A view of the amazing Scottish country taken from around Scotland.
Many thanks to Nancy's family and fiends for sharing their beautiful photographs.
Accompanied by the music The Gael by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.
Music Available @itunes.
I hope you enjoy :))
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys) (SCOTS DG) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army, and the senior Scottish regiment. It was formed on 2 July 1971 at Holyrood, Edinburgh, by the amalgamation of the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) (themselves the product of the amalgamation in 1922 of 3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales's) and 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers)), and The Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons).
The regiment has won numerous battle honours and three Victoria Crosses, and, through the Royal Scots Greys, is the oldest surviving Cavalry Regiment of the Line in the British Army. The pipes and drums have also distinguished themselves, most recently winning the award for Album of the Year at the 2009 Classical Brits.[1]
The regiment is currently based in Bad Fallingbostel, British Forces Germany, as part of the 7th Armoured Brigade ('The Desert Rats'). In 1998, it became the first regiment in the British Army to operate the Challenger 2 main battle tank.[2]
In the Army 2020 plan, it will be re-reroled to be a light cavalry unit. It will move to the Leuchars area in 2015 under the Army 2020 plan.
As a royal regiment, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards is permitted to wear the Royal Stewart tartan, which was a privilege granted by HM King George VI, and is worn by the regiment's pipers. In addition, the Regiment's officers are permitted to wear the Black Stewart tartan. On informal occasions in their own Mess, officers may, at the discretion of the Commanding Officer, wear trews of Black Stewart tartan with their blue Undress tunics and also when in a civilian dinner jacket.
The regimental beret is in remembrance of the colour of the grey horses ridden in former times. In No.1 and No.2 dress uniform, a Peaked cap with the regimental capbadge and distinctive yellow Vandyke pattern (yellow zig-zag on a dark blue background) cap band is worn. This pattern is believed to have originated from that on the Kilmarnock bonnets worn by the Scots Greys in undress uniform at the Close of the 18th Century.
Although no longer general issue, full dress uniform is still maintained by the Regiment for special occasions. Full dress uniform consists of a bearskin hat with white hackle and badge of the Kings of Hanover on the back, British Heavy Cavalry scarlet tunic, dark blue pantaloons with double yellow stripes down the seams, boots and spurs.
The bass drummer of the Pipes and Drums however wears a distinctive white bearskin with a red hackle. The white bearskin was given to the Regiment by Tsar Nicholas II in 1894, on his becoming Colonel in Chief of The Royal Scots Greys. With the Royal Stuart kilt and plaid, the pipers wear a dark blue doublet and feather bonnet with a white hackle and yellow Vandyke cap band.
The Mess Kit is scarlet with yellow facings and a yellow waistcoat, embroidered with gold thistles. Officers' cloaks are dark blue with a scarlet lining and grenade clasp. The field officers wear straight silver spurs with rowels ornamented with thistles, like their gold sword knots which are also fashioned like the head of a thistle. The spurs of the Colonel and Commanding Officer are gold.