Podcasts about Stirling Castle

Mary, Queen of Scots led a life that was anything but dull. Queen of Scotland aged just six days old, she would eventually become queen of France, then return to her native homeland to take up the crown that had been hers almost from the day of her birth. In this weeks episode, I chat to Dr Sarah Morris, known to many of you as the Tudor travel guide, who is also my co-director on Simply Tudor Tours, our historic tour company. Our May 2026 tour explore Marys life, and so today, Sarah and I discuss the many different palaces and castles she inhabited, from the imposing medieval Stirling Castle to the renaissance Palace of Holyroodhouse, which remains the official Scottish residence of the monarch to this day!

Join me for a spine-tingling episode as I welcome Jack Ziska from True North Paranormal. With a background in heritage and conservation, Jack has spent years working in some of Scotland's most historic—and haunted—locations, including Stirling Castle, Bannockburn House, Doune Castle, and the Battle of Bannockburn site. Once merely intrigued by the paranormal, his time at Stirling Castle turned him into a true believer. Tune in as Jack shares chilling ghost stories from Stirling's haunted past, recounts his own spine-chilling encounters, and reveals what it's like to walk the halls of Stirling's most restless locations.My Special Guest Is Jack Ziska Jack has worked in historic buildings for the majority of his life. Having studied heritage and conservation at university he went straight into work afterwards at a number of historic sites and has worked all over the city of Stirling; Stirling Castle, Bannockburn House, the Battle of Bannockburn, Doune Castle. He is currently working as the operations manager at Bannockburn House, sometimes referred to as Scotland's Most Haunted House. When he first entered the workforce full-time at Stirling Castle he was interested in the paranormal, but working at the Castle made him a fully fledged believer. In this episode, you will be able to: 1. Discover hauntings and unexplained phenomena from Stirling's historic locations.If you value this podcast and want to enjoy more episodes please come and find us on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/Haunted_History_Chronicles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠to ⁠support the podcast, gain a wealth of additional exclusive podcasts, writing and other content.Links to all Haunted History Chronicles Social Media Pages, Published Materials and more:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/hauntedhistorychronicles?fbclid=IwAR15rJF2m9nJ0HTXm27HZ3QQ2Llz46E0UpdWv-zePVn9Oj9Q8rdYaZsR74I⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NEW Podcast Shop:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/user/haunted-history-chronicles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Me A Coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/hauntedhistorychronicles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Guest Links⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.bannockburnhouse.scot/   Podcast Link: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qW1WN4U1Y7NrUbbBOXfJT Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/true.north.paranormal?igsh=bmxrZ3pjM2Uwdm85 

In this roundtable episode, hosted by Victoria Barlow, Nicole Maceira Cumming and Charlie Spragg discuss their research and the upcoming 'Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On' conference. We delve into the importance of how this shrewd monarch presented himself and his royal dominion not only as king of Scotland, but later of England as well. Having co-organised a conference taking place in July to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death in 1625, our two guests also touch upon what goes into planning such an event.@KingJamesConf on XGuest Bios:Nicole Maceira Cumming is currently a Teaching Fellow in early modern history at the University of Edinburgh and an RA on the A Very Quiet Street project (University of Glasgow/Woodlands Community Development Trust). She recently completed her AHRC-funded PhD thesis, which examined the role of hunting in the Scottish court of James VI, c.1579-1603. Her previous roles have included a 2022 research placement with the National Trust and University of Oxford, exploring the history of ‘Horse Power' within National Trust properties. She has forthcoming publications on ‘Animals, dominion and the natural order in Post-Reformation Scotland' (Scottish Church History, 2023 prize winner) and ‘Reconstructing the menagerie of James VI, c.1579-1603' (Scottish Archives), and is co-organising the ‘Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On' conference which will take place in July 2025 to mark the quatercentenary of his death.@nicolemaceira.bsky.socialCharlie Spragg is a third-year doctoral student in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, holding a full scholarship from the Edinburgh College of Art. Charlie's principal research interest is the self-fashioning of King James [VI & I of Scotland and England], particularly through visual and material display. She has been working independently as a historical researcher, most recently for Historic Environment Scotland on the new guidebook for Stirling Castle. Charlie will be a contributor in the forthcoming British Art Studies journal special issue, ‘Reframing King James VI and I'. Charlie is also co-organising the 'Understanding James VI&I 400 Years On' conference. @cvspragg on X@cvspragg.bsky.social

Today, you'll learn about 17 things you can see and do in Wicklow, Ireland. Plus you'll hear music from Eimear Arkins, The Ciderhouse Rebellion and Kyle Carey. This is Folk Songs & Stories #295 0:14 - Eimear Arkins "Téir Abhaile Riú (Song)" from Here & There 3:47 - WELCOME TO FOLK SONGS & STORIES I am Marc Gunn. I'm a Celtic and Folk musician and also host of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, an hour-long radio show of some of the best indie Celtic music online. That was… If you're new to this show, please subscribe. You can do that PubSong.com or Just send an email to follow@celtfather. Looks like you get a bonus episode this month. I'm gonna share with you some cool things I found for County Wicklow in Ireland. We're driving through Wicklow for my Celtic Invasion of Wexford. I heard so many good things about Wicklow that I plan to stop there. Now time for your Sustainability tip for the day. Get on the Meatless Monday bandwagon A few years back, my wife decided we would add a meatless day to our meal schedule for the week. It took me a while to get used to it. But I gotta say I feel so much better because of it. Now I've come to realize I really don't need meat in my diet. Not that I don't eat it. But I don't feel the need to spend the money to do so. We went to the grocery store last week and the price of a steak was insane, like double what it used to be. Giving up meat can be difficult, but it's one of the most impactful things that anyone can do to lower their personal carbon footprint and send a bigger message about sustainability in our agricultural system. Now I eat mostly veggies. Garbanzos are a new favorite. We have a super simple recipe that makes yummy garbanzos to go on rice and veggies. I also make my hummus. I even found this great recipe for lentil pancakes. They're sooo good. There are so many great vegetarian and vegan recipes I found on YouTube. I'm eating them up. And yet, we still eat chicken and salmon and steak and carnitas depending on our mood. But it feels good to not feel stuffed full of meat. Oh.  Some good news. Last time, I mentioned getting involved with your local government. Good Newsletter reported. ​A bipartisan coalition of 24 U.S. governors pledged to continue the country's work toward achieving Paris Agreement goals.Representing nearly 60% of the U.S. economy and 55% of the nation's population, Alliance members pledged to reduce collective greenhouse gas emissions by 26% below 2005 levels by 2025, a target it is on track to achieve The Goodnewsletter is created by Good Good Good. 8:52 - Marc Gunn “Naked” from Come Adventure With Me Learn more about “Naked” in episode #278 Listen to a rough cut of Naked The song was written for In the ‘Verse show podcast #11. Vote: Favorite songs on Come Adventure With Me? 11:59 - UPCOMING SHOWS MAR 1: The Lost Druid Brewery, Avondale Estates, GA @ 6-9 PM MAR 16: The Wings Cafe & Tap House, Marietta, GA @ 3-7 PM MAR 17: The Wings Cafe & Tap House, Marietta, GA @ 6-9:30 PM APR 4-6, StellarFest, Duluth, GA APR 12-13: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX APR 19-20: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX APR 25-27: Jordan Con, Atlanta, GA MAY 3: Maggie McGuinness Pub, Huntsville, AL JUN 21-28: Celtic Invasion of Wexford, Ireland JUL 19: Fiddler's Green Coffeehouse Concert series @ 8 PM SEP 24-28: ALEP 6, Harrodsburg, KY 13:24 - LATEST NEWS See pictures from my Celtic Invasion of Scotland's Whiskey I have pictures from Stirling Castle, Dewar Aberfledy, and even Falkirk, and Blair Athol Distillery Merch of the Month: Limited Edition Album Pins for Come Adventure With Me. Come Adventure With Me is my latest solo album. It features some of my best songwriting yet, if I do say so myself. Like for instance that song “Naked” I wrote, a song about emotional vulnerability. I have a new Album Pin coming out shortly. Well, two actually. They are in my store. Whoever buys one will get both versions. But there are only a handful of both. They use the dragon design that came out with the original release. But they are both made entirely of wood instead of enamel. You buy one, you get both. But only a handful of both will be available. I'm testing them out. And I'd LOVE your feedback. Which do you prefer? Find a link to order them in the shownotes. 15:26 - THANK YOU GUNN RUNNERS

Gary brings you more great tunes from a the airts - well from Scotland, England and Canada to be precise!PlaylistRura with The Boys from Ballydowse and The Smasher from Despite the Dark P/M Iain Morrison with Jack Aloft and the Rakes of Kildare from Back to Back Martyn Bennett with Swallowtail from Martyn Bennett Eddie Seaman feat. Maeve MacKinnon with Uamh an Oir from Cave of Gold Simon Fraser University Pipe Band with Paardeburg, Port Sean Seasamh, Coppermill Studios, Biddy from Sligo, Donald Ross of Vancouver, Craig a Bhodich, Stirling Castle, The Brolum, The High Road to Linton, The Cape Breton Fiddlers' Welcome to Shetland from World Pipe Championships 1996 Blowzabella with Penda's Fe, The White Rose and Epic Branle from Dance Brian Lamond with Out of the Air, the Radar Racketeer, The Dirty Lough, the Rev Brother's Jig, Donella Beaton from Another Day at the Office Lori Watson with The Flooers o the Forest from Yarrow Acoustic SessionsSupport the show

All this month, Matt and Eleanor are ranging across England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland to discover the stories of our greatest castles.In this episode, Eleanor looks at one of the most iconic and strategically important fortresses. Over the centuries, Stirling Castle has reflected Scotland's changing political and cultural landscape. The early wooden structures gave way to stone fortifications, which, in turn, were transformed into a Renaissance palace with a flourishing court life, symbolizing royal power. Eleanor finds out more from Dr. William Hepburn, author of the recently published The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland, 1488 to 1513.Gone Medieval is presented by Dr.Eleanor Janega and produced by Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘MEDIEVAL' You can take part in our listener survey here >

To mark the 900th anniversary of the Royal Burgh of Stirling, Forth Valley Food and Drink has launched a series of four captivating short documentaries that delve into the lesser-known stories of Stirling's rich food and drink heritage. Rosalind wanted to learn more about this series so spoke to Lesley Wilkinson who researched and commissioned the films and Murray Cook, Stirling Council's archaeologist to learn more. Lesley talks about why the films came about and some of the amazing finds they made in the process of researching the films including about a world-record breaking grape vine. Stirling Castle and Bannockburn House feature in the series as do fascinating stories about how Bonnie Prince Charlie was treated for an injury there using a posset. Funded by Scotland Food and Drink's Regional Food Fund, the films uncover a range of unexpected tales including how the first dram was drunk there by James IV in 1494 and how the first firework was also set off there. Murray also shares stories of beer witches and those being accused of witchcraft and the sad fate they met. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is 1651. General George Monck just can't stop turning heel... and today he's got Stirling Castle in his sights. Don't forget to rate us ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and check out our social media here. You can also support us on Patreon via the link. CREDITS: Written, narrated & produced by Michael Park. Music by Mitch Bain. 

What's thy favourite scary play? This week Johnny and Tyler discuss the death of Carl McCunn, as well as the ghosts of Stirling Castle. Plus: Tyler's resting sad Victorian child face, a surprise mousekeeper has one man on the watch, and we fill the Dragula void by talking about the premier of Drag Race season 16.Join the Secret Society That Doesn't Suck for exclusive weekly mini episodes, livestreams, and a whole lot more! patreon.com/thatsspookyCheck out our new and improved apparel store with tons of new designs! thatsspooky.com/storeCheck out our website for show notes, photos, and more at thatsspooky.comFollow us on Instagram for photos from today's episode and all the memes @thatsspookypodWe're on Twitter! Follow us at @thatsspookypodDon't forget to send your spooky stories to thatsspookypod@gmail.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello scary friends Stephen got some scary stories about Scotland. Rosslyn Chapel, Cawdor Castle, Stirling Castle, Dryburgh Abbey Hotel. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stephen-booth7/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stephen-booth7/support

01.Intro 02.Have Your Self A Merry Christmas 03.You Wear It Well 04.White Christmas 05.Interview 06.Red Suited Santa Man 07.Can't Stop Me Now 08.Let It Snow 09.Interview 10.Merry Christmas Baby 11.Winter Wonderland 12.Interview 13.Silent Night 14.Auld Lang Syne All uploads on this channel are for promotional purposes only! The music has been converted before uploading to prevent ripping and to protect the artist(s) and label(s). If you don't want your content here  please contact us immediately via email: allmusiclive@outlook.com and WE WILL REMOVE THE EPISODE IMMEDIATELY! 

