FROM THE EDITOR

Dr Alasdair Ross Memorial Prize winner announced

The winner of the 2020 Dr Alasdair Ross Memorial prize 2020 has been selected by the Council of the Scottish History Society. The prize was established by the Scottish History Society and History Scotland in memory of Dr Ross, History Scotland’s editor until his death in 2017

Historic property Covid-19 closures could last until 2022

National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has published a reopening schedule following the Covid-19 visitor restrictions, with a small number of properties closed until the 2021-22 visitor season

THE STORY OF OUR STREET

Janet Brown tells the story of her family connections to a house in Bowling originally occupied by the famous Burrell shipbuilding family before a century of occupation by her own family, from her great-grandfather through to her father

Bearsden: a Roman bath-house in Scotland

David J. Breeze shares the results of ten seasons of excavation at Bearsden’s Roman bath-house

Revealing medieval Lismore: a continuing community project

Dr Robert Hay shares the progress of a long-term project that is exploring and disseminating the history of the isle of Lismore in medieval times

David Cousin: versatile Victorian architect

Morven Leese explores the life and legacy of David Cousin, a prolific and versatile architect who, despite being largely forgotten today, did much to shape Scotland’s modern built environment, particularly in Edinburgh

Keith Marischal a lost castle and renaissance palace

Reporting on initial findings with the Castle Studies Trust, Dr Miles Kerr-Peterson explores the hidden history of Keith Marischal House, a lost renaissance palace buried within a much more modern stately home

The real Mr Ambrose and his tavern

Christopher Reekie searches for the facts behind the tavern-keeper William Ambrose, who is fictionalised in Blackwood Magazine’s Noctes Abrosianae (1822-35), but who was also a real businessman in 19th-century Edinburgh

The secret history of the Bishops’ Wars, part 2

Concluding a two-part study, Dr Edward M. Furgol explores the course and consequences of the two Bishops’ Wars between the covenanters and Charles I, focusing in particular on the importance of overseas alliances

SCOTLAND AND SLAVERY CONSIDERED

Professor T.C. Smout, patron of History Scotland magazine, offers his thoughts on Scotland and slavery, viewed against the background of the recent Black Lives Matter movement

IN SEARCH OF DUNFERMLINE ABBEY’S LOST MEDIEVAL CHOIR: HISTORY, LITURGY AND GROUNDPENETRATING RADAR PART I

Michael Penman presents the results of a ground-penetering radar survey to try to apply ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to Dunfermline’s lost monastic choir, the supposed final resting place of Robert the Bruce

The Declaration of Arbroath: new research on stories of the signatories

Graham Holton and Alasdair Macdonald present findings from a research project based on the signatories of the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320, exploring both the histories of those who signed and of their present-day descendants

McVey Napier - a 19th-century multitasker

David McVey explores the life of a remarkable Kirkintilloch-born man who combined his legal career with editing the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Edinburgh Review as well as caring for his ten children

THE ISLAND OF HANDA

Veronica Schreuder, an archivist at National Records of Scotland, looks at what we can learn  about the history of Handa island from genealogical records held by ScotlandsPeople

A tale of two queens

Siobhan Ralfe enjoys a journey into the royal courts of two 16th-century queens.

Is self-love selfish?

Martha McGill discusses a detailed analysis of 18th-century debates on self-love and selfishness.

...THE KILLING TIME

History Scotland’s consultant editor, Dr Allan Kennedy, discusses the anti-presbyterian persecution of Charles II’s reign, and in particular its bloody, brutal zenith in the 1680s

Family history and local history online

James VI with his consort, Anna of Denmark

Loss of Scottish military lives: armed forces deaths 1922-39

East Kilbride History Society, in association with South

Post Covid-19 plans

At the time of going to press, libraries,

SETTING THE STANDARDS FOR SCHOLARSHIP

Dr Annie Tindley takes a look at a volume of letters written by a scholar whose use of primary sources and first-hand accounts to bring vibrancy to his work set the standard for generations of historians who followed

FINAL WORD

Professor David Worthington, head of the Centre for History, University of the Highlands & Islands, talks to History Scotland about the value of university academics and local communities working together, as well as what learning might look like as we emerge from the Covid-19 restriction period