#bonnie Scotland

[sgiandubh]

I always read the comments on Sam's posts, because some are very cringe and that sometimes amuses me. Well, on a post by Sam on March 24th, there was a comment from a guy called Steve, from what I saw on his profile (when it was still open) he's a guy who lives in Glasgow and he's a climber, on his profile he had several photos of indoor climbing and outdoor climbing. In the comment he said that he saw Sam early in the morning in a park walking with what must have been Sam's little nephew, but he didn't approach because he was with his little daughter and the daughter was having a tantrum because she didn't want to go home. A fake account (without a photo and with a meaningless name) then asked him if who he saw with Sam was a child, because Sam's nephew is a young man. He responded the boy was approximately his daughter's age (three years old) and definitely a toddler. Then the sock account said it wasn't Sam and he replied that he was sure it was Sam. The fake account responded to him aggressively. When I saw the whole story, I left a message on his profile explaining why that fake account was being so aggressive towards him. He thanked me, made his profile private and deleted the comments he made. I don't know if someone took a print, but I thought it was very strange that Sam is walking very early in the morning in a park with a toddler. But I don't know if his brother has other children so I was keeping this to myself 🤷‍♀️.

Dear (returning) Spring Morning in the Park Anon,

I have been sitting on your submission since exactly...

I have nothing to add to it, except your returning submission, which I think is so damn satisfying and comforting. I will black out the geotagging reference, though, for reasons I do hope everyone will understand easily:

And then I was watching something molto divertente on RAI 1, was very well disposed and decided, on a whim, to publish it. What the hell.

Have a wonderful week-end.

[yourcoffeeguru]

Vintage Bronzed Brass Bonnie Scotland Thistle Shape Souvenir Trinket Dish || SWtradepost - ebay

[sleepingswift85]

Good morning besties…. #CloudGrab captures above the Firth of Forth amid moving skies at Limekilns, Fife 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - 19.06.23 💎 (5 takes) ☁️

[benjaminsblog]

Up in the Ayr

In the week since I officially moved in, life has barely stopped and I haven’t had a chance to settle into my new home. I woke up the following morning and felt the unmistakeable first symptoms of a bug bearing down on me, and although a few aspirin (aspirins?) were enough to get me fighting fit for Monday’s epic tennis match, I have been struggling ever since.

Dad came down on Tuesday so see my place and deliver the remainder of my stuff, so I have at least managed to collect all my worldly possessions for sorting at a date TBC – I’m looking forward to feng-shui’ing the crap out of my flat once I feel up to it! For dinner, we went to a Brazilian restaurant in Hemel called Rodizio Villas – a belated birthday dinner for Dad that we’d rearranged a couple of times, but one that was worth the wait. The food was decent, but the highlight was when the waitress brought Dad’s coffee and momentarily tricked him into thinking it was decaf – I thought it was hilarious, and Dad grudgingly agreed once he got over the initial shock!

On Wednesday, I spent all day (and a bit of the night) in the office prepping for next week’s snooker tournament (our season opener), before driving back to Mum’s to collect her from the airport. Then on Thursday, Mum took me back to mine for a quick peek, and then to Luton airport so that I could board a plane to Scotland (alas, for work, not holibobs). All this activity meant that my immune system’s decision to take a vacation of its own has not come at an ideal time, but I’ve managed to soldier on, albeit rather weakly at times.

I spent the last few days in Ayr covering horse racing, which was generally unremarkable. That is how I would describe Ayr itself, except for the beautiful beach (yes, beach) that I got to see bathed in the warm (yes, warm) evening sun (yes, sun)! It was almost deserted and wonderfully peaceful, and it did the world of good for my mental + physical wellbeing – as a good ol’ coastline walk always does.

