The Burry Man’s Day by Catriona McPherson

8 April 2013 00:45

This is the second book in the Dandy Gilver series and so far I think it’s my favourite, I don’t know how much I’ve been influenced by knowing the setting fairly well, it’s always a plus as far as I’m concerned when I can easily imagine exactly where I am location-wise in a book. Apart from that I do like Catriona McPherson’s writing, she’s particularly good with different dialects which can be really difficult to get right.

It’s August 1923 and the setting is in and around South Queensferry. The small town has an annual Ferry Fair and the Burry Man plays a big part in it. He’s a bit of a hangover from pagan days I suppose but it’s all a bit of a mystery, you can read about the 2012 Burryman here. And here is a photo of him with his two helpers. This all takes place on the second Friday of August, I’ve marked it down on my calendar – see you at South Queensferry – and on the Saturday too.
Burry man in South Queensferry

If you want to see what South Queensferry looks like have a look at a previous post here.

Back to the book. Not everyone in Queensferry is enamoured of the Burry Man, the various religious ministers/priest aren’t keen on him and the Turnbulls – who are the local temperance, all alcohol is evil, tee-total fanatics are dead against him, because part of the Burry Man’s duties is to go around the town being treated to whisky from everyone.

Robert Dudgeon has been the Burry Man for 25 years but for some reason he doesn’t want to play the part again, although he won’t say why. At the last minute he changes his mind but the day ends in trgedy as the Burry Man drops down dead. Is it natural causes or has he been poisoned?

When all this occurs, Dandy happens to be staying at Cassilis Castle which is actually a fictional place, supposedly somewhere over Dalmeny way, and is owned by her old schoolfriend Buttercup and her American husband Cadwallader. Cad asks Dandy to investigate, which of course she does, with the help of Alec.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable murder mystery which had me puzzled to the end, a good comfort read. It occurred to me that McPherson deals with Dandy’s husband and family in exactly the same way that children’s authors always have done with parents – that is, she gets rid of them very early on in the story. Just thought I’d mention it. I’m looking forward to reading more of this series.

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Categories: Books, Scotland, Scottish History

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Kellie Castle in Fife, Scotland

12 March 2013 17:50

I was having a look at photos on my computer and realised that I hadn’t done a blogpost about Kellie Castle. It dates from the 14th century and is supposed to be haunted – is there a castle which isn’t haunted? Anyway, we went there one afternoon in July, it was a lovely day as you can see I hope, but sadly it was one of the very few good days we had last summer. If you want to read about the castle’s history, and see some photos of the interior, have a look here.

Kellie Castle

The gardens at Kellie Castle were looking particularly good, I think we caught the flowers just at their best for once. There are various nooks and crannies that you can go and have a sit down in and enjoy the views and plenty of countryside to wander in.

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The clematis was rampant, unlike my own which all got that ghastly blight – again.

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I know that we’re all supposed to love red roses but yellow ones have always been my favourites, these ones were lovely in combination with the clematis, but I don’t know what kind they were.

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Who lives in a house like this? Well I wouldn’t mind at all, especially if the garden goes with it. I think this cute wee place must have originally been lived in by a gardener, maybe the castle’s head gardener. It’s like something out of a fairy tale.

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I don’t know about you – but that look back into last summer cheered me up a wee bit, which was just what I was needing, because just as everything was beginning to grow in my garden – back came the snow and ice. It’s a hard life being a plant in a British garden, nipped in the bud just when you thought that winter had gone. If we don’t get a half decent summer this year I might have to go and find some good weather for a while, but where?

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Categories: Architecture, Scotland, Scottish History

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Dalmeny Village and Kirk

14 February 2013 23:44

Well, what can I say? There’s not a lot in Dalmeny really, so I hope it isn’t a disappointment to you. I must admit that it appealled to me though. We passed this field on the road up to the village from South Queensferry. It’s not a bad view I think, considering the time of the year.

A field near Dalmeny Scotland

Then when you get to the top of the road the war memorial is just about the first thing you see. The village houses are all very similar, they look like they were originally built for farm workers. The village is so quiet that it’s amazing to think that it’s just a hop and a skip from Edinburgh.

The war memorial at Dalmeny

I was chuffed to see that there is a large and very old church in the village. I’ve said it before – that I must stop taking photos of churches – after all I’m not in the least bit religious, but I do love mooching around old graveyards, and I just can’t break myself of the habit of photographing them. It’s very obvious that this church, called Dalmeny Kirk, has had a lot of restoration work done on the tower. In fact we thought it had been done recently but apparently it was restored in 1937.

Dalmeny Kirk, St Cuthbert

It’s a big church and I couldn’t get a stitch of it, but as you can see, it’s obviously a very old building in fact I was gobsmacked when I got home and googled it, because this is the oldest Norman church in Scotland and is over 1,000 years old!! Obviously that makes it pre-Reformation, you can tell by the design anyway that it wasn’t built as a Presbyterian church. It’s much too ornate and curvaceous for that.

