…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
Image: Commander Chris Hadfield With kind permission of the West Highland Free Press, this Guest Blog reproduces Brian Wilson’s column in today’s paper. The back of the envelope duly arrived in Sleat last weekend Brian Wilson, 14 June 2013 The back
Continue readingImage: Jane Lawson, London (Doctors’ Commons) : Judd & Co., 1881 We are pleased to publish this Guest Blog from Professor James Hunter, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Highlands and Islands. From 1998 to 2004 he was
Continue readingAlex Salmond gave an interview to BBC Alba at the Community Land conference on Skye on Friday (see previous post of today) in which he appeared to rule out the use of compulsory powers as part of any new measures
Continue readingLibrarians are important people. They provide order to what would otherwise be chaos in the world’s store of knowledge. The most common way this is done is by the Dewey Decimal Classification system which ensures that you can find information on any
Continue readingPhoto: Roxburghe Estate Photo reference Library Yesterday in Parliament there was a debate on land reform (Official Report here and watch here) initiated by the Labour Party. Congratulations to them for doing so. Eighty years ago, in 1923, when Labour
Continue readingYesterday in the UK Parliament, the Prime Minister confirmed that he would co-operate with the Scottish Affairs Select Committee to establish “who owns and controls the great landed estates in Scotland, in order that they can minimise both tax avoidance and
Continue readingProfessor Jim Hunter, Highland historian and former chair of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, was a member of the Scottish Government’s Land Reform Review Group until early April 2013 when he left the group for personal reasons. On Monday 3
Continue readingPhoto: The author working as a stalker’s ghille or pony-man on a large landed estate in eastern Scotland with my Highland garron, Brandy. Recently I found myself in the garden of a mansion house of a large Scottish landed estate
Continue readingMichael Evan Victor Baillie, 3rd baron Burton of Burton-on Trent and of Rengemore has died. The owner of over 50,000 acres of land in Inverness-shire and beyond, his exploits and antics could fill a book. One famous episode concerned the
Continue reading[UPDATE 30 May 2013 This blog is an edited version of the one published yesterday (pdf copy here) in which I incorrectly argued that there was only one review promised in the SNP manifesto. There were in fact two
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