History Scotland

Explore centuries of Scottish history and archaeology with fascinating features on topics from all branches and periods of Scottish history and archaeology, written by leading historians, archaeologists and museum curators. With news on the latest research, opinion, expert reviews and spotlights on the country's most significant historical archives, this lavishly-illustrated magazine has everything you need to explore Scotland's rich past.

History Scotland

FROM THE EDITOR

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NEW DEATH BC PROJECT LOOKS AT MODERN PREHISTORIC BURIAL TREND • Academics at the University of Glasgow are to look at the modern-day phenomenon of why people wish to be buried like their prehistoric ancestors

Chronicle of Fortingall secured for the nation • National Library of Scotland has announced it has successfully acquired the ‘highly significant’ 16th-century Fortingall Chronicle for the nation, a companion to its Book of Lismore

Dunkirk Little Ship finds a permanent home • One of only two remaining ‘Dunkirk little ships’ from the World War II operation is to have a permanent home at the heart of a new immersive heritage experience in Dumbarton

SHOT, SHELL AND SPRUE: the material remains of the battle of Glenshiel • Derek Alexander of the National Trust for Scotland reports on archaeological artefacts that help to illustrate the military activity on the Jacobite battlefield of 1719

WALSINGHAM AND THE WITCH ENGLAND’S FAILED ATTEMPT TO PACIFY KING JAMES VI • Against a backdrop of strained Anglo-Scottish relations, Elizabeth I in 1583 sent her spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, on a diplomatic mission to James VI in Scotland – a mission that would prove very far from satisfactory.

Inspiring Walter Scott • David Forsyth and Dr Anna Groundwater take us on a tour of a new display at National Museum of Scotland that brings together two of his greatest passions – and speak to us of his literary inspiration

Tor House through time • Diana Sproat charts the story of a 19th-century villa that, over more than a century, has served as a country retreat, Balloon Command HQ and convalescent home

‘DOLL’ THOMAS AND HER DAUGHTERS • Dr David Alston tell the story of the remarkable Dorothy ‘Doll’ Thomas, a free black woman whose visit to Glasgow in 1810 caused something of a stir in the ‘second city of empire’

Allahakbarries C.C. J.M. Barrie's extraordinary celebrity cricket team • Pitamber Kaushik takes a look at a cricket team assembled by author J.M. Barrie in the years before World War I, that made up for what it lacked in athleticism with its enthusiasm for the game and the impressive literary roll-call of its membership

REMOTE AND RURAL MEMORIES Highland medicine in the mid 19th century • Dr Daisy Cunynghame explores the availability of medical care in the highlands and islands in the mid 1800s when, following the devastation of the potato famine and the clearances, those who remained found themselves vulnerable to the ministrations of unqualified doctors, and many miles from professional care

WHAT WILL YOU DISCOVER IN THE KIRK SESSION RECORDS? • Following the online release of around one million records to the ScotlandsPeople website, Veronica Schreuder invites us to take a look at how these records can help to piece together how ordinary Scots lived, worked and worshipped over the centuries

LADY OF Swords • In this month’s edition of Spotlight: Jacobites, Dr Darren S. Layne traces the exploits of Margaret Ogilvy, countess of Airlie, during the Jacobite army’s occupation of Coupar Angus in the autumn of 1745

THE RETURN OF THE KING (1341-1346) • In the fourth part of his study of the Second War of Independence, Dr Iain A. MacInnes charts the changing fortunes of the Bruce Scots between the return of David II in 1341 and...