New analysis shows that the Scottish public sector generated an annual revenue of £73.3 billion during the last financial year, a 24 per cent increase versus a decade ago, equating to an increased contribution of £14.2 billion to the UK economy.

As a result, Scotland now accounts for 8 per cent of total UK contributions, far more than the 3.5 per cent contributed by Wales and the 2.1 per cent contributed by Northern Ireland, although the populations in those countries are significantly lower.

Commenting on the figures, Bradley Post, the managing director of RIFT, said: “Scotland’s economic contribution to the UK stretches far beyond North Sea Oil and, in fact, there has been significant increases across many areas of the Scottish economy in the last decade.

Caithness, in the far north of Scotland, has more brochs than anywhere else in the country - we think that’s something worth celebrating! By rebuilding a broch, using the same techniques as the original broch builders, we will provide an insight into how these incredible structures were built, and how Iron Age people lived their lives in Caithness.

Picture:

George Square Glasgow

George Washington Wilson and Co.

VIEW ACROSS SQUARE BEFORE RE-BUILDING

DATE PRE 1877 CIRCA 1860s

Listed in 1877 catalogue

George Washington Wilson Collection

The George Washington Wilson and Co. photographic collection consists of over 40,000 glass plate negatives, produced by the Aberdeen firm between the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.

Throughout, Wilson demonstrated technical and commercial acumen, and, by the early 1880s, the company he founded had become the largest and best-known photographic and printing firm in Scotland.

The entire collection of ‘George Washington Wilson and Company’ glass plate negatives is available digitally on our website. Each high resolution image provides a superb level of detail and the collection is fully searchable. Access to the original glass plates is therefore not permitted for conservation reasons.

Browse the digital collection

Did you know that the stop, start story of the electric car began in Aberdeen? 

In 1839 Robert Davidson demonstrated a passenger carrying EV in the city, the world's first!

We tell Davidson's story in full and chart the progress with electric cars, even probing the future. 

A monument honoring 81 residents of this Scottish town who were executed for witchcraft in the 16th century. 

Between the 14th and 18th centuries, thousands of individuals—mostly women—were accused of practicing dark arts and consorting with the devil. Scotland was notorious for its high rates of convictions and executions. The sleepy seaside village of Prestopans did not escape this scourge unscathed.

It is estimated that 81 residents of Prestopans, both women and men (and some animals) were tried and convicted of practicing witchcraft. This statue was created to acknowledge this heinous act of barbarity and to pay tribute to all of those who lost their lives unjustly. It was commissioned by the Stewart Milne Homes company to increase the number of public artworks in the community.

This monument was the work of the Glasgow-based sculptor Andy Scott. He is credited with creating the nearby Dunbear, but is better known for The Kelpies.

The first-of-its-kind resource is set to be delivered by the Open University, with funding supplied by the Scottish Government.

The current cohort of teachers are from all across Scotland and specialise in different subjects.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth is set to officially launch the course on Tuesday at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh.

The bill as introduced is a cautious and incrementalist measure that should bring modest improvements over time as the various strategies, standards, regulations and guidance documents that it authorises come into effect.

But the obligations it imposes are framed in very general terms, it creates no concrete language rights, and there will be no independent language commissioner to ensure effective implementation and compliance. 

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Breaking :

Scotland's outstanding former First Minster accused of calling the Fraudulent Fat Corrupt and now Disgraced Jakey Prime Minister of Inglis, a Fuckin Clown said in her defence today " Fuckin Clown ? Don't you git me stertit. Ah cried that greasy fat Bawbag much mair thin a Fuckin Clown !

That useless excuse fur a lifeform is a complete waste eh a fuckin respiratory system so he is .

Enjoy yer haggis tatties and tumshie if yer celebrating the bard this evening.

Enjoy yer bards night supper if yer huvin wan

The Freemasons Haggis Supper

Wance a year at haun shake meetins 

When kilts ur worn and pipes ur bleatin

Yer beasties served up wa’rm and reekin

The main course O' the wealthie's feastin 

It’s served up oan a silver platter

Addressed in haverin auld Scots patter

Whit these wurds mean jist disnae metter

Tae them thit’s gained above ther stature 

But tae Jock Tamson's oan the street

This plucky puddin's quite a treat

Baldy entrails stuffed wae oats n’ meat 

Who We Are

The Celtic League is an Inter-Celtic organisation that campaigns for the political, language, cultural, and social rights of the Celtic nations. It does this across a broad range of issues. It highlights Human Rights, Military Monitoring activity and focuses on political, socio-economic, environmental, language, and cultural issues, which generally or specifically affect one or more of the Celtic countries.

The organisation also aims to further each of the Celtic nation’s right to independence and to promote the benefits of Inter-Celtic cooperation.

