Rosslyn Chapel Trust has announced the completion of a ‘once in a generation’ programme of restoration and repair at Rosslyn Castle, in Midlothian. The £4m project to reroof the great hall and tower, to conserve the castle’s stonework and to develop

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 recognisabl

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.

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 Charl

Crofter and knitter Rachel Challoner, from Fair Isle, the UK’s most remote inhabited island, has launched a project to compile a visual archive of knitting produced in Fair Isle since earliest available examples which date back to the 1850s. The Fair

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, th

Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall (1646-1722) was the great diarist of Restoration Scotland, recording in a chaotic profusion of notebooks his reflections on the affairs of the country, public and private. When I saw this issue’s leader on the 1667

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, ofte

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 opposit

The rudder of the RRS Discovery was recently lifted and placed onto the dockside at Discovery Point in Dundee, as the conservation works aboard Captain Scott’s famous Antarctic ship continue. Used to steer the 123-year-old ship, the wooden rudder mea

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 p

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 shipwr

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 do

‘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

In part 1 of this study, I explained how the Waring archive collection in the National Records of Scotland reveals the early romance of Lady Clementine Hay with Ian Maitland during the Boer War and her subsequent marriage to Walter Waring. In additio

Robert the Bruce, Scotland’s True Braveheart Phil Carradice Pen & Sword History, 2022 pp. 232 Hardback, £20.00  ISBN: 978 1 39900 2608 Over the years, countless books about Robert the Bruce have been published, including this reviewer’s much read (an

Scottish Colonial Literature, Writing the Atlantic 1603-1707 Kirsten Sandrock  Edinburgh University Press (2021)  pp.240, illustrated  Hardback, £90.00; E-book, £20.00; Paperback, £20.99 ISBN: 978 1474464000 The ‘Great Scottish Empire’ was unfortunat

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 hi

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 carvin

PATRONS David Breeze Christopher Smout Historiographer Royal Elizabeth Ewan University of Guelph Richard Oram University of Stirling Murray Pittock University of Glasgow Mr Geoffrey Stell Architectural, National Trust for Scotland Dr John Atkinson M

The Call for Papers for the Scottish History Society Conference 2025, to be held at the University of Edinburgh on Saturday 29 March 2025, has been announced. After the success of the Society’s first annual conference this year, the dedicated theme o

Memory, Mining and Heritage: Voices from Ayrshire Communities Yvonne McFadden & Arthur McIvor Carn Publishing, (February 2024) Paperback, £18.00  pp. 320  ISBN: 978-1911043201 A history book is always an important addition to any reader’s shelves, bu

The Scottish painter John Michael Wright painted some of the most notable 17thcentury figures, from Thomas Hobbes to John Dryden and even Charles II. But in 1669 he produced one of his most arresting portraits of a far less well-remembered individual

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 o

Colin Helling completed his PhD on the navy and the state in seventeenth-century Scotland at the University of Aberdeen in 2017. He has worked for Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums and now works for Historic Environment Scotland. Colin’s article

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

Donald Ross and the Highland Clearances Andrew Ross Amberley Publishing, (2023)  pp. 352  Hardback, £25 ISBN: 978 1 3981 04266 Ross’s book is a very personal study and the product of a quest going back over two decades. The prompt came from the autho

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 th

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 dese

Welcome to the autumn issue of History Scotland! The nights are beginning to draw in and the weather is taking a turn for the chilly, but there’s still plenty of history-related activities to do out of doors. Inevitably, though, many of us will be th