A Trip to The Orkney Islands

The Orkney Islands is an archipelago off the northernmost coast of Scotland. We took a 40 minute ferry ride from John O'Groats across the Pentland Firth to get there.
I lived in the lowlands of Scotland as a child and the nearest I'd ever been to The Orkney Islands was when I went to the Edinburgh Tattoo with my parents and I was too young to remember that. I had a strong desire to visit the Orkney Islands and had to convince my husband who wasn't enamored about going to some remote area that experiences gale force winds and bleak weather for most of the year. (The Orkney Islands in latitude are only about 50 miles south of Greenland.) However, we went; the weather was better than expected - some wind and rain, but nothing exceptional and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was surprised to discover that there was no Gaelic influence here - no clan system or tartans. The predominant influence historically were the Vikings or Norse from Norway, who were only about a day's sailing trip away. They settled on Orkney in the late 700's displacing the Picts, and their influence is all over the place.

The Churchill Barriers - in 1939 a German submarine sank a British ship in the Scapa Flow. Winston Churchill, at that time the First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered a series of four causeways or barriers to be built to block the channels between the islands. These barriers were topped by roads which enabled better access to local communities for the Orkney residents.

St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall

This was one of highlights of the Orkney Islands for me. I felt like I'd stepped back into the world of Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter - it's such an atmospheric place that you really do feel like you're stepping back in time to medieval Norway.

A modern wooden statue of St Olaf that I think is a replica of the one found in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway. The Nidaros Cathedral was built over the remains of King Olav II, the patron saint of Norway. More information here.

The Cathedral here was named after Saint Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney, also known as Magnus the Martyr. There's some history here.

Kirkwall

Stromness

The Standing Stones of Stenness - Neolithic monuments

Skara Brae, a 5,000 year old Neolithic village, was uncovered by a storm that swept the area in 1850.

Sunset as we head back to John O'Groats

Highlights from Scotland

We've just returned from a long-awaited (for me, at least) trip to Scotland. I was born there and came out to Australia with my family when I was 8 years old. For the first four years in Australia we lived in a migrant town in South Australia and I was about 12 years old before we really tasted Aussie culture. That happened when we moved interstate to Western Australia.
Even then Scottish culture was predominant at home. My Granny lived with us and I had to act as interpreter whenever I had friends visit! She had a very thick Glaswegian accent bespattered with Gaelic and colourful colloquialisms.
We took two of our children with us on this trip - Moozle, the youngest, and Hoggy, who's the middle of our seven children.

We flew into Edinburgh and stayed in the New Town for four nights during which we went to the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo. We'd been to this a couple of times when it was held in Sydney but it was pretty special to be at Edinburgh Castle for it.

Edinburgh Castle

Street music is alive and well in Edinburgh & Glasgow

Since I've lived in Sydney, I've rarely heard a Scottish accent, apart from family, and one of my delights was to be immersed in it again: 'Nae bother,' 'How are ye the noo?' A sign in a local bookshop, 'Books for the Weans,' (i.e. children, or little ones).

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was on while we were there and the place was buzzing. We mostly walked everywhere as we decided not to hire a car until we left Edinburgh - we were close to the centre so parking is expensive and limited but there's much within easy reach. We went through Edinburgh Castle, took a bus around the city and out to Leith, the port to the north of Edinburgh where we went aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Then it was a visit to Holyrood Palace, the official Scottish residence of the Queen and where Mary Queen of Scots resided along with Lord Darnley.
Later, a stiff walk up Arthur's Seat where you get a lovely panoramic view of the city. Thankfully it wasn't raining or the path would have been a bit treacherous on the way down.

The View From Arthur's Seat

The Summit

We picked up a hire car just before we left Edinburgh, drove to Bannockburn and Stirling Castle, and from there to Glasgow. The gardens at the castle were magnificent. In fact, the whole of Scotland was in flower - hanging baskets throughout the cities & towns were beautiful.

Stirling Castle

 Greenock on the Clyde where I was born - I have family who live here and my cousin showed us around and pointed out where we used to go swimming once a week (an indoor heated pool) and one of the houses where we lived. An earlier home had been knocked down not that long ago.

