Clydebank Local History Society was formed in 1977, thanks to the energy of a group of Clydebank local historians, led by the late Wallace McIntyre. Elizabeth Pitts is the current Chair. The local area of West Dunbartonshire has an outstanding and co

Scotland has major historic traditions of publicly available library provision stretching back to the late 17th century, and of which the country has good reason to be proud. The first publicly available library in Scotland was founded in 1680 at Inn

You may have listened to my talk on Scottish statutory records, held during this February’s Family History Month, in which I mentioned registration districts. At one point, Scotland had over 900 registration districts, which were nominally based on t

In the decade following his appointment to University College, Dundee just after World War II, Dr Frederick Wainwright made a number of important contributions to the development of archaeology – including to what is now known as ‘rescue archaeology’

The political contest I am about to describe between Peter McLagan (1823- 1900) and John Pender (1816-96) for the seat of Linlithgowshire (roughly, present-day West Lothian) which took place in 1868, was labelled at the time by the Falkirk Herald as

Friday 31 January 1919 in Glasgow was ‘no morning to rise early’ if intending to head to work. The reason why the historians behind Tanks on the Streets?:The Battle of George Square, Glasgow 1919 can write this is because they checked the Meteorologi

The development of Stockbridge from a small village to today’s thriving neighbourhood owes much to Sir Henry Raeburn, yet before 1780, involvement in its development would have seemed inconceivable to the young painter. When Henry Raeburn was born in

Tis time to descend to the valleys, since the mountains are forbidding, and mist, enveloping the hill-tops, totally obscures our vision. We will live in hope unfailing, that matters will be better next day, and that wind and sun and terrain wi

On Saturday 27 April 1706, an elephant died beside the road that leads from Broughty Ferry to Dundee. Accompanied by its keeper, it had been on the march from the northeast of Scotland, when it collapsed from exhaustion. A mature elephant being a har

The ‘Cleopatra’, as she swept past the town of Cromarty, was greeted with three cheers by crowds of the inhabitants and the emigrants returned the salute, but mingled with the dash of the waves and the murmurs of the breeze, their faint huzzas seemed

When Robert II came to the throne in 1371, relations between Scotland and England were comparatively tranquil. Although substantial parts of southern Scotland remained occupied by English forces – a legacy of the Second Wars of Independence (1332- c.

Though three men dwell on Flannan Isle To keep the lamp alight, As we steered under the lee, we caught No glimmer through the night. ….. Aye: though we hunted high and low, And hunted everywhere, Of the three men’s fate we found no trace, Of any kind

Two rare needlework samplers thought to have been embroidered by Robert Burns’ mother and sister have been returned to the poet’s birthplace, with the support of a NationalTrust for Scotland (NTS) donor based in the USA. The two samplers, one attribu

In the 1880s, two busy Edinburgh architects embarked upon an enormously ambitious project. David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross began to survey, measure and sketch the castles of Scotland, travelling the length and breadth of the country on trains, bicycl

The Roman empire made at least three attempts to conquer what would become Scotland, and their successive failures to hold onto our wee bit hill and glen dominated their impressions of this most north-westerly corner of Europe. We were indomitable, a

From 1719 onwards, the exiled Stuart court was based in Rome. For many British visitors on the grand tour, it became something of a tourist attraction, not unlike the Colosseum, the Forum and the other remains of the ancient world that they travelled

Elsewhere in this issue we have seen how classical allusions and classical mythology could be enlisted in support of the exiled Stuart monarchs. ‘Cultural Jacobitism’, as it is now called, is increasingly being studied by contemporary historians, but

I spent 30 years teaching history at Kingussie in the heart of Badenoch, yet I could find little about the area in mainstream studies of highland history. I was walking through a landscape of nameless ruins wondering who lived here and why did they l

The project was kickstarted by Erik Crnkovich, then a student at the University of St Andrews, and brothers Douglas and Angus Bowden-Smith. The aim was simple: to combine serious research with affordability in order to give everyone an opportunity to

The crime of which the two young friends were accused was theft. They had stolen a bolster slip and gown from a haberdasher, and a cotton shawl and three silk handkerchiefs from a tenement. Mary Ann and Matilda’s high court charges were legally defin

Scottish historical writers read by the public in the Victorian period included Thomas Carlyle (the sage of Chelsea) and Charles Rogers (the controversial founder of the Royal Historical Society); Robert Chambers (one of the most successful British p

The Carpow logboat is one of the first objects to enter the new museum and at nine metres long, is also the largest object going on display. Carved from a single, 400-year-old oak tree trunk, it lay buried in the banks of the RiverTay, near Perth, fo

After four years of war waged on three continents, a new enemy emerged in 1918. Nowadays, ‘a touch of ‘flu’ is a casual label attached to any cold-like ailment real or imagined (at least, in the days before coronavirus), but in the last full year of