Wednesday 12 September 2018

Images of Scotland

Of course, any trip to Scotland always involves the sounds of a true Scot playing the bagpipes. This piper was busking on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
 The Royal Mile is the main tourist destination in Edinburgh so of course, there are all sorts of shops selling Scottish "stuff". Woolly hats and scarves, Scottish flags, whisky flavoured chocolate, fluffy toy lambs and highland cattle. Lots of these whisky shops, with many different single malt Scotch products for sale. I'm not much of a drinker, and I don't think I have tasted Scotch at any time during the last 30 years.... however visiting Scotland meant that I had to try a sample (or two!), and you know what? The stuff's not as bad as I thought it was going to be!

Scotch doesn't simply come in bottles.... here's a glass stag full of the stuff. You can take this home for 300 pounds. Good luck carrying it on the plane though.
And here's the real thing. The Monarch of the Glen by Sir Edward Landseer, painted around 1851 and currently on display at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Magnificent!
The Monarch of the Glen is one of the most famous British pictures of the nineteenth century; for many people it encapsulates the grandeur and majesty of Scotland’s highlands and wildlife. Here Landseer depicts a monumental and precisely defined ‘royal’ or twelve point stag – a reference to the number of points on its antlers. Many of his paintings show interactions between humans and animals, but in this, his most well-known work, a single emblematic creature is viewed in a moment of exhilaration. It became widely admired in nineteenth century, when it was reproduced in prints, and achieved even greater renown in the twentieth century when it was employed as a marketing image for various products, so endowing it with global recognition.

9 comments:

  1. I don't drink spirits, and have never been into a whisky shop, but it does sound fun! I have been to Scotland once as a child but was a little too young to join in with the drinking.

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  2. I think it was in the George Gently mysteries that the idea of a stag of similar grand proportions was part of one episode.

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  3. Bagpipe music always makes my eyes leak for some reason.
    Whisky? Not for me.

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  4. It’s a noble creature.

    I enjoyed the taste testing of a good scotch too I would never drink it otherwise. Love the first photo.

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  5. I do love a man in a kilt Shammi 😊 I'm a very poor Scot, have never been able to drink whiskey, it's the fumes 😀 Love the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, it's been a while!

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  6. P.s. The Monarch of the Glen is a magnificent painting of a magnificent creature!

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  7. The painting is a beauty. A stag full of scotch is quite impressive to see.

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  8. The sound of bagpipes always takes me into the mood for Scotland and the Scottish attire is so attractive. Having weared a few times in a winter, I still have a 40-year-old tartan wool skirt made in Scotland, which is so warm and I love. What fine antlers the stag has! I fee divine aura around him. I scrolled down to have a glimpse into your travel and found you enjoyed yourself a lot despite hotter weather.

    Yoko

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