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The rocks here are sedimentary sandstone and volcanic. The layer of sediment have been forced upwards by continental collision as you can see in the first photo. The sand came from erosion of the nearby mountains, formed around 450 million years ago. At that time there was no vegitation and huge erosion from lightening and flash floods which created the sand. The second photo is of conglomerate, stones which have been washed into the sand during floods. You can clearly see the individual stones.

Knicknamed the ‘pencil’ this is the monument to the battle of Largs. The location is arbitary as we don’t kmow where the battle, if it was one, took place. It is a half scale replica of the tower at Brechin Cathedral, dating from around 1100.

Whatever the case may be regarding the battle, King Haakon of Norway went back to his northern base at Orkney, died shortly thereafter and  and three years later Norway ceded the Scottish islands to the Scots king Alexander the 3rd.

Every Scottish child knows that the Vikings were unsuccessful because while attepting a surprise night attack one Viking cried out in pain when he stepped on a thistle, alerting the Scots. Which is why the thistle is the national symbol os Scotland…

Lovely sunny weather here in Scotland. Having a day off last week we made the 40 minuter journey to the seaside town of Largs. Largs is most famous for the battle of Largs in 1263. At that time the Scottish islands belonged to the king of Norway, and 1263 was the last showdown between Scotland and Norway. Historians disagree about the significance of the battle.  A late colleauge of mine was taught history at Glasgow Univeristy and when they came to the battle of Largs the lecutrer, shouting out ‘the battle of Largs was a mere skirmish!’ flung the chalk duster at the wall with maximum force. A rarely used but highly effective teaching method!

Click here for more information on a new archaeolgical project whichis underway to find evidence of Scotland’s hunter gatherers. As mentioned in the post about Paisley Abbey, the first modern people in Scotland were hunter gatherers, nomadic or semi-nomadic settlers who used the coastline and river system to explore the uninhabited forests of Scotland.

The Ukrainian flag flies in my home town of Paisley, taking the place of the EU flag which has been removed post Brexit. Behind it fly the flags of Scotland and the United Kingdom. The Scottish saltire represents the cross of Saint Andrew, coincindentally the patron saint of both Russia and the Ukraine. The colours of the Ukrainian flag represent wheat fields and the blue sky.

Andrew and his younger brother Peter were the first two disciples of Jesus Christ. They were fishermem on the Sea of Gallilee. Jesus said to the ‘come with me and I will make you fishers of men’.

Andrew never visited Scotland, though a few of his bones did make the journey by means that are not altogether clear.

One legend is that a monk was told in a dream to to take a few bones from the relics of Saint Andrew in Constantinole to the ends of earth. Another version is that he was to take them to wherever he would be shipwrecked. That turned out to be what is now the city of St.Andrews on the east coast of Scotland. Or, it could be that an English bishop brought them to St.Andrews. We don’t go for that one so much.

Andrew’s brother, Peter, was said to have been Bishop of Rome in the first century A.D. It is said that both elected to be crucified on crosses other that the one on which Christ was crucified, Andrew’s being the x-shaped cross we see in the flag.

Still images do not do justice to the vibrant presentation so I have added a link here. The file is too big to publish on my blog.

Tyhis section covers the arrival of hunter gatherers after the ice melted around 12,000 ago. Allow a few thousand years for the development of vegitation, the first trees being the silver birch.

In more that 800 years of history Paisley abbey has never looked like this. Last night we watched Unboxed’s multimedia installation projected onto the backdrop of Paisley Abbey. In 30 minutes they covered the entire history of the universe using graphice, a live choir and music with some commentary.