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The People’s Money
Provenance research | £5 and £10 story
In association with
The People’s Money | Introduction
The People’s Money
Introduction
This report shares the inspiring
story behind the development of
the new Royal Bank of Scotland
polymer £5 and £10 pound
notes.
Pocket size works of art, the notes are full of meaning and part of
a family of notes designed to work together to celebrate the people
of Scotland.
To help understand the tales the notes tell, we have laid out the process
of their development in the enclosed pages. Every element is explained
and its provenance provided.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 1
The People’s Money | Introduction
Contents
Section 01
Introduction
03 Project background
06 Series concepts
08 Story guidelines
10 Colour palettes
11 Bespoke tweed patterns
Section 02
Five pound note - design and story
16 The Obverse
20 The Reverse
Section 03
Ten pound note - design and story
30 The Obverse
38 The Reverse
2 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction
The People’s Money
Project background
‘The People’s Money’ has its roots in a country-wide collaboration with the
Scottish public.
Nile was engaged by The Royal Bank of Scotland to help build this
collaboration through the design and facilitation of a series of public
engagements both on and offline.
Working across 4 cities, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness we
held free and frank public conversations around a choice of 5 possible
INVERNESS
note themes generated by the bank:
| Natural colour & light
| Scottish achievements
| The Scottish story
| The future of Scotland
| Coming home DUNDEE
Meanwhile an online community was mirroring these discussions in a
digital forum and a Yougov survey was taking a country wide sounding GLASGOW
of opinion on which theme was the most appropriate for the new note EDINBURGH
collection.
87 people
engaged in workshops
66 people
engaged through our
1025 people
took part in our survey
27 designers
from Scotland took part in
online community the project
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 3
The People’s Money | Introduction
The chosen theme
Natural colour & light
1st Natural colour & light 498 votes
2nd Scottish achievements 323 votes
3rd The Scottish story 280 votes
4th The future of Scotland 192 votes
5th Coming home 83 votes
Through the workshops and digital conversations we developed an
understanding of what the public meant by Natural Colour and Light.
It became clear there were important stories about Scotland the public
wanted the notes to tell. Tradition was represented but there was also a
strong desire to reflect the future hopes and aspirations, as well as the
present reality of living here.
Landscape, native animals and the natural world featured strongly as did
the Scottish sense of humour.
The traditional castles and bridges were avoided to help differentiate these
notes from previous issues.
4 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction
Developing the notes
Design tools
As a result of analysis of the public engagement and the Design Advisory
board input, concepts have been agreed for the full set of new notes.
Though conceived as a set, each denomination is being designed
individually.
To ensure the voice of the people is not lost and the notes maintain a
visual consistency, 5 tools have been developed and are being used by the
creative team for each note project.
1 The series concepts
2 Story guidelines
3 Bespoke colour palettes
4 Bespoke tweed patterns
5 Individual note templates
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 5
The People’s Money | Introduction
The series concepts
A connected story
The notes were conceived as a set and the content based on a
connected narrative that moves through our natural elements
from sea to sky.
The £10 otter lives on our coast & celebrates our beaches and shorelines.
The £5 mackerel represents the sea and the fishing communities.
6 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction
The £50 eagle as the king of our mountain skylines.
The £20 red squirrel, a precious native of our woodlands.
Care has been taken to make individual stories contained within each
note. The four bespoke tweed patterns reflect each note denomination
colour, the natural plant materials shown are used by the tweed industry
to create the particular note colour and the poetry is chosen to connect
to the type landscape element and animals represented.
The aim is consistency rather than conformity - giving flexibility to tell
authentic stories without compromising layout.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 7
The People’s Money | Introduction
Story guidelines | The people’s voice
Careful consideration of the public conversations lead to a set of guidelines
for the content of the notes. The design teams use this as a tool when
building the individual note stories to help ensure the voice of the people is
carried through to the final note designs.
Light Water & weather Invisible Grand elements
The Scottish sky, and how it Refers to our ever present rain but The invisible layer was seen as fun, Celebrate our mountains and
changes: foals legs, ‘end of the also our coasts, rivers and lochs. exploration, a surprise, a badly dramatic landscapes.
world skies’ kept national secret.