Hello scary friends Stephen got some scary stories about Scotland. Rosslyn Chapel, Cawdor Castle, Stirling Castle, Dryburgh Abbey Hotel. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Stirling Castle is a well known castle not far Edinburgh and Glasgow.It's definitely on the tourist trail with good reason as it's an incredible site with lots of history.And it was a very important castle in its heyday.Nearby Doune Castle is less important.Yet it still has some intriguing history.And it has ties to a cult movie favorite — Monty Python's Holy Grail.So if you like castles, of all sorts, then tune into this episode to learn more about these 2 amazing — yet very different — castles in central Scotland.Want to chat more about these sites?Then send me an email at Lynne@WanderYourWay.comIn this episode:0:16: Life update4:17: Intro5:24: Placing Stirling and Doune on the map6:31: Stirling Castle History11:39: Guided Tours & Other Info14:08: Things to See in the Castle21:31: The Town of Stirling22:51: Doune Castle History & Monty Python32:01: Pricing, Accessibility, & Tour Info34:45: The Town of Doune36:12: Blair Drummond Smiddy Farm Shop38:47: Also in the area39:47: Wrapping it up41:44: AnnouncementImportant links:Lowlands of Scotland with Bo FraserStirling CastleDoune CastleWoodside Hotel DouneWhy You Need to Visit the Impressive Edinburgh CastleSupport the showThanks to Callisa Mickle who edits the audio.Follow Wander Your Way:InstagramFacebookPinterest

In Shakespeare's lifetime, the game we call soccer today, known as football in Europe, was a popular in Shakespeare's lifetime. In fact, some sources say the game of football was invented in England during the Middle Ages. These original forms of football were called “mob football” and would be played in towns and villages, involving two opposing teams, that would struggle by any means possible to drag an inflated pig's bladder to markers at each end of town. Shakespeare mentions this game twice in his plays. In Comedy of Errors, Dromio says “Am I so round with you as you with me, That like a football you do spurn me thus?” Then in King Lear, the Earl of Kent references football again saying, “Nor tripp'd neither, you base football player?” One of these inflated pig's bladders was actually found, in tact, in the rafters of Stirling Castle. This surviving football dates to the 16th century, and could have belonged to Mary Queen of Scots. Here today to tell us more about 16th century football, the artifact discovered at Stirling Castle, and to share the results if his own scientific experiments comparing ancient football artifacts to modern soccer balls, is our guest, historian, and scientist, Henry Hanson.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the start of July, so it's time for our monthly tarot reading! What does July have in store for us?This week we're talking about energy work. We talk about what energy work means, different kinds of energy work, and which kinds of energy work we regularly use.We finish, as always, with awesomeness. Renee visited Stirling Castle, and Louise has been releasing her inner child.For complete show notes and links, go to awesomeon20.com/episode108Follow Renee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Renee_awesomeon20/Follow Louise on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Louise_awesomeon20/Support the showCheck out the latest workshop offerings from the STC Witchcraft Academy for both online workshops and in-person circles in the Glasgow, Scotland area.Find all your favorite recipes and witch tips at Awesome on 20 Kitchen Magick.Book a tarot reading or receive spiritual guidance from Sagittarian Tarot & Coaching. Join our Coven of Awesomeness Facebook group open to everyone.

Gary helps to mark Anzac day, and reflects on the experiences of those who fought in the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War.  As well as the troops of Australia and New Zealand, many Scottish regiments saw action there too, some of whom shared their stories with the late Jock Duncan, and which we now share with you.  We also pay tribute to the late Jock Elliot of G1 Reeds and the Inveraray and District Pipe Band, who sadly passed away recently. Music and clips played1. Daimh, with ‘Jerry's Pipe Jig (Jerry Holland), Slainte do Mhabu (Colm O'Rua), Donella Beaton (George Johnston), Munera e Casu (trad) from Moidart to Mabuhttps://www.daimh.net/2.  Australia Highlanders with ‘From Maui to Koma (B Worrall) and Alive ( C Mathers) from Sans Peurhttps://www.allcelticmusic.com/artists/Australia%20Highlanders%20.html3. Excerpt from Jock's Jocks: a One Act Play, by Gary West. Cast: Scott Gardiner, Chris Wright, Charlie West and Gary West. Based on oral history recordings made by the late Jock Duncan, Pitlochry. Includes a spoken-word version of ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' by Eric BogleThe Book, Jock's Jocks, is available from the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust athttps://www.gordonduncan.co.uk/4. William Boyle with Stirling Castle, Aspen Bank, The Smith's a Gallant Fireman, The Rose Among the Heather, The Ferryman, Sleepy Maggie, Pigeon on the Gate, The Farmer's Daughter, The Kilt is My Delight, The High Road to Linton (all trad), from Bagpipe Virtuoso 5. Manawatu Scottish Society Pipe Band with The Calling' (S MacKenzie, 98 Jig (Gordon Duncan), The Sporting Pitchfork (trad), The Famous Baravan (Gordon Duncan)https://www.greentrax.com/6. Clip of Mr John Haward, President of Box Hill RSL, Australiahttps://boxhillrsl.com.au/ 7.  Inveraray and District Pipe Band with ‘Amazing Grace' from A Night in That Landhttps://idpb.co.uk/8. Mark Saul with ‘Journey to the Centre of the Celts' from Scotland: the Music and the Songhttps://www.greentrax.com/    Support the show

In einem Schloss in Schottland soll es immer wieder zu gespenstischen Begegnungen kommen. Dort lebte eins Mary, die Königin der Schotten. Bunte Schatten und kalte Winde auf den Fluren erwecken den Eindruck, dass es dort Geister geben soll. Doch ist dies überhaupt möglich? Und wer ist die grüne Dame?

Originally from Canada, Trevor set out in 1996 with a backpack and a taste for adventure. Three years and four continents later, he found himself in Scotland, fell in love with the country and decided to stay.In 2008 he graduated from Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art with an MA (Hons) in Fine Art and was appointed director of charity Art in Healthcare in Edinburgh.He went on to teach at Leith School of Art while exhibiting in London, Truro and Edinburgh, staging his first solo exhibition in 2010. Since 2012 he has been experimenting with the potential of QR codes in art and combining AR with traditional oil painting.In 2015 he co-founded CreativTek Ltd to provide AR services to artists and left Art in Healthcare and teaching to focus on his own art career. He also “hijacked” images in the Royal Scottish Academy and National Gallery of Scotland to showcase his own work, setting up an app to view his paintings in place of Old Masters.Two years later, he was invited to exhibit AR paintings at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and took his first dive into Bitcoin and crypto trading. Since then, he has “hijacked” Edinburgh's National Portrait Gallery and exhibited crypto-themed work at crypto conferences. In 2021 the open-edition NFT derived from his painting The Bitcoin Angel broke sales record and is now iconic in the NFT world.He also created The Angel's Share NFT to accompany the record-breaking $2.3m sale of a cask of Macallan's whisky and collaborated with rapper Ice Cube.In this conversation, we discuss:- Introduction to Trevor and his work- The intersection of fine art and Q.R code paintings- The importance of motifs and references in Trevor's work- Castle Party at Stirling Castle in 2022 - Castle Party 2023 – what's coming, and what can we expect?- Must needs in the studio- What's next for Trevor as an artist?Trevor JonesWebsite: trevorjonesart.comTwitter: @trevorjonesartInstagram: @trevorjonesart ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This podcast is brought to you by Undeads Metaverse! Get ready for the ultimate gaming experience with Undeads. A post-apocalyptic world with an above-the-ground city for humans and underground lairs for zombies, all powered by blockchain. This unique game is designed to blend top-level mechanics with play-to-earn rewards.Undeads Metaverse has over $5 million already invested and is making waves!The game is Led by Leo Kahn, former PayPal executive and Ash Hodgetts, former CMO of Animoca's Phantom Galaxies.Undeads has secured partnerships with top industry players such as Warner Bros. and Wabi Sabi Sound, with many more to come. Enjoy feature-rich gameplay, a VR experience, and a healthy and efficient game economy verified by Machinations.io.Join the conversation at undeads.com and sign up for the Whitelist now.

Tonight's episode was made possible by our listener the lovely Jack who used to work at Stirling Castle and has many a ghost story to tell. He was kind enough to tell us all about the different experiences he had during his time there and I'm honoured to be sharing them with you. I just hope I did them justice. Contact Us: scottishandscared@gmail.com Instagram: @scottishandscaredpod Team: @stefanietyre @sashatyre Grab our Merch: https://corpusclothing.co.uk/products/scottish-and-scare-black-t-shirt Discount Code 20% Off: SCOTTISHANDSCARED Corpus Clothing: https://corpusclothing.co.uk/ Instagram: @corpus.clothing

