Arran is a small island, 20 miles long and 56 miles round, located off the south-west coast of Scotland.

Ferries run from the Scottish mainland to the Isle of Arran. Most people reach the island via Ardrossan which has a direct rail service from Glasgow.

The history of Arran is of strong interest to local Archeologists, tourists, and residents.

The first people on Arran to leave visible signs of their life and times here were the Neolithic people, who lived on the island in the period between 4,500BC and 2,000BC. They were farmers, and traces of their field systems have been found on Arran. However, they have left their most distinct legacy on Arran in the form of stone circles, standing stones and cairns. We do not know what these monuments were used for, but it is safe to assume that they had some kind of ceremonial function.

Machrie moor standing stones is a small ancient circle protected by a stone wall. Continue on the footpath and you will reach the main site, three-quarters of a mile across the fields.

Robert Pollock has produced an excellent guide with diagrams which details these and other circles on this site. Two of the circles have recently been excavated, and the amount of peat growth over the original prehistoric ground surface can be seen as a tidemark on the stones. Indeed one of the circles had completely disappeared under the peat.

Druid Stone is likely to be a Neolithic or Bronze age stone, despite its local association with the Iron Age priesthood. A druid was a member of the priestly and learned class in the ancient Celtic societies of Western Europe, Britain and Ireland.

Ruins of Lochranza Castle are located north of Brodick.

It features the striking ruins of a 14th century castle, a former hunting lodge of the Scottish Kings.

It has been claimed that Lochranza Castle has literary connections, being used as the basis for the castle in the Tintin adventure "The Black Island".

Brodick Castle is made up of red sandstone and it lies at the foot of Goatfell Mountain 1.5 miles out of Brodick; the main port on the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland.

The name Brodick comes from the Norse words, meaning 'broad bay'. Arran means 'peaked island' in Gaelic.

It's a fascinating Island filled with mysteries and folklore. Visit now before the times destroy it.

1. Rendezvous Ribs: Memphis, TN

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Nestled in the a street alley, the view from the outside can fool you. However, taste the ribs and you will be hooked for life. You will yearn to travel to Memphis just for those ribs. Truly, this is the best rib I have ever encountered.

2. Daddy D'z BBQ Joint: Atlanta, GA

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Like Rendezvous, don't look for a suburb exterior. The floor feels like it will give out under weight of the endless line awaiting the savory temptations of smoked pork. Look for the “I'm dyin for Daddy D'z BBQ Joynt” sign.

3. Leatha's BBQ: Hattiesburg, MS

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This place used to be in the very small town of Columbia, MS. It moved after a group of willing to pay parties wanted to make Miss Mammy Letha's BBQ recipes readily available to themselves. The restaurant was run out of her old shack of a house, but mammy has moved to a much bigger kitchen. However, the same red and white checker table clothes line the tables. Her grandson is still going table to table singing the blues and her granddaughters are still waiting tables. Although, no one is sad after tasting the ribs!

4. The Brick Pit: Mobile, AL

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They smoke chickens for 8 hours, ribs for 12 hours, and pulled pork for up to 30 hours over a blend of Hickory and Pecan . You will not find a trace of fat in their pulled pork either. The stained ceiling or stiff back chairs wont even bother you. You will be too busy blissfully smacking down.

5. Bob Sykes BarB-Q: Bessemer, AL

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Their BBQ is slow fired over hickory and leaves a truly unique taste. Don't forget the lemon pie… wow, good!

Sensing more trouble to come, the British then went on and annexed the Transvaal which led within three years to the first Boer War which broke out in 1880. At this stage, South Africa was undergoing dramatic changes, brought about by the discovery of diamonds. Railways were being built to bring diggers and prospectors to the fields, roads were hacked through what had hitherto been deemed impenetrable mountains; the country was no longer a smattering of farmers eeking out a living around the Cape and fighting their way into the interior; it was now heading towards becoming a land of mineral wealth and value to the rest of the world. We whites should have known better than to allow this to happen. We should have left there and then. We are sorry.

