Scotland Correspondent issue 4

Mark Beaumont’s new global challenge The inspiration behind Caledonia Glasgow’s bigger, better, beautiful Burlesque

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Celebrating the bravest journey in the world Uncovering the past between India and Scotland Going to extremes to be Scottish

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inside this issue 8 Special

relationship

The Scots diplomat who forged British American friendship

Photo by Tom Watt

34 Hell on earth 12 Mark

Celebrating the bravery of those who made the worst journey in the world

Pedalling the planet for charity

41 Life as a cabaret

Beaumont’s global odyssey

The world’s best burlesque show

68 Majestic

102 Dougie

moments

MacLean

78 A house of

110 It’s a date

Relax and unwind with the most intimate of cruises

surprises

Modern home for an historic city

The man who inspired a generation of global Scots A round-up of what’s on this month

Date 4 ur diary Cover Photo

Photograph by Mike Bishop

22 Energising

Edinburgh

Capital idea for a city break

50 Preserving the

past

Restoring the connections between Scotland and India

64 Power of the

word

The magazine that became a force of literature

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90 Space science

Victorian style

How a Scots minister pioneered idea of rocket travel

97 Living a dream Wannabe Scots who invented their own history

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Editorial:

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Laying the foundations of a special relationship

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lose ties between Britain and the USA can be traced back many centuries but now newly released digital archives reveal the remarkable story of how a Scottish diplomat and his wife helped lay the foundations of that ‘special relationship’.

including the first US President George Washington. It was a triumph of personal charm and cultured diplomacy.

In 1796, only 13 years after the two nations fought against each other in the War of Independence, Henrietta Liston arrived in Philadelphia with her husband, Robert, who had just been appointed British Minister to the United States.

This is demonstrated in rich detail

by Henrietta’s handwritten North American journals which are part of the National Library of Scotland Liston papers archive, now being made available online. Although her acute observations of life in the early days of the United States have long been studied by researchers, the online offering will make them easily available to a much wider audience.

By the end of their four-and-a-half year posting, the Listons had won the trust and admiration of leading figures in the new government

In the Liston papers are invitations to the couple to dine with George Washington and his wife Martha and an invitation to the funeral oration of

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the former President after his sudden death in 1799.

The esteem in which the Listons were held is demonstrated by Henrietta when she writes about the celebratory dinner to mark Washington’s retirement. “I had, as usual, the gratification of being handed to table and of sitting by the President.”

It was a turbulent time as the United States sought to establish itself as an independent nation. Relations with France – its wartime ally against the British – soured and Henrietta wrote of the prospect of war between the two former allies.

“So violently does the tide now flow

George Washington

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uncle and aunt in Glasgow where she grew up. She was 44 when she married Robert Liston, departing for the United States almost immediately.

Her writings record observations on the major figures who established the United States including Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Benjamin Rush, and Alexander Hamilton.

in favour of the English nation & against the French, – that there are moments when I think Magic-art must have worked it,” she noted.

It would be almost 150 years before the term “special relationship” would be coined by Winston Churchill to describe the bond between the two nations but Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History at the

University of Edinburgh, said: ” We have a hint of what is to come in the relationship between the Listons and the Washingtons in particular and the United States more generally.”

Henrietta, or Hennie as she was known, was born in Antigua to a family of Scots descent. Orphaned by the age of 10, she and her brothers were sent to live with an

“Henrietta’s friendship with Washington reflects how successful the Listons were in repairing the relationship between Britain and the US at this very uncertain and unstable time,” said Dora Petherbridge, the Library’s Curator of US and Commonwealth collections.

“She writes about sitting between the rising sun, Adams, who was to be the second president, and the setting sun, Washington, and she says she feels perfectly easy and familiar with both great men. This is extraordinary for a woman at this time to feel that ease in front of such political power.”

As well as having a front row seat in the political theatre of the emerging United States, the Listons travelled extensively throughout the country, including trips into Canada and the Caribbean. They covered thousands of miles by stagecoach, canoe, ship and carriage.

“The journals have style and character,” said Dora. “Henrietta’s writing is full of opinion and wonderment. Her inquisitive voice fills the pages with a sense of discovery; she takes us to the streets, suppers, and taverns of the early republic.”

Henrietta Liston - Photo by National Library of Scotland

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These travels are represented on an interactive map which is part of the new online resource. Showing the routes the Listons took, the map provides a way of searching Henrietta’s journals by the places they visited and opens up the exciting research potential of her writing. http://digital.nls.uk/travels-ofhenrietta-liston/

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Around the world in 80 days by bicycle

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by Jo De Sylva

W

hen Jules Verne wrote about Phileas Fogg going around the world in 80 days he at least factored in the use of ships, trains and even a balloon to complete the task.

But then Fogg was no Mark Beaumont, the Scots adventurer with a track record for taking on near impossible tasks and succeeding.

In 2008 he cycled around the world in 194 days now he plans to try again this summer and complete the journey in less than half the time.

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“This is the culmination of the past two decades, since I was a 12-yearold boy cycling across Scotland.I would love for this journey to give people the confidence to take on what they are capable of, for young people in particular to stop and to think ‘what’s my 80 days’?” said Mark.

“I want to redefine the limits of human endurance by proving what seems impossible really is possible.

After capsizing in the Atlantic, I gave up being an athlete for a couple of years, and enjoyed making documentaries about other athletes –

but in truth I had unfinished business, I couldn’t idly watch others push their limits. I am excited and nervous about what lies ahead, it truly is unchartered territory.”

Beaumont will start his attempt to travel 18,000 miles around the world on Sunday 2 July from Paris, a distance almost three times as far as his last big challenge across Africa.

In 2015 Mark made the 6,600 journey which involved crossing the Sahara desert with little water and food, navigating the Ethiopian Highlands to a height of around 3,500m, and passing through Northern Kenya where armed guards were required because of the very real danger of terrorism.

Most people would never contemplate such a journey but for adventurer Mark Beaumont that was part of the attraction as he knocked almost a third off the previous world record of 70 days and cycled between Cairo and Cape Town in just 42 days.

Since then Mark has cycled the North Coast 500, a 518.7 mile route around Scotland which he completed in 37 hours 56 minutes.

In the last 10 years Mark has been to some 130 countries and cycled across at least 60 of them. It’s a habit he finds very hard to break.

Mark’s first world record success was his circumnavigation of the globe on a bike in 2008. He cycled the 18,000 miles in 194 days and 17 hours – breaking the then existing record by 82 days.

He followed that success with a 13,080 mile ride from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego in 2009 down the length of the Rockies and Andes, climbing the highest mountains in Alaska and Argentina.

During a departure from the saddle for five years he spent his time exploring the Arctic, mountaineering and ocean rowing, although his 2012 sea trip almost ended in tragedy.

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While attempting to break the world record crossing the Atlantic by rowing boat his vessel capsized 27 days into the trip. Mark and his six man crew were all thrown into the rough seas and stranded with the upside down craft for 14 hours in icy waters before being rescued.

Since then, understandably, Mark has stuck to dry land and is back on his bike. Initially, after such close shave with death at sea, the 32-yearold ultra endurance adventurer says his first reaction was to hang up his cycle clips.

“I thought to myself it was maybe time to draw a line under my athletic career I’m going to focus on the day job and be a family man,” said Mark who went on to commentate on the Commonwealth games.

During the whole run up to Glasgow 2014 he followed the ceremonial baton on as it traveled through all 70 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.

After spending almost a year interviewing athletes and hearing so many inspiring stories he realised he still had a hunger for adventure and challenges.

Doing what he loves best - being on a bike, pushing himself to extreme limits - Mark worked with the Scottish cycling team and the institute of sport to be in peak condition, both physically and mentally, for his desert challenge, one of the toughest he’s ever faced.

While most men of his age may be happy with a round of golf or a Sunday morning game of football Mark is in his element pushing himself, both physically and mentally for the next big adventure.

