Articles

The first golfer to win the Open, the man to instigate the Ryder cup, is all but unknown on his home turf.

Originally a sculptor, Elspeth Haston works tirelessly to keep alive the memory of her mother, Mary McMurtrie, known for her immaculate flower paintings.

Tucked away at the end of a little alleyway leading off Montrose High Street is one of Scotland’s hidden treasures. The workplace of artist William Lamb never fails to surprise and delight.

The man who brought the countryside right into our living rooms and helped educate generations about the wonders of Scotland’s natural heritage.

When Duncan Rice returned to his native city to be principal of its university in 1996, his aim was to raise £150m. Now £142m is already in the bag, with promises of more to follow.

Imagine an exhibition which attracts thousands of visitors, year after year; an open show, for the talented amateur and established professional – and every work of art selected by the same open procedure.

The name McCombie was well known in Aberdeenshire in the 19th century and three William McCombies, all cousins, were particularly notable.

The gaunt and forlorn ruin of Slains Castle at Cruden Bay is perhaps one of the most recognisable images of the Aberdeenshire coast, still proudly standing on its precipitous cliff edge and dominating the skyline for miles around. But that this is not the original Slains Castle; in fact, it is not even in Slains.

“You are, by painting, making a very positive assertion that you do not want to die – yet. For painting is about life and living.” – Frances Walker, artist

“I made up a variety of home-made equipment for us to experiment with, there being nothing on the market. Gas masks, motor tyre air pumps, an ‘open’ helmet made from a copper-wrapped dustbin lid – all helped us breath underwater.”

A remarkable Scottish tradition – linking medicine, botany and gardening – had an huge impact on the landscapes and gardens of Britain and on the ecology of the British Empire.

Life is a bug for Hugh Pennington and he would not have it any other way. At an age when most people are taking it easy, he has become the public face of reassurance over the health of the nation.

The Charter Room in Aberdeen Town House was built in 1873 to house the historical records of the council, the earliest surviving document being a charter granted in 1179 by King William the Lion.

Gordons and their name have woven themselves into the fabric of Scotland. Music, song, poetry, dance, a regiment and even a steam locomotive all remember the name.

Life might have treated Forbeses better had they and the House of Gordon and clan Leslie not engaged in centuries-long feuds involving two battles and several massacres.

Ninety-minute shows twice nightly, half-hour intervals, patrons vacating the building by 10 o’clock sharp for fear of air raids. This was 1943 and variety shows at the Tivoli were fun for all the family in the dark days of war.

The last generation of traditional Kincardineshire fisherfolk is passing and the race is on to preserve something of their knowledge, of their life experience, before it slips irretrievably beyond our grasp.

What does it feel like to be a clan chief, I wonder aloud, and the riposte is immediate. “I suppose I see my role as mother of the clan, the matriarch among Frasers.”

With an expertise that encompasses field sciences, meteorology, biology, ornithology, zoology, ecology, etymology, skiing, Gaelic, Doric, placenames, philosophy, mountaineering and archaeology, Adam Watson should certainly be considered one of Scotland’s treasures.

“A Force 9 south-east gale had been blowing for three days. It was snowing. Visibility was virtually zero, and the tidal races were running at 10 knots against the wind. It was into this fearsome mountain of sea that coxswain Dan Kirkpatrick launched the Longhope lifeboat .”

Deceptively self-effacing, Frank Robb is unique in the North-East in having forged his livelihood since the Seventies as a folk musician, stand-up comedian and after-dinner speaker.

The earl headed celebrations marking the 700th anniversary of King Robert’s coronation and has the very sword once wielded by our hero king.

The spirit of clan Hay is kept alive today in Delgatie Castle, where an enormous collection of Hay memorabilia is lovingly maintained

Keith is one of the greatest names in Scotland’s history, the legend being that the chief of the house could ride from Berwick to Caithness, stopping every night at one of his own properties.

A centuries-old feud with neighbouring Clan Keith was ended only on 4 August 2002 when David of Drum and the Earl of Kintore finally met on neutral ground – in the middle of Park Bridge they signed a peace accord

The advent of DNA show in tests that the historic branches of the wider Lumsden family are descended from the original people who inhabited Scotland after the Ice Age

Alex Salmond – described by Andrew Marr as “one of the few technically excellent speakers left, like an exotic bird on the verge of extinction” – talks to Leopard and reveals the secret of his confident public persona.