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends October 1st 2022. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: www.complete-works.co.ukhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bala-mcalinn-05406683/ Bala McAlinn began working in the Visitor Attraction industry in 2007 writing and directing shows for organisations including London Zoo and the Science Museum. In 2012 he founded Boo Consultancy Ltd, a sister company to the event agency Boo Productions Ltd. Boo Consultancy is a training and staffing agency that applies theatrical techniques to the environments of Visitor Attractions. They predominantly place actors in FOH positions to increase membership sales and visitor donations or deliver workshops to improve the sales and storytelling skills of inhouse teams. In 2021 they rebranded to Complete Works a nod to the greatest storyteller and their theatrical past and because our approach is holistic, redefining the 3 key elements of success: your visitors, your destination and your team.They work with many leading organisations including the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Wembley Stadium, The Macallan Distillery and the National Gallery where they won a 2019 Institute of Promotional Marketing award for increasing visitor donations by more than 300% whilst also improving visitor satisfaction scores.His parents are from Los Angeles, his wife is from Sydney and he was born in London. Thus, he has had various accents over the years and matched with the fact that he has an Indian forename and Irish surname, He has grown accustomed to people being generally intrigued, mildly amused and partially confused by him. Which is great for networking and tricky when changing energy supplier over the phone. Thankfully he does more networking than the latter. Bala has 3 hilarious children whom he enjoys making music, drawing cartoons and boxing with. Transcriptions: Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host Kelly Molson. Each episode I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. These chats are fun, informative, and hopefully always interesting.In today's episode, I speak with Bala McAlinn, founder of Complete Works. I ask Bala how you teach someone to be a good storyteller, and he shares his tips for improving visitor experience through performance.If you like what you hear, subscribe on all the user channels by searching, Skip the Queue.Kelly Molson: Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. It's lovely to have you on.Bala McAlinn: Very welcome, Kelly. Nice to be here.Kelly Molson: I am going to ask you a few icebreaker questions, because this is how we start every interview. We've met before though, I don't feel like we need to break the ice, but everyone loves these, so let's go ahead.Kelly Molson: We're going to talk about storytelling and we're going to talk about visitor experience. I want to know what your favourite story is?Bala McAlinn: I'm going to go with, I think my favourite story of all time is The Diamond as Big as the Ritz by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is a short story that he wrote about, it's slightly science fiction, but within the real world.Bala McAlinn: And there's a family who for generations live on a mountain and the mountain is a diamond, but they have to control the flow of diamonds into society otherwise the price of diamonds would plummet and they wouldn't be as rich.Bala McAlinn: So they're like a secret Bond villain family who live on this diamond mountain and have servants who speak their own language.Bala McAlinn: And one of the children goes off to college and meets the protagonist of the story and invites him to come to the mountain. I won't give away what happens next, but it's bonkers and fascinating and exciting, innovative.Kelly Molson: Great. Sure. I've never read that either. So I'm going to add that to my list. All right. In terms of customer service, what has been your best ever customer service experience?Bala McAlinn: So I think in recent times, the one that instantly pops into my mind, is a client. So I will share that but I'll also potentially try to think of another one as well. So it doesn't just seem like I'm doing that.Bala McAlinn: So some of the greatest customer experience I've received in recent times is at the Macallan Distillery up in Speyside, which is just second to none, it.Bala McAlinn: When you talk about a five star customer experience, that phrase is used a lot, and people talk about world class customer, visitor, guest, whichever word you want to use, experiences and they are truly nailing it across the board in so many different ways.Bala McAlinn: So their team are fantastic, they've done a great job of investing in them, making them feel important, supporting them and you can just tell because it's so authentically good.Bala McAlinn: All the people you interact with truly want to be there, are truly passionate about Macallan and its history and there's so many good stories.Bala McAlinn: I think one of the last times I was up there, I was given a tour by one of the tour guides and they're in a unique position that not every organisation could do this, but when she was given us the tour, we're in a section that had, it wasn't a museum, but had a case that's like a museum case.Bala McAlinn: And there was an old hip flask in there. It was lady called Lindsay and she's, I would imagine, 25. So quite young in the world of whiskey. And then that was her grandfather's hip flask.Bala McAlinn: And she started telling us about how she's third generation on the estate and all this, and you're just pulled in and it was just such a powerful emotive story and such a connection with her.Bala McAlinn: And she's not unique. When you spend time there and meet other people, there's so many people who have a family connection to the place.Bala McAlinn: But it isn't just that. There's so many people who have immigrated from other parts of the world to come and work there and are equally as passionate. The whiskey is delicious and their food is sublime.Kelly Molson: Wow.Bala McAlinn: They do a incredible tasting meal that the chef Pavel creates and it certainly doesn't stay the same, it's all local ingredients.Bala McAlinn: A lot of it's come from the Spey on their estate and you'll have fascinating adaptations of trout and salmon and local beef and things all paired with wines and whiskeys and it's truly magnificent.Kelly Molson: You've sold it. If that isn't the power of storytelling I don't know what is. There's the example that we've all been listening for today.Kelly Molson: All right. Final icebreaker. I want to know, what is your guilty food pleasure?Bala McAlinn: Turkish Delight. There you go.Kelly Molson: Oh, okay.Bala McAlinn: Yeah, no, I love Turkish Delight. My palette, I've got quite a Victorian palette or something, because I don't like a lot of modern sweets, but I love Turkish Delight. I love marzipan.Bala McAlinn: So it's really convenient if there's a box of chocolates, because everybody goes in for certain truffles or different ones and the Turkish Delight or the marzipan one is often left till last.Bala McAlinn: But I'll definitely go for those or in a box of Celebrations, which I don't particularly like, but if I'm going to have one of those, I want the Bounty. I don't want the others.Kelly Molson: Why has Bounty got such a bad name? It is such a superior chocolate when it comes to Celebrations. I don't understand this. It's delicious.Bala McAlinn: Coconut's delicious. So I like those ones. But yeah, my real guilty pleasure is burgers. I had a burger last night. I eat too many burgers. It's just the perfect meal.Kelly Molson: So compact, all in one.Bala McAlinn: Picking up just a big meat sandwich with lots of cheese, lots of pickles, lots of things in it. Yeah, I'm happy with one of those.Kelly Molson: Okay. All right. And we're at unpopular opinion time. So what have you got for us?Bala McAlinn: I suppose my unpopular opinion, I don't really like technology. And a lot of people say that, but I think I genuinely don't.Bala McAlinn: And obviously I'm aware of how much technology has helped the world in so many ways and why we live longer and we can communicate with people who we wouldn't be able to have connections with if we didn't have technology.Bala McAlinn: But yeah, I find it annoying. So I don't like computers, I don't like phones. I keep a paper diary and a paper notebook, which everybody who works with me finds incredibly frustrating.Bala McAlinn: Because I can't share. I can tell them what I'm doing next Tuesday if they ask. But I can't let the counselors see it on a calendar invite.Bala McAlinn: I struggled getting on this Zoom call today. When you asked me to be on this, I said, "Yeah, but can we do it in person?"Kelly Molson: I said, "No, that's a real pain in the arse."Bala McAlinn: There's a huge insult and an indicator that you didn't really want to chat to me. And I was like, "Yeah, there's a lovely sunny day where we could be strolling through some woodland having a chat or doing something," and you could have invited your listeners to come as well, we could have had a picnic.Kelly Molson: So this will come. I just needed more time to organise it. Oh, it will happen. All right. Okay. Look, we all need technology in our lives but I know that this is quite stressful for you.Kelly Molson: But thank you. I appreciate that you've you've given this a go today for me. Do you think, now I want to talk about your background a little bit, because we've talked about this before and it is super fascinating how you've gone from being a classically trained actor to working with visitor attractions.Kelly Molson: So tell us about your background. So tell us how you've gone from being a classically trained actor to running Complete Works?Bala McAlinn: So yes, so I was an actor, not particularly successfully, but successful enough to do it for five years and pay the bills. Not Hollywood or Royal Shakespeare Company, which is where I wanted to be.Bala McAlinn: Lots of pantomime and theatre and education. And I did a couple of little bits on TV, which was fun, but nothing significant. So I enjoyed the lifestyle of being an actor and the fun and experience of it.Bala McAlinn: And then the reality is I met my now wife and she became more important to me than the lifestyle of basically not having to work that much, doing some shows, and getting to lie in the morning, which was great fun in my 20s.Bala McAlinn: But yes, so decided I needed something with a bit more stability, a bit more of a stable future progression. So yeah, started looking and thinking about what else I might do.Bala McAlinn: So I decided to become a cartoonist because that's really stable as well and the obvious progression from being an actor. So that was fun. That didn't work out.Bala McAlinn: But actually it did give me some really good experience because I started a greeting cards company.Kelly Molson: Oh, wow.Bala McAlinn: It was called Of Mice and Mice. And it was this mouse in human situations but what it did is it talked to me about sales and starting a business.Bala McAlinn: Designed the cards and had them made and website and branding and everything, and then sold them on Portobello Market in West London. So had a stall and sold them there, and they sold.Bala McAlinn: So I was like, "Great, that works." And then had to get them in shops. So I had to go through the process, which was really good for confidence building in terms of being a business person and sales, just having to book appointments, try and convince them to see you then come in and pitch your portfolio and get them to stock and supply you.Bala McAlinn: And so I did that for a year or so. I got 10 London stockists, which for ages I'd really wanted. It was like 10 London stockists, that's like a landmark.Bala McAlinn: So I got there and did it and then realised my cards, because they were printed on recyclable material with vegetable ink and recyclable and everything, costs like 50p to make and I could sell them for a pound to a shop. I have 10 shops selling me and I make about £30.Kelly Molson: Wow. Back to the drawing board.Bala McAlinn: Didn't give me the lifestyle I crave. But it was a good experience. So then I went back to thinking really about my skill set and what I'd done as an actor and the training I'd had to be an actor.Bala McAlinn: So I worked freelance for a number of years for a number of companies. So doing shows again and writing shows, but then working with visitor attractions.Bala McAlinn: So I did projects with the Science Museum and London Zoo, writing shows for them or tweaking the scripts of The Bubble Show and Rocket to Bullet show at science museum and Animal Talks at London Zoo and it was fun and I enjoyed that.Bala McAlinn: And so started doing more of that and then started a business doing that. My business, which I started in 2012, the original company, which we still do is training.Bala McAlinn: What we thought that the majority of our training work would be. The animal team, upskilling them to deliver a better gorilla talk or the workshop team, that's in the education team that museums have.Bala McAlinn: So we did that and we still do some of that, but quite quickly we saw that people were just asking us, "Oh actually, can you apply those skills to the front of house team? Because you're making the animal team better communicators. We want our front of house teams to be better communicators. And ultimately we want them to be better communicators to increase commerciality."Bala McAlinn: And that's where our business really took off for obvious reasons. If we're working to help people make more money, we get more work.Bala McAlinn: So focusing on using the skills of performance communication, improvisation, stagecraft in the environments of visitor attractions to upsell membership or increase onsite visitor donations or special exhibitions, is a huge benefit to the organisation and we are skilled and suited to do that.Bala McAlinn: So we started doing that and then the real unplanned success story of our business is then our staffing agency. So we started the business of training and consultancy, but then whilst I was working at Kew Gardens, this must be I think about 2013.Bala McAlinn: And I was doing communications training for their membership team and I'd mystery shopped them a few times to see the experience through the eyes of their guests.Bala McAlinn: And they had some membership promoters at the front, like sitting on stools behind a desk, and it said talk to me about membership. And I was looking at it and they're like, okay. And if people walked up to them, they would tell them about the membership, but there was no proactivity in it at all.Bala McAlinn: And so I'd put in the report. I was like, "It looks like you've got a real opportunity to increase the membership sales there." Because I was mystery shopping, I presumed, they were Kew staff.Bala McAlinn: They then told me that actually they were from a promotional agency that they book to promote the membership. And I said, "Well, they don't promote it. There's no proactive sales. It's just reactive. They sell the membership and it's testament to the strength of Kew Gardens offer that without any proactive sales..."Bala McAlinn: The results were good that. They were getting a decent return on investment from this company, but there was nothing proactive.Bala McAlinn: So I was like, "Well, actually I know load of actors. Let us have a go and let's see what we can do." So we trialed a summer of doing it and increased the sales exponentially and Kew were really happy.Bala McAlinn: And we were really happy and said, "Well, great, let us now do that for you." And, yeah, so our staffing agency is actors between roles predominantly working at visitor attractions and predominantly doing commercial tasks like membership sales or visitor donations.Bala McAlinn: And it's such a great model. Obviously it was my idea, but I didn't really take credit for it. It was like one of these lovely, accidental things where we saw it, we tried it, but the model worked so well.Bala McAlinn: And we love in the company, myself and my employers, supporting actors because a bunch of us are ex actors in my company so we like having that connection and supporting them.Bala McAlinn: And then the actors, we also like that we support actors and we do it by supporting the arts, which is a lovely little circle of artists supporting the arts in their job to pay the bills.Bala McAlinn: And because we're ex actors, we've managed to create an agency that works really well for our actors. We are only as good as our people on the staff and business.Bala McAlinn: And there are lots of promotional agencies and staffing agencies out there but we are quite niche and we are very good for our people, which makes them very good for us.Bala McAlinn: Because know the trials and tribulations of being an actor, whether it's London, Edinburgh, wherever, it's a tough job and you need to pay your rent and you need flexibility.Bala McAlinn: So we give our staff 100% flexibility so they aren't committed to a job if they get an audition or acting. Whereas if they're working in a bar or working somewhere else, regularly they say, "Oh, I've got an audition tomorrow." And regularly they're told, "Well, if you don't come tomorrow, you're going to lose your job."Bala McAlinn: So then they either turn up to work because they need that job, but then they're in a bad mood so they're not going to deliver great experiences or service for whatever they're doing or they just don't come or mysteriously, their grandmother gets sick or something.Bala McAlinn: So we know this can happen. Just give us as much notice as you can, but if you're not working just tell us, which means we have to restaff all the time, but it means that our staff are happy to be there.Bala McAlinn: And then appreciative that we give them that flexibility and we pay them well. It's a premium product and rightly so. We don't do any commission, which lots of our clients always ask, lots of other agencies do.Bala McAlinn: When I was an actor I did loads of sales jobs, telesales and charity fundraising and all sorts. And it was often commission based. And it's again, it's your highs and lows.Bala McAlinn: So if it's a sunny day and you are doing charity fundraising or membership at a visitor attraction, which is I didn't do myself then yeah, you're going to sell loads and it's fantastic. But if it's a rainy day, you are not.Bala McAlinn: And my experience of seeing people do it in other agencies and businesses when I did it was then on the rainy days nobody tries because everybody knows, "Oh, we're just going to get our per deal or something. We're not going to hit commission."Bala McAlinn: So everybody just sits back because there's no point. Whereas for us, we charge fair, we pay fair and our team appreciate that and the attraction can budget accordingly. It's not in terms of our billing, as can the staff.Bala McAlinn: And they know I will be able to pay my rent if I do those shifts or it might be that one might and that one not, and that emotional journey, we want them to be happy that they're there with the flexibility.Bala McAlinn: We want them to be happy that they're being paid well and then we pay them quickly as well, which lot of agencies don't because they're freelancers and they're used to being paid six weeks, two months after putting in an invoice.Bala McAlinn: So we pay our freelancers every other Friday. Used to be every Friday pre pandemic. We dropped it to every other Friday since the pandemic, but that's still much better than a lot of companies.Bala McAlinn: It means we are often in effect running a bank for our staff because our clients don't pay separate, we're not chasing invoices two months, three months, six months down the line.Bala McAlinn: But we get the results that we do with our staff because they are happy, well paid, have flexibility and know they're going to get paid next Friday.Kelly Molson: This is wonderful. Who have created an organisation or create a business that can deliver so brilliantly for both of the sectors, for both the actors that work for you and the attractions that you work for, that's a huge achievement. Something to be immensely proud about.Kelly Molson: I loved some of the things that you talked about there because I've had this conversation before. I think it was actually with Carly Straughan and a mutual friend of ours about visitor experience and attractions.Kelly Molson: And about how it does attract a lot of people from the theatrical world because you are on show, aren't you? When somebody comes to your attraction, you want that experience to be the best it possibly can be for them.Kelly Molson: And so essentially you are performing for them to make that happen. So it's amazing that you can bring people in that have that background to be able to do it.Kelly Molson: What I find fascinating is that you would never know either. So if I came along to the attraction, if I spoke to the membership people or I spoke to the donations people, whoever it is, I wouldn't know that those people didn't work there. You integrate them so seamlessly in that organisation that you would just think that they were there every single day.Bala McAlinn: Absolutely. And that's what we always tell our clients as well with the staffing offer that we do, we want them in the same uniforms as the rest of the team.Bala McAlinn: We don't want them to look like a promotional team or this is the special team that does something different because for the visitor experience, and this is something you see regularly where obviously in a large organisation there's lots of departments, lots of roles and responsibilities, but to the visitor, anyone wearing a badge or a lanyard or a green fleece or whatever it is, represents the organisation.Bala McAlinn: The visitor will just go to the most convenient person to ask a question or a query. And you do sometimes see in an organisation that isn't delivering great experiences that people work in silos and, "Oh no, that's not my department. You need to speak to someone else."Bala McAlinn: And people hate getting passed around. They just want to deal with the person there and get whatever service it is that they need at that time.Bala McAlinn: So for our guys, we want them in the uniforms so that they integrate also because we are doing sales and we want to do it in a somewhat sneaky way.Bala McAlinn: Because, and it's not malicious by any means, but it's that experience of if you're walking down a high street and you clock someone up ahead with a clipboard or an iPad smiling at you and trying to make eye contact.Kelly Molson: Run.Bala McAlinn: Can I cross it? I'm going to brave this fast moving traffic to get to the other side of the street to avoid this person who's going to either ask me questions on a survey or try and sell me something or get me to sign up something.Bala McAlinn: And that's a natural reaction that we have. So for our teams, we want them integrated and then we always lead with service. We never come straight in with sales because it's off putting. It can be jarring.Bala McAlinn: Wherever you are in the attraction, whether it's entrance, exit or mid experience, if you're suddenly interrupted with sales, it can take you aback. So our team are always trained and we have different processes at different sites, different organisations.Kelly Molson: Can we share an example of this? Because this was one of my questions about what we're talking about, because there's two very distinct trains here of what you do, but they intertwine, don't they?Kelly Molson: So it's very much about storytelling for sales, but also visitor experience as well. And this is the bit where they cross over.Kelly Molson: You've got some absolutely incredible case studies on your website about the results that you delivered. I've got here increased donations at the National Gallery by between 300 and 400%. That's phenomenal.Bala McAlinn: Yeah.Kelly Molson: How do you do that? How do you lead with the experience? What do you teach people to do?Bala McAlinn: Yeah, so that one specifically was all about improving the welcome experience at the National Gallery, which led to those results. So that was a great project.Bala McAlinn: Yeah. So that started 2016, 2017, something like that. So originally we won a tender to do a research trial and the National Gallery was great.Bala McAlinn: Because often we'll do a project like this and we just get given a week or a day even and it's hard to really work everything out in such a period of time.Bala McAlinn: But here we had four months and the tender was put out to see if you could increase onsite visitor donations with a team who self-funded themselves through increased donations, made additional income on top and did not affect the visitor experience.Bala McAlinn: The National Gallery, the director Gabriele, was absolutely resolute that he didn't want suddenly the experience to be altered. And everybody felt that they're being shaken down for cash as they came through one of the entrances.Bala McAlinn: And then in