“I’ve always got the mindset of whether it takes two years or six months you set yourself a schedule and you make it happen. If you wake up in the morning and you’ve got 20 minutes to get the bus or two hours to get the bus, you still get the bus.

You’ve got to push these targets and

make them happen,” he said.

Mark’s quest for adventure was encouraged from an early age. He was home schooled on his parents’ farm in rural Perthshire from the age of five until 11 when he went to secondary school. It was those early years particularly which encouraged him to explore. He describes it as a “Swallows and Amazons” style existence.

“School work around the kitchen table in the morning then working on the farm the rest of the day. It gave me a real freedom and tons of adventure” said Mark who completed his first long distance adventure aged just 12 when he cycled across Scotland to raise £3,000 for charity.

His mum wanted to encourage Mark and his two sisters to become their own people and to develop without peer pressure, hence the choice to home school, although that didn’t come without its own problems.

“When I went to secondary school I was top of the class” explains Mark, “Academically I was fine, but socially I was very behind. I’d had a very sheltered start.

“It was in the playground I found things difficult. It was small stuff like wearing the wrong shoes, having the wrong bag. It sounds daft but you get bullied for it. By the time I left school though I was no different than your average kid, although what I did manage to keep hold of was independent thinking”.

After school Mark completed a degree in Economics and Politics at the University of Glasgow. He planned to work in finance.

“I was very money focused and wanted to go and make my millions in London. I had no idea I could make a living from going on adventures. I had two parts to my life. The side of academic success and the side of going on grand adventures and pushing myself,” said Mark.

Mark Beaumont

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It was only when he had completed his degree and was, he thought, about to settle down into a 9-5 job that he decided to go on one big adventure and get it out of his system. That was when he decided to cycle round the world and smash the world record.

It was the start of a whole new life he had never really expected as one thing led to another and he became a professional adventurer.

However, Mark’s adventures are not all about self achievement. He is a prolific fund raiser for charity – he recently raised over £100,000 by running and swimming across Scotland.

This latest adventure will raise funds for OrKids Studios, a grass roots charity founded by Scottish entrepreneur and architect James Mitchell that designs and builds projects for disadvantaged communities around the world. The journey will also be tracked through Twinkl, a global educational platform for primary schools.

Mark is also an enthusiastic supporter of Road Share, which works to protect vulnerable road

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users in Scotland by campaigning for a Presumed Liability legislation to put the onus of duty of care on motorists; the Saltire Foundation, which represents a new vision for Scotland by encouraging individuals with entrepreneurial drive to transform Scottish companies into global businesses; and Scottish Student Sport, a partnership between Colleges and Universities across Scotland to provide opportunities for more people to take part in sport at all levels.

In recognition of his work with young people, charity and his sporting achievements, Mark was named Top Scot 2011 and presented an Honorary Doctorate from Dundee University in 2013.

A lot has changed for Mark in recent years. In 2012 he married his wife Nicci and this new adventure will be his biggest challange since the birth of his daughter Harriet, a fact he acknowledges is a big commitment for the whole family.

“In the grand scheme of things it’s all about perspective. I’ve done four expeditions that have been over half a year but this one is only 50 days.

My pledge to my family was ‘no more expeditions over two months’ so it’s a huge cut down compared to what I was doing before.

“The flip side of my lifestyle is that I live and train at home in rural Perthshire and I’m here to put Harriet to bed and to give her breakfast.

When you become a dad you fundamentally change. Your focus changes, and what is important changes. I’m very much a hands on dad,” said Mark who admits his wife is very different than he is and is happy just taking the dog for a walk.

“She’s an artist and a teacher, and has known me for a very long time,” said Mark. “She trusts me and knows I’m incredibly careful. She knows I won’t put myself in harms way, and knows how meticulous I am at planning these trips. I’ve also promised not to row any more oceans!”.

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Enigmatic

Edinburgh - Photo by Visit Scotland

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and ebullient Edinburgh F

orget about Nice, Vienna or Madrid the ultimate destination being tipped for a city break is Edinburgh.

Every year visitors from across the UK and Europe flock to Scotland’s capital to experience a holiday in one of the world’s most spectacularly historic cities.

More than 600 years of history seep

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Edinburgh - Photo by Visit Scotland

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from every pore of Edinburgh’s volcanic foundations. Tales of genius and enlightenment are mingled with those of body-snatchers, witches and revolutionaries.

The Old Town, dominated by the imposing medieval battlements of Edinburgh Castle, runs downhill along the Royal Mile stretching from the castle to the Queen’s official Scottish residence of Holyrood Palace.

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Exploring the narrow lanes and footpaths between some of the world’s tallest 16th and 17th century merchants houses feels like a return

William Burke

to the days of Daniel Defoe, the 18th century author of Robinson Crusoe and English spy, or the 19th century murderers Burke and Hare.

William Hare

In contrast, the neoclassical New Town area built between 1767 and 1890 is a masterpiece of city planning, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a monument to the Age of Enlightenment which put Edinburgh at the heart of intellectual and scientific accomplishments.

Edinburgh, with its historic 16th century tenements and grandiose 19th century town houses, is an ideal destination for a short stay, especially as there is so much to see and do free of charge.

Edinburgh is full of free museums within a short walk of each other, including the National Museum

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Photo by Ronnie Macdonald

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of Scotland and its vast array of artefacts from across the world.

Nearby the Edinburgh Writers Museum celebrates the lives of famous Scots writers such as Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson while the Museum of Childhood, Museum of Edinburgh and The People’s Story provide an informative and entertaining history of the city and its people.

For those with a slightly more macabre interest the Police Information Centre and its museum of crime contains a business card holder made from skin of infamous body-snatcher William Burke.

In addition to numerous museums Edinburgh is also home to several free art galleries, including the Scottish National Gallery in the middle of the city; the National Portrait Gallery and the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art. Old Masters sit alongside the work of some of the world’s

Greyfriars Kirkyaard by Kim Traynor

Greyfriars Bobby by Maciek Szczepaniak

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Mort Safe by Kim Traynor

leading Impressionists and PostImpressionists in addition to leading temporary exhibitions which create a smorgasbord of culture for art lovers.

Edinburgh is an ideal city to explore independently but for those who prefer a guide there are a couple of operators, such as Sandeman’s Free Walking Tour and Edinburgh Free Walking Tours based on the Royal Mile, happy to show people around.

Photo by Kim Traynor St Giles by Pier André

Typical routes take in the views of Edinburgh Castle and St Giles Cathedral, which has over 200 memorials to notable Scots, and the historic Grassmarket and Cowgate areas.

No walk would be complete without a visit to Greyfriars Kirkyard and the statue of Greyfriar’s Bobby at the corner of Candlemaker’s Row celebrating one of Edinburgh’s most famous tales about the tiny 19th century Skye Terrier who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his owner’.

For the more energetic Arthur’s Seat, a dormant volcano which sits 251m above sea level offers a unique vantage point. No other city in the world has an extinct volcano in its limits, and as the highest point in

View from Arthur’s seat - by Lac Z

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Holyrood Palace

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the 640 acre Royal Park adjacent to Holyrood Palace it also offers a chance to explore the remains of a 2,000-year-old hill fort.

UK and Europe flock to Scotland’s capital to experience a holiday in one of the world’s most spectacularly historic cities.

At the foot of the Royal Mile, in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat, is the award-winning building of the Scottish Parliament.

It is easy to get around by bus or tram but the best way of all is on foot. Around almost every corner there are amazing views, atmospheric courtyards, secret gardens and historic buildings with stunning architectural details.

Designed by Catalonian architect Enric Miralles it has been hailed as both a modern architectural marvel and an over-priced blot on the landscape.

You can make up your own mind with a free guided tour and access to a permanent exhibition about the Parliament.

