The New Curiosity Shop

Robert Burns

A happy Burns’ Nicht tae ane an’ a.’ We’re looking forward tae oor haggis and champit neeps and tatties and we hope you can join in too. If none of this makes any sense to you, may we recommend a visit to the online Scots dictionary. And if that rouses your interest in things Scottish, why not try a course of Scottish History with the New Curiosity Shop.

If tonight you are having your first Burns’ Supper, there are full instructions here at rabbie-burns.com. Have fun.

Panama, site of the Darien colony

Scotland’s most valuable history award has been won by Dr Douglas Watt, author of “The Price of Scotland: Darien, Union and the Wealth of Nations.” The Hume Brown Prize commemorates Prof Peter Hume Brown, first incumbent of the Sir William Fraser Chair of Scottish History and Palaeography in the University of Edinburgh, and is worth £4000 to the winner.

You can read more at the Scottish History Society.

In the wake of the release of a new film and book about the 1950 theft and subsequent recovery of the  Stone of Destiny, Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, has claimed that that particular Stone is a fake and that the original has been lost for 700 years.

The Stone, on which Scotland’s kings were traditionally crowned, was stolen from Scone Palace by England’s King Edward I, in 1296, and kept in Westminster Abbey until it was returned to Scotland in 1996. Even, then, the one returned to Westminster Abbey may have been a fake made by the Glasgow stonemason who repaired the stone which broke in two during the escapade.

Alex Salmond claims that ancient descriptions of the Stone describe a black shiny object, not the dull grey stone kept in Edinburgh Castle today.

More in the Times.

Literary Landscapes’ on www.ambaile.org.uk is a collaborative project between Am Baile and Highland Libraries. It uncovers authors inspired by the Highlands and was launched by award-winning novelist, poet and publisher James Robertson who features in the Literary Landscapes listings.

Literary Landscapes is an interactive map leading to biographical information, images, sound files and bibliographies of writers inspired by the landscapes of the Highlands and Islands. It currently covers over 30 authors, past and present, from Caithness to Kintyre and from Nairn to Portree and North Uist. It will continue to expand to include writers from Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, Perthshire and Argyll.

The authors include poets, novelists and historians, who either live in the Highlands, come from the Highlands, write about the Highlands, or set their books in the Highlands. The entry for each author includes a booklist, with links to the Highland Libraries online catalogue.

Am Baile is a bilingual website which can be viewed in either Gaelic or English. An interactive map allows users to click on specific points to discover more about writers associated with a particular location.

A feature of Literary Landscapes is the inclusion of sound recordings which allow anyone to listen to authors reading passages from their own works. Typically this is a piece of descriptive text – it could be describing a mountain, a village, a journey, or local customs. Extracts from past authors are read by local school children and other local residents, in Gaelic or English.

Among the writers featured so far are Neil Gunn, Hugh Miller, Sir John Sinclair, Osgood Mackenzie, Clio Gray, Angus Peter Campbell, James Robertson and Katharine Stewart.

On Sunday the 6th of April, the town of Arbroath took a step back in time to the days of Robert the Bruce and re-enacted the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath.

To read more about this event visit the Arbroath Herald

Read the text of the Declaration of Arbroath here

For full marks tell us in which year it was signed.

The US Library of Congress has overturned last year’s decision to classify Scottish literary works as “English.” Pressure from the Congress’ Friends of Scotland Caucus and many Americans of Scottish descent has brought about a rethink of this cultural blunder. More from the Houston Chronicle… 

The 25th of January is celebrated as Burns’ Night here in Scotland.All around the country (and in may parts of the world) a haggis will be addressed, whisky will be drunk, the lassies will be toasted and Robert Burns’ words will be recited with passion. Here’s a new web site to give you a flavour of the man and the spirit of the day: Interactive Robert Burns