Today, we cover news pertaining to the new Scottish £20 note, and we also look at the flood damage to a poet’s former home.

New Scottish £20 Note

The Royal Bank of Scotland has celebrated its first new £20 in 23 years. It will be in circulation from today. It is the first note that they have produced of any denomination that features a woman who is not the Queen.

This is a polymer £20 and features the Scottish entrepreneur who is behind the success of the Rennie Mackintosh tearoom, Kate Cranston. Her face was chosen for the note following a consultation between the board of the bank and the general public.

The chair of the board said of the decision,

The legacy that Kate Cranston has given to the Scottish people is one of which they are very proud.

The note is the biggest circulating note that the bank has so the decision was of great importance to them. There are currently £736m in circulation.

As we approach International Women’s Day, 8^th March, the decision is particularly fitting.

The note has been designed in partnership with several designers and art organisations. It is made from the same polymer used for all new notes and has a number of new security features which make it easy to check but difficult to forge.

In addition to featuring the face of Kate Cranson the not also has a distinct nature theme about it with illustrations of blueberries and red squirrels. There are also extracts from the poem Cupid and Venue, by Mark Alexander Boyd, the 16th-century Scottish poet.

Former Poets Home Damaged by Flood Water

Thoor Ballylee was the home of the poet, W.B. Yeats, from 1921 to 1929. It was renovated in 2019 at a cost of novated in 2019 at a cost of €70,000. The building has unfortunately suffered significant damage as a result of the recent severe floodings.

The house, which was purchase by the Nobel Prize poet in 1916 has spent over a week under six feet of water. The building, a 15th-century castle, which is known locally as Yeats’ Tower has an attached studio and cottage and has been flooded several times over the last couple of years.

The Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society who paid for the recent renovations had been assured that the drainage works that had been carried out would prevent such a flood from happening again. The tower is not insured against flooding, and it is expected that for the next couple of weeks at least it will be inaccessible. Money has been offered by friends of the society who are in America to help with correcting the damage caused by the flood.

The site is a very popular tourist attraction, with thousands visiting each year, a significant number of them Americans.