Balmoral

A Royal Guide to … Scotland

Nov 30, 2024

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, religion, travel

aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Balmoral, Bowes-Lyons, braemar games, Channel Four, Dumfries House, ghillies’ ball, Glamis Castle, Prince Albert, Queen Mother, Scotland, Victoria

By Super Blue Channel Four’s occasional series about the lives of the Royal Family is back and this time it is focused upon Scotland. Dumfries House in Ayrshire is mentioned as is Glamis Castle, the home of their Bowes-Lyon ancestors, arguing that Scotland is where they feel most at home. Most of the hour was…
A Royal guide to … Wales

Apr 25, 2024

anniversaries, battles, buildings, culture, genealogy, heraldry, television reviews

“Tudors”, aberfan, Arthur “Tudor”, Balmoral, banners, Battle of Bosworth, birth dates, Caernarfon Castle, Channel Four, Charles “III”, coronets, dragon, Edmund “Tudor”, Edward II, Edward VI, Edward VIII, Gwynedd, Harold II, harps, Henry VII, Henry VIII, investitures, John Ashdown-Hill, Master James of St. George, Normans, regalia, Rhuddlan Castle, statues, Victoria, Wales

This excellent documentary was featured on Channel Four during March. It told of Wales’ existence as a Kingdom before the Normans arrived and sought to reinforce their borders and the last Principality was suppressed about a year before the future Edward II was born at his father’s greatest military outpost at Caernarfon. It discussed the…
Royal burial places

Feb 9, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, genealogy, religion, Science

Balmoral, Charles I, Edward II, Edward V, Elizabeth II, Elizabeth Roberts, France, Germany, Gloucester Cathedral, Harold II, James V, John, John Ashdown-Hill, Leicester cathedral, Matilda, monarchs, mtDNA evidence, Richard III, royal burials, Westminster Abbey, Worcester Cathedral

This post in the Times details the final resting place of every English and then British monarch since 1066, although Harold II (probably Waltham Abbey) is omitted. Note from the interactive map that there are four (plus the Empress Matilda) burials in France and one in Germany. There are none in Scotland, Wales, Ireland or…
Secrets of the Royal Palaces (C5)

Mar 7, 2021

art, battles, buildings, television reviews, The play’s the thing

Anna Whitelock, Balmoral, Buckingham Palace, Channel Five, Culloden, George II, Glencoe massacre, Jacky Klein, Jacobite rebellions, Janina Ramirez, Kate Williams, Mary II, Secrets of the Royal Palaces, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, William III, Windsor Castle

I am rather enjoying this series, with visits to Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral and others, historians such as Kate Williams, Janina Ramirez and Anna Whitelock and art specialists like Jacky Klein as well as Viscountess Hinchingbrooke and several eminent journalists. There is a lot of useful information about English and British monarchs from the…
Susan Calman’s Secret Scotland

Feb 16, 2020

buildings, television reviews

Arran, Auld Lang Syne, Ayrshire, Balmoral, Burns, Cairngorns, cannon, Channel Five, chicken tikka masali, DC Comics, Dumfries, Dundee, Dunlop cheese, Dunrobin, Dunure Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Glasgow, Glasgow Subway, Greenyards, Irn Bru, J.M. Barrie, John O’Groats, lighthouses, Loch Ness, making glass, Melrose, music halls, Orkneys, Perthshire, Rose Reilly, Scone Palace, Scotland, seaweed, shearing, Skye, smugglers’ tunnels, Stirling, Susan Calman, Tam O’Shanter, tree planting, Viking longboats

This excellent programme, now on its second series, has seen the diminutive Glaswegian comedienne visit parts of Scotland that she had not previously, “behind the scenes” areas or, in the case of the Borders, driven straight through to work in England. Last year, Calman visited places like Edinburgh Castle (left), Stirling (to fry fish, among…

Balmoral

A Royal Guide to … Scotland

A Royal guide to … Wales

Royal burial places

Secrets of the Royal Palaces (C5)

Susan Calman’s Secret Scotland