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The Daisy Wheel
Among the most well-known works of modern Scottish design, besides the ‘Clootie Dumpling’ of the Scottish National Party, there is the logo of the Royal Bank of Scotland: the Daisy Wheel. Now one of...
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Preservation is Not Enough
A Proposal for Enhancement by JOHN HALDANE Professor of Philosophy, University of St Andrews IT IS COMMONLY said of St Andrews that it is a place of beauty. This is often a compliment to its natural...
View ArticleAntipopes We Have Known
The University of St Andrews is commencing the celebrations of its 600th anniversary, as the institution was founded in stages between 1410, when teaching started, and 1413, when a bull was issued...
View ArticleThe Situation at St Andrews
Or: A Lesson in Corroborating Your Sources AS IF, WITH THE recent announcement that a certain St Andrean couple are getting engaged, there wasn’t enough for us to expend our idle chatter about, the...
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The Spott Estate, Dunbar
HERE IS A lordly demesne! In East Lothian, thirty-one miles from the centre of Edinburgh and three from the Royal Burgh of Dunbar, sits the Spott House and estate, now on the market from Knight Frank....
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Scotland in Snowfall
Scotland has been enveloped in snowfall, and the BBC has put a photo gallery up of reader-submitted images of the recent precipitation. The In Pictures feature of BBC News Online’s Scottish section...
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Fra Freddy, Rest In Peace
Yesterday, I was very saddened to hear of Fra Freddy’s death. Fra Freddy was a legendary character whom I was introduced to in my first year at St Andrews. He was invited to speak to the Catholic...
View ArticleEdinburgh Update
Well, I was going to direct you over to Seraphic’s blog for an at least partial account of my Edinburgh weekend but she’s done gone and taken the dagnabbed thing down. It’s just as well, as when she...
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Burn Baby Burn!
A Burning-in-Effigy at Exposes the Cowardices of Tomorrow’s Politicians I cannot condemn this in more stringent terms. The Tories at the University of St Andrews have apparently burnt Barack Obama in...
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The Palace of Holyroodhouse
HOLYROOD IS SUCH a pleasant spot, despite the recent intrusion of an ostentatiously ugly government building designed by a Spanish architect. The other day, while visiting Edinburgh, I heeded the...
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The Crowned Banner
The Emblem of the Scottish Parliament Legislatures often have their own symbols. Often these are appropriated or stylised versions of national emblems. Stormont uses a flax plant. Some time ago...
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Papal Mace for St Andrews
Archbishop Presents New Mace to Scotland’s Oldest University Amidst 600th Anniversary Above: The 600th Anniversary Mace. Below: The University’s three medieval maces: St Salvator’s College, 1461;...
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Caledonian Expedition
Sun, sand, champagne, Scotland: there’s not much more you could ever want, but to have an alignment of these four in the month of October is rare. It had been quite some time since the Cusackian feet...
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The Red Mass in Edinburgh
The opening of Scotland’s judicial year was marked this past Sunday by the Archbishop of St Andrews & Edinburgh offering the customary Red Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral. This year Archbishop Leo...
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The Old Scots College
Via delle Quattro Fontane, Rome Next month I’m off to Rome and the last time I was there I happened to walk past the old Scots College on the via delle Quattro Fontane. The Pontifical Scots College is...
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Angela Wrapson
In Rome the other week I was sorry to hear from a mutual friend that Angela Wrapson had died. She had been fighting cancer for a while, but she was quite a fighter and was one of those people you...
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The Galloway Cross
What could be better than a hoard — and a Kircudbrightshire hoard at that? Sometime during the tenth century, a gentleman decided to deposit an interesting array of objects in Galloway only for them...
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St Margaret Relic Heads to St Andrews
Students from St Andrews University have accompanied their Catholic chaplain to receive a relic of St Margaret of Scotland from the Archbishop of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Dr Leo Cushley. The relic...
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Articles of Note: 6 January 2024
Articles of Note The Epiphany – 6 January 2024 ■ It is well-known that ‘Welsh’ means ‘foreigners’, whereas Cymraeg, the Welsh word for ‘Welsh’ means ‘fellow-countrymen’. As the linguist Danny Bate...
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