Undiscovered Scotland

Highland Cows grazing in the shadow of a pair of Victorian gas holders in Glasgow's Dawsholm Park.

#glasgow #architecture #dawsholmpark #highlandcows

Scotland's Missing Forests/ Too Many Deer - double bill of films at Larick Centre Tayport April 12th 2pm with myself, filmmaker Steve Rawson and ecologists Derek Pretswell & Ron Greer for Q&A. Worried about Barren Scotland - this is for you lesleyriddoch.com/events

#Strathpeffer Station, late-1920s/early-1930s

[photo from the Highland Railway Society's Collections]

Lyness and Scapa Flow. The view looks down from a hillside in sunshine over a stand of trees towards a scattered settlement on the near shore of a body of water. An oil tank is prominent in the centre of the settlement. There are a number of islands in the body of water, with more oil tanks visible on one of them.

The view east from the slopes of Wee Fea on the island of Hoy in Orkney, taking in Lyness and, beyond it, Scapa Flow and the islands of Fara and Flotta. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland #Hoy #Lyness #ScapaFlow #Flotta #Orkney

I am one of nearly 10,000 authors who have signed this otherwise empty book protesting the theft of books by tech companies to train AI models.

Read more here: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

#DontStealThisBook

The image shows a modern view of Edinburgh Castle rising above the city’s Grassmarket in bright sunlight, contrasting with deep shadows in the foreground. The sky is blue. The front cover of 'The Stockholm Run' is shown in the bottom right corner.

A city at peace in a world at war. ‘The Stockholm Run’ is a fast-paced thriller set in Scotland and Sweden during World War Two. A secret beneath Edinburgh Castle features in the Scottish strand of the story.
Available as a paperback, Kindle, Kobo or Apple:
www.arachnid.scot/book-tsr/ind...

Just home from three very special Knoydart bothy nights with the Sheffield boys.

Memorable. Tired.

Tree lined road by a loch.

The A896 by Loch Dughaill yesterday afternoon.

The wonderfully crafted stained glass portraits of Art, Music and Literature (each of which features in their own window) in the 1890s Pollokshields Burgh Halls on the Southside of Glasgow.

#glasgow #stainedglass #window #pollokshields #pollokshieldsburghhall

Kisimul Castle, on its own small island off the village of Castlebay. The image shows a corner view from quite close of the looming curtain wall of the castle, with a tower at the left-hand end. The castle is on a rocky islet at quite low tide. There's a slipway in the foreground and then stone steps leading up out of sight in an enclosed corner of the structure. The sky is blue.

Superb Kisimul Castle, on its own small island off the village of Castlebay on the Isle of Barra in the Western Isles. Its origins probably date back a thousand years and part of it may be an even earlier chapel built by St Cieran. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland WesternIsles

Two firefighters resting, sitting on the plinth of the "Citizen Firefighter" statue.

Quite an image on the BBC live page (www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...; no photographer credited).

Sounds as if they've saved the station and the hotel, and more importantly, without loss of life.

Citizens; heroes.

South Queensferry #scotland #photography

The obverse face features a large shafted Christian cross with hollow angles which spans the full width of the face and the majority of its length. The front of the stone is the most weathered face as, having been laid face-down, this portion of the stone was subjected to many years of cyclical wetting and drying. However, panels of decorative interlace and entangled zoomorphic creatures are still visible around the cross. Above the cross lies a narrow upper section which depicts the confronting heads of two fanged beasts. The Conan beasts have anatomically specific teeth – they have molars, canines and incisors – and feature dangling interlace from their mouths, perhaps representing their tongues or snakes. The reverse face depicts a range of different real and mythical creatures. In the upper left corner, approximately one fifth of the surface has been deliberately chipped away and re-inscribed with the names Hugh McAulay and Alexander McAulay, together with the date January 2 1796. This Pre-Reformation inscription obscures what may once have been a full-width serpent and Z-rod Pictish symbol, the floriated terminals of which are still visible as is the double disc and Z-shaped symbol below. To the side sits a small S-shaped figure matching the hippocampus (symbol no.159) in ECMS. The remaining space is occupied by rows of paired beasts: a kneeling figure with an animal head that often appears on Pictish cross-slabs, and is often termed the ‘formidable man’, faces a now headless centaur with two axes and a small cauldron-like object stands between them. Below, a pair of quadrupeds also face each other and two oxen with large U-shaped horns face rightwards. Interlace appears on both the narrow east and west faces of the stone. On the west face, the interlace terminates just beyond the half way point to give way to an angular key pattern.

Discovered in 2019, this 1,200-year-old Pictish cross-slab featuring real and mythical creatures was reused as a gravestone in the Highlands in the 18th century 🪦

Dig into the story with the North of Scotland Archaeological Society in Inverness on 19 March: www.digitscotland.com/events/not-a...

Auchmithie, some three miles north-east of Arbroath in Angus. The image shows a bay facing right out to sea. There's a track leading into the picture behind the bay and this can be seen to climb grassy cliffs that are on the far side of the bay and behind it. There are two buildings behind the bay. The scene is in patchy sunlight.

