00:00good afternoon and welcome to the scotsman's daily video bulletin for this wednesday my
00:05name is dale miller i'm deputy editor of the scotsman and i'm joined by our heritage
00:09correspondent allison campsy uh allison we're going to get to talking about fascinating story
00:15that you've written about it's up on the scotsman website as we speak but uh looking at our pre
00:20product and today's front page of the scotsman it was hard not to lead on on the trump's uh donald
00:27trump and first lady melania arriving at stansted airport on tuesday night there's a picture of them
00:34immediately after disembarking and scotland's benefit from a tech deal announced it ties back
00:40into investment in ai details of that were announced as donald trump was landing you can read that full
00:46story from our westminster correspondent andrew quinn up on the side and also the news that robert
00:52redford had passed away at the age of 89. uh we if you want to debate um his best films and which
01:01one you enjoyed the most then you can do that in the comments uh underneath our main story on the site
01:07uh but sad news about his passing allison um there's also a lovely piece it's in today's scotsman it's up
01:14on the side as i mentioned it's about a forgotten castle um that some of the remains or some details of
01:21have been discovered can you tell us a lot all right dale so this is a story from isla uh over
01:28in the inner hebrides absolutely fascinating island with a fascinating place called loch finlaggen and
01:35finlaggen was the power center of the lords of the isles pretty much like an independent ruling dynasty
01:43of the islands and actually quite a large sweep of the mainland in the 14th and the 15th century
01:50so there's a story came out yesterday um following research from dr david caldwell now dr david caldwell
01:58has had a really really long association with isla probably the top authority on the archaeology of
02:04the island and he's been poking about finlaggen for three decades and just published his massive work on
02:13his findings and in that he's revealed that we knew that there was uh these kind of sort of palace
02:20complex where the lords of the isles congregated and um uh and where their administration center was
02:28but he's found an earlier castle structure there which dates from the 12th to the 13th century
02:34so still part the largest of the isles but really um taking the history that little bit further back
02:41and from his discovery so far this really was a pretty significant structure built over two islands
02:48in a long finlaggen on one island there was a tower and on the other island there was a big courtyard with
02:57kitchens and kind of feasting hall so really really quite a big uh structure which kind of alludes to
03:06the the kind of self-appointed importance of the lords of the isles who as i say uh ruled power over the
03:14island and really a large part of the mainland and in direct kind of contrast to the to the scottish
03:20crown they kind of held their own territory for hundreds of years and the lords of the isles laterally
03:27in the 14th and 15th century and they came from the hereditary chiefs of clan donald um and there's
03:34some really fascinating uh little snippets of life in the lordship have emerged over time
03:40um including the inauguration of the lords the last lord uh to be inaugurated there and there's a an
03:48account um of him kneeling on a stone with a white road white rod to receive his title of the lord of
03:56the isles so a really interesting development about a really interesting place and a really important
04:03place in scottish history and the whole story is on scotsman.com in the heritage in the heritage section
04:09today alison i love the visualizations as well the idea that this castle sort of span that sort of
04:16crossed across two islands didn't it how how are we still finding out about these things today does it
04:23rely on people like this researcher that that paul basically a life's working to finding out some of
04:28ways yeah very much so and he's like if you if you picture him off in wagon um there's three main islands
04:38in the law and we know during the the reign of the clan donald chiefs there was the council island
04:46and that's where the kind of administration center was and there was the other island now i've really
04:52forgot the name of it which is kind of frustrating but that's where the kings were inaugurated and there
04:57was bridges that went between the two so there's still an awful lot of archaeology out there um david
05:05caldwell like i say has devoted uh much of his life to isla and takes great interest in finlaggen you've
05:13also got the great finlaggen trust which runs um this place as a as a visitor attraction really has done a
05:20lot of work to to bring it to life and one of the stories i read yesterday uh from the cuttings of
05:27previous stuff that i've done on finlaggen that they were trying to restore the bridges that kind of
05:31connect all these islands but when you go um i don't know if you've been there but when you go it's so
05:39atmospheric and you're standing you know in this sort of like surrounded by water and this beautiful scenery
05:47and that you just get such a sense of what it might have been like in the past and you know for
05:54for david caldwell to take the story back or to to kind of furnish the story in even more detail it's
06:01just absolutely brilliant to see and just adds another kind of rich layer to what is known about
06:07finlaggen which you know really very important place in the in the history of scotland it's on the
06:13two visit list allison um if you want to read that story that we've just discussed as allison says
06:20you can navigate your way to any of our heritage content via the tab on the navigation bar which
06:27will take you straight to this story um allison has also written on a new memorial um dedicated to
06:34those in the fishing village of st mowlands who who lost um a number of their parents effectively
06:41children at sea in a tragedy a number of years ago so you can read that piece at scotsman.com as well
06:47and you can pick up all the very latest on donald trump's visit which is taking place today
06:54and tomorrow he's meeting the king at windsor castle some of the rest of the members of the royal family
07:00there's a state banquet as well and he will be meeting with sir keith starmer in detail at checkers
07:06during the visit as well we've got a live blog running throughout today you'll get all the very
07:09latest there and a full wrap including the best of the pictures from today will be in tomorrow's
07:14print edition of the scottsman allison thanks to you thanks to everyone else for joining us
Comments