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tagishsimon.bsky.social
@tagishsimon.bsky.social
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tagishsimon.bsky.social
tfw you've definitely tested your crossword puzzle UI on Firefox, @theobserveruk.bsky.social
Observer newspaper Everyman crossword page on their website. Page has the title Everyman No. 4,127 but is otherwise blank.
November 25, 2025 at 9:30 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Google helpfully showing a picture of Edlingham against a search for Eglingham, b/c it's a halfwit.
Google search results for 'Eglingham, showing a photo of Edlingham, as well and a map of and the wikipedia page for Eglingham.
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Jane Haining's Stolperstein (tr: stumble-stone) mapped on OpenStreetMaps, one amongst now more than 46,000 across Europe.

* overpass-turbo.eu/s/2g7n
OpenStreetMaps map of Europe showing the position of >46,000 Stolperstein, each as a red dot. One now showing in Edinburgh.
November 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Fear I may have done for poor Ian at Highland HER, who made the mistake of taking the weekend off :(
Evidence ofacknowledgements of 28 green ink submissions to Highland HER over the weekend, in my email inbox.
November 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Not clear, but possible Gaelic nationalism detected on Finlay Cook's memorial in Reay Old Cemetery; Fionnagh being the Gaelic rendering, afaik.

* www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7171975
Memorial tablet to Finlay Reay, first minister at Reay Free Church, and his wife Elizabeth Sage. Reay's first name, generally cites as Finlay, seems to have been roughly over-carved to read Finnlagh.
November 23, 2025 at 4:10 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
'To lose one child, Sir Hector, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.'

* her.highland.gov.uk/api/LibraryL...
Text: "One of Sir Hector’s sons, Alexander, was eaten by a shark, another, Hugh, was killed by a tiger in 1792 while hunting on Saugor Island, off the coast of Bengal; as commemorated in this piece of Staffordshire pottery." Photo: Staffordshire pottery rendition of a man in Regency clothing beneath a tiger. Neither looks much fussed or excited by the situation.
November 23, 2025 at 10:26 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
I have for some time been pondering Dr. Grosvenor's objection to a proposed solar farm in the Scottish Borders.

bsky.app/profile/bend...
bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social Dr Bendor Grosvenor FRHistS @bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social · 19d
Came to see the site of a proposed solar farm in the Scottish Borders. What I’m showing you is only about half the site.
November 22, 2025 at 5:44 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Oddly the Duke(s) of Sutherland tie both the Slater & Ward tragedies together; Ward was the 4th daughter of the 4th Duke of. The 2nd Duke of was probably responsible for Slater's memorial; his surveyors worked closely with Slater's protégé and replacement, Henry Otter

bsky.app/profile/tagi...
tagishsimon.bsky.social tagishsimon.bsky.social @tagishsimon.bsky.social · 3d
Thing about mapping memorials is the desperately sad circumstances of many of them. Here's one to Cmdr Michael Slater, Admiralty surveyor who from 1828-42 mapped much of the east coast of Scotland, until he reached the north coast at Holburnhead, where he jumped off a 250' cliff, for reasons.
Captain Slater's Monument, a pyramidal structure of uncertain height on a grassy cliff-top ~250 feet above the sea. The watercolour image, by his replacement Henry Otter, shows a straight path into the distance across sheep-strewn fields, to the right of which is a sheer cliff showing geological strata; in the background to the right is the sea.
November 22, 2025 at 5:02 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Thing about mapping memorials is the desperately sad circumstances of many of them. Here's one to Cmdr Michael Slater, Admiralty surveyor who from 1828-42 mapped much of the east coast of Scotland, until he reached the north coast at Holburnhead, where he jumped off a 250' cliff, for reasons.
Captain Slater's Monument, a pyramidal structure of uncertain height on a grassy cliff-top ~250 feet above the sea. The watercolour image, by his replacement Henry Otter, shows a straight path into the distance across sheep-strewn fields, to the right of which is a sheer cliff showing geological strata; in the background to the right is the sea.
November 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Morning's work was mainly figuring out that the memorial stele to William and Elspeth Beardmore - lost as far as Canmore and Highland HER are concerned - is most probably in the post-1900 burial ground at Flichity. AMA.