Every year visitors from across the

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Edinburgh is a party city. Almost every month there is a festival or celebration of some sort taking place. It’s a cosmopolitan city with a vibrant cafe culture and no less than five Michelin-starred restaurants which means there are always plenty of places to eat, drink and be merry.

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Photo by Guy Phillips

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Festival to honour bravery of the Arctic convoys

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oday the picturesque remote inlet of Loch Ewe in the northwest Highlands of Scotland is the epitome of peace and tranquility.

But, just a few decades ago it was, for tens of thousands of men, the starting point of a voyage which Winston Churchill described as the “worst journey in the world�.

During the dark days of Word War II it was the assembly point for the Arctic Convoys. Between August 1941 and May 1945 some 1,400 merchant vessels, escorted by naval ships from Britain, Canada and the USA, ran the gauntlet of Nazi warplanes and U-boats to deliver much needed war supplies to the Soviet Union.

At least 3,000 men died making the 1,600-mile trip around the enemyheld shores of Norway and across the Barents Sea to the waters of Murmansk and Archangel.

Now, 75 years after the first ships set sail from Loch Ewe a new event is being launched in Poolewe, Wester Ross to remember and commemorate the intrepid Russian Arctic Convoys.

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The Loch Ewe World War II Festival aims to honour those that braved the North Atlantic passage to Russia in extreme weather and war-time conditions with a two-day extravaganza of military and naval reenactments over May 6 and 7.

The event, to be complemented with a movie night, nostalgic Highland Swing band and some serious vintage glamour and military style, will be attended by military and cultural representatives along with veterans from Russia, Britain and the USA. A special memorial service will also be held at Rubha Nan Sasan, at the head of Loch Ewe which marks the site of the emergency coastal battery that protected the gathering place for the convoys.

“To gain an understanding of what happened here during WWII, we thought a full-scale re-enactment and themed entertainment would give it immediate colour and set it in context,” said Elizabeth Miles, Hon. Secretary of the Russian Arctic Convoy Project festival team.

“We want to recognise and ensure that we keep this incredible international history and heritage

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alive for our future generations and it is a fitting time to do this in the Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology 2017.

“We are honoured to have some of the few remaining veterans attending, whom, against the odds came through this dire time.

“Three thousand sailors who left

from here tragically did not make it, but the stories of bravery, heroic endeavour and sheer guts are ones that will be told in our new Exhibition Centre at Aultbea and accessible to visitors on the NC500 route.”

Over the course of the weekend, visitors and WWII enthusiasts alike will have a chance to see war-time vehicles, including a Soviet T34 tank, half-track personnel carrier; full-size replica Spitfire and Messerschmitt planes, plus re-enactors in full costume.

The Russian sail training ship ‘Yuny Baltiets’ from St Petersburg will also visit with its crew plus around 40 Russian sea cadets.

Visitors will also have a chance to sail around the bay on the Sealife Glass Bottom Boat, providing a rare opportunity to see Loch Ewe from a sailor’s perspective.

Captain Rick Holmes will highlight the key points of interest relating

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to the Arctic Convoys while a contingent of the Royal Marine Band, and local pipe bands, will be performing over the weekend.

“Bringing together the few remaining veterans, cultural and military representatives from many countries is a testament to all who those who fought and took part,” said The Hon. Tim Lewin, vice-president of the HMS Belfast Association, whose father served on the Arctic Convoys.

“This landmark event will go a long way to reinforcing the sacrifice, the raw bravery and belief of the men involved in a current and engaging way for our young people.”

The festival will also see the official opening of the new Arctic Convoy Exhibition Centre at Aultbea celebrating the area’s outstanding maritime and military heritage.

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Risque Business

by Pamela Reynolds and Lauren Lamar

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Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world’….Club Noir is undoubtedly one of the top places to walk into.

Fantasy and nostalgia are mixed together with a glamour and a little bawdy humour to create an intoxicating cocktail of fun entertainment which can’t be found anywhere else…at least not on the same scale.

Club Noir at the O2 Academy in Glasgow is now the biggest, longest running, and some say the best, Burlesque cabaret show in the world.

Burlesque can trace its origins back to the 1800s although its first real heyday as a form of popular entertainment was in the first half of the 20th century. It was intended to cock a snook at the establishment, ridicule those in power and puncture the pomposity of anyone wielding

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Photos by Mike Bishop

authority. It’s no surprise then that Glasgow audiences, so notoriously tough to please that touring variety acts claimed no turn was ever left unstoned, have embraced the glamorous revival of Burlesque with unbridled enthusiasm.

Since it was launched in 2004

by Tina Warren and Ian Single as an antidote to some of the more staid and glamour-less traditional entertainment available at the time the club has become an iconic institution with an international reputation.

“We felt that there were no nights running in Glasgow that suited our tastes, or that matched the glamour of the scene in London”, said Warren who claims the initial aim was to amalgamate all the elements she and her friends enjoyed about clubbing.

“We wanted something unique mixing burlesque, cabaret and fetish, a little circus, rockabilly and vintage, with a bit of gay club vibe.”

Back at the turn of the 21st century Burlesque was enjoying something of a revival spearheaded by entertainers such as Dita Von Teese and Immodesty Blaize, among others. It was a fresh approach to an old tried and tested concept. A heady mixture of glamour, humour and titillation harking back to a different age through sparkly rose-tinted glasses.

The glitzy world of dancing girls

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draped in crystals while waving around strategically placed feather fans was conceived by Vaudeville theatre owners in the United States desperate to cling on to audiences during the dawn of cinema. Stage shows were full productions, often involving circus acts, musicians, comedians and dancing chorus girls.

The girly show which has come to dominate Burlesque was initially only one part, albeit often the most titillating and memorable one, of a bigger variety performance.

As the popularity of cinema and subsequently television grew live variety performances began to lose attraction. Audiences drifted away and it seemed the time had arrived for Burlesque to hang up its collective G-string and accept its place as a footnote of show business history. However, there was still time for an encore and it came in the shape of the movies.

Gypsy Rose Lee, so demurely played by Natalie Wood in the 1957 movie Gypsy, was an actress, author and playwright. As a performer she was the woman who put ’tease’ into ‘striptease’ and helped make Burlesque more mainstream. Her 1941 novel, The G-String Murders, was even made into film called Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck in 1943.

With her books, radio shows, feature films and television appearances she probably did more to keep

Burlesque alive than almost anyone else and became the acceptable and recognisable face of the art. Even 45 years after her death, aged 59, she remains a popular entertainment, icon and unchallenged Queen of Burlesque.

By the turn of the 21st century the public was growing tired of sleazy back-street strip clubs and overtly graphical sexual imagery. There was a demand for a return to the humour and glamour of Burlesque in the Gypsy Rose Lee tradition. A new generation of entertainers, wearing ever more elaborate costumes and performing in front of increasingly ambitious sets, quickly struck a chord with a fresh audience across the country.

Entrepreneurial impresarios such as Club Noir were among the early innovators of the new style. They took burlesque back to its roots, providing an ever increasing growing fan base with a variety of skilled performers as well as everyone’s favourite attraction, a plethora of glamorous girly show acts.

“From the very beginning we knew that it was important to put in a lot of effort, make people aware of the club and to keep things fresh. We are not afraid of getting out there and marketing it,” said Warren.

As the club has continued to grow it has became just as much about the audience as the performers. Fans

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are encouraged to dress-up and join in the fantasy as a form of escapism from everyday life and the standard hum drum of the modern clubbing circuit. More than 2,000 people from all walks of life regularly flock to O2 Academy to take part in a variety of Club Noir theme nights.

“Club Noir fills a creative gap. It allows people to think, what am I? What do I want to be?,” said cofounder Ian Single.

“Costumes allow people to wildly express themselves and become a walking work of art. They can be anything for one night. I can’t think of another club were you could turn up in just your underwear and that would be okay. It is very liberating.

