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Towns and Cities

Towns and Cities

Towns and Cities (10)


Saturday, 09 April 2011 20:02

Gourock

Gourock is a pretty little town situated on the West Coast of Scotland. The town is famed for its beach “Lunderston Bay” and its reputation for having great bars and restaurants.

The town has an interesting history going back as far as 1494, when it is recorded that James IV sailed from the shore at Gourock to quell the rebellious Highland clans. Two hundred years later William and Mary granted a Charter in favour of Stewart of Castlemilk which raised Gourock to a Burgh of Barony. In 1784 the lands of Gourock were purchased by Duncan Darroch, a former merchant in Jamaica. He built Gourock House near the site of the castle in what the family eventually gifted to the town as Darroch Park, later renamed by the council as Gourock Park.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011 01:05

Findhorn – Treading through time

“ Speak weel o’ the Hielands but live in the Laich.”   This is an old Moray proverb and refers to the “Laich of Moray” an area of low lying, rich fertile land,  along the southern shores of the Moray Firth and including historic places such as Forres and the village of Findhorn.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 11:47

Fort Augustus

Fort Augustus is a settlement in the Scottish Highlands, at the south west end of Loch Ness. The village has a population of around 646 (2001); its economy is heavily reliant on tourism.

Until the early 18th century the settlement was called Kiliwhimin, and the Gaelic name for the modern village is still Cill Chuimein. It was renamed 'Fort Augustus' after the unsuccessful Jacobite Rising of 1715. The accepted etymology is that the settlement was originally named after Saint Cummein of Iona who built a church there. Other suggestions are that it was originally called Ku Chuimein after one of two abbots of Iona of the Comyn clan, whose badge Lus mhic Chuimein refers to the cumin plant, or that it was called Cill a' Chuimein ("Comyn's Burialplace") after the last Comyn in Lochaber.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 11:34

Luss

Luss (Lus in Gaelic) is a village in Argyll & Bute, Scotland, on the west bank of Loch Lomond.

Historically in the County of Dunbarton, its original name is Clachan dubh, or 'dark village'. Ben Lomond, the most southerly Munro, dominates the view north over the loch, and the Luss Hills rise to the west of the village.
Thursday, 25 November 2010 23:33

Alloway

Alloway is a village on the outskirts of Ayr and is famous for being the birthplace of Scotland’s Baird, Robert Burns. You can visit the home in which Burns was born, restored to the way it looked when Burns was a child. Visiting his childhood home is almost like the beginning of a pilgrimage for many Burns enthusiast and fans.

Alloway is the setting of one of Burns’ most famous poems, Tam o’ Shanter.  For anyone who has read the poem, taking a walk around the village can be very entertaining. To learn more about Burns and the Tam o’ Shanter poem, there is also a visitor centre with a Tam o’ Shanter experience, it is best to do this before you tour the village.  After visiting Burns Cottage and visiting the centre, you can visit the Auld Kirk, where Tam saw the witches dancing with the “deil”. You can also visit the Brig o’ Doon , a late medieval bridge over the pretty river Doon, where Tam’s poor horse Meg loses her tail, when they manage to escape the Nannie witch.  A Burns monument and gardens finish off a tour of the village quite nicely.

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 23:46

Glasgow

Glasgow (pronounced /ˈɡlæzɡoʊ/ GLAZ-goh; Scots: Glesga; Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu, pronounced [ˈkɫ̪as̪xu]) is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands. A person from Glasgow is known as a Glaswegian, which is also a common name for the local dialect.

Glasgow grew from the medieval Bishopric of Glasgow and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the 15th century, which subsequently became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century. From the 18th century the city also grew as one of Britain's main hubs of transatlantic trade with British North America and the British West Indies. With the Industrial Revolution, the city and surrounding region shifted to become one of the world's pre-eminent centres of Heavy Engineering, most notably in the Shipbuilding and Marine engineering industry, which produced many innovative and famous vessels. Glasgow was known as the "Second City of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period. Today it is one of Europe's top twenty financial centres and is home to many of Scotland's leading businesses. Glasgow is also ranked as the 57th most liveable city in the world.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew to a population of over one million, and was the fourth-largest city in Europe, after London, Paris and Berlin. In the 1960s, large-scale relocation to new towns and peripheral suburbs, followed by successive boundary changes, have reduced the current population of the City of Glasgow unitary authority area to 580,690, with 1,199,629 people living in the Greater Glasgow urban area. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers approximately 2.3 million people, 41% of Scotland's population.

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 23:32

Edinburgh

Edinburgh (pronounced /ˈɛdɪnb(ʌ)rə/ ( listen), ED-in-brə or ED-in-burr-ə; Scots: Edinburgh ; Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Èideann) is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland after Glasgow and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a 30-square-mile (78 km2) rural area.

Located in the south-east of Scotland, Edinburgh lies on the east coast of the Central Belt, along the Firth of Forth, near the North Sea. Owing to its spectacular, rugged setting and vast collection of Medieval and Georgian architecture, including numerous stone tenements, it is often considered one of the most picturesque cities in Europe.

Interview with Gino from Holiday Apartments in Edinburgh


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Interview with Natalie Candusso from Candusso Holiday Lets


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Interview 1 with Natalie Candusso from The Bankton House Hotel in Livingston


Or download the podcst HERE


Wednesday, 24 November 2010 23:25

Inverness

Inverness (from the Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Nis, pronounced [iɲɪɾʲˈniʃ] meaning 'mouth of the River Ness') is a city in northern Scotland. The city is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland. The city lies near the site of the 18th century Battle of Culloden and at the northeastern extremity of the Great Glen (An Gleann Mòr), where the River Ness enters the Inverness/Moray Firth making it a natural hub for various transport links. It is the northernmost city in the United Kingdom. A settlement was established by the 6th century with the first royal charter being granted by Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim (King David I) in the 12th century.

Inverness is situated at the mouth of the River Ness (which flows from nearby Loch Ness) and at the southwestern extremity of the Moray Firth. The city lies at the end of the Great Glen with Loch Ness, Loch Ashie and Loch Duntelchaig to the west. Inverness' Caledonian Canal also runs through the Great Glen connecting Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 23:21

Aberdeen

Aberdeen (pronounced /æbərˈdiːn/ ( listen); Scots: Aiberdeen; Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain [ˈopər ˈʝɛhɪn]) is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 29th most populous city. It has an official population estimate of 210,400.

Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, whose mica deposits sparkle like silver. The city has a long, sandy coastline. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of Europe or the Energy Capital of Europe.



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