Trochelhill

Trust and Go Forward

Those in the uppermost echelons of the National Trust for Scotland have, for many years, exuded an air of patrician selfconfidence.

Turning the Tide

There was a time, not long ago, when Scotland’s seas were among the world’s most productive. From the Solway Firth all the way round to the Firth of Forth, beautifully clean coastal and deepsea waters teemed with a superabundance of marine life; so much so that the sea’s bounty seemed inexhaustible.

Glen Lyon

Glen Lyon (Gleann Liomhann) is the longest enclosed glen in Scotland. It’s also one of the least known and least visited and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that it is a very large cul de sac. There are no through roads; the only through-route is on foot. This is, I think, a very great blessing. Why? Because it has saved the glen from becoming a major ‘thoughoughfare’, a fate which almost certainly would have spoiled its rustic charm and character.

Vanishing Scotland

Erskine Beveridge was the owner of a thriving Dunfermline based company specialising in the production of fine table and bed linen.

Winter in Alladale

Although Highland winters officially start on the first day of November, we generally feel the season’s cold embrace well before then. Rain turns to sleet and sleet soon becomes snow. Drifts form and before the month is out, thick ice bridges the River Alladale and the Upper Carron in Glen Mor. As far as the eye can see, all the hills and glens lie bedded deep beneath a soft white blanket.

The Road To The Isles

I doubt whether any red-blooded Scot can ever take The Road to the Isles without being tempted to sing at least one verse and chorus of that grand old song of the same name. Whenever I swing on to the A830 at Fort William and point my nose west toward Mallaig, it’s Kenneth McKellar’s magnificent tenor that’s in my head and in my heart and I fancy I can already smell the tangle o’ the isles.

Raffles Art

Although Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles is today best remembered as the founding father of modern Singapore, he has also left an enduring legacy in other areas that underpin his place in history. Fluent in Malay, Raffles was a gifted polymath who had a deep and abiding interest in natural history, a passion for fauna and flora, which he pursued throughout the 18 years in which he served British colonial interests in the Far East.