that tender, we won the tender, and then we were given six questions to answer over a four month period. It'll be, who will donate? Where will they donate? What other commerciality can you connect with donations? Times? Et cetera, et cetera.Bala McAlinn: But yeah, so we had four months. So we had four people, seven days a week for four months, with a tablet literally velcro'd to their patent and we'd change the patent every two weeks.Bala McAlinn: So we'd do something for two weeks, look at the data, record it and then tweak it and change it. So we'd try different scripts, different ask, different locations. And after every interaction they'd record on the tablet.Bala McAlinn: We split the visitors into I think, six different broad demographics. So they'd click the type of visitor, whether they donated, if they did donate the amount, and where they were and what time.Bala McAlinn: And we had something like, I can't remember exactly, 140,000 interactions over the period of time. So it was a huge amount of data. So we had the time and opportunity to get it incredibly slick.Bala McAlinn: And we found that there were really surprising, subtle changes and differences that would have dramatic effect on income. The positioning of boxes, the relationship of the positioning of boxes to where security is, or ticket desks or experiences again has dramatic effect. Security in particular. So it was fascinating.Bala McAlinn: So obviously National Gallery's on Trafalgar Square so you absolutely need security, absolutely need that. But the security does affect the visitor experience.Bala McAlinn: Because you're coming into an exquisite, arguably the world's greatest collection of art, and you're going through airport style, beepy things, having bags searched, which it's necessary, but it's not a pleasant visitor experience to have that.Bala McAlinn: So if that is happening and then immediately after that you have a welcome led donation ask, you'll get some, but you won't get as many as if you don't have that.Bala McAlinn: You can still have that, but simply by distancing it from that and distancing it can literally be a few meters and a door. So we moved security from inside the entrance to outside the entrance.Bala McAlinn: And the security guards, they're a bit like, "You can wear a coat, it's all right." We weren't always popular with the things that we did.Bala McAlinn: But yeah, by putting the security outside of the building, at both Portico and Sainsbury entrances that they're covered. So you could put the security there, people are searched, they then walk through the doors and it's like-Kelly Molson: That's the start, yes.Bala McAlinn: So they then disassociate. They then walk in and then they see a friendly, welcoming person who welcomes them to the National Gallery.Bala McAlinn: And, oh, they've now forgotten about the bag searching, forgotten that they had to shove their keys back in a bag or whatever it is.Bala McAlinn: They're now in the building, there's an instant release of tension from that and then they meet a friendly, welcoming person and their propensity to donate instantly increases.Bala McAlinn: And the training for the team there was relatively straightforward. We had 17 frequently asked questions that in such a high percentage can create a great, welcome experience.Bala McAlinn: Most people it's the Sunflowers, Whistlejacket, where's the cafe? Where's the toilet? What time do you close? That level of information can create a brilliant welcoming experience for most people.Bala McAlinn: Of course, there's occasionally somebody looking for a very particular more obscure work of art and that's different. And the team will then have to go to the very efficient in-house team who has a broader knowledge of the collection,.Bala McAlinn: But simply by welcoming people, answering a frequently asked question or two, and then informing people that the National Gallery is a charity and if you can donate, please do, donations skyrocketed.Bala McAlinn: And we kept it consistently between three to 400% for three years. So after the four month tender, we then won a two year contract to do it.Bala McAlinn: Well, there was an extension up to a year then we won a two year contract after that to do it. We kept it for three years at that level.Kelly Molson: That is phenomenal, that's phenomenal, isn't it? Because now it's not just about the visitor experience, not just about sales training, it's about location, it's about understanding how your guests enter your attraction. There's so much involved in it. That's fascinatingBala McAlinn: It's core to what we do and our background. And we predominantly look at three things, which are from the world of theatre, and that's storytelling, stagecraft, and improvisation.Bala McAlinn: Storytelling being your communications, the words you're delivering, but not just verbally with your mouth, but with your body and your tone and voice.Bala McAlinn: And we want whatever you are communicating for it to be articulate and for it to not just be heard, but to be understood.Bala McAlinn: So we look at the nuances of that, and little changes of script can have big differences in a donation ask or in a membership pitch.Bala McAlinn: And then, yeah, we look at stagecraft and if you are producing a play, of course, you have a tech rehearsal or several tech rehearsals.Bala McAlinn: And you block the play so that everybody knows exactly where they're going to be standing so that the technical team and the lighting designer plans it so that they make sure that if it's a touchy moment in the play or dramatic point that the lights are just right, and the audience can not only hear the words, but they can see what they're supposed to see.Bala McAlinn: And we look at that in the environments of visitor attractions, looking at where donation boxes are placed, membership asked, are they front and centre? Should they be?Bala McAlinn: And we'll often see them tucked away in dusty corners and people say, "Oh, nobody really ever donates." It's like, "Well, yeah, because so many people don't notice it or there's nobody interacting with it."Bala McAlinn: So we look at the stagecraft and then we look at improvisation because no two days are the same in a visitor attraction. And the ability to be able to think and adapt quickly on your feet is an incredibly useful skill.Bala McAlinn: And then match with that improvisation, that there's a principle, the yes and principle. When you are doing a scene, you don't block the scene, you don't simply say no, because if you do, it ends the scene.Bala McAlinn: So if I was doing the scene with you and you walked in and said, "Oh, hi, I've got a delivery. Are you John?" If I just say, "No." The scene ends.Bala McAlinn: Where I need to say, "Yes, I'm John. I've been waiting for my delivery. Please give it." So yes and drives the action forward. And we want that mindset within a visitor attraction as well.Bala McAlinn: We can't always say yes to every request, but we can offer an alternative. We can improvise. So somebody wants this X, if we know they can't have it, if we just say, "Oh, I want this." "No, you can't have it." Bad visitor experience.Bala McAlinn: But if I go, "Oh, wow, it's great you want that. However, I've got Y and I think you're really going to like this." Then we've driven the action forward, so yeah.Kelly Molson: I love this. Just going back to what you were talking about with Macallan right at the beginning where you talked about Lindsay and her story.Kelly Molson: Obviously she has a personal connection to the site, that was her grandfather's hip flask. She could talk about it very emotively. But how easy is it to train someone to be a good storyteller?Bala McAlinn: Everybody within reason and physical and cognitive abilities can improve their storytelling, certainly. And in the vast majority of cases, virtually everybody I meet and work with is a good storyteller.Bala McAlinn: They are just often not confident at storytelling so can't necessarily do it in a public environment. But you guarantee that when they are at home with their buddy or their family member, they've been telling stories for years.Bala McAlinn: In the vast majority of cases, there are of course exceptions to every rule, but often it's a fear of presenting or public speaking or interacting with people.Bala McAlinn: There was a study in the Washington Post, it was a year or two ago, of the most common fears in the United States and the third most common fear was snakes. The second most common fear was heights. And the number one most common fear in the United States of America was public speaking.Bala McAlinn: And there will be a correlation with the UK as well there. So I often tell people who aren't confident public speakers that that's pretty much the most normal thing to be, the most number one common fear.Bala McAlinn: So that's often in terms of delivering a briefing to a team of staff, or delivering a pitch to a board or conference speaking or something like that. Often lots of people have reticence to do that.Bala McAlinn: But storytelling in the environments of a visitor attraction is the same, this is public speaking and having the confidence to approach a family next to a work of art who are looking slightly confused and tell them the history of that takes confidence.Bala McAlinn: So to become a good storyteller, there's lots of tips and tricks. As when you go to drama school and when you become an actor in the rehearsal room, you learn lots of nuances of body, breath and voice, and that's great. Absolutely.Bala McAlinn: And that takes you to a higher level of technical ability in storytelling, but by far and above the most important thing is gaining experience more than the technique and it's gaining experience so that you become confident.Bala McAlinn: And what I say is experience leads to confidence and confidence leads to good practice. It's not about being a confident person, the most confident person in the world if you give them a task that they're inexperienced at, they may confidently give it a go, but they'll fail at it.Bala McAlinn: So whatever it is, whether it's public speaking, whether it's small interactions with a visitor, whatever it is, whatever task it is, you need to build experience.Bala McAlinn: And that takes time. So you just have to apply yourself to the task and repeat it and repeat it until there's a point that, "Oh, I've built confidence because of the experience I have."Bala McAlinn: Once I'm confident at the task, then that's when you start adding a bit of vocal technique or body language, more interaction, more humour, because you're now at a confident place where you can play around with it and get to that point of good practice.Bala McAlinn: Then that's fun, that's fun. It takes a while to get there but being at a place of good practice is joyful. And it's not just storytelling and public speaking.Bala McAlinn: We all do it in our jobs. A new job takes a while. A new job on a till, you don't know how it works, all the buttons, and you might be learnt quite quickly, but you're inexperienced for a while.Bala McAlinn: Until click, "Oh, I'm confident at it." Now I can run the products through the till whilst having a conversation with the visitor. For a while, I'm having to look at the till and do this and I can't.Bala McAlinn: Once I'm on the till at the place of good practice, I'm now asking that person how their day is and what did they say, noticing the kid. "Did you see the giraffe? That's great. He's called Henry." So I'm now adding to the experience, but because I'm at a place of good practice.Bala McAlinn: With storytelling, that place of good practice allows you to adapt and change for your audience. If you're having to think about your content and your technique, you are not fully in the moment and connected to your words.Bala McAlinn: If you've got to a place with good practice where I can deliver this animal talk, I can deliver this membership pitch, I can deliver whatever it is because I've done it so many times that I now don't need to really think about it like a person on the till.Bala McAlinn: I can be live, present in the moment, and listen and react. So because I'm not having to think about it, I notice that I start losing the attention of somebody who I'm presenting to.Bala McAlinn: And if I notice that I can probably get their attention back by changing the pitch of my voice or the volume or becoming very serious if I'm being jovial or becoming very jovial if I'm being serious.Bala McAlinn: A juxtaposition or a change brings the attention back. Or if I'm engaged in sales and I'm really confident what I'm delivering, I'll start noticing the bits of the pitch where there's a little flicker in the eye and I go, "Okay, they're interested in that benefit."Bala McAlinn: So I'll talk more about that benefit. Because if I'm not live in the moment, I'm just listing benefits and not really noticing what's good for them or not good for them.Bala McAlinn: So yeah, so to improve storytelling techniques, first and foremost it's just building experience. And you do it in safe environments, you do it with your friends, do it with your family, do it at work.Bala McAlinn: But you have to step out of your comfort zone a bit. You have to push yourself forward to learn and we can all become better storytellers.Bala McAlinn: I do it for a job and have done for a long time, but I certainly am not the best in the world and I'm certainly not the best that I can be.Bala McAlinn: And I certainly hope that, may have been doing it for 20 years, but I certainly hope in 20 more years I will be as much better then from where I am now 20 years.Bala McAlinn: It's a constant journey. It's a constant development. And to develop you need to just push yourself a bit further to the point where I am now a bit inexperienced and then do it, do it, do it until, "Oh. Now I'm confident and now I've grown and I'm better."Kelly Molson: And that's where the magic happens.Bala McAlinn: Yeah.Kelly Molson: Brilliant. Thank you. Absolutely excellent tips today that I'm sure our listeners are going to love. Just before we wrap up, I really want to ask you, how would an attraction recognise that they needed to get in touch with you?Kelly Molson: What's the pain points for them? We've talked a lot about donations side and driving membership. What's that trigger where they would need to think about calling you guys in?Bala McAlinn: So our core products are training and staffing. Some organisations we do one of those things, some we do both. So the training is we come in and deliver storytelling workshops, visitor experience workshops, or sales workshops for the in-house teams to build their confidence, build their experience at those tasks.Bala McAlinn: The staffing is where we simply come in and do it with our own people. Often we do both. I love combining the two on a project where if somebody wants to increase commerciality and wants their team to improve on it, for us to be the best we can be in the workshop, we need to experience it first.Bala McAlinn: So before a training workshop, we'll come and do some benchmarking where somebody will get in touch, say, "We want," whoever it is, "This department to sell more memberships."Bala McAlinn: We go, "Great. Can we come for a week and sell your memberships?" Then we'll come. We'll mystery shop it, look at everything, see if we recommend making a few tweaks in the stage craft.Bala McAlinn: Then we'll put some of our actors in uniforms in position for a week or two and sell the memberships because then we can say, "Okay, definitively we know on a Saturday you should be targeting X memberships. On a rainy Tuesday you should be targeting Y and it's achievable because we've just done it."Bala McAlinn: "And whilst we were doing it, we noticed that this little phrase or this benefit in the offer, that was the tipping point for so many people."Bala McAlinn: So then in the training room where we are training their staff then and we'll be using body language vocal techniques and getting their confidence to interact more with visitors.Bala McAlinn: But if we can then put in specific lines, specific little bits of script, that this little group of words had a great effect for anyone with kids. Oh, the retired couples mentioned that and then that's really useful for them.Bala McAlinn: We like scripts. We don't like anybody ever appearing to be delivering a script because that is the worst type, well, wouldn't say the worst side, it's an awful type of visitor experience.Bala McAlinn: And we've all experienced where you talk to someone and you know they're just saying something that they've been told to say and they've said it a thousand times today.Bala McAlinn: I use the analogy often of a good actor and a bad actor. We've all seen both probably. And the bad actor often appears to be not proficient at their work because they're not in the moment.Bala McAlinn: They're not connected to it because they're thinking about the words they're saying next or thinking about the action in the performance that's about to happen.Bala McAlinn: So suddenly the tone of voice goes a little monotone. Their eyes may come up because I'm not actually thinking about these words, I'm thinking that I need to go open that door because there's another character and you see them come out.Bala McAlinn: Whereas the actor who is the good actor can be delivering Shakespeare, 500 year old words that have been said millions of times, but we've hopefully all seen Shakespeare where it genuinely appears like these words have been said for the first time.Bala McAlinn: And it's emotive and beautiful and powerful and we know they're not, but because the actor's living and breathing that character, they're fully in the moment.Bala McAlinn: Whereas we want that in a visitor attraction. There will be a most likely route to commerciality, whether it's an exhibition ticket, a membership sale, a visitor donation, and then that will change for different audience groups.Bala McAlinn: But okay, you see the family, most likely benefits that appeal to them. You see the overseas visitor, most likely script that appeals to them.Bala McAlinn: So we want the team to know those, have learnt them. We don't want to turn a team into robots saying things but we want them to be at that point of good practice, where they're live in the moment, interacting, having fun.Bala McAlinn: But then there's the moment and suddenly they say something scripted. Like, "You must come to the Botanic Gardens in the fall. It's my favourite time of year. And with the membership, you can come back then too."Bala McAlinn: So it's just suddenly like a scripted line. It doesn't seem like it's scripted, but actually they've said it a lot. But because they've said it so many times and they've seen the benefit.Bala McAlinn: That oh yeah, mention autumn or mention snowfall at Christmas, say something emotive that you use storytelling to put the person you're selling to in the story, "You must come back in February, it's orchid season and you can walk through the glass houses and see these flowers in bloom."Bala McAlinn: And suddenly that person, because you've said, "You must come back," and you're using descriptive language, sees themselves walking through orchids in February and suddenly their propensity to buy a membership goes up because it's not February and they want to come back and they can take the price of their ticket off.Bala McAlinn: To absolutely improvise every single time for the visitor in front of you is a difficult task. Orchids, that's probably going to work at Kew Gardens because it's a growth thing.Bala McAlinn: Jousting, that's going to work at Historic Environment Scotland. It was jousting weekend last weekend. So we've been telling people about that. That was at Linlithgow Castle.Bala McAlinn: But we're telling people about it at Stirling Castle and Edinburgh Castle because they're there, buy the membership, you can go see the jousting. "Imagine being there and seeing..."Bala McAlinn: Suddenly you put someone in a store and then they get their propensity to buy whatever the product is.Kelly Molson: Oh you are good, you're good. I want to go jousting. I want to walk through the orchids. I want to be there in fall. That's the story, isn't it? That's the power of the story.Bala McAlinn: Excellent.Kelly Molson: All right. We're coming to the end of the podcast. I always ask our guests to recommend a book that they love to our listeners. It might be something professional, it might be something personal. What have you got for us today?Bala McAlinn: Cool. Okay. I've got a couple with an admission as well, which is a sad, sad truth about myself, I used to be an avid reader and used to read lots of books.Bala McAlinn: And I started my business 10 years ago and had two more children during that time as well. And for the past eight years or so I've become somebody who starts books and then never finishes them.Bala McAlinn: And George, one of the key guys I work with, George Mclean, always says, "If you talk about tiredness, it becomes a competition." "Oh, I'm really tired to that." "Oh yeah, I'm really tired." "Oh yeah, my kid woke me up at five." "Yeah, my kid was up at 2:00 AM."Bala McAlinn: And it's just this and the more you talk about tiredness, the more tired you become. But the reality is running a business, having kids, I've been exhausted for the last decade.Bala McAlinn: Try and read a book and just fall asleep. However, I do occasionally manage one. So there was a great book I read recently and actually did manage to finish called Get in Trouble by Kelly Link.Bala McAlinn: They're short stories. Maybe they're novelettes, their length, they're 100 page stories as opposed to full novels and in a exciting, surreal sci-fi type environment, which I very much enjoyed.Bala McAlinn: And I've bought a new book this week, which I haven't read, so it could be awful.Kelly Molson: It could be good. Who knows?Bala McAlinn: Hopefully. And it's more connected to visitor attraction industry. So there's a guy called Nick Gray who had a company called Museum Hack.Bala McAlinn: I met him at a conference, the Blooloop conference, in Liverpool a number of years ago. Great guy. Museum Hack was awesome. So it still exists, but he sold it.Bala McAlinn: So Museum Hack is an awesome company who does, primarily in America, tours and museums, but focusing on sex, death, value. So focusing on the idea everybody really wants to know how much that's worth.Bala McAlinn: And then things like people only have an attention span of a certain amount of time. And a lot of people I'd imagine will hate the sound of this, but it ticks boxes for me and they get rave reviews.Bala McAlinn: So they'll be delivering the tour in The Met or wherever and then after half an hour, they'll stop and all do a little bit of yoga because it then reconnects you and your attention span can come back.Bala McAlinn: And they are these super fun companies-Kelly Molson: I love that.Bala McAlinn: Great guy. Really interesting. And yes, so I met him there. We linked, I don't really know, but we linked on LinkedIn an occasionally like each other's post and things like that. He's just released a book called The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, which has just come out.Kelly Molson: Ah, I saw this. I saw this. I didn't know it was him. This looks great.Bala McAlinn: So I haven't read it, but I do know quite a lot about it because he's been talking about this for several years and so he hosts cocktail parties.Bala McAlinn: So he was in New York for a long time. He's now been moving around. I think he lives in Austin now. But yeah, so he used cocktail parties as ways to meet people.Bala McAlinn: And sometimes for business purposes, but also just to make new mates in a new town or a city. And so it's a easy to follow manual of how to produce a simple, effective cocktail party.Kelly Molson: Oh, wow.Bala McAlinn: Simple, lovely idea. So I bought it this week, but I'm looking forward to reading at least the first few chapters before then I fall asleep and it gets put-Kelly Molson: All right, well look listeners. As ever, you can win these books. So if you go over to our Twitter account and you retweet this episode announcement with the words, "I want Bala's book," you could be in with a chance winning that.Kelly Molson: I am going to buy this book and then what we can do is have a competition about who's read the least of it because they're the tiredest.Bala McAlinn: And then we can have a cocktail party, which is much more fun.Kelly Molson: In real life, without any technology.Bala McAlinn: Exactly.Kelly Molson: And that's perfect. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Bala. It's been lovely to talk to you. Thank you for all of the tips that you've shared.Kelly Molson: We will put all of Bala's contact details in the show note. So if you need some sales training or if you need some help with your visitor experience, you'll know exactly where to go. Thanks for joining us.Bala McAlinn: Thanks a lot. Take care.Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us.And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

