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Shapinsay Harbour - Geograph
Shapinsay (, sco, Shapinsee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. There is one village on the island, Balfour, from which roll-on/roll-off car ferries sail to Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. Balfour Castle, built in the Scottish Baronial style, is one of the island's most prominent features, a reminder of the Balfour family's domination of Shapinsay during the 18th and 19th centuries; the Balfours transformed life on the island by introducing new agricultural techniques. Other landmarks include a standing stone, an Iron Age broch, a souterrain and a salt-water shower. With an area of , Shapinsay is the eighth largest island in the Orkney archipelago. It is low-lying and fertile, consequently most of the area is given over to farming. Shapinsay has two nature reserves and is notable for its bird life. At the 2011 census, Shapinsay had a population of 307. The economy of the island is primarily based on agriculture with the exception of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balfour, Orkney
Balfour is a village on the island of Shapinsay, Orkney. The village is situated on Elwick Bay, which was used as an anchorage by Haakon IV of Norway before sailing south to eventual defeat at the Battle of Largs in 1263. Today, the village still possesses a harbour, with mock defensive walls constructed at the same time as the castle. David Balfour even added a stone marked with the date 1725, taken from Noltland Castle on the island of Westray, to his defences. A car ferry to Kirkwall, operated by Orkney Ferries, sails from a pier at the harbour. This became a roll-on/roll-off service in 1990. History Originally known as Shoreside, Balfour was built in the 1780s by Thomas Balfour, a former tenant farmer who acquired a private income by marrying the sister of an Earl. With his new-found wealth, Balfour purchased the estate of Sound, whose estate house had been burned down in revenge for the then owner's support of the Jacobite rising of 1745. In 1782, to make way for a new r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. It began about 12,000 years ago when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world. The Neolithic lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BC), marked by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age. In other places the Neolithic followed the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and then lasted until later. In Ancient Egypt, the Neolithic lasted until the Protodynastic period, 3150 BC.Karin Sowada and Peter Grave. Egypt in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Douglas, 14th Earl Of Morton
James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton, KT, PRS (1702 – 12 October 1768) was a Scottish astronomer and representative peer who was president of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh from its foundation in 1737 until his death. He also became president of the Royal Society (24 March 1764), and was a distinguished patron of science, and particularly of astronomy. He was born in Edinburgh as the son of George Douglas, 13th Earl of Morton and his second wife Frances Adderley. He graduated MA from King's College, Cambridge, in 1722.Anita Guerrini'Douglas, James, fourteenth earl of Morton (1702–1768)' ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2005. Retrieved 26 August 2008. So also the original ''DNB'' In 1746 he visited France, and was imprisoned in the Bastille, probably as a Jacobite. He had a long lasting tendency to protest the actions of the British government. Family He was twice married: firstly to Agatha, daughter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Hanover
The House of Hanover (german: Haus Hannover), whose members are known as Hanoverians, is a European royal house of German origin that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house originated in 1635 as a cadet branch of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, growing in prestige until Hanover became an Electorate in 1692. George I became the first Hanoverian monarch of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. At Queen Victoria's death in 1901, the throne of the United Kingdom passed to her eldest son Edward VII, a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The last reigning members of the House lost the Duchy of Brunswick in 1918 when Germany became a republic. The formal name of the house was the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Hanover line. The senior line of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, became extinct in 1884. The House of Hanover is now the only surviving branch of the House of Welf, which is t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacobite Rising Of 1715
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fi .... At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, local landowner the John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732), Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard on 27 August. Aiming to capture Stirling Castle, he was checked by the much-outnumbered Hanoverians, commanded by the John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Duke of Argyll, at Sheriffmuir on 13 November. There was no clear result, but the Earl appeared to believe, mistakenly, that he had won the battle, and left the field. After the Jacobite surrender at Battle of Preston (1715), Preston (14 Novem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gow
