Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Today’s adventure was to Galashiels, in the Borders area, about an hour’s train ride from Edinburgh. It was a magic day — blue skies mostly, warm and balmy, and no rain at all. Why Galashiels? Because it is the home of the Great Tapestry of Scotland, a massive series of 160 panels embroidered by more than 1000 stitchers across Scotland. Each panel represents an aspect of Scotland’s long history. And each was beautifully stitched, with excellent explanatory notes about the event(s) depicted.

The specially built building that houses these panels opened in 2021, right in the middle of COVID, so it’s not super well known yet, but if you’re in the Edinburgh area, allocate a few hours to go and see it – take the train to Tweedbank from Waverley Station in the heart of Edinburgh, and get off at Galashiels.

I could’ve taken heaps more photos than I did, but with the examples here you should get some idea of the technical skill of the artist, the historian and the many many stitchers who contributed to this history of Scotland from 420 million years ago, until the formation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.