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“The people of Glasgow famously love a party, and love dressing up.

They have really embraced it,” added Single.

In the words of Gypsy Rose Lee: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly … very slowly”. Now, more than 11 years after they first opened Club Noir’s reputation continues to grow internationally.

In addition to performing for crowds at T-in The Park, The Connect Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Club Noir was the first troupe to send their acts to Siberia.

It has even been voted one of the Top Ten Cabaret Clubs by the USA’s travel channel and currently holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s biggest burlesque club.

“We never rest on our laurels. We work very hard to put on polished and sophisticated shows. The acts are created for the club, and are original and devised for the theme,” said Warren.

After the initial revival of Burlesque in the naughties a new wave of fans are now finding their way to Club Noir as they seek fresh excitement away from the traditional clubbing experiences currently on offer. With the world in a seemingly constant state of flux and the dark shadow of austerity bearing down hard on everyone that need for escapism is more prevalent now than ever.

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Unearthing Kolkata’s Scottish past

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I

n a forgotten corner of Kolkata the graves of almost 2,000 Scots who had a hand in shaping Britain’s imperial past are helping create a future for Indo-Scottish relations.

An ambitious 20 year project launched in 2008 to restore a small but important part of Scotland’s history, while at the same time teaching local workers the traditional skills needed to preserve the crumbling heritage of what was once the capital of India, has become major success story.

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Eight years on from its inception the project has established itself as a major centre for training and preservation by teaching a new generation of students the traditional

building skills needed to repair the monuments in the cemetery as well as some of the most historic buildings in Kolkata.

Attracted by the riches to be made from tea, jute, indigo and even opium thousands of Scots flocked to what was, until 2001, Calcutta and the heart of British Imperial India to make their fortunes, many as part of the British East India Company. Unfortunately, large numbers succumbed to heat, hardship and disease in a country where the average life expectancy of a European was said to be just “two monsoons”.

For many of the thousands of Scots who helped create the institutions

which laid the foundations of a city now home to more than 15 million people the Scottish Cemetery of St Andrew’s Church became the closest they ever got to returning home.

For more than 120 years, up until around 1940, it served as a proud monument to many of the missionaries, merchants, bankers, jute workers, tea planters, sea captains, soldiers, civil servants and adventurers who lived and died in India. Memorials to children, wives and mothers lie as testament to the pestilence and sub-continental climate which European families found themselves unable to cope with. More than 90 per cent of the headstones are inscribed with familiar Scottish names, such as Campbell, McLean, Ross, Macdonald, Anderson, McGregor and Robertson.

Hawick-born economist James Wilson, founder of The Economist magazine and the man who introduced income tax and paper

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currency to India, is buried there as is John Anderson, a zoologist from Edinburgh who became the first curator of the Indian Museum in Kolkata, and family members of Sir George Yule, the first non-Indian president.

However, time and the events of history have taken their toll and the six and a half acres site has decayed into little more than a wasted green space in the middle of an overcrowded Muslim and Christian neighbourhood.

Hidden behind an impressive ochrewashed gatehouse and crumbling wall the snake infested, over-grown tombs, shattered and damaged by sprawling undergrowth of vines and banana palm, lay undisturbed and unvisited for more than 60 years.

Many of the graves were looted of valuable lead inset lettering and cast iron works, while some monumental stones were plundered. Other elaborate monuments ‘exploded’

due to invasive root systems, wrecking havoc as they forced their way through cracked stone work.

Crumbling obelisks of brick and lime plaster were lift to decay alongside faded and cracked monuments of imported Aberdeen granite bearing the names of some 1800 Scots and a handful of English, Welsh and Benghali Christians.

However, while on a visit to India a few years ago, James Simpson of Edinburgh-based conservation architects Simpson and Brown was encouraged to visit the cemetery by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

As soon as he saw the state of the cemetery it seemed perfectly obvious to him that restoring and preserving it had to be a Scottish responsibility.

Situated within the 6.5 acre site were monuments to Scots from Dundee, Paisley, Kircudbrigh, Perth and many other towns and villages besides.

It remains a little bit of Scotland in

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Bengal that had been forgotten.

That was when the plan to save the cemetery and create a valuable green space in the middle of a denselypopulated city was born.

The first step was to establish a green oasis in the centre of the city instead of it being a derelict and overgrown jungle with the risks of snakes useless to anybody.

Then came the plan to use the restoration of as many of the monuments as possible to teach craft skills to local people. Most of the buildings in Kolkata are made of brick with quite elaborate classical facades formed in lime plaster. Much of those historic properties are crumbling, and the people with the traditional building skills needed to repair it were hard to find.

Along with experts from the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and a cemetery expert

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from Scottish Highland Council the Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust was formed and began reclaiming the cemetery from the jungle, mapping out all the graves and recording the inscriptions for posterity.

Many of the graves bear valuable or intriguing biographical details such as that of Mr James Wheatley, police constable, ‘who was murdered in the execution of his duty’ in 1844 and the Rev John Adam ‘late missionary to the heathen’.

Others read like a gazetteer of Scotland as home villages, towns and shires such as Campbeltown, Broughty Ferry, Sutherlandshire,

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Inverkeithing, Fife and Dundee are recorded with pride.

The cemetery is in many respects a great equaliser providing complete cross-section of society “Every Scot who died in Calcutta from 1820 onwards would probably have been buried there,” said archaeologist Tom Addyman who carried out the recording and detailed

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mapping of the site.

“Wealthy businessmen, colonial civilservants and academics were buried along with sailors, officers of the East India Company, jute mill workers and missionaries. The cemetery is a very important record of the lives of generations of Scots and a part of Scotland’s heritage overseas.

“Some of the graves needed a lot of repair but the idea is that by training local workmen in the use of traditional materials it provides new career opportunities which help get them jobs repairing other traditionally-built structures throughout the city.”

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Since 2008 the Trust has worked hard to strengthen links between Scotland and India. A lot of the funding for the £200,000 project came from ordinary members of the public keen to trace the graves of relatives who went to India and never returned.

“Scotland still enjoys a special status in Kolkata,” said Lord Charles Bruce, chairman of the Scottish Heritage

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Trust and whose great grandfather and great great grandfather were both Viceroys of India.

“The Kolkata Cemetery is a very important monument to the joint heritage of both Scotland and India.

There are so many buildings and place names in the city which remain connected with Scotland.: In the old city centre there are

estimated to be over 13,000 historic buildings of which many are associated with Scotland. That’s not really surprising because Scots dominated much of the commodity trading and shipping interests that made Calcutta the most important trading centre in South Asia throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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The Victorian magazine that made its mark on literary history A

magazine founded in Edinburgh 200 years ago which grew to be one of the most influential of the Victorian age is being celebrated at the National Library of Scotland.

One of the strengths of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine was in publishing new fiction. A number of literary classics, including Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, George Eliot’s Middlemarch and John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps, made their first appearance in print in the publication.

Competition to appear in Blackwood’s was fierce and other great writers including Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis

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Photo by National Library of Scotland

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the magazine’s original editors, were lampooned in one article about the ancient Chaldee manuscript that professed to be the discovery of an ancient biblical text. It was the shape of things to come. Readers were both scandalised and captivated by the satirical attacks on prominent figures and the harsh reviews handed out, particularly to certain members of the London literati.

It resulted in several lawsuits being brought against the magazine. One quarrel in 1821 regarding an attack on the ‘Cockney school’ of poetry ended in a pistol duel being fought in London which resulted in the death of the editor of the London Magazine, John Scott.

Meanwhile, Blackwood’s went from strength to strength, publishing the work of a succession of literary talent including the Ettrick Shepherd James Hogg, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Galt, Margaret Oliphant and a great many others.

Although the magazine continued into the 20th century, its best days were behind it. It lost readers to new journals that made greater use of illustrations and employed fresh attention-grabbing tactics, similar to those that had helped to establish Blackwood’s name. It finally ceased publication in 1980.

