Since moving out of Edinburgh I've taken to wandering about my new area (around 15 miles from Edinburgh) getting to know West Lothian and on my travels I found out there used to be a Great House called Hatton House which unfortunately burned down in the 50's but going by this
http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/record/rcahms/50361/hatton-house/rcahms?item=1234118#carousel
(for some reason I can't get this to hyperlink)
It must have been some house in it's day, so here's a before and after of the gates of the place
Thanks, be-bop, I guess £21,300 went a little further in 1796. ;)
That's great Be-Bop.
I wonder if the family were in any way connected to the Hattons for whom Hatton Garden and Bleeding Heart Yard in London were named.
Cool. Are the grounds completely abandoned?
Nevermind, I followed the link. :)
Should anyone be interested, the graffiti at the base (and I didn't realise these people had made it so far east) reads:
Ulster Defense Association - Fuck The Pope - 1690 (the year of the Battle of the Boyne)
It was once a fairly common slogan around these parts.
That's a fascinating tidbit, thanks Rhianne!
The scourge of sectarianism is all over Scotland and is not just in the west coast, when the independence referendum was being fought I could not believe how many flags appeared with the red hand of Ulster. and the ugly face of Unionism started to come to the fore.
I was talking to some Yes supporters at that time at a stall they had set up when there was a rain of bottles came flying over and the battle cry of "No Surrender" was screamed at us from around 7 or 8guys not happy at the yes stall being there, yes there's nothing like honest debate is there?