The distinctive red sandstone edifice of St Magnus Cathedral is an unmistakeable landmark in Orkney’s largest town – as well as a fascinating repository of Kirkwall’s history. A recent graffiti survey there has recorded hundreds of markings and inscriptions dating from the medieval period…
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They are sometimes said to be the nation’s real crown jewels: the various palaces, castles and other grand houses which for centuries have formed the backdrop to royal life in the United Kingdom – from Sandringham and Windsor in England to Hillsborough in Northern Ireland, and from Balmoral and Holyrood in Scotland to Llwynywermod in Wales. With the recent change in monarch, however, the future of these splendid (and undeniably costly) royal residences seems now to be under the spotlight. A source close to King Charles III told The Sunday Times in October that plans are afoot to turn at…
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Opinion
This stunning coastal location is better known for its Pictish carvings, but researchers have shown that it has a much longer, and more enigmatic, prehistoric pedigree, dating back at least as far as the Bronze Age.…
Beneath the foundations of the staircase, the workmen found a wooden chest containing human bones and pieces of velvet. Charles II arranged for the remains to be reinterred in Westminster Abbey, but the bones were re-examined in 1933.…
Down we probed into each and, before long, another surprise. Each contained a human skeleton, ranging from an adult woman to a child and, finally, a new-born infant. They were burying the dead under the floorboards!…
Haunted by Ostrogothic and Hunnic raids, Panticapaeum still survived as a Byzantine citadel. It lived through a succession of Khazar and Slavic lordships to become the modern city of Kerch, now once more trying to persist through a precarious situation in the current war in Ukraine.…
The Picture Desk
On the strength of stylistic comparisons, researchers have dated the feline to around 200 BC.…
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The word ‘dolmen’ – derived from the Breton taol maen (‘stone table’) – is regarded as a folk…