Stone age? Nah, more like IRN age.
You sly dog. Take an upvote.
In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
31–40 of 40 posts
Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#32I read George Mackay Brown in high school - Greenvoe and An Orkney Tapestry were the set texts in 2nd year and 3rd year respectively - and I was struck by the immense sense of depth of history from a living poet. It's difficult to explain what reading An Orkney Tapestry was like for the first time. It's like seeing Saturn's rings through a telescope with your own eyes for the first time except it's a telescope that's…
> The people who built Skara Brae had more advanced architecture than the Romans did
But why did they put so many spinner traps and magic mouths in the perfectly rectilinear, monster-filled maze underneath the town?
In all seriousness, I had no idea until just now that Skara Brae was a real place, and not just a setting for tales sung by bards.
Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Deep fried Mars bars are an English thing.
They were supposedly invented in Scotland, and I've not seen them sold in an English fish and chip shop. Go to Scotland however and they're not uncommon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar
> I've not seen them sold in an English fish and chip shop
I had one in Whitby, so they do exist in (the north of) England.
Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, you can't believe anything that's on Wikipedia. I actually live in Scotland. I have never seen anywhere that sells deep-fried Mars bars here, but I have seen them in England.
> I actually live in Scotland. I have never seen anywhere that sells deep-fried Mars bars here The link above literally has a picture of a shop in Aberdeenshire which sells deep-fried Mars and claims to have invented the delicacy. Consider the possibility that your experience might not fully encompass the truth and you might not have seen the whole of Scotland. It's quite a large country.
Google Street View of the same shop.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Carron/@56.9627456,-2....
Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#35I read George Mackay Brown in high school - Greenvoe and An Orkney Tapestry were the set texts in 2nd year and 3rd year respectively - and I was struck by the immense sense of depth of history from a living poet. It's difficult to explain what reading An Orkney Tapestry was like for the first time. It's like seeing Saturn's rings through a telescope with your own eyes for the first time except it's a telescope that's…
> The people who built Skara Brae had more advanced architecture than the Romans did But why did they put so many spinner traps and magic mouths in the perfectly rectilinear, monster-filled maze underneath the town? In all seriousness, I had no idea until just now that Skara Brae was a real place, and not just a setting for tales sung by bards.
Very very real. You can go there and see it. You can walk around and sit where people sat over 5000 years ago.
I grew up not far from there (it's about a six or seven hour drive, followed by a two hour ferry journey, so it's not something you do every day, but barely 160 miles in a straight line) and it was all Iron Age brochs and such. Skara Brae was already ancient and lost when they were built.
Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, you can't believe anything that's on Wikipedia. I actually live in Scotland. I have never seen anywhere that sells deep-fried Mars bars here, but I have seen them in England.
They’ve been a Scottish thing for at least 15 years! Source: I ate one in Edinburgh 15 years ago. Scotland is the home of deep frying things that have no right to be deep fried. My English friends are alarmed when I tell them of the “half pizza and chips” we used to have for lunch. Half a deep fried pizza, that is.
Deep-fried pizza is originally an Italian thing ("pizza fritta") and would have entered Scottish cuisine through the Italian community (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Scots). It's become its own thing now - a pizza crunch doesn't really resemble a pizza fritta - but it's originally Italian
Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, you can't believe anything that's on Wikipedia. I actually live in Scotland. I have never seen anywhere that sells deep-fried Mars bars here, but I have seen them in England.
I have seen quite a few chippys in Glasgow and Dundee, but it has always seemed to me like a thing for tourists
It's always been a daft novelty thing really
Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#38Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#39Re: In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
The origins of the Deep Fried Mars Bar are disputed but all of the people doing the disputing appear to be here in Scotland? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar
Yeah, you can't believe anything that's on Wikipedia. I actually live in Scotland. I have never seen anywhere that sells deep-fried Mars bars here, but I have seen them in England.
It was possible to obtain them in Edinburgh 25 years ago, but it was rare. It was more of a meme than a popular choice, based around the Scottish love of deep frying absolutely everything.