Eilean Donan Castle in the Western Highlands - this is such a fairy tale place!

Dunvegan Castle in the Hebrides - again, magnificent gardens here! 

Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland - the remains of a Neolithic village

A Hairy Coo

Scotland is expensive, at least if you're coming from Australia with the exchange rate as low as it is at present. We had to pay for parking everywhere, even in little pokey towns. Generally you also have to pay to use the loos unless you're on a tour of a castle or something similar where you've already paid an entry fee. This was a problem when we first arrived and didn't have any local currency.

The food is terrible - I can say that because I hated it when I lived there! Now I know why I was such a fussy eater. Just about everything is battered and deep fried, even haggis, for goodness sake.

My uncle ordered some haggis on the side so everyone could try it and we all had a wee bit of the  inside...but nae black pudding

We went out for breakfast one day and Moozle was shocked that her 'toast' was fried. I remember my Granny eating bread with dripping. My husband couldn't get over the fried mars bars, although he's a Kiwi & I think it was something that took off over there. I did indulge with some tablet when I was in Edinburgh but I didn't remember it being so sweet! I remembered some sweets we had when we were kids but I didn't remember what they were called. My cousin told me we used to have fondant rolled in cinnamon in the shape of cigarettes and we'd pretend we were smoking them.
It wasn't until we got to Inverness that I had some grilled (not battered & deep fried) chicken and salad and I had to go to Maccas for that. My kids thought that was hilarious because I only ever go there just for coffee if I'm desperate.
I'd never seen e-cigarettes before but they are very common in Scotland, as is smoking generally. It's almost a crime here in Australia so it was very noticeable to us over there.

We passed by this bonnie wee hoose as we were driving up to Inverness. Isn't it a work of art?!

I'll post some more about our trip later but I thought I'd say hello, have a catch up and let my lovely readers see what I've been up to. I managed to get through a few books during the many hours we were flying or travelling by train and a couple of them were set in the places we visited. I also visited some seriously good bookshops in the UK and Paris and had to be dragged out. So sad. I really could have spend another four weeks perusing some of those.
The only downside to a trip like this is coming home after 4 weeks in a different time zone and trying to adjust and get on with normal life. If I've written anything that sounds garbled you'll know why.

Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson (1893)

Catriona continues the story of David Balfour who was introduced in Stevenson’s well-known book, Kidnapped. Kidnapped was published in 1886 but Stevenson’s ill health at the time prevented him from bringing the story to the conclusion he originally intended so he left the door open for a sequel. Catriona didn’t appear until 1893 and it is quite a different story compared with most of Stevenson’s other works, being more of an historical romance with a convoluted plot and strong female characters as opposed to high adventure and daring exploits.
Catriona starts just at the point where Stevenson left David Balfour at the end of Kidnapped - at the doors of the British Linen Company’s bank - only this time he was coming out instead of going in.

The Gist of the Story

The book is set in the mid 1750’s after the Battle of Culloden in which the Jacobites were defeated. In 1752, Colin Roy Campbell, a government official also known as The Red Fox, was shot and killed, and members of the Jacobite Stewart clan were blamed. David sets out to clear his old friend, Alan Breck Stewart and his relative James Stewart (James of the Glens) of what became known as the Appin murder.
David visits his cousin, Mr Balfour, who provides him with a letter of introduction to the Lord Advocate Prestongrange and David presents himself before him as a witness for the accused.
Prestongrange is in a difficult situation as the Campbell clan are determined that James Stewart should be hanged for the murder but he tells David that he will arrange for him to be a witness at the trial.
In the meantime, David meets Catriona Drummond, the beautiful young daughter of James More Drummond, a son of the notorious Rob Roy.
David is unimpressed with More and thinks he is an unworthy man to be the Catriona’s father. His dislike is warranted as More is working behind the scenes to get him out of the way until after the trial, which he does by getting his Highland followers to kidnap David and keep him on the Bass, an island off the east coast of Scotland.
More is a selfish, conniving man, but Catriona is devoted to him. Gradually, his treachery comes to light but not before David and Catriona are separated and she realises that her father has been a manipulator and helped to send an innocent man to the gallows.
I enjoyed the latter part of the book most of all as it describes David’s poor attempts at courting Catriona, their misunderstandings of one another, and Alan Breck’s advice to his friend on the subject.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the description of the Lowland Scots’ attitude to the ‘Heiland’ folk. My Grannie was a Lowlander and she had a typical reaction if someone did something stupid or very clumsy. She’d say, “Och, dae'n be sae Heilan’!” I only found out many years later that it was a put down of the Highlanders. I don’t know it’s like that now but the same attitude has come up in Josephine Tey’s books only she takes the side of the Highlanders and makes references to 'vile Glasgow speech.'.

