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  007:Regular
visitors to the site will be well aware
 who
Big Jock is, if you're new to the site
click the link up above to
find out all about him & his adventures. He's recently started
doing the odd job
as
007, Sean Connery, oh that reminds me, I said to Jock that I
wouldn't mind playing a baddie opposite his James Bond, a sort of cross between Oddjob & Blofeld, & no his name wasn't
Oddfeld, Ha! Ha! Ha!, anyway where was I, oh yes
Jock,
he sent me these photos which I thought were brilliant. They
were taken by
Szmytke
Click the link to see some more of his photos, superb stuff.
Jock yer aff yer heid!!!....Alba Gu Brath
 Featured
Website, MacBraveHeart:
John & Lin Anderson run a great website
called MacBraveHeart for fans of
the film to share their feelings about Braveheart.
Lin herself is a
successful novelist and screenwriter, and for a number of years worked to
create a non-fiction book that would document the Braveheart phenomenon, and
provide additional information, analysis, and background to Braveheart and
its impact. Discussing the project with Randall Wallace at his office in
Hollywood, he commented that it needed somebody from Scotland to write this
sort of book, check it out, you won't be disappointed.....Alba Gu Brath
 Battle
Lines:
There's been a bit of a disagreement with
Historical Scotland over entry to the Rotunda at Bannockburn
this year in order to pay our respects. We were told we would
all have to pay an entrance fee of £8 in order to do so. As you
may understand this raised a few hackles. The re-enactment which
is taking place this year on the actual date of the battle
instead of it's usual date in September is the cause of our
concerns. After a fair bit of pressure from various factions,
ourselves included, there's a meeting been arranged which will
hopefully resolve the situation, I'll keep you posted.....Alba
Gu Brath
 Wallace
Monuments, Elderslie & Robroyston:
I've taken it upon myself to visit some
Wallace related monuments as part of the run up to Wallace day,
I'm very pleased to say that the monument @ Elderslie is being
looked after very well & lots of info etc on site, same can be
said for the setting of Wallace's mothers grave @ Dunfermline,
sadly I was disappointed & saddened at the state of things @
Robroysten , it took me ages to find the thing to start with &
when I got there, very little info on site plus William
Wallace's Well is a couple of hundred yards down the road but if
you didn't know about that you'd miss it. There's a petition
below for the Robroyston memorial, please sign it . If you care
about our history & culture at all do the right thing, this site
is where Wallace was betrayed by Monteith, let's preserve it for
future generations, thank you.
 Duncan
Brown, Artist:
Duncan is an artist, piper and
Scottish historian…born in the village of Burnbank, in Hamilton. I have had
a deep respect and love of my country's history all my life. My history
teacher, Miss Moffat, kick started me many years ago and set me off in this
most wonderful journey of discovery. My aim is to promote our culture and
keep it to the fore to remind us of who we are and what we came from.
History is the memory of the nation and if we lose our memory we are indeed
lost in many ways. Scotland has given me my heart and my life. I now
understand our great forefathers so much better and I thank them in my
paintings. Click here for some great
examples of Duncan's work...Alba Gu Brath
 Life
In The Trenches:
I'll never understand the
futility of war, it never solves anything, it seems to
create more problems if anything. Nowhere is this more
evident than
"The Great
War" The loss of life was unforgivable, the Generals
& the Politicians should hold their heads forever in eternal
shame for ever allowing this situation to proceed....Never
Forget
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 Christy's Tattoo:
This is a new
feature which we hope you enjoy, our first featured tattoo is from Christy,
a lovely American lady who I can't thank enough for allowing us to show her
tattoo off to the world. The tattoo was done by Gordon who works at
California Emporium, Asheville, North Carolina. Pat Fish designed the tat.
She has a website and does some great Celtic work, "Albannach" is her
favourite band and Gaelic for "Scotsman" or "Scots person" to honour the
band and her Scottish heritage. The thistle is of course the lovely flower
of Scotland intertwined in the Celtic knot work. The triquetra is for her
faith...Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It took two sittings and almost 7 hours
in the chair. Well worth the pain Christy I'm sure you'd agree, a fantastic
tattoo!!! If you have a tat you'd like to see featured then drop us a line
at the usual address....Alba Gu Brath
 The
All New Scotland Football Quiz:
Well here we are at last, a new football quiz, think you
know everything about Scotland's football history, are you the one in the
pub that's always boring your mates with all these facts & figures? if this
sounds like you then why not have a wee shot of our quiz, I'm going to
update it every couple of months so keep tuning in to see what new questions
we have to ask & in case your wondering I got 12 questions right out of 20
which doesn't sound too impressive but wait until you see the questions,
good luck.....Alba Gu
Brath
Click here for the old quiz.
 The
Culloden Sword:
I was recently invited to
Wallace Society meeting in Elderslie Village Hall.
David R. Ross told us of all the upcoming
events concerning the Society, but the main event was still to
come, Dr Hamish McLaren who is currently Chairman of the Clan
MacLaren Society brought a sword that belonged to a young
Jacobite called Donald McLaren & very kindly passed the sword
round. Donald led the Appin Regiment & took part in the initial
charge and was wounded. He was captured at the Braes of Leny but
escaped by throwing himself into the Devil’s Beeftub near Moffat.
