Duddingston Village

I went to a friend's house in Duddingston Village (on the east side of Edinburgh) for a meeting of my walking group committee which was followed by lunch and a brief walk round the village which has some very old buildings and a lot of history.

I'm not sure that I've really noticed this plaque before and I certainly wouldn't have made much of the words "Under the seat beside the water makes a home for a' Jock Tamson's bairns".

The "seat" is Arthur's Seat, the hill in Holyrood Park which looms over Duddingston; the "water" is Duddingston Loch; Jock Tamson is probably a reference to a minister of Duddingston called John Thomson who referred to his congregation as his "bairns". The phrase "We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns" also means roughly "We're all the same under the skin" or "We're all God's children". There's a bit more about it on the website for Ancient and Historical Monuments if you're interested.

So I've learned something today through blipfoto - not for the first time!