|
REGULARS
4
Editorial
6
Letters to the Editor
8
SCOTS Q & A - find the answers
to those elusive questions.
104
SCOTS Fare – Jamie Thewes prepares afternoon tea.
110
SCOTS Music – Piper Ross Semple.
114
SCOTS Book Reviews - Seumas MacLeod
117
Clans and Societies
122
SCOTS SHOWCASE
FEATURES
10
Trump Card
American entrepreneur Donald Trump plans to spend more than £1
billion to create what he calls "the best golf resort in the
world" on a spectacular 1400 acre coastal site in
Aberdeenshire. While the development has been generally
welcomed, there are significant environmental concerns over the
proposal to stabilise the site's protected sand dunes, officially
designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Aberdeenshire
Council now has the challenging task of choosing between economic
development and coastal conversion. Bruce Stannard
reports.
16
Capercaillie Comeback
Five
years ago, Scotland's iconic Capercaillie, the great black grouse of the
Highland forests, was teetering on the brink of extinction. Now,
thanks to a concerted £5
million, Capercaillie numbers have more than doubled and the scattered
populations seem to be set fair for survival.
26
Tranquility Base
Andy
Lock takes us to Loch Sunart in Argyll for the first of a series of
features in which the distinguished landscape photographer sheares the
beauty of his favourite places in Scotland.
30
Edinburgh Castle's Prisons of War
Christopher
Tabraham examines the fate of prisoners from the War of American
Independence.
36
Mons Meg
Gunpowder
artillary first appeared in Europe in the early 14th century and the
Scots were not slow in realising its potential as a weapon of war.
42
Land and Legacy
Hugh
Cheape continues hi tribute to the Highlands.
44
Scotland's Lost Houses
Since
1945 over 200 major houses have been lost in Scotland, among them some
of the country's grandest works of architecture. Ian Gow, curator
of the National Trust for Scotland, writes with eloquence and authority
on their destruction.
52
Project Trust
Nicholas
maclean-Bristol and his wife, Lavinia, have helped turn the tiny island
of Coll into perhaps one of the most dynamic places in Scotland.
Their home has become headquarters for project Trust, an organisation
which has sent more than 6,000 young school leavers out into the Third
World.
58
The Cromach Makers
The
humble shepherd's crook, or cromach, as its known in the Gaelic, has
long been regarded as an essential piece of Highland kit.
62
Tartan's Terrible Two
Tartan
is the universally recognised symbol of Scottishness, but it is a dress
phenomenon which is, at least in part, the direct result of a hoax
perpetrated back in the early years of the 19th century by a couple of
brothers who claimed direct descent from Charles Edward Stuart.
66
Reviving Scotland's Traditional Skills
The
Scottish Traditional Skills Training Centre is an ambitious training
programme aimed at overcoming the serious shortfall in the number of men
and women with the traditional trade skills needed to maintain the
fabric of Scotland's ancient buildings.
74
Isolation
Shepherd
Fifty years ago, Iain Thomson took his young family deep into
the wilds of Strathmore in the North West Highlands. There, in the
remote mountain grandeur of Glen Strathfarrar in Wester Ross, he ran a
120,000 acre hill farm with no roads, no power and no telephone.
His extraordinary experiences lead to 'Isolation Shepherd', his highly
acclaimed book which records the passing of a way of life.
78
My Highland Perthshire
In
the first of a series of features, the writer and artist, Lavinia Grant,
remembers her family home near Kenmore on Loch Tay.
84
Order of the Thistle
The
Order of the Thistle has been Scotland's order of Chivalry for well over
300 years. It continues to symbolise the very best of ancient
values and virtues associated with selfless and distinguished
service.
|
