Inverlochy Cemetery Inverlochy cemetery is small, graves scattered on a rocky hillock. It looks out of use today. Locals say only people who fought in the Battle of Inverlochy were entiteled to be buried here. There are many later burials in the cemetery though, the rules were obviously not strict. (Canmore, Inverlochy cemetery) Inverlochy Castle... Continue Reading →
unfinished business
Pipers had a very dangeroud job in the past centuries for not only were they playing at weddings and funerals but during skirmishes, battles and wars with nothing to defend themselves but the weapons of those by their side who had time end energy to spare. The pipers' tunes would rally the Clan and their... Continue Reading →
bleedy pits
It was at the beginning of the last millennium, the Danes were still threatening the Scottish coast, and the clanchiefs were busy fighting off invaders after invaders. In 1004, the Danes invaded Banffshire and were received with horror as well as courage by the locals. There were not many places along the coast where a... Continue Reading →
tailor, major, and prisoner
Blackmount is a pretty and small graveyard on the border between Peeblesshire and Lanarkshire. The cemetery goes back to the late 18th century. Many stones are very old and somewhere in between these stones a man was buried who left no gravestone to remember him. He was a tailor, a major and a prisoner. ... Continue Reading →
a hero’s graveyard
Zecharia’s Cemetery (Cill Sgàire) in Bragar, Isle of Lewis Zechariah or Zacharay Macaulay’s father was the Chamberlain of Lewis and owned the land around Valtos, Kneep and Reef. Zachary lived in the first part of the 18th century. He grew up to be a hero and well remembered in the oral tradition of Lewis. The... Continue Reading →
an axe wound, mass murder and lust
St Clement’s church, Rodel, Isle of Harris St Clement’s was built as a catholic church under David I, probably by one of the MacLeods of Harris but falling into disuse soon after completion. The Reformation had put an end to Catholicism on the island. It had most likely been a priory, two allegedly excisted on... Continue Reading →
executed in the graveyard
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 →
the warrior chief
From the first Viking raids right up to the middle of the 17th century Gairloch was nothing but a big battlefield. First the Norsemen against then Scots, then the Mackenzies, the McLeod, and the MacDonalds among each other, fighting for power and ownership, retaliating attacks, avenging murders, killing rivals. Many died a brutal death here.... Continue Reading →
chosen isolation
Isolation – the absence of others. A state of mind and body very much sought after by the early Christians. This was not the (splendid) isolation of the 19th century. This was the decision to live as a hermit, a recluse, a man alone with his faith and God. Nothing splendid about that. Muthill was one... Continue Reading →
St Andrews – Scotland, Saint and Saltire
St Andrews – Scotland, Saint and SaltireSt Andrews is the heart of Scotland in many ways. One reason is its name, taken from the patron saint of Scotland who is said to be buried here. “St Andrew has been celebrated in Scotland for over a thousand years, with feasts being held in his honour as far... Continue Reading →
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