The African, having nothing to offer but his labour, came in droves to the diggings and, being smart despite his rural background, began to make his fortune. We should not have let this happen. We are sorry. It caused rifts in families, untold strife, and a huge human movement whose wave is still breaking on our shores today. We should have imported our own white labour for the diamond fields and allowed the African to continue to farm his cattle, eat his mealies, and sell his daughters.

Then, as if this was not enough, gold was discovered on the Reef in 1886. More African labour left the kraals in search of wealth and fortune. We are sorry. We should not have allowed it. We should have mined the gold on our own and taken the spoils with us when we left. After all, finders keepers!

Because of the greed of the colonialists the cities of Kimberley and Johannesburg were founded in the middle of nowhere; resulting from the cupidity of the native black, steps had to be taken to accommodate those who sought work in the cities, and so, temporary shanty towns for all races were allowed to mushroom out of the veld. We are sorry. It was the start of a new problem.

1902 brought the end of the second Boer war; it was the end of tremendous suffering for both British and Afrikaner and, in retrospect, achieved little other than to unite the whole of South Africa in the Act of Union in1910. One of Britain's great mistakes was to beat warring factions into submission, establish law and order, and then give the land back to those from whom it had been taken. We apologise; we should have kept it all for ourselves and forced those who came before us to live under the British colonial yoke.

In 1913 the National Party was formed. What had hitherto just been various small groups of people living off the land, fighting with each other from time to time but largely keeping to themselves, had suddenly become a country and a population which required organising and governing, something that the British were particularly good at, and some sort of order needed to be established to avoid the anarchy and lawlessness of the Wild West gradually taking over. In order to protect the rights of the wandering blacks, 912 million hectares of land was put aside for their sole use. For the first time, the blacks actually had the legal right to occupy and farm this enormous area.

In 1928 Iscor was formed. In order to prevent further strife between black and white, a form of segregation was attempted. It failed.

1929 saw the first National Party government come to power, but for various reasons it was a dismal failure, and in 1933 a coalition government was established under the then United Party. Because only a very small proportion of the land was arable and because both blacks and whites saw enormous wealth being wrested from the ground, large numbers of both races had abandoned the rural areas and descended on the cities, whose streets, they believed, were paved with gold. They both lived in incredible hardship and poverty - a situation which could not be allowed to continue.

1936 saw a further 6,2 million hectares of land added to the initial 912 million hectares for exclusive black use. We were wrong; we should not have allowed black legal tenure of any of the land and rather kept it for ourselves. Sorry.

By 1944 Jan Hofmeyr had lost a great deal of his support because of his promotion of the interests of black people in this country, and in 1948 the dreaded Nationalists came to power and Grand Apartheid followed soon after. We really are sorry about this one.

The Carolina sky is big and beautiful; sometimes a deep azure and no clouds. Every morning I am thankful to my Creator for His awesome Love, and how He has blessed the Southern Hemisphere with such wonder. Azaleas, full of color and many hues of pinks, reds and white blossoms in the springtime is a feast for the eyes.

In the summertime the heat is unbearably humid, and the Carolinians are grateful for indoor air conditioning

Outside my bedroom window is the towering Loquat Tree; it shades the sun from filtering heat into my room. Down below from my window, I can see the grey, stone bird bath that is in the shape of a large sea shell. Many pretty birds gather around the base. In the early morning, the Doves gather around the garden lawn. The Wren is the State bird and the Yellow Jasmine is the State flower. Cardinals and Blue Jays, Blue birds, yellow birds, and Red birds sometimes gather at the garden too. There is also the Chickadee, and the Tit Mouse which is a very small bird, resembling the Oriole.

There are many places to retreat too in South Carolina, to get away from a hectic day, but my favorite spot is through my bedroom window and I just sit and do some Carolina Dreamin'