🧵It's been a while, so I thought I would take a dive into the placename books and have a look around Gorgie and Dalry. The pic is the wonderfully 80s neighbourhood branding that some of the streetsigns got for reasons I don't know of.

Gorgie? It's very old name, records go back to the late 12th century when William "The Lion" I of Scotland was on the throne and it was "Gorgine" on charters of Holyrood Abbey

The land was a Royal Manor, with a Provost in charge. The earliest recorded owner was "Serlo", a burgher of Edinburgh. Serlo is a Norman name, from Norse.

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Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

10 Aug

Today's auction house artefact is this charming and rather Old Testament early 1960s advertising poster for the Clyde Shipping Company (incorporated in Scotland). the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-…

The name on the bow of the ark is "Tuskar", in reference to the (then) new Clyde Shipping motor vessel MV Tuskar, built for the Liverpool to Waterford service - despite its name, most of Clyde's business was on the Liverpool to Ireland routes.

The Tuskar, named after a lighthouse like all of Clyde Shipping's vessels (in this case Tuskar Rock off the southeast coast of County Wexford) was built for the Waterford run in 1962, by Charles Connells at Scotstoun on the Clyde (pic = Ships Nostalgia shipsnostalgia.com/media/tuskar.2…)

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Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

21 Jul

I saw a tweet yesterday about how an SUV was "as big as a Sherman tank", and I wasn't sure it was, so I decided to find out. The answer is "not quite. But getting there".

What about is a Wankpanzer as big as a Panzer? Again, "not quite, but getting there".

And what about the best of British? Once more, not quite but nearly.

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Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

13 Mar

It's fairly well known just how few statues there are in Edinburgh of named women (2!). My attempt at an A-Z of city places named after women further highlighted to me just how few there are (and of those, many were done so by men of property for reasons of their own).

But there is a place that's not that well kenned about that has topical relevance and is always worth thinking of. Many attempts have been made to try and tell its back story or to raise it's profile. That place is Muschat's (or Muschet's) Cairn.

The cairn is unusual in that not only does it commemorate a woman, but it commemorates a woman who was the victim of male violence. Ailie (or Eilidh) Mushet, was murdered by her husband Nicol Mushet of Boghall near this spot on the night of October 17th 1720

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