Scotland

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11120995

Bonfires, blazing torches, body-painted dancers, drummers, jugglers, musicians, fire-eaters, ancient Celtic rituals and a spectacular backdrop.

No, it’s not a scene from cult film The Wicker Man.

It’s what you can expect at the annual Beltane Fire Festival taking place in Edinburgh capital this week.

Beltane is held each year on the last day of April, continuing overnight into May Day, to mark the arrival of summer and celebrate new life and fertility.

The event, which first began in 1988 as a protest against rave laws and a way to reclaim green spaces, includes modern interpretations of rituals and customs with roots dating back to the Iron Age. And fire. Lots of fire.

The May Queen, as her name implies, presides over the show, guiding a procession of drummers and performers around the city’s landmark Calton Hill and acting out healing rites.

During her journey she interacts with the Green Man in ceremonies symbolising the birth of summer.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/10167016

Proposals for a massive solar farm near Coylton are a step closer after South Ayrshire Council offered no objection to the plan.

Objectors had slammed the plans for 100,000 solar panels, which will generate 85 megawatts of electricity and fill an area the equivalent of 15 football pitches, claiming it would damage the protected ecology of the area close to Martnaham Loch.

But councillors on the Regulatory Panel were concerned that the amount of cash being proposed for community benefit was just a tenth of that agreed with wind farms in the area.

The Scottish Government’s Energy Consent Unit makes the final decision on the application, with the council a statutory consultee.

Independent councillor Alec Clark asked an agent for the applicant Locogen for the amount of community money being put up by the company for each megawatt of electricity generated.

He was told that, over the 40 year operation of the facility, £500 would be given per megawatt. This totals around £22,500 each year.

Cllr Clark was not impressed by the figures and said: “I would suggest that that is a very low level of community benefit. I am quite acquainted with the many wind farms we have around South Ayrshire, especially in the Carrick district, and the minimum community benefit there is £5000 per megawatt.”

JK Rowling has challenged Scotland's new hate crime law in a series of social media posts - inviting police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence.

The Harry Potter author, who lives in Edinburgh, described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.

She said "freedom of speech and belief" was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.

Earlier, Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said the new law would deal with a "rising tide of hatred".

According to reports in The Scottish Sun, Fritzl has said that if does get out, he wants to move to the Highlands because of its “spectacular scenery”.

He got the idea after watching a documentary about Shakespeare in his high-security prison.

He said: “I was filled with this wonderful, uplifting feeling, this sense of inspiration for this fantastic culture.

“And it was then I knew that when I get released, it is not Austria I want to stay, rather I want to emigrate to the UK.

“Above all I want to roam free on the wild Highlands of Scotland.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/4742834

Footage captures the moment a “hybrid panther” is seen stalking through the Scottish countryside.

At least, that is according to Gordon Welsh, 50, who was walking along a road near Blackdog, Aberdeenshire, when he spotted the animal.

Mr Welsh, from Aberdeen, says the beast spotted was the size of a greyhound – if not bigger – and was “solid looking”.

He is one of Britain’s big cat believers, who claim that the UK has its own wild population of large felids – like panthers and pumas.

“From the way it was moving, the tail size and that, it was slightly like a panther, but it could be a crossbreed,” Mr Welsh said of the animal.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/4711678

SOMETIME AROUND THE 1980S, MAYBE, a rough, yellow-tinged piece of fabric, slightly larger than a placemat, was pulled from a peat bog in Glen Affric, Scotland. The cloth is a swatch of tartan, the fabric associated with Scottish kilts, featuring the telltale interlocked stripes of various sizes and colors. (The term also applies to the pattern, which many know as plaid. But not all plaids are tartan, and to add to the confusion, in Scotland a plaid is a long piece of tartan that is pleated and wrapped around the body.) How and when this fabric, now known as the Glen Affric tartan, found its way into the peat is a bit of a mystery, and now, researchers are starting to unravel its checkered past, one that places it in a unique position in Scottish cultural and sartorial history.

