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Posted on July 16, 2013 by | 439 views | 6 comments
A list of some of the Clan and Scottish Surname DNA projects. Please let me know about others and I can update this list. Click below to visit the project's page. A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y A Abernathy Agnew Allison A...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 27 views | 4 comments
The thistle of Scotland is said to be the oldest national flower on record, the legend of how this proud and regal plant became a national emblem goes back many hundreds of years, to the time when Scotland was being rampaged by the vicious Vikings. From 795 Scotland was under assault by wave upon...
Posted on July 17, 2013 by | 111 views | 3 comments
Flodden was fought just after Henry VIII came to the throne, a long time before he became the chubby, wife murdering tyrant so loved by novelists. It's a battle that people tend to know very little about, but it's a battle that changed - well world history. In 1513 Henry was suprisingly - young, h...
Posted on May 12, 2013 by | 22 views | 2 comments
The stories that I have about him came from my mother, Mary MacLeod who, along with some others we are acquainted with, went to the same primary school in Skye as Iain Dubh, albeit at a later date. Although he came from a God-fearing people, Iain, due to his exploits, became known as “The Wizard of...
Posted on July 15, 2013 by | 23 views | 2 comments
This article - or more 3 articles was kindly sent to us by William Shaw Of-Easter Lair. It's three diary pieces; the first wrote from the point of view a tribal warrior during the time of the Roman incursion, the second from a young man living on the Tay circa 800 and finally the third from a Clan ...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 6 views | 1 comments
The Battle of Otterburn is remembered as the fight where ‘a dead man won the field’. A Scottish attack was made in Northumberland on Henry Percy and his estates, led by James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas, on the 5 August 1388. During the fighting, Douglas was very badly wounded. He told his office...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 9 views | 1 comments
Living around the same time as the legendary Nostradamus was a farm labourer called Coinneach Odhar. His prophesies are maybe not as well known as his contemporary but the alarming accuracy of his predictions has added to the sense of mystery that still exists around the Black Isle. Indeed many of...
Posted on February 7, 2013 by | 13 views | 1 comments
Almost every Scottish loch has a monster, or at least stories about a monster. Perhaps they are just convenient tales told by grannies to stop local children playing too near the water? The most common monster in these watery warnings is the kelpie, the waterhorse. The kelpie was a creature that li...
Posted on February 7, 2013 by | 23 views | 1 comments
Like much Scottish history the tale of Rob Roy is shrouded in mystery and intrigue. The people of the time were mostly illiterate and stories of the famous battles and legendary characters were mainly passed down the generations by word of mouth, embellished as they went, to provide the great tales ...
Posted on March 7, 2013 by | 83 views | 1 comments
  tartan-footprint.pdf (2MB) We have put together a presentation about Tartan Footprint, it says a bit about our vision, the aim is that this will help promote Tartan Footprint to the wider Scottish communities.  Please ask me if you need it in a higher resolution.
Posted on January 27, 2014 by | 17 views | 1 comments
As dusk fell over Culloden Moor on the 16th April 1746 the last major land battle to be fought on British soil had drawn to a conclusion. With close to 2,000 dead and wounded Jacobites the campaign to restore the Stewart monarchy to the throne had been dealt a decisive final blow. In the days and...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 16 views | comments
Measuring for a Gents Kilt (and Older Boys) Taking Your Measurements: For men it is important to have the correct "starting point". this is exactly 2 inches above the hip bone. Gents Measurement Guide For Wearing A Kilt WAIST (1) From this starting point measure around the stomach, this is the wais...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 4 views | comments
Julius Agricola was sent in the year AD77 to be governor of Britain for the Roman Empire. He pushed the Empire's reach northwards with advances to the valley crossing Scotland from the Clyde to the Forth in AD80. He enforced the front with a row of forts before continuing with campaigns up the east ...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 3 views | comments
The Battle of Mons Graupius took place in 83 or 84. Julius Agricola, the Roman governor had sent his fleet ahead to panic the Caledonians, and, with light infantry reinforced with British auxiliaries, reached the site, which he found occupied by the enemy. Even though the Romans were outnumbered in...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 4 views | comments
When Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica was written in 731, it named Ninian as the first Scottish Christian. The Romans left Britain with traces of their Christianity remaining. Ninian, the son of a Scottish chief, was trained as a bishop by the Romans before founding a church at Whithorn in Galloway wh...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 5 views | comments
Despite his name meaning ‘dove’, Columba was banished from Ireland in 563, aged forty two, for leading battles against greedy Irish monasteries. With twelve supporters he sailed in a curragh to Iona, the island lying a kilometre south-west of the end of Mull. He crowned his fellow Irishman Aidan Ki...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 7 views | comments
The Viking invasions of Scotland heralded a new type of warfare. By equipping their boats with keels, a significant number of warriors could be accommodated on sea journeys that presented little problem to the highly developed Norse navigational and rigging skills. Their terror is first recorded i...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 5 views | comments
The Danes, already well-established through the Hebrides and on the mainland and supported with on-going North Sea crossings, battled with Alba’s Picts in 839 and utterly defeated them. The North of Scotland experienced a gradual population migration, under the Norse pressure, with the Scots of the...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 3 views | comments
With Malcolm II as king and Owen of Strathclyde supporting him, an important battle was fought against Earl Uhtred of Bamburgh and his Northumbrian army at Carham, near Roxburgh. The Battle of Carham (sometimes referred to as the Battle of Coldstream) is generally believed to have been fought in 101...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 8 views | comments
When Duncan I took the Scottish throne, his grandfather had the blood of several relatives on his hands, having murdered the way clear for Duncan. With such ill feeling as there must have been, Duncan would have been wise to pacify his remaining family, especially his senior cousin Thorfinn the Mig...
Posted on February 6, 2013 by | 2 views | comments
Magnus Barefoot (or Barelegs) came to the throne of Norway in 1093. Like his countrymen he enjoyed the conquest of other countries. In 1098 he drew up the first formal treaty with a Scots king, Edgar, confirming in writing that all the Western Isles and the peninsula of Kintyre belonged to Norway. ...
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