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 Scotland'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 Firth 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 Firth of Forth. 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 Columba’ in outcrops on the nation’s east coast. Scottish Gaelic due Isle of May 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 monastery, 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 Fife Christians during saved the building. the attack and the island remained desolate for Inchkeith generations. Approximately equal distance from Edinburgh 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 Kinghorn 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. Inchcolm 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. Aberdour, 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 Inchmickery island from Italian mercenaries who were A tiny island perched between Inchcolm and occupying it for the English. Mary, is said to Edinburgh’s Cramond 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 Inchgarvie 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 Cramond Island 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 Bass Rock swallow the land bridge. An outcrop not far from North Berwick, 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.