Quiz Solutions – Heidi, Morag and the Lost Knight

  1. Where were the Lewis Chessmen found
    On the Isle of Lewis, near Uig.  No-one is quite sure where, exactly.
  2. How many chessmen are there in total?
    90 …  11 in the the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, 78 in the British Museum and one privately owned.
  3. How high is the Old Man of Hoy?
    The Old Man of Hoy is a 137m (449 ft) tall sea stack of red sandstone 
  4. Where is Earls Bu?
    Near Orphir, on Orkney’s main island, overlooking Scapa Flow
  5. What is the largest animal known ever to have existed?
    The Blue Whale!
  6. How many Lewis Chessmen live in Edinburgh?
    11
  7. What does the name “Håkon” mean?
    Håkon means “chosen son” or “high, exalted son” and has been given to many kings in Norway.
  8. Who kills Håkon on square E5 in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”?
    The Red Queen
  9. How many stones are there in the circle around the monolith at Callanish?
    13
  10. Who found the best-ever-preserved skeleton of a pterosaur in Scotland in 2022?
    Amelia Penny A PhD student from Edinburgh University ()
  11. Where was the skeleton found?
    Rubha nam Brathairean , on Skye.
  12. When did plesiosaurs swim in our oceans?
    Between 228 and 66 million years ago!
  13. How does as knight move in chess?
    He moves in an ‘L-shape,’ two squares in a straight direction, and then one square perpendicular to that.
  14. How many blue whales are left in our oceans?
    Sadly, there are only about 10,000 to 25,000 blue whales left in the world today.
  15. What was the original name for Penicuik Town Hall?
    The Cowan Institute
  16. Why was it called that?
    It was the gift of the Cowan family in response to the wishes of Alexander Cowan, nearly 40 years previously, to erect a building ‘for recreation and instruction and the furtherance of all objects affecting the welfare of the Community’.
  17. What does “Penicuik” mean?
    Hill of the Cuckoo
  18. What was the National Museum of Scotland, before it acquired that name?
    The Royal Scottish Museum began life as the Industrial Museum of Scotland, founded in 1854. By the time of the building’s jubilee in 1904, the museum had become the Royal Scottish Museum.  The new Museum of Scotland on the corner of Chambers Street and George IV Bridge opened in 1998 and that’s where the chessmen live.  Then the Royal Scottish Museum had a makeover. When the new galleries opened on 29 July 2011, the Museum united the two strands of its history for the first time in a single entity, the National Museum of Scotland.
  19. Why is Bo the Berserker biting his shield?
    The shield-biting warriors fought in a frenzy, possibly fuelled by too much Norwegian Beer .  They wore bear skin shirts … “bear sarks” – and were therefore called “bear-sarkers” (Berserkers).
  20. What is unusual about Warden 119 – one of chessmen in the British Museum?
    He looks like he’s spotted something flying towards him from his left!