Culture
Traquair Medieval Fayre is all set for the weekend ahead
Final preparations are underway for the Medieval Fayre, a weekend full of mayhem and mischief set in the grounds of Scotland’s oldest inhabited house. Taking place at Traquair House, Innerleithen Peeblesshire on 25 and 26 May, (11am-5pm) the Traquair Medieval Fayre is returning once more with medieval magic and horses galore. The Fayre attracts participants…
Read MoreCelebrating the works of painter Leon Morrocco
Leon Morrocco is in an understandably reflective mood. He spoke to Scottish Field in 2014, ahead of a retrospective of his work opening in Edinburgh and a show of new works in London. ‘It’s absolutely essential to go on learning and exploring,’ he says. It is this continuing enquiry that has been the hallmark of…
Read MoreGlass artist’s work took her into the Unknown
Glass artist Alison Kinnaird is combining traditional techniques with modern technology to add light to her sculptures. Alison was angry when she created ‘Unknown’. As an artist working with glass, Kinnaird channelled her rage into creating a piece that summed up her horror at the continuing wars around the world. ‘I started working on it…
Read More10 brave Scots who have won the Victoria Cross
Awarded for valour in the face of the enemy, the Victoria Cross is our highest military decoration. These are the tales of ten of the 164 Scots awarded this highly-prized medal. 1. John MacGregor Born at Cawdor near Nairn in 1889, John MacGregor became Canada’s most-decorated soldier. He emigrated in 1909, working as a carpenter…
Read MoreTime for tea can boost a vital children’s charity
After her daughter died of cancer, Laura Young set up the Teapot Trust, which provides art therapy for children with chronic illness. She tells Scottish Field about the charity. Why did you set up the Teapot Trust? My daughter, Verity, was diagnosed with lupus, an auto-immune disease, when she was three. She was eight when…
Read MoreLife beyond Taggart puts Blythe Duff on stage
When Taggart, the long-running detective series that subsidised Scotland’s theatrical community for many years, came to an end in 2010, Blythe Duff faced a choice. After a double-decade shift in the long leather coat of DI Jackie Reid, should she sit back and live off the repeat fees? Or was it time to hang up…
Read MoreFundraiser for 2nd photographic festival
Organisers of the Stirling Photography Festival have launched a Crowdfunder in a bid to raise funds for the city’s second event this August. The move follows last summer’s successful inaugural festival championed by entrepreneur Janie Meikle Bland from Picture the Possible. The 2019 Festival is being led by the young creative team who ran the…
Read MoreA historic weapon goes on show for first time
A hunting rifle gifted by Queen Victoria to her loyal servant John Brown has been acquired by National Museums Scotland. The rifle will go on public display for the first time in a major exhibition this summer, Wild and Majestic: Romantic Visions of Scotland. A gold plaque fitted into the butt of the.450 double-barrelled hammer…
Read MoreScotland’s global gift to the world is football
Along with the telephone, penicillin and whisky, Scots also gave the world the beautiful game – football. No other nation of Scotland’s size has left such a big footprint on the planet. Even were it not for the invention of everything from the telephone and television to penicillin and insulin, Scotland’s legacy around the globe…
Read MoreScots inspired the kings of the wild frontier
Displaced Highlanders and reivers-turned-drovers created the all-American cowboy, gifting him his cattle-herding skills, outsider status and, best of all, his campfire songs . Pearl Zane Grey, to give him his full name, is widely acknowledged as the creator of the ‘western’. Riders of the Purple Sage, first published in 1912, may be as much about…
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