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While who wore it is uncertain, how it ended up in the bog—where anoxic conditions preserved it—is a bigger mystery. “The really intriguing question, apart from who it belonged to, was what were the circumstances that led to it? It wasn’t just dropped,” he says. “It’s obviously a deliberate act. Was it sacrificial? Was it murder? Was it ceremonial? All of those things are open to question because there are no other elements associated with the find that can help us with that.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3437128

A 'killer clown' has scoffed at police - saying they’ll never catch him. The creepy character, wearing a Pennywise-style outfit - complete with scary mask and make-up - has been leaving red balloons dotted around the village of Skelmorlie in North Ayrshire in recent weeks.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3178946

A hoard of coins believed to have belonged to a Highland clan chief who was murdered in the Glencoe Massacre were discovered hidden under a fireplace during an archaeological dig.

The 17th century hoard of 36 coins included international currency, and was hidden beneath the remains of a grand stone fireplace at a site which was believed to have been a hunting lodge or feasting hall.

The site was associated with Alasdair Ruadh “MacIain” MacDonald of Glencoe, clan chief from 1646-1692, who was a victim of the Glencoe Massacre along with members of his family.

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Artefacts discovered at “the summerhouse of MacIain”, included European pottery, and silver and bronze coins, dating from the 1500s to 1680s, during a University of Glasgow dig in August.

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Historians believe whoever buried the coins may have been massacred as they did not return for them.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2723672

Millar was not alone in expressing derision at the advert, part of the “Made in the UK, sold to the world” campaign run by the Department for Business and Trade.

It depicts Dennis and Gnasher alongside the headline “Created in London. Unleashed in more than 100 countries” and in smaller print clarifies that it is referring to the animated television series produced from DC Thomson’s Fleet Street office.

But this distinction did not lessen the ire of many Beano fans, who on X described the advert variously as “insulting”, “disrespectful” and “predictable”.

Chris Law, the Scottish National party MP for Dundee West, called the campaign “cultural appropriation” and “utter garbage”. “Perhaps before the UK government start appropriating local Dundee created characters in the Beano they ought to do a bit of basic research,” he said.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2672885

A galaxy far, far away came a little closer to home today after the dramatic landscapes of Coigach and Assynt took centre stage in the new episode of the Star Wars show Ahsoka.

Eagle-eyed residents of Wester Ross and Sutherland were left gobsmacked when the latest episode dropped on Wednesday morning when the instantly recognisable silhouettes of Suilven and Stac Pollaidh – and the dramatic lochans and knockans of the wider area – popped up on screen.

And the famous mountains' appearances were no fleeting, 'blink and you'll miss it' quick cuts either – with both them and the wider landscape playing an integral role not just in creating the atmosphere that permeates the entire episode, but even as key settings in the action.

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Although today's episode marks the first time that Star Wars filming has visited the far north, it is not Scotland's first appearance in the blockbuster franchise. Ben Cruachan, its famous hydro-power reservoir and the landscape in the immediate area played a very prominent role across a three-episode arc in the first series of Star Wars show Andor, which aired last year and is available now on Disney+

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2609822

A Scottish artist is drawing young people into the world of art by meeting them on their own territory.

Rachel Maclean has exhibited across the world, in Venice and at the National Galleries of Scotland.

But by taking over vacant shops on Scottish High Streets, she is pulling in a new young audience.

Mimi is the colourful character created by Maclean for the Edinburgh sculpture park Jupiter Artland in 2021.

The ambitious work was her first combining architecture and animation.

She always envisaged a spin-off work, which would tour Scottish High Streets and take over empty shops.

Now, the reality is Don't Buy Mi - a surreal toy shop where nothing is for sale and all the items come from Maclean's dark imagination - decaying dolls with a demonic feel, upside-down boxes, signs and a dark animated film.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/news/t/248981

The proposed extension to the Hollow Mountain scheme needs UK government support before it can go ahead.

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New poll gives Yes a 3-point lead in indyref2 voting. Yes: 48.0% No: 45.0% Undecided: 7.1% (Without DK's: Yes: 52% No: 48%) Fieldwork: 13th to 20th June