8 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction
Please note: this list is not intended to be prescriptive.
The everyday Textile patterns Education Future modern
A key element to all discussions, Fair Isle, tweed, Paisley patterns The importance of a story on the A desire to avoid the traditional
midges, Tunnock’s biscuits, pan (NOT tartan). notes that would share information historical representation of the
bread, machair. Elements that about an aspect of Scotland. country, instead to focus on where
are part of everyday life for the we live now and our aspirations for
‘people’ of Scotland. the future.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 9The People’s Money | Introduction
Colour palettes
Colour palettes have been developed by
Donna Wilson for all four notes.
blue brown
£5 £10
purple green
£20 £50
10 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Introduction
Bespoke tweed patterns
Created for the note by tweed designers
Elspeth Anderson and Alistair McDade.
Variation on a
Herringbone houndstooth
type weave (dog-otterstooth)
£5 £10
Entwining twills Glen check
£20 £50
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 11Five pound note
Design & elementsThe People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Five Pound Note
The Obverse
14 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Five Pound Note
The Reverse
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 15The People’s Money | Five Pound Note
The full story
£5 Obverse
Scottish hero Hero quote Landscape Reverse elements
Nan Shepherd “The living mountain” speaks of the The Cairngorms Bringing the tweed and woad
shapes water and ice make as they elements from the reverse of the
An ordinary lady with extraordinary The dramatic landscape Nan loved
interact in a stream - Water note to visually connect obverse
impact on those she taught and and celebrated in her writing -
& weather. and reverse - Textile patterns.
cared for - Everyday heroine. Grand elements.
Midge cluster Blinkbox
A security feature to be on all notes Simplified mackerel (using an
in the UV layer - Everyday element of the reverse note
& humour. design).
UV layer
16 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Photo | Cairngorm
An Garbh Choire (pronounced an garra chorry) is a massive glacial hollow
in the heart of An Monadh Ruadh (the red range) otherwise known as the
Cairngorms.
An Garbh Coire is surrounded by some of the highest peaks in the
Cairngorms – Braeriach to the north (right of the picture) and Sgorr an
Lochain Uaine to the South (left of the picture) and Carn Toul (out of
picture).
This Coire has a special secret in that snow can last all year round and
the snow patches (in upper centre of image) have only melted 5 times
since the early 1900s.
The small river you see in the centre is the start of the River Dee which
flows down into the Lairig Ghru and into Royal Deeside. The river spring
starts on the high plateau on the skyline of the picture at the back of the
Coire and is known as the Wells of Dee at a height of around 1230 meters
/ nearly 4000ft above sea level and is one of the highest water springs in
the British Isles.
The Lairig Ghru is a huge glacial trench that cuts through this massive
mountain range linking Deeside to Speyside providing a valuable trade
route for moving cattle to the markets in the south of Scotland. The Lairig
Ghru was famously used for aerial photography in the wartime film 633
‘An Garbh Choire’ squadron.
Photographer: Ruari MacDonald
An Garbh Coire is probably one of the most remote places in the British
Isles as from any direction, It takes many hours to travel across the
rugged and varied landscape. The enormity of An Garbh Coire never fails
to take your breath away, especially when viewed from the edge of the
Cairngorm Plateau.
With thanks to...
Photographer and Cairngorm mountain ranger Ruari MacDonald
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 17The People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Portrait | Nan Shepherd
Nan Shepherd was a novelist ‘nature writer’ and poet whose sensitivity to
the wilderness, the character of the wild world of the Grampian mountains
and their surrounding terrain, encompassed families, groups and individual
people in their full social and creatural potential.
She is a modernist comparable with Virginia Woolf or Lewis Grassic
Gibbon, a meticulous writer of narrative prose and a close observer of the
finest tracings of influence and motivation that cross through nature and
human will, moving between ecology and social construction, combining
feminist aspiration and commitment to social justice.
Source: Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature, Glasgow University
With thanks to...
Erlend Clouston, Deirdre Burton, John Clouston and Magnus Clouston.
(Descendents of Nan Shepherd) for permission to use this portrait and
to mirror the image to better fit the note.
