Haggis Neeps & Tatties Highland Coo
An attempt at an alternative way to present haggis neeps and tatties, what do you think?
#Scotland #VisitScotland #scottish #scottishfood #scotlandhighlands #highlandcow #highlandcows #highlandcow
In awe of the natural curiosity of these wonderful sea mammals.
A Moray Firth bottlenose dolphin came to have a look at what the land mammals were doing in the water.
🐬🚤🐬
Christmas Cow
Festive cheer with a splendid cow and an unexpected Christmas card!
This is Thomas Frame in 1906, a grazier and dairyman from North Quarter Farm in Lanarkshire. Thomas chose to pose with his beautiful cow for his Christmas card picture. Though at the time this photo was taken, he had a large family of children and grandchildren, he decided to feature his cow instead.
This spectacular cow came 2nd in the 1906 Hamilton Christmas Show in the Ayrshire Cow category and 2nd in the Best Animal Fed by Exhibitor Category.
However, she came 1st place for Mr Frame's Christmas card, and 1st place in our hearts. She has a smooth creamy coat with noble hazelnut patches, dainty horns, and is a truly stunning Christmas cow.
Be prepared for everything when in rural parts of the Highlands & Islands, as help can be very far away. Changing a flat tyre is all part of the adventure!
This exhibition was my first time seeing these wee coffins in real life.
In June 1836, a group of boys went hunting for rabbits on the slopes of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. It was not rabbits they discovered, but a mysterious miniature cemetery.
Hidden behind some slabs of rock, they found 17 little coffins and their uncanny inhabitants.
You can view the surviving artefacts at the National Museum of Scotland now as part of a larger exhibition examining medical history.
If you are interested in visiting the Anatomy: A Matter of Death and Life exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland then book now! https://www.nms.ac.uk/anatomy
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St Kilda: A Song From a Sea Cave
🌊🌬⛵️New episode out about St Kilda Life & Lore!
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Evelyn Heathcote wrote of her 1899 visit to St Kilda, where a storm drove her to spend a night on a wee boat in a sea cave. She describes experience of Gaelic worship:
“There was no possibility of landing the boat now: the waves were dashing over the rocks where we had stood, and the spray was flying hundreds of feet higher —or, at least, appeared to do so from our lowly position in the sea!
We had to round the next headland, and then gliding suddenly under that mighty precipice we found ourselves in complete shelter. A few moments later we slipped under a lofty archway into a great cave.
Here was absolute calm and silence, save for the murmur of the swell echoing into the depths of our cavern. We now had perfect shelter from wind and rain. Indeed, it seemed almost impossible to believe that a furious storm was raging outside. Here the men said we could remain so long as the wind held its present quarter.
Soon after supper a most impressive scene occurred. Norman McKinnon, the youngest of our boatmen, and the only one who " has the English," turned to us and said: " Now we are going to make worship." Hats were removed, and the elder men offered up a few prayers very earnestly and reverently, after which all sang together some Psalms in Gaelic. Never could the most beautiful music in the grandest cathedral raised by human hands sound half so solemn or half so devotional as that quaint old chant sung under such weird circumstances. The notes appeared to linger and echo in the very depths of the cave; and the untrained voices seemed to murmur a grand chorale.”
We tried to recreate this cave the best we could! It was a really fun soundscape to play with. The song in the video is Psalm 68 and we’ll pop a link to it in the contents. Ref- Contributor: John MacLeod, Fieldworker: Thorkild Knudsen, SA1963.44.A2, The School of Scottish Studies Archives, Universi
Today is the 140th anniversary of the Battle of the Braes.
So what was the Battle of the Braes? It was a community of Skye crofters defending their rights to live & work land.
The tenants of Skye were terribly impacted by landlords clearing estates. Many had been moved to overcrowded areas of the coast to make space for sheep & deer farms.
This meant that every piece of land they could work had value. Shared grazing was an important part of this.
