Latest news with #MaryQueenofScots
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Saoirse Ronan and Jack Lowden are ‘Happy and Excited' As They Await the Arrival Of Their First Child
Saoirse Ronan and Jack Lowden are expecting their first child — just a year after the actors wed in Jack's native Scotland. 'Saoirse's always wanted to be a mom,' says an insider. 'It was just a question of finding the right partner.' The Irish Oscar nominee, 31, met the 35-year-old on the 2018 set of Mary Queen of Scots. Though they typically shun the spotlight, they occasionally open up about their love, with Jack calling the Ladybird star a 'force of nature,' and Saoirse swooning that he's 'someone that [I] really trust.' Now they are busy feathering their nest for the new arrival. 'It's still a few weeks to go, and Saoirse plans on taking time off work to bond with the baby,' says the insider. 'They are extremely happy and excited.'
The Herald Scotland
28-06-2025
- The Herald Scotland
Scotland's best seaside picnic spots with incredible views
While beach dining isn't for everyone, I certainly have a real fondness for it. If you do too, then this list will be just the ticket. Here, we round up five of Scotland's most scenic seaside picnic spots, all with incredible views to gaze at as you eat. Culzean Castle, Ayrshire There is a majestic stretch of towering cliffs, rocky shores and sandy bays around Culzean Castle that is perfect for picnicking and has plenty of scope for adventure. Not least when it comes to guddling in rock pools – or scouring the beach for other magical treasures. Read More: At low tide, the volcanic rock formations and lava platforms are brilliant for glimpsing pockets of marine life. Keep your eyes peeled for ghost prawns, sea urchins and starfish. Geology buffs, meanwhile, can enjoy looking for semi-precious stones, such as agate, jasper and amethyst. Tuck into a leisurely feast with vistas of Arran, Kintyre and Ailsa Craig. Afterwards, head back up into the castle grounds to grab dessert at the Aviary Ice Cream Parlour beside the Swan Pond. Seacliff, East Lothian This private and unspoilt beach, around five miles from North Berwick, offers spellbinding views of the Bass Rock and the ruins of Tantallon Castle. The tiny sandstone harbour, dating from the 1890s, is widely credited as the smallest in the UK. Popular among surfers, dog walkers and, yep, picnic lovers, Seacliff has graced the screen in a clutch of star-studded TV shows and films in recent times, including Outlaw King, Mary Queen of Scots and The Buccaneers. Car entry is controlled by a coin-operated barrier. If you fancy topping up your beach banquet with some coffee and cake, you are less than a 10-minute drive from Drift, a gorgeous cliff top cafe that operates out of converted shipping containers and a former horse trailer. Kingsbarns, Fife Fife is packed with coastal gems, from the family-friendly Burntisland and Aberdour Silver Sands to low-key beauties such as Leven Beach, which is believed to have inspired Jack Vettriano's famed painting The Singing Butler. Leven beach (Image: Alamy Stock Photo) There are the unmistakable golden panoramas of St Andrews West Sands, as captured on celluloid in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, and the classic East Neuk charm of Elie, Crail Roome Bay, Lower Largo and Kingsbarns. The latter beach, also known as Cambo Sands, has something for everyone, proffering soul-salving solitude and sheltered dunes, with ample opportunities for wildlife spotting, fossil hunting and rockpooling. In addition to being heavenly for hosting a picnic, Kingsbarns is a great place to tap into the growing outdoorsy wellness trend for 'wild saunas', aka 'hot boxes'. Wild Seaside Sauna has a location here – as well as at St Andrews West Sands and Elie – if you fancy giving it a whirl. Balmedie Country Park, Aberdeenshire This corner of north-east Scotland has the best of both worlds, with a beach and sand dunes, alongside heathland and wooded areas – all connected by a network of boardwalks and paths. These include the mile-long (1.7km) Ice House Route, which gives a window into a bygone era when fish caught along the coast would be stored in a series of underground, stone-vaulted structures deep within the dunes – an early form of refrigeration. Read More: If you hanker after a post-picnic ice cream, the Sand Bothy kiosk is open on weekends. Another excellent facility is Balmedie Beach Wheelchairs, a free, volunteer-run service, which is staffed on Sundays from noon until 3pm and bookable in advance at other times. Westport Beach, Kintyre, Argyll Picking a picnic beach on the Kintyre peninsula is no easy task, simply because you are spoiled for choice. Westport Beach, with its six miles of golden sand, rarely feels overcrowded. It is set against a backdrop of the mighty Machrihanish Dunes which, the largest of their kind in mainland Argyll, are designated as a Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI). Don't be surprised if you see folk with binoculars and fancy cameras: the area is renowned for myriad bird species – Leach's petrel, Balearic shearwater, grey phalarope and Sabine's gull – with Machrihanish Seabird and Wildlife Observatory only a short jaunt down the coast. Susan Swarbrick is a columnist and freelance writer who loves history and the outdoors. Follow her on X @SusanSwarbrick and Bluesky @
The Independent
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Decoded letters expose Mary Queen of Scots' political plotting
Fifty-seven secret letters written by Mary Queen of Scots were recently decoded after being mistakenly labelled as Italian in the French national library. Computer scientists George Lasry and Satoshi Tomokiyo, along with German music professor Norbert Biermann, solved the cipher system used by Mary during her imprisonment. The letters, dating from 1578 to 1584, reveal Mary's cunning political schemes, including attempts to manipulate Queen Elizabeth I 's spymaster, Francis Walsingham. Addressed mostly to the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissiere, the correspondence shows Mary providing direct instructions about feeding information about her. Historians involved in the project describe Mary as a "clever" and "adept player" who strategically used her limited position to orchestrate plans, with the full content to be published in 2027.
