As in previous years, over the Christmas and New Year period the normal "Scottish Snippets" of current news, events and culture is replaced by a "Review of Scottish News" covering many of the main items from the past year. This allows newer readers to catch up on items from earlier in the year and regular readers to recall the major items reported in the last twelve months. This edition covers January to June 2006 and July to December 2006 will be circulated next weekend. The normal Newsletter will resume on 6 January.
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 format there is now a regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site and also "Scottie's Diary" on an intermittent basis, To receive this, kust send an e-mail to Scottie with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
January 2006
|
February 2006
|
March 2006
|
April 2006
|
May 2006
|
June 2006
|
Culture MagazineThis Review of Scotland in 2006 does not contain the usual "magazine" section of the weekly Newsletter with humour, recipes, poetry, songs and links to new features. However, if you wish to see the collection of many of the previous articles (built up over a number of years), you can do so via the Features Pages.
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
Around 100,000 people gathered on New Year's Eve in Edinburgh's Princes Street, with the backdrop of the castle, to be entertained by pop stars with a Scottish flavour - such as Texas, KT Tunstall and El Presidente. The gathering in Glasgow was smaller, with around 25,000 in the city's George Square, to hear performances from Athlete, Hue & Cry and Deacon Blue. Aberdeen's New Year's Eve celebrations in Union Street had chart-toppers Liberty X, The Coral and The Proclaimers. Other traditional Hogmanay celebrations around Scotland included the Stonehaven Fireball Festival (where 60 locals swung 20-pound balls of fire above their heads as they proceeded through the town to the harbour where they threw them into the sea), Comrie's Flambeaux Procession (residents donned fancy dress and had a torchlight procession led by the Comrie Pipe band), a Hogmanay Bonfire at Biggar in Lanarkshire (the bonfire was the height of two double-decker buses). Perth had a more sedate affair, with a dinner followed by a ceilidh in the Fair City's concert hall, while the party on Stirling Castle esplanade featured Blazin' Fiddles and former Del Amitri frontman, Justin Currie. And of course celebrations continued on 1 January with the annual "Loony Dook" swim in the Firth of Forth at South Queensferry, beside the iconic bridges.
It has taken 18 years, but at last the go-ahead has been given to plans to redevelop the site on the banks of the river Clyde which was used for the Garden Festival in Glasgow in 1988. Although the Glasgow Science Centre and a number of office blocks have been built or are planned in the area (the most recent, high profile development being the new BBC Scotland HQ), a large part of the site has been lying derelict for all those years. Now, at last, planning approval has been given for the 30-acre site. This will result in the creation of a 150-bed hotel, 300 new homes and an office development. Work should start later this year but it will take over five years to complete. In the meantime, the new Finnieston Bridge which runs across the river Clyde nearby (and known colloquially as the "Squinty Bridge" as it runs diagonally across the water) is due for completion in July of this year.
The Black Law windfarm in Lanarkshire, the largest operating windfarm in the UK, with 42 turbines, was officially opened this week. Potentially (as long as the wind is blowing strongly enough) it has the potential to power a town the size of Paisley. Unlike many windfarm proposals which have generated a lot of objections for spoiling the countryside, this one has been constructed by transforming an old open-cast coal-mine into a development providing clean, renewable energy. Even so, it took Scottish Power nearly two years to gain final planning approval. The Scottish Executive has set a target that, by the end of this decade, 18% of electricity generated in Scotland should be from renewable sources rising to 40% by 2020. The Black Law Windfarm currently consists of 42 turbines with a 97 MW capacity. There are plans to add a further 12 turbines to the site.
Mindful of the Open golf championship coming to Carnoustie in 2007, Angus Council has been working hard to clean up the beach area in the town. The golf course runs along the shore and the golfing fraternity around the world will be focused on it that year. The councillors are so confident that they have done a good job that they have applied for the first time to Keep Scotland Beautiful for a rural seaside award. Water quality is a major factor but other cosmetic aspects are being dealt with as well. On a visit to Carnoustie last year, I was certainly impressed by the improved look of the area. However, as it was a chilly October day, there was no way that I was going to check on the water quality in the North Sea....