Stevenson were among those who had submissions rejected by the magazine.

The Blackwood archive is part of the Library’s collection and highlights from the archive and printed collections will be used to tell the story of the magazine in a special treasures display. It includes a copy of the first ever issue from 200 years ago.

appeared on April 1, 1817 and it was designed as a combative Tory counterblast to the existing Whigsupporting Edinburgh Review. Its reception was lukewarm, resulting in the publisher William Blackwood firing its founding editors and starting afresh.

“From its humble beginnings in Edinburgh 200 years ago, Blackwood’s has left behind a rich legacy as one of the most original and influential periodicals to have been published in Britain,” said Manuscripts Curator Dr Ralph McLean who has put the display together.

The issue which appeared in October that year was not going to be ignored.

“It may have been built on controversy but it came to provide a platform for some of the finest writing in the English language.”

The display also features some unusual items such as a 1918 edition which saved the life of a soldier during the First World War by absorbing the impact of a bullet.

Blackwood and his new editors – John Gibson Lockhart and John Wilson - decided to stir things up.

Controversy was to be courted as a sales tactic.

‘Laws were made to be broken’: Blackwood’s Magazine at 200 runs until July 2 at the National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. Entry is free.

The first issue of the magazine

Notable public figures, among them

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Water way

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to relax

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elaxing under a bright blue sky on the deck of a luxury boat, watching seals bobbing up and down in the reflective waters of a sheltered rocky cove amid a backdrop of heatherclad hills, it’s easy to imagine time has stood still.

The Majestic Line, named after a fictional shipping company in Neil Munro’s Para Handy tales, does

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just that. By blending easy access to some of the most remote and beautiful areas of the world with the intimacy and exclusivity of a 1920s country house party it provides a tranquil antidote to the pressure modern life.

Started 12 years ago by entrepreneurs Ken Grant and Andy Thoms who turned two old fishing boats into luxurious boutique cruise ships the company has earned a reputation as one of Scotland’s best visitor experiences.

Touring the Western Isles and the long narrow fingers of sea lochs that make up the coastline from Campbeltown to Ardnamurchan each vessel has been stripped and rebuilt for passengers with an elegant wood-paneled saloon, wellappointed cabins and a sundeck from which to watch the abundant wildlife and spectacular scenery of the west coast.

Each ship caters for up to a dozen

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passengers at a time who are subjected to constant pampering by a dedicated four man crew and fed on a diet of freshly-prepared gourmet meals using local seafood, lamb, beef and venison.

The concept has proved increasingly popular with visitors from across the UK and as far afield as Australia, with cruises booking well in advance and a high level of repeat business.

“We take guests on a personal tour of Scotland’s loveliest hideaway places,” said Andy Thoms, managing director of The Majestic Line.

“It is the comfort of our ships, the level of service and the opportunity to travel in style that brings guests back time and again to experience such unique and special adventures.”

Such is the success of the company, a winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year in the Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards, that another another purpose built boat with the look and

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feel of a 1930’s ‘gentleman’s motor yacht’ is to be added to its flotilla for the 2016 season, along with a host of new and more distant itineraries.

The MV Glen Etive joins the MV Glen Massan and MV Glen Tarsan to offer a range of unique cruises around

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Scotland’s west coasts and islands.

Built by Ardmaleish Boatbuilding Co. Ltd on the Clyde, and finished in traditional wood and brass with spacious accommodation and a steel based hull, the new vessel will undertake longer cruises and visit

new Outer Hebridean destinations, with trips planned as far afield as St Kilda.

All the vessels operated by the Majestic Line are fitted out to a high standard and the on board cuisine, using locally sourced produce, is

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presented as an informal fine dining experience.

Cruise itineraries range from the Small Isles and Skye, visiting Eigg, Rum and Canna, to St Kilda and the Outer Hebrides, taking in the Shiant Islands and the Isles of North and South Uist. A number of special interest cruises are also available, including a Wildlife Explorer Cruise which offers the chance to explore the Isle of Mull.

A range of three and six night cruises are currently available on The Majestic Lines’ twin vessels, the MV Glen Massan and the MV Glen Tarsan. Each boat has six en-suite cabins available, with room for 11 guests.

The MV Glen Etive, adde to the fleet last year, hasseven en-suite cabins to accommodate 12 guests.

Two double cabins are reserved on each cruise for solo travellers at no supplement, which are ideal for allowing groups of three or five people to travel on board.

More information on the Majestic Line cruises can be found at www.themajesticline.co.uk

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Scotland’s most perfect house?

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ituated at the end of an historic Georgian Terrace in the centre of Edinburgh this five-bedroom, three-story property seems more than slightly at odds with its surroundings. Yet, this surprising addition to an otherwise conservative sandstone terraced street in the capital’s New Town has been hailed as a model of perfection.

Indeed, The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) proclaimed it as House of the Year for 2016.

Designed by architect Richard Murphy for himself on an awkward plot at the end the home has been transformed into a deeply personal space filled with tricks, surprises and references to his own design heroes.

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Photo by Murphy Architects ©

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From a hidden bath in the master bedroom and a folding corner wall, to sliding bookshelf ladders that glide around the subterranean library, this house is filled with a unique and spirited charm. Murphy, inspired by the work of the late Carlo Scarpa, a 20th century Italian architect has created a house full of pure, beautiful craftsmanship.

“The Murphy House is the best example of how to overcome challenging constraints – from planning restrictions and an awkward site in an urban location - to build a stunning house. Plus the architect overcame one of the biggest obstacles: a demanding client – himself!,” said Jane Duncan, RIBA President.

“Nearly a decade in the making, this house is a true labour of love for Richard. Part jigsaw puzzle, with its hidden and unexpected spaces, and part Wallace and Gromit with its moving pieces and disappearing walls, this is a model house of pure perfection and a worthy winner of the RIBA House of the Year.”

The house has been praised for making great use of a small site, creating a delightful private outdoor

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Ladder © Murphy Architects

Opening up © Murphy Architects

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Library © Murphy Architects

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Clerestory © Murphy Architects

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space on the first floor, with light brought in through the roof, and a seemingly endless number of surprising spaces.

It is a house that responds to the Scottish climate, opening up to the summer sun and then shutting itself down to create a snug refuge in the depth of winter.

Sliding doors pull out of walls and roof shutters drop into place transforming the house from a lightfilled space open to the exterior terrace, to an enclosed room, where candlelight wouldn’t seem out of place. It does all this with wit and style, in an architecture that Murphy has honed over the years to make distinct and personal. It feels an intense and personal space, playful and inventive, each corner revealing something new.

Full of references to his architectural heroes the building could be read as homage to architectural history.

Murphy has described the house as ‘a quarter Soane, a quarter Scarpa, a quarter eco-house and a quarter Wallace and Gromit, the latter referring to the various ingenious devices in the house.

“Murphy House was a real box of tricks with a unique, playful character. Although a small property, it was deceivingly large inside due to the clever use of space. Every room contained a surprise and the attention to detail was exceptional.

The roof terrace was a real oasis of calm and I loved the long list of environmentally friendly touches.

A true pleasure to visit and I would imagine a lot of fun to live in,” said House of the Year judge Philip Thorn.

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Scotland’s forgotten Rocket Man

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ore than 100 years before Scots-American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and at least four years before French author Jules Verne dreamed up the idea, the scientific principles of manned space flight were discovered by a Presbyterian minister from Bute.

Contrary to popular belief the first scientific concept for rocket-powered space travel was not envisioned at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, by such men as the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky from Russia in 1903 and American Robert Goddard in 1920, but by the Rev. William Leitch some four decades earlier.

In his paper, ‘The First Scientific Concept of Rockets for Space Travel’, author and space historian Robert Godwin claims that Leitch was the architect of the scientific principles required to achieve successful space travel by rocket.

