chapel featured in Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code, but also featured in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus novel Set In Darkness, where a fanatic trying to get his hands on £400,00 left by a tramp gives DI Rebus and DS Siobhan Clark a tour of the chapel.

BOVRIL The creator of Bovril, John Lawson Johnston was born at 29 Main Street in Roslin, just a stone’s throw from the chapel.

He developed the meat extract in the 1870s while working as a butcher in Edinburgh.

BEFORE THEIR TIME The chapel contains carvings of corn or maize, new world plants that were unknown in Scotland at the time of the chapel’s construction.

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS Built 150 years after the dissolution of the Knights Templars, the chapel nonetheless features Templar symbols, such as the two riders on a single horse, which is the symbol of the order. The Sinclair family, which owns Rosslyn Chapel, testified against the Templars when the order was put on trial in Edinburgh in 1309.

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SCOTS heritage

Words Tim Siddons

pirates King of the

THE NOTORIOUS CAPTAIN KIDD WAS HANGED IN 1701. BUT WAS HE A PIRATE, OR WAS THE SCOT’S REAL CRIME THAT HE TRIED TO DOUBLE-CROSS THE ESTABLISHMENT AND SWINDLE THE KING AT HIS OWN GAME?

C

aptain William Kidd is Scotland’s most famous pirate, a man whose life was a succession of plots, murders, betrayals and buried treasure, with enough twists and turns to rival any Hollywood tthriller. hriller. Opinion remains divided on this most famous of buccaneers: was he an innocent privateer who was the victim of a mutinous crew and unscrupulous politicians, or was he, as much of the evidence suggests, a blaggard who not only colluded with pirates but double-crossed the King of England.

What is not in doubt is his grisly end. On 23 May 1701, the 46-year-old Dundonian sat in a festering cell in Newgate prison while his gaolers plied him with rum. He was then helped to his feet to begin the three-mile procession to Execution Dock at Wapping, through streets thronged with spectators who had come to witness the end of Britain’s most notorious pirate.

At the scaffold, the execution began. But while the three crew members sentenced to hang alongside him did the hempen jig, Kidd’s rope snapped before he died. The huge crowd gasped as he fell to the mud flats below. He was strung up and hanged again. Once the Thames had washed over his body three times, it was taken down and hung on a gibbet at Tilbury Point, ‘as a greater Terrour to all Persons from Committing ye like crimes for the time to come’.

At his trial two weeks earlier, Kidd had been branded ‘an Arch pirate and enemy of Mankind’ and it took less than half an hour to find him guilty. He maintained his innocence to the end, blaming his crew and the Earl of Bellomont, a politician, for his situation.

The story begins in 1695, when English pirate John Avery spearheaded an attack on the Mughal fleet in the Indian Ocean. The Ganj-i-Sawai, which was laden with gold, silver and goods worth about £10 million, was overwhelmed after a fierce battle. For four or five days afterwards ‘the most horrid barbarities’ were committed by the pirates as the vessel was plundered and its passengers raped and tortured.

Images: Captain Kidd, The Great Mogul of India, whose daughter was on board, threatened the original pirate of the Caribbean, remains to remove all Englishmen from India and block vital trade routes unshrouded in controversy. less the culprits were brought to account. William III granted Kidd a Royal Commission to hunt the specific pirates involved (although, intriguingly, Avery’s name was not on the list) as well as a Commission of Reprisals, which let him attack French shipping and keep the spoils.

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King of the pirates

Kidd’s rope snapped before he died, the huge crowd gasping as he fell to the mud flats below

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SCOTS heritage

Above: Kidd claimed he buried a vast treasure hoard which has never been discovered. Right: Kidd arrives in New York in 1696 to a hero’s welcome.

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King of the pirates

‘‘

The expedition was backed by five of the country’s most powerful politicians, including the Earl of Bellomont and the First Lord of the Admiralty. In return for an investment of £150,000, they would receive 60% of the spoils, with 10% going to the exchequer and the rest to Kidd and his crew. Kidd also had just over a year to complete the mission and return to Boston.

On 27 February 1696 Kidd and 70 handpicked men set off in the three-masted, 34-gun Adventure Galley. Things did not begin well. Drunk on power and rum, Kidd and his crew failed to salute a Royal Navy frigate as they passed it on the Thames.

When a shot was fired demanding respect, Kidd’s crew responded by pulling down their breeches and slapping their backsides, an act of defiance that led to 30 of Kidd’s best men being pressed into service.

The voyage to the Indian Ocean was besieged by problems. Kidd sailed first to New York for extra crew, recruiting what was described as a ‘villainous herd’. By the time they rounded the Cape of Good Hope in February 1697 the sails were in tatters and the ship was leaking badly.

But his biggest problem was the fact that not one pirate or French ship had been spotted. Fifty crewmen were dead from fever, nine had deserted and the rest were on half rations. Morale was so low there that was open talk of turning to piracy.

Kidd’s steadfast refusal to countenance piracy came to a head in October 1697. As he passed

William Moore on the deck, the young gunner said: ‘You have brought us to ruin. We are desolate.’ Furious, Kidd shouted: ‘You are a dog to give me those words!’ and threw a bucket at Moore. It fractured his skull and he died the next day.

Shortly after this, Kidd acceded to his crew’s demands and turned to piracy. After capturing a small French ship, they hit paydirt in February 1698 in the Quedagh Merchant, an Armenian vessel with an English captain carrying a French pass and packed with booty worth £5 million. Kidd also took a chest of gems and silver.

In March they stopped at Madagascar, a notorious haven for pirates, where Kidd came face to face with the English pirate Robert Culliford. At his trial, Kidd claimed that most of his crew deserted him for Culliford and ‘for the space of four or five days the deserters came on board and carried away guns, powder, shot, sails, anchors and what else they pleased’.

Left with a skeleton crew of 15, Kidd arrived in the Caribbean in March 1699 on his way back to America. It was here that he learnt he had been branded a pirate. The crew feared the death sentence but Kidd was confident of a pardon and set off for New York in a sloop with a quantity of gold, silver

Kidd arrived in the Caribbean in March 1699 on his way to America to learn that he had been branded a pirate

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‘‘

and other goods, leaving the larger ship behind to retrieve later.

On arrival in New York in June 1699, he sent a lawyer to the Earl of Bellomont to ask for a pardon in return for treasure worth £3 million and the passes proving that the ships he had raided were French. The Earl agreed, but as soon as Kidd set foot on dry land Bellomont had him arrested. The two French passes vanished and didn’t resurface until 1911.

In fact, all of Kidd’s backers distanced themselves from him as soon as he was declared a pirate. This may have been because Kidd was part of a wider conspiracy to pay off England’s national debt using the goods seized by Avery’s plunder of the Great Mogul’s ship. This intriguing theory has been posited by amateur historian Paul Hawkins, who believes Kidd was sent to America to meet Avery and negotiate with him in return for a pardon. This may explain why the Royal Commission did not mention Avery.

The discovery in the 1930s of two identiAbove: Kidd’s body cal maps in secret compartments of two was strung up as a separate trunks, both belonging to Kidd, warning to wouldbolsters this theory. Using Avery’s map, be pirates. Right: A 1945 film of the Kidd was to pick up the plunder from the story featured Charles Mogul’s ship and sail back to Boston. This Laughton as the notorious Captain Kidd. explains not only why Kidd was given a year to return but also why he was so keen to avoid piracy: why risk his ship and his life when he was already guaranteed the prize?

The story as it stands paints Kidd as at worst a reluctant pirate and the patsy in a political cover-up.

However, there are three crucial pieces of evidence that reveal a darker side to the man. First, in 1690, he married one of the richest women in New York, just two days after the mysterious death of her first husband. Eyebrows were raised but nothing could be proved.

It is also likely that Kidd colluded with Culli­ford in Madagascar. Evidence from the trial con­tradicts Kidd’s version of events, and suggests that the two enjoyed a drink together, and that Kidd gave Culliford his crew in return for goods, including some treasure.

The reason Kidd wanted rid of all but his most loyal crew was because he was planning to doublecross his backers and the King by keeping Avery’s hoard for himself.

King of the pirates

Kidd was part of a wider conspiracy to pay off England’s national debt through piracy It was only when he realised that he was not going to be pardoned that he revealed, in a letter to Parliament, ‘that in my late proceedings in the Indies I have lodged goods and Treasure to the value of £100,000, which I desire the Government may have the benefit of ’.

