July-August 2020

History Scotland

The world's premier Scottish history magazine

History Scotland2 min read
Patrons
David Breeze Christopher Smout Historiographer Royal Elizabeth Ewan University of Guelph FIND OUT MORE AT: HTTP://SCOT.SH/HIS-BOARD Mr Derek Alexander Archaeologist, National Trust for Scotland Dr John Atkinson Managing Director GUARD Archaeology Ltd
History Scotland1 min read
From The Editor
So many of us are missing visiting our favourite museums, galleries and beauty spots and with ‘normality’ still some way off, it’s been good to see organisations both large and small reach out to the public and invite us to enjoy history virtually. W
History Scotland2 min read
Meet The Contributors
After completing a doctorate on the covenanting armies at the University of Oxford, Edward Furgol spent his career in the British and US heritage industries. He has continued to research and write about the covenanters ever since. On page 16 we prese
History Scotland2 min readTechnology & Engineering
Re-live Past Travels And Help Monitor Monuments
The project aims to establish exactly what, and to what extent, visitors’ images can be used for conservation monitoring. The team hope to monitor things such as discolouration and algae growth on stone, erosion of peat caps of walls and forts, erosi
History Scotland1 min read
New Appointments
Ian Russell has been announced as the next Chair of the Board of Trustees of National Museums Scotland. The appointment will be for four years and Ian succeeds Bruce Minto, who has held the position for the last eight years. Ian has been a Trustee of
History Scotland5 min read
What’s The Story Of your Street?
‘Click your heels together three times and say, “There’s no place like home”, and you’ll be there’. At least that is what Dorothy said would happen in The Wizard of Oz. At present, many wish they could click their heels to return to a pre-COVID19 wor
History Scotland2 min read
Explore Your Street’s Story
Scottish Local History Forum The website of the Scottish Local History Forum hosts a directory of local history resources (including local history societies’ collections and census materials). It is free to use and free to create a listing. www.slhf.
History Scotland4 min read
LOW WATER in Loch Morar
Throughout the month of November 2019 there was hardly any rain in the west highland district of Morar. This was remarkable, especially since other parts of Scotland experienced heavy rainfall and news channels reported weeks of flooding in England.
History Scotland10 min read
In The Heart Of The Vile Race: The British Army, The Highlands And The Empire
Writing to his father from Fort Augustus on 26 May 1746, Joseph Yorke, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland, finished his letter with a casual but chilling remark: ‘we are in the Heart of the vile Race now, & I wish were to extirpate.’ Although a s
History Scotland7 min read
The Botched Rescue Of An IRA Prisoner, GLASGOW, MAY 1921
One of the most significant stories to emerge from the 2019 release of records in the Military Service Pensions Collection (MSPC) is the attempted rescue of Frank Carty outside Duke Street Prison, Glasgow, on 4 May 1921. The release includes the file
History Scotland14 min read
The Secret History Of The Bishops’ Wars, Part 1
Momentous events occurred in Scotland in the 1637-41 period. For too long their analysis by historians has limited them to a strictly British context. We will see how Scots veterans of continental wars, and continental powers played (or could have pl
History Scotland6 min read
New Project To Rediscover The History Of A Lost Highland Township
‘Lost Inverlael, Finding Balblair’ is a new community archaeology project that aims to rediscover the history of a lost highland township devastated in the Clearances. The project will be led by Ullapool Museum, supported by a grant of £68,000 from H
History Scotland11 min read
The Campomanes letter: A SCHEME TO SETTLE SCOTS IN SPAIN IN 1783
Foreign archives can sometimes hold interesting primary material for the history of Scotland, material which might not be available in Scotland itself. An interesting example of this is the document (or documents) reproduced below from the Archivo Ca
History Scotland6 min read
WELL COURT, EDINBURGH: A Philanthropic Vision Fulfilled
Well Court in the Dean Village, Edinburgh, is one of Edinburgh’s most picturesque developments of the late 19th century. Paid for by the philanthropic Scotsman owner John Ritchie Findlay, it fits into a contemporary concern for social wellbeing, bett
History Scotland15 min read
The Aunt With The Kettle
There are various references to an account, dated 1798, about the early years of James Watt, the Scottish engineer who revolutionised the steam engine. It was dictated by his cousin Mrs Marion Campbell to her daughter Jane Campbell who sent the manus
History Scotland12 min read
Who Makes The Rules? How Scottish Football Secured Its Independence