And he published those findings in 1861, a time when Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States and Charles Dickens had just written Great Expectations.

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Photo by NASA

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According to Godwin, who has written dozens of books on spaceflight Leitch was the first trained scientist to have correctly applied modern scientific principles to space flight in an essay which he wrote in the summer of 1861 called “A Journey Through Space”.

It was later published in a journal in Edinburgh the same year before being included in Leitch’s 1862 book ‘God’s Glory in the Heavens’.

Previous histories of spaceflight have maintained the first scientific concept for rocket-powered space travel had been inspired by science-fiction writer Jules Verne who famously

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wrote about men being shot to the men by a giant space gun in his 1865 novel ‘From the Earth to the Moon’.

However, Godwin’s research proves Leitch made his suggestion to use rockets four years before Verne’s book was published.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Leitch deserves a place of honour in the history of spaceflight,” said Godwin.

“The fact that he was a scientist is the key to this story. He wasn’t just making a wild guess. Not only did he understand Newton’s law of action

Photo by NASA

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and reaction, he almost dismissively understood that a rocket would work more efficiently in the vacuum of space; a fact that still caused Goddard and others to be subjected to ridicule almost six decades later.

“Whereas Goddard and Tsiolkovsky got their first inspiration from the science fiction of Wells and Verne, Leitch seems to have been inspired by the advances in powerful telescopes, the newly spinstabilised military projectiles being manufactured in London, and Isaac Newton,” said Godwin.

Photo by NASA

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In setting out his theories Leitch wrote: “The only machine, independent of the atmosphere, we can conceive of, would be one on the principle of the rocket.

“The rocket rises in the air, not from the resistance offered by the atmosphere to its fiery stream, but from the internal reaction. The velocity would, indeed, be greater in a vacuum than in the atmosphere, and could we dispense with the comfort of breathing air, we might, with such a machine, transcend the boundaries of our globe, and visit other orbs.”

However, Leitch’s ideas seem to have fallen through the cracks of history because he died at a young age and the copyright to his writings fell victim to the bankruptcy of his publisher in 1878.

“His suggestion to use rockets in space remained in print for over 40 years, but his name had been stripped away from the work,” said Godwin.

“The problem was compounded by the title of his book being changed at the last minute to remove all references to astronomy, which led

to it languishing for 150 years in the theology section of libraries. But it was still in print when Goddard and Tsiolkovsky made their mark on the field.

“Leitch comprehended everything from the catastrophic implications of cometary impacts to the special relationship between light and time. He was a genius. Long since forgotten,” said Godwin.

Leitch, who was born in Bute in 1814, studied at the University of Glasgow in the same classroom as William Thomson, the legendary Lord Kelvin, and even assisted Kelvin in an experiment on electricity.

After graduating he was licensed as a Presbyterian minister and moved to Monimail near Cupar, Fife where he remained until 1859 when he emigrated to Canada to take up the post as Principal of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

However, he never completely settled in the city and returned to Scotland each summer with his

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two sons, whom he was raising alone. He died of heart disease aged 49 in 1864 while still in office and laid to rest close to Canada’s first Prime Minister, Glasgow-born John Alexander Macdonald, who he evidently knew.

“He was buried on October 4th of that year: a date which has a certain resonance for space historians,” said Godwin, in a reference to the launching of Sputnik in 1957, 93 years after Leitch’s death.

Having preached in a parish near St Andrews in Scotland, Leitch’s children became early golf enthusiasts. Leitch’s granddaughter was the legendary golfing champion Cecilia Leitch.

“William Leitch was an expert on ballistics and the effect of gravity on trajectories. It must have been in the DNA,” Godwin joked.

In a four page review of Godwin’s paper Frank Winter, former Curator of Rocketry of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian

Institution, in Washington, D.C., conceded that Leitch had earned his place in history.

“We can no longer take it for granted that the consistently cited trio of founders of space flight theory--Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, and Oberth--were the only individuals who seriously thought and wrote about the rocket as the most viable means of achieving space flight... William Leitch is less well known than the first three, but he should now be included in the overall picture, especially since he pre-dated them,” he said.

“Rob Godwin has conducted a valuable piece of outstanding research, revealing for the first time how an intellectual mind from the 19th century anticipated the Space Age and explained how rockets could lift mankind to the stars, long before anyone else had defined it, in simple, lucid and scientifically accurate terms,” said David Baker, editor of the British Interplanetary Society’s Spaceflight Magazine.

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Wha’s like us?

Not as many as you might think.

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t has been said there are three types of people in the world Scots, wannabe Scots and those with no ambition.

But, there are also a few who, for reasons of their own, go a step further and invent a whole Scottish persona.

For a nation of just 5 million residents there are an incredible number of people world-wide who proudly, and justifiably, claim Scottish descent.

On the outside wall of the library in the main square of Aberfeldy there is plaque to commemorate the life of film star Donald Crisp who,

according to the brass memorial, was born in the town in 1880.

The Oscar-winning actor and director enjoyed a career spanning more than 50 years and 400 movies. He was, for a long time, the most famous Scot in Hollywood. Renowned for his distinctive brogue he played

Photo by Flag Media

a wealth of Scottish characters in popular movies such as The Bonnie Brier Bush (1921), Mary of Scotland (1936), Lassie Come Home (1943), Grey Frier’s Bobby (1961) and many more.

He was clearly a world class actor but his greatest performance was off-screen. Crisp spoke with a soft Scottish burr and maintained throughout his life to have been born in Aberfeldy where he remembered that as a boy his family was so poor they couldn’t afford sugar.

Every so often the actor, who died in

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1950s and 1960s, especially for his portrayal as the grumpy surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt in seven Doctor In The House comedies.

For most of a career that spanned 30 years and 87 movies Justice claimed he was born underneath a whisky distillery on the Isle of Skye. Other versions of his birth claim he was born in Wigtown.

Although he often wore the Robertson tartan proudly it appears he had no legitimate claim to the moniker . He only added it as middle name when he was in his mid-30s because he thought it sounded more Scottish.

Aberfeldy

1974, would return to his homeland on holiday and recount his days among the hills of Perthshire.

27 July 1882, two years later than the date in most record books. And his real name was George.

Such was his popularity the Scottish Film Council honoured Crisp and his reported birthplace with a commemorative plaque as part of the Centenary Of Film celebrations and that was when the truth was uncovered.

It appears the Londoner with no known Scottish connections deliberately developed a Scottish accent to help his career in the hope that it would appeal to movie moguls.

Librarian Lorna Mitchell began digging into his past and discovered that far from being a Highland laddie Crisp was actually a Cockney, having been born in Bow, East London on

Whatever the reason for his deception Crisp is not alone in elaborating his Scottish connections.

In reality Justice was born in Lee, South London, and was brought up in Bromley, Kent.

There is no doubt he was fond of the country. He loved hunting with falcons in the Highlands, was Rector of the University of Edinburgh for two terms, and he lived on and off in the country up until his death in 1975.

That’s more than his fellow thespian David Niven did even though he also also appears to have exaggerated his Scottishness.

James Robertson Justice, a big man with a voice to match, was a familiar face in British cinema of the

Several sources report Niven claimed to have been born in Kirriemuir in 1909, because it sounded more romantic. He actually first came into the world at Belgrave Mansions in London in 1910.

James Roberston Justice

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However, Niven did serve as an officer in the Highland Light Infantry and he played the Young Pretender in the 1948 movie Bonnie Prince Charlie heroically leading the clans into battle.

Scotland’s warrior image is an attribute eagerly claimed by one of the most recognisable stars of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper.

The kilted wrestler was a major star on the wrestling circuit who was billed as coming from Glasgow. He used to enter the ring to bagpipe music and was given the nickname ‘Rowdy’ supposedly due to his trademark ‘Scottish rage’ .

