Scotiana

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Each year, hundreds of bagpipes musicians gathered in various bands offer concerts to enthusiastic crowds
all over the world and they are the key element to any Highland Games.
Wearing the MacDonald kilt, Ottawa bagpiper John-Hugh MacDonald is pictured here on the Canadian stamp issued in 1997 to commemorate the 50th Glengarry Highland Games held in Maxville, [...]

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Words rise out of the country. They are around us. In every month in the year we are surrounded by words.
(Shall Gaelic Die? Iain Crichton Smith)
Winter has its own dictionary, the words are a blizzard building a tower of Babel. Its grammar is like snow.
(Shall Gaelic Die? Iain Crichton Smith)
Time flies…
St Valentine’s red [...]

At the end of the nineteenth century, Art Nouveau transformed towns and countryside around the world.  Even though its style had gained popularity from just the last ten years or so, Art Nouveau permeated many arts & crafts: jewellery, book design, glasswork, textiles, wrought iron, and architecture, to name just a few, with its high [...]

We are very  pleased today to introduce our dear Scottish friends, Margaret and Iain McEwan, as our first “Guests Bloggers” on Scotiana.
In this Letter from Scotland, Iain will guide us to the St-Valentine relics that remain in Glasgow, a very timely and interesting subject to read on the eve of worldwide celebration of St-Valentine’s day.
We [...]

Back in 1840, Glasgow architect John Baird was commissioned by Sir James Campbell, to design the large block of business premises in Buchanan Street, known as Prince’s Buildings. The buildings formed a four-storey merchant square in yellow sandstone, named in honour of the birth of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII)
A year or so [...]