VisitScotland has launched a new 80-page tourist guide called "Essential Guide to Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley 2006", providing visitor information on what to see and do in the city. This year, the guide has doubled its coverage of Charles Rennie Mackintosh attractions and highlights the Mackintosh Festival 2006 in September. It also features the reopening of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in the summer and celebrates the importance of the city's other influential figure, Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. The 80-page guide also covers where to shop, eat and drink, transport, entertainment, sport and leisure as well as things to do in the area. Copies of this printed guide can be ordered via 
The completion of the Scotland Street School in Glasgow 100 years ago by architectural genius Charles Rennie Mackintosh is being celebrated in the building (now a museum of educational history) with string of events. "Then and Now", is a photographic exhibition taking a look back at 500 years of Scottish education and the development of school buildings and educational spaces up to the present day. By night, the museum is being transformed by specially commissioned illuminations. Archive films and photographs of pupils, the school and the local area are projected on to the building, bringing the school and its former community together again. In May, "Stories from Scotland Street’s Archives" will present memories, experiences and work of former Scotland Street School pupils and teachers from 1906 to the present day. Then in July, there is to be an interactive exhibition - "Designer Mack" - and a series of workshops inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Scotland Street School was designed in 1903-4 and built in 1906. It continued as a school until 1979 and was then renovated in 1990 as part of Glasgow's year as European City of Culture. 
James Hogg, known as the "Ettrick Shepherd" was born at Ettrickhall farm in the Scottish Borders in 1770. Although he received a scant education, he was inspired to write poetry by reading the works of Allan Ramsay (1686-1758). His poetical life was further developed by a connection with Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Hogg supplied Scott with a number of ballads for his "Border Minstrelsy" collection. Hogg is perhaps best known for his gothic masterpiece "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" which has become a "best seller" again in recent years. But compared to other Scottish writers, Hogg has been largely ignored by academics as a "simple shepherd" and what many regard as his genius, has not been recognised. But now three academics (with the backing of a £157,000 grant from the Scottish arts Council) have launched a rescue mission which will examine Hogg's texts and music and his involvement with musicians working in the Edinburgh and London Theatre. Hogg's 150 songs are now regarded as an important part of Scottish culture at the start of the 19th century and are regarded by some to be on a par with his contemporaries such as Robert Burns and Walter Scott.
The 71-year-old Odeon cinema in the centre of Glasgow rolled the final credits last weekend as the picture house closed down before the start of a £15 million transformation into nightclubs, bistros and restaurants. The developers have undertaken to retain the Art Deco style frontage.
Brigadier Mel Jameson, who took over as organiser for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 1994, is to retire after this summer's event - his 12th. When he took over, 20% of the tickets were unsold by the opening night. Since then, he has created a spectacular success with tickets selling out well in advance of the event. Tickets for this year's show went on sale only four weeks ago and already 85% of the 217,000 tickets available have been snapped up. The last eight Tattoos have been a sell-out and this year will be no exception. So the 61-year-old Brigadier can retire, confident that his mission has been successfully completed.
The fourth Miller Glasgow International Comedy Festival, which runs from Thursday 9 March to Saturday 25 March, was formally launched this week by top Scottish comedienne Elaine C Smith. The festival involves 200 performers in 270 shows at 30 venues. Proving that big news can come in small packages, diminutive comedian Ronnie Corbett will be taking to the stage at The Theatre Royal while Jim Bowen regales with tales of the Golden Age of Northern Club Comics. The life and work of Scotland's popular comedy star, the Essential Chic Murray, is presented by his daughter, Annabelle Meredith. And former Stars In Their Eyes winner, Gary Moir, recalls Billy Connolly in his heyday in Big Yin Revisited. See 
The Type 45 destroyer is the first of six to be built by BAe Systems in Glasgow and construction will keep the yards at Scotstoun and Govan busy for the next seven years. The combat system is the cutting edge of technology and there is a full electric propulsion system which would allow the ship to sail 7,000 nautical miles without any additional fuel. The ship will now be fitted out in a dry dock on the Clyde and will enter service in 2009.
Computerised graphics of the planned rail link between central Glasgow and the airport at Renfrew were published this week. They show a dedicated platform at Glasgow Central Station, a new bridge over the M8 (see artist's impression), a controversial viaduct over St James' playing fields in Paisley and a state-of-the-art elevated station at the airport connected to the terminal by a moving walkway. A bill seeking approval for the £160 million project is currently working its way through the Scottish Parliament. Assuming that this is expedited, the new route, which is utilising a large section of existing railway line, with an extension from Paisley Gilmour Street station, could be operational by the end of next year.
The Xscape snow complex in Braehead on the banks of the river Clyde, which is due to open in April, is advertising for staff with experience of skiing and snowboarding to act as instructors at Scotland's first indoor ski slope. In addition to the ski slope covered in 1,500 tonnes of real snow, the complex will house climbing walls, an aerial assault course, a multiplex cinema, a 24-lane 10-pin bowling alley, shops and bars. The massive building is on a site overlooking the river Clyde, beside the Braehead Shopping centre at Renfrew. The complex is aimed at attracting over three million visitors a year.
