Blethering Skite

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Scotland’s ferry service must be the worst in the world. We know this because the media keep saying so. But wait! How does it compare with others around the world? Turns out it’s not so bad after all. Funny that. It’s almost as if our media has some sort of agenda. Herald writer’s cringing ignorance of the best equipped ferry service in the world – ours

Sueno's Stone is the largest and most spectacular of the many carved stones that have survived from the early medieval period in Scotland. It stands in a purpose built glass shelter on the north-eastern edge of the town of Forres beside a disused spur of road near the roundabout between the B9011 and the A96.

The most striking thing about Sueno's Stone is its enormous scale. It stands over 6.5m or 21ft high and carries intricate carvings that completely cover the front and rear faces of the stone, and its sides. The western or front side of the stone carries a huge ring headed cross, the body and surrounds of which have been filled with interlaced knotwork designs. The base of the cross is a few feet above the base of the stone, and the gap beneath it carries carvings of two bearded figures facing one another, with a smaller figure between them and others behind them.

The rear or eastern side of the stone is very different. Here you are confronted with what amounts to a Bayeux Tapestry in stone: an account of a battle told in a series of horizontal strips set within panels which are displayed one above another down the length of the stone. Similar techniques have been used elsewhere, especially on the Pictish symbol stone at Aberlemno Kirk, but it is the sheer scale of the battle being depicted, and the scale of the stone that has resulted, that makes Sueno's Stone unique

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A new exhibition looking at how folklore is an intrinsic part of life in Scotland opens tomorrow (Friday 1 November 2024) at Blackness Castle.

A new exhibition looking at how folklore is an intrinsic part of life in Scotland opens tomorrow (Friday 1 November 2024) at Blackness Castle. Drawing on images from the Historic Environment Scotland (HES) archives, ‘In the Land, of the People’ explores how folklore is woven throughout Scotland, through its landscape, its history and its people. Visitors will be taken through the landscape, the monuments, and the communities of Scotland, exploring how folklore is an ever-evolving force that has shaped and continues to shape the world we live in. Note that due to the construction of the building the exhibition is only accessible via a staircase.

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It's Common Weal's 10th birthday this week.

I still shake my head in wonder at what we've acheived in that time. Not least the 112 policy papers we've published!

Not many other think tanks - even the ones ten times our size - can say that. And we've done it without big donors, corporate sponsors or shady backroom envelopes!

See our wee celebration article here and, if you can, consider donating a few quid to keep us going for another 112 policy papers.

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Hallowe’en

The Fairies were not contented with abstracting handsome children – beautiful maidens and wives sometimes disappeared. 

“The Miller of Menstrie,” in Clackmannan, who possessed a charming spouse, had given offence to the fairy court, and was, in consequence, deprived of his fair helpmate. His distress was aggravated by hearing his wife singing in the air – 

Oh! Alva woods are bonnie, 

Tillicoultry hills are fair; 

But when I think o’ the bonnie braes o’ Menstrie, 

It mak’s my heart aye sair. 

After many attempts to procure her restoration, the miller chanced one day, in riddling some stuff at the mill-door, to use a posture of enchantment, when the spell was dissolved, and the matron fell into his arms. The wife of the Blacksmith of Tullibody was carried up the chimney, the fairies, as they bore her off, singing – 

Deidle linkum doddie; 

We’ve gotten drucken Davie’s wife, 

The smith o’ Tullibody. 

“Those snatched to Fairyland,” says Dr Buchan, “might be recovered within a year and a day, but the spell for the recovery was only potent when the fairies made, on Hallowe’en, their annual procession.”

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The University of Glasgow looking terrifying in this spooky, moonlit postcard view of around 1904 🎃

#Glasgow

Lochaber tree, named after the ceilidh band that discovered it, now in running for European Tree of the Year contest

An ancient oak named after a ceilidh band has won the UK’s tree of the year competition and will now compete in the European edition.

The Skipinnish Oak in Lochaber, Scotland, was discovered by chance by members of the band of that name who were playing a nearby gig for the Native Woodland Discussion Group.

It is in the middle of a sitka spruce timber plantation and expert delegates from the discussion group registered it in the ancient tree inventory.

