Crannogs: Neolithic-Era Artificial Islands
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 23, 2019
The Neolithic people of Great Britain were prolific builders. Just look at the British Isles—they are studded with countless ancient megalit...
Showing posts with the label Scotland
The Cranes of River Clyde
Kaushik Patowary
May 10, 2019
A giant cantilever crane looms over a car park adjacent to the Hilton Garden Inn at Glasgow City. During its heydays, this crane used to lo...
Why Did Ancient People Bury Butter in Bogs?
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 19, 2019
Peat bogs are favorite hunting grounds of archeologists because of the many odd surprises these marshy wetlands have revealed from time to t...
The Biggest Little Railway in the World
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 17, 2018
Last year, a team of British railway enthusiasts got together to engineer the longest miniature railway journey in the world. The tracks tha...
The Tay Bridge Disaster And The World’s Worst Poem
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 14, 2018
On the night of 28 December 1879, a violent storm lashed across Scotland collapsing an iron bridge that straddled the Firth of Tay and plung...
The Miniature Coffins of Arthur’s Seat
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 5, 2018
At the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh are a set of eight miniature coffins carved in wood and decorated with tinned iron. Each cof...
Canary Girls: The World War One Women Who Turned Yellow
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 1, 2018
Munition workers in a shell warehouse at National Shell Filling Factory No.6, Chilwell, Nottinghamshire in 1917. Photo credit: Imperial War...
Demonstration of a Cantilever Bridge
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 25, 2018
A cantilever bridge is a bridge whose main elements are cantilevers—structures that are anchored at only one end while the other end floats ...
Tura Coo: The Cow That Led A Town To Riots
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 19, 2018
A hundred years ago, a small farming community called Turriff in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, became the unlikely stage for one of the most biza...
Britain’s User Worked Level Crossings
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 25, 2018
The United Kingdom has some 6,500 level crossings on their sprawling railway network, out of which an astounding number of them—5,000—are us...
Why Do Many Historic Buildings in The UK Have Bricked Up Windows?
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 16, 2018
There was a time in Great Britain when having windows in homes and buildings were prohibitively expensive. That time began in 1696 with the...
Wojtek: The Bear That Drank Beer And Went to War
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 28, 2018
Archibald Brown, the British official at the port of Naples, looked at the roster in his hand and called out the name—“Corporal Wojtek”, but...
Cultybraggan: Britain’s Last POW Camp
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 12, 2017
The Cultybraggan camp located near the Scottish village of Comrie, in Perthshire, is one of the last remaining World War 2 Prisoner of War C...
The Dark Legacy of Gruinard Island
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 8, 2017
Halfway between the villages of Gairloch and Ullapool in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, sits a small oval-shaped island named Gruinar...
The Udny Mort House
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 1, 2017
Much of what we know about the human anatomy comes from dissecting human cadavers. The practice goes back to classical antiquity. The Greeks...
Sheela-Na-Gig: The Mysterious Medieval Carvings of Women Exhibitionists
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 30, 2017
The Church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck in the English county of Herefordshire is famous for its Norman carvings of writhing snakes an...
The Closes of Edinburgh
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 29, 2017
The Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, consisted originally of the main street, now known as the Royal Mile, and a large number of small alley...
The Unfinished National Monument of Scotland
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 26, 2017
High up on the summit of Carlton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland, stands the country’s National Monument. But far from being the source of natio...
The Oil Rig Graveyard of Cromarty Firth
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 31, 2017
In a remote sheltered harbor guarded by two precipitous headlands, in the North of Scotland, dozens of oil rigs are sitting idle, some for m...
Gilmerton Cove of Edinburg
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 21, 2016
Just a few meters beneath the streets of Gilmerton, an ex-mining village on the southern edge of the city of Edinburgh, in Scotland, lies a ...
