Useful Scots word: janitor

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
British English adopts a great many slang and trendy terms from American English. Yet, as far as the everyday vocabularies are concerned, there are many differences between the two languages. We stick to our pavements and they stick to their sidewalks. We look under car bonnets and they look under hoods and so [...]

Interesting Scottish places: Fettes College

By Elizabeth McQuillan
I cannot walk past Fettes College in Edinburgh and not marvel at how much fun it would be to be a student there, especially if you had a room in one of the towers. Ornate spirals and turrets thrust themselves skywards, and the whole gothic structure suggests Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and [...]

The future of Scottish football is running round local parks

strong>By Stuart Crawford

So, here we go again, as if you hadn’t noticed. The football season has started and, after only a couple of weeks, the familiar refrains have returned. Various Scottish teams – Celtic, Dundee United, Motherwell – have “crashed out” of European competitions at the first hurdle, leaving Rangers as our [...]

Comment: Not just Higgins who has a name to clear

By Stewart Weir
Depending on what generation you belonged to, mention snooker and the name Higgins in the same sentence and you’d probably think about a world champion player and one of the best of all time.
That surname was synonymous with success on the green baize. However, when it came to notoriety, Alex Higgins held that [...]

Scottish house prices up by 5.8%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 5.8% to £164,213 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 12.2%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Scotland’s Children’s Panels: how you can help

Advertorial
Want to find out more about joining a Children’s Panel?

Scotland’s Children’s Panels need to recruit hundreds of volunteers to help make vital decisions about the welfare of young people in trouble.
Each Children’s Hearing is a lay tribunal involving three members of the panel. They are a relatively informal way of dealing with all kinds [...]

Skye’s no limit for big art ideas

strong>By John Knox
On a wooded hillside on the Isle of Skye, seven local artists have created what can only be described as “ideas”. Great big ideas. They stretch across time and space and into our inner space.
The seven have been brought together by a new arts organisation, appropriately named “Atlas” and the exhibition – in [...]

Useful Scots word: runkle

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
Of all the tedious household tasks, I dislike ironing the most. Yet I have friends who actually find pleasure in it and claim to find it a soothing occupation. I find ironing irritating rather than calming, and cannot really see the point of removing runkles from things that will immediately acquire other runkles [...]

Fear of Scotland’s pantomime horse in Liechtenstein

By Stewart Weir
To end a week when most of our clubs found the transfer window boarded up, Scotland’s national team will on Friday evening begin trying to unlock a door that might lead to Poland and Ukraine.
I know, it sounds a bit like an episode of Mr Benn. And there is even an element [...]

Opinion: the Fringe will last despite the sabre rattling

strong>By Ewan Spence
The Edinburgh Fringe is over for another year, and if you look around there’s the usual good news stories (more tickets sold, lots of shows with award nominations),
as well as the more worrying noises (people won’t keep paying these prices, it’s all the fault of “insert another venue’s name in here”).
So why am [...]

Scottish house prices up by 5.9%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 5.9% to £161,980 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 12.1%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Useful Scots word: footer

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
There are some Scots words which are particularly useful because they are virtually untranslatable and footer falls into this category. Footer, pronounced as this spelling suggests and also spelt fouter, is usually translated into English as fiddle, potter or trifle.
Fiddle or potter, according to context, at least give an impression of what [...]

Interesting Scottish places: Runrig farms

By Elizabeth McQuillan
Runrig is known to the majority of Scottish adults as that Celtic rock band with the rousing lyrics and attitude on all things Scottish. A few drams and the inclusion of one of their tracks at any grown up party will incite even the most reluctant Scot to start jumping about and [...]

Five things to avoid in Edinburgh

strong>By Stuart Crawford
Pipers
Anyone with a love of the bagpipes must shudder when in Edinburgh. I have heard the pipes played all over the world, from the Pakistan-Afghan border (courtesy of the Chitral Scouts) to the Green Zone on Cyprus, but nowhere have I heard them played so execrably as in Princes Street. [...]

Five tips for a happy spine

h2>By Elizabeth McQuillan
Back pain is not a laughing matter if you are one of the 17.3 million people in the UK affected. Government statistics from studies in general practice have shown that the consultation rate for back pain has risen in the past 10 years. Estimates of the extent of back pain among the British [...]

Jack McConnell to stand down as Labour MSP

ack McConnell, the former Labour First Minister of Scotland, is to stand down at next year’s elections, it was announced tonight.
Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale, Scotland’s third First Minister from 2001 to 2007, told his constituency party in Motherwell and Wishaw this evening that he would not be seeking re-election as the Labour candidate next May.
Lord [...]

Opinion: Community nursing in need of reinvigoration

strong>By Theresa Fyffe, Royal College of Nursing Scotland
Most of us think of hospitals when we think of the NHS so it may be a surprise to learn that the vast majority of contact with health services in Scotland actually takes place in local communities. Nurses and healthcare assistants are the people who provide care, treatment [...]

