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.

FROM THE EDITOR

MEET THE CONTRIBUTORS

History Scotland

Botanist in bronze comes to Castle Menzies • A bronze head and shoulders bust of plant collector Archibald Menzies has been gifted to Castle Menzies, writes Neil Menzies

New appointment at National Library of Scotland • Sir Drummond Bone has been appointed chair of the National Library of Scotland.

Plans revealed for Union Canal bi-centenary • A line-up of events is being developed to celebrate the Union Canal’s bicentenary next year.

DISTURBING THE DEAD: CENTURIES OF GRAVE CUTTING • Ian Hill and Michelle Gamble of HARP (Heritage & Archaeological Research Practice) present evidence of several centuries of grave cutting activity at Jedburgh Abbey, cut short by the construction of ‘the rampart’

Stirling’s Kokishote and the Sma’ Folk • Dr Murray Cook reports from an excavation this summer, at the site of Coxet Hill, a small hill near the site of the battle of Bannockburn that may have played a big part in the outcome of the famous conflict

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL IN SCOTLAND • To mark the centenary of a ban on the women’s game, Dr Fiona Skillen takes a look at how women’s football developed both before and after this landmark event, with the sport continuing despite vocal opposition from several quarters

AMASSING JACOBITIANA THE AMULREE JACOBITE COLLECTION • Calum Cunningham explores a collection of Jacobite-related material held at the University of Stirling archives, and asks what this unique resource has to tell us about the memory and memorialisation of Jacobitism

SCOTLAND’S LARGEST PICTISH FORT ‘RECONSTRUCTED’ • New reconstructions created as part of a University of Aberdeen project have revealed how Scotland’s largest known Pictish fort may have looked over 1,000 years ago, when it was part of a ‘densely populated’ community

…THE GREAT CAUSE • History Scotland’s consultant editor, Dr Allan Kennedy, looks at the famous legal process of 1291-92 designed to select the next king of Scots, following the extinction of the Canmore dynasty that had ruled since 1058.

THE ROADS OF SCOTLAND’S FAR NORTH • Alastair Mitchell takes us back to the days when road travel in the highlands called for a traveller who, in the words of one commentator, could ‘climb like a goat and jump like a grasshopper’

MYTHOLOGISING MAC BETHAD • The historical figure of King Mac Bethad (r.1040-57) has been comprehensively eclipsed by the fictionalised version presented in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. But Shakespeare’s character was not an original invention: instead, it drew upon centuries of accumulated myth-making. Kelly McRae explains

‘HORRID, INDELICATE CREATURES’: THE HIDDEN VOICES OF SCOTLAND’S MOUNTAIN WOMEN • Paula Williams, curator of a new exhibition on female mountaineers at the National Library of Scotland, takes a look at why we know so little about the achievements of women climbers in comparison with their male counterparts

THE INFLUENCE OF A COVENANTING MINISTER: MR ANDREW DONALDSON OF DALGETY • Robin Arnott traces the career of Andrew Donaldson, the formidable minister of Dalgety in Fife, whose long career and deep, enduring influence over his parishioners underlines just how powerful 17th-century clergymen could be

Living through history: privilege or misfortune? • In the first of a series to mark Year of Stories 2022,...