I highly recommend visiting this museum in the very center of Edinburgh. It has all different kinds of art and it’s fun to walk-through.
Edinburgh Art Gallery- Scotland
north Shetland Islands – Scotland
Scotland – the Picts
many carved Christian stones were erected in the British Isles between 700 and 800AD. Slabs like this one, however, are only found around the east coast of the northern half of Scotland. They were commissioned, designed and sculpted by elite members of Pictish tribes. Who were these people and what do we know of them? During the 6th and 7th centuries AD, the art of the Picts was to incise geometric and animal symbols onto boulders. In the 8th century their sculpture changed. They completely covered both surfaces of large stone slabs with carved designs, including a Christian cross. Fine Pictish metalwork, mainly in silver, has also been found but ittle else has survived. However, churchmen and poets from other nations wrote and spoke of them, so we do know something more about the Picts. These people were not invaders or incomers. They were descendants of the Celts who had lived in this country for over 1,000 years. The Picts were a grouping of small tribes living in the northern half of Scotland during the first thousand years AD. They were farmers, sailors, hunters and craftsmen who used many raw materials, including metals, wood and leather. Although we have not found Pictish farmhouses, byers or barns in Easter Ross, we know that they existed because place-names like Pitcalzean and Pitcalnie have survived.
Brochs. The large standing cylinders groups occupied.
The Norsemen came here in the 9th Century AD and gave us the names ‘Skelbo’ (‘scelbol’ – shell stead) and broch’ (‘borg’ – a strong fortified place), but the broch builders who lived here, were the people of the Iron Age. We are not sure if these stone towers were only built for defence – to keep people safe during an attack from invaders. On earlier maps, brochs were often called ‘Pictish Towers’. A Roman called Ptolemy recorded the names of the Iron Age tribes and the people were called ‘Picti’ – the painted ones. The map shows the location of all the broch sites in the north. Only a few brochs were built further south. Perhaps they were status symbols and built to impress?
Scotland – the amazing West
the west of Scotland, on toured the Isle of skye, it’s such a beautiful area and very rural with few towns so very different from any populated areas in Scotland. The driving is mostly typical two-way roads which are actually one way with paved bubbles what local cars to slow down, stop and then pass. Be careful driving there. On one side you wind up in a bog and the other side you wind up down the hill or in the ocean. But it’s so beautiful it’s worth the challenge.
Bressay – a Small Shetlands Island
Bressay is this small island just a few minutes ferry ride from Lerwick, the main city in the Shetlands
Shetlands, Scotland day three. UNST
on this island which is almost the north most of the Shetlands group you have a chance to see what people 6000 years ago before the pyramids.
It is said to mark the spot where the son of Viking Harold Harfager was killed around 900AD. Human remains and armour were allegedly found in a cairn to the south west.
Fraser (Frisel) Castle Scotland
if you have been watching “outlander” you are familiar with the Fraser family. What I learned is that more than 1000 years ago in France someone offered the king strawberries, maybe which they grew. The king gave them the name open “strawberry” in French which became Frisel when the family moved to Normandy. And 1000 years ago they went to Scotland to fight the Danes and were duly knighted given land by the local Lord near Aberdeen. They change the name to Fraser and started this castle with just the main tower. It is now kept with its Fraser family contents exactly as they were since the last owner decided to give the castle to the national trust. It is one of the best examples of Scottish history in its original place.
Shetland Islands, Scotland day 2
the main island in the Shetlands was referred to a couple people as “the mainland” even though we had a 10 hour ferry ride from the mainline of Scotland. It’s cold and very windy here with occasional rain, just the reason I came here, for the weather. It’s a great place to get away from the tropical heat.
shetlands – Scotland Day 1
the Shetland Islands are the northernmost part of Scotland and therefore the northernmost part of the UK. For 50 years I wanted to have the time to make it up there. So now I do it. Frankly, I am looking for windy, cloudy bad weather to fulfill my image of the islands.
Inverness – Scotland
this is a very beautiful city with the very famous attractions of Loch Ness and Culloden’s Moor more where are they Scots loyalty Prince Charlie and the Catholic Church tried to claim the throne of the union and failed. Toward the bottom or the photos of Culloden.
Culloden’sMoor
What I did not quite understand is how anyone could think to fight a battle in a moor. Some description here indicates some of the advancing Scot’s got stuck in the mud. You can see from the landscape this is not a place to have a battle. Evidently many people advised Charlie to retreat and reform to fight in a different place but he refused. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know But if you visit this place I’m sure you will also be astonished at how difficult this place would’ve been to think of a victory especially with the high-tech weapons on the English side employed by the brother of the king of England, George II. There are a few links below that will help you understand the history.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jacobite-British-history
https://www.wrongsideoftheblanket.com/stuart-family-tree
