"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

30 June 2007

Each week the Rampant Scotland Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather and the seasons, plus the flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. This separate "colour supplement" displays some more pictures, in a larger format. Here is this week's crop of Scottish views!


Dianthus is one of the large family of carnations and pinks. They often come in eye-catching colours and have a good perfume, so they are ideal for cottage gardens and are just as much at home in corners of large properties such as the National Trust for Scotland's property at Threave in Dumfries and Galloway. This particular variety sports the name of "Little Jock".


An appeal by the Libyan in jail in Scotland for being part of the plot to blow up Pan Am Flight 103 at Christmas 1988, has put Lockerbie and its memorial garden back into the news again. The 270 fatalities (259 on the plane, 11 in Lockerbie when the wreckage plunged to the ground) were citizens of 21 nations. 189 of those killed were Americans. A memorial garden to the tragedy was created at the cemetery at Dryfesdale, near the town.


Threave Castle in Dumfries and Galloway is on an island in the middle of the river Dee. These days, visitors ring a ship's bell to summon the boat to take them across the river to the castle. Things were no doubt different in the 14th century when Archibald "The Grim" held sway here. Archibald's nickname was given to him by the English - he ejected them from Lochmaben Castle and that corner of Scotland in 1384.


There are many different varieties of thistle in addition to the type we most often see as one of Scotland's emblems. This one here is probably a "Slender Thistle" - so called, for obvious reasons.


Comlongon Castle, not far from Dumfries, is a massive 14th century tower house, with an even larger 19th century mansion attached. The owners later became Earls of Annandale and even later Earls of Mansfield. It is now a hotel.


Threave is part of an estate which was once owned by the Douglas family - Sir James Douglas (the "Black" Douglas) was a resident at nearby Threave Castle. The lands of Threave were purchased by a successful Liverpool businessman in 1867 and he built the present Threave House in the style of a Scottish baronial mansion - with "pepper pot" turrets and all. The present gardens extend to 60 acres and are a creation of the National Trust for Scotland (and continue to be developed by them).

If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page





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