Dr McLaren told us all about the sword, how it came to being
in his possession, the fact that after Culloden Donald made his
way to Carbridge then on to Aviemore & The Ruthven Barracks. The
provenance of the sword seems to be water tight & holding that
sword was a great experience. The sword is going to be on
display at the new Culloden visitor centre where I'm sure you wont be
able to hold it. A big thank you to Dr McLaren for letting us
all hold a genuine piece of history in our hands....Alba
Gu Brath
 Gaelheart:
Johnny Blue got in touch with me to ask if I could let
the folk back home know he's released a new album & very kindly sent me a
copy to listen to. Gaelheart's music comprises an eclectic blend of
Celtic-pop fusion, story-telling and cheeky repartee. My favourite track
being "The Clearances." To listen to the album
click here to find out more
about Gaelheart
click here....Alba
Gu Brath
 Auld
Enemy Fantasy Match:
I found this
article in the Telegraph & I found it very interesting. I didn't
necessarily agree with the choices the author made but I
understood why he made them. It got me to thinking about my all
time line up for Scotland & it's not been easy. You have to make
the best choice for the team & not choose the player that you
were a fan of, for example I thought Alan Rough was a great
keeper, I was a huge fan, but was he better than Goram or
Leighton? You can see the problems can't you. Anyway my line up
will be done soon but meantime enjoy this great wee article.....Alba
Gu Bráth
 Scotland's
Music
:
If you're a regular to this site you'll know
I like to promote all things Scottish. Recently the BBC or the
EBC (English Broadcasting Corporation) as I like to call them
brought out a programme called
Scotland's Music where
Phil Cunningham explores our musical background. Travelling
the world Phil meets up with all types of musicians from country
to more traditional & gives us some marvellous tunes along the
way. If you missed it click on the link you wont be disappointed....
.Alba Gu Bráth
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 Read
The Bugle:
Scotland
are on their way to Argentina. At the end of a violently emotional night in
Liverpool, nothing else really much matters. "Que, sera sera. We're going to
Argentine," sang the tartan hordes and if the grammar might have been
faulted the passion of their words was fitting nonetheless.....Read this &
nine other full match reports from yesteryear in The Tartan Army Bugle.
 Meet
Big Paul:
Paul is a larger than life kind of guy from
California who contacted us through the site a while back, he spoke very
highly of the site but that's not why we've invited him along to be part of
our team, oh no, you can't get around us that easily....ok you can but don't
tell everybody, nope we've got him here 'cause he's proud of his Scottish
heritage & has a unique angle on all things Scottish, whether it be history,
politics or life in general it's usually worth paying attention.
 The
Stone Of Destiny:
Ever
wondered where the real stone of destiny is? Perhaps a
better word for this ancient stone would be ‘The Enigma Stone’,
as everything about it seems shrouded in mystery. Over the
centuries, this stone, the ancient crowning stone of the Scots,
has been known by many names; among them ‘The Eastern Stone’
mentioned in the Gaelic poem ‘The Birth of Aedan Mac Gabhrain’
around 1060 A.D., ‘the Royal seat of Marble’, ‘the Pharaoh’s
Stone’, ‘the Stone of Celebrated Memory’, ‘the Stone of
Scotland’, ‘the Regal Stone’, ‘the Stone of Scone’, ‘Jacob’s
Pillow’, ‘the Coronation Stone’, and the name by which it was
known in Gaelic - the 'Lia Fail’ translated
as the ‘Stone of Destiny’. After years of
extensive research, Ron Henderson reveals the true story of 'The Stone of
Destiny'.
 Gallant
Graeme's Castle:
There’s apparently not much to see and yet there is
everything. The long grass partly hides where a deep moat and
ditches once stood. The fragile remains of low stone walls look
as if they might not stand another winter. Once it rang to the
shouts of fighting men, the jingle of horse harness, the clash
of axes, swords and spears on body-armour and shields. This was the castle of Sir John de Graeme
(Graham), that gallant knight from an illustrious house, who
became Sir William Wallace’s faithful lieutenant and who died
fighting at Wallace’s side in the disastrous Battle of Falkirk
on 22nd July, 1298.When Wallace saw the gallant Graeme was gone,
how did it rack him to the very bonne.....Alba Gu Brath
 World's
Oldest Football:
A little
known fact about Mary, Queen of Scots was that she enjoyed
sport. Mary would swing a golf club or tennis racket from time
to time and she was a spectator at sporting competitions. But
did she also play football – Scotland's national sport?
During an excavation project inside Stirling Castle in the
mid-1970s, workers came upon a small round object tucked behind
the thick oak-panelled walls of the bed chamber once used by
Mary. What they found was a leather ball, slightly larger than a
softball. But it was not just any old ball, it belonged to Mary
Queen Of Scots....Alba Gu Bráth
 A
Tale O' Twa Stanes :
If you're a regular to this site you'll know
all about Big Jock, he runs a film company called Herald Films &
this is their latest piece. Aimed at children, this is the story
of Lia Fail, Scotland's Stone of Destiny, the ancient crowning
stone of kings, situated at Scone, once the capital of the
kingdom. King Edward of England saw it as a great symbol of
Scottish independence so he sent his knights to steal it and
carry it away to London. Scone Abbey had no defenders and it
would be as easy as picking it up and taking it away without
resistance, or so he thought....
.Alba Gu Bráth
 Flanders
2007:
The fallen Scots soldiers of
the First World War have been honoured with a Celtic cross at a
former battlefield. The memorial was unveiled at Passchendaele
in Flanders. The area was the site of the Third Battle of Ypres,
also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, where as many as
500,000 troops from both sides were killed or wounded, our
roving reporter Mikey Maes from Belgium was on the scene for us......Alba Gu Brath
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