Jessie Kesson went from the slums of Elgin, where her mother was a prostitute, to an orphanage, then on to a hard life in service and on the land. Eventually her talent for writing brought her recognition.

One of Aberdeenshire’s most attractive castles reached the end of an era last year with the death of Mrs Mhairi Bogdan, the last of the Ramsay and Irvine families for whom the castle had been home for more than 250 years.

Elizabeth Craigmyle – a pupil of the Aberdeen High School for Girls – and Charles Murray were almost exact contemporaries. Their lives and poetry, however, could not have been more different. While Murray’s poems gave an insight into prevailing opinion, Bessie wrote of her love for Maggie Dale, with whom she had what the Victorians called a ‘romantic friendship’.

The shameful footsteps of his North-East past brought Peter Gordon to one of the most fulfilling projects of his life – finding Scotland’s rural past in the footprints of smugglers.

In this year the first women were allowed to serve on Local Government Councils; the Territorial Army was introduced, and across the Atlantic, the electric washing machine was invented. In Aberdeen, the Town Council Watch & Lighting Committee agreed to form a pipe band for the City Police Force. Here we look at the Pipe-Majors who led it.

Her popularity as a teacher can be gauged by that fact that in 1876, the school board had to prohibit parents from trying to enrol their sons in the girls’, rather than the boys’ department of St Paul Street School!

In the autumn of 1926 Mrs Fenella Paton of Grandhome made a brave decision to set up a birth control clinic in Aberdeen for working class mothers. This was highly significant, as it was one of the first birth control clinics in Britain and only the second in Scotland.

In 1696, at the time when Glenbucket Castle was held by the Gordons, Upperton was a thriving clachan, supporting seven families. Today only one ruin remains.

The composer Sir Edward Elgar struck up an unlikely friendship with Charles Sanford Terry, Professor of History at Aberdeen University, and an enthusiastic amateur musician.

It is a great chance to dress up. Like wearing a fancy hat at a wedding or at Ascot, you can be slightly larger-than-life.

Oh! the youthful pleasure of dookin in the open air pools around our rocky coasts. When mixed bathing become common in the 1920s, swimming pools provided shelter from snell winds; places where manly youths could display their physique and nubile females their charms.

When the writer learned of his Aberdeen forebear, the ‘Harbour Master at Fittie’, coincidence revealed links to the present day. It was as if the story of Captain Alexander Morrison beckoned to be told.

Robert MacKenzie was appointed to the headship at Summerhill in 1968 by the Labour-controlled Aberdeen Council. It caused a stir in Scottish educational circles, given MacKenzie’s record as a non-conformist

Ever since the Great Awakening of 1859 and the evangelical revivals which followed, the coastal communities of the North-East have celebrated a vibrant gospel singing tradition.

Somewhat belittled in the ballad, the self-educated Jock Bruce of Fornet was in fact a writer with an interest in radical politics, an ardent campaigner and public speaker, a defender of the rights of the tenant farmer and a social commentator.

Mrs Frances Dunlop of Dunlop was nearly 30 years older than Burns, physically unattractive and the mother of 13 children. Yet, with her, he had a unique friendship.

The Girnock land was poor; when cattle droving declined, the folk were driven to whisky smuggling and the Glen became notorious for its black bothies. Now its abandoned farm-touns carry us back to the time when it bustled with Gordons.

A personal recollection of Aberdeen’s mini ‘golden age’ of ballroom dancing – inspired by welcome signs of another just beginning…

In September 2006, a dedicated band of engineers and historians from Japan went to Scotland to pay tribute to a man who is virtually unknown in his native land. Who is William Kinninmond Burton? Why do his achievements arouse such devotion?

Helen Denerley can be snowed up for weeks on end in her remote studio home, so that she can’t even reach her scrap metal. But in the balmy summer, surrounded by horses, dogs and deer, the entire Donside valley becomes a source of inspiration.

