immutable photos on Flickr

by Maria Francesca Ferraina

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAV6rWUyqCc

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you and me

meant to be

immutable

impossible

it's destiny

pure lunacy

incalculable

insufferable

Smashing Pumpkins

DSC_1652 Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Tonic by photographer695

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Tonic Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

Christian Law Firm Asks Supreme Court to Allow Workplace Discrimination Against Transgender People by Richard Clair

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A Christian legal advocacy group asked the U.S. Supreme Court this week to rule that employers can legally discriminate against transgender people in the workplace.

If the Court decides to hear the case and then issues a bad ruling, it will have far-reaching consequences beyond employment law. It could bring about the decimation of civil rights for LGBTQ people in this country.

The case itself, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC, is fairly straightforward. Thomas Rost, the owner of Harris Funeral Homes, fired Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman, when Stephens told Rost that she would be presenting as a woman at work. Stephens filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—the federal agency charged with investigating and litigating employment discrimination cases—and after an investigation, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against the funeral home on Stephens’ behalf. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor. Now, if the Supreme Court decides to take the case, it will decide whether or not Title VII’s ban on employment discrimination covers transgender people. Sounds simple enough.

But the case isn’t simple. It’s a way for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)—which the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a hate group because the firm spreads ludicrous conspiracy theories about a vast “homosexual agenda”—to turn its anti-LGBTQ fantasies into a reality. ADF’s lawyers have turned the weaponization of religion into a cottage industry. Their goal is to strip LGBTQ people of their civil rights by prioritizing religion over their humanity.

One strategy ADF is using is to target federal civil rights laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2012, the EEOC decided in a case called Macy v. Holder to fold transgender people into the protections offered by Title VII when it ruled that Title VII prohibits discrimination not just “because of sex,” but also on the basis of gender identity.

The decision wasn’t a leap. In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that Title VII’s ban on discrimination “because of sex” applies not just to biological sex, but also to gender stereotyping—discrimination based on someone failing to act and appear according to expectations defined by gender.

Legally, it follows, then, that transgender people aren’t conforming to arbitrary societal standards about how people assigned male or female at birth are supposed to look and behave. That’s what Judge Karen Nelson Moore essentially wrote in her opinion for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals backing Stephens: “[A]n employer cannot discriminate on the basis of transgender status without imposing its stereotypical notions of how sexual organs and gender identity ought to align,” she wrote.

Certainly, when Congress passed Title VII in 1964, it was not contemplating gender identity discrimination. But that doesn’t matter. As a wise man once said, “Statutory prohibitions often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils, and it is ultimately the provisions of our laws rather than the principal concerns of our legislators by which we are governed.”

That’s Justice Antonin Scalia writing the majority opinion in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, a case involving male-on-male sexual harassment. Scalia noted that “male-on-male sexual harassment in the workplace was assuredly not the principal evil Congress was concerned with when it enacted Title VII.”

Almost assuredly, neither was discrimination against a transgender employee. But that doesn’t mean firing them is not a “principal evil” prime for redress under Title VII. Still, ADF insists that Rost had the legal right to fire Aimee Stephens because she is trans.

What’s even worse is that ADF is also pressing the argument that forcing Rost to employ trans people is a burden on his religious beliefs and a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Rost says that he interprets the Bible as teaching that sex is immutable and that it “would be violating God’s commands” if a transgender woman presented as a woman while representing the company.

RFRA bars the government from substantially burdening a religiously held belief. So it’s a pretty neat trick to claim that the very existence of an entire group of people is “against your religion” and that to employ them would violate your religious conscience to such a degree that you would be forced to shut down your business. (That’s what Rost actually claimed.)

ADF is trying to couch bigotry against transgender people as a religious belief and is asking the Supreme Court to sign off on it. The Sixth Circuit balked at ADF’s efforts. But a Supreme Court with Brett Kavanaugh on the bench may not.

And if people have a religious right to discriminate against transgender people, you can be damn sure they have a religious right to discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and basically anyone who isn’t a cisgender heterosexual male.

But, you may be wondering: The EEOC is a federal agency. And if that agency says that Title VII bars discrimination on the basis of gender identity, then that should be the end of the discussion, shouldn’t it?

