Bill Hendrie
Campania – Collision – Calamity
When the people of Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife awoke on the morning of Saturday 6th November 1918 they found word in their tight-packed, crowded columns of their newspapers that victory in the four year long First World War was at last only days away. There was, however, not one single word about the news story on their own shores – the sinking of the Royal Navy’s first aircraft carrier, H.M.S. Campania within sight of the Forth Bridge.
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Bathgate’s Burns’ Enthusiast
Burns enthusiasts every January celebrate the Birthday of Scotland’s national bard but it is doubtful if any mark it in such an elaborate manner as Bathgate spinning wheel maker John Stark did during Victorian times. Every year on 25th January, Starkie, as he was known in the old mining and weaving burgh, marked the birthday of his favourite poet by declaring Burns’ Day a personal holiday Read the rest of this entry »
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Salt From the Shores of the Forth
Television cookery expert Delia Smith’s recipe for success in the kitchen puts Maldon sea salt at the top of the list of essential ingredients. Her choice is an intriguing reminder of the days when all of Scotland’s salt came straight from the sea.
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Trinity’s Treasure House
Trinity House, open to the public while the property of Historic Scotland, is still also the headquarters of the Incorporation of Mariners and Ship’s Masters of Leith, whose activities have catered for the welfare of its members since the 14th century.
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The Skire Siller
Every year at Easter, Her Majesty the Queen distributes specially minted Maundy Money to the same number of pensioners as there are years in her age. Scotland once had its own much more elaborate version of this annual church ceremony. Known as the Gieing o’ the Skire Siller, this event took place at Linlithgow’s historic St. Michael’s Kirk, if the Scottish monarch happened to be in residence at the neighbouring royal palace.
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The Big Dish for the Big Day
Bill Hendrie’s tried and tested favourite for New Year is his granny’s steak pie
Warm, reekin’, rich,” is how Robert Burns lovingly described the haggis and through his famous ode, turned it into what is generally accepted as Scotland’s national dish. Yet when my family gets together, as we’ll do for Ne’er Day lunch, I know we will not sit down to haggis. Read the rest of this entry »
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