Once the final furlong had been run on Saturday, I set off once more – no rest for the sickly – as I had nearly 350 miles to cover by noon on Sunday in order to make call time at the snooker; the British Open is once again being held at Cheltenham Racecourse (the irony of which was not lost on me), which meant I had a further 6-7 hours of driving to do before reaching the relative safety of a snooker OB. On the bright side, I finally got to see some ‘proper Scotland’ for the first time in my life; the opening 1h30 of the drive was unbelievably gorgeous, and although I resisted the temptation to stop and stare at the stunning scenery, I did take a slight detour so I could tick Hadrian’s Wall off my UK bingo card.

I had already been on the road for a while before the thought entered my mind, and after some deliberation, I said ‘sod it’ and punched it into Google Maps. My only slight concern was that since HW isn’t confined to a single point on a map, my deviation might end up being a fruitless one and I’d rue the wasted hours I could’ve had in bed. However, I reasoned that it would likely be a long time before I was ever this close again, and if I couldn’t spot a 73-mile wall then I didn’t deserve to see it!

Having said that, it wasn’t as easy to identify as I’d thought; I had vague images in my head of a low-level, dilapidated stone wall, but my drive through the country roads was festooned with them, and it was clear that I hadn’t yet found the real McCoy. The point that I’d selected on Google Maps was by a small Roman fort (Birdoswald) with a visitors centre that had long since closed for the day, but after parking outside and walking a short way down the road, I found an information point that verified I was standing beside ol’ Hadrian himself.

Looking back down the road I’d just come from, I wondered if in fact I’d spent the last five minutes driving alongside him without realising (honestly, the walls all look the f’king same around there), but this confirmation was good enough for me. Normally I do my due diligence before such a trip to ensure maximum satisfaction, but this was the fleeting-est of flying visits, and the main aim had been to see Hadrian before I couldn’t see anything at all. If you ask me, I think this photo would suggest I timed my visit perfectly!

[crookedlylovinggoatee69]

[adventuresofalgy]

The day was gradually slipping away, and little by little the light of the sun was metamorphosing from a radiant gold into shimmering silver; soon it would fade into a soft, transparent violet-grey, and then slowly disappear altogether, vanishing beneath the velvet mantle of another night.

Algy was not perturbed by the closing of the day any more than he was ruffled by the purple prose describing it 😉, for there were always future adventures to plan and look forward to, but he knew that the setting of the sun meant that he should soon seek the comfort and security of his own wee nest, where he would be safely concealed from the wild creatures of the night which roamed that land after dark and leaped out silently, with their terrifying claws extended, upon soft fluffy birds who had been foolish enough to stay out too late.

However, he was reluctant to leave the headland while the diamonds still danced upon the sea, so instead of flying straight home Algy fluttered over slowly to a slightly lower spot, where he could watch the transformation of the light upon the sea before retiring to wait for another day.

He was surprised to observe that there seemed to be a pirate ship moored in the bay – or was he still in the thrall of his excursion into history, and dreaming of the ship which had carried Bonnie Prince Charlie away? In either case it seemed to pose no threat to a fluffy bird, so he leaned back upon the rock and watched the day "lean o'er the world's sharp edge":

I saw the day lean o'er the world's sharp edge And peer into night's chasm, dark and damp; High in his hand he held a blazing lamp, Then dropped it and plunged headlong down the ledge. With lurid splendor that swift paled to gray, I saw the dim skies suddenly flush bright. 'Twas but the expiring glory of the light Flung from the hand of the adventurous day.

[Algy is quoting the poem Sunset by the late 19th/early20th century American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox.]

[liamlawsonlesbian]

me, getting ready for work: man I have so much to do today, better get to the office and get cracking

me, seated at my desk, staring blankly at desktop monitor: what if I started calling charles “bonnie prince charlie” for the bit

[scotianostra]

19th August 1745 saw Charles Edward Stuart raise his standard at Glenfinnan.

By 1744, hostilities between Britain and France had escalated and the time seemed right for another attempt by the Jacobites to reclaim the British throne.

