Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie was once one of the most popular, powerful, and feared clan chiefs in the Scottish borders. However, after his execution in 1530 by order of James V, Clan Armstrong have been without a chief for over 450 years. The Border Reivers were a band of raiders along the Scottish-English border from […]
It is said, according Scottish myth, that Merlin, the wizard from Arthurian legend, is buried in the Borders town of Drumelzier. However, there are many different versions of what actually happened to Merlin, ranging from his own prophecy of a “triple death” to slightly more supernatural accounts of him being imprisoned in a tree and […]
The Beatons of Mull, the famous ‘Ollamnh Muileach’, were a family of doctors, whose origins can be traced back to Béthune in France, and are said to have been very talented with a rather unique medical ability. They family were hereditary physicians first to the Lords of the Isles, and then to the MacLeans of […]
The story of how Scotland got it’s name is an interesting one. Tradition has it that the legend starts back in ancient Egypt, where a pharaoh’s daughter, called Scota, and two Greek princes formed a group which was very troublesome and they were banished because traditionally, Scota and her group had a reputation everywhere […]
Thomas Learmonth from Ercildoune (now Earlston), better known as Thomas the Rhymer was a 13th century Laird, poet and a supposed prophet. Legend tells us how Thomas the Rhymer went out walking one day and fell asleep beneath a tree on the side of the Eildon Hills. He awoke to find a shining woman sitting […]
