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The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd
A family affair! Here’s big lad Scolty following his younger sister Helsinki and her calf along the boardwalk!
📸The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd on Facebook.
Source: facebook.com
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Happy Birthday the lovely Scottish actress Sharon Rooney who was born 22nd October 1988 in Glasgow.
Sharon Rooney is one of the most in demand actresses from Scotland, she attended Knightswood Primary and secondary Schools and was brought up in the Temple area of Glasgow, she left school at 16 to pursue a career in acting, but it all started for her 13 years before, as a determined young lady, aged just 3 she set her sights on becoming an actress after a visit to see the pantomime Cinderella in her hometown of Glasgow. She was even being noticed back then, when an elderly lady in the audience commented “Look at her, she’s in her element” Sharon danced away to the songs in the aisle of the theatre! From then on she want to be Ella Mint thinking, I am, you’re right I’m Ella Mint!”
It must have been a daunting and exciting time when Sharon enrolled on a 3-year performing arts course followed by a degree in drama at Hull University. But I am sure a lass from Glesga took it in her stride. She graduated with a BA Hons in Acting, her early appearances were with Harry Hill and in the Tony Roper play The Steamie.
Rooney began performing stand-up comedy, and toured with a play in various schools across Britain. She also starred in the play Direct Devitt: Mammy, a comedy drama production with an all female Scottish cast which ran at the Edinburgh Festival in 2011.
Sharon started picking up roles on TV in film, her first was the TV movie, Two Doors Down in 2013 as Sophie, she reprised the part in 2016 when it returned as a sitcom. Miss Rooney then got her breakthrough part, the lead role as Rachel “ Rae” Earl in the E4 teen comedy-drama My Mad Fat Diary, it ran for 3 seasons. The series received critical acclaim, particularly for its accurate and honest portrayal of mental illness and Sharon Rooney’s performance. The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston heaped praise on oor Sharon saying “Sharon Rooney’s performance in the lead is natural, effortless and utterly believable; she should win something for it”
And win she did! Picking up a gong at The British Academy Scotland Awards, in 2015, it was third time lucky, having previously been nominated the two years before. Other nominations included Royal Television Society for best actress and the Broadcasting Press Guild for Breakthrough act. Sharon nails the accent in the show so perfect that people found it hard to believe she was from Scotland, people on twitter used to tell her that her Glasgow accent was rubbish!
Sharon was ready to give up her dream of being an actress and take up nursing before My Mad Fat Diary, Appearances in Sherlock and another TV movie, Kerry were crammed in-between My Mad Fat Diary as well as a part in the excellent Peter Mullen film Hector along with Ewan Stewart, Gina McKee and Keith Allen.
I love Sharon’s attitude, of her weight she says;
“Even if I wasn’t fat, and I was smaller, people would then say they don’t like my hair. You will never please everybody. You need to please yourself and as long as you are happy, it doesn’t matter. You will never be perfect or what everyone wants you to be. Someone will always find a fault.”
Being a Glaswegian lassie I doubt if she will get much hassle from anyone!
Back to her career and I must shamelessly admit I have not seen her in the film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain as yet, but as I said at the beginning of the post, she is a busy woman, her TV roles continue to pour in, quality shows like Deep Heat, The Teacher and The Control Room have called on her for roles and she is super excited about a film that she has recently just finished shooting with Hollywood stars Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and Will Farrell, Barbie will be out next year. Sharon said in a recent interview with Go Radio presenters Grado and Crofty
“I’ve just finished Barbie! I’ve spent so long keeping it a secret that I feel like I’m not allowed to say that but I am allowed to say that!”
Miss Rooney has another project on the go at the moment, so no slowing down, at the moment though, like she had done with Barbie, she is sworn to secrecy until it is announced!.
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Isles Inn, Portree. - 2022 by PaddyB Via Flickr: Somerled Square, Portree, Isles of Skye, Highlands. This photograph is part of the P. Ballard collection. Photo provided by Keith B Pics for Flickr and as such is for web browser viewing only and may not be reproduced, copied, stored, downloaded or altered in any way without permission.
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Whitby, England (by Mike. Dales)
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Map of the county teams of the Gaelic sports.