Useful Scots word: Clype

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
Most Scots parents, and a goodly number of Scots children, heaved sighs relief of when the holidays were over and schools once again opened their doors for business. The school is a long-established institution, but nowadays it seems ever-changing so that parents, and even more so grandparents, scarcely recognize it as the same [...]

Interesting Scottish places: Blairquhan dool tree

strong>By Elizabeth McQuillan
Criminals have it pretty easy these days. Perhaps HM prison is no great pleasure dome where the guilty repent at leisure but in a historical context it’s the equivalent of getting a smacked backside for bad behaviour.
From Anglo-Saxon times (right up until 1964) death by hanging was the usual way to [...]

Opinion: The joys of getting theatrical

strong>By Ewan Spence
After you’ve looked through the hundreds of stand-ups at The Fringe (and what is the collective term for that? A heckle of comedians perhaps?), you’ll come across the theatre section of the programme. For many people the Fringe is the theatre high point of the year.
It just upsets me when relatively few people [...]

Scottish house prices up by 5.5%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 5.5% to £160,751 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 11.4%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

Useful Scots word: bike

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
It is funny how mention of one word can trigger a whole series of memories. That
happened to me when reader Sally Green-Armytage mentioned the word bike in a comment on the article on scunner. I am not referring either to a bicycle or to a motorbike, but to the Scots word bike meaning [...]

Event for the CountrysideLite

strong>By Elizabeth McQuillan
Some country and game fairs can be a challenge for the uninitiated. I mean there is something slightly disconcerting about entire families (and their posse of terriers) dressed in matching autumn-leaf camouflage combats, carrying crossbows and sporting a ferret in each pocket. Then are the black-lab-and-tweeds fraternity to negotiate around the [...]

Let’s talk of the steamie

strong>By Elizabeth McQuillan
Six. That is the average number of washes my household washing machine chews through every week for a modest family of three. Then there are the daily showers and wallowing in a deep bath probably once every week. That’s what it takes to keep the family clean and fragrant, if not [...]

Opinion: Scotland falling behind in digital comms race

strong>By Stuart Gibson

Scotland is falling behind in the race to forge a digital communications strategy fit for the 21st century.
Wales, Yorkshire, Birmingham and even Cumbria and Cornwall, as well as comparable countries such as Sweden and New Zealand, are pressing ahead with digital development, while the Scottish Government points to further research before any meaningful [...]

Interesting Scottish places: the Secret Bunker

By Elizabeth McQuillan
During the Cold War things were tense, with the USA and USSR throwing toys (and spies) out of their prams with some regularity. Who was going to press the red button and fire the first nuclear weapon?
In May 1960 the USSR shot down an American spy plane flying over the USSR airspace. In [...]

Useful Scots word: scunner

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
In the best tradition of Edinburgh Fringe entertainers, I am all in favour of a bit of audience participation, especially if it saves me some work. So I am grateful to Fi for comment on hoachin for suggesting the word scunner as a suitable topic for the column. It is an excellent [...]

Scottish house prices up by 4.6%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 4.6% to £157,435 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 8.1%
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

The Fringe: home of the brave, land of the wee

strong>By Ewan Spence
When a performer steps out on stage, they have no idea what to expect. The audience could be anyone, from any walk of life. But at the Edinburgh Fringe there’s every chance that they’ll have an idea who the toughest people to please will be. They can choose from one of many theatre [...]

Useful Scots word: Hoachin

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
It is that time of year again when Edinburgh is buzzing with all things cultural and international visitors are beating a path to its door. Are the citizens of Edinburgh pleased at all this? Certainly, not all of them. You will hear at least some of them commenting on the [...]

Threats to press freedom in the Rainbow Nation

Andrew Macdonell in South Africa
Journalists in South Africa with long memories are no strangers to repressive legislation and heavy handed intimidation from the political establishment.
During the apartheid era, the fourth estate was a frequent target of the Nationalist Government. In the 1980s, heavy handed censorship of the print media was commonplace. Eventually the policy backfired, [...]

Useful Scots word: Tober

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
Most of us have words that were familiar to us in childhood, but that have been forgotten somewhere along life’s way until something reminds of us them. For me such a word is tober.
It was brought to my mind the other day by a correspondent to the column who identifies himself as [...]

Opinion: why comedy is not killing the Fringe

strong>By Ewan Spence
Here we go again.
It’s the 64th Festival Fringe, and that means yet again Edinburgh becomes the Arts Capital of the world, with tens of thousands of tourists descending into the hotels and B&B’s of the city, Taxis that never stop scuttling around, and the Royal Mile becoming an obstacle course of flyers, students [...]

Curious celebration of the Enlightenment

strong>By John Knox
A curious art exhibition has opened at Newhailes House, the National Trust property in Edinburgh renowned for its library of the Enlightenment.
The artist Anna Chapman has created six works of art, ranging from drawings, to sound installations, to slide projections, which seek to recapture the hectic spirit of the Enlightenment in a modern [...]

Interesting places – the Whangie

By Elizabeth McQuillan
I have been taken up The Whangie by a friend on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It sounds questionable, but there you have it. It was actually a very interesting experience overall, if a little sweaty getting there. I advise sturdy footwear, some water, a camera and a fit friend for [...]