‘Nan Shepherd’
Owner: The Estate of Nan Shepherd
18 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Quotation by Nan Shepherd
The freezing of running water is another mystery.
The strong white stuff, whose power I have felt in swollen streams, which I
have watched pour over ledges in endless ease, is itself held and punished.
But the struggle between frost and
the force in running water is not quickly over.
The battle fluctuates, and at the point of fluctuation
between the immobility of frost, strange and beautiful
forms are evolved.
Reference: Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain
Ay, ay, answered her father, still holding the hen
‘It’s a grand thing to get leave to live.’
Reference: Chapter XIX, The Quarry Wood
With thanks to...
Erlend Clouston, Deirdre Burton, John Clouston and Magnus Clouston.
for permission to use Nan’s writing.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 19The People’s Money | Five Pound Note
The full story
£5 Reverse
Animal Plant Midge Scottish poetry
Mackerel Woad Almost hidden on every note, Excerpt from the poem
this midge represents the reality ‘The Choice’ by Sorley MacLean.
An ‘everyday’ seafish but the single An historic plant used to create
of everyday living in the Scottish Gaelic and written in Scottish
most valuable stock for the Scottish blue dye for the wool used in tweed
countryside - Everyday & humour. Secretary Hand in the visible layer
fishing industry - Current Scotland. - Textile patterns.
“I walked with my reason,
out beside the sea”
Scottish language poets and
authors are now central to the
studies of literature in all secondary
schools - Education.
Tweed Invisible poetry
A traditional Scottish fabric woven The English translation of the
with colour of the Scottish light visible Gaelic lines from Sorley
and landscape, traditionally used MacLean’s poem - Education.
in hunting clothing as early form
UV layer
of camouflage. Blue on this note
to reflect the sea theme - Textile
patterns.
20 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Mackerel | Scomber scombrus
Mackerel (Scomber scombrus) is the most important pelagic species for
the Scottish fishing industry. It is caught predominantly with pelagic trawl
mainly in western waters and the North Sea. Landed into Scotland in
2013: 160,118 tonnes. Value for 2013 : £67 million
Mackerel are streamlined for swimming, and because of their body design,
need to keep swimming constantly in order to take in sufficient oxygen.
So they symbolize a mixture of speed, beauty and marine productivity – a
good blend for Scotland’s home waters.
Source: Wardle, C.S., and He, P. 1988. Burst swimming speeds of
mackerel, Scomber scombrus L. Journal of Fish Biology 32: 471-478.
Mackerel gather in large schools, which are active day and night. In
turn, these schools can provide food for other marine predators, such
as northern gannets and whales. So big shoals of mackerel, rippling the
water in patches as if a local rain is falling, are a distinctive feature of
some Scottish waters in summer. In turn, these patches can be places to
look for gannets diving and minke whales feeding.
Source: www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/tm/tm141/tm141.pdf
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 21The People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Woad | Isatis tinctoria
Woad, Isatis Tinctoria, is not native to the UK but was an imported crop,
grown in both Scotland and England. It was used to create a blue dye for
wool and may have created the colour of the famous Tam O Shanter - the
hat worn by the hero of the eponymous poem.
‘The blue of woad is different from the blue of indigo. It’s warmer and
more luminous. When indigo items are dyed pale blue, they can seem
under-dyed; with woad you can get a gorgeous pale blue that seems like
a real color and not a wash. Woad also has a teal undertone to my eye. It
was easy to get an even colour, but it always remains a vibrant blue with
no black overcast.’
With thanks to...
John Gillespie – Director Knockando Woollen Mill
Mason Dixon knitting.com – Woad dying experience.
22 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Poetry
Sorley MacLean (1911-1996) was the major Gaelic poet of the twentieth
century, whose breakthrough volume, Dain do Eimhir (1943), changed the
possibilities of what modern Gaelic poetry could be. A poet of love and
loss, a poet of war and tragedy, a poet engaged with the modern world
in all its complexities and risks, his vision arises from a deeply-earthed
consciousness of the islands and Highlands of Scotland, the possibilities
of change, and the human need to resist oppression. His poems are
energised by an inimitable linguistic urgency and drive.
