“It’s not often I get email from a monster. And I would have ignored it, had it not contained such a heartfelt plea. But the obvious pain and suffering incurred in the arduous use of the keyboard with webbed feet, brought a tear to my eye.” Mike Clark shares an email from the Loch Ness Monster.
Mike Clark’s recipe for stovies – the Scottish comfort food par excellence!
“In February 1306 two cousins embraced as they entered the Church of the Minorite Friars in Dumfries. Within minutes the veneer of friendship had slipped. As they stood deep in earnest conversation their voices began to rise. Rage boiled over. A dagger was drawn…” The story of how seven individuals got together to set up a visitor centre commemorating Scotland’s Hero King.
“The North East of Scotland is home to a veritable feast of castles, both restored and in ruins. One which has been restored to its former glory is the Castle of Fyvie.” Mike describes Fyvie Castle, owned and built by five families, including its own stately outhouse…
“What do the adjacent castles of Sinclair and Girnigoe, on the outskirts of Wick, Caithness, have in common with The Valley of the Kings and the Great Wall of China?” How the World Monuments Fund is drawing attention to the imminent collapse of two historic Caithness castles.
“In my new garden, which is in fact a piece of wasteland with a fence round it, I have no trees. I possess only a few stunted and windswept hawthorn and elder. Barely half a mile from the Pentland Firth, whence the north wind blows uninterrupted straight from the Arctic Circle, this is not exactly a horticultural paradise.” Mike tells us about one of Scotland’s most distinctive trees – the Scots Pine – and some of its cousins.