Hello everyone, this is Alan's daughter Sophia. I'm not familiar with the site so apologies if there's a better place to say this, but I just wanted to let you all know that my dad passed away...

Joy is not a native Gaelic speaker. Nevertheless, here she is doing her "day job" telling us how bad the next day's weather is going to be!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8tPlNI4c6I
Now, way...

He was required to go to St. Andrews because it was reckoned that general security and avoidance of paparazzi would be much easier than at Oxford or Cambridge. Obviously at a Scottish University he...

"Asked one of the docents at on the Castle parade ground"

Just for information, "docent" is a US term unknown in the UK. I'm guessing the UK term might be "tourist guide".

I suspect the slag...

i.e. not a kiltie at all. Diana loathed Scotland :( and all its symbols so her son continues in that furrow. What Scotland will think of him when he becomes King remains to be seen.

Alan

HM the Queen wearing Balmoral tartan as she appoints her new Prime Minister at Balmoral Castle.
https://c.ndtvimg.com/2022-09/urv7t3ko_lizz-truss-queen-afp_625x300_06_September_22.jpg

Alan

"Highland Style" - a new publication from the National Museum of Scotland.

https://www.nms.ac.uk/highlandstyle?fbclid=IwAR0Pa_oCkwsiuTxZOrq3itnB6yChNnugvQWuGSTPjO749wV8TFfypAmb46w
...

A bit of research

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-62291123

Alan

I think it's a long time since officers purchased their own uniforms.

Alan

As one of the comments remarks "Are any of the commanding officers of Scottish regiments Scottish?" :(

Alan

She has indeed been awarded an OBE and the other girls in the team are made MBE :clap::clap:


Alan

It may be of interest that the word "slogan" comes from the Gaelic sluagh-ghairm = sluagh "army" + gairm "cry".

Alan

Of course I would say come to the Northeast and go on the castle trail
https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/attractions/castles/scotland-castle-trail/

Alan

Presumably Eve will now be rewarded with a higher order than her MBE.:p
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Muirhead#Personal_life
And 17 years old Kirsty Muir from here in Aberdeen came fifth in the...

So, GB managed eventually to get a Gold and a Silver at the Olympics in the curling but did you know that
- all 10 GB competitors are Scots (but we're not allowed to have a Scottish team :( )
- Eve...

I find this commentary personally interesting because my great grandfather was born in 1812 about the middle of the time period covered. He lived in a village rather than a wee glen but many of...

I think most people find accounts by English tourists like Burt to be very dubious attempts to confirm the savagery of the Highlands.

Bishop Leslie, a very reputable source writing in 1578, tells...

The official specification was "RACD Pattern 8538/1915, “Drawers, short, Highlanders"
A pattern for officers' tartan undertrews can be found in "The Great War: Styles & Patterns of the 1910s" but...

Incidentally, the term "true Scotsman" came to be used as a kind of joke because the answer is always "Yes". You are either a "true" Scotsman or a "trews" Scotsman. :lol:

Alan

The ant-gas bloomers were a War Office invention in the late 1930s but , unsurprisingly(!), they were never issued. In any case the kilt on active service disappeared early in WW2.

"Highlanders...

The practice definitely existed during WW1 when my father was in the trenches with the Gordons and the reason was simply to minimise laundry when on active service. BUT
1. The "rule" did not...

Many from outside Scotland tend to think of "the Highlands" as being in the north and west of the country which is to ignore the rich history and fine landscape of the Northeast. This detailed...

I might be able to help with Doric.
Just to whet your appetite, here is a well-known poem to which I have appended a littoral translation.

BENNYGOAK [The Hill of the Cuckoo]
(Flora Garry)

It...

The kilts were mostly snatched up in the 1950s by scouts, hikers etc. often via the "Army and Navy Stores" which still exists but has no kilts nowadays.

Alan

Note that, in Scotland, it is considered very bad luck to wish anyone a "Happy New Year" before the new year has arrived. Same with hanging up the new calendar. Worldwide variation in time zones...