Householders who pay local council tax may have naively thought that the elected officials in the city and county councils worked hard to establish the lowest possible rate of tax, commensurate with providing a good level of service. So they may have been surprised when Dundee City Council, on the point of announcing an increase in the local council tax of over 4%, suddenly avoided making a decision when they heard that Glasgow had announced a zero increase this year. If Dundee had gone ahead with their original plans, the city would have become the highest-rated in Scotland. So the councillors did their sums again and a few days later came up with an increase of 2.63% - which produced a figure just £2 less than Glasgow. They had achieved a saving of £1.1 million, which included the simple expedient of transferring the sheltered housing warden service from social work to housing management - which does not impact on council tax. Other savings involved transferring five leisure centres to a leisure trust. If it was that easy, maybe there is more that the councillors in Dundee (and elsewhere) can do with smoke and mirrors?
More parking tickets were issued in George Street in Edinburgh in 2004 than any other road in Scotland. But in 2005 the "Enforcers" slapped 21,027 parking tickets on vehicles in the street, which was 1,000 more than the previous year. That meant the city council raked in £630,000 in fines on that one street alone. Four other Edinburgh parking ticket hotspots (St Andrew Square, Chambers Street, Melville Street and the Grassmarket) between them could only muster 20,000 tickets. George Street is popular not only with shoppers but is also used by those making business calls to nearby offices.
There was disappointment amongst civic leaders in Perth when the Scottish Executive announced that it would not support moves by the "Fair City" to be given official "city" status. It was pointed out that the UK government had not brought forward any plans to have a competition for city status (as they had in recent years when Stirling and Inverness in Scotland had won this award). In the past, being a city was largely a status issue, but since the introduction of the government's "Cities Growth Fund" other towns have become more interested. See 
A team of archaeologists are taking part in a six-month project at Aberdeen's historic Kirk of St Nicholas. The experts have a large amount of excavation experience as well as human bone and burial archaeology knowledge. Although the church's present structure on Union Street dates mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, it incorporates portions of the 12th-century church - and there may have been an even earlier structure. Surviving remains of upstanding parts of the transepts date from the 12th-century and are of major significance to the study of Scottish medieval parish and burgh churches. The excavation will uncover burials from the 12th-century up to at least the end of the 18th-century, and the coffins and clothing will give an insight into burial practices of post-medieval Aberdonians. The dig has arisen because of the need to reinforce the foundations of the church - known locally as the Mither Kirk - for a new development. For more information, log on to the Kirk of St Nicholas website at 
The Earl of Strathmore has unveiled a plan to create a 16ft-high memorial arch to the late Princess Margaret in the grounds of Glamis Castle in Perthshire. The princess was born at the castle in 1930 - her father later became King George VI and her mother, born as Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later became Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Princess Margaret was the first royal baby in direct line to the throne to have been born in Scotland for 300 years. Protocol in those days demanded that the Home Secretary had to be present at such a birth, so he had to travel from London for the event! The memorial arch will stand over an ornamental urn, beside a yew hedge close to the Italian Gardens, in a scenic part of the grounds which is open to the public. A proposal for new entrance gates and a piazza at Glamis in memory of the Queen Mother is also being progressed.
The opening concert of the 13th Celtic Connections festival had to be cancelled, but even so, the organisers hailed the event as one of the most successful yet, with ticket sales over 100,000. The newly refurbished Fruitmarket venue had helped to make it one of the biggest music festivals in the world. Scott Taylor, chief executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, commented after the last concert: "Celtic Connections has once again delivered a fantastic programme of music and song that has lifted the spirits of locals and visitors alike."
Now that the esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle can again be used for live concerts - after health and safety issues were resolved last December - promoters have quickly lined up three shows for the venue. Former Bee Gees star Robin Gibb, Irish boy band Westlife and operatic chart-toppers Il Divo will all be performing there during the summer. There will be an estimated audience of 8,000 for each of the July performances, using the giant stands which are erected each year for the Military Tattoo. When Westlife performed on the esplanade two years ago, tickets sales set a new record as the fastest sell-out of tickets to date. Il Divo, a pop-classical quartet, saw their latest album enter the US album charts at number one. Their debut album knocked Robbie Williams off the top of the UK album charts and went on to enjoy chart-topping success in another 25 countries around the world.