The colors of the county are the colors of the jerseys and the badges are placed where the representative stadiums of the counties are located. Yes, I’ve been to Ireland recently and I loved it. And no, I haven’t shut up about it eversince.
mapsontheweb
Counties of Ireland displaying colors of their representing GAA team.
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14th June 1933 saw the first aircraft land on the beach at the north end of the island of Barra that now serves as Barra Airport.
Barra belongs to the Outer Hebrides archipelago, the airport is located directly on the beach of the Gulf Traigh Mhòr, and the flight schedule is tailored to the tides. At high tide the airfield runways hidden water, so take off and landing is impossible.
Also the airport is not served by night flights, but in case of emergency landing is still possible - then illuminated by car headlights lane and along the coast are laid special reflective tape. In total, there are three runways, the average length is 800 meters.
Because of the unusual location and short length strips this airport is considered one of the most dangerous in the world, and take off and land here can make only small aircraft.
The rest of this airport is not very different from the other: there are dispatch, arrival and departure terminals, the service loading of baggage and so on. Barra is now the only beach airport anywhere in the world to be used for scheduled airline services. De Havilland Twin Otters of Loganair connect Barra with Glasgow. Details of the services to and from Barra can be found on Loganair’s web site or on the Highlands and Islands Airports Limited site.
Barra Airport caters to around 1,500 flights a year, and an average of 8500 passengers per year use the airport and there are more than 1400 aircraft movements (landings or takeoffs) per year. Pics include one a 1948 photograph of Suidheachan, on the fringe of the Cockle Shore, with a vivid contrast with the black cattle on the white sands landing strip. And Kitty MacPherson, the then manageress of the airport clearing the landing strip.
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14th June 1946 John Logie Baird, inventor of the first television, died.
Much has been said about Baird, some claim that due to the fact his version of the Television did not get taken up that he is not actually the “real” inventor. However without Baird’s innovations Television might not have been taken up , or come about as it did.
Even as a child, Baird—who was born in Helensburgh, showed great aptitude for innovation. As a youngster, he facilitated easier communication with a few of his best friends by setting up a rudimentary telephone exchange from his bedroom that would allow him to quickly connect with his pals.
Baird used whatever items he could find to begin building a prototype for his mechanical television, including an old hatbox, some bicycle lights, a pair of scissors, darning needles, glue, and sealing wax.
The first public demonstrations were in Selfridges in 1925.
Over the next several years, Baird continued to make improvements to his televisor, and kept increasing the distance that it could transmit content. In 1927, he managed to transmit an image a total of 438 miles between London and Glasgow. On February 9, 1928, his Baird Television Development Company produced the first transatlantic television broadcast, from London to New York.
Even with all those firsts, Baird kept pushing for more. On August 10, 1928, he demonstrated the first 3D television, which he called “stereovision.”
“By applying the stereoscope principle to television, it has now become possible to transmit television images with all the appearance of depth and solidity; and, by a further combination of colored television with stereoscopic television, the complete illusion of images in natural colors, and with depth and solidity becomes possible,” wrote the Radio Times in November of 1928. “All this has been recently demonstrated in the Baird Laboratories.” He dreamed of big-screen TVs with high-definition pictures.
Baird wanted to televise ‘live’ sport in cinemas, and in 1931, he invented a TV camera for ‘outside broadcasts’ and demonstrated it with the first live broadcast of the Epsom Derby in June that year.
You can find more facts and pics about John Logie Baird here http://www.bairdtelevision.com/
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National Museum of Scotland
A few pics from the museum on Chambers Street, please note if visiting this extensive collection give yourself at least half a day, possibly more to explore, there is a café on site, but you can take your own packed lunches, or afterwards drop inti the places round about for a bar lunch.
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On 16th of June 1338 the Siege of Dunbar ended.
An excellent tale of Black Agnes, a medieval strong Scottish woman, as usual dates vary a wee bit with these posts.
Called Black because of her jet-black hair, dark eyes and sallow complexion, Agnes was a remarkable woman who defended her home against England’s attacks, and in doing so roused the country to fight for Independence.
The feats of Agnes are the stuff of legend, and centre on a five-month period in 1338 when she almost single-handedly stood up to an English invasion force besieging her home, Dunbar Castle, and sent it homeward to think again. It was one of the turning points of Scotland's Second War of Independence and greatly boosted morale among the Scottish resistance at the time.
