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www.historyscotland.com Volume 23, Number 6 November/December 2023

Kilmartin Museum reopens with a brand new look

Kilmartin Museum recently welcomed visitors to admire its extensive renovation, which now allows thousands of prehistoric artefacts to be displayed for the first time

Heritage research to receive a boost with new partnership

T he University of Stirling has formed a partnership with the National Trust for Scotland to enhance research, teaching and learning

Call for papers: The History of Scotland

The 82nd World Science Fiction Convention will be held in Glasgow from 8 to 12 August 2024 and proposals are welcome

THE CANADIAN FORESTRY CORPS IN SCOTLAND

As we approach Remembrance Day, Dr Craig French and Barry Phillips tell the story of the men of the Canadian Forestry Corps who answered the urgent call of the Allies for timber supplies and found themselves stationed at a remote camp in Speyside

FILLING IN THE GAPS ON SHETL AND’S LANDSCAPE

This summer, members of the public and Archaeology Shetland braved the glorious warm and sunny weather to conduct a field survey along both sides of the peninsula leading to Hawks Ness Broch near Breiwick, Shetland. Stephen Jennings of Archaeology Shetland reports

Scotland’s last medieval bridge gate: Stirling Old Bridge

Dr Murray Cook reports from a watching brief at the site of the country’s last surviving bridge gate

The last Scottish GAME OF THRONES

Between the revolution of 1688-90 and the union of 1707, Scotland was marked by a fractious and rapidly-evolving relationship between the ‘ancient kingdom’ and its monarchs. Dr Alastair Mann explores how the final Stuart rulers – William II, Mary II and Anne – tried to manage Scottish affairs

DIVINE DESTRUCTION: EDINBURGH’S ‘LESSER GREAT FIRE’ OF 1700

The great fire that ravaged Edinburgh in February 1700 was a major national emergency with serious material consequences. But, as Dr Clare Loughlin discovers, it was also a psychological shock, forcing many Scots to question what they, and their nation, had done to deserve such divine punishment

TOASTING THE ‘LATE’ KING JAMES: contesting power in post-revolution Scotland

While the political dramas surrounding the 1688-90 revolution and the 1707 union are often viewed as elite concerns, many ordinary Scots found ways to express their opinions about these momentous developments. Dr Laura Doak investigates these subtle forms of participation, focusing in particular on the tradition of toasting the monarch

The siege of the Bass Rock, 1691-94

An infamous state prison under Charles II and James VII, the Bass Rock became an unlikely symbol of Jacobite resistance to William II and Mary II when it was seized by its inmates in 1691 and held against the Williamite government for the next three years. RobertTree looks into this often-overlooked saga

LAW, ORDER AND THE PERSECUTION OF ‘EGYPTIANS’ IN POST-REVOLUTION SCOTLAND

Scotland’s Roma community – known as ‘Egyptians’ – had long faced repression and marginalisation. While this continued into the 1690s, there were some signs that the government’s approach to this persecuted minority was beginning to shift.

John Bell of Antermony: RUSSIA AND RHUBARB

John Bell of Antermony was a celebrated traveller, diplomatic official and physician at the royal court of Russia; a lowland laird and amateur naturalist; quite possibly a spy and perhaps the first person in the UK to grow one of our most popular vegetables. David McVey shares his recent research on Bell’s fascinating life

TRACING ‘THE MOST BURIED MAN IN THE WORLD’: JOHN PAUL JONES, SCOTLAND AND THE US

Dr Stephen Bowman reports from a recent research trip to the US, as part of a project exploring the 20th-century uses of the historical memory of Scotsborn ‘Father of the US Navy’ John Paul Jones

Paisley’s weaver poets

K.C. Murdarasi takes us back to the turn of the 19th century, when a generation of working-class poets charted the downward spiral from a ‘golden age’ of handloom weaving, to the loss of the craft as the Industrial Revolution made its inexorable progress

Rait Castle: a highlands fishing drifter

Dr David Raitt uses contemporary newspaper reports to tell the story of a fishing drifter, named after an ancient castle, that survived two World Wars and underwent a dramatic lifeboat rescue

DIARY DATES

CLICK HERE TO WATCH: Raeburn: the man behind the paintings

SCOTTISH LOCAL HISTORY FORUM

This regular round-up takes a look at the activities of the Scottish Local History Forum, as they issue a call for ideas on how their member societies can help keep local history alive in the community

Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (AANHS)

Spotlight on…

THE STAFF OF THE SCOTTISH CENSUS OFFICE 1921

Dr Tristram Clarke shares his ongoing study into the lives of the staff who worked on the 1921 Scottish census, captured for posterity in the photograph shown below

From Glasgow to the Giants

To mark the centenary of the birth of Scottish-born baseball player Bobby Thomson, Christopher Warner explores the sportsman’s journey from life in the oldest part of Glasgow to a place in America’s Basketball Hall of Fame

BOOK REVIEWS

Four Scots walk out one summer mor ning…

A journey through hearts, minds and memories

Louise Heren wanders across the life map of a distinguished Orcadian

Lost, departed or transformed?

Ben Thomas seeks the inhabitants of the Black Isle

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

The material landscapes of Scotland’s jewellery craft: 1780-1914

How to research prisoner of war ancestors

Ken Nisbet shares his experiences of researching POW ancestors, explaining where to look online and the sort of information that can be found, including details such as date of capture, the type of work undertaken whilst imprisoned and whether or not the prisoner was interrogated by his captors

SCOTTISH SENTIMENT AT THE TIME OF UNION

In keeping with the theme of this special issue, Dr Kelsey Jackson Williams takes a look at a volume of correspondence relating to George Lockhart of Carnwath, which provides a valuable window into Scottish sentiment around the time of the union negotiations

FINAL WORD

Tahitia McCabe, head of the new Institute for Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde, talks to us about what the institute will offer historians, archaeologists, genealogists, archivists and other groups and individuals with a passion for the past

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