* www.trove.scot/place/164800

* maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/...
Black & white photo of a memorial stone, in the form of a large naturally shaped stone on which there is an ovoid recess in which is carved the names & some details of William and Elspeth Beardmore; on grass, with a hedge, then wall, then forestry trees behind Screengrab of a section of a 1964 OS map showing Flichity House, one of its walled gardens, various paths and roads, all in woodland, with a burial ground marked in the bottom left of the image.
November 22, 2025 at 12:27 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
A simple little hack for laundering Ordnance Survey Grid References so as to get to locations on Google Maps, Bing Maps, OpenStreetMaps, and others which have no truck with OSGR, is to search in Geograph.org.uk and use its excellent mapping links page.
Geograph search interface, showing an OS Grid Ref search term, and the 'Enter a Grid Reference' radio button selected Mapping links dropdown on the initial Geograph search results page, with the option 'Geograph links page' selected Lower section of the Geograph mapping links page showing three columns of links for the OS Grid Reference location, to most all of the map products you could ever want; Google, Bing, OSM, Magic, NLS, Ordnance Survey, &c &c.
November 21, 2025 at 9:57 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Unclear why Inverness thought Duncan I of Scotland (of Macbeth fame) was buried on Culcabock Avenue, just behind the Spar shop, what with him being killed & interred somewhere Elgin way and then supposedly reburied on Iona.

* www.google.com/maps/@57.473...
Low castellated stone stele on a plinth, on a side road and immediately behind the back of a Spar shop associated with a petrol filling station. Closeup up a castellated stele on which is carved a crown and the wording "Beneath this is the supposed burial place of King Duncan"; behind which a white painted pebble-dashed wall.
November 20, 2025 at 11:23 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Inverness's type 1/A CWGC Cross of Sacrifice, found in Tomnahurich Cemetery, looking a little blurry in this Geograph image.
Monumental cross with inset sword on a hexagonal plinth, probably all in white Portland stone, on a grass island surrounded by paths; in the background a couple of other memorials, and several trees.
November 20, 2025 at 2:39 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
"Gloomy Memories" (1857) - 212 small font pages of Donald MacLeod being *extremely* pissed off with the Duke of Sutherland (for the Highland Clearances), and later Harriet Beecher Stowe (for defending the Duke).

Has occasional paragraph breaks.

* archive.org/details/dona...
Walls of text in two pages of "Gloomy Memories". A couple of minor paragraph breaks. Follow the link to Internet Archive should you want to read the book.
November 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Most recently reported Multiverse results: loss of £60.6 million on a turnover of £58.4 million. Normal for a supposed £1.2 billion company in its 9th year of operation and which has never made any profit.

Britain's #1 failson, MBE, speaks...
avdeggar.bsky.social A.V. Deggar @avdeggar.bsky.social · 7d
Well, well, well.

Would you look who it is warning of "doom" if you don't invest in the world's most dangerous financial bubble ever.
Son of Tony Blair pushing AI for NHS
November 18, 2025 at 4:20 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
The Muir of Dinnet wallet inspector. You have been warned.

* www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.087...
Google maps image of a forestry car park with a ghostly overlay of a bearded gentleman inspecting his wallet.
November 12, 2025 at 4:55 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
The Bel Memorial at St Nidan's Kirk, Midmar, Aberdeenshire.

It celebrates a family of master masons who would be horrified by the typography of the inset tablet - a chunk of badly positioned left justified text in a plain san-serif font with dubious kerning & line spacing. Carved Microsoft Word.
Mortared round cairn memorial with hemispheric top,about 5 feet high, on grass with a dry stone wall and wooden fence behind it, and a large nowy headed tablet inset. Grey stone tablet noting that the memorial is to a family of master masons active in the 16th & 17th century. Left justified text with ragged right, within a carved rectangular border; blue and yellow coloured coat of arms at the top in a carved circular border which intersects the rectangular border. Some sort of san-serif font, all looking like something you'd put together in Microsoft Word if you had few skills.
November 12, 2025 at 6:25 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Remembrance Sunday. 🧵
chriso-wiki.bsky.social ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 17d
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 12:12 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
tfw it's 1877, you're the Laird of Glen Tanar, and you manage to down an elusive stag at 267 yards.

