Posts by Kenny Smith
Drumlanrig Castle – Scotland’s pretty in pink
From Robert the Bruce to Bonnie Prince Charlie, Drumlanrig Castle has witnessed some of the most significant events in Scottish history. ‘A palace so glorious, gardens so fine, and everything so truly magnificent, and all in a wild, mountainous country…’ so wrote Daniel Defoe on his Scottish sojourn in 1720. As dawn breaks, light and…
Read MoreThere’s no stopping demand for rare Scotch whisky
The UK’s rare whisky auction market has exceeded sales of more than 100,000 bottles of rare whisky in a single year for the first time. The findings are part of the 2018 annual report published today by whisky analyst, broker and investment experts Rare Whisky 101. According to the report, both the volume and value…
Read MoreHow the true face of Robert the Bruce was discovered
Scotland’s most legendary and romanticised king, Robert the Bruce, has become a symbol of national pride for many Scots around the world. Immortalised in countless paintings and statues, banknotes and romantic novels, television dramas and, perhaps most famously in the 1995 epic movie Braveheart and last year’s Netflix film Outlaw King, we all have an…
Read MoreA conversion full of heritage is unveiled
Six beautiful and unique one and two-bed apartments and duplexes have been revealed at the stunning conversion of the magnificent Carrongrove House at Stoneywood, near Denny in Stirlingshire. Mactaggart & Mickel hired specialist architects and craftsmen to breathe new life into the historic B-listed mansion house, originally constructed in the 1860s as a home for…
Read MoreThey’re getting ready to Keep Scotland Beautiful
A Scottish supermarket will be supporting Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Spring Clean campaign, the annual initiative which attracts tens of thousands of people to help clean up Scotland. The partnership will see 12 Scotmid stores from Brechin to Dumfries transformed into community hubs for the duration of the campaign, which is running from April to May.…
Read MoreOut of the ashes came an incredibly rare artefact
At first glance it looked like a bundle of rags, scrunched up into a ball, encrusted with dirt and eaten by insects. It had been stuffed up a chimney as a makeshift draft excluder and was discovered during the renovation of a house in Aberdeen. But when conservation staff at the National Library of Scotland…
Read MoreIt looks like a traditional home – but it’s a modern build
An attractive modern home build in a traditional style is now available for purchase. Blenkiron, in Fowlis Wester, Crieff, Perthshire, is presented for sale by Galbraith. Blenkiron is an impressive, detached house, facing south-east, providing a good layout with well-proportioned rooms. There are many fine and interesting features with generous family living space for entertaining.…
Read MoreThe small Scots island which influenced all of Europe
At only three miles long, the tiny island of Iona, just off the west coast of the Isle of Mull, is a long-established centre for Scottish Christianity, with an influence that reached across Europe from the sixth century to this very day. In 563 AD St Columba and twelve of his followers landed in the crystal…
Read MoreSir Walter Scott’s lasting legacy for the whole nation
No author has ever had as much influence and impact as Sir Walter Scott. With his narrative poems and his series of stories, latterly called the Waverley Novels, he did not just change what the world thought of Scotland, he radically transformed literary culture. When I wrote about his long shadow in my book Scott-Land,…
Read MoreScottish locations given a starring role in 10 top films
If the right location is the key to a film’s success, then Scotland deserves an Oscar. The number of films which have been shot here over the decades is phenomenal, bringing in a host of tourists from overseas. Here we present 10 locations you may want to visit. 1. Rannoch Moor Trainspotting is a very…
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