Latest Blog Posts for Living with Clans and Castles

• Flodden 1513
  on May 5, 2016
  The most recent Scots Heritage Magazine has a piece on the feud between the Montgomery and Cunningham families in the 15th/16th centuries. It's a depressing story but I read it anyway: castles burned with folk inside them, a parade of individuals amb...
• The Scots who migrated to Bath.
  on Jan 6, 2016 in Charles Lockhart of Muiravonside. First Lord Cawdor Margaret Pringle of Stichill Scots in Bath
  The mineral-rich hot springs of Bath, Somerset, England still bubble away, as they did in Roman times. As they did in 1687 when Mary of Modena, wife of James II, visited there desperately hoping for a healthy child and nine months later James, father...
• General Hugh Mercer: Jacobite, Doctor, Symbol of the American Revolution
  on Dec 29, 2015
  General Hugh Mercer was a Jacobite who fought at the Battle of Culloden (1746) as a 20 year old surgeon and died as a general in George Washington's Continental Army, fatally wounded at the Battle of Princeton in 1777, now aged 51. Washington said of...
• Clashing Cultures
  on Aug 6, 2015 in Aliab Dinka Alistair Moffat Outlander TV series Paullinus
  I watched episode nine of the Outlander TV series last night... where Jamie takes his belt to Claire for her disobedience: "You've done wrong to all the men and you must suffer for it". She then twice makes him promise, at the point of a dirk, never...
• Gallipoli 1915 and Culloden 1746
  on Jul 12, 2015
  My adopted town of Hawick remembers its dead. In May I visited the Gallipoli peninsular, scene of a disastrous campaign in 1915. At the great Helles Memorial to those who died, a marble plaque from the town commemorates the Hawick fallen, and each ye...
• Scotland says 'No'. But now that you're listening...
  on Sep 23, 2014
  So what should those outside these shores make of our Independence Referendum?In short, the 'No' vote won but we are now in a much better position  - with more devolution on the way - than we were a month ago.Much passion has been generated and...
• Come home to Scotland!
  on Jun 29, 2014
  How lucky we are in Scotland to have a colourful and vibrant clan culture to underpin our tourism industry! But are we looking after our Diaspora?...making it easy for folk to find and enjoy the experiences that they seek?Yesterday I was at the very...
• Rewriting the Battle of Bannockburn
  on Apr 27, 2014 in Bannockburn Maid of Norway
  I am Edward II of England, facing King Robert of Scotland, played by the Chief Guide at the Bannockburn Centre. It was an interesting encounter: I led my cavalry straight into his foul calthrop trap but he was so keen to protect his king (yes, it's a...
• What is a 'Broken Clan'?
  on Mar 6, 2014 in Broken clan broken men Chief of the Name and Arms of Cunninghame Glengregor
  Clan Cunningham website announces jubilantly, "We are no longer a broken clan!".Indeed there is now a Chief of the Name and Arms of Cunninghame (sic) which, after 218 years without one, is good news.A chief-less clan is often cited as 'brok...
• When is a castle not a castle?
  on Jan 19, 2014
  A castle is advertised for sale. So I took a look.Cavers Castle (or maybe Cavers House?) in its prime.Cavers Castle, a tower house of the Black Douglas, was destroyed by the English in 1545, remodelled in the 1750s and much extended in 1887. It has b...

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