Theme Week Scottish Borders – Galashiels

24 October 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

© geograph.org.uk - Walter Baxter/cc-by-sa-2.0

© geograph.org.uk – Walter Baxter/cc-by-sa-2.0

Galashiels is a town in the Scottish Borders and historic county of Selkirkshire, on the Gala Water river. The name is often shortened to “Gala”. The town, with a population of around 12,600, is a major commercial centre for the Borders region. The town is known for textile making, and is the location of Heriot-Watt University‘s School of Textiles and Design, Galashiels Academy and one campus of the Borders College, which as of 2009 has moved and now joins with the University. Galashiels’ population grew fast through the textile trade with several mills. A connection with the town’s mill history, the Mill Lade, still links the town from near the site of mills at Wheatlands Road, to Netherdale, via Wilderhaugh, Bank Street, the Fountain and next to the Tesco/retail development Street.   read more…

Theme Week Scottish Borders – Selkirk

23 October 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  14 minutes

Haining House © geograph.org.uk - Adam D Hope/cc-by-sa-2.0

Haining House © geograph.org.uk – Adam D Hope/cc-by-sa-2.0

Selkirk is a town and historic Royal Burgh in the Scottish Borders Council district of southeastern Scotland. It lies on the Ettrick Water, a tributary of the River Tweed. The people of the town are known as Souters, which means cobblers (shoe makers and menders). Selkirk’s population is at 5800.   read more…

Theme Week Scottish Borders

22 October 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  14 minutes

Mellerstain House © geograph.org.uk - Steve Kent/cc-by-sa-2.0

Mellerstain House © geograph.org.uk – Steve Kent/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian and, to the south-west, south and east, the English counties of Cumbria and Northumberland. The administrative centre of the area is Newtown St Boswells. The term Scottish Borders is also used to designate the areas of southern Scotland and northern England that bound the Anglo-Scottish border.   read more…

The Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde

21 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Arran mountains over Rothesay © flickr.com - SeaDave/cc-by-2.0

Arran mountains over Rothesay © flickr.com – SeaDave/cc-by-2.0

The Isle of Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault. Formerly a constituent island of the larger County of Bute, it is now part of the council area of Argyll and Bute. Bute’s resident population is at 6,500. Farming and tourism are the main industries on the island, along with fishing and forestry. The only town on the island, Rothesay, is linked by ferry (Caledonian MacBrayne ferries) to the mainland. To its north is the coastal village of Port Bannatyne; hamlets on the island include Ascog, Kilchattan Bay, Kerrycroy and Kingarth. The interior of the island is hilly, though not mountainous, with conifer plantations and some uncultivated land, particularly in the north. The highest point is Windy Hill at 278 metres (912 ft). The centre of the island contains most of the cultivated land, while the island’s most rugged terrain is found in the far south around Glen Callum. Loch Fad is Bute’s largest body of freshwater and runs along the fault line.   read more…

Portrait: Andrew Carnegie, steel magnate and philanthropist

21 February 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  20 minutes

Andrew Carnegie © Library of Congress - Theodore C. Marceau

Andrew Carnegie © Library of Congress – Theodore C. Marceau

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, business magnate, and philanthropist during the Gilded Age. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and is often identified as one of the richest people (and richest Americans) ever. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States, and in the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away about $350 million to charities, foundations, and universities—almost 90 percent of his fortune. His 1889 article proclaiming The Gospel of Wealth called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.   read more…

Dumfries House in Scotland

18 November 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  10 minutes

Dumfries House © geograph.org.uk - Gordon Brown/cc-by-sa-2.0

Dumfries House © geograph.org.uk – Gordon Brown/cc-by-sa-2.0

Dumfries House is a Palladian country house in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located within a large estate, around 2 miles west of Cumnock. Noted for being one of the few such houses with much of its original 18th-century furniture still present, including specially commissioned Thomas Chippendale pieces, the house and estate is now owned in charitable trust by The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust, which maintains it as a visitor attraction and hospitality and wedding venue. Both the house and the gardens are listed as significant aspects of Scottish heritage. The estate and an earlier house was originally called Lochnorris, owned by Craufords of Loudoun. The present house was built in the 1750s for William Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, by John Adam and Robert Adam. Having been inherited by the 2nd Marquess of Bute in 1814, it remained in his family until 2007 when 7th Marquess sold it. The house is a category A listed building, described by Historic Scotland as “an exceptionally fine and unspoilt Adam mansion”. The grounds of the house are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens and parks.   read more…

Theme Week Scotland

14 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  4 minutes

Welcome to Scotland sign - A1 road © flickr.com - Amanda Slater/cc-by-sa-2.0

Welcome to Scotland sign – A1 road © flickr.com – Amanda Slater/cc-by-sa-2.0

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. In addition to the mainland, Scotland is made up of more than 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. Edinburgh, the country’s capital and second-largest city, is one of Europe’s largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, was once one of the world’s leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe’s oil capital.   read more…

Dunmore Pineapple in Airth

9 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  8 minutes

© giannandrea

© giannandrea

The Dunmore Pineapple, a folly ranked “as the most bizarre building in Scotland”, stands in Dunmore Park, approximately one kilometre northwest of Airth and the same distance south of Dunmore in the Falkirk council area.   read more…

Loch Ness in Scotland

5 March 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Loch Ness with Urquhart Castle © Pappenheim

Loch Ness with Urquhart Castle © Pappenheim

Loch Ness is a large, deep, freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately 37 kilometres (23 mi) southwest of Inverness. Its surface is 15.8 m (52 ft) above sea level. Loch Ness is best known for alleged sightings of the cryptozoological Loch Ness Monster, also known affectionately as “Nessie”. It is connected at the southern end by the River Oich and a section of the Caledonian Canal to Loch Oich. At the northern end there is the Bona Narrows which opens out into Loch Dochfour, which feeds the River Ness and a further section of canal to Inverness. It is one of a series of interconnected, murky bodies of water in Scotland; its water visibility is exceptionally low due to a high peat content in the surrounding soil.   read more…

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