Aberdeen falls silent on Remembrance Day
Http://eveningexpress.co.uk
THE Rev Stephen Taylor led a poignant Remembrance Day service in Aberdeen. On a chilly November morning, more than 200 service personnel and reservists gathered at the Cowdray Hall's war memorial in Aberdeen city centre.
Cowdray House - Exclusive-use luxury venue
Cowdray House is a beautiful venue available for exclusive-use hire for a range of events including house parties, corporate retreats, weddings and celebrations.
Located on the 16,500-acre Cowdray Estate, just outside Midhurst West Sussex in the heart of the South Downs National Park, Cowdray House has 22 individually-designed luxurious bedrooms with opulent bathrooms.
As well as expansive view, stunning private gardens and elegant reception rooms including the magnificent Buck Hall, there is an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, a bowling alley and a tennis court.
The wider estate offers a championship golf course, polo (both spectating and learning to play), fly fishing, clay pigeon shooting, wildlife tours as well as an award winning farm shop and cafe and Cowdray Ruins, the remaining tower of which contains a Renaissance art studio.
Aberdeen and North-east of Scotland Music Festival
eveningexpress.co.uk
A MUSIC festival expert has been astounded by the talent on show in Aberdeen.
The centenary of the Aberdeen and North-east of Scotland Music Festival, which runs until Friday, welcomed special guest Jacqui Wilson representing a representative from the British Federation of Music Festivals to the event.
Jacqui, from Inverness, has been assessing the Music Festival a, which has run annually since 1909.
And she said she was amazed at the standard.
Hundreds of young recorder players took to the stage at the Boys Brigade HQ in Crimond Place while adjudicator Ian Wilson looked on.
Festival Chairman Mary Rasmussen said: Ian Wilson has been very good with the children so far. He does a mini masterclass with competitors to help get his ideas across.
Mr Wilson, who was born in Aberdeenshire and is now a professor of music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music in London, said he regularly adjudicates in Hong Kong.
He has also been amazed by the standard of playing in Aberdeen.
The competition continues daily until Friday, with classes in venues across Aberdeen including the Cowdray Hall, Music Hall, Salvation Army Citadel, St Mary's Cathedral and St Mark's Church.
Comin' thro' the rye
Aberdeen Orpheus Choir performing Comin' thro' the rye on 5 June 2009 at the Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen. This was the premiere of the arrangement by Jennifer Jones, who accompanied the performance.
Touring Dunnotar castle Part2/2 in Stonehaven, Scotland, this video is 42 minutes
History of Dunnottar Castle:
During its active life there were only two ways into or out of Dunnottar Castle. The first was via the incredibly strongly defended main gate set in a cleft in the rock where unwanted callers would be vulnerable to attack from all sides. The second was via a rocky creek leading to a cave on the north side of the rock. From here a steep path led up the cliff to the well defended postern gate.
Given Dunnottar's obvious defensive qualities, it is no surprise to find that it has been home to fortifications of one sort or another for most of the past two thousand years and probably much longer. The very name dun is Pictish for fort and it is believed that St Ninian came to Dunnottar in the late 400s, converting the Picts to Christianity and founding a chapel here.
The Annals of Ulster record a siege of Duin Foither in 681, at what was likely to have been Dunnottar. Dunnottar is also the location of a battle between King Donald II and the Vikings in 900. Donald II was killed during the battle and the Vikings subsequently destroyed the castle. Some rebuilding must then have taken place because it is thought that a raid into Scotland by land and sea by King Aethelstan of Wessex in 934 also targeted the fortifications here.
Mentions of Dunnottar become more reliable and frequent from the 1100s when William the Lion used it as an administrative centre. Later, in 1276, a parish church was founded here on the site of St Ninian's original chapel. Edward I of England took Dunnottar in 1296, and William Wallace took it back in 1297, in the process burning down the church with the entire English garrison still in it.
In 1336 the English again took Dunnottar, which was visited by Edward III. Later in the year it was recaptured for the Scots by Sir Andrew Murray (see our Historical Timeline).
From the late 1300s earlier fortifications, probably largely of wood, were replaced by Sir William Keith with the core of the stone keep still visible today, and he also built parts of the stone defences around the entrance. In 1531 Dunnottar, declared to be one of the principal strengths of our realm was granted to the Earls Marischal of Scotland by King James V.
Mary Queen of Scots visited the castle in 1562 and 1564, and James VI stayed in 1580. Between 1580 and 1650 the Earls Marischal converted a grim and forbidding castle into a much more opulent mansion, building ranges of buildings around the Quadrangle on the north east side of the plateau. These offered some of the most luxurious accommodation in Scotland: yet all securely located behind the rock's formidable defences. A number of the members of the Keith family lived out significant episodes of their lives here. Lady Agnes Keith was born here in about 1540, and George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal died at Dunnottar in 1623.
Two later incidents have ensured that Dunnottar's place in Scottish history is both famous and infamous. By May 1652 Dunnottar Castle was the only place left in Scotland holding out for Charles II against Cromwell's forces under the command of General George Monck. Parliamentary forces were particularly keen to take the castle because it was being used for the safe keeping of the Honours of Scotland, the Crown Jewels, and of Charles II's personal papers. But when the castle surrendered on 26 May after an eight month siege, Cromwell's men found the cupboard was bare. The King's papers has been smuggled through their lines hidden in the clothing of a woman, and the Honours had been lowered down the cliffs to a local woman pretending to be collecting seaweed. These irreplaceable treasures were hidden under the floor of the nearby Kinneff Old Church until the Restoration of the Monarchy.
Dunnottar's darkest moment came in May 1685 when 167 Covenanter prisoners, 122 men and 45 women, were locked in the Whig's Vault below one of the buildings in the Quadrangle. Some died of starvation and disease, while others were killed after trying to escape. The survivors were transported to the colonies as slaves (where most died of fever) after two months in the castle.
In 1715 the tenth Earl Marischal backed the losing side in the Jacobite uprising and was condemned for treason. His estates were forfeited and Dunnottar Castle was sold to the York Building Company, who removed everything that was transportable and usable. The difficulty in accessing the castle probably saved it yet again: it seems likely that if it had been readily reachable by cart, far more of the structure would have been demolished and taken away.
Dunnottar Castle was purchased by the Cowdray family in 1925 and the 1st Viscountess Cowdray embarked on a systematic programme of consolidation and repair. Since then the castle has remained in the family, and has been open to visitors..
Credit Music to : Adrian Von Ziegler, Now we feast..