Edinburgh in the Spring 2004

The fourth Annual General Meeting and Mini-Gathering of the Dorothy Dunnett Readers' Association

Saturday April 24th

Edinburgh in the Spring started in a very similar way to the previous year - a spell of good weather suddenly stopping on the Friday night just in time for the now-traditional meal at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant which was organised as usual by Olive Millward. Fortunately it proved to be only a minor meteorological glitch and while the Saturday was cloudy to begin with things soon improved and the Sunday trip was blessed with positively summer conditions. Yes really - you can get summer in Scotland in April, so you really have no excuse for not coming next year!

The weekend proper started on the Saturday morning when we gathered once again on the top floor of the Point Hotel,

Charles Burnett
Heraldry - the Shorthand of History

Charles Burnett - Ross Herald

Charles has become a regular speaker and guide on these weekends and here he was back talking about his specialist subject of Heraldry - which he has previously described as Dorothy's "secret vice".

With the aid of slides he gave us a concise and amusing description of why heraldry came into being before going on to discuss its evolution. With examples of real sequences of arms through generations he then illustrated the mechanisms by which heraldry signifies family history and rank. He then concluded by giving us a description of the organisation and duties of the office of the Lord Lyon King at Arms and its continued relevance today.

Louise Martin
The Weaving of the Unicorn Tapestries

It is always good to hear anyone speaking on a subject they are passionate about and this was certainly the case with Louise and her talk on the Unicorn Tapestries. This is a project which is being undertaken at Stirling Castle by the West Dean Tapestry Studio and we were to see it in situ the following day. We were treated to an explanation of the place of tapestries in homes and palaces of the period and the history and techniques of weaving them. The methods of dying and the colours that can be produced were naturally of special interest to House of Niccolo fans!

She continued with a look at the access that was granted to the original series of medieval tapestries which the Unicorn project is based on in the Metropolitan Museum in New York - how they were discovered and their possible relationships to each other - and the connections and symbolism contained in them before looking at the techniques that were adopted in the new productions. Having just completed 2 years work on the newly-hung first tapestry depicting The Unicorn in Captivity - the completion of which she likened to giving birth to a child! - she was able to give us first hand knowledge of the detailed work and challenges.

The AGM

I don't want to go into too much detail about the AGM as it was a difficult meeting and it has been covered officially by the new Committee in the Autumn edition of Whispering Gallery. In any case since it is a private members meeting there is an element of confidentiality about what was said. However there are some aspects of it that are inevitably public knowledge and can be mentioned here. The main aspect of the meeting was the proposal by the outgoing committee to wind up the DDRA after a further year due to the decreasing membership and financial losses. This naturally aroused considerable discussion which went on into a second session and at the end of that the motion was defeated.

Some important changes also occurred. After having served as Treasurer for a total of 10 years on the Dunnett Foundation and then on the DDRA, Paula Garrow had decided it was time to make way for someone else and had tendered her resignation. Having served a similar period as Secretary, Angela Gilchrist also decided to move aside, while our Chair, Shiela Gilmore, who is kept perpetually busy with her role as an Edinburgh City Councillor decided that the pressures of work were now too much for her to remain on the Committee. All three have done a vast amount of work behind the scenes for the cause of Dunnett readers both during Dorothy's lifetime and since and they will be much missed. (It later became apparent that a fourth committe member - Joy Madden - would not be able to continue due to health reasons, although she hopes to remain in close contact and resume some active role once restored to full fitness.) There were thus three vacancies on the committee and there were three candidates for the positions - Olive Millward, Betty Cooper, and Julia Hart - who were thus elected unopposed; joining Simon Hedges, Denise Gannon, Ann McMillan and myself.

Even more dramatic however was the subsequent resignation of our editor, Val Bierman, who has shouldered most of the work of producing, editing, and distributing Whispering Gallery since it's inception as well as organising the AGMs and the Gatherings. Val has been the mainstay of official Dunnett activity for a long time and her departure is a grievous loss. Without her the magazine will inevitably change and will require the combined efforts of the whole committee to maintain as a quality production. It will also need the active participation of the members and new members joining the Association. Despite a number of schemes to boost membership we have been losing around 25-30 members per issue and along with the financial losses this was the reason for the old committee's closure proposal. Unless the new committee can turn this around then the DDRA has no future and the main body dedicated to the continuing recognition of Dorothy's work will be lost.

Sunday April 25th - The Trip to Stirling

Bannockburn

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear as we headed for our first stop at the Bannockburn Visitor Centre. This was more to provide the opportunity for a break and refreshment than to see anything of major interest - the historians are still arguing over the site of the battle so the centre may not even be in the right place - but it gave a us a chance to enjoy the open air and sunshine and take in the views across the surrounding land. With the blossom on the trees and crisp clear light we could appreciate this gateway to the Highlands and its strategic significance.

Mar's Lodgings

One of the rooms in Mar Lodgings - Simon and I speculated on its suitability for a Richard-Lymond swordfight and how Hollywood would handle it!

We continued on to our main goal and wound our way up to the castle car park where we disembarked with strict instructions as to the time and place for lunch. The castle was already extremely busy - at very short notice Historic Scotland had decided to have a national open day on the properties in its care so instead of the relatively private visit we had planned for we were surrounded by much greater crowds than normal. Even the castle staff hadn't been aware of the open day when we contacted them a few weeks before to make sure the visit was confirmed.

It was already a hot day and we were quite glad to drop down the old streets and into Mar Lodgings. This is a rather unpreposessing name for what was in fact the next level down from a palace.

Lunchtime Talk by Doreen Groves

By the time we had explored the Lodgings it was nearly time for lunch and here the research done by Val and Paula paid off handsomely. We were dining in Herman's Restaurant just a little further down the hill and still very much in the historic section of the old town. Owned by an Austrian from the Tirol it thus even had a Dunnett connection and the quality of the food and patience shown by the staff were both excellent. After lunch we had a talk from Doreen Groves, who is the head of Historic Scotland for the area north of the Forth-Clyde line and has thus had a close involvement in the restoration work that has been going on at Stirling Castle. An animated speaker who clearly cares deeply about her work she gave us as complete a rundown as was possible of the ongoing discoveries and the problems faced by anyone attempting to conserve and display the immensely important fabric and contents of this prime historical site. Anyone who hadn't appreciated the international importance of Stirling and what it tells us about the relationships between Scotland and its European neighbours around the Renaissance period will certainly be much better informed following Doreen's explanations. Many of us look forward to seeing the publication of the findings of the team involved in the work.

Stirling Castle

After lunch we headed up to the castle itself and were fortunate to have Doreen come with us to explain in greater detail many aspects of the history, archaeology, architecture and conservation of the different sections of the castle. As well as pointing out sections under investigation and where changes in such things as wall materials and colouring indicated later building, she was able to show us places like the "Tiger Pit" where you can see the exterior of parts of the Royal Apartments and explain the current thinking on how they fitted together and their day-to-day function.

The second Unicorn Tapestry taking shape

Our explorations included a visit to the tapestry workshops where we were able to see the work recently started on the second Unicorn tapestry and to ask questions of the weavers working there. It is curious to see the tapestry being woven on it's side on the massive loom and it must take some getting used to working side-on.

For those of us who had attended the dinner in the Grand Hall during E2000 it was interesting to see the hall in a different context, while the Chapel Royal where we had sipped Champagne now houses the first of the tapestries to be completed.

For more photos please see
the Dunnett Places to Visit - Stirling page

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