Crown & Dagger Ball: A night for the history books

When Simone Waters attended the Crown & Dagger Ball, she was on a mission to see if fantasies could transcend into reality. AS I step out of my taxi and onto the uneven stones of Edinburgh’s Castlehill, the late evening has not only brought a moody darkness over this famous location but equally a sense…

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Scotland Through A Lens: Vinny Keenan – April 2023

Reporter Simone Waters speaks with Vinny Keenan about his landscape photography, as featured in the April edition of Scottish Field magazine.  Tell me about yourself? My name is Vinny Keenan. I’m 55 and I’ve been a landscape photographer for 16 years. I live in Argyll and Bute, in between Loch Long and the Gare Loch. What…

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Gaelic specialist celebrates winter solstice

A GAELIC specialist is helping NatureScot to mark today’s winter solstice. The Scottish Government agency, known previously as Scottish Natural Heritage, asked broadcaster, storyteller, and writer Ruairidh Maclean to compile a Gaelic compendium that “celebrates the nature, land, and heritage of Scotland in the winter”. Maclean said: “As keepers of a unique language and culture,…

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Rower Jamie Douglas-Hamilton prepares for Antarctic trial

SCOTTISH adventurer Jamie Douglas-Hamilton is preparing to row from Antarctica to South Georgia to raise money for the British Heart Foundation and honour Sir Ernest Shackleton’s carpenter. Douglas-Hamilton is undertaking the row just months after undergoing open heart surgery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to repair a leaking aortic valve. The 950-mile expedition is…

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REVIEW: “Girl from the North Country”

Kenny Smith reviews Girl from the North Country at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow. GIRL from the North Country is one of those musicals that I know just one thing about – and that’s it. My knowledge extended to the fact that it’s a show featuring the songs of Bob Dylan, whose lyrical and musical…

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Look out for shelduck feathers at the beach

SCIENTISTS are asking visitors to beaches to look out for shelduck feathers this summer. Shelduck replace their feathers by moutling over the summer. They can’t fly for between two and four weeks, and so need to find safe places to moult. British shelduck either moult on mudflats in the UK or fly across the North…

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Dracula and his Scottish links are revealed

DRACULA and his links to Scotland are being marked tonight. Bram Stoker’s novel is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. Stoker began writing Dracula while staying at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay, with his signatures from its guestbook in 1894 and 1895 surviving to this day. Aberdeeshire Council is hosting a civic reception…

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Three days, two wheels, one sceptical cyclist

Kathi Kamleitner of Watch Me See explores Scotland’s west coast by bike. As I cycle down the hill through Glencruitten towards Oban, my hair is flying in the wind. My chest is filled with pure joy and my mind is flashing with childhood memories of sunny family outings on two wheels. But then, a thought…

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Water vole watchers needed in Scotland this spring

Forget the Easter Bunny, this Easter is all about water voles! Wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is calling for volunteers across Scotland, England and Wales to take part in their national water vole survey, which starts on Good Friday. Immortalised by Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, these native riverbank residents…

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Auld Bride – a Glencairn Glass crimewriting prize runner-up

The Glencairn Glass – the world’s favourite whisky glass – has been celebrating Scottish crime writing talent over the past two years. It’s been the headline sponsor of the prestigious McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime-writing prizes and last year, launched its first very own crime short story competition, inviting all budding crime writers to…

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