Parliament would not countenance the ravings of a condemned pirate, but a handful of men did know the truth – that Kidd had buried a vast treasure hoard. Perhaps they already sus­pected that Kidd had double-crossed them, and that was the real reason for his execution. Interestingly, before Kidd’s trial the King issued a Proclamation of Amnesty for pirates. It omitted just two names: John Avery and William Kidd.

Three months before Kidd’s execution, Bellomont died a broken man, apparently having driven himself insane in search of the hidden treasure. The innocent Kidd would have seen this as justice served, while the doublecrossing Kidd, if put in Bellomont’s shoes, would proba­bly have done exactly the same.

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King of the pirates

THREE MORE NOTORIOUS SCOTTISH PIRATES CAPTAIN ‘RED LEGS’ GREAVES (1649-?)

Greaves was born into slavery in Barbados after his Scottish Covenanter parents were convicted of treason. He eventually escaped by stowing away on a pirate ship, which was led by the fearsomely brutal Captain Hawkins. Greaves killed Hawkins in a duel and became captain, prohibiting the mistreatment of prisoners and becoming known as a successful but honorable pirate. His greatest prize was the capture of the Venezuelan island of Margarita, where he seized large amounts of pearls and gold without harming anyone.

He retired and became a gentleman farmer on the island of Nevis. It was all going well until he was recognised by a former victim, who turned him in for the reward money.

Greaves was condemned to death but before he could be executed, the prison in which he was being held was hit by an earthquake. One of few survivors, he was picked up by a whaling ship, which he joined for a while before becoming a privateer, receiving a royal pardon for his efforts. After this he retired to his plantation and donated much of his wealth to charity.

of her injuries. Gow was captured after his ship ran aground in an attempt to raid another mansion house and he was taken to Newgate prison. He suffered a slow death by hanging. His friends attempted to relieve his pain by pulling at his legs, breaking the rope.

Like Kidd, though, he was picked up and hanged for a second time.

ALEXANDER DALZEEL (1662-1715) Born in Portpatrick, Dalzeel was sent to sea as a child and had captained his own ship on six successful voyages by the time he was 23. In 1685 he joined Captain John Avery and was involved in the capture of the Great Mogul’s treasure ship, the Ganj-i-Sawai. Dalzeel was given a ship and a crew within Avery’s fleet, after which he sailed to the Caribbean on his own. With supplies running short, Dalzeel managed to overpower a Spanish galleon after he drilled a hole in his own ship to force his men to fight to the death.

He was arrested after sailing his prize to Jamaica. On his release, he worked for France as a privateer and enjoyed considerable success, but was captured by the British in 1712. Dalzeel received a royal pardon and on his release he sailed into French waters, captured a French ship and drowned its crew.

He was eventually captured in Scotland and was hanged in London in 1715.

JOHN ‘THE ORKNEY PIRATE’ GOW (1698-1725) In 1724 Wick-born Gow led a mutiny on board the Caroline. The ship was renamed Revenge and began attacking British ships off the Iberian peninsula. He returned to Orkney, where he had grown up, but with supplies running low and the authorities on his tail, Gow raided a mansion house, where two girls were kidnapped.

They were released a few days later but some accounts state they were badly beaten, with one dying

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scots heritage

Words Morag Bootland Images Angus Blackburn

together Stick

the husband and wife team that are Munro Camans make the ‘rolls royce’ of shinty sticks

T

hey say that behind every great man there’s a great woman, and that old adage is certainly true of John Sloggie. The caman maker and his wife Mabel have been producing the finest quality shinty sticks from their workshop in Glengarry for 32 years.

The couple have been married for 54 years and work together to produce the hickory sticks favoured by shinty players from Scotland and as far afield as the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The hickory used to produce the camans is imported from the USA. ‘It’s a very versatile wood that withstands a lot of shock. The only comparison that we have here is ash or maybe alder, but it doesn’t grow to the dimensions that one would need,’ says Sloggie.

The process involves ‘ripping up’ the wood into laminations. John makes up these layers and Mabel sticks them together before dry bending the wood in a steel mould using large g-clamps. John then shapes the sticks and brands them before Mabel varnishes them and puts on the handles. It takes around four and a half hours to produce a caman and it’s a real team effort that the couple undertake on top of looking after their livestock.

The camans vary in size and shape depending on which position you play. ‘It’s like golf clubs, the further up the field you play, the flatter faced the stick is to control the ball,’ explains Sloggie. In order to be legal, each caman must pass through a two and a half inch ring.

John’s life is immersed in shinty. He has played, as have his sons. He referees the sport every Saturday. He has officiated over the Camanachd Cup and the Sutherland Cup and his knowledge of the game is legendary. According to John, the golden rule of shinty is, ‘the ball may pass, the man may pass, but ne’er the twa together.’ He, of all people, knows the importance of a good caman, but is quick to say that it is only as good as the player who uses it.

‘In shinty you use your feet to dance, your head to play and your stick is to protect yourself.’

‘‘ The ball may pass, the man may pass, but ne’er the twa together

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Traditional artisans

Image: George Maciver.

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SCOTS heritage

Words Dawn Geddes

story

Two sides to every

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON’S FAMOUS STUDY OF DUALITY IS MIRRORED BY EDINBURGH’S OWN SPLIT PERSONALITY

R

obert Louis Stevenson’s gothic masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, still shocks today, 125 years after it was first published. The story is said to have been inspired by the life of the infamous Deacon Brodie, an Edinburgh gentleman by day who was a ruthless criminal by night. However, Stevenson himself battled with his own duality. He was a man of contradictions: a god-fearing child who grew up to be an atheist bohemian; a much-loved children’s novelist who was also the brooding

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‘‘

Two sides to every story

His nurse shared her strong religious beliefs, often recounting the morbid tales of evil and eternal damnation that had been handed down from her ancestors author of terrifying tales, an obsessive character who at times verged on insanity. Robert Louis Stevenson was a very strange case indeed.

Born in Edinburgh in 1850 to Margaret and Thomas Stevenson, Louis, as he was known, was a healthy baby, but he soon developed breathing problems. These later developed into tuberculosis, a disease that would plague him for the rest of his life. His parents worried greatly about their sickly and weak child, and became somewhat obsessed with his wellbeing. Louis spent most of his days in bed under the care of his nanny Alison Cunningham, whom he affectionately called Cummy.

Cummy was a devoted Calvinist who was keen to share her strong beliefs with the boy, often reading him stories from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and recounting the morbid tales of evil and eternal damnation handed down from her ancestors. She would often wake the child in the middle of the night to say his prayers, and he became terrified that he would die in his sleep and go to hell.

Although she was kind to him and had only good intentions, Cummy’s fanatical religious tendencies had a profound affect on the boy. By the age of four he could recite hymns verse for verse, telling his mother, ‘You can never be good unless you pray.’

At bedtime Cummy would tell him stories about notorious criminals from Edinburgh’s past, such as Deacon Brodie, graverobbers Burke and Hare, and Major Thomas Weir, a warlock. These stories Top left: Jekyll both thrilled and and Hyde thrilled and horrified its horrified the young readers. Left: RLS boy, giving him was plagued by feverish nightmares illness all his life. which would continue throughout his life. And the dark side of the city lived on in his imagination, leaving him with a lifelong fascination with its underbelly.

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scots heritage

‘‘

He began to rebel, rejecting religion and frequenting the city’s brothels and taverns, just as Deacon Brodie had done before him It was here that Stevenson’s obsession with Deacon Brodie began. William Brodie was a respected cabinet-maker, the deacon (or president) of a trades guild, and a member of Edinburgh town council, who led a secret life by night as a gambler, philanderer and burglar. By strange coincidence, a cabinet that Brodie himself had made years earlier stood in the young Louis’s nursery, a constant reminder of Cummy’s chilling tale.

The nanny’s stories inspired Stevenson to create his own.

Although he missed a lot of school due to his ill-health and was late to learn to read and write, he started his career as an author at the age of six when he would dictate his stories to Cummy or his mother. He continued to write compulsively throughout his childhood, penning a play, Deacon Brodie or the Double Life, as a teenager.

Stevenson’s father, Thomas, was a notable lighthouse builder and harbour engineer.

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He was keen for his son to join the family business by studying engineering at Edinburgh University. But Louis showed no interest in the subject and soon switched to law.

During this time, he moved away from his strict Calvinist upbringing. He wore his hair long and began to dress in a bohemian fashion, sporting a velveteen jacket that won him the nickname ‘The Velvet Cloak’. Much to his parents’ horror, Stevenson began to rebel against Victorian values, rejecting religion and frequenting the city’s brothels, gambling dens and taverns – just as Deacon Brodie had done 80 years before.