Catriona contains many of the characters found in Kidnapped so it’s best to have read that book beforehand or else you’ll miss connections. Kidnapped also helps to introduce some of the Scot dialect - and be warned, it’s all through Catriona. 

Some highlights:

Upon our reaching the park I was launched on a bevy of eight or ten young gentlemen (some of them cockaded officers, the rest chiefly advocates) who crowded to attend upon these beauties; and though I was presented to all of them in very good words, it seemed I was by all immediately forgotten. Young folk in a company are like to savage animals: they fall upon or scorn a stranger without civility, or I may say, humanity; and I am sure, if I had been among baboons, they would have shown me quite as much of both...

From these I was recalled by one of the officers, Lieutenant Hector Duncansby, a gawky, leering Highland boy, asking if my name was not “Palfour.”
I told him it was, not very kindly, for his manner was scant civil.
“Ha, Palfour,” says he, and then, repeating it, “Palfour, Palfour!”
“I am afraid you do not like my name, sir,” says I, annoyed with myself to be annoyed with such a rustical fellow.
“No,” says he, “but I wass thinking.”
“I would not advise you to make a practice of that, sir,” says I. “I feel sure you would not find it to agree with you.”
“Tit you effer hear where Alan Grigor fand the tangs?” said he.
I asked him what he could possibly mean, and he answered, with a heckling laugh, that he thought I must have found the poker in the same place and swallowed it.
There could be no mistake about this, and my cheek burned.
“Before I went about to put affronts on gentlemen,” said I, “I think I would learn the English language first.”

A sample of the Scot's tongue:


“Mony’s the time I’ve thocht upon you and your freen, and blythe am I to see in your braws,” she cried. “Though I kent ye were come to your ain folk by the grand present that ye sent me and that I thank ye for with a’ my heart.”

This conversation between David and his gaoler while he was captive on The Bass is found in Chapters XIV and XV contains the largest section of Scottish dialect:


“Well, Andie, I see I’ll have to be speak out plain with you,” I replied. And told him so much as I thought needful of the facts.
He heard me out with some serious interest, and when I had done, seemed to consider a little with himself.
“Shaws,” said he at last, “I’ll deal with the naked hand. It’s a queer tale, and no very creditable, the way you tell it; and I’m far frae minting that is other than the way that ye believe it. As for yoursel’, ye seem to me rather a dacent-like young man. But me, that’s aulder and mair judeecious, see perhaps a wee bit further forrit in the job than what ye can dae. And here the maitter clear and plain to ye. There’ll be nae skaith to yoursel’ if I keep ye here; far free that, I think ye’ll be a hantle better by it. There’ll be nae skaith to the kintry — just ae mair Hielantman hangit — Gude kens, a guid riddance! On the ither hand, it would be considerable skaith to me if I would let you free. Sae, speakin’ as a guid Whig, an honest freen’ to you, and an anxious freen’ to my ainsel’, the plain fact is that I think ye’ll just have to bide here wi’ Andie an’ the solans.”
“Andie,” said I, laying my hand upon his knee, “this Hielantman’s innocent.”
“Ay, it’s a peety about that,” said he. “But ye see, in this warld, the way God made it, we cannae just get a’thing that we want.”

