Alastair Robertson

Explorer, translator, soldier and spy

Sir RIchard Burton (1864) By the time he was forty years old, Richard Francis Burton had become famous for his travels in Africa and Asia. His best known exploit was undertaking, in disguise, the long journey with Muslim pilgrims to the sacred city of Mecca knowing that, if detected, he would have been torn to pieces ...Full Article

25th July – The anniversary of Nelson’s attack on Santa Cruz in 1797

One of the most important days in the history of Tenerife is commemorated with a re-enactment every year, but if you’d like to find out about ...Full Article

Jupiter! Hercules! Tiger! Horrible invincible! Dread! and clumsy?

The list sounds like a variation on the seven dwarves, but not so, read on … Here’s something to do for a day out for the ...Full Article

“It’s industry Jim, but not as we know it”

A little while ago I was given a book entitled ‘Tenerife y sus pueblos’ (‘Tenerife and its towns’, or ‘Tenerife and the thirty-one municipalities of the ...Full Article

When ‘Enlightenment’ came to Tenerife

Throughout Europe the eighteenth century was a time of growing intellectual ‘enlightenment’, when, in a spirit of inquisitiveness, people wanted to find out more about the ...Full Article

The small houses of La Laguna

This article might satisfy the curiosity of the inquisitive English tourist or expatriot resident, and perhaps inspire Tinerfenos to look at the small single-storey houses, the ...Full Article

An unnoticed historic relic: The anchor of HMS Theseus

Whenever the defence of Santa Cruz comes to mind against the assault by the British naval squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson between July 22nd and ...Full Article

El Semaforo de Igueste – revisited

A little over two years ago, in October 2013, the ‘Tenerife News’ published an article I’d written about the Semaforo de Igueste in the Anaga hills. ...Full Article

The Marquis de Branciforte and Carlos Soler de Carreno y Castilla

Scene 2: WE MEET CARLOS SOLER The acquisition of a fortune by doubtful methods by the Marquis de Branciforte, Commander General of the Canary Islands, did ...Full Article

The Marquis de Branciforte and Carlos Soler de Carreno y Castilla

The name of Marquis de Branciforte is known in Tenerife mainly as the benefactor who gave Santa Cruz the Almeda Garden, the tree-lined avenue next to ...Full Article