The Skipinnish oak is one of the largest trees of its kind in the region, which has been populated by nonnative timber forests. It is a fragment of the ancient ecosystem, and provides a home to diverse lichens including the rare black-eyed Susan.

Carbon capture and storage project will generate FIVE times more emissions than admitted

A fossil fuel and an energy company have vastly underplayed the emissions that a proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at a gas power station in Scotland will spew out. New research has exposed that the Peterhead Power Station CCS project could in fact produce five times more than developers have admitted. This means it will generate up to a staggering 31 million tonnes of carbon emissions across its lifetime.

It will throw a spanner in the works for the UK government’s flagship plan to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. This is because it brings into sharp relief how CCS is a sham climate crisis solution and smokescreen for maintaining the polluting fossil fuel industry. In other words, it exposes that Labour’s love-in with the technology is little more than a ploy to keep the powerful sector on side, while doing little to address the climate crisis.

Examining folkloric, paranormal & cryptozoological locations in the UK and beyond

Scotland :

Compliance with the requirement to sample all Regulated supplies annually has decreased across Scotland from 66% in 2022 to 65% in 2023. A notable drop in performance was observed in the Argyll and Bute Council area, where compliance dropped from 96% to 59% (although their Regulated supplies have increased from 522 to 764). Compliance from Perth and Kinross Council also fell from 72% in 2022 to 55%. Highland and Dumfries and Galloway Councils have both slightly increased their compliance, and Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire Councils have been consistent with good compliance.

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Up the close an doon the stair Ben the hoose wi Burke an Hare Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief Knox the boy who buys the beef

—cheery wee 19th-century Edinburgh children’s skipping rhyme

Mary, Queen of Scots spent almost 20 years in captivity. She was held in various locations across Britain from 1568 until her execution on February 8 1587. 

Mary was aware that her letters were routinely read by her jailers and passed on to be scrutinised by Elizabeth I’s closest advisers, notably William Cecil. At times, she was forced to rely on clandestine techniques, including writing in invisible ink. She wrote that “although such artifices be very hazardous and vulgar, they will serve me in extreme necessity”.

Mary also used complex ciphers to disguise the contents of her correspondence, especially when she wished to discuss plots designed to set her free. Hundreds of her coded letters survive in different forms (as copies, translations, and originals), many of them from supporters who were directly involved in schemes including the Babington plot of 1586, which aimed to assassinate Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary.

Halloween is now celebrated globally, but its origins and customs come from a wide range of cultural influences.

Trick or Treat

There are conflicting theories on the origin of this popular tradition. The truth is likely to be a combination of all of these. Firstly, during Samhain, food would be left out as offerings to wandering souls who walked the earth at night. In time, merrymakers began to dress as these spirits in exchange for small food offerings. The German-American tradition of belsnickeling also saw people dressing in ghoulish costumes and going door-to-door. In this tradition, those who answered would have to guess who was disguised and then give a small offering if they were wrong. 

This is reminiscent of the Scottish practice of ‘guising’ (or ‘souling’). Mostly children (although poorer adults were recorded to have taken part also) would go door-to-door, in costume, offering prayers for the dead on All Souls’ Day. Over time, the prayers evolved into jokes, tricks, songs and other entertainment in return for money or food. The practice of trick-or-treating remains popular today, particularly in the United States.

New research has revealed the "most haunted" cities in Scotland based on factors such as reports of paranormal activity - and first place is neither Edinburgh or Glasgow.

According to the experts, Aberdeen is the most haunted city in both Scotland and the UK. The port city was found to have 233 memorials and 41.1 vacant properties per 10,000 people.

Alan Boswell Group found that the Granite City has had 20 reports or paranormal activity, or 0.11 per 10,000 people. The experts also state that Aberdeen has 118 homes that were built before 1918 for every 10,000 residents.

In terms of particular spooky buildings in Aberdeen, the 19th-century Norwood Hall Hotel has earned a reputation amongst locals and visitors alike for strange goings-on. According to legend, the ghosts of former owner James Ogston, his wife, and his mistress roam the hotel — in particular its dining room and main staircase.

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The Scotland Channel

Believe in Scotland in a nutshell - We campaign for Scottish independence.