By the time he had gained his law degree, he knew he wanted to be a writer. He set off abroad, visiting different countries (the warm air helped his breathing problems) and writing about his travels. On one such trip, to France, he met his future wife, Fanny. She was 11 years his senior and was separated from her husband, with whom she Top left: Stevenson had two children. She and spent four happy years Stevenson had an instant in Samoa. Above: Burke the graverobber connection, and they married is hanged in Edinburgh. as soon as she was divorced.

Left: Louis’s nanny, This new family life influenced Alison Cunningham.

Louis’s writing and it was during this period that he wrote his first children’s book, Treasure Island.

His health was in decline, and Scotland’s cold weather only aggravated his condition.

The fevers that had plagued him since he was a

Bottom image - Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library/Alamy

Two sides to every story

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Two sides to every story

‘‘

child continued. These episodes did something strange to Stevenson, making him feel as if his personality had spilt in two. He wrote that he had ‘two consciousnesses’, referring to them as ‘Myself ’ and ‘My Other Self ’.

It was during such a feverish episode that The Strange Tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde came to him. Fanny woke him after hearing his cries of horror, during one of his many nightmares. When he opened his eyes, he said to her, ‘Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.’

It was this dream that gave Stevenson the push to write the disturbing tale of good and evil. However, the story of a man’s struggle to overcome his own loathsome dark side had been forming in his subconscious ever since he was a child.

Despite suffering from a

His wife woke him after hearing his cries of horror. When he opened his eyes, he said, ‘Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale’

lung haemorrhage at the time, Stevenson wrote exhaustively for three days to produce the first draft of the novel. He read it to his wife, who heavily criticised the story. When she returned to the bedroom later, Stevenson pointed to the fireplace; it was full of ashes where he had burnt the manuscript in a fury. He then spent the next three days writing the story all over again.

When his father died, in 1887, Stevenson felt free to leave Scotland behind for good in search of somewhere warm where he could live more comfortably with his condition. He and Fanny travelled to America and then went on to cruise the Pacific Ocean for almost three years. During this time he wrote The Master of Ballantrae.

They settled in Samoa, living there for four years Left: Along with until Stevenson died of dire warnings about a cerebral haemorrhage, eternal damnation, the young Louis’s head aged 44. While straining was filled with tales of to open a bottle of wine, bodysnatchers. Right: he turned to Fanny and In Samoa with his wife. uttered his final words: ‘Does my face look strange?’ – an eerie echo Dr Jekyll’s horror as he turns into Mr Hyde. He died just hours later.

He left behind a great legacy of work and insight into the duality of human nature. In the words of Henry Jekyll, ‘Man is not truly one, but truly two.’

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Words Tim Siddons

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Grant Glendinning/Shutterstock

Because of its strategic location, Inverness has had a fascinating history, punctuated with conflict and bloodshed

Image: Inverness Castle, which now serves as the city’s Sheriff Court.

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Inverness

star

Northern

The united kingdom’s most northerly city and capital of the highlands, inverness has the perfect blend of heritage, history, modern culture – and mystery...

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scots heritage

W

ith a population of just under 60,000, Inverness is located at the mouth of the River Ness, which flows into Loch Ness, south-west of the Moray Firth and at the end of the Great Glen. Inverness is also the start point of the Caledonian Canal, which Clockwise from top: runs 60 miles south-west The famous bridge to Fort William. The city spanning the River also lies on the Great Ness; Cromwell’s Glen Fault, although Tower; a modern city. there have only been six earthquakes in the city since 1768, none of which were particularly intense.

Because of its strategic location, Inverness has had a fascinating history, punctuated with conflict and bloodshed. At one point the city was a Pictish stronghold and in the 6th century it was visited by St Columba in an attempt to convert the Pictish King, Bridei.

In the 11th century the city was apparently the scene of a battle between King Malcolm and Thorfinn of Norway, and in 1187 a raiding party from the Western Isles fought in Torvean against men from Inverness Castle.

Medieval Inverness also witnessed regular raids from the west, most notoriously from the Macdonald Lords of the Isles, who were fought off in 1340 at the Battle of Blairacoi just north of the city across the Beauly Firth. In 1411 Donald of Islay attacked the city, in 1454 Clan Munro defeated Clan Mackintosh at the Battle of Clachnaharry, just

Above - Francioe Loubser, right - Botond Horvath, top right - Jan Holm/Shutterstock

The city lies on the Great Glen Fault – though there have only been six earthquakes here since 1768, none of which were particularly intense

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Inverness

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Inverness

west of Inverness and the castle was stormed by Clan Macdonald during the Raid on Ross in 1491.

In 1562 Inverness Castle was taken by supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots after she had been refused entry to the castle during the suppression of the insurrection by the Earl of Huntly.

The castle itself has a fascinating history. Various castles have occupied the site, including the one in which Macbeth was said to have murdered King Duncan I. The present castle was built in 1835 and is currently used as the Sheriff Court.

During Cromwell’s administration (1652-8) a citadel was built in the city with the capacity to house 1,000 men. It was demolished during the restoration and now only the Clock Tower remains.

Inverness also played a key role in both Jacobite risings. In 1715 the Jacobite army occupied the royal fortress as a barracks. In 1727 the Government built the first Fort George on a hill beside the River Ness. During the ’45 the fort was seized and destroyed by the Jacobites in order to prevent the Government from using it as a base.

In 1748 work began on a new Fort George a few miles north of Inverness at Ardersier. It

was completed in 1769. The barracks are still in use by the military, but a lot of the site is open to the public as a museum, which is certainly well worth the entrance charge.

Other places of historical interest in Inverness include St Andrew’s Cathedral and the Inverness Museum & Art Gallery. Located right next to the castle this free museum contains a diverse collection of artifacts representing the history, culture, natural history and geology of the Highlands.

If your interest is in clan history then a visit to Wardlaw Mausoleum in Kirkhill is a must. It has been the burial place of the Lovat Clan Chiefs since 1632 and contains a number of mural plaques to the various Fraser branches. The most Left: Wardlaw famous memorial is that raised by SiMausoleum, burial mon, the Red Fox, to his father Thomas, place of the Lovat Frasers. Below: The the 10th Lord Lovat, who was beheaded Caledonian Canal in 1747 after his part in the ‘45. begins in Inverness.

Whilst steeped in history, Inverness is also a modern and vibrant city, full of great shopping and a wealth of excellent restaurants and bars. For shoppers the pedestrianised High Street is a safe place to start, containing the

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Left - great-photos, far left - Jan Holm/Shutterstock

It is believed that Inverness castle is built on the same site as the one in which Macbeth apparently murdered Duncan I

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Top: Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. Above: Fort George in Ardersier.

Top right: View of the city looking down the River Ness.

usual well-known retailers alongside farmers’ markets and plenty of street entertainment.

The Eastgate Centre is home to many national chain stores, but if you’re looking for smaller, independent shops then head to the Victorian Market in the Old Town, which is also famous for its bookshops and riverside galleries.

The city is also host to a range of cultural ex-

periences, from the Eden Court cinema and Theatre – which has a wide programme of events including top touring productions, to the Loch Ness Marathon, Inverness Highland Games, the internationally-regarded Rockness and Belladrum music festivals and the Blas and Happyness Comedy festivals.

Inverness also offers an excellent range of venues in which to eat and drink. For those who fancy a tipple the choice of pubs and bars ranges from the traditional Highland pub to the uber-trendy continental-style bar. Dining experiences are equally varied, with a great selection of traditional restaurants serving the best in local and seasonal Scottish produce and excellent restaurants serving

Above - Elementals, left - James Greemshields, right - Zdenek Krchak/Shutterstock

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Inverness

Highland highlights Important sites in and around Inverness THE CLAVA CAIRNS One of Scotland’s most sacred prehistoric sites is the Clava Cairns – three very well preserved Bronze Age burial cairns, constructed around 4,000 years ago. Each of the cairns is enclosed by a stone circle and has a central chamber. The two outer cairns have entrance passageways, the central cairn is completely enclosed. Not much is known about who built, or who was interred in the cairns (the remains no longer survive) it is believed the cairns were built as graves for the most privileged members of the community.

to explore this iconic part of Scotland, the wildlife-rich firths of Moray and Cromarty and the rugged wilderness of the north.

One place you should visit is Culloden Moor, the scene of the short but brutal battle that signalled the end of the Jacobite challenge for the Scottish throne.

