Lowland Heritage Tours

28/10/2024

LHT has now moved to WordPress, this is a reworked article about hillforts.

https://lowlandheritagetours.com/2024/08/23/the-story-of-scotlands-hillforts/

What the hillfort called the ‘White Caterthun’ in Angus might have looked like, by Kieran Baxter, pinterest.co.uk Imagine you are living in Scotland in the year 218 BC, the same year Ha…

21/05/2024

It's hard to get a good idea of the character of a man who lived in a Dark Age, but here I try to piece together the best I can what can be said about the 'first King of Scotland'.

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/kenneth-macalpin-the-first-king-of-scotland

Who was Kenneth MacAlpin, the first King of Scotland?

17/03/2024

Can genetics help us fill in the gaps of history? In the case of South-West Scotland, I think it can.

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/genetic-legacy-of-the-norse-gaels-in-south-west-scotland

https://www.deviantart.com/jlazaruseb/art/Gaelic-Norse-Sea-Raider-684218565South-West Scotland is a mysterious part of the country, which has been excavated less than other areas and about which very little is known historically outside the Kingdom of Alt Clut (Dumbarton), which later became Strathc...

02/03/2024

Edward I of England was the first to actually try to conquer Scotland rather than simply demand fealty from its kings. His conquest of Wales was the background to his attempt to dominate the Scots, though this ultimately failed and only soured relations between the two kingdoms.

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/langshanks-legacy-the-impact-of-edward-i-on-anglo-scottish-relations

Langshanks' portrait in Westminster Abbey Edward I of England was known as 'Langshanks' ('long-legs') and also had the title of 'Hammer of the Scots' for his brutal invasion of Scotland. He was certainly a force to be reckoned with, as he had conquered Wales by 1283 and took full advantage of the in...

11/02/2024

After seeing a performance of 'Macbeth', it made me want to look into the truth (or at least what the earlier historical sources tell us) about the man behind the character.

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/who-was-the-real-macbeth

Recently my partner and I went to see a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth, a play based on the reign of an 11th century Scottish king. Naturally, this put me in the mood to investigate the real story behind the play and that is what I wish to share with you today. The story of Macbeth as told by....

21/01/2024

The Declaration of Arbroath claims the Scots came from Iberia, so I've investigated what may lie behind this claim and if there's any truth to it.

"Most Holy Father and Lord, we know from the deeds of the ancients and we read from books -- because among the other great nations of course, our nation of Scots has been described in many publications -- that crossing from Greater Scythia, via the Tyrhennian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and liv...

03/12/2023

Never been here before, will be sure to visit at some point.

St Fillan’s Cave in Pittenweem, Fife 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🩷

The cave is linked to the 7th-century missionary, St Fillan, who is said to have lived here for several years around AD 640.

You can get a key nearby at The Cocoa Tree cafe 🔑

18/11/2023

Let's take a trip to the 17th century and explore the reasons why the Covenanters showed overall less hostility to the Stuart monarchs than the Roundheads did (spoiler: it's probably not just because they came from Scotland).

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/covenanters-vs-roundheads-why-the-scots-didn-t-kill-the-king

The wars that took place across the British Isles in the mid-17th century ('Wars of the Three Kingdoms': England, Scotland and Ireland) are some of the most complex and confusing events in British/Irish history. Much of the reason for this was the fact that Ireland was an English colony and the King...

31/10/2023

It has been suggested that the Neolithic monument called the 'Cleaven D**e' near Meiklour in Perthshire was aligned with the sunrise at Samhain, so the Celtic New Year could possibly stretch back to the Neolithic. This is supported by the fact that Irish Neolithic monuments such as the Mound of Hostages at Tara and Loughcrew (both in County Meath) are so aligned. The first photo on the top is in the direction of the rising sun and the monument itself resembles a Roman chariot course or 'cursus'.

22/10/2023

This is the second part of a two-part series. In this part I tell the story of how the Anglo-Normans were invited to Scotland and went on to spread their culture throughout the Lowlands, but also came to see themselves as 'Scots' rather than 'English'.

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/history-of-the-english-in-scotland-part-ii-the-anglo-normans

The refectory (monks' dining hall) at Dunfermline Abbey is an example of Norman architecture in Scotland, built by King David I in 1128 In my previous article, I told the story of how the first English people arrived in what is now Scotland from the 7th century AD onwards. At the time they were know...

08/10/2023

This is the first in a two-part series on the English settlement of Scotland, which began as far back as the 7th century AD. The south-eastern corners of Scotland share a Northumbrian heritage with the nearest part of England (Northumberland) and this is the story of how that came to be.

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/history-of-the-english-in-scotland-part-i-the-angles

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, seat of the kings of Bernicia, whose people colonized Southern Scotland While Scotland's Celtic heritage is well-known, her Germanic roots are also essential to her history and culture. For that reason, here I'm going to focus specifically on the contribution of the....

29/07/2023

While we have nothing which tells us about Pictish mythology, we can infer the gods they likely worshipped by looking to other Celtic peoples' myths. The evidence that we have suggests they were closest to the Welsh, so I will tend to refer to the names they used for their gods.

https://www.lowlandheritagetours.com/post/top-10-celtic-gods-worshipped-by-the-picts-probably

These are my picks for the gods attested from enough other Celtic cultures that they were likely worshipped by the Picts too.