The Independent
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Mary Queen of Scots' political scheming revealed in decoded missing letters
Historians have revealed the cunning schemes Mary Queen of Scots orchestrated while she was imprisoned in England by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. In 2023, codebreakers decoded secret and previously feared lost letters written by the 16th century monarch. Hidden in the French national library, the 57 letters were mistakenly labelled as Italian - until computer scientist George Lasry, computer scientist, astrophysicist Satoshi Tomokiyo, and German music professor Norbert Biermann found them. The trio solved the cipher system used by Mary, Queen of Scots during her imprisonment to encrypt the messages. Since the discovery, historians Alex Courtney and Estelle Paranque joined the project, unveiling fascinating insights into the letters' content - which are due to be published in a book in 2027. They say the letters see Mary orchestrate a number of political schemes, including trying to manipulate Elizabeth I's spymaster, Francis Walsingham, according to The Times. Most of the letters are addressed to Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissiere, the French ambassador to England, who was a supporter of Catholic Mary. She asks him to feed information about her, including direct instructions on what to say. 'Honestly, if you read the letters that are not ciphered, I thought she was a moron,' Ms Paranque said at the Chalke history festival in Wiltshire, The Times reported. 'But our ciphers — if you really try to put yourself back in 1581, as if you don't know who is going to win … I was reading them and thinking, she's going to win. They're that clever.' She also mentions her son, the future King James I of England, repeatedly, calling him 'my poor infant' at one point. 'She's very good at turning on the waterworks when, rhetorically, it might be the best strategy,' Mr Courtney said. 'She is a particularly adept player of the very weak hand that she has.' The letters date from 1578 to 1584, a few years before Mary's beheading 436 years ago today – February 8th 1587. Mary Queen of Scots was the cousin of Queen Elizabeth I. She was imprisoned for 19 years in various castles in England. While in captivity, Mary communicated with her associates and allies, making extensive efforts to recruit messengers and to maintain secrecy. After being found to be plotting against Elizabeth, letters in code written by Mary were found and she was deemed guilty of treason and executed in 1587. Speaking at the time of the letters' discovery, Mr Lasry said: 'Upon deciphering the letters, I was very, very puzzled and it kind of felt surreal. 'We have broken secret codes from kings and queens previously, and they're very interesting, but with Mary Queen of Scots it was remarkable as we had so many unpublished letters deciphered and because she is so famous. 'This is a truly exciting discovery.'
Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Mary Queen of Scots' scheming revealed in decoded letters
Mary Queen of Scots was a cunning politician who ran Machiavellian-like schemes from behind bars, historians have said, after newly decoded letters shone light on her plots. The letters, written in a cipher made up of symbols rather than alphabetic characters, were hidden in the French national library, mistakenly labelled as Italian and with no link identified to Mary or Elizabethan England. They were found and decoded by a team including George Lasry, an Israeli computer scientist, Satoshi Tomokiyo, a Japanese astrophysicist, and Norbert Biermann, a German music professor. They routinely go through archives and decode ancient ciphers purely for fun. The letters reveal the lengths Mary went to in order to secretly influence the Elizabethan court during her captivity, which ended with her execution in 1587. Speaking at the Chalke history festival in Wiltshire, Alex Courtney, a historian and teacher, said the letters showed that Mary was more than just 'a villain or a victim' and that they could revolutionise our understanding of the jailed queen. The team used a combination of computer algorithms, linguistic analysis and manual codebreaking techniques to unlock the secrets within the 57 letters. They initially started looking for an 'Italian' solution to the code, which failed. However, when they began looking into whether they might be in French, using a 'hill-climbing' technique of gradually-improving ciphers, they were able to fully decode them in 2023. Since then, they have all been translated into English and examined by Courtney and Estelle Paranque, a fellow historian, and are due to be published in a book in 2027. One clue as to who the author was came from the repeated use of the phrases 'my son' and 'my freedom', leading them to conclude that they were written by an imprisoned mother. • Historic Scottish manuscripts up for sale The final puzzle piece came from some of the names, including references to Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's spymaster. 'Walsingham was the smoking gun,' Lasry said. 'We were quite astonished that we were the ones lucky enough to find those letters … We have cracked hundreds of historical ciphers, many of them very interesting. But none of them were like this. What made this so special was we had 50 letters, all unknown to historians and considered lost.' In the letters, which are mostly written to Michel de Castelnau, a French soldier who was ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, Mary sets out various political ploys, even trying to manipulate the notoriously wily Walsingham. She instructs Castelnau to reveal certain pieces of information about her, giving him directions on how much he can and cannot say, sometimes dictating word for word. Courtney and Paranque joined the project after Lasry and his colleagues called for historians to help. After they were inundated with applications, Lasry set them a challenge, handing Paranque one letter to translate from medieval French into English. • Mary, Queen of Scots review — doing Thea Musgrave's epic opera proud Paranque said the letters had wholly changed her opinion of Mary. 'Honestly, if you read the letters that are not ciphered, I thought she was a moron,' she said. 'But our ciphers — if you really try to put yourself back in 1581, as if you don't know who is going to win … I was reading them and thinking, she's going to win. They're that clever.' At one point Mary refers to her son, the future King James I of England, as 'my poor infant'. Courtney, a historian of the period, said: 'She's very good at turning on the waterworks when, rhetorically, it might be the best strategy.' He added: 'She is a particularly adept player of the very weak hand that she has.'