Louis XV was prepared to support an invasion. Prince Charles Edward secretly left Rome and travelled to France to lead the rising on behalf of his father, James VIII and III, who was by now 56 years old. The plan was abandoned when a storm destroyed the French fleet.

After spending over a year petitioning Louis XV to finance another invasion attempt, Charles decided to proceed alone. Always impulsive and convinced that the Highland clans would rise to support him, he secured a ship to transport him and seven loyal supporters to Scotland.

The Prince and his party landed on Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides during July 1745. Shortly after his arrival, the Prince met Alexander Macdonald of Boisdale, who warned him that many clans were unlikely to support him. When told to return home he replied,

‘Sir I am home… I am persuaded that my faithful Highlanders will stand by me’.

Jacobites rallied to the cause – providing Charles with the very real possibility of seizing the power which had been lost almost sixty years previously. The Prince raised the Stuart standard (flag) at Glenfinnan, west of Fort William on the Scottish mainland, on 19 August – the final Jacobite rising had begun!

[lay-z-panda]

His name is Clyde

If anything happens to him I’m killing everyone in this room and then myself

[rmsstevielol]

If u don’t want to agree to it being a colony then at least accept that they, along with the Irish and the Welsh were oppressed. If you don’t want to accept that then I don’t really know what to tell you becuase to me what im about to list right now seems an obvious example of oppression; trying to wipe out and I quote “ethnically cleanse” cultures, beating children for speaking Gaelic or Welsh right up until the late 20th century, after the battle of Culloden tartan and Gaelic was banned and if caught speaking Gaelic or wearing tartan, you were exiled, flogged or even executed, if you happened to have any ties with the Jacobites then you were literally rounded up and executed. Another example and a much more modern one is an account from my great grandma saying when she was at school you could be beat for speaking Gaelic and when my Nan was younger she was literally taught to “speak English” or more “proper”, meaning getting rid of the accent. Another example are the deep rooted stereotypes that still exist today about Scottish people, that all of them are “violent”, “angry”, “loud”, “drunk”, “savages”, “barbarians”, “not feminine” I could go on.. but these type of things are so common and they’ve been taught for so long that it is impossible not to think of the Scot’s like that and yes, some people may not be thinking of it as “not that deep” when in reality it is because they just aren’t funny and they make people look at us as if were some sort of joke, like our accents are always the butt of the joke or something. My mum has experienced things as simple as a dirty look whenever she gets a bit loud of says something in a strong accent and even on one occasion, an officer in the army telling my dad to “control his wife” after she refused to sing God save the King, as if she were “out of control” or something. All of these things are some sort of oppression and even though they aren’t as severe as they were before, they are still a thing.

I could go on about this topic for hours talking about other things like when talking about being Scottish, they always end up being the butt of the joke whether that be making fun of the accent, making fun of the bagpipes, the traditional dress. I live in England and I have a lot of friends who tend to do these things subconsciously and I wouldn’t hold it against them but I think it does need to be spoken about more and spoken about where it comes from and why it could be quite offensive. I’m so sorry to ramble on but a quick thing to point out is the fact that just becuase I want to spread the history of oppression of the Scot’s, it does not mean that I deny their involvement in the British colonialism of other countries and the involvement in the slave trade, i am aware it happened and are embarrassed and ashamed of the Scottish people who did that and I do consider them to be a “traitor” to Scotland but I just want to make my country’s history known and how they did suffer without people comparing or disregarding as something not that important or not as bad, yes some Scot’s did awful things and were involved willingly with British colonialism etc but it should not shrug off the suffering they went through as a country themselves.

I am sorry I couldn’t speak more for the Welsh or Irish but I didn’t want to then speak about their history and get it wrong. 🫶

[lindyloosims]

Bonnie’s first snow!

So it’s snowing here in the west coast of Scotland and Bonnie has never seen anything like it in her tiny life! At first she wanted to eat it, now it’s just fascinating and exciting!