Come and join us for a mega-episode this week - we're tackling the famous and looong history of Stirling Castle - almost a thousand years of antics!   We chat about Robert the Bruce, the infamous Douglas Murder and the spectral Green Lady that haunts the castle halls - you won't want to miss it! Thank you so much for supporting the podcast and apologies if we sound a bit strange, we're both a bit ill right now.  Help And Support Ukraine - https://www.unrefugees.org.uk/take-action/how-to-help-ukraine/ If you'd like to support the podcast please consider leaving us a review! Or you can order some delicious Bird and Blend Tea through this link. You can also join us over on Patreon for loads of cool stuff: Get access to new episodes a whole week before anyone else  Gain access to extra mini-episodes every two weeks You can listen to the weekly wee blether where we debrief the latest episode and have a more casual chat.  You get access to the book club where Eilidh is currently reading the Turn of The Screw by Henry James Plus 10% off merch in our Merch Store

Today we travel to a very special corner of the world, called Gleneagles. Set amongst lush, green, Scottish countryside in the shadow of Stirling Castle, Gleneagles drips with history, elegance, and flair. Over the last one hundred years this estate has hosted Presidents, Lords, celebrities, Wimbledon champs, and of course the everyday luxury traveler like you and me. Whether you are visiting for rest and relaxation, to experience the falconry and gundog school, or to dine at the best restaurant in Scotland - Gleneagles has something for you.  Our guest today is Conor O'Leary, Managing Director of all of Gleneagles' operations across Scotland. He tells us about the beautiful countryside, some fun stories of past guests, and what you can expect from a visit.    Learn more at www.luxtravelinsider.com Connect with me on Social: Instagram LinkedIn

Liam and Rebecca discuss the ghosts of Stirling Castle that are tied to Mary Queen of Scots, a tragic love story, and a murder committed by James II of Scotland. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next to Stirling Castle in Scotland, lies a Kirkyard full of ancient stones. We unbury the truth behind the witches and body snatchers. For a full list of sources go to, https://www.stonesbonesandshadowspodcast.com/post/a-stirling-cemetery --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/stonesbonesandshadows/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stonesbonesandshadows/support

An epic battle took place at Stirling Castle, one that shaped Scotland's history. Find a full list of sources at https://www.stonesbonesandshadowspodcast.com/post/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/stonesbonesandshadows/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stonesbonesandshadows/support

If you are an Earl, and you are sent a safe conduct pass to go talk to the King, you're safe, right?  You can go meet them, and calmly discuss that alliance you made with a couple of other noblemen, one that is not in favor of the king and his kingly position. Calmly, yes, and then you can go home.  Unless it's 1452, and you're in Scotland, and you're one of the Douglases, and the king is known for having a very bad temper.  In which case you might get stabbed 26 times and thrown out a window. Really, given Scots history before that, one might have been able to predict that; noblemen getting stabbed despite their safe conduct passes is sort of a theme.

The 1960 film Tunes of Glory has long been a favourite.  The movie depicts a post-World War II Scottish infantry battalion headquartered in Stirling Castle.  The castle, scenery, and soldiers in their kilts and trews all make up for great visuals.  The acting by Alec Guinness, John Mills and a... The post Tunes of Glory – a Tale of Two Colonels and a Tale of our Time appeared first on Wavell Room.

Mary Queen of Scots has been sent home from France, the place she has know her whole life as a young widow. Now facing an uncertain future, Mary must now deal with the increasing hostility of Elizabeth I of England, and she must produce an heir to Scotland and maybe England. Join me for the conclusion of her life. Support this Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/LongMaySheReign: Essential Guide To Mary Queen of Scots (Updated 2020).” Highland Titles, 2 Mar. 2021, www.highlandtitles.com/blog/mary-queen-of-scots/#:~:text=Mary Queen of Scots was crowned at Stirling Castle on,significance for t. “Mary of Guise.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Guise. “Mary, Queen of Scots.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 19 Jan. 2021, www.biography.com/royalty/mary-queen-of-scots. “Mary, Queen of Scots.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots. “Mary, Queen of Scots Beheaded.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Feb. 2010, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mary-queen-of-scots-beheaded. “Mary, Queen of Scots: Life Story (French Education).” Tudor Times, www.tudortimes.co.uk/people/mary-queen-of-scots-life-story/french-education#:~:text=She was educated to a,lute, and danced extremely well. Rsb. “Mary, Queen of Scots at the French Court.” Rebecca Starr Brown, 16 July 2017, rebeccastarrbrown.com/2017/07/16/mary-queen-of-scots-at-the-french-court/. WEBSPan - Web Development Solutions, Edinburgh. “History of the Stewarts: Famous Stewarts.” History of the Stewarts | Famous Stewarts | King James V of Scotland, www.stewartsociety.org/history-of-the-stewarts.cfm?section=famous-stewarts&subcatid=17&histid=160.

In episode 48 we continue on from the last episode and learn a little more about Stirling Castle.http://scothistorypod.comhttp://patreon.com/scothistorypod See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In Episode 47 we learn about Stirling Castle. From its roots until the reign of King James IV.Also a wee added in story of the Birdman of Stirling.This is Part 1 of a 2 part episode.www.scothistorypod.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jane Porter's 1809 "Scottish Chiefs"

Scottish Chiefs (1809) by Jane Porter

"Scottish Chiefs" (1809) Jane Porter

After Longshanks' used the world's largest ever trebuchet, War Wolf, to batter Stirling Castle into submission, he had captured William Wallace and had him brutally executed in London in 1305. Once again, it seemed that Scotland's destiny as an independent Kingdom was doomed.But inspired by Wallace's stand and appalled by Longshanks' brutality, there rose a new and even greater leader - Robert the Bruce - who would lead Scotland to triumph over England in a victory even more shattering than Stirling Bridge had been.In 1314, he led a force of just 6,000 men to take on Longhshanks' son, Edward II, and an English army of 20,000 men. They met at a small river, called the Bannock Burn. Subscribe to us here on your favourite podcast channel, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook @bitesizebattles 

Glasgow, once an industrial powerhouse, offers a fun look at Scotland's vibrantly gritty urban side — full of edgy street art, trendy dining, and the striking architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Leaving town, we'll tap into Scottish passions as we tour historic Stirling Castle and nearby battlefields, sample a dram at the land's most beloved distilleries on the Speyside Whisky Trail, watch a sheepdog demonstration, and struggle to lift the Manhood Stone at a Highland Games.hopefully you enjoy! Follow me on my social media pages, links down below and please don't forget to subscribe! https://www.instagram.com/_leonardhirsch_tourguide/ https://www.instagram.com/historyofscotlandpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/leonardo.zk.3/ https://anchor.fm/s/3098fe24/podcast/rss https://www.breaker.audio/history-of-scotland https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zMDk4ZmUyNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== https://overcast.fm/itunes1531185370/history-of-scotland https://pca.st/t8ewac19 https://radiopublic.com/history-of-scotland-G4MkEk https://open.spotify.com/show/5KO2X9P0mlNE4Di4K9NFhZ Thanks for listening ! love yall and please don't forget to subscribe on my channel ! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/leonard-hirsch/message

Our first time driving in the UK! Was it a white-knuckler? Or super easy, barely an inconvenience? Jon shares his biggest challenges driving from the passenger seat (in the US) and on the left side of the road, and it has nothing to do with actual driving! We rented a car and took a spontaneous trip north with the intention of spending the night, um, somewhere. We like to leave our options open since we never know which direction we'll be pulled or how far we may go whenever we go on a road trip. We learned a bunch of new phrases related to driving as we drove along the Fife Coastal Route up to St. Andrews, then on to Perth before making plans to spend the night in the small village of Aberfeldy, which is now Karen's frontrunner for our retirement destination. Special place, for sure, and we both felt the vibe equally. All we need are barn boots, some Harris Tweed jackets and caps, a few JRT dogs, a cottage and a Land Rover and we're all set! After bidding adieu to Aberfeldy, we drove to Pitlochry for a stroll, scones and coffee, and then on to Stirling to visit the awe-inspiring Stirling Castle, before ending our weekend jaunt in Falkirk at The Kelpies, the 30-meter-high horse-head sculptures depicting kelpies, or mythical shape-shifting water spirits. We're now looking forward to our next spontaneous road trip!Follow us on Instagram: @SumplaceNewFollow us on Facebook: @SumplaceNewCredits:Intro/Outro Music: The World at Large by Daniel O'ConnorIntro VO: Laura Welsh

Part Two: STIRLING CASTLE This month sees the launch of a special celebration of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, here, on The Tudor Travel Show. Throughout September, I will be publishing one episode a week, as I follow 'In the Footsteps' of this legendary Scottish queen, visiting some of the most historic locations associated with her time in Scotland. Along the way, I will be meeting up with local guides, (many are members of the Marie Stuart Society), who will share their knowledge and passion for Mary and her story.   In this week's episode, I travel to Stirling Castle and meet up with Elisabeth Manson, President of the Marie Stuart Society. Together we explore the royal chapel, great hall and royal apartments of the castle. I talk to Liz about Stirling Castle as Mary's childhood home, as well as hearing about the blossoming romance between Mary and Henry, Lord Darnley, which unfolded at the castle in the spring of 1565.  If you wish to read more about the palace and its royal apartments, follow this link. To see more images of the palace, join my private FB group, which accompanies this podcast, The Tudor Travel Show: Hitting the Road.   Other links: For more information on The Tudor Travel Guide's 'In the Footsteps of Mary, Queen of Scots' tour next June, click here. For up-to-date visitor information on Stirling Castle, follow this link. To join the Marie Stuart Society, follow this link.   If you want to keep up to date with all the Tudor Travel Guide's adventures, as well as top tips for planning your own Tudor road trip, don't forget to subscribe to the blog via www.thetudortravelguide.com.   This podcast now has an accompanying closed Facebook group, dedicated to discussing the places and artefacts discussed in each episode. it is also a place to ask your fellow Tudor time travellers questions about visiting Tudor locations or planning your Tudor-themed vacation or sharing your top tips to help others get the most out of their Tudor adventures on the road. Go to The Tudor Travel Show: Hitting the Road to join the community.    You can also find The Tudor Travel Guide on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.   Credits: Presenter: Sarah Morris Guest: Elisabeth Manson     Produced by Cutting Crew Productions

