The Scottish Snippets Newsletter in its original format began in April 1997 and continued in an unbroken series for 591 issues. Although no longer produced in that style, there is now this regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site including "Scottie's Photo Diary From Scotland".
To receive a text version of this newsletter as a reminder to look at these Web pages when they are published, just send an e-mail to Scottie@RampantScotland.com with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
Pipe Band Championships - YouTube Video
There was a Web-page based slide show of the bands in the finals of the Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championship in the last newsletter. Now there is a YouTube version with a musical background and the usual features of zoom, pan and transitions.The video runs for 15 minutes and even at that it omits a few of the pictures featured in the Web page version. For the YouTube slide show, see YouTube - Pipe Band ChampionshipsIf you missed the Web version of the slide show, see World Pipe Band Championships 2012 - Slide Show
Scottie's Photo Diary - August
Lots more rain again this month but despite that I did manage to make a trip to Culzean castle Country Park where in addition to the many flowers there, Small Tortoiseshell butterflies made an appearance in some numbers. Meantime, the buddlejas in Drumpellier Country Park attracted a cloud of Peacock butterflies! See Scottie's Photo Diary - August
2014 Events
2014 is an important year in the Scotland calendar. First of all it is the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The visitor centre at Bannockburn is being rebuilt to tell the story of the famous battle using state of the art presentation techniques Tied in with the Bannockburn anniversary, another "clan gathering" is being arranged - this time the focus will be on Stirling, near where the battle of Bannockburn took place. The official Web sites with details of Bannockburn is at Battle of BannockburnThe site for details of Clans 2014, an international gathering of the clans (11 - 13 July 2014) are evolving but current information can be found at Countdown to 2014
And of course, 2014 is also the most likely date for the referendum in which there will be a vote on whether Scotland should remain in the UK or not - details for that are still being negotiated between the respective governments in London and Edinburgh! Clearly 2014 is a better date for such a referendum than 2013 (the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden when Scotland suffered its worst defeat ever in a battle against England!)
PoMS - People of Medieval Scotland
The People of Medieval Scotland Web site is a database of all known people of Scotland between 1093 and 1314 mentioned in over 8600 surviving contemporary documents. It is interesting to see if anyone with your own surname is mentioned in those far off days. There is a Henry Scott in Fife, for example, who joined all the other Scottish landowners in paying homage to King Edward I in the infamous "Ragman Rolls" in 1296. There is no way of establishing whether he is one of my ancestors but my line of Scotts originally came from Fife. The People of Medieval Scotland database can be found at PoMS - People of Medieval Scotland.
Next Newsletter
The next newsletter is scheduled for 29 September. That will give me some time to create a feature on the Battle of Britain Air Show at Leuchars in Fife and make a start on the Pictorial Calendar for 2013 with its 48 pictures of Scotland.It always takes longer than planned to set up!
Yours aye
Scottie
Previous editions of this Newsletter are available in an Archive. The Index to the other pages of the Rampant Scotland site is available here.
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