Bass Rock, Scotland

And Alan’s opinion of David’s attempts at wooing:


“I cannae make heed nor tail of it,” he would say, “but it sticks in my mind ye’ve made a gowk of yourself. There’s few people that has had more experience than Alan Breck: and I can never call to mind to have heard tell of a lassie like this one of yours. The way that you tell it, the thing’s fair impossible. Ye must have made a terrible hash of the business, David.
...It’s this way about a man and a woman, ye see, Davie: The weemenfolk have got no kind of reason to them. Either they like the man, and then a’ goes fine; or else they just detest him, and ye may spare your breath — ye can do naething. There’s just the two sets of them — them that would sell their coats for ye, and them that never look the road ye’re on. That’s a’ that there is to women; and you seem to be such a gomeril that ye cannae tell the tane frae the tither.”
“Well, and I’m afraid that’s true for me,” said I.
“And yet there’s naething easier!” cried Alan. “I could easy learn ye the science of the thing; but ye seem to me to be born blind, and there’s where the deefficulty comes in.”



Catriona is free for Kindle here.
The book was published under the title David Balfour in the USA.

Linking to Back to the Classics Challenge 2018: Classic with Single-Word Title

20+ years of Family Read Aloud Chapter Books

A growing list of chapter books I've read aloud over the past twenty odd years to my children (in no particular order).You'll probably notice certain authors cropping up regularly - I've listed books by the same author together.

The books I've read were in most cases listened to by everyone who was present at the time. I haven't included most of the non-fiction titles I've read aloud at different times as part of our more structured lessons.

I'll add books in as I have time but if you're curious about any of them just drop me a note in the comments and I will be able to give you some idea of the content, suitability & time period.

I'll link to any book I've reviewed and an asterisk beside a title means "don't miss it!"

What Would Jesus Do? by Mack Thomas

This is the first chapter book I remember reading aloud.

The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder - my husband went to the USA on business in 1993 and brought back the boxed set of these books and I started reading them aloud to our two older children who were 5 and 3 years of age.

I read the first five to them and left the other four for them to read themselves when they were older. My 3 year old used to take one of the books to bed each night to 'read' and he would spend ages looking intently at the simple Garth Williams illustrations scattered through the book. The box has all but disintegrated and the books are just holding together after much use by our seven children:

* Little House in the Big Woods

* Little House on the Prairie

On the Banks of Plum Creek

* Farmer Boy

The Long Winter

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Quiet Little Woman

The Hidden Treasure of Glaston by Eleanor M. Jewett

Isaac Newton by John Hudson Tiner

Johann Kepler

George Frederic Handel

Robert Boyle

George Washington Carver

Michael Faraday by Charles Ludwig

* Johnny's Tremain by Esther Forbes

A Father's Promise by Donna Lynn Hess

* The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong

* The Wheel on the School

Far Out the Long Canal

Along Came a Dog

The Big Goose and the Little White Duck

Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

* The Witch of Blackbird Pond

The Bronze Bow

Mystery of the Roman Ransom by Henry Winterfield

* Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John (I recommend any of this author's books; powerful writer)

* Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Boy by Roald Dahl

All of a Kind Family by Sidney Taylor

Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting

* In Freedom's Cause by G A Henty (my husband read the first two of these aloud)

Under Drake's Flag

With Wolfe in Canada

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

* Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

* Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales

* Sun on the Stubble by Colin Thiele (Hilarious. Great for Dads to read aloud)

River Murray Mary

Storm Boy

Young Nick's Head by Karen Hesse (see here for some historical background on the story)

* Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

Bush Boys by John Tierney (a number in the series which were mostly read on their own)

We of the Never Never by Jeannie Gunn

All Sail Set by Armstrong Perry

All About Captain Cook
Call it Courage

John of the Sirius by  Doris Chadwick

John of Sydney Cove

The Switherby Pilgrims by Eleanor Spence (Australian setting, early 1800's)

No one Went to Town by Phyllis Johnston (Pioneer life in N.Z)
* I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall (Australian Classic of a boy with polio; early 1900's)

The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter

The King's Swift Rider by Mollie Hunter

* Vinegar Boy by Alberta Hawse

Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide (didn't like his other books) 

Morning Star of the Reformation by Andy Thompson (Historical fiction, John Wycliffe)

The Kon Tiki Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl

Longitude by Dava Sobel

* Mocassin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw 

The Golden Goblet (Ancient Egypt)

Master Cornhill (Charles II; Great fire of London)

* Scout By Piet Prins

* Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop (WW2; suitable for younger age group. Loved this book)

Strange Intruder by Arthur Catherall

* Phantom Patrol by A.R. Channel (same author as above writing under another name. The boys LOVED this book)

Caesar's Gallic Wars by Olivia Coolidge

* Banner in the Sky by James Ramsay

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

* Otto of the Silver Hand

* Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan (WW2)

Swift Rivers by Cornelian Meigs

The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald

Benjamin West and his Cat Grimilkin by Marguerite Henry 

King of the Wind 

Misty of Chincoteague 

The White Stallion of Lipizza

Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
Thee, Hannah!