Dalmeny Kirk, St Cuthbert,

In fact, in its original guise as a Roman Catholic church it was known as Saint Cuthbert’s. It seems to be well used nowadays as they have musical events there from time to time. As there really isn’t anything else in the village I suppose it is the focal point of the community, which is just as it was always meant to be.

Dalmeny Kirk door.

The graveyard is quite large and has some very old gravestones in it but a lot of them are so worn that it’s difficult to read them. I liked this one just because it’s so Victorian. It commemorates a sea captain and his wife.

a nautical headstone

And that’s Dalmeny, because we didn’t get the length of the other road which leads to the railway station. I think there are some more modern houses there, and for all I know there might even be a pub, otherwise the inhabitants will just have to go down to South Queensferry if they want to do some shopping, or drinking, there are plenty of pubs and hotels there.

To read more about the church and see some photos of its interior have a look here.

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Categories: Scenery, Scotland, Scottish History, Towns

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Scottish Pottery and Robert Burns

25 January 2013 00:33

I can hardly believe that it’s that time of the year again – Burns Night that is. I’ll spare you the sight of my dinner this year, we’ll be having the less traditional vegetarian haggis, neeps (turnip) and tatties tonight. Not because we’re vegetarian but because it’s tastier than the offal/awful! version.

I thought it would be nicer to let you see some very old Scottish pottery, the sort which would have been recognised by Robert Burns when he was around and imbibing a fair quantity of whisky, which he seems to have been quite fond of.

toddy bowls 1

As you can see, it’s fairly chunky stuff, the large bowls are called toddy bowls and they measure about 10 inches across the top of them so they can hold a lot of toddy in them. Toddy is of course a mixture of whisky, sugar and hot water, for me it’s the only possible way of enjoying whisky, but I haven’t had it since I was a child when my dad used to make it for me if I had a bad cold or toothache.

I took this photo to try to show you that they are also decorated inside. The jugs are actually two different designs but they’re quite similar as you can see. One design is for wine and it has vine leaves on it, whilst the beer jug is decorated with hop leaves and flowers. The pottery is at least 150 years old but this sort of pottery was made for a long time, it could be a lot older, and the bowls would originally have been sold in pairs, people used to have one at each end of a long table or sideboard. The small two handled pewter drinking vessel is a quaich, the ‘ch’ pronounced the same as in the word ‘loch’. It’s a reproduction one.

Scottish pottery toddy bowls 2

The top left hand toddy bowl has very large pine cones in it which make the bowl seem really small. My favourite bowl is the bottom left hand one, I love the design but it has been in the family since it was new which makes it more precious to me.

Have a listen if you want to hear David Rintoul reciting the Burns poem: -

Scotch Drink

Well, are you any the wiser? Burns didn’t write many short poems, I know that because I looked for one when I had to choose one to memorise for reciting at a Burns competition when I was at primary school. The town’s Burns Society held a competition every year and all schoolchildren had to take part in it. I ended up reciting this one.

“John Anderson my jo, John”
By Robert Burns

John Anderson my jo, John,
When we were first acquent,
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bonie brow was brent;
But now your brow is beld, John,
Your locks are like the snaw,
but blessings on your frosty pow,
John Anderson, my jo!

John Anderson my jo, John,
We clamb the hill thegither,
And monie a cantie day, John,
We’ve had wi’ ane anither;
Now we maun totter down, John,
And hand in hand we’ll go,
And sleep thegither at the foot,
John Anderson, my jo!

I didn’t win. Jack did win though, but he was in a different year from me and he recited To A Mouse. What did he win ? I hear you ask. A volume of the complete works of Robert Burns of course – he still has it.

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Categories: Collections, Scottish History, Scottish literature, Scottish words

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National Tree for Scotland?

13 January 2013 23:34

I was watching the Scottish news on the TV one evening last week when an article came on about the fact that Scotland doesn’t have a national tree. It had never occurred to me that we were missing a trick there, after all we always think of England’s tree as being the oak, I think America has the giant redwood as its national tree, for Canada it’s obviously the maple. Is it eucalyptus for Australia? Lebanon has the cedar and off the top of my head I can’t think of any others.

The chap who was speaking about it wants the Scots Pine to fit the bill and I must say I did totally agree with him at the time, after all they are beautiful so it would be a great emblem for us. They give shelter and sustenance to our native red squirrels and pine martens, and lots of other beasties too I’m sure.

Then I thought about it and it seemed to me that it would be a shame not to have the rowan tree (mountain ash) as an emblem of Scotland too. So, from having no Scottish national tree I think we should go the whole hog and have two, one evergreen and one deciduous, and I can’t think of any other trees which would represent Scotland so well.