You can’t come to Inverness without visiting Loch Ness. Regardless of your views about whether or not there is a monster lurking beneath its

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For whisky lovers, a trip to Speyside is a must, where you can enjoy a tour of your favourite distilleries and a dram or two of course

a range of international food including Chinese, Indian, Italian, Thai, Mexican and French. What they all have in common is excellent food and great service.

For those who are self-catering and would prefer to eat in, there are a range of excellent delis and other outlets that stock the best in Scottish fish, venison and game, as well as traditional Highland cheeses, chutneys, jams, beers and even wine.

For whisky lovers, a trip to nearby Speyside is a must, where you can enjoy a tour of your favourite distilleries, and a dram or two of course.

Inverness is known as the capital of the Highlands, and there is no better base from which

dark, forbidding waters, there is something magical and mysterious about this place. The visitor centres in Drumnadrochit not only discuss the theories about the ‘monster’ but they also tell the fascinating story about the geography and geology of the area. And with its excellent visitor centre, shop and cafe, the stunning ruin of Urquhart Castle on the banks of the loch is also definitely worth visiting.

So for a taste of authentic Highland Scotland, head towards this shining northern light.

THE CALEDONIAN CANAL Connecting the east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Fort William, the canal was completed in 1822. Built by Thomas Telford, the canal was designed to provide much-needed employment to the Highlands following the Clearances. Only a third of the canal’s 60 miles is man made, the rest being formed by four lochs: Dochfour, Ness, Oich and Lochy.

CRAIG PHADRIG On the summit of this forested hill on the western edge of Inverness is a vitrified fort – a stone structure affected by fire to produce a glass-like material. The inner wall is 75 by 23 metres and survives to a height of 3 feet. It is believed to have once housed the Pictish king Bridei, and is also where St Columba visited in around AD 565.

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SCOTS heritage

Words Kirsten Waller Right: The 13 stones of Callanish on Lewis stand around a central stone that is a massive five metres high.

stones Callanish

A MYSTERIOUS STONE CIRCLE ON THE ISLE OF LEWIS IS A WONDER OF SCOTLAND’S ANCIENT PAST

Left - David Woods, Right - Gail Johnson/Shutterstock

T

hese stark relics of a misunderstood culture form one of the most remote stone circles in the British Isles. The Callanish stones lie on the Isle of Lewis, near the village of Calanish from which they take their name. They consist of one central stone, at a height of five metres, surrounded by 13 others. To the north of this inner ring, two parallel lines of stones form an avenue, whilst smaller single lines extend from the east, west and south of the circle, giving the overall shape of a slightly off-centre cross.

The construction of the site is wreathed in mystery, though the stones are thought to have been erected between 2900 and 2600BC. Some evidence exists to suggest that there were earlier buildings on the site prior to 3000BC but no trace has survived.

A cairn or tomb was built in the centre of the circle, which was destroyed 1000 years later and the site was abandoned for several centuries.

Archaeologists are unsure as to the exact reasons but a shift in the climate seems a likely contributing factor, as it is at around this time that Lewis became more boggy. It is possible that the stones sunk slightly; when a local landowner had the peat on which they stood removed in 1857, they were found to extend for another metre.

Other stone circles in Britain, including Stonehenge, have a clear astronomical role, and align with the sun or moon at midwinter, midsummer, or the spring and autumn equinoxes. The Callanish stones have no obvious such alignment, although archaeologists excavating the site in the 1980s suggested that they may have formed a lunar observatory. Other theories suggest a link with the moon, or a connection between the stones and the Clisham range on Harris, yet no-one can be truly certain of their original purpose.

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Artifacts

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The construction of the site is wreathed in mystery

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e h t f o e l t t Ba sexes

I

n the end, killing off centuries of royal primogeniture could hardly have been easier, even if the effects of that decision are yet to have been felt. It could have all been very different however. After all, the current heir to the throne, the Duke of Cambridge, and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge have had a baby boy, George Alexander Louis – but had it been a girl called Georgina Alexandra Louisa then she would still have been first in line to the throne regardless of whether or not her parents had one day also produced a son.

Despite overturning centuries of precedent, tradition and law, the change to the rules surrounding the royal succession, which were enacted in 2011, were overwhelmingly passed by lawmakers and supported by the vast majority of the public.

Indeed, not only were the laws on primogeniture changed, but so too were the rules preventing a Catholic succeeding to the Above: Scotland’s nobles and clan chiefs, seen throne, which dated from a long-gone here at St Giles Cathedral era of religious strife. in Edinburgh, remain However, if the laws concerning overwhelmingly male. the royal succession are now crystal clear and fit for purpose, the same can definitely not be said about the rules governing the inheritance of lesser titles. Two high-profile cases in Scotland have recently exposed the mess that cur-

rently exists, and prompted calls for a fundamental reassessment of the way the system works, not least from the nobility themselves, with over 100 titled families calling for a change to the law.

The first case involved the 14th Earl of Northesk.

He died of cancer in 2010 aged just 55, and went to his grave assuming that the eldest of his three daughters would inherit not just his possessions but also his title. However, despite his express wish that 30-year-old Lady Sarah Carnegie should inherit the ancient title, the Earl of Northesk was posthumously stymied by the law, which routinely presumes in favour of men and against women.

The peer, who sat in the House of Lords on the Conservative benches, suffered a dual misfortune.

The first was that his son Alexander, who went by the name of Lord Rosehill and who should have inherited, killed himself with his father’s shotgun while on leave from a psychiatric hospital in 2001.

The second piece of misfortune was that the next male in line was a 72-year-old Cambridge-educated scholar called Patrick Carnegy who apparently believes that claiming the title of the 15th Earl of Northesk was ‘a matter of history and respect to the distinction of my ancestors’.

To the 14th earl’s three daughters there must have seemed little prospect that Carnegy would

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Talking point

e

d when daughters can an w ho of t ec bj su d xe ve The d clan chiefdoms has an s nd la , es tl ti t ri he in o controversial cases tw th wi en op e th to in t burs Words Lachlan Macdonald Words Richard Bath Image Paul Reid Image Angus Blackburn

inherit their father’s title. He had never met the 14th earl, was an extraordinarily distant relation (his eighth cousin once removed), came from a junior line of the family which had split away in 1654, and would have to prove his legal entitlement to the title by tracing his claim back 349 years to a date eight years before the earldom was created.

As soon as the 14th Earl passed away on 28th March 2010, his daughters applied to the Crown Office to block Carnegy’s efforts to inherit his title. They argued that the 1666 Latin document which created the earldom could be interpreted to mean that the title could pass to whoever inherited his property, which would be his daughter Lady Sarah. Carnegy, however, had applied to the Lord Lyon, who governs membership of the Scottish nobility, for a coat of arms. When this was granted on August 15 2010, it

rendered the Crown Office’s deliberations worthless.

Although the family had relatively few possessions, having been forced to sell their ancestral home of Ethie Castle near Arbroath in the 1990s, the title did bring with it the historic Balmerino Pearls, which were reputed to be a gift from Charles II and which were handed over by the 14th earl’s widow, the Countess of Northesk, to the 15th Earl’s new wife, opera singer Jill Gomez.

If Carnegy felt that the circumstances under which he became the Earl of Northesk were ‘rather embarrassing’, others felt that it was the tipping point for a change in the law. ‘The Northesk case shows quite clearly how ridiculously unfair and iniquitous the current system of inheritance is,’ argued the Countess of Clancarty.

But nor is the Northesk kerfuffle the only recent blue-blooded spat involving the inheritance of titles and lands among the Scottish nobility. The case of Baronet Sir Malcolm Colquhoun and the illegitimate eldest daughter laying claim to his title, his 45,000-acre estate on the banks of Loch Lomond and 70-roomed Rossdhu House recently hit the papers and is sure to provide more tabloid fodder for years to come.

This time the spat involves Charlotte Colquhoun, Sir Malcolm’s first child, but crucially a female one born out of wedlock. She nevertheless believes that she has a greater right to inherit the baronetcy than his 32-year-old son Fergus, the product of his first marriage who remains Sir Malcolm’s chosen heir-apparent and who already has a son of his own.

Spicing up the story is the fact that Colquhoun 37-year-old daughter has been exposed as a high-class prostitute who goes by the name of Charlie Foxtrot and whose two babies were fathered by drug dealers and then taken into care and adopted. It’s been a brutal collision played out in the pages of the nation’s press, with Charlotte claiming that she’s ‘going to concentrate on claiming my birthright’ while the chief of the clan Colquhoun says simply that ‘there is more chance of me flying to the moon than Charlotte inheriting my Scottish estate, which is all tied up in trust for my eldest son’.