Born on the island of Raasay, which lies off the east coast of the Isle of
Skye, his upbringing was rooted in Gaelic culture and in its rich song
tradition. Sorley was a headmaster at a school in Plockton from 1956 to
1972. During his time in Plockton, Sorley MacLean worked tirelessly to
improve the situation of the Gaelic language, the inexorable decline of
which was a source of deep anxiety to him.
Both Nan and Sorley made unique contributions to modern Scottish
literature and modern literature internationally. In their respective
languages, Gaelic and English, in their sensitivity to the Scots idiom of their
Susie Leiper: Calligraphy.
people, and in their achievement as writers of the first calibre, MacLean
in a major body of visionary poetry, groundbreaking criticism, and in
With thanks to...
his championship of the Gaelic language, and Shepherd in new forms
of fiction and discursive prose heralding ‘new nature writing’, as well as Professor Alan Riach, Glasgow University, expertise and guidance.
distinctively fresh poems. Both deal with the necessity of, and desire for,
Ishbel MacLean for permission to use Sorley’s poetry
transformation, both count the cost and reckon the worth of taking the
risk, and both have delivered literature of lasting and major significance. Michael Schmidt for invaluable help in connecting us to the families
and publishers of the poets we have referenced.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 23The People’s Money | Five Pound Note
The Choice
by: Sorley MacLean
I walked with my reason How should I think that I would
out beside the sea. grab the radiant golden star,
We were together but it was that I would catch it and put
keeping a little distance from me. it prudently in my pocket?
Then it turned saying: I did not take a cross’s death
is it true you heard that your in the hard extremity of Spain
beautiful white love is getting and how then should I expect
married early on Monday? the one new prize of fate?
I checked the heart that was
rising in my torn swift breast
I followed only a way
that was small, mean, low, Visable Choisich mi cuide ri mo thuigse
and I said: most likely;
why should I lie about it?
dry, lukewarm, and how then
should I meet the thunderbolt
layer a-muigh ri taobh a’ chuain;
of love?
But if I had the choice again UV I walked with my reason
and stood on that headland,
I would leap from heaven or
layer Out beside the sea
hell with a whole spirit
and heart.
24 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Five Pound Note
Five and Ten Pound Note
Typefaces
Scotch Modern typefaces emerge as a distinctive Scottish Secretary Hand is a style of writing employed
typographic form from Scottish type-foundries of the late in Scottish offices during the 16th and 17th Centuries,
18th / early 19th Century. In style they are rational, logical replacing the previously dominant ‘book hand’ as a more
and practical whilst also expressing great personality legible, faster written style better suited to the growth of
and character. Scotch modern types found success in national and international communication in business and
the UK but with their introduction to America, at a time law.
of dramatic growth in mass literacy, they became highly
influential at an international level. With thanks to...
Edwin Pickstone, Typographer, The Glasgow School of Art
Royal
Susie Bank
Leiper, of Scotland in association with
Calligrapher 25Ten pound note
Design & elementsThe People’s Money | Ten Pound Note
Ten Pound Note
The Obverse
28 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Ten Pound Note
Ten Pound Note
The Reverse
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 29The People’s Money | The Obverse
The Obverse
Choosing a hero
The Facebook campaign to make the final choice of Hero for the note ran from 30th January 2016 to 7th February 2016
Mary Somerville as a young woman James Clerk Maxwell holding his colour wheel Portrait of Thomas Telford
Artist: John Jackson, Owner: Somerville College, Owner: John O’Conner, University of St Andrews. Artist: Henry Raeburn, Owner: Lady Lever Art Gallery.
University of Oxford.
4200 votes 2100 votes 714 votes
(Authenticated UK votes)
30 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | The Obverse
The Obverse
Design elements
Scottish hero Hero quote Landscape Reverse elements
Mary Somerville From ‘The Connection of the Burntisland Beach Bringing the tweed and Dulse
Physical Sciences’ a lovely example elements from the reverse of the
Scientist, astronomer, translator Where Mary lived as a child and
of how Mary brought science into note to visually connect obverse
and extraordinary communicator, discovered her love of the natural
everyday language and experience and reverse - Textile patterns.
bringing science to the wider world - The everyday.
- Education.
population - Everyday heroine.