We are a collaborative movement of 142 local and national independence campaign groups. A fully democratic campaign with 33 elected members to our National Campaign Steering Group truly representative of the grassroots Scottish independence movement.

What makes us different is that we are 100% non-party political and focussed on reaching outside of the social media Yes bubble, reaching the undecided with positive messages on independence. 

Our Goal is to make Scotland become an independent nation. We believe that independence is the only way to make Scotland a fairer, greener, wealthier, healthier, happier and more successful country.

Our Mission is to help the grassroots movement professionalise, to educate and engage, raise funds, and access materials that will help them reach both undecided and open minded No voters. 

Here are just a few of the highlights of Believe in Scotland’s independence campaigning and educational activities in the last twelve months.

In Arthur and the distinctive genre of literature that had grown up around the celebration and adaption of his mythical exploits, King Edward I of England found not only a role model but a political tool every bit as puissant as the legendary king himself. Through the conscious emulation and glorification of the Arthurian ideal, King Edward would come within a hair’s breadth of matching Arthur’s legacy, the unification and domination of the British Isles. In chasing the specter of a manifest destiny swathed in the trappings of Arthurian iconography, Edward formalized and enshrined the hegemonic and imperial inclinations of his predecessors, fundamentally altering the way in which England related to its neighbours.

The Ministry of Defence has blocked the Scottish Government’s environmental watchdog from releasing information about radioactive pollution from the Clyde nuclear bomb bases for the last nine years.

Emails released under freedom of information (FoI) law reveal that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) asked the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) not to publish information about “environmental issues with radioactivity” at Faslane and Coulport near Helensburgh to protect “national security”.

A Team Of Archaeologists Uncover Scotland’s Oldest Pictish Fort | Digging For Britain

Edinburgh’s High Riggs and Leith jobcentres are breaking benefits law! They are flouting “Transitional protection” provisions for disabled and sick claimants on Employment and Support Allowance.

All claimants are being transferred from “legacy benefits” like Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to Universal Credit. By law ESA claimants keep their “not fit for work” status and automatically receive disability-related payments in Universal Credit. But through our solidarity activity in accompanying claimants, ECAP has learnt that High Riggs jobcentre in Edinburgh have been illegally trying to force such claimants to obtain a “Fit Note” from their GP and then go through a “work capability assessment”. (The Work Capability Assessment decides whether a claimant is to be judged fit to seek employment or not.)

Claimants report Leith and High Riggs jobcentres are both doing this – and it is very likely that jobcentres Britain-wide are denying ESA claimants’ rights in this way. This potentially affects over a million claimants on ESA.

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Robert Burns called Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) “my elder brother in the Muse”. In this podcast, Prof Rhona Brown & Dr Amy Wilcockson share their insights into Fergusson’s life, works & legacy – listen free online, & hear extracts of his work read by Billy Kay & James Robertson

This alert is for coastal flooding. Due to high water levels and some waves there is a risk of flooding from the sea to low lying areas from Thursday evening onwards. The situation is likely to worsen at the week end. Remain vigilant and remember, it is your responsibility to take actions which help protect yourself and your property. Advice and information is available…

Scotland is on the brink of discovering if a just transition away from fossil fuels will be a reality or just a slogan. There is a plan for Grangemouth, Scotland’s only oil refinery, to become a world-leading hub for sustainable aviation fuels.

But the biofuels market doesn't yet exist at scale. It requires the UK government to shape it, providing a price floor for Sustainable Aviation Fuel, so as to reduce investor risk.

If Scotland were an independent country it would be able to focus on this as a national priority. As it is, the Scottish government has no power over energy regulation. It has to sit on its hands and wait for Westminster, which has so often shown itself indifferent to Scotland’s needs, to act

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Scotland’s ferries are a national disgrace, right? We know because the #Media, especially the #BBC, constantly tell us so. But wait a moment. Take a look at some comparisons on pricing, age of fleet, reliability & public subsidies. Read this piece & you might start to think the media are being very economical with the truth.

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Robert Burns called Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) “my elder brother in the Muse”. In this podcast, Prof Rhona Brown & Dr Amy Wilcockson share their insights into Fergusson’s life, works & legacy – listen free online, & hear extracts of his work read by Billy Kay & James Robertson