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Yesterday we arrived for our week away in Scotland, based in the Cairngorms. It has been an amazing start with some brilliant species seen including this Red Grouse by Lochindorb today.
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17th June 1390 saw Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, burn Elgin Cathedral.
I’ve posted about The Wolf of Badenoch and his torching of the Cathedral before, sometimes called the Celtic Attila, or the vilest man in Scottish history, but who was this man and how did he get his reputation?
The Brother of King Robert III, Alexander Stewart, Alisdair Mor mac an Righ,was a man of many names another was Big Alexander, the times in which he lived were barbarous, but even by their standards he stood out, and was feared over a considerable distance.
Throughout his life he was Lord of Badenoch around 1371, Earl of Buchanan and was also his brother’s royal deputy in the north of Scotland. This is where you might have to remember some of my other posts to piece things together, King Robert III was a weak King, before he became monarch he actually had more power and had basically ruled in favour of his father, at sometime he took a kick from a horse and this left him somewhat disabled, he was crowned King in 1390 but his younger brother brother Robert, Earl of Fife was running Scotland- hold on two Roberts!? I hear you say? Well King Robert took the name rather than his birth name, John, which was regarded as an unlucky name for a King, after John Balliol, Tomb of Tabard fame.
So to understand Alexander a we bit,, I think we have to rewind a bit to King David II, Uncle to Robert II, the two though were not the best of friends, in 1368 he and his sons were required by David’s parliament to take an oath that they would keep their undisciplined followers in check—later that year, Robert and Alexander were imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle possibly as a result of these oaths having been broken, I’m not sure how long they were held on the Island Castle but I am sure it must have affected Alexander more than his brother, when David died heirless three years later Robert II took the throne and Alex was formally made Lord of Badenoch on 30 March 1371, by the following year Alexander held crown authority from north Perthshire to the Pentland Firth, so controlled half of Scotland. In 1382 he was created Earl of Buchan, the first person to hold the title since John Comyn.
Alexander Stewart was a vicious, bloodthirsty and brutal character, he abused his power and maintained a rule of terror across much of the Highlands by imprisoning and murdering those who offended him. He was said to be huge in stature with a florid complexion and jet black beard, he accompanied his men on missions to rape and pillage within villages in the surrounding countryside, and was merciless in his actions. He was consequently censured by the King’s Council in 1388. His chief residence was Lochindorb Castle which is situated on an island in Lochindorb, north of Grantown-on-Spey, but he was also associated with Drumin Castle near Glenlivet and Ruthven Castle near Kingussie.
Alexander married the heiress Euphemia de Ross, Countess of Ross in July 1382. The marriage produced no children, for which he blamed on his wife. In 1389 Alexander sought the aid of Alexander Bur, Bishop of Mora to annul the marriage. The Bishop, however supported Euphemia, and ordered him to return to his wife, Alexander reacted by angrily expelling his wife to make way for his mistress, Mariota Athyn, who had already provided him with several children, the Bishop excommunicated Alexander, the monk who came to Lochindorb castle to inform him of his excommunication was thrown into the castle’s water pit vault.
Bishop Bur obtained the support Thomas Dunbar, Sheriff of Inverness and son of the Earl of Moray to provide his protection. In May 1390, Alexander rode to Moray with a large force and brutally sacked the town of Forres. He went on to destroy Pluscarden Abbey, from where he continued to Elgin, arriving on 17 June 1390, he burned much of the town and destroyed Elgin Cathedral, as well as the cathedral, the monastery of the Greyfriars, St Giles parish church and the Hospital of Maison Dieu were all engulfed in flames.
Alexander had to appear at the Church of the Friars Preacher, in Perth in the presence of his brothers, King Robert III and Robert Earl of Fife, and the council-general to plead for forgiveness. Robert III ordered his younger brother to do penance for his crimes and make financial reparations, he then pardoned him.
Some records state the The Wolf of Badenoch died in 1394, although others maintain is was in 1406, when it is believed that he played chess with the devil at Ruthven Castle. Legend has it he was visited by a tall man dressed in black and the pair played through the night, with a storm conjured when the visitor called “check” and “checkmate”. In the morning, the Wolf was found dead in the banqueting hall and his men too found lifeless outside the castle walls
There is a relatively new statue of Alexander Stewart in Elgin, and you have to raise an eyebrow as to why it was ever commissioned, I mean by all accounts the guy was a tyrant..........