Midge cluster Moon diagramme Blinkbox
A security feature to be on all Taken from Mary Somerville’s book Simplified otter (using an element
notes in the UV layer - Everyday & ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’ - of the reverse note design) and
humour. Education. micro organism, Acanthometra
Bulbosa.
UV layer
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 31The People’s Money | The Obverse
Portrait | Mary Somerville
While Mary Somerville did not discover or invent anything, she made
science accessible to a much wider audience by breaking down
complicated scientific topics into more simple terms and thereby started
the trend for ‘Popular Science’ through her widely published and used
scientific writing.
One of Mary’s great qualities as a scientific writer was an openness to
new possibilities. She entranced her readers not only by reporting on the
extraordinary new discoveries of her own time, but by opening the door to
wondrous possibilities in the future.
Her 1831 book, ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’, made Pierre Laplace’s
‘Celestial Mechanics’ more accessible with her own commentaries and
simple explanations of the difficult elements, which meant that it was used
as a college text for the next century.
“I translated Laplace’s work from algebra into common language”
said Mary.
Mary’s books spread across several scientific disciplines such as
astronomy, physics, geography and biology and it was her work that
prompted the creation of the term ‘scientist’, a new professional concept
and umbrella term to define it, coined in 1834 by William Whewell.
‘Mary Somerville as a young woman’
Artist: John Jackson With thanks to...
Owner: Somerville College, University of Oxford. Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library: research materials.
Alice Prochaska, Somerville College Library: research materials.
Permission to use: Somerville College and Fairfax Lucy family
(descendants of Mary Somerville).
32 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | The Obverse
Landscape | Burntisland Beach
“Genteel poverty” is the phrase that has been used to describe Mary
Fairfax’s circumstances. She ran wild in the coastal countryside of her
home in Burntisland, and inheriting her father’s fascination with natural
history (in his case, plants and especially tulips), she studied the sea
shells, birds and flowers that she found around her.
“With the exception of dulse and tangle I knew the names of none, though I
was well acquainted with and admired many of these beautiful plants. I also
watched the crabs, live shells, jelly-fish, and various marine animals, all of
which were objects of curiosity and amusement to me in my lonely life.”
Reference: Mary Somerville. “Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old
Age, of Mary Somerville.” p. 47
With thanks to...
Rebekka Bush, RBS: Somerville College research.
Ryan Kane, RBS: for his local knowledge and research.
Peter Dibdin: Photography.
‘Burntisland beach’
Commissioned by RBS from photographer Peter Dibdin.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 33The People’s Money | The Obverse
Quotation by Mary Somerville
This particular passage was chosen for its reference to water - connecting
it to the shoreline which is the theme of the note, and for its mention of
the behaviour of light - connecting to the overall theme of the Note family
‘natural colour and light’.
Anyone who has observed the reflection
of the waves from a wall on the side of a river
after the passage of a steam-boat,
will have a perfect idea of the reflection of sound and light.
Reference: ‘The connection of the physical sciences’, p. 119, Mary
Somerville, 1834, Publisher: Philadelphia: Key and Biddle, public domain.
With thanks to...
Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library.
Permission to use: Somerville College and Fairfax Lucy family: descendants
of Mary Somerville.
34 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | The Obverse
Moon diagramme
Hidden in the UV layer is the diagramme below. It is taken from Mary
Somerville’s book ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’, where it illustrates how
we can use the light of the sun hitting the moon to calculate the distance
between the Earth and the Sun. This is an example of her efforts to make
knowledge available to the wider population.
S S
fig. 94.
L
P
m
B A
N
C D E
Mechanism of the heavens (1834) ‘Mary’s Moon Diagramme’, Ryan Kane, RBS
Mary Somerville, page 412, Figure 94, Publisher: London: J.
Murray, public domain
With thanks to...
Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library.
Permission to use: Book out of copyright.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 35The People’s Money | The Obverse
Blink box
Blinkbox - this security element references both the otter and another of
the illustrations from Mary’s book ‘On molecular and microscopic science’.
Acanthometra Bulbosa is a microscopic cellular organism found in
the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. The tiny marine animal is
considered one of the lowest forms of animal existence.
