Innehållsförteckning för Autumn 2024 från History Scotland

A team of volunteers have uncovered a musket ball hole in the walls of Bannockburn House, which ‘could have altered the story of the nation’. Following years of conjecture and rumour about an assassination attempt of the legendary Bonnie Prince Charlie, a musket ball hole has been found in the plaster work and ancient wooden panelling of the building, confirming ‘forensic evidence’ that there was an attempt on Prince Charles’ life in 1746. A centuries old mystery In January 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, much better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, took ill and convalesced at Bannockburn House. The prince stayed at Bannockburn House at the behest of Sir Hugh Paterson, 3rd baronet of Bannockburn, when the Jacobite army laid siege of Stirling Castle. During his time there, the prince…

A previously unknown promontory site was identified by two volunteers during the Clyde and Avon Valley Landscape Partnership (CAVLP) community heritage project. The volunteers had carried out a number of walkover surveys in Chatelherault Country Park, South Lanarkshire under supervision. On 25 April 2016, a survey of the south-west side of the Avon gorge was carried out before planned forestry work. A deep (2m) ditch with a causeway was noted in the wooded area. On inspection the causeway led to a sub oval platform 30 m x 20 m with sheer drops into the River Avon and a substantial tributary stream to the south-west. Some, possibly worked, stone blocks 0.5 m x 0.3m were noted forming a possible wall. The site was drawn to the attention of the supervising archaeologist…

Few modern-day visitors to the quiet little village of Machrihanish, often described as the ‘jewel in Kintyre’s crown’, are aware that over 115 years ago it witnessed trailblazing experiments in transatlantic radio communication. As early as 1865, the brilliant Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell had formulated the classical theoretical foundation for the understanding of radio waves, and by 1888 Heinrich Hertz had confirmed the existence of such waves and measured their properties. But Hertz thought that they had no practical use, and it was left to others to pursue the application of these discoveries to the first practical systems of long distance radio communication. On 12 December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi had claimed to have detected faint Morse signals from his high power transmitter at Poldhu in Cornwall with his receiver…

Pushed to call to mind events of the mid-1660s, readers will likely think of the great fire of London of 1666, and the preceding plague, or perhaps for Scotland specifically the Pentland Rising of the same year. The war that formed the backdrop of these domestic events – the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665-7 – is less well remembered, though it has its share of great events such as the epic Four Days’ Battle and the attack up the River Medway to burn part of the Royal Navy at anchor. The Medway raid was the climactic final action of the conflict, but even naval histories say little about its prelude: an attack on the Firth of Forth at the end of April 1667, which produced a great deal of noise…

Exploring the shared history of man and beast The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh recently launched the exhibition ‘Wild & Tame: Animals in History’, which explores the history of animals, real and imagined, and their impact on human lives and culture. Using the collection of natural history books, the exhibition will show the changing ways we depicted animals and studied them, whilst also exploring the vital role animals played in our cultural history, from myths and monsters to modern pets and companions. Co-curator Kate Aitkenhead said: ‘Animals are an integral part of our daily lives. Our relationship with them has often been fraught and overbearing, whilst still maintaining a core of respect and companionship. We have included them in our heraldry, such as the rampant lion on the Scottish…

In 1348, England was struck, for the first time, by the ‘Black Death’, a vicious epidemic of plague (Y. pestis), probably a mix of its bubonic and pneumonic forms, that had been rampaging across Europe for the past two years. Scotland, still free of the disease, was delighted by English misfortune. Mired in the Second War of Independence against Edward III (r.1327-77), the Scots saw this visitation of a deadly infection – the ‘foul death of the English’, as one chronicler put it – as little less than a helping hand from God himself. But any ideas of divine favour were soon wiped out, because the first Scottish cases of plague emerged towards the end of 1349. The Black Death had come to Scotland. One of the most consequential and…

The Lismore Historical Society, have uncovered a stone building of the 7th-10th century monastic site founded by St Moluag, and a workshop where craftworkers manufactured jewellery from precious metals. Nearby, other workers were creating fine carvings in stone, wood, bone and antler. These activities confirm that the site ranks in importance with other prominent ecclesiastical and monastic early medieval establishments in Scotland such as Iona, Portmahomack and Inchmartin, with the metal working evidence also showing parallels with secular power centres such as at Dunadd, a royal centre of Dàl Riatan Argyll. There is a long-standing tradition that St Moluag arrived on Lismore from Ireland around 560CE on a mission to bring Christianity to the Picts, and his death is confirmed by an obituary notice in 592 in the Irish Annals,…

