The Vikings in the Western Isles – part three By Jim Henderson In part three of Jim Henderson’s history, we learn more about the use of the Birlin ships that was based on the Viking longship design, and also about the continuing battles for dominance in the western Isles between the Scots and the Norse …
In part two of Jim Henderson’s history of the Vikings, we learn about the period they spent in western Scotland, beginning at the time when they landed on Iona in the late 8th century for the first time. The Viking Period in Western Scotland By Jim Henderson It is considered by historians that the first …
Coronavirus: advice from the Middle Ages for how to cope with self-isolation By Godelinde Gertrude Perk, Postdoctoral researcher in Medieval Literature, University of Oxford, originally published in The Conversation, March 27th 2020 The pandemic of COVID-19 is often called “unprecedented” – and for many people cooped up in their homes in different countries, the experience …
A history of the Vikings By Jim Henderson In the first part of a four part series, Jim Henderson considers the reasons for the Vikings’ roving way of life, and introduces some of the Longships that they developed to assist with their excursions and conquests. Over the series we will learn about their journeys from …
The Climate Emergency. How did we come to this in 2020? Historical context and patterns of consumption. How do we change repeating attitudes and behaviours? By Sally Campbell Historically we know the industrial revolution, started in the UK with coal to generate steam power coupled with brilliant innovative engineering and the hard labour of millions …
By Alice Maxwell In September I hosted a house concert, Music in the Time of Anne Frank, which was covered by the Voice for Arran and the Arran Banner. Shortly afterwards I received a phone call from Jack Paterson of Whiting Bay who had read the article, and said he had a fascinating story to …
Last month Lyn Beard from Australia contacted the Voice to help her investigate a family connection with Arran, and the Allison family of Brodick. Here is what she writes: I am researching a family connection to the Allison’s of Brodick. My father-in-law, Des Beard, died in Perth, Western Australia in 2012 and recently I was …
By Simon Ross-Gill Although I never actually did set foot in the workshop or Gallery at St Columba’s and have no memories of it, it is with great pleasure that I am putting together an exhibition, as a part of A Celebration of Whiting Bay Past And Present on May 11th and 12th 2019. As …
Each year, Earth Day—April 22—marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Setting the stage for the first earth day The height of counterculture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” War raged in …
By Kenneth Gibson MSP Many readers will know of the horror that befell HMS Dasher in 1943 between Ardrossan and Brodick, yet this might be the first time they have heard of the Iolaire tragedy, the worst peacetime British sea disaster since the Titanic; one that hit the Isle of Lewis and its close-knit communities …