Acanthometra Bulbosa With thanks to...
Fig. 88 p. 19 from the book ‘On molecular and microscopic
Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library: supplying reference material.
science’, 1869, Mary Somerville, public domain, Supplied by:
Somerville College, University of Oxford. Neil Wallace, O Street: Blink box diagramme.
Permission to use: Book out of copyright.
36 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | The Obverse
The Midge
The Scottish midge, an everpresent element of summer in the
Scottish countryside.
Shown in all the notes as a cluster on the obverse and individually hidden
on the reverse.
Reverse | Hidden midge
Obverse | Midge cluster
‘Midge cluster’ With thanks to...
by Paul Simmons, Timorous Beasties.
Hans Kruuk: otter and midge habitat.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 37The People’s Money | The Reverse
The Reverse
Design elements
Animal Plant Midge Scottish poetry
Otter Dulse Almost hidden on every note, Excerpt from the poem ‘Moorings’
this midge represents the reality by Norman MacCaig. The first two
Scotland is one of the best places A red seaweed used by the early
of everyday living in the Scottish line in the visible layer
in western Europe to see otters, Scots for dyeing yarn brown for the
countryside - Everyday & humour. “The cork that can’t be travels -
especially along the coasts of the coloring of the tweeds and tartans
Hebrides and North Isles. - - Textile patterns. Nose of a dog otter.
Current Scotland. It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn at
By an elegant oystercatcher”
Followed by the second two lines in
the UV layer - Education.
Tweed Invisible poetry
Houndstooth variation - Textile The second two lines of the visible
patterns. poem by Norman MacCaig -
Education.
UV layer
38 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | The Reverse
Otters | Lutra Lutra
Although male and female otters are rarely seen together they make
a special appearance on this note. The male is shown side on and the
female from the top.
Scotland is one of the best places in Western Europe to see otters,
especially along the coasts of the Hebrides and North Isles. Currently
estimated at around 8,000 animals, Scottish otters can be rather different
in their behaviour from otters elsewhere. Only around half the otters in
Scotland live in freshwaters, whereas almost all of those in England and
Wales do so.
The coastal dwelling Scottish otters can be very active during the day.
So otter viewing is easier around Scottish shores – a boon for wildlife
enthusiasts and filmmakers.
The Scottish otter population benefited from the end of otter hunting
many decades ago and is being helped now by improvement in the quality
of water in lochs, rivers and canals across the country. So the otter
symbolizes health of both inshore and freshwater habitat.
Source: Kenny Taylor, wildlife expert.
With thanks to...
Hans Kruuk, Biologist with expertise in otters: validation of otter drawings.
Kenny Taylor, Wildlife expert: supplying expert knowledge.
Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue: reference images of male and female otters.
The International Otter Survival Fund: Otter habitat and anatomy
reference material.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 39The People’s Money | The Reverse
Dulse | Palmaria Palmata
Dulse is a red seaweed that grows in the area between the high tide
and low tide to depths of 20m below the surface on the northern coasts
of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Harvested from the Scottish coasts, it
was used by the early Scots for dyeing yarn brown for the coloring of the
tweeds and tartans for their plaids and kilts.
References:
Irvine, L.M. & Guiry, M.D. “Palmariales and Rhodymeniales” in Irvine, L.M.
1983. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 1. Part 2A. Cryptonemiales
(sensu stricto) Palamriales, Rhodymeniales. British Museum (Natural
History), London.
Eva Lamber, commercial natural dyer at Shilasdair the Skye Yarn
Company & author of the book ‘The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing’.
Link:http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-growth-of-tartan/tartan-
production/colours-and-dyeing/traditional-dyeing/
Book: ‘Vegetable Dyes Being a Book of Recipes and Other Information
Useful to the Dyer’, Ethel Mairet, Chapter III. https://archive.org/details/
vegetabledyesbei24076gut
With thanks to...
Dr. Michele Stanley, Centre Lead for Marine Biotechnology, Scottish
Marine Institute: validation of dulse drawings.
Lars Brunner, Scientist in Macroalgal Cultivation, Scottish Association for
Marine Science: supplying dulse images.
Mara Seaweed: Dulse harvesters and foodmakers for their references.
