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Home , Bass Rock, Craigleith, Cramond Island, Inchcolm, Inchgarvie, Inchmickery

Volume 114 Issue 3 March 2016 19 Clan Gordon Pipe Band Heather Ball, 7:30pm- 1:00am, Puyallup Fair Grounds Pavilion, Puyallup, NEXT GATHERING is on March 11, 2016, WA. Tickets $25, $30. www.cgpb.org 206-459-5479 7:30 pm at Lake City Presbyterian Church, April 2016 3841 NE 123rd Street Seattle, WA. 6 Tartan Day, 12:00 noon, Capitol steps, Olympia ______8 Caledonian & St. Andrews Society of Seattle Membership Renewal Gathering, 7:30 pm. Lake City Presbyterian Church, 3841 N.E. 123rd Street, Seattle, WA; It’s time to renew your membership for www.caledonians.com 2016. Bring your check made out for $35 23 Highland Dance Competition, 10:00-3:00, for a single and $45 for a couple to the next Shorewood High School, Shoreline, WA Gathering or send it to: May 2016 Treasurer 1 Northwest Scottish Fiddlers, Everett Public Caledonian & St. Andrew’s Society of Seattle Library Concert, 2pm. www.nwscottishfiddlers.org PO Box 27278 13 Caledonian & St. Andrews Society of Seattle Seattle WA 98165-1778 Gathering, 7:30 pm. Lake City Presbyterian Church, ______3841 N.E. 123rd Street, Seattle, WA; www.caledonians.com Calendar of Seattle Area Scottish Events Gung Haggis Fat Choy March 2016 8 SSHGA Meeting 7:30 pm, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Fellowship Hall, 111 NE 80th Street, Seattle WA Info: (206) 522-2541