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Appeal following bird of prey shot near Grantown
New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/dlknL
Appeal following bird of prey shot near Grantown
Click here to sign up to our free newsletters! Police officers are appealing for information after a protected bird of prey was shot near Grantown “We received a report of a red kite being shot around 11.15am on Monday on the Lochindorb Estate,” a spokesperson said this afternoon. Library shot of a red kite […]
See full article at https://petn.ws/dlknL
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Lochindorb Castle from Wayward Spirit on Vimeo.
Drone footage of Lochindorb Castle
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Now this is a good place to build a castle 👌👑 Follow @scotlandissurreal for more 👋🏴 Follow @scotlandissurreal 🦄🦕 This is Lochindorb Castle. Its owner, the fourth son of Robert II, known more infamously to history as, The Wolf of Badenoch, was the man responsible for burning down Elgin cathedral after the Bishop of Moray influenced his wife to complete her divorce. ⛪🔥 📷 Incredible capture by @martinbenniephotography 📸🙏 (at Lochindorb) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWtb4thj90x/?utm_medium=tumblr
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Сказочный замок Lochindorb 13 века во льдах #европа #замки #лед #шотландия
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Happy day of birth to me! #22 (at Lochindorb) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCjb5YnHi30/?igshid=dlmudeu0ugnk
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Some memories from the phenomenal Scotland trip we went on last year, which we began travelling to a year ago tomorrow. I don't know where that year has gone! What a fantastic and wild time it was. The photos in this set are a mixture of some I still hadn't got around to processing and did so this evening and some key ones from the trip that I processed at the time, each bringing back fond memories. The photos are of; Corn Bunting at Banff in Aberdeenshire, view at Findhorn Bay and Long-tailed Duck at Burghead Harbour one of the birds of the trip both in Moray, another of the star species of the trip and one of the main ones we wanted to see Otter at Dervaig on Mull, a view on the Aberdeenshire coast, Lapwing at Lochindorb, Black Guillemot on Loch Eil and view on Mull.
#mull#aberdeenshire#lochindorb#moray#scotland#uk#earth#nature#outdoors#birdwatching#lapwing#burghead harbour#banff#corn bunting#findhorn bay#long-tailed duck#otter#black guillemot#loch eil#happy#memories#april#europe#spring#isle of mull
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On July 24th 1394 Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, the Wolf of Badenoch died, according to legend after playing chess with the devil at Ruthven Castle.
The Wolf of Badenoch, is one of the most memorable historical characters of Strathspey.
Scottish history has its fair share of deeply unpleasant characters, but Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, Lord of Badenoch, is a strong contender for the title of Least Pleasant. Alexander Stewart abused his power and maintained a rule of terror across much of the Highlands by imprisoning and murdering those who offended him and pillaging the countryside.
Alexander Stewart, born in 1343, was the 4th illegitimate son of the future King Robert II of Scotland and of Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, but became legitimated in 1349 upon his parents' marriage. He was also the younger brother of the future Robert III. The times in which he lived were barbarous, but even by their standards he stood out, and was feared over a considerable distance.
Alexander married Eupheme de Ross, Countess of Ross in July 1382. They had no children: a fact that Alexander blamed on his wife (and, to be fair, as he fathered around 40 illegitimate children by a large number of different women, he was probably right). In 1389 Alexander sought the intervention of the Bishop of Moray to bring his marriage to an end. The Bishop came down on the side of Eupheme, and when Alexander then expelled her to make way for his current mistress, Mariota Athyn, he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Moray.
It was Alexander's response to his excommunication that resulted in his label as the Wolf of Badenoch. First, the monk who came to Lochindorb castle with the news of Alexander's excommunication was consigned to the castle's bottle pit. Many Scottish castles had these deep unpleasant dungeons accessible only by a trap door in the roof. Not many could also boast three feet of water covering the floor because of their island location.
Then, in May 1390, Alexander descended on Moray at the head of a large number of “wild, wykked Hieland-men”. Alexander sacked the town of Forres, before heading east, destroying Pluscarden Abbey en route to Elgin where he arrived on 17 June 1390. Here he burned much of the town and destroyed Elgin Cathedral, the second largest cathedral in Scotland, widely known as the Lantern of the North.