I always think of rowans as being particularly Scottish, and they’re steeped in Celtic mythology. If a garden of mine didn’t have one when I moved into it, it was never long before I planted one, to keep the witches away, and provide food for the birds.

You can have a look at a BBC report on the subject here.

Apparently there are 70 countries in the world which have trees as symbols, at the moment I’d be hard pushed to name 70 countries, never mind their trees!

You can have a look at Scots pine images here.

And rowan tree images are here.

If you want to know a bit more about the mythology and folklore surrounding the rowan have a look here.

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Categories: BBC, Scottish History

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The Last Dandy

5 December 2012 00:17

Or should it be the first Dandy? DC Thomson, the publishers of The Dandy sent me an invitation to attend their pre-launch do for the digital version of the famous comic, unfortunately I couldn’t get to Dundee on Monday so I had to decline.

The Dandy was a staple in most homes with children since it was first published in 1938. In my very sexist home it was my brother who got it every week, he was partial to the Topper and Beezer too, whilst I got Mandy, Judy, Bunty and latterly Jackie, but of course I still read The Dandy and in common with most folks my favourite character was Desperate Dan and his cow pies. I seem to remember that he used to chew rusty nails too. Have a look here at the amazing amount of different comics and magazines which they’ve published over the years.

I must admit though that my boys weren’t interested in the comic at all although they enjoyed The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals at Christmas. In fact it wouldn’t have been Christmas without them and we still have them all.

DC Thomson tried to update The Dandy over the years to appeal to the modern generation but the readership still dwindled, and I suspect that more adults read it for nostalgic reasons than did the youngsters, so it was probably a bit of a waste of time trying to modernise it as the older generation would no doubt have been happier with more of the usual fare.

So, The Dandy has gone digital and will have interactive games and such to attract a new generation of readers. I really hope it works, from what I’ve seen on TV it looks good, the bright colours are perfect for viewing on an e-reader or computer, so fingers crossed for them.

As you can imagine DC Thomson had a big influence in Dundee in the east of Scotland where the firm is based, but I was amazed to discover when I met my first Dundonian at the tender age of 21, that they actually used the words topper and beezer in every day conversation. Then that same Dundonian told me that there was actually a family called Brown who live in Glebe Street, that’s nothing unusual I thought as it’s such a common name but it was only then that the penny dropped that Broons were supposed to be Browns. Silly me!

If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about have a look at some images here.

Here’s a peek at the digital Dandy.

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Categories: Nostalgia, Scottish History

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St Andrew’s Day in Scotland

30 November 2012 22:47

I’ve always thought of it as quite a healthy thing that people in Scotland really don’t do anything to celebrate St Andrew’s Day. I can understand that if you are a Scot but you aren’t lucky enough to be living in Scotland then you would want to do something to mark the day. Scots always become much more Scottish when they aren’t in Scotland, have a look here if you want to see some news about up and coming events and Scottish music, recipes, pipers, Alex Salmond and the like.

The year 2014 is apparently a Homecoming year, when people of Scottish descent are encouraged to visit Scotland, this is a fairly new concept I think there has just been one previous Homecoming year. I find it a wee bit strange as I think people should be encouraged to visit Scotland any time.

Anyway, it was a quiet day in Kirkcaldy, no doubt there were ceilidhs in Dubai!

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Categories: Scottish History

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Duddo Stone Circle, Northumberland

17 October 2012 23:13

I had never heard of Duddo until Margaret@BooksPlease blogged about it recently, do have a look at her very interesting post, her photos are better than mine too, here. I’m still getting used to the new camera, well that’s my excuse anyway!
Thanks Margaret, we would never have found the Duddo Stone Circle on our own, it’s fairly off the beaten track.

Duddo information board

Lorraine was asking how long it took for us to get to York from Scotland and I have to say that I’m not exactly sure, somewhere between 3 and 4 hours I think, because we stopped off at Duddo on the way there. The sign on the gate which you go through to get to Duddo says that it’s about an hour long walk there and back – and it was for us anyway. It’s an easy walk if you’re fairly fit, along the edges of fields of crops which had recently germinated, and we had a lovely day for it.

Duddo from a distance 1

Although Duddo is in Northumberland and so is now definitely part of England, I think of it as historically Scottish as it’s north of Hadrian’s Wall. It was obviously a very important place for Neolithic/Bronze Age inhabitants. The whole thing is a bit of a mystery but they do know that it dates from about 2,000 BC. Cremated human remains were found in the centre of the stone circle, it might have been a place of worship and burial or for sacrifices, or both.

Duddo from distance 3
It’s an impressive spot today, just imagine what it must have been like all those years ago.