A report in The Scotsman on the 133rd annual meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) which took place in Aberdeen on 2 March 2019 may well have passed many readers by. Nevertheless, it was a meeting with far-reaching consequenc
History Scotland1 min read
In The Next Issue Of History SCOTLAND
PLUS… McVey Napier: a 19th-century multitasker, Forestry and Land Scotland archaeology projects, ten-minute guide to the Killing Time. Join History Scotland, never miss an issue and save money on the cover price! See page 58 or visit: www.historyscot
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SCOTLAND’S PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM: Exploring the Mackinnon Collection
A massed by collector Murray Mackinnon, they show a country in the midst of change, with emerging cities, changing rural communities and traditions, and the growth of photography in its early years. See the Mackinnon Collection on tour later this yea
History Scotland3 min read
The Forth Bridge And William Arrol
This year marks the 130th birthday of the Forth Bridge. Now recognised as a UNESCO site, the bridge spans the estuary (Firth) of the River Forth and links Fife to Edinburgh by railway. When it opened in 1890, it was the world’s first great multi-span
History Scotland2 min read
Edinburgh From Calton Hill
Turner produced three views of Edinburgh for Sir Walter Scott’s Provincial Antiquities. In the painting shown here, he focuses on the construction of Regent Bridge and Waterloo Place, at the foot of Calton Hill. This ambitious project to bridge the d
History Scotland5 min read
Facets Of Life In The Central Middle Ages
reviews@historyscotland.com Northern England and Southern Scotland in the Central Middle Ages Edited by Keith J. Stringer, Angus J.L. Winchester Boydell Press, 2017 384 pages Hardback, £60.00 ISBN: 9781783272662 In 1237, the Treaty of York delineated
History Scotland3 min read
The Influence Of The King Over The Water
The King Over the Water: A Complete History of the Jacobites Desmond Seward Birlinn, 2019 384 pages Hardback, £25.00 ISBN: 9781780276069 When I first saw the subtitle of Desmond Seward’s latest book, I was sceptical. A complete history of this fascin
History Scotland3 min read
The Realities Of Island Life
Pabay: An Island Odyssey Christopher Whatley Birlinn, 2019 320 pages Hardback, £20.00 ISBN: 9781780275796 Small islands can have a big influence. As places to visit, to escape to, or to own, they exert a powerful attraction. Island life certainly car
History Scotland1 min read
Recently Published
Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors: The Official Guide By National Records Scotland Birlinn, £12.99 ISBN 9781780276335 This is the seventh edition of a bestselling guide to tracing your Scottish using the wealth of records cared for by National Records
History Scotland1 min read
Research You Can’t Read Anywhere Else
Receive every issue of History Scotland direct to your door and save money on the shop price. • History news and opinion• New research you can’t read anywhere else• Expert, in-depth articles covering centuries of Scottish history• Access exclusive co
History Scotland3 min read
…the Maid Of Norway
The sudden death in 1286 of Alexander III – fatally thrown from his horse during a night-time ride along the Fife coast – is usually viewed as the starting-point for the Wars of Independence, the long series of conflicts with England that dominated S
History Scotland2 min read
Spotlight On…
The Society is based in Crieff and was founded in 1970, making this its 50th anniversary. Unlike some other local societies it is not, currently, ‘active in the field’, confining itself to a programme of guest lectures in the winter period and outing
History Scotland2 min read
Family History At Home
This article was written at the start of week four of the UK lockdown, an event unprecedented in UK history. So how has the family history community responded? One of the responses has been in the shape of podcasts and webinars. For a good guide to S
History Scotland2 min read
A Unique Insight Into Kingship
When this article was originally planned we would have been looking ahead to a major exhibition on the reign of James VI at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Hopefully this will go ahead in due course and in the meantime, the publications of th
History Scotland1 min read
History Scotland
Volume 20, Number 4 July/August 2020 www.historyscotland.com EDITORIAL Editor: Rachel Bellerby rachelb@warnersgroup.co.uk Tel: 0113 200 2922 Consultant Editor: Dr Allan Kennedy School of Humanities, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN editorial@historyscot
History Scotland3 min read
Final Word
The Coronavirus changed working life for so many of us. To what extent have museum staff across Scotland been able to adapt their usual activities for a temporary online environment? Most museums operate already to a great extent online, so have adap

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