Well it is—for now. Under current law, a court must defer to the EEOC’s interpretation of its own regulations. That’s because of something called Auer deference, from the 1997 case Auer v. Robbins. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that federal agencies are entitled to interpret their own regulations as they see fit, as long as their interpretation isn’t erroneous and doesn’t conflict with the plain language of the statute or regulation.

This has been good news for transgender people over the last several years. The EEOC has interpreted Title VII to include trans people. The Department of Education (DOE) has done the same when it comes to Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits discrimination under any education program or activity that receives federal funding; the DOE under the Obama administration required schools that receive federal funding to guarantee transgender students access to the appropriate restrooms and facilities.

Unfortunately, an even more conservative Court (which the Supreme Court will be once Justice Anthony Kennedy is replaced) is not likely to rule in favor of trans or gay people. That’s because the court is unlikely to accept the EEOC’s interpretation of Title VII. Conservatives on the Court have been gunning for Auer deference, looking for an opportunity to end judicial deference to agency interpretation. This case might present that very opportunity. Should the Court opt to hear the case during the upcoming term and decide to stop deferring to the EEOC’s interpretation, that means trans people will no longer have any federal protection from discrimination in the workplace. This could, in turn, undercut the power of all other federal agencies to interpret their own regulations.

And should a conservative Court take it a step further and agree that people have a religious right to discriminate under RFRA—after all, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals already granted that right to bigots in Mississippi and the Supreme Court let that decision stand by refusing to grant certiorari—we can look forward to religion being weaponized against people disfavored by evangelicals in ways I shudder to imagine.

The post Christian Law Firm Asks Supreme Court to Allow Workplace Discrimination Against Transgender People appeared first on Rewire.News.

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Smoo Cave, Durness, Sutherland, Highlands, Scotland. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

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Smoo Cave is a large combined sea cave and freshwater cave in Durness in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland. The cave name is thought to originate from the Norse 'smjugg' or 'smuga', meaning a hole or hiding-place.

Smoo Cave was formed within Early Ordovician dolomites of the Durness Group (also known as the Durness Limestone). The cave has formed along the boundary between the light grey Sangomore Formation and the dark grey, mottled Sailmhor Formation (sometimes called Leopard Rock), both of which form part of the Durness Group succession. These horizons close to the formation boundary are characterised by large and abundant chert nodules which can be found all along the inner stream chamber where they have been left behind after dissolution of the surrounding dolomite.

The cave was formed along two geological lines of weakness by a combination of erosion from the sea and an inland underground stream which has formed the innermost chambers. Upstream of the Allt Smoo which runs into the cave, impermeable quartzites have been faulted against the Durness Limestone, causing the stream to sink down into the carbonate rock soon after it has crossed the contact between the two different rock types.

The cave is unique within the UK in that the first chamber has been formed by the action of the sea, whereas the inner chambers are freshwater passages, formed from rainwater dissolving the carbonate dolomites. Partway through the cave the waters of Allt Smoo also drop in as a 20 metres (66 ft) high waterfall. This is mainly due to the nearby dolomite–quartzite geological boundary where the Allt Smoo stream crosses the impermeable quartzites and sinks on meeting the permeable dolomites.

The cave can be thought of as two caves formed by different mechanisms that have joined together over time. The cave is composed of three main sections: a large sea cave entrance chamber, a waterfall chamber and a short freshwater passage which leads to a terminal sump chamber with some flowstone formations at the rear.

The cave entrance and main chamber have been considerably enlarged by sea action to approximately 40 metres (130 ft) wide and 15 metres (49 ft) high, the largest sea cave entrance in Britain. The entrance is located at the end of a 600 metres (660 yd) long tidal gorge (Geodha Smoo) which was once part of the cave, now collapsed. Several remnant pillars can be seen along the eastern side of the Geodh along with a large section of the previous roof which has been partly buried by the grassy slope (normally covered by rocks spelling out the names of visitors to the cave). The sea rarely enters the sea cave nowadays (only during spring tides) as the area has undergone isostatic uplift.

The present-day cave is 83 metres (272 ft) long up to the terminal sump at the rear of the third chamber/passage. The cave travels further, however, as an active stream of notable size resurges here at all times. Previous dye-testing has linked an underwater passage to an initial sink point in the Allt Smoo stream about 100 metres (330 ft) upstream from the main waterfall, implying that the cave system is at least twice as long as once thought.