Credited as being “the most gifted entertainer in the history of professional wrestling” Piper was actually from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada, although he did have Scottish ancestry.

Pretending to be Scottish is not just a show business trait. There are plenty of others who feel the need to top up their tartan credentials.

At first glance Dr Scott Peake was Scottish through and through. Born on the island of Raasay he had a soft lilting accent, spoke Gaelic, wore tartan trews and Harris Tweed jackets at every opportunity and even claimed to have represented his country internationally in the sports of shinty and cricket.

Having graduated from St Andrew’s University he was teaching classics at a leading private school when, in 2001, he was appointed director of the Saltire Society, promoting Scottish culture to the world.

What should have been a crowning moment for any proud Scot turned out to be his downfall. Publicity surrounding his post revealed cracks in his story, not least the fact that nobody on the tiny island of Raasay had heard of him and neither had the governing bodies of Shinty and cricket.

It finally emerged that Peake was actually an ordinary lad from a council estate in Woolwich, east London. He had adopted his false background while studying at St Andrews in 1991, much to the bemusement of his English family.

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Peake was forced to resign from the Saltire Society and was last heard of teaching Latin in a school in Hertfordshire.

While it may be understandable that the idea of being Scottish could bring on delusions of grandeur some people take it too far.

Sometime around 1988 the soft spoken Baron of Chirnside arrived in Tomintoul and began buying up large parts of the village.

The Borders aristocrat who claimed his heart belonged in the Highlands was a blessing for the 320 or so inhabitants of the small settlement in the heart of whisky country.

He paid for the police pipe band to play at the Tomintoul Highland games, which he attended in full tartan dress, and he was always happy to give generously to local causes.

Over six years it is estimated that ‘Lord’ Tony Williams sunk up to £2million into the local economy, buying businesses and doing up properties.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t his money.

The self-styled Laird of Tomintoul, who bought his Baronetcy at auction, turned out to be an accountant from New Malden in Surrey who had

embezzled some £5million from his employer - the London Metropolitan Police.

He was caught only after staff at the Clydesdale Bank in Tomintoul became suspicious of cheques going into the account of Lord and Lady Williams and tipped off the police.

He was later jailed for seven years and was last heard of driving a bus in London.

But, perhaps the most famous of wannabe Scots has yet to be born.

The Annet House Museum in Linlithgow already has a blue plaque on its wall celebrating the town as the birthplace of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, even though he is not due to enter this world until 2222.

Canadian actor James Doohan, who immortalised the character in the television series Star Trek, claimed to have come up with the Scottish accent of the Starship Enterprise’s chief engineer during a pub crawl in Aberdeen.

However, fans of the show have claimed scripts from the original series suggest Scotty was (or will be) born in Linlithgow on 28 June, 2222 and that’s enough for the town which is already cashing in on the Trekkie tourist trail with its plaque.

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An anthem for generations of Scots Interview by Jo de Sylva and Photos by Tom Watt

T

he view from the family home of singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean encompasses more than just a few miles of rolling Perthshire countryside, it stretches back through time itself.

The grey stone cottage stands on the same spot where the 62-year-old renowned musician played as a boy, as did his father and his grandfather before him.

As you would expect from the man who wrote the haunting lyrics of Caledonia, which has become an anthem for Scots and their descendants around the world, this land has a unique place in his heart and soul. “This is the old school and this is the field we used to play in,� said Dougie as he surveyed the landscape beyond the dry stane dykes that surround the former school house which was once the centre of a community. Even now you can almost hear the squeals of excited children running across the fields to play and explore.

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Jo De Sylva with Dougie MacLean

“I quite fancy going across there with a metal detector as I’m sure there must be loads of pennies and things that have fallen from pockets” said Dougie whose eyes light up with pride as he talks about the house that has been a source of inspiration and sanctuary.

Over the years Dougie has been hailed as one of Scotland’s premier singer-songwriters. An exceptionally talented musician he is as accomplished on the fiddle, mandola, viola, bouzouki, banjo, digeridoo, piano and bass as well as the guitar.

The former member of the Tannahill Weavers and Silly Wizard has also enjoyed an incredibly successful solo career recording numerous albums and creating his own record label, Dunkeld records.

More recently he has found renewed popularity among a reinvigorated audience after “Caledonia” became an anthem for a new generation of Scots across the world with

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emotional ties to the home of their ancestors.

Passionate about performing before live audiences Dougie and his wife Jenny have for the last few years brought folk music to an ever expanding audience in the form of the ‘Perthshire Amber’ festival.

What started as little more than a weekend get-together for Dougie and friends has turned into a major event run over a 10 day period featuring some of the country’s top musicians.

“I was trying to get some of them to come and see Perthshire because a lot of my songs are influenced by the landscape here... because I’m a country boy from this wee village and you can’t escape the fact that your surroundings would have an influence on the kind of songs that you write. It was a way to get the people to come and see the place where the songs come from” he said.

The festival, which last year brought

in more than £1million to the local economy, doesn’t just incorporate music. There are also walks and talks that take people out into the landscape. Performances take place in cathedrals, castles, village halls and many other interesting venues providing a unique musical experience.

“It gives people an opportunity to relate the music to the place because music is not just written in isolation.

It’s written with the background of what I grew up with and the way I relate to the world,” said Dougie, who was was invested as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen in 2011.

Dougie has been at the forefront of innovation in the music world for many years, including the launch of Butterstone TV, a family run affair with his son, daughter and wife Jenny.

What started out as a way of

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Dougie and wife Jenny

broadcasting audio from concerts held in the pub he owned in Dunkeld to a worldwide audience has turned into a fully fledged internet television channel.

As success of the Amber festival grew and many concerts sold out Dougie wanted to let people watch the concerts live and Butterstone TV was born.

Dougie now broadcasts live from his home studio every month to viewers across the world, including Russia, Japan and America. The channel now boosts more than 100 hours of material.

“It’s like being allowed access to a very small gig. I get a great kick out of thinking that as we’re sitting there in front of a roaring fire, singing with a few friends, there is someone in Russia, Florida or New York watching it. That’s mind boggling! We are beaming this around the world from my little village, the little school that I went to and where my dad learned to

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write on a piece of slate.”

that’s when you get the good stuff.”

Dougie also likes the idea that these performances from his home enable him to share his music on a very personal level with the audience.

Dougie’s father was a gardener on a big estate in Perthshire and by his own admission he came from quite a poor family.

“I remember singing a song about my father’s scythe and I was able to take it down from the wall and show those watching how to sharpen it. It was just brilliant to be able to illustrate what the song was about. I’ve been able to do that quite a few times, to bring things in that I can show to people, something that’s mentioned.

That adds another dimension to the performance...that’s interesting”.

“We lived in a beautiful place but I had to go out and work on the fields from the age of 8, picking potatoes and raspberries, because mum needed the extra wee bit of money” he said.

Dougie is passionate about his environment and the value of being able to relate that to the songs he sings.

“I like a song that has a lot more substance to it,” said Dougie. “I don’t tend to write songs about cities because I don’t know much about them. I write about what I know and

“That money would help buy school clothes. I learned how to work hard and that’s one of the reasons I’ve survived the touring thing because it’s exhausting and needs a lot of stamina.”

Dougie believes he was lucky to have come from that kind of wiry rural background and feels it gave him skills he was able to apply to the tough life of touring across the world.

“If you had a puncture on the side of a freeway in America you

could get out and fix it. It was never a big deal, you were able to do things for yourself. That resourcefulness comes partly from my rural background. It meant that when I was in my 20s and left the Tannahill Weavers and went busking across Europe, just me and my fiddle, I just took off into the middle of southern Germany. I wasn’t scared to go and do it”.

In many ways being brought up in rural Perthshire and having to fix, repair and use his initiative means he’s grateful for a very different education than that which took place in the school house.