Running from 20 February to 11 March, this festival takes in competitive events in the major disciplines of instrumental music, vocal and choral classes, speech, Gaelic, piping and Scottish Country Dancing. It was established in 1922 and almost four thousand people of all ages will be taking part in the event - numbers have trebled in the last ten years. For more details, see 
Winds from the Arctic brought freezing temperatures to Scotland for much of this week. However, the northerly airflow created two different weather zones. The north of the country had repeated heavy falls of snow (Aberdeen Airport recorded its deepest March snowfall since records began) while in the central Scotland belt, there were long hours of sunshine. Blizzard conditions in the north for four consecutive days created the usual chaos, with Aberdeen brought to a virtual standstill. Most schools in Aberdeenshire and the north-east were closed, rail and air transport ground to a halt and there was a spate of accidents on the roads. Drifting snow stranded four trains and a rescue helicopter sent to assist climbers in the Cairngorms was forced to make an emergency landing high in the mountains. Ice on the rotors forced it down and snow and high winds kept it grounded for several days. Aberdeen, Inverness and Kirkwall airports were closed on a number of occasions. Hundreds of passengers were forced to spend the night at Aberdeen airport because de-icing equipment failed. Overnight temperatures in Altnahara in the Highlands fell to -16C (3F) - but that was well above the record UK low set there in 1995 of -27.2C (-16.9F). On a positive note, 100,000 schoolchildren welcomed several days off school and the ski resorts, devoid of natural snow for most of the season, opened for business. Although the central Scotland belt avoided most of the snow and enjoyed sunny if cold conditions, snow eventually arrived on Friday, affecting mainly Edinburgh and the east coast. Glasgow and the west saw a few snow flurries but these soon passed over and weather stations in the city recorded a total of 32.7 hours of sunshine over Tuesday to Friday.
It was an unfortunate coincidence that Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPS) were discussing architecture in Scotland when one of the 12 foot long, heavy oak beams holding up the roof in the debating chamber, swung down towards them. Fortunately, it did not fall all the way but hung suspended at one end. Initially, business continued, after the MSPs underneath had moved away to other seats. But eventually it was decided to suspend the sitting. Once the experts had been consulted, the debating chamber was closed indefinitely until the problem could be resolved. If they are not able to return soon, alternative accommodation will have to be found. The beams appear to be secured by stainless steel brackets and have allowed the chamber to be free of any support pillars, thus creating a very open area with clear views. 
The Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group announced its year-end results this week and revealed that profits had gone up by 21% to £7.9bn (US$13.8bn). Income rose by 14% and the dividend to shareholders is to rise by 25%. The group's international operations now produce 42% of its profits and performance has also been helped by growth in corporate lending and strong consumer banking in the US. Last year the Royal Bank Group invested nearly £1 billion in Bank of China and the previous year it expanded its Citizen's Financial Group when it bought Charter One Financial in the US for £5.8bn. In addition to making shareholders happy, the bank is also paying out from its profit sharing scheme £232 million to its employees (an average of £2,000 each). 18,000 Royal Bank Staff work in Scotland.
The average waiting times at the Accident and Emergency department at the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (ERI) have deteriorated since the move to the new building at Little France - and are now the worst in Scotland. The average waiting times for patients to be seen at the ERI is now two and a half hours - 30 minutes longer than when it was housed in the 19th century building in the centre of the capital. In December 2004, a study showed that 25% of patients attending the ERI's casualty department spent more than four hours waiting for treatment - the worst Accident and Emergency unit in the UK. It is claimed that these figures have been reduced in recent months.
The "Oor Wullie" cartoon strip first appeared in the "Sunday Post" on March 8, 1936 - which makes the young lad with his bucket over 70 years old. "Help ma Boab!" as Wullie would say. Or maybe that should be "Jings! Crivvens! Michty me!" The mischievous lad has never missed a single edition of the Sunday paper, which has a circulation these days of around 500,000 (down from a peak of 1.5 million in the 1970s). In the 1950s, when the paper was confined largely to Scotland, sales of the Sunday Post in the country were so high that it was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the newspaper with the highest per capita readership penetration of anywhere in the world. Wullie (and "The Broons" on another page of the paper) have become Scottish icons - even though they were initially created by an Englishman, Dudley D Watkins. Watkins also drew that other Scottish comic book stalwart, Desperate Dan, who now enjoys fame as a statue in Dundee, the city of his birth. Early editions of the Oor Wullie annual (started in 1940) now change hands for thousands of pounds. 
