Scots around the world hold suppers each
year in January to celebrate the birth of Scotland’s national poet
Robert Burns - and your clients can do this in the land of his birth.
A
uniquely Scottish experience which features whisky, a dish of haggis,
neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes) and readings from the Bard’s
work, Burns Suppers are always a hugely enjoyable evenings.
Genealogy is one of the fastest growing interests
on the internet. If you are interested in Scottish roots, you can
access some of the world’s best sites for family history as well as
some of the earliest and most comprehensive sets of records available
anywhere.
By John Morrison. As the pilot presses a button which brings the helicopter engines to life with a roar, Norman John Gillies
positions a set of headphones carefully over his ears and adjusts the
microphone in front of his mouth. He turns to three middle aged
passengers in the seat behind him, smiles broadly, gives a thumbs up
and shouts, "St Kilda here we come".
In 2002 the people of Gigha made the bold and
historic move to buy their own island, which was on the market with a
price tag of £4 million. Without the support of the Scottish Land Fund
their dream of community ownership would not have been realised. John
Morrison has been to see a community that is confidently moving forward
together thanks to the SLF.
Kindly written by John Gillies, son of Norman John Gillies. When
my father, Norman John Gillies, was born on St Kilda in house number 15
there was silence. There was not the usual cry that accompanies most
babies when they are born. Frantically they tried putting him from cold
water to hot to stimulate some sort of response but it was no good, his
grandmother Annie said "there's no breath in him, lie him down".
Since 2004, when Poland joined the EU, there has
been a dramatic swelling in the number of Polish people making a new
home in Scotland. In fact, over 22,000 have come to make Scotland their
home. If you think Polish connections to Scotland are only just
beginning to flourish, think again. Clues all around Scotland include
the old Polish churches, Solidarity Square in Clydebank, Robert Gordon
University and our very own half-Polish Bonnie Prince Charlie.
From Fife to Philadelphia, from Dumfries to
Dunedin, St Andrew’s Day is celebrated by proud Scots and their friends
around the globe. On a new set of stamps launched on St Andrew’s day
2006, the Saint features for the first time ever on a Royal Mail stamp
as part of a special set which celebrates promoting Scotland, its
patron saint and its day of national celebration.
Scotland as a country has much to be proud of. As
Churchill once said, " Of all the world's small nations on earth,
perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution
to mankind." Our ancestors have travelled the globe and left a lasting
impression wherever they roamed.
Englishmen
have been known to migrate to Los Angeles and return home a scant few
months later with a Californian twang stretched across their vowels.
American girls will come to work in London and then jet back across the
Atlantic sporting shiny new Kensington-influenced accents.
As William Shakespeare is England’s national bard so Robert Burns is Scotland’s. And nearly 250 years after he was born into a poor Ayrshire farming
family the universal appeal of many of his poems and songs endures.