Alexander's older brother, Robert III, who had only just succeeded to the throne and had yet to be crowned, called upon him to do penance for his crimes and pay significant reparations: then pardoned him. Whether the Wolf of Badenoch's attack on Moray had simply been a case of getting even with the Bishop: or whether it was in reality intended to be the start of a power play for Scotland more widely, immediately after the death of his father Robert II, is a matter of debate among historians. No-one for a moment, however, believes that he was truly repentant afterwards.
Legend has it that The Wolf of Badenoch died on 24th July 1394 (although others maintain it was in 1406) when he had been visited at Ruthven Castle by a tall man, dressed all in black. The man wished to play a game of chess with the Wolf which lasted several hours until the tall, darkly dressed man moved a piece, called ‘check’ and then ‘checkmate’ and rose from the table. On calling these words, there was a terrible storm of thunder, hail and lightening. The storm continued through the night until the morning. In the morning silence, Wolf's men were discovered outside the castle walls, dead and blackened as if they had all been struck by the lightening. The Wolf was found in the banqueting hall, and although his body appeared unmarked, the nails in his boots had all been torn out.
The funeral procession was held two days later, led by the Wolf's coffin. Terrible storms started over and over again as the coffins were added to the procession and only when the Wolf's coffin was carried to the back of the procession did the storms cease and not return.
Such, it would seem, are the perils of playing chess with the Devil.
The Wolf of Badenoch was buried in Dunkeld Cathedral, where his tomb, topped by an effigy in armour, is one of the few Scottish royal monuments to have survived through the wanton vandalism of the Scottish Reformation, maybe they were scared his ghost might reek revenge?
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Appeal following bird of prey shot near Grantown
New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/R2MIT
Appeal following bird of prey shot near Grantown
Click here to sign up to our free newsletters! Police officers are appealing for information after a protected bird of prey was shot near Grantown “We received a report of a red kite being shot around 11.15am on Monday on the Lochindorb Estate,” a spokesperson said this afternoon. Library shot of a red kite […]
See full article at https://petn.ws/R2MIT
#BirdNews
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Lochindorb Castle near Grantown-on-Spey Lochindorb Castle is located on the bleak Dava Moor south of Nairn and Forres on the way to Grantown-on-Spey and Aviemore, in the south-eastern heart of the Scottish Highlands. https://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/Chatelaine/LOCHINDORB.HTM https://www.instagram.com/p/CBI9v5QFNKP/?igshid=auzs3aiptfgz
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Lochindorb. Vintage Asahi 35mm f2.8 lens. https://ift.tt/32VRA1o
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Countryside at Lochindorb All your favourite articles at your reach! Update daily. Hurry up: http://articlefor.me #like4like #likeforlike #creative #photography #style #comment4comment #socialenvy #streetstyle — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/2wADY0e
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LOCHINDORB WILD CAMP VIDEO IMAGES
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Sharing the videos next week, this was the final wild camp of the year with a kayak tour of Lochindorb Castle and a walk down to Randolph's Leap. View the video on our Birnie Family YouTube!
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#wildcamping #camping #lochindorbcastle #Lochindorb #kayaking #landroverdiscovery #landrover
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The Daily Thistle
The Daily Thistle – News From Scotland
Sunday 13th May 2018
"Madainn Mhath” …Fellow Scot, I hope the day brings joy to you…. The sound of the church bells ringing woke me from my slumber this morning, the slow tolling bell means as the regular readers are aware that one of the members of the local church, has left this mortal coil and gone to meet his or her maker.. I wish them well on their voyage to wherever and my respects to the family, but I’m awake, so coffee on, no maker to meet for me, just a walk with my buddy Bella in the mild early morning air on the Mediterranean coast of Spain in a small town called Estepona, where to sea divides the continents of Africa and Europe and an old man walks his dog…
RBS BOSS TELLS MPS BRANCH CLOSURES 'DIFFICULT' BUT NECESSARY…. RBS chief executive Ross McEwan has told MPs he recognised that customers were angry about branch closures but they were commercially necessary. He appeared before Westminster's Scottish Affairs Committee to explain why the bank was closing 62 branches. The committee's chairman, SNP MP Pete Wishart, said RBS had suffered a loss of reputation because of its plans. Mr McEwan responded by saying that change was difficult and no closures were "taken lightly". He added that after this phase of branch reduction, that part of the business would not be looked at again until 2020.