Shared grazing was a traditional practice that had been handed down for generations. The crofters of the Braes had shared grazing on the hill of Ben Lee until Lord MacDonald decided to rent it to a sheep farmer in 1865. This plunged the community into further poverty.
When this lease ran out in 1882, the crofters petitioned MacDonald to return Ben Lee to shared grazing. He refused & so they went on rent strike.
MacDonald sent a Sheriff Officer with summons of evictions. The crofters made the Sheriff burn these summons.
The law came down unreasonably harsh, sending 50 police from Glasgow to arrest the people they branded ring leaders of the strikes. The police attempted a dawn raid, arrived at Portree at 3am on 19th April 1882.
When they marched to Portree, they were met by about 100 crofters.
Women, men & children were armed with sticks & stones, trying to defend their place on the land. The police made arrests & a skirmish ensued. The folks of the braes threw stones, the police charged them with batons.
Many were injured.
Though prisoners were taken, their fines were paid by supporters & they returned to Skye to a heroes welcome.
This inspired other crofters to defend their place on the land. It lead to the Crofters Act in 1886, the first step in land reform for Scotland.
Land is at the heart of economic & cultural survival for the Highlands & Islands communities.
Is treasa tuath na tighearna!
Many thanks to Iona Fyfe for recording this lovely wee tune for us!
Battle of the Braes
Land is at the heart of economic & cultural survival for the Highlands & Islands communities, which is why we should never forget the Battle of the Braes.
With the 140th anniversary in a couple of days, we've just made a new episode exploring the history of the crofters on the Braes. Wonderfully skilled Scots singer Iona Fyfe kindly sung a beautiful version of this archive tune, recorded for the first time since written in 1882!
Scuptor’s Cave, Moray
Last week Annie camped near Sculptor’s Cave in Covesea!
This is one of our favourite places in the world, where we worked on our earliest podcast episodes.
Scottish Halloween Turnip Lantern Surprise
🎃💀 My favourite part of Halloween in Scotland is carving neeps to make tumshie lanterns! (In Gaelic these vegetables are snèap, in England they are swedes, they are also called rutabaga, yellow turnip or winter turnip.)
Sometimes a carved neep is a beautiful new friend you’ve invited into your home...
But sometimes they get a little bit too scary!
How do I sleep tonight knowing that this monstrosity is downstairs?👻🎃
Schiehallion: the Mountain that Weighed the World
Annie and Jenny hike up Schiehallion, one of Scotland’s most famous peaks. This astounding mountain is home to world changing history. This episode includes an oral history with a squeaky rocking chair. Located in the heart of Scotland, Schiehallion was the site of an intricate experiment that weighed the world. It’s unique conical shape drew astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and geologists together in the 18th century to calculate the earth’s mass for the first time, causing an earthquake in the warring schools of geology.
Mountaineering in the Scottish Highlands can be dangerous, especially in the winter, but an excerpt from the Scottish Mountaineering Journal opens up the Scottish Wilderness and all it’s beauty during this time.
Stories of Scotland is an award-winning Scottish history podcast, proudly recorded in the Highlands. We research our heritage and mythology podcast using archives, books, museum objects, and oral histories from across Scotland.
You can support Stories of Scotland on Patreon! www.patreon.com/storiesofscotland
References:
CA Sage, Schiehallion Poem, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1910.
James G Scott (Contributor), Calum Iain Maclean (Fieldworker), SA1958.99, The School of Scottish Studies Archives, University of Edinburgh. (https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/37020)
John Sinclair, Schiehallion: A Posy of Rannoch Poesy, Stirling, 1905.
Herbert Trench (published by name FHT), Schiehallion poem, Westminster Gazette, 1897.
Burns Night Special Podcast: Hilarious Haggis
North-East Corner: A 1946 Central Office of Information Film
Eriskay: A poem of remote lives
Bonnie Buttery Butteries of Aberdeen