The end of smoking in restaurants, bars and all public buildings in Scotland comes into effect at 6am on Sunday, 26 March. Many bars are planning special events to mark the occasion, with at least one restaurant offering a £40 three-course meal, complete with cigars. Another restaurant is bringing back "cigarette girls" for the last evening while another restaurant has a special tobacco menu - complete with smoked shallots, smoked duck, tobacco panna cotta, fillet of char (good pun that one) and ice cream and tobacco crumble. Despite the long notice given prior to implementation, there has been a rush of planning applications for awnings and beer garden areas by pubs which have the space to set these up for smokers. Scotland has suddenly seen an explosion of pavement cafes, with smokers huddled in freezing temperatures under sun-shade umbrellas. There are also reports of a surge in enquiries at help lines from smokers who have been prompted by the ban to try to give up their addiction. Local government environmental departments have recruited additional staff to visit premises to ensure that the ban is being implemented. Smokers - and the owner of the premises - will have top pay a fine if they are caught. Owners can face a fine of £200 for allowing customers to smoke and another £200 if they do not display notices about the ban.
Perth and Kinross Council is co-ordinating a series of events for the weekend of 10/11 June to mark the 700th anniversary of the coronation of King Robert the Bruce at Scone in 1306. There will be a re-enactment of the coronation itself at Scone Palace by Isabella, Countess of Buchan, who claimed the right of her family, the Macduff Earls of Fife, to place the Scottish king on his throne. There will also be a "family fun day with a historical theme" at the North Inch (a public park beside the river Tay) in Perth itself. Other events are likely to include the 35th Perth Festival of the Arts and the Liquid Life Festival, an extreme sports event for enthusiasts who enjoy watching or competing in white water sports. (The historical connection here is a bit of a mystery).
During the Second World War, every new intake of commandos who arrived by train at Spean Bridge to start their training expected to go by army lorry to the camp at Achnacarry, seven miles away. But the trainees were all told that they would have to carry their 36lb kitbags and force-march to the camp. That was their introduction to commando training. Last Saturday, nearly 200 serving military personnel re-enacted that speed march - which had to be completed within an hour. Amongst the marchers were two former commandos who are now in their 70s (who were given a half-hour start on the rest).
Glasgow Barrowland is just finishing the creation of a new 350-seater concert hall underneath its world-famous ballroom. Called Barrowland 2, it is intended to be a venue in which rising talent will be able to perform before moving to the main hall above. The owners hope to create a second King Tut's Wah Wah Hut which has launched the careers of a number of pop stars, including Oasis. A new £10,000 sound system has been installed so the singers and bands will sound at their best. Barrowland Ballroom has been a popular centre for entertainment in Glasgow for 71 years, initially as a dance hall. A recent poll of 60 bands voted its main hall the best venue in Britain.
Over one million Scots, who are aged 60 or over, or who are disabled, became eligible for free bus travel anywhere in Scotland from 1 April (no, this is not an April Fool's Day joke). Around 80% of them already have concession cards which are valid in their local area, but the new scheme will allow them to travel anywhere in Scotland at any time. The cost to the taxpayer will be around £160 million a year. For more information, see 
The Museum of Flight at East Fortune has had a surge in visitor numbers since the arrival of the former British Airways Concorde supersonic aircraft (illustrated here). There is no doubt that the museum has created a major attraction, but that does not disguise the small number of other aircraft on view. The display of Concorde has taken over one entire hangar and the military hangar has a varied collection crammed into it. There are currently not that many civil aircraft in the third display area. But that will change later this year when the museum takes delivery of more aircraft from British Airways. One of only two British Aircraft Corporation 1-11 planes in the UK is arriving in September. This was used on flights to Europe from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports. And in May, a Vickers Viscount turbo-prop, named "Scottish Prince" will be put on display. In the past, this aircraft was based at Prestwick Airport and worked on Scottish domestic flights to Stornoway and Aberdeen. The museum is also taking delivery of a 5-metre-long front section of a US Boeing 707 jet and the cockpit of a short-haul airliner, the Hawker Siddeley Trident. The aircraft are to be part of an exhibition charting the history of passenger flights. 
Proposals to build the largest single onshore windfarm in Europe were given the green light today by the Scottish Executive. Situated at Whitelee, south of Glasgow, the ScottishPower project is claimed to be capable of generating some 322 megawatts (MW) of electricity (when the wind is blowing). It is estimated that the Whitelee facility will save some 650,000 tonnes of CO2 each year and will help to achieve the Scottish Executive target of 18% of electricity generated in Scotland to come from renewable sources by 2010, and 40% by 2020. Scotland is on target to surpass the 2010 target and the Whitelee developments equates to over 5% of the capacity needed to hit the 2020 target. The £300 million project was held up because of air traffic control issues at Glasgow airport, but a new radar facility has overcome these problems.There will eventually be 140 turbines on moorland to the west of the conservation village of Eaglesham.
