The Scottish Snippets Newsletter in its original format began in April 1997 and continued in an unbroken series for 591 issues. Although no longer produced in that style, there is now this regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site including "Scottie's Photo Diary From Scotland".
To receive a text version of this newsletter as a reminder to look at these Web pages when they are published, just send an e-mail to Scottie@RampantScotland.com with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
Stirling Pictorial Tourist Guide
The royal burgh of Stirling became a city in 2002 as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. It the smallest city in Scotland - indeed it is smaller than many of Scotland's larger towns. It remains to be seen if any town in Scotland will formally become a "city" as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations this year. But Stirling has a long history and is the administrative centre for the surrounding Stirling Council area. So my pictorial tourist guide not only covers the city with its castle and historic buildings but the castles, lochs and monuments to be found in the wider area of what used to be called Stirlingshire. So the slide show (thumbnails and larger versions) extends to 100 pictures of tourist attractions. Note that once you are viewing the larger images you can move to the next or previous image using the navigation controls, without having to jump back to the thumbnails (unless you want to!). See Stirling Pictorial Tourist Guide.
Auld Lang Syne
It is claimed that "Auld Lang Syne" is the song that is sung most frequently around the world due to the large numbers of people who sing it at New Year's Eve celebrations, mainly in the English speaking countries (though it has also been translated into many other languages too). Despite being so well known, many of those who sing it don't know the words or even what the title "Auld Lang Syne" actually means. So I've written a page in the "Did You Know" section of Rampant Scotland that not only gives the original words but an English translation and some of the historical background and the role played by Robert Burns in creating it. The page also has a link to a track of the Scots singer Kenneth McKellar singing this wonderful song. See Auld Lang Syne.
Scottish Place Names in Cape Town, South Africa
In the light of feedback and further research, Ian Kendall has updated his article on Scottish-related place names in Cape Town, South Africa. Of the names of the 882 suburbs and neighbourhoods that have been identified to date in Greater Cape Town, 115 (13.0%) can be found in Scotland or are based on Scottish family names or Scottish words. Of course, some of the names are used in other parts of the British Isles as well, but at least 60 of these (6.8%) appear to have a direct or indirect connection with Scotland. For all the updated details, see: Scottish Place Names in Cape Town, South Africa.
Next Newsletter
The next newsletter is scheduled for 17 March 2012.
Yours aye
Scottie
Previous editions of this Newsletter are available in an Archive. The Index to the other pages of the Rampant Scotland site is available here.
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