The early part of the Second War can be seen as a civil war between the forces loyal to the rightful king, David II, son of Robert the Bruce, and those who followed Edward Balliol, the usurper who had himself crowned King of Scots after his army – made up of English troops and the men of the “disinherited” nobles who had fought against King Robert and were trying to regain their confiscated lands – won the Battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332.
We have seen over the last two weeks how the Bruce loyalists, despite such reverses as the Battle of Halidon Hill, gradually forced Balliol’s forces back towards the Border, and the usurper’s own men were effectively defeated by 1336.
But Edward III of England was determined to preserve the counties and castle ceded to him by Balliol – a huge swathe of southern Scotland – and as of Ne’erday 1338, the English were still in control of large amounts of territory, roughly equivalent to the modern areas of the Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, the Lothians and parts of Ayrshire and Lanarkshire.
Taking back those lands was vital for the Scots, as this really was now a war for independence – Edward III no longer made any pretence that he was acting in support of Balliol’s claim to the Scottish throne. He was out to conquer as much of Scotland as he could, although even he was not fool enough to attack the Highlands and islands. Eventually, though, he would have done, and if his vastly greater armies had been able to concentrate on conquering Scotland, the chances are that this country would have been subsumed into greater England – which some say we now are … The complication for Edward III, grandson of Edward Longshanks, was that he now faced war on two fronts. His preoccupation with France had led to the start of what would become the Hundred Years’ War when Scotland’s ally King Phillipe VI of France in 1337 confiscated the English-controlled territory of Gascony – a bitter blow to the English as the area was the source of the wine England drank.
Edward III needed men and money to pay his continental allies and mercenaries if he was going to take back Gascony, but he was still reluctant to abandon his holdings in Scotland. He decided on a full-scale invasion of the east coast from Berwick-upon-Tweed up to Edinburgh, concentrated on the most impressive fortification on that coast, Dunbar Castle – unless the castle could be taken there was always the danger of the Scots raiding from there to disrupt the English occupation of the Lothians.
This invasion was probably partly in response to the Scottish siege of Edinburgh Castle in November, which ended with an English victory and the castle occupied by English troops.
The best chronicle of that time was the one composed in Latin by monks at Lanercost Priory near Carlisle in Cumbria. I am quoting from Sir Herbert Maxwell’s translation of the Lanercost Chronicle.
Lanercost tells us that King Edward “sent my lord William de Montagu(e), Earl of Salisbury, the Earl of Gloucester, the Earl of Derby, three barons, de Percy, de Nevill and de Stafford, and the Earl of Redesdale, with 20,000 men … commanding them to besiege closely and effectively the castle of Dunbar, the castle of Earl Patrick, traitor alike to himself and the kingdom because it was irksome and oppressive to the whole district of Lothian.”
Here the monk shows his English patriotic bias, because Patrick, the Earl of Dunbar and March (partly in modern-day Northumberland) was no traitor – he had simply renounced the oath of loyalty to the English king that he had been forced to make. Nor can we be sure how many lords attacked Dunbar – the later Book of Pluscarden mentions Salisbury and the Earl of Arundel, so either way we can be sure it was Salisbury at the head of a large army.
Lanercost adds: “Dunbar Castle at that time was still in the hands of Earl Patrick, having been neither besieged nor taken by the English, the whole of the surrounding district of Lothian, although it was then in the King of England’s peace, paid each week one mark to those within the castle, more, it is thought, out of fear lest it should be forced from them than from love.”
The siege began on January 13, 1338. Earl Patrick was absent, probably with the Scottish loyal forces whose base was now at Dumbarton Castle, and left in charge was his wife Agnes.
It was not unusual for the wives of nobles to take charge of households when their husbands were away from home, but Agnes faced something few noblewomen had to confront – an invading army quite literally at her front door.
Agnes was the daughter of Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, the great friend and ally of Robert the Bruce who was the first Regent of Scotland for Robert’s son King David II. Her brother Thomas, the 2nd Earl, was killed while commanding a division at Dupplin Moor – in the space of a month she lost her father and brother, and her other brother John, the 3rd Earl of Moray, was captured by the English in 1335 while he was joint Regent of Scotland. The other Regent, Robert Stewart, the future King Robert II, sided with Balliol in 1335, which opened the way for Sir Andrew Murray to become Guardian of Scotland.