Yet the Carnegies and the Colquhouns are by no means the only aristocratic families which find themselves beset by ugly squabbles over the inheritance of titles, lands and money. The Marquis of Lothian’s daughters, for instance, publically complained last year that their father’s titles will pass to his nephew on his death. There’s also the strange scenario where women can become clan chiefs even when they are prohibited from inheriting what should be the accompanying title – Margaret Elliot, Pauline Hunter, the Countess of Sutherland and Lady Flora Saltoun of the Clan Fraser, for instance, are all clan chiefs – which adds further to the gender confusion surrounding inheritance.

Whether the nettle is grasped at Holyrood or by the House of Lords, it is high time for the law to be clarified in the sensible way that it has been for the Royal Family.

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The Northesk case shows how ridiculously unfair and iniquitous the current system of inheritance is

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CELTIC HART Capturing the landscape of your heart

Visit our website to see handcrafted Scottish jewellery - with a twist Made in the Highlands of Scotland

Have a Couthie Christmas

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SCOTS heritage

Q Can you eat a Fatty Cuttie?

A Yes, this is the Scottish name for Singing Hinnys, a type of bannock or scone made in the North of England. Lard or butter, flour, milk and salt or sugar are mixed together to form a rich fatty dough, before being fried on a griddle pan or skillet.

Q What

is the oldest surviving piece of Scottish literature?

A

Q When

and where was the deep-fried Mars Bar invented?

A This artery-clogging delight was dreamt up in 1995 at the Haven Chip Bar in Stonehaven, on the Aberdeenshire coast. Buoyed by its success, the chippy began to offer other deep-fried confectionery, including Cadbury Creme Eggs and Snickers. The Haven closed down in 2000, but has reopened as The Carron and its invention lives on in chippies throughout Scotland.

Q What

are the most popular baby names in Scotland?

A

For the last eight years Sophie has been the most popular girl’s name, with Emily and Olivia second and third respectively. Jack has been the top boy’s name for five years, followed by Lewis and Riley – Riley is the only recent entry into the top ten.

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The oldest remaining piece of literature to have been written in what is now Scotland is actually a Welsh poem. It was written when south west Scotland and Cumbria were part of the Brythonic Kingdom and was composed in the Brythonic tongue, from which modern Welsh has evolved. Named Y Gododdin, it is attributed to the bard Aneirin and tells the tale of the Battle of Catraeth, which took place in around 600 AD, and laments the passing of the men of Gododdin, who fell fighting vastly superior forces. It also contains the earliest known reference to King Arthur.

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Questions & Answers

Q Which

is the longest Scottish river?

A

The River Tay is 188 kilometers long, and is the seventh longest river in the UK. It runs from the slopes of Ben Lui into Lochs Dochart, Lubhair and Tay, before flowing through the city of Perth and then into the Firth of Tay south of Dundee.

Q Where

can you find Diapensia?

A

A plant at home in mountains and tundra, Diapensia is only found on one site in the whole of Scotland; on the slopes of Sgùrr an Utha, above the village of Glenfinnan in the region of Lochaber. Here the species thrives on the acidic soil among stones at 760 to 780 metres above sea level. It grows on exposed rocky ridges that are kept free from snow and rain by high winds.

Its presence in Scotland was first discovered in 1951.

Q Where

is the sunniest spot in Scotland?

A St Andrews and Dunbar

Q What should you offer a Seonaidh?

A Said to be seen of the shores of Lewis, the Seonaidh is a Celtic water spirit. Martin

Martin, the 17th Century chronicler and author of A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, describes how local inhabitants would attempt to pay homage to the spirit with freshly-brewed ale. Each family would provide a bag of malt for the brewing, and then at night-fall one man would be chosen to wade waist deep into the sea, flinging a cup in with the following cry: ‘Seonaidh, I give thee this cup of ale, hoping that thou wilt be so good as to send us plenty of seaware for enriching our ground during the coming year.’

The islanders would then retire to the church and then to the fields, where they would spend the night enjoying the remainder of the ale.

both claim to be the sunniest places in Scotland, with Dundee claiming to be the sunniest city. According to the Met Office the Fife coast has the most sunlight, with an average of 1,500 hours a year, with East Lothian a close second with 1,400 hours, which gives St Andrews the bragging rights.

The sunniest place in mainland UK is along the south coast, with an average of 1,750 hours of sunlight a year.

Along with the Moray Firth, Fife and East Lothian are also the driest places in Scotland, with an average of less than 700mm of rainfall annually.

This is because much of eastern Scotland is sheltered from rain-bearing westerly winds.

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In print A selection of literature to ensure that your reading has a truly Scottish perspective The Sunlit Summit

By Robin Lloyd-Jones William Hutchison Murray was a distinguished climber. As a prisoner of war in Italy, he wrote his first novel on toilet paper, only to have it destroyed by the Gestapo. He went on to become a published author, renowned adventurer and conservationist. This biography tells his story in fine fashion, with plenty to keep even the most casual reader enthralled.

Sandstone Press £19.99

Highland Roots

By Gordon Waddell In this book, Waddell has created a blend of history, archaeology, literature and myth all surrounding the cottage in Glen Lochay that he has called home for the past 30 years. The house has never been an important place in history, but Waddell has meticulously studied its story and the lives of the people who have lived there to create a unique window into life in this Perthshire glen through the ages.

Glen Lyon

By Kenneth Steven Scottish poet and writer, Kenneth Steven is gifted in the art of creating characters who are timeless. This story focuses on Somerled Stewart, who builds a house with his own hands in Glen Lyon. Here he strives to create a life of perfect happiness for him and his wife. However, the darkness that lurks within him and his past persists in making this an impossible task. Ultimately this novel is a very poignant reminder that we are all masters of our own fate.

Birlinn £7.99

Dalgirdy Publishing £8.99

Findo’s Mousetrap

By Graham Paskett This is Paskett’s debut novel and what it lacks in full characterisation, it makes up for in well-written, light-hearted prose. The theory behind this story is a fascinating one. The idea that the history of a building could be trapped within its fabric until being released by high-tech computer technology in order to unravel the mysteries of the past certainly has some mileage. I look forward to more like this.

Self Published £6.99

Lavender Water and Snail Syrup

By Nicole Lillie and Marilyn Yurdan An interesting read full of recipes to enable the reader to create cures for ailments of old, and some afflictions that may still trouble the modern lady or gent. However, be warned that many of the ingredients will be impossible or very difficulty to come by, so any budding pharmacists should think twice before attempting to knock up a quick cure for the plague!

The History Press £9.99 104

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Scottish Cookery

By Catherine Brown This is the latest edition of a classic cookbook which was first published 30 years ago. Although its unillustrated pages may look dated next to the latest rash of coffee table style, celebrity chef led cookbooks published in time for Christmas. It is, none-the-less, packed with great recipes which keep seasonality and locality at the forefront of great cookery and will ensure that you make the most of the produce on your doorstep.

Birlinn £12.99

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Books

How the Scots Won the English Civil War

By Alisdair Mcrae Mcrae details the role played by the Scots during the English civil war with great aplomb. His many years of research on this historical oddity make this a scholarly but enjoyable read on how Scottish soldiers were a valuable commodity for the then poverty stricken nation.

The History Press £14.99

The Flight of the Golden Bird

By Duncan Williamson Life Cycle

By Gary Sutherland An entertaining travelogue and a tale of two brothers’ adventures travelling around Scotland on their bikes.

Refreshingly short on fancy equipment and rigorous preparation, Sutherland focuses his story on the characters that they meet on their travels and heartwarming tales of their idyllic childhood in Moray. The brotherly banter makes this an entertaining and light-hearted tale to be enjoyed by even the most cycle-phobic reader.

Birlinn £9.99

Williamson sourced the stories for this book of folk tales for children straight from the horses mouth. He spent sixty years travelling around Scotland speaking with farmers, shepherds and crofters to collate this heart-warming collection of tales focusing on the natural world and with the aim of teaching children to live a fulfilling life and be good people.

Kelpies £8.99

100 True or False Fishing Stories

By Jess Miller An interesting concept - this is both a book of fishing tales and your entry into a competition. Ten of the 100 stories are not true and it is the reader’s job to spot these tall tales. If you can guess correctly then you could win salmon fishing, tackle or fishing books. A share of proceeds go to support Atlantic salmon and trout conservation organisations. A great Christmas present for a fishing enthusiast.