[aimeedaisies]

Court Circular | 7th November 2023

St James's Palace

The Princess Royal, Gold Stick in Waiting, was present today at the State Opening of the Session of Parliament by The King.

Her Royal Highness this afternoon opened the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Museum of Scottish Fire Heritage and the McDonald Road Community Fire and Ambulance Station, McDonald Road, Edinburgh, and was received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of the City of Edinburgh (Councillor Robert Aldridge, the Rt Hon the Lord Provost).

The Princess Royal, Patron, the Eric Liddell 100, this evening attended the inaugural Lecture and Reception on board Fingal, Alexandra Dock, Leith, Edinburgh.

[sleepingswift85]

#CloudGrab and countryside captures from last year’s trip at Aberdour, Fife 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - 13.05.2022 ☁️ (5 takes) 🌲 (Part 2) ☁️

[parttimesarah]

That Prince Charlie, he’s so (checks notes)…bonnie

[maypoleman1]

16th April

St Magnus’ Day

Source: University of the Highlands and Islands website

Today is St Magnus’ Day. Magnus was a twelfth century Norse (Norwegian) Christian Jarl, who is supposed to have left his footprints on a flat stone at St Mary’s Church on South Ronaldsay island, when he miraculously used it to sail across the Pentland forth. Legend has it that Magnus was slain by King Hakkon of Norway, more for political reasons than for religious, by having his head cloven in two with a Viking axe, thus conferring instant martyrdom on Magnus. Although most of the stories associated with this warrior-saint are probably apocryphal, interestingly, in 1919 a skeleton was found, hidden within a pillar at Kirkwall Cathedral, Orkney, which is dedicated to St Magnus, whose skull was indeed split in two. Although there was no direct evidence linking the skeleton to Magnus, from that point on it was declared to comprise his remains.

On this day in 1646, at the battle of Culloden, Jacobite hopes were extinguished by George I’s Hanoverian troops’ decisive victory. Bonnie Prince Charlie went on the run after the defeat, eventually escaping to the continent. Apparently he had played cards on the eve of the battle, and the nine of diamonds fell from the pack and was lost. The Duke of Cumberland, the victorious Hanoverian general, later found the missing card and used it to write his signature - the one to be used to sign Charles’ death warrant. The unlucky nine of diamonds was known as the Curse of Scotland thereafter.

[adventuresofalgy]

[Please click on the image to see it at a reasonable size.]

Algy fluttered over the deep chasm to the highest point on the headland, just a few metres away, and gazed in awe at the panorama around him, which was so extensive that he could only see a small part of it at a time.

But a very special view lay to the north-east, for looking out in this direction Algy could not only see a wide expanse of the Sea of the Hebrides but some decisive moments in Scottish history.

Algy wondered which birds might have perched in this very spot in the years 1745 and 1746, for what they would have seen changed Scotland for centuries to come, right up until the present day. Did they see that wee boat, over there in the distance, which brought Bonnie Prince Charlie and his followers on the final stage of their journey to Scotland from France in the summer of 1745? Algy could see a boat over there now, but he thought that it was probably not the same one…

Did his fluffy ancestral cousins fly that short distance over the water to watch the young prince make his way up to Glenfinnan at the head of Loch Shiel to rally the clans (a spot now famous for a much less significant reason)? It was a route well known to Algy…

And did they, a year later, see the prince and his men, fleeing from the battlefield of Culloden and the English army, set out again from Loch nan Uamh, just over there where the mainland meets the sea? And not once, but twice: first to escape pursuit in the outer islands, and then finally, in the early hours of September 20, 1746, to sail away to France, never to return…?

And did those birds add their cries to the laments of the folk left behind to face the wrath and terror of Cumberland's army? What stories those birds could tell if only Algy could meet them now…

Here is one of those laments, which remains ever popular, performed by some young Canadian musicians including a singer with a beautiful voice.❣️ The landscape is all wrong, but the song is all right ☺️

[Will ye no come back again was written by the late 18th/early 19th Scottish songwriter Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne.]