"the gentleman, not known for his modesty, had two memorials erected to himself: one where he stood and one where the poor beast fell."

* www.openstreetmap.org/node/1328601...
A stone pyramidal pillar with an inscribed stone ball on top, on moorland with the gentle peak of Baudy Meg in the background. A second pillar & stone is in the distance.
November 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Why yes, I am the author of green ink email missives to @diggermann.bsky.social's people in Aberdeenshire on discovering rifts in the HER spacetime continuum.

* online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/maste...
* online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/maste...
Aberdeenshire HER record for a Memorial stone, erected by Alexander Gordons Esq of Ellon Castle in 1862, and shown on the OS 1st and 2nd edition maps. It was uncovered in the early 1980s and re-erected on a concrete slab near where it was found. It is inscribed ''In Memoria the Brothers and Sisters meet again at home advent 1862. Deo Gratias'.' surrounded by what may be a serpent and with incised cross symbol above. Aberdeenshire HER record for a Standing stone/memorial dug up whilst the site was being developed. It was moved a short distance from its place of discovery and placed on a concrete base, The date on stone is surmounted by two ornate crosses. Inscription reads 'In memoria of the brothers and sisters meet again at home advent'. At the base there is a carved serpent or dragon.
November 4, 2025 at 7:26 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
A rather fine 1961 teak & copper memorial shelter topped by a Rod of Asclepius weather-vane, in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire; remembering one Dr T. K. Buchan, who served the local community as a doctor from 1916 to 1958.

* www.google.com/maps/place/L...
An open-sided park shelter, designed in 1961 by Allister Sturrock, as a memorial to medical doctor Dr T. K. Buchan, who served the local community as a doctor from 1916 to 1958, the majority of which time was prior to the establishment of the NHS in 1948. Dr Buchan did not charge patients who he believed could not afford his fee and, in some cases, would only tender a bill after a person’s death (information provided by the proposer). The shelter was built by the local community to commemorate Buchan four years after his death. The design is a simple structural plan form with a tall hexagonal roof and a three-sided circular bench suited for its purpose to provide shelter in an exposed position in the Square. It is built of teak and copper which were both high quality materials for a small structure at the time. The most distinctive design element is the hexagonal copper-clad roof which is a similar style to ecclesiastical church spires of post war churches, with a decorative metal weather-vane in the shape of a serpent, which is a traditional symbol of medical care.
November 4, 2025 at 5:37 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Just the most barking mad scheme, which seemed to boil down to "oh, so you have a public park / common do you? ... we'll be putting a dual carriageway across that".

Sabre's new map: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/index.p...
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk SABRE Maps @maps.sabre-roads.org.uk · 22d
London's Ringways are a whole network of unbuilt urban motorways threaded through the capital. There's never been a complete map of them,not even one made by their designers, until now. Today we're publishing the Ringways Map from @roads.org.uk to let you see in the city that London nearly became.
#Map of the M11 - M12 - M15 interchange in NE London from the Ringways Map, with the 1971 Greater London One Inch map faded in via the Map Fader functionality
November 3, 2025 at 7:47 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
In which it's suggested that the not very good Trove website may have cost £2M.
November 1, 2025 at 12:39 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
One of two Congregational Church Memorial Halls on Baltic Street, Montrose - motto "All were others, All will be others" - arising from now difficult to understand schisms amongst independent-minded Scottish believers; this group part of the 1843 Evangelical Union splinter afaics.
Two story, three bay ashlar hall with stone carved signage - Congregational Hall - Father - Memorial Hall; and All Were Others - All Will Be Others, erected 1895
October 29, 2025 at 8:51 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
tfw Streetview captures your wedding.

June 2016, Ardwell Church, Wigtown, Dumfries And Galloway.

* www.google.com/maps/place/5...
Wedding party assembled outside a church building, presumably shortly after the wedding ceremony.
October 22, 2025 at 11:06 PM