Additionally, the League draws attention to matters that we believe bear a wider concern for the peoples of the Celtic countries.

Constitution Of The League

The fundamental aim of the League is to support through peaceful means the struggle of the Celtic Nations, Alba, Breizh, Cymru, Éire, Kernow and Mannin to win or to secure the political, cultural, social and economic freedom they need for their survival and development as independent nations.

The last week arrived and it seemed all was lost. But on the last day, an unlikely hero arrived. His name was Assipattle which means ‘the Cinder Lad.’

He was the seventh son of a seventh son

Upon hearing the King’s plight, Assipattle slipped away from the farm. He escaped in his little boat, armed only with a bucket containing a smouldering peat from his hearth. In the darkness he sneaked up on the sleeping beast. But this was the seventh day of the week and with the sun rise the Stoor Worm began to yawn. Each yawn sucked a vast tide of water into the dragon’s mouth. Once Assipattle was close enough, one of the mighty yawns drew the poor boy and his little vessel into the creature’s cavernous mouth.

Soon he was whirling down the beast’s throat, carried by a torrent of sea water. Then the boat grounded abruptly. Picking up the bucket, Assipattle ran for his life.

Assipattle turned a corner and found the dragon’s liver. Pulling out a knife, Assipattle gouged a hole in it. Then he stuffed the smouldering peat into the wound. Soon the liver began to burn. Assipattle ran back to his boat. There was not a minute to lose, for the worm retched and spewed out the intrepid boy along with his boat.

Making it back to the shore, the boy watched as the dragon began to burn.

Black smoke billowed from the monster’s nostrils.  In agony its forked tongue shot out and grabbed hold of one of the horns of the moon. But in its weakened state, its tongue slipped and crashed causing a deep rift in the earth. The tide rushed in creating the Baltic Sea.

THE CREATION OF ORKNEY

As the beast writhed in agony, teeth dropped from its vile foaming mouth. The first lot of falling teeth formed the Orkney Isles. As the falling teeth rained down, the Shetland Isles and the Faroe Isles formed. Then in its dying moments, the Stoor Worm curled up tightly and became the country we now know as Iceland.

The whole thing takes about a minute and what's a minute for the cause.

Fill away muckers ,let's get this shindig on the road .. Heeeeeucht

The Big 2024 Independence Movement Survey

Can 2024 be the year independence takes and sustains a lead in the polls? How confident are you on the road to independence? Are you up for it, or scunnered by political roadblocks? What's your activity and motivation level? Who should make the running now, the grassroots or still the politicians?

These are just some of the questions we need answers to – we will publish the results on the Believe in Scotland website later this month.

These arrangements of giant boulders are so ancient and yet feel so familiar that they seem like portals, enabling access to somewhere that is both distant and connected to us. I think this is as their makers intended.

But one collection of stone circles stands apart. In northeastern Scotland, stone circles are related not to the Sun, but to the Moon. And they all possess a unique, defining trait: They contain a recumbent stone, a large stone on its side, flanked by two upright stones. The recumbent rocks are usually found on the south or southwest arc of the circle—where the summer Moon is prominent in the sky.

Some of the boulders in these stone circles contain red jasper, connoting blood. Some of them are flecked with quartzite, suggesting the Moon, and quite literally reflecting its light. The most otherworldly of these stone circles, to my mind, is called Tomnaverie, located about 30 miles west of Aberdeen.

The earliest record of this conflict between wolves and the people who lived in what is now modern Scotland comes from the 2nd century BC.

According to Hector Boece, a king called Dorvadilla reigning at that time decreed:

​“The slayer of ane wolf to have ane ox to his reward.”

​Boece goes on to remark that:

​“Oure elders persewit this beist with gret hatreut, for the gret murdir of beistis done be the samin “.

​Boece also mentions a Scottish contemporary of Julius Caesar called Edeir as a great hunter of wolves, and Boece's translator, Bellenden, tells us that in the forests of Caledonia there were:

"Gret plente of haris, hartis, hindis, dayis, rais, wolffis, wild hors, and toadis (fox),"

​He later describes the "wolffis" as being "rycht noysum to the tame bestiall in all parts of Scotland."

Wars, leaving numbers of blood soaked corpses littering a battlefield, may also have been responsible for some wolves becoming accustomed to consuming human flesh. The Orkneyinga Saga tells the story of the Battle of Waterfirth, fought in the 11th century between the islanders of Skye and the invading Norse. Arnor, the Earl's Skald, describes the aftermath of the battle:

 “There I saw the grey wolf gaping

O'er the wounded corse of many a man.”

​The tendency of wolves to dig up buried corpses is well documented

The wolf traditionally cited as the last in all of Scotland, however, is said to have been killed on the upper reaches of the River Findhorn, at a place between Fi-Giuthas and Pall-a-chrocain, in the year 1743.