The Mary Queen of Scots Society (originally called The Marie Stuart Society) was established in 1992 to mark the 450th anniversary of her birth. Our Society promotes the further study of her life and times through research, lectures, activities and publications. The context of Mary’s life gives us many different aspects of our country’s history and heritage to explore, including the Reformation and religion; the relationship between Scotland, England and Europe; the flourishing of creative arts including Mary’s own poetry; gender politics and female monarchs. Mary grew up in and around the French royal court, living in a succession of beautiful chateaux until she was nineteen years old; spent six tumultuous years in Scotland during which time she travelled extensively around the country; and then for her final 19 years,…

Exercise at the beginning of the 19th century varied depending on which social class you belonged to. While the wealthy had free time for hunting, cricket, golf and other such activities, the poor generally got their exercise from manual labour, often in dirty and unhygienic conditions. Mr John Cox, who ran the J & G Cox Ltd glue and gelatine factory at Gorgie Mills, would have had first-hand knowledge of the poor working conditions within his own factory, and it was this, perhaps along with his advancing years and feelings of mortality, that gave him the idea for the Royal Patent Gymnasium. On Thursday 6 April 1865, the Royal Patent Gymnasium was officially opened, on the recently drained Cannonmills Loch. Its aim was to provide ‘healthful and exhilarating exercise in…

GRH is one of the most prominent landmarks on Edinburgh’s Princes Street, yet many do not know its significance. Designed to house the records of the nation, it continues to hold and provide access to some of Scotland’s most essential and precious documents. This is a building of firsts: the first purpose-built public record repository in Britain and Ireland, the first ‘proper repository’ for the records of the nation. It has a good claim to being the oldest in the world still in use for its original function. Prior to a permanent repository being built, the records of Scotland had no appropriate storage space. They had been dispersed twice, once at the hands of Edward I of England in 1296, and again by Oliver Cromwell in 1650. Despite suffering significant…

One of the advantages of being a member of the Scottish Genealogy Society is that the society is an affiliate library of Family Search. Family Search affiliate libraries have access to those historical records which Family Search have digitised but are not available on the internet. These records include the statutory birth marriage and deaths records (images) from 1855 to 1875. Images of all the 19th century Scottish census records so 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891. The parish registers of the Church of Scotland prior to 1855 and indeed many other church records both for both the Church of Scotland and other Protestant churches before and after 1855. They also include wills and testaments up to 1934, which is important as the same set of records on the…

William Wallace is one of Scottish history’s most controversial and mythologised figures, with many facts about him uncertain. We know a lot more about what others thought about him. For English chroniclers, he was a lawless bandit and rebel who deserved a traitor’s death. Scottish chroniclers, all writing decades after his execution, viewed him as a champion of Scottish freedom. Modern historians are less inclined to view historical figures as heroes or villains. Their picture of Wallace is more nuanced. He was a good military commander, able to inspire troops; yet the same man was deeply committed to the social norms of his time (he was no revolutionary) and had a ruthless streak against his enemies, English or Scottish. One thing we know very little about is what everyday Scots…

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has said they are ‘shocked and disappointed’ following the approval of a planning application for the trotting track at the Bannockburn battlefield. The conservation charity recently submitted a letter in opposition to the proposed trotting track on the land to the west of New Line Road and south of Fairhill Road, at the Whins of Milton area on the nationally designated site. They are now asking members and the public to support the call to stop the development by writing to Scottish Ministers. Stuart Brooks, National Trust for Scotland director for conservation and policy said: ‘We are shocked and disappointed to see that permission for this development at Bannockburn has been approved. As outlined in our objection to the planning application, this development will…

Professor Anne-Marie Kilday Professor Anne-Marie Kilday is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Northampton and the UK’s first professor of criminal history. Scotland has long had the reputation of being a violent nation and our people have certainly been portrayed that way by forms of popular media. Numerous feature films, television dramas and fictional literature depict Scotland as crime ridden, the Scottish people as thrawn, hard and overly aggressive and have contrasted ‘North Britain’ with its seemingly more peaceable southern neighbour. However, statistical evidence, which is much closer to the reality of Scottish crime since 1600, provides an entirely different history to these fictionalised accounts. We know from recorded crime rates that the Scottish experience of violence was not significant or sustained over time, and indeed, that the rate of serious…

