Author: Ms. R.

Guyana’s port city of Bartica sits where the Cuyuni, Essequibo and Mazaruni rivers meet. It has long served as a launching point for gold and diamond miners—known as pork-knockers—on their dangerous journey into the wilderness in search of fortune. Nicknamed after the pickled peccary, or wild hog, they often eat, the pork-knockers scatter throughout the dense jungle in small mining outfits of a dozen or so people. Countless pieces of jewelry gleaming in shop windows around the world have……

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In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II will become the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee, marking 70 years since her ascension to the throne. To honor her longevity, the high-end department store Fortnum & Mason has launched the Platinum Pudding Competition—a contest to create a new sweet that will be served to the Queen and at parties around the country this summer. The winner will not only receive a trophy and a raft of tasty goodies, but their……

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The Magazine Fort is located on St. Thomas Hill within Dublin‘s Phoenix Park, just off the Military Road near the Islandbridge gate entrance. Construction on the fort began in 1734 and was completed in 1736. It was extended later in 1801. The building’s purpose was to store gun powder and ammunition for British Government Forces. When the Duke of Dorset ordered that an ammunition store be built for Dublin the former site of the Phoenix Lodge was chosen. At……

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One of the many closes perpendicular to Edinburgh‘s historied Royal Mile is Roxburgh Court. On this small square, you can find a plaque that lists the scientific names of four trees along with years. These plaques commemorate a bit of Old Town history. One of the most notable features of Edinburgh’s Old Town is the density of tightly packed tenements separated by narrow alleys called “closes.” As the city has grown and changed, some of these closes have been……

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The hamlet of Whorlton is believed to have been a Saxon settlement, it appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wirueltune. The church and nearby ruined castle attest to the fact that Whorlton was once a thriving, functioning village before it was abandoned. The tower and the chancel of Whorlton’s Grade 1 listed church remain, hidden within the grove of Yew trees that surround it, tucked to the side of Castle Bank Road.  Old Whorlton Church, sometimes also called the……

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Like many cities throughout Britain and mainland Europe, Dundee was once surrounded by a defensive stone barricade. The coastal port of Dundee’s last remaining fortress lies to the east and likely survives today due to its connection to the Scottish Protestant Reformer George Wishart(1513-46). During the Plague of 1544, the controversial preacher was said to have given a sermon atop the balustrade to the infected, who were quarantined on the other side. A plaque on the wall reads: “During……

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This story was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. The Blue Hill Observatory, a few miles south of Boston, recorded the deepest snow cover in its 130-year history, an incredible 46 inches, in February 2015. The same month, Bangor, Maine, tied its record for deepest snow at 53 inches. Mountainous locations will sometimes see triple-digit snow depths. Impressive numbers, for sure, but assuming you have a measuring stick long enough to reach……

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At 401 feet (122 meters), Todt Hill is the highest natural point in New York City and the entire Atlantic coastal plain. This summit can be found in the middle of Staten Island, New York City’s fascinating but often-overlooked borough. Being the highest elevation on the Atlantic coastal plain from Florida to Cape Cod in Massachusetts isn’t the only remarkable thing about this area. It is also considered to be one of the most expensive neighborhoods of Staten Island to live in,……

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Ouray, Colorado bills itself as the “Switzerland of America.” Several waterfalls and slot canyons surround the town, and one of them is right at the southwest edge forming the centerpiece of a city park: Box Canyon Falls (with “Canyon” often spelled “Cañon” in the Spanish fashion on park literature). A trail starts near the back of the park admission building and quickly heads out onto a steel catwalk built inside the canyon along the left (looking upstream) wall. It……

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In one of the display cabinets of Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum sits a rather unremarkable and shabby-looking iron lantern, however, this 16th-century lamp once belonged to one of the most infamous and colorful characters of British history, the conspirator and terrorist Guy Fawkes. The gunpowder plot is one of the most notorious events in English history and is commemorated every year on the night of the 5th of November, also known as Guy Fawkes Night, with fireworks (somewhat ironically)……

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