The shoreline at tranquil Auchmithie, some three miles north-east of Arbroath in Angus. This is the original home of the smoked haddock known as the Arbroath Smokie. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland #Auchmithie #Arbroath #Angus

Cruggleton Church near Garlieston in Galloway. This modern image shows a view up a sloping field that has a tall green crop growing in it. Set within the field across the lower central portion of the frame is a stone walled enclosure with a gate on the side facing us. Within the enclosure are mature trees in leaf and within them the gable end of a stone church is visible. The scene is in sunlight. The front cover of ‘Friend or Foe?’ is shown in the top right corner.

‘Friend or Foe?’ is a fast-paced new thriller set largely in south-west Scotland during World War Two. The spooky Cruggleton Church near Garlieston is visited by the book’s two central characters.
Available as a paperback, Kindle, Kobo or Apple. Find out more:
www.kenlussey.com/fof/index.html

Balglass, Fintry #Scotland #Campsiefells #Fintry #Stirlingshire www.damianshields.com

Golden mountains.

Early sunlight on Beinn Alligin.

There's currently a major fire on Union Street in the centre of Glasgow. There are no reports of casualties, but apparently parts of the building involved have collapsed.

Cont./

#glasgow #glasgowtoday #unionstreet #fire #architecture

Ravenscraig Castle. The image shows the tower house castle in the background in full sun against a blue sky, with trees either side of it. In the foreground are the low stone remains of a circular feature. There are fences extending up both sides of the image.

The impressive remains of Ravenscraig Castle, overlooking the sea at Kirkcaldy in Fife. The castle was commissioned by King James II in 1460 and intended to withstand attacks by the best artillery of the day. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland #RavenscraigCastle #Fife #Kirkcaldy

On this #InternationalWomensDay, I raise a glass to all the Glasgow girls - mums, aunts, grans, nans, sisters, wives, lovers, pals and colleagues - the ones who lift us up, have our backs, make us be our best, and who are our partners in life - this Glasgow boy salutes you!

Picture: Gorbals, 1966

BrewDog sold Highland estate for knockdown price after abandoning its reforestation plans Self-styled ‘punk’ beer company bought land in 2020, pledging to plant Scotland’s ‘biggest ever forest’

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

To mark International Women's Day, here's a celebration of four of pioneering women with Glasgow connections. They are: Margaret Easton Anderson, a graudate of Glasgow University and the first woman to practice law in the UK;

Cont./

#glasgow #internationalwomensday #glasgowhistory

The River Tweed at Coldstream. The image shows a sunny view down a slope to a river that enters the frame at the bottom of the right side before progressing to the middle, then curving right again to a distant four-arched stone bridge. Above the left bank are buildings, partly hidden by trees. The sky is blue.

The River Tweed at Coldstream in the Scottish Borders, with Coldstream Bridge in the distance. At this point the river forms the border between Scotland, on the left as we look at it, and England on the right. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland #Coldstream #ScottishBorders

This image shows a view along a river. On the near, left, bank is a quay with a small motorboat under a crane and a row of white cottages beyond it on the side of a slope that climbs a hillside. A pedestrian suspension bridge crosses to the far bank of the river on the right of the frame where there are more cottages with a hillside above them and a stony beach beneath them. The river narrows as it reaches the centre of the frame in a wooded valley. The front cover of ‘Eyes Turned Skywards’ is shown in the top right corner.

How many deaths to end a war? ‘Eyes Turned Skywards’ is a fast-paced thriller set in northern Scotland during World War Two. The search for answers reaches its dramatic conclusion at Berriedale.
Available as a Kindle, Kobo or Apple. Find out more:
www.arachnid.scot/book-ets/ind...

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #OnThisDay On 8 March 1978, Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast over the airwaves on BBC Radio 4. The series follows the adventures of hapless Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a pan-galactic encyclopaedia and travel guide. After Earth is destroyed in the first episode, Arthur and Ford find themselves aboard a stolen spaceship piloted by 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #OnThisDay

On 8 March 1978, Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast over the airwaves on BBC Radio 4. The series follows the adventures of hapless Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes for The…

Highland landscape in the early morning.

Kenmore on the Applecross Coast Road.

Reflections in the Clyde. I love how the statue at Paisley Road Toll lines up perfectly in the gap between the two modern buildings in the foreground.

#glasgow #glasgowatnight #nightphotography #reflection #theclyde #sunset #scotland #glasgowsunset

The Grant Tower at Urquhart Castle. The image shows a sunny corner view of a stone tower that has had the right side cut away to reveal its interior structure. There are modern platforms inserted half way up and at the top, the latter with some people standing on it. There are ruined stone walls between the camera and the tower and the background is composed mainly by the loch.

The Grant Tower at Urquhart Castle beside Loch Ness. A great castle in a wonderful location, and one of the best sites on the loch for Nessie spotters. The castle was possibly built on the site of a much earlier Pictish fortification. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot...

#Scotland

Snowy hills and blue skies, with footsteps showing on a snowy track

A woman hiker walking through snow up a hillside, blue skies overhead

Just when it felt like spring was actually underway, winter returned yesterday. Though with no wind it was T-shirt weather.
Stunning day in the Scottish Borders.

Edinburgh's folly, from Holyrood park