In an unmarked grave in Fintry kirkyard lie the mortal remains of an excise officer who died in suspicious circumstances while carrying out his duties only three years after his appointment. Reports at the time of his death were conflicting: did he die as a result of foul play, or was it simply a case of misadventure? The events of Dugald Cameron’s colourful life could be interpreted to support both propositions. Cameron the exciseman Dugald Cameron, from Glenmore in Ardnamurchan, was appointed as extra assistant excise officer, or ranger, in September 1818 on the recommendation of the Scottish excise board, as it had found Cameron ‘to be of very great use to [its] officers in the Stirling Collection both in giving information of several private distilleries carrying on and likewise…

The climate crisis is one of the defining issues of our time. All around us, governments, local councils and activist groups are grappling to limit the effects of our rapidly warming planet. In this context, few topics are as contentious as driving. How we choose to travel on a day-to-day basis can have a profound impact on an individual’s carbon footprint. In Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh City Council is striving to deliver a ‘Net Zero, Climate Ready Edinburgh’ by 2030. Their goals include lowering carbon emissions from people driving in and around the city by car, and improving the affordability, accessibility and convenience of local public transport. June 2024 saw the implementation of the city’s first Low Emissions Zone, as part of an ongoing push towards encouraging people to use more…

In many of Scotland’s public cemeteries you will find some of the simple white stones that mark Commonwealth War Graves. Scotland was far from the front lines, but servicemen and women still died in air raids, road accidents, plane crashes and shipwrecks; others died of their wounds after being transported home from battle. In the highlands some of these stones commemorate members of the Canadian Forestry Corps who died doing their duty. They worked in remote locations, far from air raids, without ever meeting the enemy. But their job was not a safe one. For example, Private Emile Taillefer died on 8 November 1918, just three days before the First World War Armistice. He is buried in Tomnahurich cemetery in Inverness, one of 171 First and Second World War graves…

In this great School, some Scots-men now are bred,And there find out the Misteries of Trade.Whence as their Genius leads them, thence they’ll go,To every Forraign Nation, English kn[ow]. (Anonymous, ‘A Poem Upon the Undertaking of the Royal Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies’, 1697) In July 1698, five ships left Leith to sail across the Atlantic. Their names were Caledonia, Dolphin, Endeavour, Saint Andrew and Unicorn. In the final years of the 17th century, these ships had a special mission. They were en route to Darien at the Isthmus of Panama to create a trading hub and permanent Scottish settlement in the Atlantic, a project known today as the Darien Scheme. There were approximately 1,200 people on board the ships, many of whom were former officers…

Ever since the publication of The Highland Rogue in 1723, and still more so following the appearance of Walter Scott’s eponymous novel in 1818, Robert ‘Rob Roy’ MacGregor (c.1671-1734) has been firmly established as one of Scotland’s most recognisable folk heroes. Having previously flirted with his story in both the 1920s and 1950s, Hollywood finally gave MacGregor the blockbuster treatment with the release in 1995 of Rob Roy, complete with an all-star cast led by Liam Neeson in the title role, alongside Jessica Lang, Brian Cox, John Hurt and Tim Roth. Set in 1713, Rob Roy follows its eponymous hero as he takes a £1,000 loan from the marquis of Montrose in order to fund a cattle-droving expedition. The money, however, is stolen by the marquis’ villainous ward, Archibald Cunningham…

‘No, no! Everything was demolished! … For some reason, destroyed! Flattened! Gone! Eradicated from the face of the earth!’ In 2002, ex-miner and former resident of Glenbuck, Sam Purdie, visited his childhood home and was dismayed to find very little left. Open-cast mining had destroyed the much-loved village and birthplace of the great Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly. Today, Sam, along with Barbara Alexander (niece of Shankly) and others, have created a heritage centre. This grassroots activism happens in communities all over Scotland and is essential to preserve and restore our country’s heritage. The remains of mining villages, such as Glenbuck, Lethanhill and Benwhat, have now largely disappeared from the landscape. However, intangible heritages – the culture and customs - remain alive and vibrant in people’s memories and the stories…