“I had a really close family. Both my father and my grandfather would walk around with me, all around this area and tell me the stories of this place. I grew up knowing this place intimately,” said Dougie.

“You could take me blindfold three or four miles around here and I’d know exactly where we were, I’d know the

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best place to find hazelnuts, the best places to find trout in the burn. I think back then people were much more in tune with nature and all the little nuances.

“One of the problems of humanity now is that we travel all the time.

We go away and we live in different places and we never get to know one place intimately so we’re always a bit lost, we’re always a bit disconnected and that’s the way the modern world works.”

filtered into the political system.

“The rest of the world really loves the Scottish identity whether it’s music or literature, the history, the landscape... it’s just the idea that we are very welcoming, you can always get a cup of tea or a whisky... people love that kind of thing!

“I think Scots themselves are beginning to realise the rest of the world really thinks we are quite something”.

Dougie is not just passionate about music and the land but also the people of Scotland who he feels are experiencing a new found confidence.

Despite playing all over the world Dougie remains every inch a Scot who feels most at home among his fellow countrymen and the landscape of Perthshire especially.

“Over the last 10 years I’ve seen a self confidence in the Scottish people,” said Dougie. “People are starting to rediscover their culture through folk music and poetry and dance and song. There has been a cultural revolution that has brought a self confidence which has now

“I relate to them, they understand my humour and my stories. I don’t have to explain anything to them,” he said.

“It’s who I am and it’s why I am the way I am. The language I use is the language of this place.

“I’m so lucky to have been able to live here for the past 40 years and to be a musician who traveled around the world. I think it kept me grounded.

“I feel really privileged that I was able to bring my children up here, and now my grandchildren, and make all my music in my old school while playing to people all over the world... all from this little part of Scotland”.

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Date 4 ur diary

Scotland

1 - 2 April Tartan Day Scotland Festival Market Street, Forfar, Angus, DD8 3WD The Tartan Day Scotland Festival celebrates all that is best about Scotland and the Scots, home and away.

1 - 16 April Edinburgh International Science Festival 110 Commercial Street, Edinburgh, EH6 6NF Edinburgh’s annual two week International Science Festival was the world’s first festival of science and technology. http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/ 2 April Gleneagles Spring Hunter Trials Auchterarder, Perthshire, PH3 1NZ Gleneagles Spring Hunter Trials. http://www.gleneagles.com 8 April Melrose Sevens Melrose, TD6 9SA The Aberdeen Asset Management Melrose Sevens - one of Scotland’s biggest rugby events. A perfect fun day out for families and rugby fans alike. http://www.melrose7s.com 9 - 14 April Walkislay Islay, Isle of Islay, Scotland, UK A walking week for all on Islay and Jura. http://www.walkislay.co.uk/ 9 - 15 April St Andrews Golf Week 7 Pilmour Links, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JG A week of golf on St Andrews’ various links courses, tuition and evening entertainment. http://www.standrewsgolfweek.com/ 14 - 15 April North Hop Aberdeen Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, AB23 8BL Two days of brewery goodness, gin and spirit filled bars serving creative cocktails and street food vendors with delicious dishes. http://www.northhop.co.uk 16 April Easter Egg-Stravaganza at the Scottish Crannog Centre

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If you have a future event you would like included in our diary please email details to news@scotlandcorrespondent.com Loch Tay, By Aberfeldy, PH15 2HY Celebrate the centre’s 20th anniversary with pancakes cooked over an open fire. Events include museum exhibits, talks around a log-fire in the authentic Crannog roundhouse, demonstrations and hands-on experience of ancient crafts. http://www.crannog.co.uk 22 April Scottish Grand National 2 - 6 Whittlers Road, Ayr, Ayrshire, KA8 0JE Coral Scottish Grand National.

The greatest day of jumps racing in Scotland featuring eight quality races. http://www.ayr-racecourse.co.uk 23 April Etape Loch Ness Inverness, IV6 7WZ A 66 mile cycle sportive taking place around iconic Loch Ness. http://www.etapelochness.com/ 26 April - 7 May Tradfest Edinburgh - Dun Eideann Edinburgh, EH1 1SR TradFest returns as Edinburgh’s only multi-arts festival dedicated to Scottish traditional, Gaelic and folk arts offering a feast of music, storytelling, dance, folk film, literature & talks, crafts & visual arts. http://www.tracscotland.org/fest 27 April - 1 May Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival Elgin, Moray, IV30 9AW Unique distillery tours and whisky tastings, many at distilleries not normally open to visitors, opportunities to meet the experts, whisky and food pairing experiences, masterclasses and lectures. http://www.spiritofspeyside.com 27 - 30 April Shetland Folk Festival 5 Burns Lane, Lerwick, Shetland, ZE1 0EL The UK’s most northerly Folk Festival is regarded as a prestigious event for performers, locals and visitors alike. http://www.shetlandfolkfestival.com 28 April - 6 May Inverness Science Festival 12b Ness walk, Inverness, IV3 5SQ A celebration of science and technology in Inverness and surrounding area. http://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/invernes

29 - 30 April The Selkirk Mountain Bike Marathon Selkirk, Scottish Borders, TD7 5AX A fantastic mix of natural singletrack, twin-track forest roads, ancient drove roads, hand-made singletrack, and trail centre.This is THE classic MTB Marathon in the UK 30 April Beltane! Spring Celebration at The Scottish Crannog Centre Loch Tay, By Aberfeldy, Perthshire, PH15 2HY Beltane is one of the most important dates in the Celtic calendar. Beltane marks a time when livestock were put out to pasture. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, crops and people from harm and to encourage growth during the summer months. Bonfires were lit, feasts prepared and offerings made. http://www.crannog.co.uk 30 April Beltane Fire Festival Edinburgh, Scotland, UK A fiery modern interpretation of the ancient Celtic celebration of Beltane to mark the arrival of summer. http://www.beltane.org/

Australia

14 - 15 April Maclean Highland Gathering Maclean, NSW Australia A celebration of Scottish heritage and history with lots of family friendly activities, pipe bands, dancing and Highland Games. www.macleanhighlandgathering.com.au.

21 - 23 April Clan Davidson Society in Australia Gathering Canberra, ACT Australia Members of Clan Davidson and their friends gather to celebrate their Scottish heritage and culture.

30 April The Combined Clans Picnic Perth, WA Australia Clans from across WA gather at 11am at King’s Park, located behind the Light Horse Memorial for a fun packed day of family friendly activities and celebrations of Scottish heritage and culture.

Canada

6 April Tartan Day Nationwide.

An international celebration of Scottish heritage on the date the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320.

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New Zealand

14-16 April Hawkes Bay Easter Highland Games Hastings, New Zealand Highland Games with lots of pipe bands, Highland dancing, traditional Highland sports and plenty of family friendly fun.

USA

6 April Tartan Day Nationwide An international celebration of Scotland and all things Scottish to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320.

6 - 9 April Tartan Day on Ellis Island New York, NY United States A celebration of all things Scottish at Ellis Island Immigration Museum with plenty of pipes and drums, Highland Dancing and stalls and attractions of all kinds.

Produced by the Clan Currie Society - one of the largest Scottish heritage organizations in the United States www.tartandayonellisisland.com.

8 April New York Tartan Day Parade New York, NY United States Annual parade down Sixth Avenue. A celebration of Scpottish heritage with a riot of colour, pipe bands and representatives of of many of Scotland’s clans. www.nyctartanweek.org.

8-9 April Loch Norman Highland Games Huntersville, NC United States A celebration of Scottish Heritage with plenty of Celtic music, Highland dance, traditional heavy athletic events and much more for all the family. www.lochnorman.com 29-30 April Las Vegas Highland Games Floyd Lamb Park, Las Vegas.

A whole weekend of Scottish heritage, culture and tradition. full weekend of Scottish events at. Info: www. lasvegascelticsociety.org

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