Scotland

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/13015132

A Shetland woman has been telling how a search for a gene variant alerted her to her breast cancer diagnosis.

Christine Glaser, from Whalsay, had been a participant in Viking Genes, a research project that looked at the genetic make up of people from the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

Since those tests were taken, the understanding of the significance of certain genes has improved and last year geneticists sought special permissions to go back to those who took part in the study to ask if they wanted to know their results.

Although she had lost a sister to ovarian cancer, the family was unaware many of them carried a BRCA 2 gene variant that increased their risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.

Christine’s cancer was caught early and successfully treated.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12822375

Secondary school pupils have created a comic which shares some of the unique historical stories of Scotland’s oldest Highland regiment.

For the past three months, a group of 30 Perth Grammar School pupils have been putting pen to paper and bringing history to life, detailing seven stories from within the city’s Black Watch Castle and Museum.

The finished product is a colourful 12-page comic book, which will be made available to visitors through the summer holidays.

First year pupil Holly Harrold told STV News: “We started off by getting a sheet of questions, and we went through them on our phones and laptops and researched (the story).

“Then we sketched out a base idea on some plain paper, then wrote what we were going to say about it.”

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The collaboration between the museum, school and developing the young workforce has been described as “groundbreaking”.

Funded by Museum Galleries Scotland, the partnership is aimed at inspiring the next generation of heritage enthusiasts.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12796407

It is a land of mire, mist and midges that could soon be awarded a special status among the planet’s wild habitats. In a few weeks, Unesco is set to announce its decision on an application to allow the Flow Country in north Scotland to become a world heritage site.

Such a designation is only given to places of special cultural, historical or scientific significance and would put this remote region of perpetual dampness on the same standing as the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon and the Pyramids.

The Flow Country straddles Caithness and Sutherland in the most northerly part of the British Isles and is the largest area of blanket bog in the world. Covering 4,000 sq km, it is also home to a remarkable range of wildlife that includes the black-throated diver, golden plover, greenshank, golden eagle, merlin and short-eared owl, as well as otters and water voles.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12348267

A study by students from the University of the Highlands and Islands has revealed that a promontory in the Loch of Wasdale in Firth, Orkney, could be the remains of an ancient crannog.

A crannog is a partially or entirely artificial island, typically built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland from the prehistoric period onward

Despite significant variations in methodology, most crannogs on mainland Scotland were built by driving timber piles into the loch bed and filling the interior with peat, brush, stones, or timber to create a solid foundation.

In largely treeless regions like the Western Isles, these island dwellings utilised a diverse mix of natural, artificially enlarged, or entirely artificial islets.

The discovery was made by students from the UHI Archaeology Institute, who were conducting test-pitting on a promontory at the northern end of the Loch of Wasdale.

According to a press statement by UHI: “It appears as an islet on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map. Little is known about the site, but the fact the shoreside edges appear to show the remains of walling led to the suggestion it may be a crannog.”

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The test-pitting revealed large quantities of cairn-like rubble, in addition to more structural remains or a stone surface, indicating that the entire promontory/islet is artificial.

Martin Carruthers, a lecturer at UHI, said: “A structure made up of some very large masonry seems to lurk at the heart of the cairn makeup. Constructing this ‘monument’ must have been a very substantial undertaking.”

“In terms of artefacts, apart from some later post-medieval glazed pottery, we recovered a single worked flint, probably a ‘thumbnail’ scraper, which is most likely later Neolithic in date,” added Carruthers.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11681223

Do you believe in Joe Hendry? From a wrestler's entrance music to beating artists like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Dasha, it seems yes, the public do believe in Joe Hendry.

The Scottish professional wrestler saw his song 'I Believe in Joe Hendry' reach number four in the official charts, in what he describes as a "series of fortunate random events".

Now the 36-year-old from Edinburgh is considering his next move - whether projecting his face on the Las Vegas Sphere or writing a song for the first minister of Scotland.

Hendry, who is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), was a musician for a decade before becoming a wrestler.

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Hendry not only has the support of the wrestling community, his family have his back too.

Drew Hendry, the SNP MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, is his uncle.

He said: "It’s been cracking to see the wrestling community and the wider public get behind Joe, he’s absolutely deserving of the top spot.

"I’ve always believed in him."

Joe has even offered his musical services to the new first minister.

"If John Swinney had given me enough notice, we could have done 'I Believe in John Swinney' for him, that would have been no problem," he said.

The song.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11679178

Wrestling fans have hit out at "extortionate" ticket prices for WWE's first ever Scottish pay-per-view show, Clash at the Castle.

The "premium live event" comes to Glasgow's OVO Hydro venue on 15 June.

The cheapest tickets cost £300, with premium tickets more than £2,000.