The project to upgrade the Burns National Heritage Park at Alloway in Ayrshire was unveiled by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) this week. The thatched cottage where Burns was born and the attached museum, have not been properly maintained in the past. The private trust which was responsible could not raise enough funds, either from entrance charges or from central public funding bodies. There was a threat of total closure last year, when South Ayrshire Council announced that the Tam O'Shanter Experience (which provided much-needed funds for the maintenance of the cottage) was to be leased to the private sector. The National Trust has been brought in to employ their management and fund-raising skills and their plans are for an £11 million regeneration. This will see the replacement of the present multimedia Tam O’Shanter Experience (despite its popularity) with a new visitor centre and restaurant, as well as a state of the art study centre. Applications for funding have been made to the Scottish Executive and the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is hoped that the new facilities will be up and running by the 250th anniversary of the birth of Burns, in 2009.
The project to make available online the handwritten census records in Scotland from 1841 to 1901 has just been completed, with the addition of the very first census in 1841 - when the population of the country was only 2,620,184. The five-year ScotlandsPeople project was launched in 2002 and is claimed to contain the most comprehensive online set of family history information for any country in the world. It is currently one of the largest single information resources on the web. In addition to the census records, the material includes the indexes to the Old Parish Registers from 1553, indexed digital images of the statutory registers of births for Scotland, 1855-1905, the statutory registers of deaths for Scotland, 1855-1955 , the statutory registers of marriages for Scotland, 1855-1930. Wills and Testaments from 1513 to 1901 from the National Archives of Scotland are also available. There are 50 million historical records accessible from around the world. Their website has over 400,000 registered users paying to download information. See 
Plans to take the Edinburgh Military Tattoo to the United States for the first time were unveiled this week by the city's Lord Provost during his visit to New York for Tartan Week. Although talks are already underway, it will be a few years before it can be staged at a venue such as Madison Square Garden or the Yankee Stadium, probably at the same time as the annual Tartan Week. The Tattoo has already been staged overseas in recent years in New Zealand and Australia, with great success. The US project may be organised by the current Tattoo chief executive, Brigadier Melville Jamieson, who is retiring after this year's performance at Edinburgh Castle. The Brigadier led the traditional Tartan Day parade down Sixth Avenue on Saturday.
From 7th - 12th April, the 25th Edinburgh International Harp Festival features a dynamic programme, with an international line-up and Celtic nations featuring particularly strongly. Specially commissioned work features alongside more familiar favourites in a series of concerts, courses, workshops and an exhibition, all celebrating this oldest of Scottish instruments. For all the details, see 
Earlier in the year, the Scottish ski slopes had been experiencing a poor season, with hardly any snow. There were concerns about the financial survival of some of the ski resorts - then the snow arrived at the beginning of March. March was itself the coldest month in Scotland for about twenty years and although April did not continue that trend, strong northerly winds at times brought fresh falls of snow. The season has even continued into early May - for the first time in ten years. On the bank holiday last Monday, the resorts were experiencing good numbers of visitors. Although this year's skiing season has been one of the shortest on record, in the end it has proved to be a successful one. The resorts are now working hard to attract non-skiiers over the coming months to come and enjoy the mountain scenery.
American billionaire Donald Trump, who was in Scotland recently to see the proposed site of his new £274 million hotel and golf course on the coast of Aberdeenshire (see artist's impression of the club house), has agreed to promote Scotland abroad as a "GlobalScot". During his weekend in Scotland he met the Scottish First Minister, Jack McConnell, who said that the American businessman had a real passion for Scotland. As a globally recognised figure, he could help to promote Scotland and had agreed to do so. Mr Trump, more used to the phrase "You're fired" as the host of the US edition of hit TV series "The Apprentice" seemed to be pleased about hearing "You're hired." He attributes part of his success (he is estimated to be worth £1.5 billion) to his Scottish roots. Trump's mother was from Stornoway.
The news that the troubled Swan Hunter shipyard at Wallsend near Newcastle in the north of England had been put up for sale, may mean that BAE Systems shipyard at Govan on the river cLyde will inherit more work. The Glasgow yard recently launched the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel "Mounts Bay" on time and on budget, as they did with her earlier sister ship "Cardigan Bay". The warships are a group of four troop and vehicle carriers ordered for the Royal Navy, with work divided equally between Govan and Tyneside. But unlike the performance of BAE Systems on Clydeside, the English yard has been dogged by a series of delays and financial problems. They say they need more cash to finish the ship, but the Ministry of Defence is reported to have lost patience and will soon announce that the partially built ship will be towed to Clydeside to be fitted out - creating more than 200 new jobs for Glasgow.
