Zoom Into Edinburgh City

What do you think of when you think of the city of Edinburgh? Perhaps the ancient castle looming over the city from Castle Rock. Or the plethora of festivals that take place in the city’s streets every year. Maybe you know Scotland’s capital city best as the seat of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. But what else has taken place within […]

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Zoom Into Angus

The Modern-day council area of Angus traces its name to an eighth century Pictish king, Óengus son of Fergus (ruled 732-761). Óengus (Angus) hailed from Circinn, one of the four principal Pictish kingdoms roughly coextensive with the modern county of Angus. The signing of the Declaration of Arbroath at Arbroath Abbey in 1320 marked Scotland’s establishment as an independent nation, and so Angus has become known as the birthplace of […]

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Image of map showing Inverclyde coast near Port Glasgow with shipbuilding firms labelled

Zoom into Inverclyde

Part of the historic county of Renfrewshire, Inverclyde is situated in the crook of the upper Firth of Clyde as it bends east toward Glasgow. Its largest towns, Greenock and Port Glasgow, were historic centres of shipbuilding. From the eighteenth century they were key ports for the British trade in goods from overseas, including commodities, […]

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Pressing forward

At the National Library, we delight in seeing the reactions of visitors to our exhibitions, in welcoming people to our reading rooms, and constantly turning the page on materials that make up the nation’s permanent collection. It’s a privilege to share in the discoveries made by people visiting the Library that help us all to […]

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Zoom Into Scotland

What is that building? Who is this street named after? Where do those gates lead?  With most of us spending more time at and around our homes, we are noticing things we haven’t spotted before. Whether you have lived there for a short time or for years there is always something new to discover. Many of us live away […]

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Curators’ Favourites: Tours of Scotland

The choice: Tours of Scotland  Chosen by: Kirsty McHugh, Curator, John Murray Archive & Publishers’ Collections  Read online at the Curious Travellers website   Welcome to the third in our blog series where we introduce you to some favourites from our collections for you to enjoy reading, all freely available online.    In this blog, rather than focus on a book from our digital gallery, we invite you to explore some of […]

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