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A WWE spokesperson told BBC Scotland News that some tickets had been on sale at lower price point across two nights at the venue.

However, they declined to give details of how many of these tickets were available or how many had sold.

Journalist Ross Brady, who has followed WWE to events in London, Cardiff and New Orleans, said he was not able to find a ticket for less than £300.

He said: "The first prices that went up were for combo tickets of around £330, so I waited for the event on the Saturday and it was £303.50 for just the single ticket.

My wife and I are looking to have a vacation in Scotland and we're trying to figure out what we should plan. We are American but don't care for tourists traveling. I love to feel a more realistic local experience. My favorite memories of our Ireland trip are small town pubs and rural scenic places. The museums like the one in Trinity College was good too. I enjoyed walking the backstreets of Dublin and finding the Stags Head pub.

Thank you for any advice.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11208456

The Inverclyde Time Teamers, say they have found a previously unrecorded prehistoric hut circle, dating from between 1200BC and 500AD on the moors, just under a mile north east of Haylie viewpoint

Two of the detectives, Stephen McAllister and Allan Kinniburgh, were surveying the piece of land during Sunday afternoon after aerial photographs and computerised mapping and scanning equipment indicated it was a possible hotspot.

Stephen said: “Our target presented as circular structure with a very well defined raised outline, approximately 10 metres across.

"We thought it might have been a sheep ree, remnants of an Iron Age defensive dun or a prehistoric enclosure.

“Having had a closer inspection, and comparing this with similar structures we have visited or discovered, we have a very high level of confidence in announcing this as something that looks like a previously unrecorded prehistoric dwelling or hut circle find.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11120995

Bonfires, blazing torches, body-painted dancers, drummers, jugglers, musicians, fire-eaters, ancient Celtic rituals and a spectacular backdrop.

No, it’s not a scene from cult film The Wicker Man.

It’s what you can expect at the annual Beltane Fire Festival taking place in Edinburgh capital this week.

Beltane is held each year on the last day of April, continuing overnight into May Day, to mark the arrival of summer and celebrate new life and fertility.

The event, which first began in 1988 as a protest against rave laws and a way to reclaim green spaces, includes modern interpretations of rituals and customs with roots dating back to the Iron Age. And fire. Lots of fire.

The May Queen, as her name implies, presides over the show, guiding a procession of drummers and performers around the city’s landmark Calton Hill and acting out healing rites.

During her journey she interacts with the Green Man in ceremonies symbolising the birth of summer.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/10167016

Proposals for a massive solar farm near Coylton are a step closer after South Ayrshire Council offered no objection to the plan.

Objectors had slammed the plans for 100,000 solar panels, which will generate 85 megawatts of electricity and fill an area the equivalent of 15 football pitches, claiming it would damage the protected ecology of the area close to Martnaham Loch.

But councillors on the Regulatory Panel were concerned that the amount of cash being proposed for community benefit was just a tenth of that agreed with wind farms in the area.

The Scottish Government’s Energy Consent Unit makes the final decision on the application, with the council a statutory consultee.

Independent councillor Alec Clark asked an agent for the applicant Locogen for the amount of community money being put up by the company for each megawatt of electricity generated.

He was told that, over the 40 year operation of the facility, £500 would be given per megawatt. This totals around £22,500 each year.

Cllr Clark was not impressed by the figures and said: “I would suggest that that is a very low level of community benefit. I am quite acquainted with the many wind farms we have around South Ayrshire, especially in the Carrick district, and the minimum community benefit there is £5000 per megawatt.”

JK Rowling has challenged Scotland's new hate crime law in a series of social media posts - inviting police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence.

The Harry Potter author, who lives in Edinburgh, described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.

She said "freedom of speech and belief" was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.

Earlier, Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said the new law would deal with a "rising tide of hatred".

According to reports in The Scottish Sun, Fritzl has said that if does get out, he wants to move to the Highlands because of its “spectacular scenery”.

He got the idea after watching a documentary about Shakespeare in his high-security prison.

He said: “I was filled with this wonderful, uplifting feeling, this sense of inspiration for this fantastic culture.

“And it was then I knew that when I get released, it is not Austria I want to stay, rather I want to emigrate to the UK.

“Above all I want to roam free on the wild Highlands of Scotland.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/4742834

Footage captures the moment a “hybrid panther” is seen stalking through the Scottish countryside.

At least, that is according to Gordon Welsh, 50, who was walking along a road near Blackdog, Aberdeenshire, when he spotted the animal.

Mr Welsh, from Aberdeen, says the beast spotted was the size of a greyhound – if not bigger – and was “solid looking”.

He is one of Britain’s big cat believers, who claim that the UK has its own wild population of large felids – like panthers and pumas.