40 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | The Reverse
Photographic images of dulse are used alongside the illustrations on the note.
‘Rhodeminia Palmeta (Dulse’s old latin name red)’ ‘Dulse on the rocks’
Nature print by Henry Bradbury featured in “The nature- Lars Brunner, SAMS.
printed British sea-weeds : a history, accompanied by figures
and dissections of the Algae of the British Isles”, William Grosart Permission to use: Lars Brunner
Johnstone.
Permission to use: Public domain.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 41The People’s Money | The Reverse
Poetry
Norman MacCaig (1910-96) was one of the great generation of Scottish
poets writing after the Second World War who were pre-eminently
associated with particular locations and real geographies. He is best
known as a great love poet of the natural world: mountains, lochs, birds,
beasts and landscapes of the north-west generally.
Landscapes are his expertise. He is in his geography, observant, acutely
sensitive to the visions, geologies, histories, social and political, the
meanings landscape brings and delivers. Landscape is never merely
scenic.
On the western coasts of Scotland, he is a master of annotating colour
and light, shades and tones, transparencies in water, opacities in rocks.
His landscapes, seascapes and pictures of the natural world are populous,
with seabeasts like the basking shark, tiny green frogs beneath the height
of Ben Dorain, or, in an Edinburgh cityscape, a cat sitting halfway up a
tree, inexplicably. The nuanced care of his language matches the precision
of his observation and indeed his love of what the natural world out there
really is, what it is made of. Susie Leiper: Calligraphy.
He is also a major poet for Scotland and the world because, beyond With thanks to...
all question, his use of the English language is supremely controlled,
in cadence, nuance, tone, precision of line-break, restrained but exact Professor Alan Riach, University of Glasgow: Expertise
delivery of deep meaning. His voice is distinctly Scots, its music inflected by and guidance.
Gaelic and the urban register of Scots, so that it is unimaginable coming Permissions to use: Euan McCaig, estate of Norman MacCaig and
from anywhere in the English-speaking world other than Scotland, but it Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Publishing.
is nonetheless in an English immediately accessible and bracingly fresh to
any English-language reader anywhere. Partly for this reason, perhaps,
Seamus Heaney once remarked of MacCaig: ‘He means poetry to me.’
Source: Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow.
42 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | The Reverse
Moorings
by: Norman MacCaig
In a salt ring of moonlight
The dinghy nods at nothing.
It paws the bright water
And scatters its own shadow
In a false net of light
A ruined chain lies reptile,
Tied to the ground by grasses.
Two oars, wet with sweet water
Filched from the air, are slanted
From a wrecked lobster creel. Visable The cork that can’t be travels -
The cork that can’t be travels -
Nose of a dog otter.
layer Nose of a dog otter.
It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn at
By an elegant oystercatcher
On furious orange legs. UV It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn at
With a sort of idle swaying
layer By an elegant oystercatcher
The tide breathes in. Harsh seaweed
Uncrackles to its kissing;
The skin of the water glistens;
Rech fat swims on the brine.
And all night in his stable
The dinghy paws bright water,
Restless steeplechaser
Longing to clear the hurdles
That ring the Point of Stoar.
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 43The People’s Money | Appendix
Alternative heros
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
Scientist, formulated the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation,
which has led to such present-day users such as radio, television, radar,
microwaves and thermal imaging. Einstein considered him his hero, and
the greatest scientist since Newton.
Landscape image by Duncan Ferguson.
Thomas Telford (1757-1843)
Civil engineer, architect and stone mason. Known as The Colossus of
Roads, he built over 1000 miles of road in his lifetime, designed bridges,
harbours, canals still in use today, helping connect communities and
boosting economic development.
Landscape image by Marcus McAdam.
44 Royal Bank of Scotland in association withThe People’s Money | Appendix
The People’s Money
The Creative Team
Rebekka Bush RBS
Ryan Kane RBS
Nile Public engagement
Provenance & verification
Graven Creative direction & print liaison
Timorous Beasties Illustration
Stuart Kerr Illustration
O Street Art direction & note design
Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 45Nile HQ 13-15 Circus Lane Edinburgh EH3 6SU hello@nilehq.com +44 131 220 5671
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