In the smaller fishing towns on the Moray coast, many families share a surname; certain first names are favoured, too, so quite a few individuals may have the same names. That’s where the tee-name, or by-name, comes in.

Originally built to defend the port, trade and city of Aberdeen, Torry Point Battery is an enduring landmark on this northern coast. The time has come to tell the tale of two unusual groups which occupied this defensive bulwark, groups with no connection to the Battery’s military past.

I start with an apology. In 1980 while resident in Hong Kong, I received a letter from Diane Morgan, then editor of Leopard, inviting me to write a few words about our local Grammar and Gordonian Former Pupils’ Club. I never did get around to putting pen to paper, but the seed was sown. Here I am, 26 years later, scribbling away, hopefully before loss of memory and/or dementia set in.

The technology of the next century will help the world of marine science towards a greater understanding of the marine ecosystem and some of its smallest inhabitants.

The one-time Aberdeen printer Thomas Bendelow became the most prolific designer of golf courses in the United States and Canada

For any other firm, being the laughing stock of the district would be a disgrace. But to father and son, Buff and John Hardie, being laughed at in public is the lifeblood of their business – and the louder the laughter, the happier they are!

‘The perfect foal’ suddenly appeared. A six-week-old black colt dancing around his mother, saying, “Look at me. Look at me.”

Mild-mannered Aberdonian Bill Gavin was the inspiration behind a team of amateur actors who brought what seemed like an unending supply of quality drama to Aberdeen theatre-goers

A legend in his field, Ronnie Rose is an inspiration to many young conservationists – and a thorn in the flesh of his adversaries

Animal-lover Lynn Rutter wrapped a badly-injured cat in her sweater and took it to the vet. Imagine her astonishment next day, when the vet told her that this was no pussycat.

Flamboyant John Anderson was a showman in the grand manner. In 1851 he toured America, where a quarter of a million people saw him during his run at the Broadway Theatre in New York.

What turned out to be Scotland’s heraldic event of 2005 took place in Glencoe in June when a Macdonald clan herald was installed into office for the first time for 510 years.

Many Aberdonians will have memories of sixpences spent at Greig’s shoppie in the Gallowgate.

When John Duff worked in Banchory, he often visited Bill and Molly Ogston at Campfield Smiddy. When Molly died, John fell heir to several smiddy ledgers, a priceless record of the lives of successive country blacksmiths.
For years, the Campfield ledgers have languished in John’s loft; now he shares their contents, and his musings on their owners.

Eileen Ewen was an enigma: an elegant teacher of dance and elocution in Aberdeen, she married Turriff farmer, Bill Howie. Admired in both communities, she was equally at ease on stage or driving a tractor. Her former pupils now wish to dedicate a dressing room in the new His Majestey’s Theatre in tribute to her life.

The first of a two-part series on the history of broadcasting in the North-East

An insight into the customs of fisherfolk on the east coast of Scotland

Professor Bill Nicolaisen explores the history of the Scottish surname Junner or Junor.

Whether evacuating a crag-bound climber in the corrie of Lochnagar, or searching for a crashed jet on Ben Macdui, the 30 members of Aberdeen Mountain Rescue Team risk their lives, summer and winter, often in darkness and in appalling weather – and then raise money to pay for the privilege of doing so

Jimmy Scotland played many roles: an authentic urban lad o’ pairts, he emerged from an east-end tenement to gain three First Class Honours degrees, and became a college principal. He also went on to be the best after-dinner speaker ever heard.

The famous Rhynie war memorial is considered to be one of the finest granite carvings in the world. Here, Douglas Kynoch gives a personal account of the life of his grandfather.

“One of the clarions of every community in Scotland is that there are no characters left. Passing years have made us more bland and less colourful… I can understand that, but beg to differ” argues Norman Harper

Zoltan Dragan, assistant engineer on the m.v. Budapest, jumped ship in 1969 with nothing but his seaman’s papers and a little money. Even as the alarm was going up, he was legging it up Marischal Street, dodging on to George Street, running north in the race of his life.

Jock Coutts’ memories of steam powered agriculture.

Profile of the exuberant Aberdeen artist Eric Auld by John Doran.

We’re aa Jock Tamson’s bairns, but how much do we know about him?