News
World’s smallest whisky bar opens for Fringe
THE world’s smallest whisky bar has opened in the Scottish capital ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A former police telephone box on the corner of Hope Street and Shandwick Place has been turned into a tiny bar by whisky bottler Cask 88. There’s only enough room inside for one bartender and one guest. The…
Read MoreThe Islay Boys toast island’s 12th distillery
ARGYLL & Bute Council has granted The Islay Boys planning permission to build the island’s 12 distillery. Mackay Smith and Donald MacKenzie both hail from the Rhinns peninsula on Islay’s west coast and launched their whisky bottling company, The Islay Boys, in 2016. Now, the pair has teamed up with Ian Macleod Distillers to build…
Read MoreJam today as Fingal picks Perthshire Preserves
FINGAL, the luxury floating hotel in Leith, is getting ready for “National Afternoon Tea Week” after picking Perthshire Preserves to supply a special jam. Iain Mackenzie and Kate Thornhill will provide a new strawberry jam for the promotion – which runs on 8-15 August – and hope to become a permanent feature on the ship’s…
Read MoreEdinburgh’s Christmas unveils plans
IT MAY only be August, but Edinburgh’s Christmas is today sharing plans for its festivities. Markets will return to the Mound precinct, East Princes Street Gardens, and West Princes Street Gardens. New sites are also proposed, with a “Scottish market” on Castle Street and an “artisan market” across High Street and West Parliament Square, both…
Read MoreEdinburgh Tattoo welcomes overseas stars
INTERNATIONAL performers have arrived in Scotland ahead of the start of the Edinburgh Tattoo on Friday. Among this year’s stars are the New Zealand Army Band, The United States Army Field Band, The United States Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team, Top Secret Drum Corps, Banda Monumental De Mexico, and Highland Divas. The theme for…
Read MoreNorth Coast 500 gets its own podcast
A PODCAST series has been created to promote attractions along the North Coast 500 driving route in the Highlands. Each 45-minute episode focuses on a different part of the trail. The first programme features Assynt’s Northwest Highland Geopark, while the second outing spotlights the historic Attadale Gardens in Wester Ross, and the third introduces listeners…
Read MoreScottish Pipe Band Championships hit high note
ORGANISERS hailed Saturday’s Scottish Pipe Band Championships at Levengrove Park in Dumbarton as the “best ever” Some 20,000 spectators flocked for the first staging of the event since the pandemic began. A total of 117 bands gathered for the championships, with pipers travelling from as far away as Australia and Texas. Field Marshal Montgomery from…
Read MoreFancy owning a 40 million year old crocodile?
THE fossil of a 40 million-year-old crocodile is coming up for auction next week in Glasgow. The ancient croc is one of nearly 200 fossils going under the hammer at McTear’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” auction on 10 August. The collection as assembled by a retired geologist based in the Highlands. It includes a fossilised crocodilian…
Read MoreLook out for shelduck feathers at the beach
SCIENTISTS are asking visitors to beaches to look out for shelduck feathers this summer. Shelduck replace their feathers by moutling over the summer. They can’t fly for between two and four weeks, and so need to find safe places to moult. British shelduck either moult on mudflats in the UK or fly across the North…
Read MorePaolozzi comes to Hospitalfield
HOSPITALFIELD House near Arbroath is putting a sculpture by Scottish artist Sir Eduardo Paolozzi on display in its garden this summer. The bronze work, entitled Rio, is on loan from the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian art gallery. The work was commissioned in 1964 by Dundee surrealist art collector Gabrielle Keille and is part of Paolozzi’s…
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