MillerBooks £9.99

The Tailor of Inverness Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Matthew Zajac ByByxxxxxxxx

Zajac set out to uncover storyfollow-up of how histofather, who worked as a Edinburgh-based Williamthe Coles’ The Well-Tempered tailor in Inverness, came to leave Poland to live and work in Scotland.

Clavier is an entertaining romp about a journalist who falls for an The story beautiful he revealed, set against the the backdrop of she’s Europe in its darkintelligent, woman despite fact that happily est hour iswith bothanother harrowing andThis surprising.

Thefast-paced narrative is vivid and embroiled man. is a witty, romance makes for a read that is both enjoyable and difficult to stomach, which neatly teases out some eternal truths about the nature as of the truth so often is. love.

Sandstone Press xxxxxxxxxxx £8.99 £8.99 Edinburgh Celebrity City Guide

By Joanne Soroka An interesting format containing a short bibliography of Edinburgh’s celebrity residents past and present. A map also plots all of the places within the city which are relevant to each celebrity’s life. A great little guide for a tourist or resident who would like to take a tour of the capital with a difference.

The Crowood Press £12.99

Now and then, this and that

By Logie Bruce-Lockart Bruce-Lockart, a former Scottish rugby international and headmaster tells the story of his upbringing in Scotland. Born in 1921, his life spans most of the last century and this witty and reflective autobiography is refreshingly honest in its outlook. The book provides the reader with a fascinating insight into how radically life in Scotland has changed since the early 20th century.

The Larks Press £14.00 SCOTS heritage winter 2013

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2014

SCOTTISH FIELD CALENDARS LARGE Glamis Castle, near Forfar, Angus David Robertson / www.scot-image.co.uk

This has received many alterations, by the additions of little round turrets with grotesque roofs.

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A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to The Hebrides; 1772, Thomas Pennant.

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Ben Thorburn

January 2014 SUNDAY

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Stopping by woods on s snowy evening, Robert Frost.

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Buchan Oak woods at Glentrool

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Douglas Ritchie Caledonia Photography

The Family of Burnett of Leys, from the MSS of the late George Burnett LL D, Lyon King of Arms.

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Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

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There Architecture’s noble pride Bids elegance and splendour rise.

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HV Morton, In Scotland Again.

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Dawn on Rannoch Moor looking towards Buachaille Etive Mor, Glencoe

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Evening light on Neist Point, Isle of Skye

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17/10/2013 09:42:19

Music

In tune A round-up of the latest Scottish and Celtic music releases. All available from www.musicscotland.com Breathe (CD)

By The Red Hot Chilli Pipers An exciting, energetic release from probably the most famous bagpipe group in the world. The Pipers are back with 14 powerful tracks that bring our national instrument to a whole new audience. These are bagpipes with attitude, big blasting brass, rock guitars and drums with a Scottish accent. Their unique take on rock music and traditional Scottish and Irish classics will not disappoint.

The Rough Guide To Celtic Lullabies (CD)

A soothing selection of songs that will lull baby to peaceful sleep, but stands alone as an exceptional collection of Celtic folk music. The calm fiddle and harp music are particularly restful.

£8.52 UK & EU or £7.10 USA & ROW

£11.69 UK & EU or £9.74 USA & ROW

Eilean Fraoich (Heather Isle CD)

By Calum Kennedy A collection of vintage recordings from Lewis born singing legend Calum Kennedy. Calum was the most popular exponent of Scottish Gaelic song throughout the 1950s and 60s vinyl era. These tracks are taken from that era and have been digitally enhanced for CD. Calum was nicknamed ‘The Golden Voice of the Highlands’ and this CD showcases his special singing voice and skill as a performer.

£11.69 UK & EU or £9.74 USA & ROW

Airs From Your Elbow (CD)

By Hugh MacDiarmid’s Haircut

A long awaited debut album from Scotland’s original Bagpipe Ceilidh Band. A ceilidh band with a difference, Hugh MacDiarmid’s Haircut specialise iin traditional tunes played on highland bagpipes with modern backing instruments, an interesting twist. Formed in Edinburgh some 25 years ago, this ceilidh dance band has played all over the UK and abroad bringing their own unique blend of instruments and uplifting ceilidh dance sound.

BBC Transatlantic Sessions (Series 2) vol 3 (CD)

The third collection of music from the second TV series, including six tracks previously unreleased on audio. Featuring music from the sessions house band and various guest artists.

£11.69 UK & EU or £9.74 USA & ROW

£11.69 UK & EU or £9.74 USA & ROW

The World Pipe Band Championships 2013 - Part 1 (CD)

The World Pipe Band Championships 2013 took place on Glasgow Green on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 August and were attended by 225 pipe bands from over 17 nations, including Mexico, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The championship title was taken by Northern Ireland’s Field Marshal Montgomery for the third year running. Part two of this CD as well as two DVDs of the event are also available.

£11.47 UK & EU or £9.56 USA & ROW

Bu Chaoin Leam Bhith ‘N Uibhist (CD) Scottish Tradition Series Vol 25 A recording of Gaelic songs from the North Uist tradition from the archives of the School of Scottish Studies.

£11.69 UK & EU or £9.74 USA & ROW SCOTS heritage winter 2013

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NUMBER FIVE features leading Jewellery Designers & Goldsmiths STUNNING

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Our hand crafted Scottish clan crest badges are made of solid sterling silver and painstakingly finished to a high lustre, fine jewelry quality.

www.crestbadges.com REDSHANK traditional kiltmakers offer a bespoke, unrivalled service if you wish to invest in a truly Scottish heirloom kilt. Exclusive to us are staghorn sghian dubhs with walnut safety blades and leather plaited sporran straps.

Bespoke handcrafted kilts by qualified kiltmakers Newton, Inveraray, PA32 8UH Tel: 01499 302525 info@redshankkilts.co.uk www.redshankkilts.co.uk EXQUISITE

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traditional haggis freshly prepared, and pre-cooked, in the paunch or links, available for shipment fresh frozen anywhere in the United States

Lamb Etc.

NUMBER FIVE The leading Contemporary Jewellers in Scotland Number Five offers a broad and diverse range of jewellery designers / makers using materials from silver and 18ct gold to platinum, stainless steel, titanium, acrylic and glass.

Number Five, 56 Bonnygate, Cupar, Fife, KY15 4LD Tel / Fax 01334 657784 www.numberfivegoldsmiths.co.uk www.clairedonald.com www.clairedonald.com

Lamb Etc. Scottish and Irish Imports 1413 SE Mill Roseburg, Oregon 97470 (541) 673-7463

www.oatmealsavage.com

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Puzzles

Puzzles pit your wits against our scottish quiz

Guess the year

Where are we?

1. Shetland actor Steven Robertson is born.

Lying in a sheltered position in Aberdeenshire between the Carron and Cowie Waters this town built up around its herring fishing industry which peaked in 1894 with a catch of 15 million fish that year. These days the town owes its growth to Scotland’s oil boom. Dunottar Castle is a popular tourist attraction nearby but the town itself comes alive every year during Hogmany when crowds of tourists come to watch its famous fireballs ceremony in which volunteers walk down the High Street swinging huge balls of fire around.

2. Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart form the Eurythmics.

3. Actor John Laurie, most famous for playing Private James Frazer in the sitcom Dad’s Army, dies at the age of 83.

Who said? ‘...and a darkness down on the land he loved better than his soul or God.’

4. Hercules the bear is found after going missing on Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides, during the filming of an advert.

Word search

Midden

How many English words can you make from the word above? We can find 29. Try to find as many as possible. Words must be at least three letters.

5. Aberdeen FC win the Scottish Football League.

15 words: good, 20 words: excellent, 25 words or more: you are a genius

Answers: Where are we? – Stonehaven. Who said? – Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song. Guess the year – 1980.

Advertising Terms and Conditions: Your attention is drawn to the following terms and conditions which relate to the placing of advertisements in all publications owned by Wyvex Media Ltd. Parties to this agreement are the Publisher, Wyvex Media Ltd. on the one part and the Advertiser on the other part. The Publisher publishes newspapers, magazines, books and provides advertising space therein or provides for the delivery of advertising materials to the public within these publications.