SCOTLAND'S MOST POWERFUL MICROSCOPE UNVEILED…. Scotland's most powerful microscope has been unveiled. It is expected to open up new approaches to treating cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more. It can see things 10 times smaller than previous light-based microscopes. In fact the term "nanoscope" is more accurate as it can see objects on a nano scale - a few billionths of a metre across. The microscope does it by breaking the limit for light. The problem is known as the diffraction limit of light microscopy. Because light diffracts - broadly put, when it comes to a corner or an aperture it bends around it - there is a theoretical limit below which a light microscope cannot focus. And yet here at the Edinburgh Super-Resolution Imaging Consortium (Esric) we are looking at an image previously thought impossible. On a computer screen Esric's manager Dr Ali Dun is running an animation of a paramecium, a single-celled organism that eats bacteria. At first it’s features seem indistinct. We are the diffraction limit. Then the image sharpens to reveal the cell's internal workings. "We can see a lot more structure, things get a lot smaller," Dr Dun says.
"And so we can find out a lot more information about how structures are related to each other and where they are in space and time on a very, very small scale." A criticism frequently levelled at science is that it involves knowing more about less and less. At Esric that's a virtue.
FIFE FALL VICTIM ROBBED BY MAN WHO HELPED HIM…. Police in Fife are renewing their appeal to find a man who helped an elderly man home after he fell in the street, only to assault and rob him. The 74-year-old man fell at the junction of Nicol Street and High Street, Kirkcaldy, at about 16:00 on Friday. A man crossed the road from Links Street and helped the victim up Nicol Street to his home nearby. When they got there, he assaulted and robbed the older man. The suspect was described as being 20-35 years old, about 5ft 8in tall, wearing a dark jacket with the hood up. He may be of Mediterranean appearance but spoke with a local accent.
Det Insp Paul Dick said: "This was a callous attack on a vulnerable man who only moments earlier had fallen nearby in Kirkcaldy town centre. The suspect has helped the man up but then taken him home and robbed him.
SWIMMING HEDGEHOG PHELPS MAKES FULL RECOVERY…. A young hedgehog which received hydrotherapy to build up strength in its back legs has been released into the wild after making a full recovery. Phelps - who was named after American swimmer Michael Phelps - was found in Alness, Easter Ross, in November. The Scottish SPCA let Phelps swim at its rescue centre at Fishcross in Clackmannanshire. He was released on 1 April after spending 146 days in the animal welfare charity's care.
INVESTIGATION AFTER HUMAN REMAINS FOUND NEAR BALLATER…. Police are carrying out investigations after the discovery of human remains in the Ballater area of Aberdeenshire. Officers were sent to Invercauld Estate after a member of the public made the discovery at about 12:45 on Friday. A Police Scotland spokesman said the remains "appeared to have been there for a number of years". He said inquiries were ongoing to establish the identity of the deceased.
STRANRAER OYSTER FESTIVAL SECURES FUNDING…. The second edition of an oyster festival in south west Scotland has secured financial support. The Stranraer event - which started last year - has landed nearly £50,000 of National Lottery funding.
It was one of three projects across the ITV Border area to receive the most The People's Projects public votes. The festival - designed to celebrate the Loch Ryan oyster harvest and locally caught seafood - is believed to be worth £500,000 to the local economy.
It will feature a series of workshops, demonstrations and a gala event this year. The other groups to secure funding were The Bee Space, a community apiary project in Dumfries, and The Wild About Wellbeing project in Galashiels. Joe Ferns, UK funding director of the Big Lottery Fund, said: "The People's Projects highlights the incredible things people and communities are doing across the UK.
"From rural villages to towns and cities, local people are working together to help each other lead happier and healthier lives.
"We're really excited to see this year's winners using National Lottery funding to take their projects further, bringing more people together to make a life-changing difference in their local area."
On that note I will say that I hope you have enjoyed the news from Scotland today,
Our look at Scotland today is of this stunning shot of a short-eared owl which was taken at Lochindorb in the Highlands, by Iain Brooks, what an incredible picture..well done Iain Brooks...
A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Sunday 13th May 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…
All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in
Be safe out there…
Robert McAngus
#robertmcangus
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Red Grouse Spotted on the banks of Lochindorb, Scotland
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