In the days after Culloden the roads were full of refugees and the makeshift prisons full of Jacobites. More than three thousand were recorded, not just men, women and children as well. Not all of them had been fighting of course, some had just been a bit too sympathetic with the cause of Charles Edward... Continue Reading →
A graveyard is a place of peace, of mourning, and of thought. There are many things to think about on a graveyard: death, life, time; you think of loved ones and of others, of happy moments and of sad ones. But one thing you hardly ever think about is health and safety. Why should you?... Continue Reading →
North Queensferry has, as the name suggests, been a town with a ferry connecting South Queensferry with North Queensferry or Edinburgh with Dunfermline, St Andrews and the Kingdom of Fife. The estuary of the Forth has always been difficult to travel but from the earliest days many have done so at a time when Dunfermline... Continue Reading →
St Bridget’s Kirk is one of the truly magical places in the Kingdom of Fife. The former Abbey is overlooking the Firth of Forth, in good weather you can catch a glimpse of the railway bridge. What used to be the center of the old village of Dalgety lies now on the outskirts of Dalgety... Continue Reading →
The last Laird of Foyers was born in 1760. The estate still belonged to the family then because his grandfather had bequeathed it to his son, the last Laird's father, before he joined the Jacobite Rising in 1745. It was therefore safe, most of the other rebel properties in Scotland had been confiscated by the crown.... Continue Reading →
There are three holes in the gravestone of Donald Fraser of Erchite, remains of a funeral that ended in a shooting, the holes are the marks the bullets left. It must have been the second half of the year 1745. The tragic battle of Culloden had left its mark on Scotland and indeed the area... Continue Reading →
There are many Pictish stones in Moray, most of them stand lonely in some field or other somewhere along the roadside, often fenced-in with a small sign giving a few an explanations. They usually do not differ very much to the untrained eye, prior knowledge of Pictish symbolism often helps. The Sueno stone is an... Continue Reading →
There are more than enough romantic ruins in Moray but Kinloss is a special one as it was not only one of the greatest religious powerhouses of its time, it was also home to an interesting business idea. The three key words are Cistercians, Reformation and Cromwell. Founded in 1150 by the saintly King David... Continue Reading →
Carriden Old Churchyard The mansion-house of Carriden is the principal seat in the parish of Carriden. It sits on the high bank above the shore overlooking the Firth and Royal Dunfermline, the ancient capital of Scotland. Carriden House is a private property, erected about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Like many mansions it came... Continue Reading →
Recent Comments