* Black Fox of Lorne

* Sarah Whitcher's Story by Elizabeth Yates (lovely story for younger children)

Amos Fortune, Free Man

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

* The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook by Joyce Lancaster Brisely 

The Kidnapped Prince by Olaudah Equiano

The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White

Charlotte's Web

The Hawk That Dare not Hunt by Day by Scott O'Dell (historical fiction based on William Tyndale)

A Heart Strangely Warmed (John Wesley) by Louise Vernon (good historical fiction series on Church history for younger age group)

The King's Book (the printing of the King James Bible, 1611)

Ink on his Fingers (Johann Gutenberg)

Johann Gutenberg

Johann Gutenberg

The Man who Laid the Egg (Erasmus)

The Beggar's Bible (John Wycliffe)

Thunderstorm in the Church (Martin Luther)

Key to the Prison (George Fox)

* Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter

Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark

Carry on Mr. Bowditch by Jean Latham

* The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

* Prince Caspian

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray 

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

* Calico Bush by Rachel Field

* The Little Duke by Charlotte Yonge

A Piece of the Mountain by Joyce McPherson 

Albrecht Durer

The Wright Brothers by Russell Freedman

* William Tell by Margaret Early

* The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Alder (wonderful book!) 

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell 

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Augustine by P.De Zeeuw J. Gzn.

Just David by Eleanor H. Porter

String, Straightedge and Shadow by Julia E. Diggins 

Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill

* Andries by Hilda van Sockum (great for younger children but we all loved it) 

The Mitchell's: Five for Victory

* The Winged Watchman (excellent, WW2)

* Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery (excellent, WW2) 

Reb and the Rebcoats

Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard 

If All the Swords in England 

Son of Charlemagne

Herodotus and the Road to History by Jeanne Bendick 

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine 

Archimedes and the Door of Science 

Along Came Galileo

Boyhood and Beyond by Bob Shultz

Created for Work

The Magna Carta by James Daugherty

The Lewis and Clark Expedition by Richard L. Neuberger 

Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes by Harold Lamb 

* The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum

Ancient Rome: How it Affects you Today by Richard J. Maybury 

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

Dr Jenner and the Speckled Monster by Albert Marrin 

Victory on the Walls by Frieda Clark 

Beorn the Proud by Madeleine Pollard 

* God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew 

Midshipman Quinn by Showell Styles 

Flint's Island by Leonard Wibberley

* Man of the Family by Ralph Moody

* Little Britches

Shaking the Nickel Bush

The Fields of Home

Mary Emma and Company

The Home Ranch

The Dry Divide

Horse of a Different Color

The Story of Beethoven by Helen L. Kaufman 

The Story of Mozart

Red Hugh, Prince of Donegal by Robert Reilly 

Hard Times by Charles Dickens 

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

It's a Jungle Out There! by Ron Snell (very funny; great books to read with teenaged boys)

Life is a Jungle!

Jungle Calls

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff (excellent author;  most of her books I've given to my children to read on their own).

