Factfinder Crossword - The Scotsman, March 8 2014

Across

1 Site of battle between the Caledonii and the Romans (84 or 85 AD) (4,8)

8 The old alchemist’s name for mercury (5)

9 Samuel de __ (1567 - 1635), French navigator who founded Quebec City in 1608 (9)

11 Large seaport in north-west USA (pop about 200,000), close to the Mt Rainier national park (6)

12 Impressive, conspicuous or noticeable (8)

14 Samuel __ (1689 - 1761), Derbyshire-born novelist who wrote Pamela (1740) (10)

15 The lower house of the Irish Republic’s legislature (4)

18 Conservation village in Argyll and Bute, the location for Take The High Road (4)

19 One who gambles for high stakes (4-6)

21 Beyond one end of the visible spectrum (5-3)

23 Non-rigid airship used as barrage balloons, etc (6)

25 Norwegian university city (pop about 180,000), founded as a trading post in 997 (9)

26 Broadway production which won a Tony Award for the best musical in 1977 (5)

27 An orthorhombic mineral first found in Argyll in 1790 (12)

Down

1 Male birds of the red grouse subspecies (9)

2 A book of the Old Testament (8)

3 A gesture of derision (4)

4 Figure of speech, the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses (10)

5 A small pot, now only of earthenware (6)

6 The plant yielding curare (5)

7 Lanark-born Conservative politician (1888 - 1958) who was Scottish Secretary (6-6)

10 Edinburgh-born railway engineer (1876 - 1941), who designed the Mallard locomotive (5-7)

13 Archaic term for counsel or deliberation (10)

16 A Swabian dance in triple time (9)

17 Type of cabbage with a turnip-shaped stem (8)

20 An Australian clover-like fern of the genus Marsilea (6)

22 Robert __ (1874 - 1963), US writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times (5)

24 Novel by Jane Austen (4)

Last week’s solution:

Across: 1 Harry Lauder, 9 Iceni, 10 Danseuse, 12 Lebanon, 13 Entente, 14 Titan, 15 Orris-root,

18 Alla breve, 20 Peter, 21 Ocellus, 24 Nanaimo, 25 Asthenia, 26 Auric, 27 Desperadoes.

Down: 2 Avignon, 3 Redingote, 4 Lance, 5 Uveitis, 6 Essen, 7 Violet Jacob, 8 Nembutal,

11 Hector Boece, 16 Rheinland, 17 Outliers, 19 Bell-hop, 20 Pannage, 22 Ensue, 23 Sonar.