Agnes was married to Earl Patrick when she was just 12 and the marriage appears not to have been a happy one. They had no children, and Agnes was furious when Earl Patrick, who was also governor of Berwick, briefly switched sides to support Edward III – this may have been to stop the English king emulating his grandfather and sacking Berwick.
It also allowed Patrick to time to rebuild and fortify Dunbar Castle which stood – some of it still stands – on a promontory between the town and the Firth of Forth.
The Scots soon learned of Salisbury’s invasion, but there was nothing they could do except allow him to besiege the castle, then occupied by Agnes, her maids, her guardsmen including archers, and their women and families.
A later poem succinctly sums up Agnes’s attitude:
“Of Scotland’s King I haud my house, He pays me meat and fee, and I will keep my gude auld house, while my house will keep me.”
Lanercost records: “Close siege, therefore, was laid to the castle: those inside were surrounded by a deep trench, so that they could not get out; wooden houses were constructed before the gate, and pavilions or tents were set up for the lodging of the chief persons in the army.”
Salisbury had also hired two Genoese galleys to stop the castle being supplied from sea. The whole siege would cost more than £1000 per month – a vast sum in those days.
It was a brutal siege at first. There is confusion between fact and legend as to what happened, but there’s no doubt Salisbury’s forces assailed the walls of the castle with catapults throwing huge boulders.
The story goes that Agnes and/or her maids would go out to the walls and using their lace handkerchiefs would wipe the dust off the impact sites.
The Book of Pluscarden records: “She was a very wise and clever and wary woman. She indeed laughed at the English and would, in the sight of all, wipe with a most beautiful cloth the spot where the stone from the engine hit the castle wall.”
While the siege was going on, the Guardian of Scotland, Murray, took every opportunity that he could to attack the English across the south of Scotland. It is recorded that several parties of reinforcements were attacked by the Scots under Murray and forced to return home.
Disaster struck when Murray fell ill and died, probably in late February or early March 1338, but still Agnes kept her doors barred.
The legends grew: Salisbury brought up a huge battering ram which was called “the sow”. Agnes calculated where and when it would attack and had the boulders that the English had lobbed at the castle turned around and sent down on the sow, smashing it to smithereens and sending the English troops running. “Behold a litter of pigs,” cried Agnes.
Provisioned for the winter, supplies were running low, but one of the leaders of the Scottish resistance, Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, said he would get relief to Agnes. With 40 men, he commandeered a couple of fishing boats on the Forth and waiting until the galleys were out of sight, Ramsay landed on the rocks below the castle and fought his way in, bringing plenty food and supplies.
Agnes promptly sent some food to Salisbury because she knew he, too, was low on provisions, and then ostentatiously held a banquet to infuriate the watching English.
Salisbury was riding around the castle one day when a Scottish archer, named as William Spens, fired at him from distance – the arrow grazed Salisbury and pierced the chest of his adjacent man-at-arms. Montague said: “Agnes’s love-shafts go straight to the heart.”
Now the English broke all the rules of chivalry. They had Agnes’s brother John as a captive and threatened to hang him in front of the castle if she did not surrender. She told them that would only make her the Countess of Moray in her own right and even more powerful – in fact she was not in line to succeed John Randolph, but the English didn’t know that and spared the Earl.
Salisbury attempted to bribe his way in, but the gatekeeper was loyal to Agnes and she set a trap. As soon as Salisbury would pass the first gate, the portcullis would be lowered, trapping him. But one of his soldiers, named by Pluscarden as Coupland, spotted the trap and threw the Earl backwards, while Coupland was captured.
Enough was enough. Word came to Salisbury that Edward III would be landing an army in France in July and on June 16, 1338, he abandoned the siege of Dunbar and went to fight in France. Agnes’s final words to Salisbury are supposed to have been: “Adieu, adieu, my Lord Montague.”
The rest of Agnes’s life is somewhat lost to history but her story raced around Scotland and England and a ballad was soon being sung that put these words in Salisbury’s mouth: “She kept a stir in tower and trench, that brawling boisterous Scottish wench; Cam’ I early, cam’ I late, I found Agnes at the gate.”
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Roadtrip.
Just home after three nights away, was hoping to stay another night, but one of my friends was feeling down this morning having experiencing a night under the canvas of his tent that ended with him waking up with his sleeping bag taking in water.
It was really murky on the drive north……