11 Caledonian & St. Andrews Society of Seattle Gathering, 7:30 pm. Lake City Presbyterian Church, 3841 N.E. 123rd Street, Seattle, WA; www.caledonians.com 12 Geoffrey Castle’s St. Patrick’s Celebration, 8pm, Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., Kirkland, WA 98033. www.kpcenter.org www.geoffreycastle.com 13 Geoffrey Castle, Bake’s Place Bellevue, 133 Nearly 300 guests enjoyed the 10th Gung 108th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA (425) 454-2776 for reservations. www.geoffreycastle.com. Haggis Fat Choy experience at 19 Shelton Highland Dancers & Fiddlefooted Cummings Family, Lake Forest Park Center, 17171 China Harbor Bothell Way NE, 3:30-4:430 pm. on February 14, 2016. Produced by Bill McFadden and Seattle Theatre Group led by emcee Christian Skoorsmith, the STG is proud to be presenting the National program was a Theatre of 's performance of “The satisfactory mix of Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart” This Chinese and Scottish performance combines the lore of border music and dance. On ballads, impressive wit, beautiful music, the Chinese side was and passionate acting to draw the audience the ever popular Lion into an unforgettable experience. This Dance to drive out evil incredibly unique, audience-immersive spirits for the New Year and dancers from performance will be hosted in an intimate Melody Xie Chinese Language and Dance bar-space at the old Rainier Brewery Academy. Scottish entertainment included (called Factory Luxe). It's coming up fast; Blue Cloud Celtic, dancers from Karen March 2-20. Groups of 10+ receive a 15% Shelton Highland Dance Studio, and the discount. More Info: Washington Scottish Pipes and Drums. http://www.stgpresents.org/tickets/by- month/eventdetail/2475/-/national- Founder of the idea, Todd Wong (Toddish theatre-of-scotland-em-the-strange- MacWong) came from Vancouver, BC, and undoing-of-prudencia-hart-em. If you delivered his signature rap to the haggis. have any questions, call Bryan Lineberry A special treat was 206.315.8054 [email protected] hearing songs from ______Chinese American Lena Hou and her father Shula Interesting Articles from The Huo. Shula Hou is an accomplished opera Scotsman singer, and Lena’s voice is The forgotten history of the glorious! of Forth islands A number of Caledonians were instrumental in getting set up. Allan Sunset over Inckeith island in Patten and Jim VanZee the . helped put up and take Picture: Jon Savage down decorations. Jeanne Medley helped at the registration table with her friend Liz Doyle along SAM SHEDDEN with Ruth McFadden. Jim VanZee had the FROM Viking massacres to Jacobite prisons, the often overlooked islands of the Firth of Forth honor of bringing in the have a rich history. haggis with Allan Patten as a sword bearer. For centuries, parts of Scotland’s crinkled western coastline and many of the nearby isles The dinner raised money were controlled by ‘Lords of The Isles’ - Viking for youth scholarships, and Gaelic rulers who acted completely with the Northwest Kung Fu and Lion independently of the ruling sovereign further Dance organization benefiting this year. south. ______As a result much of island history focuses on the Incholm Abbey today. west coast and Orkney & Shetland groups Picture: SWNS which make up the vast bulk of Scotland’s 790 ‘Island of St offshore islands, leaving a string of forgotten ’ in outcrops on the nation’s east coast. due to the fact the Irish The lighthouse on the Isle Saint - who is credited with spreading of May. Christianity across what is today Scotland - Anchored on the visited the island around 567 AD. northern edge of the Its , which can be visited today, was Forth, five miles off founded in 1123 by Alexander I and was a from the Anstruther frequent target of plunder for opportunistic shoreline, the Isle of raiders. In 1355 the English swept onto the May is the biggest island in the Forth and is island and stole all the islands treasure including home to particularly horrific episode of history. a much venerated image of St Columba himself. The island was once a celebrated place of Yet before the before the English sailors could pilgrimage after the first Bishop of St Andrew, return home with their booty a storm almost St Adrian was discovered there and murdered wrecked the ship and the sailors, fearing the by rampaging Danes around 870 AD. The wrath of god, duly returned the image to the bishop was buried on the island but local legend monks and sailed for home with the remaining has it that half of his coffin (which was made of treasure. stone) miraculously floated to shore so he could It was believed that divine powers kept a be put to rest on the mainland in Anstruther watchful eye on the tiny islet. In 1384 when the Wester churchyard. English returned, this time to burn down the The marauding Norsemen are said to have monastery, a sudden change of wind direction slaughtered over 6,000 Christians during saved the building. the attack and the island remained desolate for generations. Approximately equal distance from a May remained in the hands of churchmen for Fife, the island likely takes its name from many centuries, surviving English incursions Robert de Keth of the Catti (Chattan) clan from during the Scottish war of independence in the (Caithness (Cattiness). In 1010 Malcolm II 12th century before being sold to a wealthy Fife rewarded the nobleman for his assistance in family in the 1500s. repelling the Danes and gave him large estates In modern times it was the scene of more death which included during the ‘Battle’ of May Island which took Dalkeith and place nearby on January 1918. A series of Inchkeith. accidental collisions between warships occurred A shot of Inchkeith over an hour which saw two submarines sunk Island across from and 104 deaths. The accident was kept quiet by in Fife. the government of the time and only in 2002 - Picture: Ray Clark 84 years later - a memorial plaque was placed in Rich in history, the island served as a quarantine Anstruther harbour. zone on several occasions. In 1497 sufferers from a contagious disease called ‘grandgore’ Today the island is known for its diverse birdlife were sent to Inchkeith Hospital from Edinburgh. Plague victims were also dispatched to the Like the Isle of May, the little island of island in 1580 and 1609 while in 1799 Russian Inchcolm was an important religious isle.Further sailors were buried on the island after dying west in the Forth estuary and just south of from an unknown disease. , Fife, the island literally means Inchkeith was visited by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1549 the day after a combined force of French and Scottish soldiers recaptured the island from Italian mercenaries who were A tiny island perched between Inchcolm and occupying it for the English. Mary, is said to Edinburgh’s area, Inchmickery plays have