There have been lots of odd things happening this week in Scotland. The sun was shining a lot (!) and temperatures soared above 70F. Then the Scotland football team scored five goals in an international and followed that with a 0-0 draw against Japan in the Kirin Cup, so winning the annual trophy. And then there were newspaper reports that even the trains were becoming more punctual... More than 91% of trains to the Capital arrived within five minutes of schedule last month - a big improvement on the same month last year when the figure was 66%. The flagship Edinburgh to Glasgow service produced its best performance for three years, with 97% of the trains within ten minutes of schedule. The improvement is being attributed to better track maintenance and renewed power cables making signalling more reliable.
The shortlist for the first Las Vegas-style "super casino" in Britain was announced this week and Glasgow was one of the eight UK cities to make it to that stage, the only one in Scotland. Only one site will get the eventual go-ahead and it has to be acknowledged that Blackpool in Lancashire is currently the front runner. The super-casino would have an unlimited jackpot, but licences will also be granted to another 16 locations for smaller casinos with jackpot limits of £4,000. The decision on all the applications will be made in December. Glasgow's case is helped because one of the selection criteria is that the casino should aid urban regeneration. Of course, it could be argued that Glasgow is now doing very nicely on that score, even without a gambling boom.
Soldiers from the Royal Scots, the British army regiment with the longest continuous history, marched through the streets of Edinburgh for the last time this week. After 373 years, the regiment, which had its HQ in Edinburgh Castle, is being merged with the King's Own Scottish Borderers to form the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. The salute in Princes Street was taken by Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, who is the Royal Scots' Colonel in Chief. The troops taking part in the parade wore their combat uniforms rather than ceremonial dress, in recognition of their recent tour of duty in Iraq. The motto of the Royal Scots, "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit" ("no-one dares me with impunity"), is now the motto of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland -see their crest shown here.
A new sculpture and exhibition will be unveiled in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders next week as a tribute to the pioneering work by James Hutton, regarded as the "father of geology." In 1788, at a time when many people believed the bible story that the earth was only a few thousand years old, Hutton published his "Theory of the Earth," the first book to argue that the planet must be of immense age due to the rock formations which had been laid down over millions of years. The sculpture and exhibition are on the James Hutton Trail in the Borders, which visits farms and other places associated with the Scottish geologist.
Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust has organised a series of events as part of Perthshire Archaeology Month, including a re-enactment of the infamous Battle of the Clans, which occurred on the North Inch between Clan Chattan and Clan Kay (Mackay) in 1396. To resolve a dispute between the two clans, King Robert III arranged for representatives of the two clans to meet in combat on the North Inch in Perth. Watched by the king, his courtiers and a large crowd, clan Kay was routed - supposedly only one survived, by swimming across the nearby river Tay. The month-long programme of activities being organised also includes a visit to the archaeological excavations of a prehistoric homestead near Pitlochry. The large, circular stone enclosure there is thought to date back to the Iron Age. The Heritage Trust is also launching a new publication "The Origins Of Perth: A Medieval Royal Burgh" which includes a painting depicting Perth in 1559, at the time when John Knox gave the sermon in St John's Kirk (illustrated here) which provided the momentum for the Reformation of the church in Scotland. For full details of the diary of events, see 
This year, there is a wide-ranging programme of music, song, poetry and art celebrating life and contemporary Scottish culture, set against a backdrop of, and interleaving with, the life and work of our national bard. Set in and around Ayr, the festival features world-class acts from across the musical spectrum, matched to an ambitious and innovative programme showcasing the best of contemporary and traditional Scottish culture. Takes place at various venues in Ayrshire - see 
The 2006 Bank of Scotland is the leading UK performing arts festival for children, offering an unprecedented range of theatre productions from around the world for children and young people from 1 to 14 years old. Performances take place at various venues in Edinburgh from 23rd - 29th May and then touring around Scotland from 27 May to 6 June. See 
It's usually pop stars who attract the crowds to record stores when they make a personal appearance, but this week it was young classical violinist Nicola Benedetti, from Ayrshire, who got a noisy welcome in both Glasgow and Edinburgh as she performed several of the pieces from her new CD. She plays works by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Scottish composer MacMillan in the new recording.
The original bridge across the river Forth at Kincardine, with one lane in each direction, opened in 1936 and current traffic levels of 16,000 vehicles a day are well above its design capacity. Engineers have warned that it will have to close at some stage for at least a year for major refurbishment. There are similar concerns about the main Forth Bridge further down the river, but so far there are no plans for its replacement. Surprisingly, the project for a second crossing at Kincardine has been moving forward and this week the actual work started on its construction. The new bridge, 1,200 metres long, is described as "slim and elegant" (see artist's impression) and is expected to be ready for traffic by 2008. That will allow for the refurbishment of the existing crossing, before the two operate together. Environmentalists have accepted the need for the second bridge at Kincardine but argue that this should remove the need for second crossing at South Queensferry, serving Edinburgh - the two bridges are "only" 20 miles apart, after all.
