Offensive? Do me a lemon!

While reading a newspaper on Sunday I came across an article about Scottish history and it annoyed me!

IT has been hailed as Scotland's greatest victory over the Auld Enemy by everyone from Robert the Bruce to the Tartan Army. But now the National Trust have decided that the Battle of Bannockburn was "not England v Scotland". The claim, made at a meeting to plan today's annual re-enactment of the 1314 battle at Bannockburn Heritage Centre and monument, has outraged historians.
National Trust Scotland's West Regional director Michael Hunter said it should be seen as a feud between two kings - Robert the Bruce and Edward II. In a taped record of the meeting, he claimed: "We have to be quite careful how we present the battle - it is not England v Scotland. "It was two kings fighting against each other."

What a crock of shit! It was England v Scotland to which we won. Why should it be changed to King v King? It's an important part of Scottish history and people should NOT be denied the truth! Robert The Bruce led Scotland in that battle and it gave us our independence. We have a right to be allowed to keep it the title of England v Scotland.

The Trust's property manager at Bannockburn, Alison Corley, said: "If you just make it a Scottish and English battle then you are not doing it justice.

It's worked well for many years and it's done the battle a lot of justice. Why change it now?! In case someone is offended? WHO? Has anyone been offended before? From what I know..English people have been to visit the site for many years and to my knowledge have never been offended. In this day and age more things cause offense to people but why is that? If it's never bothered them before, then why the change of mind? It pisses me off that the smallest little thing can be classed as offensive to people. We seem to be walking on eggshells every minute of the day, and me personally I'm sick of it. I will always class the battle of Bannockburn as England v Scotland and if I offend someone I don't care. Scottish history, and any countries history, should NOT be changed to suit other people. We need to be proud of our history and we need to stand up and voice our opinion if people want to change it!

You can read the story from the newspaper here and about the Battle of Bannockburn here.

Pictures from Scotland

This is a new thing I've decided to do. Me and my camera are traveling. We're on a quest. A quest of great importance. We're taking pictures of Castles/Manor Houses/Anything historic in Scotland.

I decided to start this because I found it hard to find pictures of places to show Luna. I mean, you can find some pictures but some are very limited. My pictures are not bad. They're not great but at least it shows you different things about each place.

So far I've got pics of Glenbuchat Castle which is located on a bluff above the River Don in Aberdeenshire. It was built in 1590 for John Gordon of Cairnbarrow and his wife Helen on the occasion of their wedding. You can read more about the castle here.

I always have pictures of Leith Hall in Aberdeenshire. Leith Hall was built by the Leith family in 1650 and remained in the Leith-Hay family until 1945. There were extensions added to Leith Hall in 1738, 1810 and in 1904. It was built on the site of the medieval Peill Castle. You can read more about Leith Hall here, and you can also read about their ghosts! I've not been inside Leith Hall yet. It wasnt open for visitors but when it is, I'll be adding more pictures.

I hope people enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I did taking them. Loads more historic places to come. So keep checking back for updates. There is a listing on the side of the blog to everywhere I've taken pictures of.

Burns Night

Here in Scotland on the 25th of January, we honour Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns (or Rabbie Burns). Robert Burns is Scotland's best-loved bard and Burns Suppers have been held in his honour for over 200 years. On this night, most Scots hold suppers where they eat haggis (which is sheeps stomach, blood and a mixtures of other things, along with spices), neeps and tatties (mashed turnip and mashed potato) and they drink whiskey! Before eating the haggis, one of Robert Burns' poems is read, Address to a Haggis.

Robert Burns wrote a lot of nice poems, which even I like (I'm not a big poem fan since I stopped writing them myself) and you can read them here. In some parts of Scotland, people hold haggis hurling. Haggis Hurling dates back to early Scottish Clan Gatherings, where the women folk would toss a haggis across a stream to their husbands, who would catch the haggis in their kilts. I'm not going to bore you with a huge post about it. I've added links for his poems, about his life and about the haggis hurling. You can take your own time to read them, if you wish.