Scottish Snippets

11 January 2014

Number 651



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".

HotTo 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.


Christmas Lights in Edinburgh and Glasgow

The Christmas decorations and sideshows in central Edinburgh this year were considerably updated from last year with a new, more modern-looking Ferris wheel in Princes Street gardens and a "Star Flyer" with chairs flying round 200 feet above St Andrew Square (though it had to have extra safety checks after a section of seating broke off and crashed to the ground - nobody was hurt, fortunately). It was disappointing, however, to find that Edinburgh Castle wasn't lit up as usual (a cost-cutting measure, no doubt). Glasgow's offering was also updated with a new arrangement for the skating rink. You can see a mixture of video and slide shows on the Rampant Scotland Channel on YouTube at Edinburgh Christmas Lights and Glasgow Christmas Lights

The Enchanted Frog Prince


This "Guest Writer" story carries on the Christmas theme with a story that could easily be a Walt Disney cartoon about a frog prince and a royal princess. Twins, living in an Edinburgh flat, are visited by a bird, Mr Jack Dawn, who tells them bedtime stories! The page even has animated graphics... See The Enchanted Frog Prince

Scottish History on YouTube

Historian Neil Oliver has had two series of history programmes on BBC TV tracing the story of Scotland and another on Celtic Britain. These are an excellent introduction to Scottish history from earliest times to almost the present day and are available on YouTube. The links to the hour-long videos can be found via Scottish History on YouTube

Scots History - The Making of the Kingdom of Fortriu


This next extract from a book by historian Michael Lynch begins "The history of the Picts can be likened to a mystery story with a few clues and no satisfactory ending." The Picts left no written record - other than that recorded on the many standing stones which have survived to the present day. But historians can provide a background to the "painted people" who had such an impact on the early history of Scotland. See the illustrated article at The Making of the Kingdom of Fortriu

Scottish Lighthouses

The pages from Scottish Radiance on lighthouses are expanding rapidly and the following have been added in recent weeks:

Duncansby Head - located on the North East corner of Scotland near John O' Groats and overlooking the treacherous waters of the Pentland Skerries. See Scottish Lighthouses - Duncansby Head.

Corsewall Point - guarding the northern tip of the Galloway peninsula where Loch Ryan and the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland meet. The former Lightkeepers' accommodation was sold and is now operated as a hotel. See Scottish Lighthouses - Corsewall Point.

Pentland Skerries - the Pentland Skerries (lighthouse is illustrated on the right) is a small group of islets, stacks and reefs located in the Pentland Firth that separates the Scottish mainland from Orkney. See: Scottish Lighthouses - Pentland Skerries.

Auskerry - Auskerry itself is a small, flat, red sandstone islet, 3 miles (5 km) south of Stronsay. There is an ancient standing stone and a medieval chapel showing the signs of an early settlement. See: Scottish Lighthouses - Auskerry

The index for all 18 of the lighthouses so far added to Rampant Scotland is at: Scottish Lighthouses - Index


Next Newsletter

The next newsletter is scheduled for 25 January. I am planning start setting up some of the Gaelic pages which used to be a feature of the Scottish Radiance Web site; These include pages with sound files of spoken Gaelic.

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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