landed and seen ‘three and four hundred of host to one of the more bizarre legends of the her dead foes still unburied’. Firth of Forth. A castle was then built to house the Queens The story goes that James IV who was French troops but was later turned into a prison fascinated with science, wanted to discover the and finally a lighthouse in 1808. ‘Original Language’ of mankind. The best way to do this, he decided was to send two newborn The battleship-shaped island beneath the Forth babies to live on Inchmickery with a mute (Rail) Bridge, Inchgarvie was used used as nurse. According to historical records, after a fortification just of the coast of South year or two, James and his court agreed that the Queensferry throughout Scotland’s past. children ‘spak extremely guid Ebrew’. It too was used as a prison and during the Second World war gun emplacements were A land bridge connects Cramond Island to the installed to defend the bridge from German mainland when the Forth is at low-tide. attacks. Occasionally unsuspecting visitors get stranded on the island by the unforgiving waters that swallow the land bridge. An outcrop not far from , Bass Rock’s colour is an indication of the massive There are stone burials on the island that hint at gannet population of 150,000 that reside there its possible use by Romans, who used the whose droppings have turned the isle white. adjacent Cramond village as an outpost. Now uninhabited the island’s first inhabitant was said to be St Baldred, an Irish hermit who Four miles off the coast of North Berwick lies died in 606 AD. Fidra. A broken reef, the Briggs oof Figra, lie between the island and the shore. The Briggs During Scotland’s many conflicts the island has houses the remains of a Cistercian hermitage, an housed many notable prisoners and exiles. order of the Catholic faith. The hermitage was Gannets at the Bass Rock, founded in in the 12th century and by 1561 off the East coast housed 11 nuns at the time of its dissolution. In the early 15th and century Prince James, Two of the smallest islets in the Forth, situated later to become James between Fidra and the Bass Rock. The Lamb is I of Scotland, was said to have two ‘dogs’ - that are actually sent here for safety by his father Robert III as skerries - guarding each side. the king’s brother the Duke of Albany plotted to Craigleith, meaning ‘Rock of ’ was once a seize the throne. The young James was due to be rabbit warren where the animals were bred for whisked away to France but his uncle Albany food. Around a mile as the crow flies from tipped of the English who intercepted James and Edinburgh’s centre the isle is now the home of imprisoned the prince for nineteen years in the Scottish Centre’s, SOS Puffin Windsor Castle. James eventually was ransomed Projects - which protects the islands indigenous back to Scotland and got his own back by puffin population. capturing his cousin, the Duke of Albany’s son, and imprisoning him on Bass Rock. Puffin populations make their home on a few of In 1691, four remarkable Jacobite prisoners the Firth of Forth islands. captured the Rock and defeated the entire Picture: SNH garrison with only the help of a gunner and 16 friends from Lothian. They heroically held the island for three years before surrendering after ______securing amnesty. Dorothée Pullinger: Built world’s and engineer-ing solutions to make her idea a reality; a feat made all the more impressive first ‘car for women’ given that she did this during a time when SOFIANE KENNOUCHE engineering very much was a man’s role. In a world dominated by men, Dorothée Aurélie ______Marianne Pullinger managed to create the world’s first car designed for and made by women in Scotland. Mythical Sites and Legends of Pullinger testing Scotland the Galloway in Eildon Hill 1924. Image: Angiesdiary Eildon Hill is mentioned in the It was her work legend of Thomas the from the 1920s Rhymer, a 13th century Scots laird onwards as said to have met the director and manager of Galloway Motors Ltd Queen of Elfland on that really cemented the talented reputation of Eildon Hill and was the 26-year old. The factory, staffed by women then forced to spend seven years in the land of the in Tongland, Kirkcudbright, produced the elves. Galloway motor car. Upon his return, Thomas was gifted the ability of With approximately 10 to 20 horsepower from foresight and prophecy, which he expressed through its 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine, the Galloway’s songs and rhyme. The seer was credited with a mechanicals were based on the Fiat 501 of the number of predictions which went on to come true. era, but the car itself was designed with women He predicted the union of the crowns of England and in mind. Scotland, as well as the death of King Alexander III. A popular myth also suggests that the hill’s three As female drivers were typically shorter than peaks (which has led to it being known locally as the their male equivalents of the time, the seating Eildon Hills) were broken in three by the 12th position was raised and the dashboard lowered century scholar Michael Scot. to accomodate shorter women. Variants of the Galloway also featured more storage space than Castle other models, and the gear lever was mounted The palace located within the walls of Stirling Castle inside the car instead of outside the bodywork - was the childhood home of King James VI of which was common practice for cars of the Scotland. The future king had a lifelong fear of the time. So forward-thinking was the design, the supernatural and, especially, witchcraft. Galloway was one of the first cars worldwide to The monarch was so concerned about the prospect of feature an interior-mounted rear-view mirror. a visit from witches that he published a book in In addition, the Galloway was also lighter, 1597, which featured tales of witches who could smaller and marginally more reliable than other transform themselves in order to enter households cars of its era. and churches. A Galloway car Proof of how seriously James VI took the threat of pictured at a witchcraft can also be found at the castle, where Biggar car rally in ‘witch marks’ have been carved into the palace 2008. Image: doors in order to protect the site from potential evil Fox-Talbot visitors. To this day, Pullinger holds the accolade of being the first designer to spot the need for a different design to suit female drivers. She is also unique in having the design Return Address: Caledonian and St. Andrew’s Society of Seattle P.O. Box 27278 Seattle, WA 98165-1778

BOARD MEMBERS:

President: Victoria Johnson 1st Vice President: Andrew McDiarmid 2nd Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Allan Patten Social Director: Bill McFadden Chaplain: Parliamentarian: Don Moore Trustee: Kim Cambern Trustee: Ruth McFadden

HEATHER BELL EDITOR:

Ruth McFadden 206-364-6025 [email protected]