Stirling castle was an extremely important Royal residence for hundreds of years. Close by, in the small town of Doune, is an equally impressive castle, Doune castle, with its own bloody history. This castle has shot to fame recently because of the popular Outlander series where Jamie and Claire first met. Monty Python lovers will also enjoy the story of Doune where the filming took place. This Podcast journeys from the Trossachs, through Dunblane and talks of the Battle of Sheriffmuir. We also pass by the Wallace Monument and onto Stirling castle where Robert the Bruce's statue stands tall and proud looking south to his own famous battleground, Bannockburn

On this day in Tudor history, 9th September 1543, the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden, Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned queen at the Chapel Royal of Stirling Castle. Mary was just nine months old. Find out more about how Mary came to the throne, her coronation ceremony, in which Mary howled, and how she was already promised in marriage to Henry VIII's son, the future Edward VI, in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, founder of the Tudor Society. You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:https://youtu.be/LRVro8KO3R8 You can find out more about Mary, Queen of Scots’ very eventful life in my Mary, Queen of Scots playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLepqWJ7TpkrIIC1eB75JBP8xYcqnqTHt6 Also on this day in Tudor history, 9th September 1513, while Catherine of Aragon was acting as regent for Henry VIII, who was campaigning in France, English and Scottish forces clashed at the bloody Battle of Flodden. The Scots were defeated and King James IV was killed, but what happened to his body? Find out in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/scoxeEPvLk4 

Rising above a plain where the Lowlands meet the Highlands, Stirling Castle was the seat of the kings and queens of Scotland for hundreds of years. It's no surprise that this strategic castle has hosted many of the biggest names and events of Scottish history, from Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Battle of Bannockburn. More info about travel to Scotland: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/scotland

Rising above a plain where the Lowlands meet the Highlands, Stirling Castle was the seat of the kings and queens of Scotland for hundreds of years. It's no surprise that this strategic castle has hosted many of the biggest names and events of Scottish history, from Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Battle of Bannockburn. More info about travel to Scotland: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/scotland

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd July 1543, or 24th according to some sources, Marie de Guise and her baby daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, escaped from Linlithgow Palace, helped by Cardinal David Beaton, and taken to Stirling Castle.  Why? What was going on in Scotland at this time? Find out all about Mary's early months as Queen of Scots, and why Beaton helped her and her mother to move to Stirling, in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, author of "On This Day in Tudor History". You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:https://youtu.be/occfUzBMZu8 Also on this day in Tudor history, 23rd July 1596, Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, Privy Councillor and Lord Chamberlain, died at Somerset House in London. Hunsdon was the son of Mary Boleyn, nephew of the late Queen Anne Boleyn, and cousin and favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Find out more about him in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/gcYG4d-6QeU 

Tonight we take flight to a far off enchanted place, full of historic lore and ghosts!  Join us as we fly overhead and wander the halls of the mysterious Stirling Castle, where the famed Green Lady will no doubt make an appearance. Over 900 years old and said to host 1,000 ghosts, this is just the change of scenery we're all in need of! Visit our website for this episode: https://www.midnightlibrarypod.com/episodes/season-2-episode-12-stirling-castle-and-the-green-lady

In this podcast I explore the history of Stirling Castle. The castle has played a pivotal role in Scotland's history, from bloody battles during the Wars of Independance to the House of Stuart and the Jacobite Rebellions. It is even said to be haunted. Today it is one of the UK's top tourist attractions. This is its story. You can watch the full video at www.youtube.com/ValerieForsyth

HAT Excursus 6: Reasonably Insignificant Horse Feathers     From the South Carolina Lowcountry, where it’s delightfully misty and cool, I say: Hello to my hometown of Marietta, GA; where no pathogen can keep the dogwoods from blooming. Semper Fidelis to the Marines in Oceanside, CA. August in Jacksonville is worse than your hills. Warm Belarusian greetings to my friends in Minsk where you could use a little warmth right about now. And to Stirling Castle overlooking the Forth Valley, salutations from Studio C and… HERE’S A THING: Excursus.Become A HAT Patron

Set List: 01.Intro 02.Have Your Self A Merry Christmas 03.You Wear It Well 04.White Christmas 05.Interview 06.Red Suited Santa Man 07.Can't Stop Me Now 08.Let It Snow 09.Interview 10.Merry Christmas Baby 11.Winter Wonderland 12.Interview 13.Silent Night 14.Auld Lang Syne

The mystery of Irish music; Yehudi Menuhin playing the shit out of Stephane Grappelli arrangements; late night sessions in Canberra and Ennis; the fear of learning to learn a tune by ear; and Six Degrees of Gerry McKeague. Truth be told this is the second ever episode we recorded. Back when Darren had a strictly non-speaking role. For a long time we thought it wasn't right, then upon revisiting, we realised what a cracker it is. Ado plays the following tunes during the episode: The Golden Keyboard The Oak Tree The Porthole of The Kelp ...a reel we never got the name of, and... The London Jig Enjoy! Darren & Dom ... If you liked this episode and think you got some worth from it, then please pledge $2 over at www.patreon.com/blarneypilgrims. Of course, you don't have to become a patron to listen, but we guarantee you'll enjoy each episode more because you'll be safe in the knowledge that you're a deadset legend. If you can't afford to pledge on Patreon, and we totally understand if you can't, all is not lost. You can still support the show by sharing it on your socials, posting about it in your favourite forums or simply by telling your mates about it down the pub. ... Dom's Notes Once upon a time I spent a few nights kipping in an orange VW van that was parked just down the hill from Stirling Castle in Scotland. I was between jobs, and between (very shitty) houses, and the van was a refuge offered to me by my friends Frank and Linda. In the days when I wasn't sleeping in it, I'd look out for that van every time I was wondering across the top of the town, because if it was around it meant they were around, and if they were around it meant mugs of tea and music and a bit of crack. I loved that van. I kipped in it after gigs up the west of Scotland - ('Do ye dae any Rangers songs?' 'Naw, we're not that kind of blues band') - or Frank would drive us out to Cambusbarron or somewhere to pass a rainy afternoon talking about books and politics and quoits and a guy called 'Skin Bone' from Fallin who was the local champion. But more than the van, I loved being with Frank, Linda and their kids, Gregor, Neil, Peter and Emily. I used to work in a wine and whiskey shop in Stirling, just down the hill from Frank and Linda's house, which is how I first got to know them. I worked there for a good few years, and one of the perks was that I could play whatever music I wanted all day long on the shop stereo system. (Another perk was naptime in the cellar on delivery day). When there weren't many customers (Tuesday mornings) I'd drink mugs of instant coffee and construct complicated doodles on the wrapping paper stacked on the counter, daydreaming, wondering where in the world I'd be in some far off year like 2019, wondering if I'd look back fondly to working in a wine and whiskey shop in Stirling, Scotland, doodling and daydreaming. Frank was a regular visitor, shopping bags bursting on his way back up the hill from the shops, always with an eager ear out for what I was listening to - Dr Wu by Steely Dan, Songs of the Auvergne sung by Gill Gomez, The Bothy Band Live (Afterhours, that epic of epic albums) or Yank Rachell, on casette or CD. We'd talk about trains, railway signal box design (Frank was a former signalman), beer (Efes Pilsener, Sam Smith's Nut Brown Ale, Redback), Walter Becker's hair and the engineer who supposedly accidentally wiped the original masters of the famously painstakingly assembled Countdown To Ecstasy, an album I knew from my brother Gerard's collection. We'd talk about whiskey and wine and mandolins and blues music and sausage rolls and Ye Jacobites By Name (Lend an ear, Lend an ear). And we ended up playing together on and off for years, in folk bands which always felt a bit ill fitting for Frank and blues-rock-ish bands which always felt a bit ill fitting for me. He is, I should say, because he wouldn't say it himself, a fabulous musician. He has the chops, but more than that, he has such heart, such a feel for music. He's the unassuming center of any band he plays in, basically. So the McCullough's house was my home away from home, their kids like my own nephews and nieces. How do you quantify a friendship like that? Why would you even try? It's enough to say it's here, even now after...how many years? It'll always be with me, permanently wrapped around my heart. So, when Ado Barker and Kate Burke and Beth McCracken and virtually everyone else we've spoken to mention that it feels strange to sit and play a tune in isolation, detached from its usual social setting, I know exactly what they mean. So much of what me and Ado talked about, even before we started recording, was about how music connects us to others, and to deeper parts of ourselves that we are only able to articulate through it. It was music that first connected me to Frank and Linda (well, music and my staff discount on cases of Portuguese lager). And it was music connected me with so, so many other friends besides. As Ado was talking about going deep into the music I was remembering playing with Frank in a bar called The Tollbooth where we had a regular gig, him singing Back of My Mind (John Hiatt) or Steady Rollin' Man, bottleneck ratting on his Yamaha acoustic, me playing a mandolin borrowed from a friend ten years previous and never returned, a mandolin missing two of its tuning pegs. On those nights, and many others, especially working on some of Frank's own songs - brilliant, beautiful, melodic, and mostly unrecorded - I was often lost in what we were playing (in a good way, like). I mean, we'd be gone (in a good way, like). In the way that Ado describes. Thanks Ado. www.patreon.com/blarneypilgrims www.blarneypilgrims.com facebook.com/BlarneyPilgrimsPodcast @BlarneyPilgrimsPodcast

Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification in the region from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Before the union with England, Stirling Castle was also one of the most used of the many Scottish royal residences, very much a palace as well as a fortress. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542, and others were born or died there. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle. Stirling Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is now a tourist attraction managed by Historic Environment Scotland. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/allthingsplantagenet/support

The History Behind Game of Thrones The North Remembers David Weinczok is back so - "LET'S GEEK OUT ON CASTLES!" David is a Canadian born, castle enthusiast, daily found waist high in nettles, tramping the ground of a Scottish castle. There are approximately 2,000 castles to conquer and David has put (to date) 400 under his own foot. Powered by a passion for history, and a love for the environment David gets to most of these sites via bicycle. David has yet to find a dragon in his journeys. However, the patterns he noticed and the history he uncovered made him literally jump out of his seat watching Game of Thrones. He was watching a fictionalized explainer on the actual events of Scottish history and folklore. https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/0/037e01ef-c3bb-4048-9bb2-f57e8e9144e2/tsFiUTn-.jpg (https://nordvpn.com/?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_term&utm_content&utm_campaign=off&utm_source=aff) There was a tourism companion to be written and a map to be drawn! David took on this challenge and the result is the newly released, "The History Behind Game of Thrones The North Remember" and the, "Scotland and the Lands Beyond The Wall Map". Both the book and the map aim to help enthusiasts visit the real life Scotish locations that inspired many parts of Game of Thrones. PART 1: Today's episode will feature two chapters from David's book and the Map. The next episode will feature two more. I editing I noticed that it was really long and wanted to make a clean break for listener ease. David also talks about his "fan boy" moment while observing Game of Thrones actors sharing a quiet and cominal moment that would have been unthinkable in the Game of Thrones series. 13th Century Map of Britain http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/mapsviews/mapgb/mattparismaplge.jpg Matthew Paris 13th Century Map The first chapter we feature today will focus on the actual land of Scotland. Key points of geography and castles that serve as strategic defense points for both Scotland and Game of Thrones. So significant are these factors they led to the real life Black Dinner and the fictional Red Wedding! Scotland And The Lands Beyond the Wall Map https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/assets/img/scotland-and-the-lands-beyond-the-wall.jpg Scotland And The Lands Beyond the Wall Map, credit Bob Marshall, historical illustrator. Stirling Castle, photo credit David Weinczok http://castlehunter.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/20160708_191230-e1506282310195.jpg Stirling Castle, photo credit David Weinczok The second chapter will talk about the warrior's themselves. David compares the Lord of the Isles and the Isles men to the Ironborn. In a real battle David says he would pick the Islesmen. He makes some interesting observations. Lastly, we talk about the art or lack there of as seen in these two cultures. David reads a portion of his book that captures these sentiments perfectly. Please see the links below to find David's book and the map. Special Guest: David Weinczok.

4 eme jour bien rempli !

4 eme jour bien rempli !

