Zoom into Argyll and Bute

Collated by Veronica Bell. Argyll and Bute is the second largest administrative area of any Scottish council, with its varied geography consisting of a heavily indented coastline, numerous islands, and a hilly mainland encompassing hundreds of lochs. There is much for the historian to discover, from prehistoric monuments such as Kilmartin, to early Christian sites […]

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Curators’ Favourites: Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Honourable Col. James Gardiner

The choice: Philip Doddridge, Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Honourable Col. James Gardiner. (London, 1748). Chosen by: Robert Betteridge, Rare Books Curator (Eighteenth-Century Printed Collections) Read or download this book from our Digital Gallery.  Welcome to the latest of our new fortnightly series where we introduce you to some favourites from our collections for you to […]

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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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Zoom into Clackmannanshire

Collated by Charlotte James Robertson.  This time in our ‘Zoom into…’ series the spotlight is on Clackmannanshire. Affectionately known as ‘The Wee County’ it is mainland Scotland’s smallest council area by population. Clackmannanshire borders the council areas of Stirling, Fife, and Perth & Kinross. The town of Clackmannan was the county town up until 1822 when Alloa became the main administrative centre. […]

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Zoom into the Orkney Islands

Collated by Alison Leslie. Orkney, or the Orkney Islands, is a group of 70 islands off the north coast of Scotland. They became part of Scotland in 1469 in lieu of an unpaid dowry from Norway.  Today Orkney is best known for its historic sites, the dive sites around the scuttled World War One German fleet, its birdlife, its food and drink, and the North Ronaldsay sheep […]

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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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Geocoding the Stevenson Maps and Plans of Scotland

Written by Rachel Dishington, Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD student at the University of Edinburgh The Stevenson family of engineers worked extensively throughout Scotland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their work focused primarily on coastal engineering projects, particularly harbours including at Peterhead as shown below. Most famously, they were responsible for the construction and […]

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