Cave divers from the Grampian Speleological Group have dived this sump for a distance of about 40 metres (130 ft), although large volumes of silt and peat in the water have prevented further exploration. It is worth noting that the main waterfall is often dry and will only become active once this upstream sink overflows.

The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.

The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.

The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.

Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.

Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".

Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".

Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.

Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.

In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.

When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.

The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.

Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.

According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".

The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.

For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.

In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.

A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.

Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.

The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.

There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.

Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.

The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.

These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.

The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.

Climate

The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.

Places of interest

An Teallach

Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)

Arrochar Alps

Balmoral Castle

Balquhidder

Battlefield of Culloden

Beinn Alligin

Beinn Eighe

Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station

Ben Lomond

Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Cairngorms National Park

Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore

Cairngorm Mountains

Caledonian Canal

Cape Wrath

Carrick Castle

Castle Stalker

Castle Tioram

Chanonry Point

Conic Hill

Culloden Moor

Dunadd

Duart Castle

Durness

Eilean Donan

Fingal's Cave (Staffa)

Fort George

Glen Coe

Glen Etive

Glen Kinglas

Glen Lyon

Glen Orchy

Glenshee Ski Centre

Glen Shiel

Glen Spean

Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)

Grampian Mountains

Hebrides

Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.

Highland Wildlife Park

Inveraray Castle

Inveraray Jail

Inverness Castle

Inverewe Garden

Iona Abbey

Isle of Staffa

Kilchurn Castle

Kilmartin Glen

Liathach

Lecht Ski Centre

Loch Alsh

Loch Ard

Loch Awe

Loch Assynt

Loch Earn

Loch Etive

Loch Fyne

Loch Goil

Loch Katrine

Loch Leven

Loch Linnhe

Loch Lochy

Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

Loch Lubnaig

Loch Maree

Loch Morar

Loch Morlich

Loch Ness

Loch Nevis

Loch Rannoch

Loch Tay

Lochranza

Luss

Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)

Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran

Rannoch Moor

Red Cuillin

Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83

River Carron, Wester Ross

River Spey

River Tay

Ross and Cromarty

Smoo Cave

Stob Coire a' Chàirn

Stac Polly

Strathspey Railway

Sutherland

Tor Castle

Torridon Hills

Urquhart Castle

West Highland Line (scenic railway)

West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)

Wester Ross

War Memorial, Dingwall, Highlands, Scotland. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

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Dingwall is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest castle north of Stirling. On the town's present-day outskirts lies Tulloch Castle, parts of which may date back to the 12th century. In 1411 the Battle of Dingwall is said to have taken place between the Clan Mackay and the Clan Donald.

Its name, derived from the Scandinavian Þingvöllr (field or meeting-place of the thing, or local assembly; compare Tynwald, Tingwall, Thingwall in the British Isles alone, plus many others across northern Europe), preserves the Viking connections of the town; Gaels call it Inbhir Pheofharain (pronounced [iɲiɾʲˈfjɔhəɾaiɲ]), meaning "the mouth of the Peffery" or Baile Chàil meaning "cabbage town".

The site of the Þingvöllr, and of the medieval Moothill, thought to have been established by the Vikings after they invaded in the 8th century, lies beneath the Cromartie memorial.

In the early Middle Ages Dingwall Castle, which was established in the 11th century, was reputed to have the largest castle north of Stirling.

King Alexander II created Dingwall a royal burgh in 1226, the burgh becoming the seat of the Earls of Ross. James IV renewed its royal burgh charter in 1497. On the top of Knockfarrel (Scottish Gaelic: Cnoc Fhearghalaigh), a hill about three miles (five kilometres) to the west, stands a large and very complete vitrified fort with ramparts.

An obelisk, 51 feet (16 m) high, was erected over the grave of George Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Cromartie, near the parish church of St Clement after he died in 1717. It was affected by subsidence, becoming known as the "Leaning Tower", and was later replaced by a much smaller replica.

Dingwall Town Hall, which dates back to 1745, still survives.

The town has a pedestrian Heritage Trail, which launched in March 2023, with information boards at key historical sites around the town.

James Gillanders of Highfield Cottage near Dingwall, was the Factor for the estate of Major Charles Robertson of Kincardine and, as his employer was then serving with the British Army in Australia, Gillanders was the person most responsible for the mass evictions staged at Glencalvie, Ross-shire in 1845. A Gaelic-language poem denouncing Gillanders for the brutality of the evictions was later submitted anonymously to Pàdraig MacNeacail, the editor of the Canadian Gaelic column in which the poem was later published in the Nova Scotia newspaper The Casket. The poem, which is believed either to be or to draw upon eyewitness accounts, is believed to be the only Gaelic language source of information relating to the evictions in Glencalvie.