01 Advertising copy shall be legal, decent, honest and truthful and comply with the British Code of Advertising Practice and all other codes. 02 The Publisher does not guarantee the insertion of any particular advertisement. 03 The Publisher reserves the right to cancel or alter the advertisement by giving reasonable notice. 04 An order for an advertisement shall be deemed to be made on acceptance of the advertisers’ order by the Publisher whether placed by telephone, mail, fax, email or in person. 05 Cancellations or postponements of orders must be notified in writing and cannot be accepted later than 30 days prior to the scheduled publication date. Cancellations not in accordance with these terms will be subject to payment of the full cost of the advert. Advertisments that are part of an agreed discounted campaign or series and have appeared prior to cancellation will be re-charged at full rate. 06 The parties submit to the jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts and Scots Law. In the event of any dispute or action by the Publisher to recover payment from an advertiser, it is agreed that matters will be settled in the Oban, Argyll Sheriff Court or such other Court as the Publisher may choose. 07 The Publisher shall not be liable for any loss or damage occasioned by any total or partial failure (however caused) of publication or distribution of any newspaper or edition in which any advertisement is scheduled to appear. In the event of any error, misprint or omission in the printing of an advertisement or part of an advertisement, the Publisher will either re-insert the advertisement or relevant part of the advertisement, as the case may be, or make rea-

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In addition the Publisher may charge a late payment levy of £10 as an administration fee. In the event of late payment the Publisher reserves the right to disallow any discounts given and to raise an additional invoice for the discount which will be treated as though it has been raised with the original invoice. 12 A request to insert an advertisement assumes acceptance of our conditions.

Photographs etc. must be accompanied by a SAE. Although every care will be taken, Scots Heritage is not responsible for loss, damage or any other injury as to material provided.

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scots heritage

SocialSCOTS

The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs at st Giles’ Cathedral, edinburgh to honour the 10,000 Scots who fell at Flodden 500 years ago

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1 The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs 2 Madam Arabella Kincaid of Kincaid 3 Duke of Hamilton & Brandon, Hon Alexander Leslie, Hon Elizabeth Fairbairn 4 Peter Chambers, Thomas Paisley 5 Ellen Hunter, Madam Pauline Hunter of Hunterston, William Hunter, Graham Wright, Teresa Jollife, Michael Guestt, Elsie Hunter, Ian K Hunter Clan Officer, Robert Hunter

www.scotsheritagemagazine.com

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Social Scots

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6 Andrew Marjoribanks of that Ilk 7 Andrew Dewar Durie of Durie CBE 8 Jamie Macnab of Macnab 9 Lord Sempill 10 Major Stuart Young, Angus Young, Brian Young 11 The Much Honoured Duncan Paisley of Westerlea and Mrs Paisley

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SCOTS heritage

Clans &societies

Clan Crest emblems © Gaelic Themes Limited, Glasgow, Scotland.

CLAN ELLIOT USA

We are part of a worldwide organization, with active branches in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1977 the ECS was formed by the Clan’s late hereditary Chief, Sir Arthur Eliott, 11th Baronet of Stobs and Laird of Redheugh the ancient seat of the Clan Chiefs. Our present Chief is Sir Arthur’s daughter, Margaret Eliott of Redheugh. Judy Elliot : US Branch president elljudscot@aol.com www.elliotclanusa.com

AUSTRALIAN SCOTTISH HERITAGE

Clan group society contacts, information, events and worldly news. Scottish history, heritage and culture. Interested in family stories of Scots that settled in Australia? We are the perfect organisation for you. We sell a variety of Scottish items, also interesting items on our ebay page, many recycled or antique.’www. australianscottishheritage.com

CLAN MACNAB

Clan MacNab Society of North America is the only active clan MacNab society in existence. We set up clan tents at about 20 Highland games in the US, publish a 40-page quarterly newsletter, have a clan library for members as well as a genealogy program to help members find more ancestors in their family trees. We also sell over a dozen clan items through the society at a discount for members and also organize a clan trip to Scotland every 5 years (the next one being 2014).

Visit us at: www.clanmacnab.org. society contact: mcnabbprescott@aol.com and (928) 771-1218.

CLAN LAMONT SOCIETY

The Clan Lamont Society was formed in 1895 and its purpose is to keep alive the traditions and values of the Lamont Clan and its members. The headquarters are situated within the Old Manse Inverchaolain Dunoon which has a small museum containing historical artefacts.

Email: clanlamontsociety@gmail.com www.clanlamontsociety.org

CLAN DONALD

ASSOCIATED CLAN DONALD SOCIETIES OF NEW ZEALAND High Commissioner Harold McIsaac harold@financialaccounts.co.nz South Island Commissioner Elwyn Martin – elmart@ihug.co.nz Federal President Grant MacDonald macsol@paradise.net.nz Auckland Secretary Tom McDonald tom.mcdonald@xtra.co.nz Canterbury Secretary Margaret Donald margaretdonald@xtra.co.nz Hawkes Bay Secretary Jill Macdonald houseofmacdonald@xtra.co.nz Otago Secretary Bill McDonald invergarry@xtra.co.nz Southland Secretary Elma McDonald 700 Tweed Street, Newfield, Invercargill 9812, NZ Wellington Secretary Kathryn MacDonald macsol@paradise.net.nz Dedicated to the preservation of Scotland’s customs and culture.

Visitors welcome.

Functions can be checked at www.clandonald.org.nz

CLAN CURRIE SOCIETY

The Clan Currie Society is one of the preeminent cultural societies preserving and promoting Scottish culture. In addition to offering scholarships, the Society’s signature events include The Pipes of Christmas and Tartan Day on Ellis Island. The Society sponsors the National Scottish Harp Championship of America. The Society was formed in 1959 to further the knowledge and appreciation of the MacMhuirich Bardic dynasty.

The Clan Currie Society P.O. Box 541 Summit, NJ USA 07902-0541 Tel: + (908) 273-3509 Email: clancurrie@mail.com www.clancurriegathering.com www.pipesofchristmas.com www.tartandayonellisisland.com

CLAN GUNN

The Clan Gunn is one of the oldest Scottish Clans and descends from the Norse Jarls of Orkney and the Pictish Mormaers of Caithness. From the fifteenth century, the senior line was based in the Strath of Kildonan in Sutherland while the junior lines established seats in Braemore, Cattaig and Dalemore in Caithness. The clan is led by Commander Iain Gunn of Banniskirk and further information about the clan can be found at www.clangunnsociety.org.

CLAN MACLAREN

The Clan MacLaren Society of Australia welcomes enquiries from descendants of MacLarens/McLarens (and other variations), and their derivations Lawrence, Laurence, Law, Low, Lawson, Lowson, Lawrie and Laurie. The main sept is Pat(t)erson.

A popular newsletter is published twice a year.

Contact the Secretary, Bruce D McLaren, 152 Ramsgate Rd, Ramsgate Beach, NSW 2217.

Tel: 02 9529 7784.

E: bruce_d_mclaren@hotmail.com

CLAN YOUNG

Membership is open to all Scottish Young and their ancestors by birth or marriage. Younger, Youngs and Younge, are also welcome. We have National branches in Australia, Canada and America.

For more details and membership please contact; Stuart Young, Clan Young, Machair Tigh, Dowlans Road, Great Bookham, Surrey. KT23 4LF. UK. stuartyoung@clanyounguk.co.uk. www.clanyounguk.co.uk.

CLAN MACPHERSON

Clan Macpherson welcomes enquiries from Macphersons and members of our Associated families.

For information contact your local representative, our website www. clanmacpherson.org/branches or the ‘Official Clan Macpherson Association’ Facebook page.

Australia - John L Macpherson Email: greymac@acenet.com.au Tel: +61248711123.

Canada - John C Gillies Email: jcgillies@rogers.com Tel: +17054460280.

New Zealand - Tim McPherson Email: dalmore@xtra.co.nz Tel: +642345098.

Scotland - Norman McPherson Email: Scottish.Chairman@clan-macpherson.org Tel: +44 (0) 1224 594 635.

England and WalesAngus Macpherson Email: angusmacpherson@1templega rdens.co.uk.

USA - Jack Raines UnitedStates.Chairman@clanmacpherson.org Tel: +1 817 233 1018.

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Clans & societies CLAN LOGAN SOCIETY

Membership is open to all persons descended from or connected by marriage or adoption to the Logan’s of the UK and Ireland, and their friends. Our purpose is to foster Clan sentiment and spirit, collect and preserve our Clan history, encourage our children to be proud of their heritage, and participate in cultural events by wearing Clan Logan attire.

Associated names include: Lagan, Laggan, Leonerd, Loban, Lobban, Loben, Logane, Logan, Logen, Loggan, Loggane, Loggans, Loghane, Loghyn, Login, Logyn, Lopan, Lowgan, Lyndon.

Vernon E. Logan (President) 6255 Towncenter Dr., Suite 636, Clemmons, NC 27012.