  Today I will be talking about a subject that no one ever seems to discuss but it’s one that creatives have to endure perhaps more often than most. Whereas I can admit that sometimes collaborating on a venture can be awesome, there are times when it just ISN’T a good idea for productivity or for your sanity or career or goals or bank balance to do so. I’ll also discuss specific types of collaborator that you MUST learn to avoid. I’m itching to get into today’s podcast but as always though, let’s look back at last week’s episode and discuss how you are getting on with PROTECTING YOUR MENTAL ENERGY. That was another one which I feel very passionate about. It’s of such vital importance to our productivity levels that now that you understand what it is, I am hoping you have already started implementing measures to protect it. Please check back if you missed it as it presents some information which. Like today's episode, isn’t raised too often and really should be. This week I’m talking about creative collaborations with people, but not just any people. I’m talking about the ones that I’ve seen all too many of in my short time on earth– I’m talking about what I like to collectively call collabo-HATERS. Steven Spielberg talks about collaboration - he says “When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.” ANECTDOTE My professional behaviour and many of my own values were learned during my time as a student at Scottish Youth Theatre. The standard of training which I got there made some of my later, supposedly higher level training pale to near insignificance, and one thing that we did a lot of was COLLABORATION. Perhaps more correctly stated, it was ENSEMBLE WORK where COOPERATION was key - but within that ensemble the talent level was high and the spirit of collaboration was strong. We worked closely together to form tight performances based on a mutual passion for the theatre and mutual respect for each other and formed great long lasting friendships along the way. We staged some outstanding critically acclaimed shows and the spirit of collaboration, although firmly under the directorship of an incredible artistic director Mary McCluskey, was infused through all of it. In recent years though, I am sorry to say that I have found it increasingly difficult to find true collaborators “in the wild” as it were... I mean I have found many team players and good people, but it only takes one bad apple to ruin a creative project. They say that there is no “I” in TEAM …but these days I’m more likely to say – well that depends... The COLLABORATORS I’m specifically talking about are likely to be a partnership between two or perhaps three creatives who perhaps head a team such as a writing team, a director/producer or writer/director or co-writing partnership but I’m sure they exist in many other areas too. I can only talk of my own experience here. Sadly, I have LEARNED THE HARD WAY that getting hitched to the WRONG collaborator CAN lead to utter misery and a lot of angst and a lot of wasted time and mental energy. THE LESSON Harry Truman once said that "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." When true collaboration happens the way it's supposed to, everything becomes better. You SHOULD find yourself working faster, finding mistakes more easily, being more creative, raising the bar of quality and producing overall better work. I know this as I experience it on film sets every week. The well-oiled machine of a truly collaborative team effort especially when led by a steady hand is a beautiful thing but… …that said I’m sure that I am not the only one that has been scarred by the unpleasantness of bad collaboration. I suspect in fact that this is a situation which many of us face every now and again, and if you have been particularly UNLUCKY you will have found yourself in negative creative partnerships all too often. … and there’s really not that much out there, on the internet at least, that discusses what I perceive as quite a serious problem for creatives. There are a few articles aimed at writers, authors specifically, which I’ll put links to in the show notes but generally speaking it’s a lot of positivity about how awesome it is and next to nothing about how crap it can be too. I have the beginnings of an identification system, for recognising useless, flaky, untrustworthy or plain dangerous collaborators, or as I coin them here - collabo-haters. And I’m doing an episode on it as you need to watch out for these types of people. They will destroy – DESTROY – you’re creative projects and they will break your heart, dissipate your passion and ware down your soul - if you let them. Here are a few archetypes of bad collaborator.  These can stand alone or in their worst incarnations will be a combination of more than one type. By far the most common type that I have come across is THE HIJACKER. The HIJACKER you see is the supposed collaborator that sooner or later tries to ASSUME OWNERSHIP, IN PART OR ALL, OVER YOUR CREATIVE IDEAS or PROJECT. I feel like I’m the first to raise the topic of hijackers in creative work like filmmaking. I touched upon them I think in an earlier episode but let's get into it. The lowest level for me is, to put a name to it for this podcasts sake, the Low-Level HIJACKER. That’s the person who tries to invite themselves onto your project without you actually asking them. Typically this will be someone who turns a conversation about what you are doing, by the time you get to the end of it, into a project that they are doing with you. For example, you say, I’m doing this wee film about such and such, which then becomes them responding, oh we should do this in it. And you are like woh woh whoa there - “WE”? That’s the sort of person that somewhere down the line after you have shot it without them, will be overheard telling someone else how they came up with the idea but they’ll never usually try to take on a larger hijack as its just lies. I should perhaps have referred to them as the bullshitter, but you certainly don’t want to get into a collaboration with one of those either. Another low-level hijack might happen with someone further down the line in meetings when a team member tries to shift the direction of a meeting in a direction that suits them and won’t allow it to get back on track. To avoid this use Oprah Winfrey’s system for all meetings. She asks right at the start. "What is our intention for this meeting? What's important? What matters?" – and with that bookend in place, a meeting can be kept on target, and a low-level hijacker attempting to sidetrack the agenda can be kept at bay. So that’s what I will call, for the purposes of this podcast, a LOW-LEVEL HIJACKER. Now - A MID TIER HIJACKER - might manifest as a daily crewmember visiting set who has a skill. I’ve seen it in a camera operator who had decided they knew better than everyone else and just wouldn’t shoot what they were asked to do. I see these types quite often on either low to no budget projects or on bigger budget films where you perhaps have a first time director – For me when it happened, I let it slip at first, as I thought - this guy really knows what he is talking about and AS I HAVE A SORT OF BRILLIANCE VERSUS PAIN IN THE ASS SYSTEM which I apply when I work with people I figured - He acts like he knows what he’s on about – He acts brilliant. Maybe he is! WHEN THAT BRILLIANCE SCALE TIPS INTO THE PAIN IN THE ASS AREA, THOUGH, YOU REALLY NEED TO BE WARY. Sadly with the camera operator, I’m talking about, when I saw his work in the edit, it just wasn’t that good at all and I realised I should probably have pushed back a little more and made him shoot what he was asked to do. A daily helper doesn’t have a long invested interest in what you are doing you see, and some people like to come in and “save the day” and move off again. Sadly, like with the low tier hijacker, the only guarantee in their work is that they will be telling other people how they saved you in the time they were on set when they hit the pub later that day. Another MID TIER HIJACKER will perhaps be someone who hijacks your time or if you have listened to the last episode, who hijacks your mental energy. This goes into the area of time wasters which I tackle in episode 12. Time wasters will hijack your time by playing on your goodwill, or guilting you into doing something that suits them down to the ground and benefits them greatly, in the guise of it being a good idea for you, but in reality they leave you, in the end, feeling tricked or conned in some way as your own goals are left behind whilst you effectively work for them rather than with them… With HIGH-LEVEL HIJACKERS we hit Defcon 1 BEWARE BEWARE – These are ones that come in under the radar, and gain your trust - then do a less than brilliant job along the way, make mistakes and leave you to clean it all up, wait till it’s all finished, disappear completely for a few months of post-production telling everyone how wonderful they are and then when the film goes into the public eye they try to run off with the prize… And If you hear in my voice that I’m talking from experience here you’re f*ckin beeped outright. But even they are not the ones that annoy me the most. Those are dangerous people but the hijacker I detest most of all is the one that steals your voice or your reputation to use for their own ends. I once had an armourer call me and ask who someone was that had used my name to try and hire AK47’s for a job. I swear to god I had no clue who that person was – Turned out to be an extra. Someone else inferred I was a producer on their film and actually succeeded in borrowing two action vehicles in my name. I got called by the person that loaned them whilst he was on set who said who the hell is this assh*le ? Beeped out and I swear, I totally swear I had never met them! I did know who he was, but I only from reputation, and it was bad. He’d used images from a big show at Stirling Castle which I’d spent 3 months doing fight direction on in a document he’d sent out saying he was a stunt man. He wasn’t a stunt man either and he had NOTHING to do with that Stirling Castle event whatsoever. You’ll get people like that try to attach your name to film productions in development and even use your resume to gain trust until they get what they want and then they turn around and burn you. They’ll say they got there on their own and you get side-lined. These people exist and I dislike them intensely. So that’s the HIJACKER and I am sure there are more examples. But there are other types of collabo-HATER too. I got a bit of feedback on twitter for this section, and I won’t name names as I don’t want to get them into trouble but the first one that came up was THE FLAKE. That’s the collaborator that just turns into a loon and embarrasses you in front of a client or your crew or just in general and you find yourself inching away from them literally and figuratively. These people rear their ugly heads only once other people start interacting with them, and you realise that either they have no people skills at all or they are just plain rude and disrespectful. I hate seeing people treated with disrespect and it immediately turns me off a collaboration. I don’t like being embarrassed or finding myself having to apologise for someone, who appears to represent me. I’ve been lucky in this field, I’ve not got into bed as it were with too many FLAKES. The UNPREPARED is another collabo-hater that came up on my twitter discussion about this topic. That’s the person that turns up on the day when it’s all important that everyone is on the ball and you discover that they haven’t listened at the meetings, haven’t read the script or charged their batteries or prepared in any way and these collabo-haters are very common. I usually find that this is some guy or gal that’s got it into their mind that they are somehow DOING YOU A “FAVOUR”. They’re usually late too incidentally. I had this happen to me on a film of mine. Everyone was getting paid but this one guy somehow missed that tiny detail and called to that he was going to be late. In his mind, it was some unimportant short film. He arrived into a situation where I had some 40 cast and crew and a full dressed location set and a local star actor involved before he realised that it was a full serious shoot. He actually said, I didn’t realise it was gonna be like this, and I was thinking, so when you thought it was a p*shy wee film you were going to just give it your least possible effort. Believe me, you never want anyone on set that has it in their mind that they are doing you a favour because when they let you down, they’re doing you no favours whatsoever. Another I have identified is THE UNWELCOME GUEST. I heard a story that there was a really cool new production company formed and they were doing great stuff. They didn’t have much money though and the next thing I heard that someone had come along to help out. This wasn’t really someone they’d invited in, he’d kinda invited himself and was working for free. After he had his foot in I heard he was trying to creatively change or lead what they were doing and had caused what we in Scotland would call a stushy – or a great deal of upset. They had a devil of a time getting rid of this guy and getting creatively back on track to where they were before this uninvited collabo-hater came along. Michaela Watkins who plays Valerie Meyers in Casual says that Film and TV production is COLLABORATION and I absolutely agree with her, EVERYONE'S JOB IS INVALUABLE in the collaborative teamwork that takes place on and offset with all departments but as I work through this list I’ll just remind you that I’m largely talking about lead collaborators. I’m aware that this is another long episode so thought I should jump in with a reminder! The next collabo-hater is THE CHERRY PICKER This one is self-explanatory perhaps. The cherry picker wheedles their way through a production sometimes working quite hard, but leaving all the jobs they are disinterested into their co-collaborators. Cherry pickers need to be identified and dealt with as soon as possible. That said I will qualify this one as you may find that you match quite well with a cherry picker. I’ve seen awesome collaborations between people who enjoy the administrative side and those who love the creative. I raise it here as a problem collaboration if you have two people that really have the same skill set - it can be very disheartening for the one left to pick up the difficult and less engaging jobs within the partnership and in that situation ultimately IT WILL FAIL. THE SIDELINER is like a substrata of the hijacker and will start cutting you out of communications and make arrangements behind your back. These people think they are clever and if you let them get away with it they will become MARTYRS telling everyone who asks that without them, the production would have fallen apart. I’ve felt a bit like that myself sometimes but I think I’ve got over it now. I cut these people off as soon as it becomes clear that I’m becoming a glorified secretary and not an equal collaborator. This happened on a project on which I became the producer. After about two weeks I was finding out stuff I should have been aware off from the start and I got dropped right in it at an important meeting. After that and a third strike where he was just plain disrespectful, I dropped that guy like a hot potato and sent him a list of production co-ordinators instead. I was on board as a creative and active producer but he, it turns out,  did not want me to influence the project in any creative way. When I left, his project died. These people need fools about them that will do the hard work so they can start to play the part of CHERRY PICKER I mentioned a minute ago. And some of the hijackers will try to sideline you along the way too – Be aware of this as they’re some agenda usually behind their actions. THE COPYCAT – This is the person or organisation sometimes that STEALS YOUR BLUEPRINT. I’ve had it happen to me numerous times and this is the hardest one to spot. They’ll come on board to work with you, but sometimes as early as the next week you’ll see them using your templates or running a similar thing. My cousin is a painter and decorator – he has this with apprentices. I mean everyone has to learn somewhere but I tell you what I notice these days. Some people want a fast track to the top. They don’t want to do the hard work and gain the experience. They want what you have now. At least once a month I’ll get an email to fightdirector.com basically saying. I want your job. Please teach me for free asap. I’ll come on set and help you. YOU may recognise that one as the UNWELCOME guest. Look I could easily go on but I’ll leave it there. These are just a few examples of the sort of collabo-haters that are lurking in the creative world and you are far more likely to find that they are a collection of the ones listed here rather than just being one of the archetypes. You may find your own unique breeds out there too, but how do you deal with them? There is an old business concept that says you should hire slow and fire fast. That you should take your time when bringing someone into your organization and if it is not working out, let the person go quickly. It’s not quite that simple in real life but it’s worth considering. I need to temper that advice a little though by saying that if you wait too long to consider, all the best people might be taken. Use your heart to determine if a collaborator will be good for you, or not. SO WHAT’S THE SOLUTION? Finding out too late that you are working with a bad collaborator is awful. No other way to put it, but you needn’t as I have done all too often, throw in the towel and shut it down. There is no one best solution but… A good first step is to try talking honestly, respectfully, and directly with the problem collaborator about the issue. If you have set up clear agreements, which I’ll talk about at the end here, then revisiting them can make conflicts easier to settle. The goal of your conversation might be to gently inform your collaborator that the things are straining as they might not even be aware of it. You can identify which of your goals may be at odds and identify possible solutions together. It’s not easy, but it’s better than most of the alternatives. If that doesn’t work, you might try asking someone in a position of authority to mediate—a producer or someone in a similar position, or a respected, disinterested neutral third party. Sometimes though the best option is just to put up with it for the time being, but not carry out any further work together. In a worst-case situation, you will likely have to abandon a project. BUT I HAVE ANOTHER SUGGESTION Don’t collaborate in the first place. There I said it. Here’s the thing right - The first line of defence against getting hitched to the wrong collaborator is to ask yourself, do I actually want to have a collaborator? You should really ask yourself - Do you even need a collaborator? I know soooo many creatives that make the major mistake of inviting people to collaborate on a project without ever thinking it through. They’re so keen to tell people about it and get people involved in their next big scheme that they end up sharing it out and promising roles in it and crew jobs when it shoots. You need to learn to develop what I’d call a HABIT OF CARE and STOP THIS BEHAVIOUR. It’s just as important sometimes to learn not only when to speak up, but when not to speak at all. I also know creatives that, especially when they are putting something together and I’ve done it myself too, who will invite someone on board that really doesn’t have the skills or the drive or the standards or the talent sometimes, or if they do they’ll be invited on to help, not because they are needed, but really just to make the writer or whatever FEEL BETTER about what they are doing. This is a fast track to collabo-hating because when that person lets you down or disagrees with you and derails your project they’ll still have their name attached to it – ­­- and you won’t be able to get rid of them. If you invite someone on to co-write with you for example and you eventually sell the script and you know in your heart that you did all the work, you’ll STILL have to give away half the earnings to them. Just to make you feel better because you got a bit scared or lost faith in yourself in the early days. You didn’t need a collaborator to share everything with – what you actually wanted was ADVICE. You could have talked to a friend, you could have PAID a script doctor or other professional, you could have done anything other than pull in someone that wasn’t fully behind what you were doing AND SIGNED AWAY HALF THE PROJECT. I get approached by folk all the time asking me to read their scripts and inviting me on to produce or direct and in all honesty, I don’t have time anyway but what I say to them is this – You don’t want me to take your script or idea and work with you to take it further unless you want to pay me to do it of course as then I’ll be invested. To which they will be like – what? But I’m a creative genius and I’m gifting you this opportunity – But I still say - you want to do that yourself – Because most people will not be as passionate about your story as you will. And people don’t like to hear it but I’m doing them a favour believe me. I know people that have fallen out with me over that advice and you know what, that bothers me a little but – I stand by it. So with all of that said, somewhere along the way you’re going to decide yes, I DO NEED A COLLABORATOR on this one - so how do you find the RIGHT one. Well for a start you look out for all the negative signs that I’ve already listed here. You spot those signs and you avoid these people. Then you utilise that HABIT OF CARE and you choose carefully. Check them out. Ask others who’ve worked with them what they are like. It’s then you might find out that they constantly miss deadlines, or they act like they know what they are doing but really don’t. You find out then that though titled as editor or writer or director or whatever that someone else pulled them through it! And that happens all the time. You might discover that they don’t listen to feedback or are always going to go with their own ideas over yours, they’re all "take" and no give or they are terrible communicators. It’s amazing what can be discovered with a little bit of a background check and if you are getting into bed with someone creatively speaking you want to know if they are going to pull their weight. And when you’ve checked all this and you both think, you have found the right partner you then do the right thing and sign a PRE-NUP. Yes, I’m going to end all this with COLLABORATION AGREEMENTS and to sweeten the deal I’m going to include my own collaboration agreement for FREE DOWNLOAD within the show notes. A collaboration agreement is a PRE-NUP – It sets out what will happen if one or the other of you lets the other down and locks you together so you have a commitment to each other when you sign it. It sets out the terms in full, with dates and timescales and credits, and fees etc. and if you find that one or the other of you is not really willing to give up titles or whatever when things get real like this and they have to sign, then you find out well before you get into bed with a collabo-hater. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TYyxHUJn8h-IUdz7y4meBCzzJ_9KOk4n/view?usp=sharing  When collaboration is great it is truly great - in the words of fellow Scot James McAvoy “Filmmaking is a miracle of collaboration.” SUMMING UP To sum up, please remember that when everyone is NOT equally invested in an overall purpose and goal things start to fall apart fast. At the start, I said that I don’t fully agree that there is no “I” in TEAM … and these days I’m more likely to say – well that depends... Well, what I was getting at there is that I personally like a pecking order. I like to know where I stand and sometimes what you need to be is not the benevolent collaborator. Sometimes you have to be the team leader, and make solo decisions and taking that further sometimes you need to be the boss. The one in charge that listens to your teams' ideas and decides what way is best to move forward. Collaboration is sometimes just not a good idea! Brigitte Nielsen said it well and I think it’s appropriate – “I like to be controlled, but that doesn't mean controlled like a dog.” You can be a great collaborator and still be a great team leader. I set out into my career very much as a collaborator and I still enjoy that spirit of collaboration in all that I do. But I say the SPIRIT of collaboration quite specifically as ACTUALLY - I no longer seek true collaboration unless it is with truly BRILLIANT people. Take my advice btw and try to ONLY WORK WITH BRILLIANT PEOPLE. My best collaborations in recent years have been with Bryan Larkin, who is so much better than I am at so many things, but our skills have been complimentary and when we work together the work is always well received. Just be careful that in any collaboration you find yourself in THAT YOU HAVE NOT ACCIDENTALLY BECOME THE COLLABO-HATER YOURSELF. CALL TO ACTION The call to action this week is not specifically related to the content. It’s just to ask for some help. I'd really love for you to spread the word about the show. I have about 120 subscribers. I’d love to get more people listening and I need your help to do so. Please just tell someone about the show. Have a talk about collabo-haters and encourage them to check in and listen. I do this podcast as I want to give something back to the professional film community and the more people I have listening the better it will be. ENDING Now - I hope I’ve not totally put you off the idea of collaborating - just give you a few words of warning along the way. In the words of the Indian spiritual master, Amit Ray remember that “Collaboration has no hierarchy. The Sun collaborates with soil to bring flowers on the earth." For now though - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, watch out for collabo-haters and join me next week on Film Pro Productivity. The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website at filmproproductivity.com Please follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @filmproproductivity Or follow my personal accounts on Instagram and Twitter @fight_director Pleas support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review. Without your help, the show will never find a new audience. Sources: https://www.smartsheet.com/collaborative-teamwork https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/bad-coauthors-how-to-avoid-them-and-what-to-do-when-you-have-one/ https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/oprah-winfrey-uses-same-3-sentences-to-get-every-meeting-off-to-perfect-start.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucalufZoCYY Thanks: A Himitsu   Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsu https://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