Scottish house prices up by 2.9%

In the latest four week period available the Scottish average house price has increased by 2.9% to £155.261 and the volume of sales in Scotland has increased by 7.6%.
The map below lets you find out what’s happening to house prices in your area.

You can get the 52 week version of this map at ros.gov.uk. You [...]

10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Emigrate to Australia

By Stuart Crawford
With the Scottish summer in its full downpour mode and temperatures plummeting, many folk begin to think of sunnier climes and a better life to be found abroad. For centuries one of our main exports has been people, and current estimates reckon the Scottish diaspora may number as many as 25 million [...]

Cry for help from Scotland’s jobs black spot

By John Knox
The derelict wreck of a clipper ship lies in the harbour at Irvine as a visual symbol of the North Ayrshire economy. It’s been listed as Scotland’s worst unemployment black spot in the latest regional population survey. And the local council has renewed its appeal to the government to send in the lifeboats.
What [...]

Art and the Enlightenment

A curious art exhibition has opened at Newhailes House, the National Trust property in Edinburgh renowned for its library of the Enlightenment.
By John Knox
The artist Anna Chapman has created six works of art, ranging from drawings, to sound installations, to slide projections, which seek to recapture the hectic spirit of the Enlightenment in a modern [...]

Joining the mounting numbers taking up riding

By Elizabeth McQuillan
Olympia this is not. Puissance this is not. But it does involve a horse and rider hurtling towards jumps, with the outcome never guaranteed. Conducted over a course of ten natural obstacles – if you consider tyres, hay bales and flower planters such – the simple aim is to get a [...]

Useful Scots word: Shauchlin

By Betty Kirkpatrick
If nyaff, the subject of the previous article, does not convey enough contempt for the person you wish to insult, you can always make it more vehement by preceding it with the word wee plus an adjective, such as shilpit (see previous article) or shauchlin, as in shauchlin (or shauchlie) wee nyaff..
Shauchlin, the [...]

Interesting Scottish places: Mary King’s Close

strong>By Elizabeth McQuillan
Medieval wynds thread, capillary-like, through Edinburgh Old Town. Acting as runs between the larger main streets, the narrow passages skirt between the tall walls of the closes, passing down steps and through archways and courtyards. It is hard to get a sense of what things might have been like living in the [...]

High-flying approach to dropping in for lunch

By Elizabeth McQuillan
Flying has never been a problem to me, but on approaching the seaplane and considering its conservative proportions, I’ll confess to a twinge of anxiety. Not wanting to appear unaccustomed to boarding privately chartered planes, it seemed politic to act nonchalant and unconcerned as the pilot secured what looked to be a Pac-a-Mac [...]

Interesting Scottish places: Fortingall, Glen Lyon

strong>By James Browne
Not many people know that noted Biblical bad guy Pontius Pilate was Scottish. He didn’t either know that, of course, because he wasn’t Scottish. But that mere fact hasn’t stopped an intriguing legend taking root that he was born in the Perthshire hamlet of Fortingall.
No, this is not a rather desperate attempt by [...]

Opinion: Time for inaction and excuses about cuts is over

strong>By David Watt, Executive Director of the Institute of Directors Scotland
Crawford Beveridge was right when he warned that his Independent Budget Review report would make uncomfortable reading.
The scale of the cuts outlined by the IBR is alarming; however it should not surprise anybody familiar with Scotland’s enormous and ever-growing public sector. For too long [...]

Useful Scots word: Nyaff

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
Those of you who regularly use insults and have grown weary of bauchle might consider turning to nyaff for a change. Nyaff, which is pronounced as it is spelt, with the y being sounded as a consonant like the y in yellow or yoke, can be used, like bauchle, as a general [...]

Pylon campaigners claim underground cable evidence ignored

strong>By John Knox
Campaigners in Stirling have accused the Scottish Government of ignoring new evidence on “undergrounding” power lines. They say countries across Europe are now burying electricity cables in scenic areas and where they pass close to people’s homes.
Ian Paterson, chair of Stirling Before Pylons, says the government’s promise to mitigate the worst effects of [...]

Scottish surgery that was a cut above the rest

strong>By Elizabeth McQuillan
The Scots have historically proved themselves to be a most progressive and forward thinking lot. Although inclined to adopt an “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” policy in most areas, the Scots hate being constrained and limited in any way. Tell a Scot he can’t do something and, low and [...]

Opinion: Small businesses key to job creation

strong>By Colin Borland, Federation of Small Businesses
It’s too early to tell if the Westminster government’s strategy of cutting the deficit now to stimulate a private sector led recovery is going to pay off.
Experts are understandably wary about reading too much into the initial signs. The latest UK GDP figures were surprisingly positive, but economists [...]

Useful Scots word: Bauchle

strong>By Betty Kirkpatrick
In general, traditional Scots do not go in much for compliments. “No bad” is often the highest form of praise that leaves their lips. On the other hand, the Scots language is rich words that can be used as insults. Such a word is bauchle.
As an insult directed at a person, bauchle [...]

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