Welcome to Nation 11 – Scotland
Scotland is geographically the largest of the AOUG’s Regions and Nations in the UK and stretches from the English Border to the Shetland Islands. Scotland is world renowned for inventions and discoveries having given the world – telephone, BBC, golf, Penicillin, television, flush toilets, curling, and pedal bicycles. Internationally renowned events such as numerous cultural and arts festivals including the Edinburgh International, Fringe, Film and Hogmanay festivals take place annually in Edinburgh.
An Edinburgh group has existed even before the AOUG was founded and they assisted in the setting up of the AOUG. The group has regular events face-to-face events as well as an online monthly Zoom meeting.
If anyone has any suggestions for any face-to-face events in any part of Scotland or online, then they would be welcome. As Scotland is such a large geographical area, we rely on members letting us know of anything they are interested in, or that maybe of interest to others as well as events or activities organised by others taking place around Scotland which members may like to attend as part of a group (e.g festivals, city bus or walking tours, sporting events etc).
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with your Local Contact to suggest any ideas for events (Lewis for Edinburgh) or with the Development Officer, Lesley Sleigh for other areas.
Edinburgh – Lewis McKay lewis.mckay1@btopenworld.com
Previous Events
In March the Edinburgh group paid a return visit to Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels.
The tapestry is one of the world’s largest community arts projects, hand-stitched by 1one thousand people from across Scotland and is made up of one hundred and sixty linen panels. Portraying important events from the birth of the nation to the present day, it warrants at least a second visit. However, it has not had a peaceful journey to its new home. Prior to the creation of the new gallery the tapestry toured various towns throughout Scotland, and it was on Thursday 10th September 2015 while on display in Kirkcaldy that panel number thirty six was stolen. Not just any panel but the one featuring the image of the “Prentice Pillar” (also known as the Apprentice Pillar) the famous, ornately carved pillar located in Rosslyn Chapel, which featured in Dan Brown’s book, the Da Vinci Code about the search for the Holy Grail. The name Prentice Pillar derived from the pillar being crafted by an apprentice mason and legend has it that the apprentice was murdered out of jealously by his master upon his return to Rosslyn. The panel has never been recovered. The stitchers who created the original were finally persuaded to create a new panel, but with minor alterations to allow differentiation from the original. (At the bottom corners, the cat faces a different direction and there is no mouse, and the oak leaf is new). Whether the panel ever reappears remains to be seen but it seems strange that of the one hundred and sixty panels this one was targeted!
The Edinburgh AOUG group visited Perth Museum which opened to the public in March 2024 after a £27 million redevelopment project. This world-class cultural and heritage attraction highlights the fascinating objects and stories that put Perth and Kinross at the centre of Scotland’s story.
At its heart sits the Stone of Destiny, also known as the Stone of Scone, one of Scotland and the UK’s most significant historical objects. The oblong block of red sandstone that was used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs until the 13th Century has a chequered history. On Christmas morning 1950 four students from Glasgow University seized the stone from Westminster Abbey who returned it to Scotland. It was recovered and brought back to the Abbey some four months later. In 1996 the stone was returned officially to Edinburgh Castle and then to its original location in 2022, returning to Perthshire for the first time in over seven hundred years. The history of the stone is brought to life by an animated depiction of its role in the crowning of a Scottish monarch in 1249 for the inauguration of King Alexander II. The stone’s most recent role was being positioned underneath the coronation chair of King Charles III.
The Edinburgh group travelled to Dunfermline to see a major exhibition devoted to the life and work of Sir Joseph Noel Paton. Dunfermline-born artist, illustrator, poet, painter to Queen Victoria and a contemporary of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was a towering figure in the Victorian art world. We were initially welcomed with a storytelling and harp presentation by Beverley Bryant and Heather Yule who together form the duet ‘Glamourie’. We enjoyed several recitals featuring stories and clarsach harp music appropriately relating to fairy legends loved by Paton, before viewing the exhibition.
It featured important works from various major museums and galleries, such as Kelvingrove Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy, as well as paintings, engravings and drawings from their museum collections. It also offered a rare opportunity to see paintings, sketches and personal items kindly loaned by the Paton family, many on public display for the first time.
The Edinburgh group went to the Great Polish Map of Scotland. This is a globally unique feature in the Scottish landscape and is a large physical relief map of Scotland, sculpted in concrete and measuring some 40m by 50m. The Map stands in the grounds of Barony Castle, Eddleston in the Scottish Borders, once the home of the Murrays of Elibank, and later the Hotel Black Barony. The Map was built over six summers between 1974 and 1979 and was mainly the work of a small group of Poles from the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland, led by the map’s main designer, Dr. Kazimierz Trafas. They were assisted by staff from the Hotel Black Barony (Barony Castle) and Polish exchange students visiting Britain. It was abandoned around 1980 and fell into serious degradation from frost and root damage. The map was restored by Mapa Scotland between 2010 and 2017.
We then had a super lunch in the Barony Castle Hotel.
The Edinburgh group paid a visit to Traquair House, Innerleithen in the Scottish borders. Traquair, Scotland’s oldest inhabited House dating back to 1107, has been visited by 27 Scottish Kings and Queens and has been lived in by the Stuart family since 1491.
Originally a royal hunting lodge, Traquair played host to Mary Queen of Scots and later as staunch Catholics they supported the Jacobite cause without counting the cost. In 1738, the fifth Earl of Traquair installed the Bear Gates at the top of the avenue leading to the house. However they were only in use for 7 years as the Earl closed them after Bonnie Prince Charlie’s departure and vowed not to open them again until a Stuart King reclaimed the throne. Further enjoyment and distraction are provided by the in-house brewery, maze and craft workshop.
The Ruckers Harpsichord at Traquair was made in 1651 and described on the nameboard as by Andries Ruckers and is one of the few instruments attributed to this grandson of Hans Ruckers who founded a family tradition of harpsichord building in Antwerp.
A Taste for Impressionism
In September the Edinburgh Group visited the Scottish National Gallery on the Mound in Edinburgh to see the exhibition, ‘A Taste for Impressionism : Modern French Art from Millet to Matisse’. The remarkable story of how Scotland became home to one of the world’s greatest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art was explored in this big Summer exhibition. World famous paintings by a stellar cast including Van Gogh, Degas and Gauguin featured throughout, offering visitors a rare chance to delve into this little-known aspect of Scotland’s cultural history. Other highlights included seven works by Claude Monet from across his career and, for the first time, the full set of Matisse’s vibrant ‘Jazz’ prints. This picture shows the previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh complete with pre-severed ear.