In this episode I talk with Bill O’Neill of Ceann Cuin, near Penmore outside of Dervaig. Born in Stirling within spitting distance of the castle, Bill grew up in the Raploch. He was a soldier in Cypress and Libya, and on returning to the UK lived and worked in Sheffield, Stirling and then Sheffield again, before settling on Mull in 1989. Bill and his wife Jackie live in the house he built with his own hands over the course of 8 years, without the aid of power tools. We talk about his childhood in the Raploch, his years in service, working at Cruachan, and various driving jobs before we come on to his life on Mull towards the last third of the podcast. It is at this point that I should make a declaration of interest, as Bill is my father in law and Grumpa to my son, Coll. I had a few issues with my equipment during the recording, so I’m quite low in the mix. Which is probably quite a good thing. Also there’s a pitch invasion by Fingal, one of our cats, so there’s quite a lot of purring at one point, as he rubs himself against the microphone. Raploch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raploch Riverside School baths https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/iconic-swimming-pool-flattened-housing-3999137 Kelvingrove https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/venues/kelvingrove-art-gallery-and-museum Bob Swift https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/11910987.robert-swift-yorkshireman-who-adopted-scotland-and-the-national-instrument/ Stirling Castle https://www.stirlingcastle.scot/ Ochil Hills https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochil_Hills Dumyat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumyat The auld brig www.localhistories.org/stirling.html The Hunchback of Notre Damme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame_(1939_film) ALSO IMAGE Billy Bremner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bremner St Ninians, Stirling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Ninians Cyprus - British army presence https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/cyprus-1954-2017 King Idris of Libya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idris_of_Libya QL Bedford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_QL Gallaher Ltd, Sheffield http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s16727&pos=2&action=zoom Fingal makes an appearance Cruachan Dam https://www.visitcruachan.co.uk/ JG Graves https://www.visitcruachan.co.uk/ Viscount https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Viscount Further images and links can be found on whatwedointhewinter.com Thank you for listening!

Check your local public television station for this new Rick Steves' Europe episode! Glasgow, once an industrial powerhouse, offers a fun look at Scotland's vibrantly gritty urban side — full of edgy street art, trendy dining, and the striking architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Leaving town, we'll tap into Scottish passions as we tour historic Stirling Castle and nearby battlefields, sample a dram at the land's most beloved distilleries on the Speyside Whisky Trail, watch a sheepdog demonstration, and struggle to lift the Manhood Stone at a Highland Games. Watch this and other full episodes of Rick Steves' Europe at http://www.ricksteves.com.

Check your local public television station for this new Rick Steves’ Europe episode! Glasgow, once an industrial powerhouse, offers a fun look at Scotland's vibrantly gritty urban side — full of edgy street art, trendy dining, and the striking architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Leaving town, we'll tap into Scottish passions as we tour historic Stirling Castle and nearby battlefields, sample a dram at the land's most beloved distilleries on the Speyside Whisky Trail, watch a sheepdog demonstration, and struggle to lift the Manhood Stone at a Highland Games. Watch this and other full episodes of Rick Steves' Europe at http://www.ricksteves.com.

We can't ignore the Tory party conference, try as hard as we might, and we kick off this week's podcast with our reflections on Theresa May's moves. Ruth Davidson has been on a PR offensive for her new book while ignoring requests for serious political interviews. Gordon Brewer of the BBC and STV's Colin McKay finally got the chance to grill her, with very different results. Lesley has had a long commitment to justice for Scotland's tenant farmers and her steely gaze turns on the scandal of the impending removal of the Telfer family from their border farm by the Duke of Buccleuch. She also reflects on Nicola Sturgeon's response to Joan McAlpine's question on this in the Scottish Parliament. Historic Environment Scotland have been all over the news and social media with their refusal to allow the All Under One Banner marchers to congregate in Holyrood Park and the Yes walkers entry to Stirling Castle. Who are the HES's board and what influence do the great and good who populate similar civic institutions have in modern Scotland? We return to, Donald Trump, and the DUP's Arlene Foster, and, as they both face serious questions on their future, their recent rallying cries to their base. As usual I shoehorn in some musical and football references. Check out this week's title as well.

Ceremony at Castaway Cay's new Wedding Pointe deck, first dance in the Dream's atrium, and reception in Pink Lounge PLUS a home wedding at The Stirling Castle!

Stirling, Scotland is the home of Stirling Castle, which sits atop a giant crag, or hill, overlooking the whole town of Stirling. There has been a castle on that hill since the 12th century at least, and maybe before, but … Continue reading →

Stirling, Scotland is the home of Stirling Castle, which sits atop a giant crag, or hill, overlooking the whole town of Stirling. There has been a castle on that hill since the 12th century at least, and maybe before, but … Continue reading →

This episode we finally take another nature walk! The topic this week: unicorns. OK, so maybe it's not as natural as usual, but there's a lot of undiscovered country concerning unicorns, so it's a rich vein to mine. Much of our discussion focuses on the proper dimensions of things: how many cubits per horn, how big a unicorn sleeping kennel should be, how long a wingspan you need to fly or glide over someone holding a piss trampoline, etc. If you want to contest any of our conclusions about unicorns (and don't mind publicly admitting your virginity), send us an email (maskedman@limitedappeal.net). Theme music courtesy of General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners and Ipecac Recordings.

It’s great to be back with another episode of Passing Places. I briefly review a few personal travel highlights from 2013 and go on to mention that 2014 is the Year of Homecoming Scotland. As well as the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles we have the independence referendum to look forward to.  It’s going to be the biggest year in Scotland certainly in my lifetime. It is also the seven hundredth anniversary of The Battle of Bannockburn which took place a few miles away from my home. A major refurbishment of the visitor attraction is just nearing completion as well as restoration of the monuments on the site. So if you are visiting Scotland during the year of homecoming a visit to Bannockburn, Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument would be highly recommended.  I think Stirling is rightly justified in being called the heart of Scotland.

I Am Nasrine is the BAFTA-nominated debut film from Tina Gharavi. It follows teenage refugee Nasrine, forced to leave Iran and start a new life in the UK after a run-in with the police. Tina Gharavi explains how her own life and work with refugees in the north east of England contributed to the script, and how she filmed parts of the footage undercover in Iran. The White Queen is TV adaptation of Philippa Gregory's best-selling novel, The Cousin's War. Set during the War of the Roses, the battle between the Houses of York and Lancaster is seen through the eyes of the women at the heart of the action. Critic Rebecca Nicholson considers the growing appetite for historical drama and how The White Queen, with its underlying themes of magic and fantasy, compares to Game Of Thrones. For the Cultural Exchange, Paul Weller nominates The Zombies' album Odessey And Oracle - released in 1968. For the past twelve years, weavers at the West Dean tapestry studio have been recreating seven sixteenth century tapestries, known as The Hunt For The Unicorn series, for Stirling Castle in Scotland. As the final tapestry is cut from the loom, marking the completion of biggest British weaving project for two hundred years, John Wilson hears about the medieval techniques involved.

David McGuinness visits Stirling Castle and the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh, to trace the story of Mary Queen of Scots' reign, and the music which surrounded her. From the devotional masses and motets by Robert Carver - so popular with Mary's father, King James V, to the jolly French dances she would have enjoyed during her first marriage to Francis Dauphin of France, Mary remained a music lover throughout her short life. Queen Mary's favourite attendant and confidante during her second marriage to her cousin, Lord Henry Darnley, was an Italian musician called David Rizzio. Darnley and David Rizzio spent long hours together on the tennis court at Falkland Palace, but Darnley's jealousy grew at the Italian's familiarity with his new wife, and he planned to do away with Rizzio at the earliest opportunity. The political assassination that followed was carefully staged, with 500 armed men keeping the Palace of Holyrood House secure while Lord Ruthven and his accomplices burst in to Mary's chamber, where she and Rizzio were sharing supper with guests. Rizzio was dragged from the dinner table and stabbed more than 50 times in front of the Queen.

Kulande kullor och bräkande getter - ursvenska bilder ifrån en nordlig fäbodskultur. Men fäbodarna är egentligen inte något uråldigt inslag i det svenska landskapet, hävdar historikern Jesper Larsson som studerat fäbodarnas historia. - Getterna, messmöret och hela fäbodskulturen är egentligen delar i utveckligen mot det moderna samhället. En utveckling som börjar först kring mitten av 1500-talet, berättar Jesper Larsson. Fäbodarna var nödvändiga för norra Sveriges ekonomiska utveckling under 1600- och 1700-talen, och kom att ha stor betydelse för hela Sveriges ekonomi. I fäbodväsendets Dalarna uppfanns till exempel järnplogen, en uppfinning som sedan skulle spridas till södra Sverige. Dessutom besöker Vetenskapsradion Historia skotska Stirling Castle för att betrakta det pågående arbetet med den så kallade Enhörningsgobelängen. Originalet, de sju 1500-talsgobelänger som avbildar en jakt på en enhörning, hänger idag i Metropolitan Museum of Art i New York, men i Stirling Castle vävs nu exakta kopior. Ett arbete som tar många år och som ställer helt unika krav på vävarna. Programledare är Tobias Svanelid.

The earliest instrumental music in Scotland discovered on a carving at Stirling Castle.