Duddo standing stone 1

It’s thought that these massive grooves have been worn into the stone by the weather over the centuries, they look spookily like they’re man-made though.

aOne of the Duddo standing stonesstone 3

This one is actually the smallest stone but it’s still about 5 feet in height, as you can see there are lovely hills in the background. We were lucky in that there were no other sight-seers there and we had the place all to ourselves, which made it all the more magical for me. I count myself as being a fairly hard and cynical person but I definitely felt that there was a special atmosphere at the stone circle and I walked around them touching them all.

Can’t you feel it? I said to Jack. That’s the Viking in you. They’re just stones – he replied.

That’s the scientist in you! – I said. Honestly there’s nae romance in that man of mine.

Duddo landscape

I think Duddo would be quite bleak in grey weather but it was very pleasant on a blue sky day. There was quite a lot of fighter jet activity, some of it too high up to see but you could certainly hear them and a couple of jets did pass over us, very low. It’s a very rural and sparsely populated part of Britain at Duddo, which makes it a good training airspace for them I suppose. It does seem a bit weird though when all that state of the art metal, costing millions of pounds flies over a Bronze Age structure.

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Categories: Scenery, Scottish History

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Culross Palace and Gardens, Fife, Scotland

7 September 2012 00:13

During the last week of the school holidays we drove just a few miles from home to the small but very historic town of Culross, which is pronounced Kooriss. This is a panorama photo of the town.

Culross pano

This is the palace from the back, in fact I seem to have neglected to take any from the front! As you can see, there’s a good view of the Firth of Forth. The palace dates from 1597 and is a very bright colour, almost orange, but it is the original colour and it was a status symbol as it cost so much to have the building finished like that when it was built.

Culross palace panorama

This photo is of the chickens in the orchard, there was also a lovely border collie belonging to the gardener there but he/she didn’t stay still long enough to get a snap of her. I think that gardener may well have one of the best jobs around.

chickens

Look closely and you’ll see that apples can grow in Scotland although it obviously helps if you have a south facing garden and nice big thick walls which store what little heat we might get.

apples + flowers

The gardens are steeply terraced with stone steps in about four layers, so you have to be fairly fit to tackle them but it’s well worth it if you’re interested in plants.

Culross palace terraces

There’s a good selection of plants and produce to buy here, the wee wooden stall which you might be able to make out has bags of very unusual varieties of veggies and you just have to make your choice and post your money into the honesty box.

Culross palace garden

We had planned to visit the palace and abbey in the same afternoon but after doing the town tour and the palace tour we were too tired for the abbey and it was getting late too so we’ll be going there some other day.

These are all National Trust properties and in fact the NT owns over 100 of the houses in the town and they rent them out. Culross is well worth a visit, there’s plenty to see but now that it’s so quiet it’s hard to imagine the place as it was when it was a very busy port, even busier than Leith apparently, which is Edinburgh’s port. It was full of ships which were transporting the coal from the very lucrative mining industry here and before that there was a salt industry.

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Categories: Architecture, Coast, Gardening, Scenery, Scottish History, Towns

Dysart, Fife, Scotland

4 September 2012 00:06

Every now and again we take a wander along to Dysart which is an old Royal Burgh just a couple of miles north, along the coast from Kirkcaldy. The schoolkids have made a new sign for it apparently. I have no idea how they made it but it looks quite snazzy I think.

Dysart Primary school art

This is a photo of Pan Ha’ and St. Serf’s Tower, the buildings are of traditional east coast design, with the red pan tiles on the roofs coming originally from Holland as ballast in ships. Dysart was a very busy port at one time.

aPan Ha'

The town tolbooth, the ground floor of which would have been used as a prison. I imagine it would have been quite well used as there would have been plenty of sailors around, getting drunk and having fights.

Dysart tollbooth

We walked alongh the coastal path for quite a while but bits of it have been roped off as the cliffs are in a dangerous state at the moment. It’s that ever present coastal erosion, the island of Britain is shrinking all the time it seems, and the sea is coming to get us. Do we ever gain any land I wonder?

You can see the old winching gear of Frances Colliery which closed down years ago, when Maggie Thatcher killed the coal mining industry of Britain, along with a lot of communities.

panorama from Dysart

If you’re interested you can see an older Dysart post of mine here.

Yesterday further north along the coast, some 15 or 20 miles or so, between Pittenweem and Anstruther it was ‘all go’ as a pod of whales beached themselves for some reason. It was early in the morning and by the time rescuers reached them 10 had already died. After huge efforts 16 whales were encouraged back to deeper water but unfortunately since then one has died at Leith and it’s feared that the others will come to grief too as they are just swimming around near the Forth Bridges. They’re pilot whales and shouldn’t be anywhere near this coast, but this happens every now and again for some unknown reason. It’s such a shame.

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Categories: Architecture, Coast, Scottish History, Towns

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