The Maggie's Centre in Dundee opened in 2003 to help support cancer sufferers and their families. The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry and its futuristic but practical layout has won it praise from the experts and the public alike. Now it has been featured on a set of stamps celebrating the best of the UK's modern architecture. The stamp was one of several issued by Royal Mail on Tuesday as part of National Architecture Week. The 42p stamp is the value used for postcards to Europe and will be used by many continental visitors to Scotland as they send their holiday postcards back home. 
A battle is raging over the remains of James Hepburn, the 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was the third husband of Mary Queen of Scots and was a major cause of her losing the throne of Scotland. If Mary had disowned Bothwell, she could still have survived as sovereign but she refused. Bothwell escaped and tried to rally support, but he was forced to flee to Scandinavia. He was captured near the Norwegian coast and he was imprisoned in Denmark. Bothwell spent the next ten years incarcerated and, perhaps understandably in the circumstances, he lost his mind before his death on April 14, 1578. His remains have lain in a Danish church ever since - and were on display as a grisly tourist attraction. Now Sir Alastair Buchan-Hepburn, a Scottish baronet descended from the earl, has joined with a lawyer and a French historian to fight for the return of the earl to his native land. But the Danes are fighting back - mainly because it is a major tourist attraction in a region that doesn't have much else going for it in that role. The Queen of Denmark is being petitioned on the matter, but the decision lies with the Church of Denmark's Zealand area committee in the small town.
The Scottish Executive has studiously ignored suggestions that there should be any commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union, which saw the merger of the English and Scottish Parliaments. But now Fife-born Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced that a new £2 coin will be issued next year to mark the event. There has been the predictable mixed reaction to the news, but historian Prof Tom Devine gave a non-partisan comment, saying "It is not necessarily something that everyone would agree should be celebrated, but because of its intrinsic historical importance to the lives of the people of Britain, it is essential that it is marked or commemorated." He added that the historical and contemporary effect of the Act of Union should be debated publicly and academically. But whoever designs the new coin will have to have the judgement of Solomon to guide him/her -and the hide of a rhinoceros to withstand the inevitable slings and arrows, whatever is produced. 
A herd of brightly painted life-size cows has been stampeding through the centre of Edinburgh recently, as 100 model cows, painted in a variety of designs by local artists, can be seen chewing the cud in streets, parks and landmarks. CowParade is billed as the world's biggest touring public art event and will run in Edinburgh to 23 July. After the event, the cows will be auctioned, with 75% of the proceeds going to charity. The fibreglass sculptures are largely of a set design with different artistic ideas painted on them - there are saltires, a glow-in-the dark "Night Moo on Blair Street" and bus routes to such places as Moorayfield, Morninghide and Portobullo. But there is also a "Three Grazers" by "Antonio Coonova" (see below) outside the Scottish National Gallery, alluding to Canova's sculpture of three women entitled the "The Three Graces" inside the gallery. There is no doubt that the sculptures are proving to be a hit with tourists, especially the kids. Their humour has also produced a lot of smiles! A special moo-mento of CowParade Edinburgh has been produced. See also 
This week Sir Sean Connery teamed up again with Harrison Ford for a special tribute to the Scots movie legend, when the American Film Institute presented its annual lifetime achievement award for a career spanning more than 40 years. Connery and Ford starred as father and son in the Indiana Jones movie, but this time they were in a more sedate performance. 75-year-old Connery was accompanied by his wife Micheline and Ford was with his girlfriend Calista Flockhart. Directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, and actors Andy Garcia and Mike Myers (sporting a kilt), were among the stars who applauded Connery's achievements. Connery commented in his speech that he got his big break when he was five years old - and it's taken 70 years to realise it. "At five I learned to read, and I would not be standing here without the books, plays and scripts."
Scotland's premier farming and food event promises this year to be even bigger and better than before. Held over four days, from 22nd to 25th June, there will be over 4,000 livestock on show and 1,000 stands selling everything from speciality foods to 4x4s. There's a wide range of entertainment and demonstrations in skills such as cookery and crafts, falconry and a fashion show.The RHS also has one of the largest car shows in the country, a varied music programme and an exciting programme of show-jumping attracting some of the top UK riders. For more information, see 