#scttish

[scotianostra]

Castle over the rooftops

Eddinburgh Ccastle as seen from Leamington Walk on Bruntsfield Links today.

[bywandandsword]

Listen, I’ve had a lot of whiskey and a bit of rum. I don’t normally drink this, I think mixing them is bad but I had them so I drank them. Maybe it’s drinking hard shit and beer that’s bad but whatever, my eyesight is funny. i don’t have anywon to talk to, cause everyone in my house is asleep and i don’t have friends realy so i messaged my twin and she’s not answering, but she’s going through shit and she’s pregnant so it’s oky. I love her she’s amazeballs guys. she’s a baker and makes lots of cookies and is a huge nerd and is growing a human guys. A whole human. holy shit. A whole Rozalyn. The baby is going to be so cute anf I’m going to teach her swordfighting and feminist rage. Her husband is great too he’s a great guy, he’s so sweet and they’re so in love, he’s like my brothr and he defends her when I can’t so I love him. like I sais I don’t normally drink this I generally stick to vodka, which is somehow different type of drunk. Just is. I wanted to see if drinking whiskey is different from drinking vodka and it is wow. i’m more cognisent after a lot of vodka than whiskey. I mean i got fucked up the nighit of the inauguration (holy shit I spelled that right!), like I drunk most of a huge bottle of that shit 70 proof in under an hour, I think that’s good. i make my scttish, irish, englis, german, and french ancestors proud, the fucking drunkards. of course everyone was fuckinh drunkard back then cause they couldn’t drink the water so they all drank ale or mwead or some shit. look all I’m saying is that eveyon in medevil times was fuck9ng buzzed all the fucking time. more buzzed than a bee. that’s really buzed cause it’s a bee. nature’s sweethearts. but this is different with the whisky i just kinda want to fall over and not move again ever and giggle and cry a bit cause our world is so fucked up yo. but bees. bees are so good you guys, you know there’s th9s kind of bee that doesnt get pollen the normal way, it just fucking hugs the flower then vibrates making the pollen loose and it can gather it up in it’s fuzzy legs it’s so cool I love them.i think they live in either wood or in little hobbit holes in the ground I love them. You go buzzy bees! Yeah! The buzziest of bees. i’m sorry this is really long I’lll  start another post or somethng I love you all my dudes

[gayshego-blog]

thos is so scttish bcuawe of he movie UT] i genuine ly feel hat an indivudcaiap; deserves both support AND understandnig from someone wjph hads ;ado bee n suicdial alos i lovve ampires

o ;pve BEED FPR THE IMEAD JOSSShyh

[bestpeopleinliifearefree]

Craig Ferguson - Vortex of Scottish Charm 

A lot of Scottish Charm 

[scotianostra]

Ardtornish Castle on The Morvern Peninsula

As seen from the Waverley last Tuesday, this castle was one of the principal seats of the high chiefs of Clan Donald from the early 14th to late 15th century but Somerled is said to have had a castle here as far back as the 12th century.

Ardtonish stands at the seaward end of a promontory which extends in a southerly direction into the Sound of Mull, approximately a mile south-east of the village of Lochaline, Highland. The castle was one of the principal seats of the high chiefs of Clan Donald from the early 14th to late 15th century.

It was at Ardtornish Castle that John of Islay, Lord of the Isles, 6th chief of Clan Donald died in the 1380's and from where his funeral procession sailed through the Sound of Mull to the Isle of Iona.

His son and successor, Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles granted charters dated at Ardtornish, at least two of which have survived, one in Latin and the other in Gaelic, and it was from here, according to tradition, that his galley fleet sailed on their way to transport the vassals of the Isles to the west coast of Ross-shire where they landed to begin their invasion in support of Donald's claim to the Earldom of Ross which resulted in the indecisive Battle of Harlaw in 1411. Also at Ardtornish Castle, John's great-grandson, also named John of Islay, the fourth and last Lord of the Isles, met the commissioners of King Edward IV of England in 1461 to negotiate the well-known Treaty of Ardtornish-Westminster by which, in return for becoming loyal subjects of the King of England, (I have posted abut this doomed treaty a number of times.)

John, his kinsman Donald Balloch of Dunnyvaig and the Glens and the forfeited Earl of Douglas were each to have a third of the kingdom of Scotland, with generous pecuniary rewards until the conquest of the kingdom had been completed. The revelation of this treaty by the English government to the government of Scotland in 1474 resulted in the loss of the Earldom of Ross the following year, and John's final forfeiture as Lord of the Isles followed in 1493.