Dingwall formerly served as the county town of Ross and Cromarty: the headquarters of Ross and Cromarty County Council, established in 1889, was County Buildings in Dingwall.

The Ferry Road drill hall was completed in 1910.

As a result of storms in late October 2006, Dingwall was subject to widespread flooding the aftermath of which left the town and much of the Highlands north of Inverness, including the A9 and Far North Line, cut off for a time In August 2019 the town was once again flooded.

Dingwall's Post Office was named the UK's most improved delivery office of the year in Royal Mail's 2021 Awards.

Dingwall lies near the head of the Cromarty Firth where the valley of the Peffery unites with the alluvial lands at the mouth of the Conon, 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Inverness. The town contains a particularly short canal, the Dingwall Canal, also known locally as the River Peffery.

Dingwall is the home of football team Ross County, who won promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2012 and finished the 2012/13 season in fifth place. Despite the town's small population, Ross County attract sizeable crowds to Victoria Park from across the whole surrounding area. The team reached the 2010 Scottish Cup Final, having knocked out Celtic in the previous round.

Ross County won their first piece of major silverware in 2016, winning the Scottish League Cup by beating Hibernian 2–1 in the final.

Dingwall railway station has been on what is now called the Far North Line since about 1865. It also serves the Kyle of Lochalsh Line.

Dingwall is on the former main road route to the north Highlands (A9). Since the completion of the Cromarty Bridge in 1979, the main road has bypassed Dingwall. Heading west, the A834 joins the A835 road which is the main route to the north west Highlands, including Ullapool.

Television signals are received from the Rosemarkie TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter situated in Fodderty.

Radio stations are provided by BBC Radio Scotland on 94.0 FM and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal (for Gaelic listeners) on 104.9 FM, MFR Radio on 96.7 FM and Highland FM on 107.1 FM which is an all-volunteer based community radio station.

The town is served by the local newspaper, Ross-shire Journal.

Dingwall has a primary school, Dingwall Primary, serving the town.

Dingwall Academy is the secondary school serving the town and the wider area, including communities such as Strathpeffer, Contin, Conon Bridge, Maryburgh and Muir of Ord.

The Highland Theological College is located within the town, housed in a former Scottish Hydro Electric office. It is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands. Its focus is upon Theological Education, and is an accredited university for training Church of Scotland and United Free Church ministers and workers.

Dingwall was a parliamentary burgh, combined with Dornoch, Kirkwall, Tain and Wick in the Northern Burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. Cromarty was added to the list in 1832. The constituency was a district of burghs known also as Tain Burghs until 1832, and then as Wick Burghs. It was represented by one Member of Parliament (MP). In 1918 the constituency was abolished and the Dingwall component was merged into the county constituency of Ross and Cromarty which was itself abolished in 1983.

Notable people

James Fraser of Brea theologian and prisoner on the Bass Rock

Prof James Alexander MacDonald (1908–1997) botanist, born and raised in Dingwall.

Major General Sir Hector Archibald MacDonald, Son of a local Crofter at Rootfield, Dingwall.

John M'Gilligen of Fodderty who held conventicles in houses throughout the county

John Kennedy of Dingwall, Free Church of Scotland minister

Rev Duncan Leitch, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1952

Julie Fowlis, a folk singer and multi-instrumentalist

Kate Forbes, member of the Scottish Parliament for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch and former Cabinet Secretary for Finance at the Scottish Government. She was born and went to school in Dingwall.

Thomas Simpson (explorer), Arctic explorer and accused murderer (1808–1840)

Willie Logan, civil engineer and founder of aviation company Loganair

Colin Calder, founder of the Club Atletico Rosario Central - Argentina on December 24, 1889

Churches include:

Dingwall and Strathpeffer Free Church of Scotland

Dingwall Baptist Church

Dingwall: Castle Street Church of Scotland

Dingwall Evangelical Church

Dingwall: Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, opened in the mid/late 1890s, current building 1959.

Dingwall: St Clement's Church of Scotland

St James the Great Scottish Episcopal Church

St Lawrence's Church, Roman Catholic Church, opened in 1902.