E: clanlogan_president@yahoo.com James C. Logan (Vice President) 6255 Towncenter Dr., Suite 636, Clemmons, NC 27012.

E: clanlogan_chairman@yahoo.com Peter Logan (UK Commissioner) 2 Grenville Close, Haslington, Crewe CW1 5TU. E-Mail: rury@uwclub.net Membership Information: 6255 Towncenter Dr., Suite 636, Clemmons, NC 27012.

E: clanlogan_membership@yahoo.com www.clanlogansociety.com

CLAN DONNACHAIDH

Why Belong to the Clan Society in Scotland? In essence, the job of the Society in Scotland is to be the trunk of the tree from which the branches spring. Its health depends on support from clansfolk who wish to preserve and enhance their heritage.

Branches: Arizona - Carolinas - Florida - London & Southern Counties - Mid-Atlantic - Midwest -New Zealand - Northeast - Northern California - Ontario - Pacific Northwest - Queensland - Rannoch & Highland (Scotland) - Rocky Mountain Donnachaidh of the South - Southern California New South Wales, Western Australia - Texas - Upper Midwest Branch Clan Secretary: secretaryclandonna@btconnect.com Membership Secretary / Catherine McCartney managerclandonna@btconnect.com Clan Donnachaidh Centre, Perthshire PH18 5TW, Scotland www.donnachaidh.com

Join the Donnachaidh DNA Surname Project Family History Research and DNA testing; www.clandonnachaidhdna.org Contact: Tim Duncan HC-1 Box-86, Kelso, CA 92309 Phone: (760) 733-4002 Email: tim@clandonnachaidhdna.org

NEW WORLD CELTS

The New World Celts are dedicated to promoting Celtic History and supporting Celtic Culture in the New World. To help meet that Mission, our History Archive now showcases histories of the Celts in the New World along with references to their roots and culture in the Old. We invite you to browse through the pages of this Archive to familiarize yourself with what the Celts accomplished in the New World: in North and South America, Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Caribbean.

For more information contact us at www.NewWorldCeltsInc.org or New World Celts P.O Box 0362 Dunedin Fl 3469

THE NORTH COAST SCOTTISH SOCIETY

We have been part of Humboldt County for over thirty years and enjoy the history, tradition and culture of Scotland. We hold many different events throughout the year Laurene Thorpe - Vice-Chieftain Tel: (707) 839-4153 E: Info@northcoastscots.org North Coast Scottish Society 77 Sole St. Eureka, Ca. 95503 www.northcoastscots.org

CLAN MACLENNAN

Chief Ruairidh (Scotland) and Chieftain Greg (NSW) are the worldwide leaders of the proud MacLennan Clan. If you have any connection with the names MacLennan, Lobban, Logan or similar names there are two active branches of the Clan in Australia which would love to hear from you.

Please contact: Graeme MacLennan (President, Melbourne Association) ‘Seaforth’, 722 Balloong Road, Woodside, Victoria 3874.

Tel: 03 5187 1291 e: seaforth@wideband.net.au Malcolm McLennan (President, Grafton Association) PO Box 247 South Grafton, NSW 2460. Tel: 02 6642 4290 e: kaemac1@bigpond.com.au Graeme McLennan (Sydney, NSW representative) 82 North Road, Denistone East, NSW 2112.

Tel: 02 9809 5152 e:maclennan.kintail@bigpond.com www.clanmaclennan-worldwide.com

To feature your Clan or society here, contact Emma Craig:

ecraig@scotsheritagemagazine.com or call

+44 (0) 131 551 7919 CLAN CRAIG ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

The CCAA is a voluntary, nonsectarian, non stock, and non profit organization. The purposes for which this corporation is formed are to: Honor, preserve, promote and perpetuate the traditions and heritage of the Scottish-American people, with particular emphasis on descendents of and family of the descendents of the Scottish Clan Craig; Preserve and perpetuate for the present and future, the history of the ancient Clan Craig of Scotland; Foster and promote education by providing assistance to deserving students and supporting educational institutions in programs of Scottish literature, history, dance, music and similar activities; Preserve and promote Scottish and Celtic culture including art, music, dance, athletics through the establishment of competitions, awards, and scholarships for deserving students, artists and athletes; Preserve, foster and promote Scottish-American heritage and to facilitate communication between members and promote a fraternal atmosphere through periodic newsletters and other publications, and through meetings, and gatherings of the membership of the Association and their families and guests.

Michael A. Craig - Association President E: president@clancraig.org E. Jeffrey Craig - Vice-President E: vicepres@clancraig.org www.clancraig.org

CLAN CAMERON ASSOCIATION OF SCOTLAND The Clan Cameron Association was formed in 1889 thanks to the endeavours of a number of enthusiastic Camerons who valued the clan and its links throughout the world. Over the years the fortunes of the Association have waxed and waned with the development of new Branches at home and abroad.

Duncan G Cameron - Commisioner Hillockhead, Fortrie, Turriff, Aberdeenshire AB 53 4JA E: info@clancameron.org.uk You can also read and leave comments in our WEBLOG: www.clancameronassociationscotland .blogspot.co.uk www.clancameron.org.uk

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Final fling

SCOTS heritage

m o r f r e McLett America

up in arms –and The diaspora was already kburn ruckus that was before the Bannoc Words Susan L McIntosh Illustration Bob Dewar

I

just sent a letter to the Scottish Government.

One doesn’t do that every day. I sent the letter on behalf of tens of thousands of Scottish Americans, some of who are hoppin’ mad at Scotland.

They’ll get over it but they have their reasons to be out of sorts right now. More on that later.

As president of the Council of Scottish Clans & Associations (COSCA) I help represent the collective interests of Scottish clan and family organisations in the United States. One of the main things I have learned in that role is that the Scots diaspora cannot safely depend on anyone other than itself to protect our own interests and fulfil our own goals.

Our failure to do so means that we are all crying into our haggis and bitterly disappointed in Homecoming 2014, which has no international clan gathering, no international clan convention and the recently disclosed prospect of having to share the last remaining crumb – the 700th anniversary celebrations of the battle of Bannockburn at Stirling – with 50,000 military well wishers in town for UK Armed Forces Day. Scottish Americans need to figure out how to protect and advance our own ancestrally focused interests.

We need to do this within the context of a foreign country with a surprisingly foreign culture; where the most dear of our interests lie, but where we have little current influence in public or private decision making and where very many people find us a wee bit peculiar with all the kilts and chiefs and clan crests and such. Our first hurdle is convincing Scots that we have any real business in their country at all, beyond touring and trade.

Admittedly it is a good question. Do we, as people of Scottish ancestry, have a reasonable expectation of welcome involvement in those matters in Scotland that may affect our ancestral interests? I believe the answer should be honestly and reasonably, yes. The diaspora’s interest in Scotland is the product of generations

of Scottish ancestors born on Scottish soil prior to each emigrant’s departure – we cannot be divested of that connection simply because of the Scots’ inherent spirit of exploration and emigration. Our ancestral interest in Scotland runs in the blood.

Ours is a lesser interest than that of those living in Scotland today, yet we cherish our own inheritable legacy and perpetuate our connections to Scotland and our clan lands through clan and family organisations. We also provide financial and volunteer resources for dozens of important arts, culture and clan lands preservation projects in Scotland.

If the diaspora has a stakeholder interest in appropriate events in Scotland – and we think we do – periodic large, centralised, international clan gatherings are one of the most obvious candidates. The Gathering 2009 was, from the perspective of the thousands of ancestral Scots who returned ‘home’ for that event, an unprecedented success. It met contemporary expectations and it set the bar for the future. The next gathering was on our minds as soon as 2009 closed.

It is tragic that the ancestral aspect of Homecoming 2014 has borne such an aura of disarray and recently even disinterest, with the decision to hold UK Armed Forces Day in Stirling on the opening day of BannockburnLive particularly cruel. This move introduces referendum squabbling into the key ancestral event of Homecoming 2014 and will overload Stirling’s ability to provide suitable accommodation. It is a traveller’s nightmare.

Some of us – possibly many of us – will be on the Bannockburn field on June 28, 2014 even if we have to park in Belgium. In a lovely bit of irony Westminster has created a cause that VisitScotland never could. Sadly, however, it is predictable that many will stay away from both events to avoid unnecessary hassle. Therein lies the final tragedy, we hope, of this latest episode of relying on someone else to get our own work done.

Susan McIntosh is the President of the Council of Scottish Clans & Associations, www.COSCA.net

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18/10/2013 11:55:00

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