Viking Tales by Clive Bulla 

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George 

The Otterbury Incident by Cecil Day Lewis 

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien 

All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

* The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Franz Shubert and his Merry Friends by Wheeler & Deucher 

Joseph Haydn 

Handel

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Fallacy Detective by N & H Bluedorn

Adam and his Kin by Ruth Beechick

* The House I Left Behind by Daniel Shayesteh (Islam, Iran)

The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac 

Linea in Monet's Garden by Bjork & Anderson 

Vendela in Venice by Bjork & Eriksson 

Incident at Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert

The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty 

Naya Nuki by Kenneth Thomasma

Struggle for a Continent by Betsy and Giulio Maestro 

In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson 

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

How to be Your Own Selfish Pig by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater 

* The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds

Albert Einstein by Marie Hammontree

Thomas A.Edison by Sue Guthridge

Anna and the King by Margaret Langdon

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Huguenot Garden by Douglas M. Jones

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico

The Small Miracle

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Seabird by Holling C. Holling

Pagoo

Tree in the Trail

Paddle to the Sea

The Birds, Our Teachers by John Stott

* Warrigal the Warrior by C. K. Thompson
Thunderbolt the Falcon 
* Karrawingi the Emu by Leslie Rees

Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley

Joan of Arc

* A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey

My Family & Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

* The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke

Ambleside Online Year 7 History

These are mostly supplements to Ambleside's year 7 History - Scottish historical fiction and folksongs in the main. I've used them in the past before I knew of AO and recently with my 14 year old who started AO year 7 late last year.

The Battle of Stirling Bridge, September 11th, 1297 in which William Wallace's greatly outnumbered Scottish army defeated the English forces commanded by John de Warenne. The words to the song, Stirling Brig, are here.

'Tell your commander that we are not here to make peace but to do battle, defend ourselves and liberate our kingdom. Let them come on, and we shall prove this in their very beards.' William Wallace

I finally worked out how to upload videos to you-tube so I could share one of our favourite folksongs from a CD bought in Scotland. Well, I had Natty & Bengy figure it out and I just added some commentary. Next time I'll have to be more adventurous and work out how to put in some visual content. Field of Bannockburn celebrates one of the most important battles fought for Scottish Independence, the Battle of Bannockburn, fought on the 24th June 1314, and this year marks its seven hundredth anniversary. The video commences with a short, stirring  narrative, around 40 seconds in length, and then the song starts.

Scotland's poet, Robbie Burns, wrote Scots Wha Hae, also known as 'Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn,' in 1794. I like the version below but everyone else prefers the one performed by the Scottish group, Scocha.





Historical fiction for this time period in Scotland:

In Freedom's Cause by G.A. Henty is scheduled in AO for year 7 and is a lively account of the Scottish war of independence written by an Englishman. He handles it in a masterly fashion and is even-handed in his treatment of both the Scots and the English. My husband read this book aloud to us about 10 years ago and the kids have never forgotten it.

The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter was written in 1809 and the author was also English. I read this one aloud years ago in my best Scottish brogue. She overdid the character of Wallace by portraying him as totally unblemished, but being a true Scot I let it pass. Memories of the book include my struggle to say the word pusillanimity, which the author employed on a regular basis, and the predilection for just about every woman in the story to swoon and faint at one point or another, but it was exciting, heroic and epic enough for me to commit to reading all 504 pages! We have a lovely hardback copy of the book illustrated by the estimable N.C. Wyeth.
This is what Kate Douglas Wiggin had to say in the introduction of our Scribner Illustrated Classic:

If Miss Jane Porter sometimes exaggerated the the virtues of the noble Wallace, his achievements never fell upon incredulous ears in the days of youth, nor do they now, when I heartily believe that she is right in acclaiming him as "one of the most complete heroes that ever filled the page of history."
The author's portraits of Wallace, of Robert the Bruce, Edwin Ruthven and Andrew Murray are penned with a high enthusiasm that lifts the reader to her own altitudes. She bathes them in glory and we see them with her eyes; but though "Scottish Chiefs" is a panegyric, (lofty and elaborate praise) rather than a formal history, it has been accepted by critics as genuine in spirit, if not in absolute detail.

Gutenberg has The Scottish Chiefs on their website.

This is a poetic narration from Bengy (14 year old boy) on the memorable encounter on the first day of the Bannockburn battle.You can read a short account of it in H.E. Marshall's Scotland's Story.

A more recent book on this time period is The King's Swift Rider by Mollie Hunter, a Scottish author who has written other books based on historical events in Scotland. I wrote about that book here.

From the Declaration of Arbroath, 1320:

'...as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.'

If you're interested in Highland dancing...