John Gow (c. 1698–11 June 1725) was a notorious pirate whose short career was immortalised by Charles Johnson in the 1725 work ''The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and Their Crews''. Little is known of his life, except from an account by Daniel Defoe, which is often considered unreliable, the report on his execution, and an account by Mr. Alan Fea, descendant of his captor, published in 1912, almost two centuries after his death. Early life Gow was probably born in Wick, Caithness, to William Gow, a merchant, and Margaret Calder. He was raised in Stromness, Orkney, where he went to school and learned to sail a ship. Pirate Prior to August 1724 he crewed a voyage from London to Lisbon and back, during which he plotted to seize control of the vessel. He failed to attract sufficient numbers, however, and the effort went nowhere. In London, word spread about the attempt, so Gow fled to Amsterdam, where he joined the Santa Cruz-bound ''Caroline'' as second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Hartsyde
Margaret Hartsyde or Hairtsyde ( fl. 1600–1640) was a Scottish servant, jewel thief, and landowner. A servant of the queen, Anne of Denmark, Hartsyde's duties included looking after the queen's jewels, dealing with the goldsmith George Heriot, and handling large sums of money. Servant of a queen Margaret Hartsyde was a daughter of Malcolm Hartsyde of Kirkwall, Orkney. She is first recorded as one of the serving women in Anne of Denmark's chamber in 1601. She came with the queen to England in 1603. When the court was at Winchester in September 1603 the queen ordered fabrics for new clothes for Hartsyde and other women who had made the journey from Scotland, including Anne Livingstone, Margaret Stewart, and Jean Drummond. She subsequently married another royal servant called John Buchanan, before 11 August 1603, when they were given a joint pension of £200 annually. In 1603, the French ambassador, the Marquis de Rosny, gave Anne of Denmark a mirror of Venice crystal in a gold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Agricultural Revolution
The British Agricultural Revolution, or Second Agricultural Revolution, was an unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain arising from increases in labour and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the hundred-year period ending in 1770, and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the world. This increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.5 million in 1700 to over 9 million by 1801, though domestic production gave way increasingly to food imports in the nineteenth century as the population more than tripled to over 35 million. Using 1700 as a base year (=100), agricultural output per agricultural worker in Britain steadily increased from about 50 in 1500, to around 65 in 1550, to 90 in 1600, to over 100 by 1650, to over 150 by 1750, rapidly increasing to over 250 by 1850.Broadberry et al 2008, p. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Largs
The Battle of Largs (2 October 1263) was a battle between the kingdoms of Norway and Scotland, on the Firth of Clyde near Largs, Scotland. Through it, Scotland achieved the end of 500 years of Norse Viking depredations and invasions despite being tremendously outnumbered, without a one-sided military victory in the ensuing battle. The victory caused the complete retreat of Norwegian forces from western Scotland and the realm entered a period of prosperity for almost 40 years. The tactical decision at Largs thus led to a sweeping strategic victory that ended in Scotland purchasing the Hebrides Islands and the Isle of Man in the Treaty of Perth, 1266. Victory was achieved with a crafty three-tiered strategy on the part of the young Scottish king, Alexander III: plodding diplomacy forced the campaign to bad weather months and a ferocious storm ravaged the Norwegian fleet, stripping it of many vessels and supplies and making the forces on the Scottish coast vulnerable to an attack th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haakon IV Of Norway
Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''Håkon Håkonsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald Fairhair. Haakon was born into the troubled civil war era in Norway, but his reign eventually managed to put an end to the internal conflicts. At the start of his reign, during his minority, Earl Skule Bårdsson served as regent. As a king of the birkebeiner faction, Haakon defeated the uprising of the final bagler royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung, in 1227. He put a definitive end to the civil war era when he had Skule Bårdsson killed in 1240, a year after he had himself proclaimed king in opposition to Haakon. Haakon thereafter formally appointed his own son as his co-regent. Under Haakon's rule, medieval Norway is considered to have reached its zenith or golden age. His reputation and for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hákonar Saga Hákonarsonar
''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar'' ("The Saga of Haakon Haakonarson") or ''Hákonar saga gamla'' ("The Saga of Old Haakon") is an Old Norse Kings' Saga, telling the story of the life and reign of King Haakon Haakonarson of Norway. Content and style The circumstances of the saga's composition are exceptionally well understood, as they are recorded in some detail in '' Sturlunga saga'' (particularly ''Sturlu þáttr''): the saga was written in the 1260s (apparently 1264–65) by the Icelandic historian and chieftain Sturla Þórðarson (nephew of the noted historian Snorri Sturluson). Sturla Þórðarson was at the court of Haakon's son Magnus Lagabøte when Magnus learned of his father's death in Kirkwall in Orkney. Magnus is said to have immediately commissioned Sturla to write his father's saga. This was awkward for Sturla: 'King Hákon had instigated the death of Sturla's uncle, Snorri Sturluson, in 1241. Sturla rightly regarded Hákon as his most dangerous enemy, for he had steadf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
