Dedicated to Arianrhod
Dedicated to Arianrhod
This website is written and maintained by Steve Sweeney-Turner, hosted on his cyberscotia.com domain. Steve is not (and does not claim to be) a qualified archaeologist. The website is simply a free, independent online resource that draws on established and original research from professional archaeology and elsewhere.
The website is currently coded in HTML 4.01 Transitional with HTML 4.01 Frameset and CSS 2 following the standards set by W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium):
For more information on coding standards and browser compatability, go to the CyberScotia browser help page.
Ancient Lothian was originally written using Macromedia Dreamweaver, but is now hand-coded using Arachnophilia:
Arachnophilia
The colour-scheme used throughout the Ancient Lothian site was derived by scanning a mussel shell from the River Forth at extremely high resolution and sampling selected colours from it:
The Sampled Mussel Shell from the River Forth
The full colour-scheme derived from this shell, along with HTML hexadecimal code values for each colour, is given below:
| #c7dad9 | #cacdd4 | #90b2c0 | #799dac |
| #4b6475 | #39484e | #95a19e | #8ab1a9 |
| #9fb09c | #57776e | #a4909d | #877280 |
| #67555e | #c0867e | #6f5758 | #474547 |
The Ancient Lothian Colour-Scheme
The most widely-used colours on the site are dark blue #4b6475 for normal text, light blue #799dac for links, and brick-red #c0867e for hovering links.
Special thanks are due to the following partners-in-crime, without whose help this site would be far less accurate and comprehensive (in alphabetic order). Please note that no-one with a particularly personal relationship to me is mentioned here as a matter of policy — you all know who you are, what I owe you, and how grateful I am!
John Allan (Midlothian), for his excellent winter photograph of the cup and ring carving on Tormain.
Michael Apter (Midlothian), for suggesting that the arrow marking on Tormain is probably a C19th Ordnance Survey marker.
Stuart Beattie (ex-Project Director, Rosslyn Chapel) and the Rosslyn Chapel Trust for permission to publish the included photographs in the Rosslyn Chapel page.
Dave Caw (Midlothian), for correspondence about Hallyards Castle and materials from Thomas MacGibbon and David Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland (Edinburgh: 1887-1892). Dave's own website is the excellent Caledonian Castles.
Kenneth Dunn (Senior Curator, Manuscripts Department, National Library of Scotland) for correspondence about the Skene Manuscript.
James Gentles (Midlothian), for generously offering a selection of his aerial photographs of Cairnpapple.
Henry Gough-Cooper, F.S.A.S. (Scottish Place-Name Society) for continual correspondence on various place-name issues.
Tom Harrison (Midlothian), for noticing that the "missing" early Christian cross on Tormain had been relocated to St. Mary's Episcopalian Kirk, Dalmahoy.
Margaret Jones (Midlothian), for information about Ratho Kirk and environs.
Janice Lodge (New Zealand), for copious e-mail discussions about Strathbrock ancestry and the medieval origins of Uphall.
Rob MacKillop (now unknown) & Ian Green (Greentrax Recordings) for permission to use the musical extracts from the Skene Manuscript on the Hallyards Castle page.
Moira Meek (Fife), for information about the decline of the village at Auldcathie.
Gordon Alexander Mitchell (West Lothian), for conversations about local knowledge around Ratho and Newbridge.
Tony Moore (West Lothian) for many discussions on Cairnpapple. Tony's own website, which includes a page on Cairnpapple Hill , is here: www.mediterranean-archaeology.net
Andrew Northall (West Lothian), for putting up with things and taking the odd (often very odd) yomp across bleak hillsides for no particularly good reason.
Tom Notman (previously of Midlothian, now lost somewhere South of the Border), for information about Hallyards Castle in the 1970s.
Mark Phillips (Ratho Kirk), for correspondence about Ratho Kirk and environs.
George Shepherd (Midlothian), for generous permission to use his excellent photographs of the Eastern outlier at Huly Hill.
Freddie Small (Ratho Hall), for correspondence about Ratho Kirk and environs.
Wally (West Lothian), for much advice, inspiration, and mutual speculation over the years, and not least for his Cairnpapple website and e-mail discussion list (now sadly defunct), which kinda inspired all of this in the first place. Thanks are also due to Wally for being as mad as the author of Ancient Lothian in general, but also for his vast array of 007 field gadgetry, which has allowed precise satellite-location of obscure shapeless mounds while wandering about in what would otherwise have been a highly aimless fashion. Your health, "W", shaken, but not shtirred, of courshe.
Thanks are furthermore due to all members of the now-defunct Ancient Lothian e-mail list, for many stimulating discussions and exchange of crucial information.
Please note that all materials contained on this site are copyright © by CyberScotia under Scottish, UK, EU and international law, unless otherwise specified. Materials on this site cannot be copied or reused in any format or for any purpose without prior permission. Please e-mail for copyright permission requests (most requests will be granted, but prior permission is indeed necessary under law).
Please also note that it is not in any way our intention to infringe upon the copyrights of any other parties, but if you suspect that such an infringement has taken place, please do get in touch to discuss the matter.
disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in the external websites listed on the pages of Ancient Lothian are not necessarily condoned by CyberScotia and it should be noted that their contents are not subject to editorial control on the part of CyberScotia.