“From the way it was moving, the tail size and that, it was slightly like a panther, but it could be a crossbreed,” Mr Welsh said of the animal.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/4711678

SOMETIME AROUND THE 1980S, MAYBE, a rough, yellow-tinged piece of fabric, slightly larger than a placemat, was pulled from a peat bog in Glen Affric, Scotland. The cloth is a swatch of tartan, the fabric associated with Scottish kilts, featuring the telltale interlocked stripes of various sizes and colors. (The term also applies to the pattern, which many know as plaid. But not all plaids are tartan, and to add to the confusion, in Scotland a plaid is a long piece of tartan that is pleated and wrapped around the body.) How and when this fabric, now known as the Glen Affric tartan, found its way into the peat is a bit of a mystery, and now, researchers are starting to unravel its checkered past, one that places it in a unique position in Scottish cultural and sartorial history.

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While who wore it is uncertain, how it ended up in the bog—where anoxic conditions preserved it—is a bigger mystery. “The really intriguing question, apart from who it belonged to, was what were the circumstances that led to it? It wasn’t just dropped,” he says. “It’s obviously a deliberate act. Was it sacrificial? Was it murder? Was it ceremonial? All of those things are open to question because there are no other elements associated with the find that can help us with that.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3437128

A 'killer clown' has scoffed at police - saying they’ll never catch him. The creepy character, wearing a Pennywise-style outfit - complete with scary mask and make-up - has been leaving red balloons dotted around the village of Skelmorlie in North Ayrshire in recent weeks.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3178946

A hoard of coins believed to have belonged to a Highland clan chief who was murdered in the Glencoe Massacre were discovered hidden under a fireplace during an archaeological dig.

The 17th century hoard of 36 coins included international currency, and was hidden beneath the remains of a grand stone fireplace at a site which was believed to have been a hunting lodge or feasting hall.

The site was associated with Alasdair Ruadh “MacIain” MacDonald of Glencoe, clan chief from 1646-1692, who was a victim of the Glencoe Massacre along with members of his family.

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Artefacts discovered at “the summerhouse of MacIain”, included European pottery, and silver and bronze coins, dating from the 1500s to 1680s, during a University of Glasgow dig in August.

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Historians believe whoever buried the coins may have been massacred as they did not return for them.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2723672

Millar was not alone in expressing derision at the advert, part of the “Made in the UK, sold to the world” campaign run by the Department for Business and Trade.

It depicts Dennis and Gnasher alongside the headline “Created in London. Unleashed in more than 100 countries” and in smaller print clarifies that it is referring to the animated television series produced from DC Thomson’s Fleet Street office.

But this distinction did not lessen the ire of many Beano fans, who on X described the advert variously as “insulting”, “disrespectful” and “predictable”.

Chris Law, the Scottish National party MP for Dundee West, called the campaign “cultural appropriation” and “utter garbage”. “Perhaps before the UK government start appropriating local Dundee created characters in the Beano they ought to do a bit of basic research,” he said.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2672885

A galaxy far, far away came a little closer to home today after the dramatic landscapes of Coigach and Assynt took centre stage in the new episode of the Star Wars show Ahsoka.

Eagle-eyed residents of Wester Ross and Sutherland were left gobsmacked when the latest episode dropped on Wednesday morning when the instantly recognisable silhouettes of Suilven and Stac Pollaidh – and the dramatic lochans and knockans of the wider area – popped up on screen.

And the famous mountains' appearances were no fleeting, 'blink and you'll miss it' quick cuts either – with both them and the wider landscape playing an integral role not just in creating the atmosphere that permeates the entire episode, but even as key settings in the action.

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Although today's episode marks the first time that Star Wars filming has visited the far north, it is not Scotland's first appearance in the blockbuster franchise. Ben Cruachan, its famous hydro-power reservoir and the landscape in the immediate area played a very prominent role across a three-episode arc in the first series of Star Wars show Andor, which aired last year and is available now on Disney+

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2609822

A Scottish artist is drawing young people into the world of art by meeting them on their own territory.

Rachel Maclean has exhibited across the world, in Venice and at the National Galleries of Scotland.

But by taking over vacant shops on Scottish High Streets, she is pulling in a new young audience.

Mimi is the colourful character created by Maclean for the Edinburgh sculpture park Jupiter Artland in 2021.

The ambitious work was her first combining architecture and animation.

She always envisaged a spin-off work, which would tour Scottish High Streets and take over empty shops.

Now, the reality is Don't Buy Mi - a surreal toy shop where nothing is for sale and all the items come from Maclean's dark imagination - decaying dolls with a demonic feel, upside-down boxes, signs and a dark animated film.