The next Scottish Local History Forum Annual Lecture will be held in the Library on 13 February, when Professor Niall Logan will be talking about Duping the Luftwaffe. There is an accompanying display in the Library which showcases items relating to this, as well as to civil defence and air raid precautions. With another war […]
Author: Jennifer Giles
Charity Bazaars in Scotland
The word ‘bazaar’ was first used to describe a sale of work in 1813 in London and spread throughout the developed world in the 19th century. By the 1870s they were huge extravaganzas lasting several days, with entertainments, such as puppet shows, theatrical performances and displays of novelties such as electric light,
Histories of Scottish Families : digital resource
Are you interested in family, local or Scottish history? The Library has recently digitised a selection of almost 400 printed items relating to the histories of Scottish families, and you can read them all on our website in the Digital Gallery (Click here). All areas of Scotland are included, from Dumfries to Shetland, and many different […]
Iolaire ….continued
After my previous blog, Niall Iain Macdonald from Stornoway got in touch with an interesting and moving footnote to the Iolaire disaster. This is about the ‘real Iolaire’, whose name was temporarily taken by the Amalthaea when it replaced it for naval duties in Stornoway, and was the yacht which tragically sunk. His email is […]
The Iolaire disaster
It has been described as the blackest day in the history of the Western Isles when more than 200 servicemen returning from the First World War died as their ship went down in sight of Stornoway harbour. Despite being Britain’s worst maritime disaster since the Titanic, the loss of the Iolaire remains little known beyond […]