Tag Archives: History

Understanding Amsterdam – a visit to the Rijksmuseum

Posted on June 8, 2017 by

Amsterdam.  It is hard to distil any city to its essence, more so when it has more than one story to tell, when there is more than one truth.  To some, Amsterdam is a twee tourist destination of clogs and tulips … Continue reading →

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Pictish stones and sacred wells – the secrets of Scotland’s Black Isle

Posted on April 13, 2017 by

The Black Isle is neither an island nor black.  The peninsula lies 10 miles north of Inverness, with the waters of the Cromarty Firth to one side and the Moray Firth to the other.  For a small, sparsely populated place it is … Continue reading →

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Surrounded by stones – Ring of Brodgar, Orkney

Posted on March 28, 2017 by

First, the facts.  At 104 metres in diameter the Ring of Brodgar is the third largest circle of its kind in Great Britain.  It is so large that it is hard to fit all of the 27 surviving stones in … Continue reading →

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Ancient Orkney – Skara Brae, Broch of Gurness and Maeshowe

Posted on March 21, 2017 by

Before construction of the pyramids began on the plains of Giza, before the first monolith was raised at Stonehenge, a small community of people were living in an interconnected series of stone walled buildings on a spit of land overlooking the … Continue reading →

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St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney – Scotland’s Viking Church

Posted on March 17, 2017 by

Orkney is truly remote.  A flight from Edinburgh or Glasgow takes an hour, the ferry from Aberdeen six hours.  The shortest crossings are by ferry from Gills Bay or Scrabster on the far north coast of the mainland, an hour … Continue reading →

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