Following John's forfeiture the lands of Ardtornish remained for a time in the hands of the Crown but were eventually given to the Clan MacLean chief of Duart Castle, who had already acquired large tracts of land in Morvern.

The castle was probably abandoned around the end of the seventeenth century, by which time Ardtornish and the other Morvern estates of the MacLeans had been devoured by the Campbell Earls of Argyll.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday singer John Paul Young, born June 21st 1950.

Young was born John Inglis Young in Bridgeton, Glasgow, but age 11 his parents James and Agnes emigrated to Australia on board the SS Canberra where he quickly learned to imitate the local accent to avoid being teased by his classmates.

It was with this newly learned voice that he started singing, joining a production of Jesus Christ Superstar and becoming the lead singer for rock band Elm Tree in the 1970s. During one of their performances he was spotted by manager and sometimes-producer Simon Napier-Bell, who asked him to record an overdub for a song called “Pasadena.” That song was written by Harry Vanda and George Young of the Easybeats, who were impressed enough with him to become John Paul Young’s songwriters, penning a string of pop songs that gave him chart success in Australia as well as Europe and Asia.

t wasn’t until the late ‘70s that he became world-famous, first for the disco song “Standing in the Rain,” and then for the biggest hit of his career, “Love Is in the Air.” John Paul Young attributed the song’s success to the direction of George Young, who had told him to make the song casual by singing it as if it were a conversation. Subsequent singles either unsuccessfully attempted to re-create the disco formula of “Standing in the Rain” or turned towards rock, which gave him several more hits within Australia in the early '80s. Young eventually retired from singing to become a radio DJ, but came out of retirement in 1992 when a version of “Love Is in the Air” was used on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s film Strictly Ballroom and the song became a hit once again. After performing his old hits at live concerts for another decade, including a performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he returned to the studio with Harry Vanda’s Flashpoint Music in 2006 to record a new album, In Too Deep.

Young was a huge star in South Africa, where he toured extensively and caused scenes of hysteria.

Out of fashion in the early 80s, he had to adjust to a drop in live engagements and a loss of fame. He developed a career in radio and spent a lot of time fishing

Young is arguably more well known in his adopted homeland and has appeared in many shows over there including their version of Strictly Come Dancing called Dancing with the stars. 2009, Young was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame and Australia awarded him with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the performing arts as a singer and songwriter, and through support for a range of charitable organisations.

For many years, Young has supported children’s charities, he is also an avid environmentalist, supporting Landcare projects in his local community.

John Paul Young is currently on the road in Australia with his  “ 50 Years Young” The Anniversary Tour, that takes you on “a journey in songs and stories from Glasgow, Scotland to the shores of Australia and back around the world again, as John performs the songs that brought him national and international stardom.”

[scotianostra]

On January 15th 1973, Neil M Gunn, author of The Silver Darlings and many other books and short stories, died.

Novelist Neil M Gunn was one of the leading figures of the Scottish renaissance of the early 20th century. Unlike his contemporaries Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Hugh MacDiarmid, Gunn choose to write largely in English. Born in the Caithness village of Dunbeath, Gunn worked in the Civil Service in London and Edinburgh before returning to the live and work in the Highlands. He married his wife Daisy Frew in 1921.

Gunn’s first novel, The Grey Coast, was published in 1926, but it wasn’t until 1937 and the success of Highland River, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, that he was able to give up his job with Customs and Excise to write full-time. Highland River marked the end of a trilogy of novels exploring the history of the Highlands, following Sun Circle and Butcher’s Broom. The following year Gunn sold his house in Inverness and bought a twenty-seven foot motor boat, The Thistle, and took his wife and brother on a three-month sailing cruise around the islands of Scotland.

Neil Gunn’s socialist and Scottish Nationalist politics shaped his work, but equally did the landscape and people of the northern Highlands in which he lived. His best known novels include The Silver Darlings, and Butcher’s Broom. His final book was the autobiography The Atom of Delight, published in 1956. He wrote a number of essays, which have been collected into anthologies. Gunn died in 1973, and a memorial sculpture was unveiled at Dunbeath Harbour in 1991.

You can find a lot more interesting stuff about Gunn at the two links below, including lots about his work in and around Highland distilleries during his time as an exciseman. https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/whisky-heroes/20306/neil-m-gunn/?

The Neil Gunn Trust here https://neilgunntrust.org/

[scotianostra]