Collated by Jamie McIntosh. The council area of Renfrewshire sits to the south of the River Clyde and is bounded by five other local councils within the central south-west region of Scotland. First emerging as a county in the early 15th century through a land grant by King Robert III, it would then go on to take the form of the historic County of […]
Category: 19th-century items
Zoom into Falkirk
Collated by Moray Teale. The Falkirk council area was formed in 1996 when the Central Region was divided into several parts. Falkirk boasts many varied attractions from the ruins of the Antonine Wall, Callendar House and Blackness Castle to the engineering feats of the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Falkirk Wheel. More recently it has become famous for the […]
Bookplates in the National Library: Who owned books in 18th and 19th century Scotland?
This blog post is about the bookplates collections in the National Library of Scotland and about what it can tell us about the types of people who owned books in eighteenth and nineteenth century Scotland. My name is Bryony Pillath and I am doing an MSc in Book History and Material Culture at the University […]
Automatically transcribing the Marjory Fleming Diaries
This blog post by Joe Nockels explores the creation of the first Library dataset to be generated using the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR). As a result we now have an accurate semi-automatic transcription of the diaries of Scottish child author Marjory Fleming (1803-1811). Few historical texts voice the experience of […]
Zoom into Perth and Kinross
The county of Perth, formerly known as Perthshire, sits at the heart of Scotland, and its vast geographic size has seen it called ‘the big county.’ It existed as an administrative county from 1890 until 1930, when it was linked with Kinross-shire which, in direct contrast to its neighbour, is one of Scotland’s smallest counties. The county town is Perth, and a large number […]
Zoom into Dundee City
Collated by Lorna Black. Dundee is the fourth largest city in Scotland and lies on the north bank of the River Tay. Dundee is famous for three Js: Jute, Jam and Journalism. During the peak of jute production the city was nicknamed Juteolopis. It is also known for the Tay Bridge Disaster and RSS Discovery. […]
Zoom Into North Ayrshire
Collated by Emma Boyd North Ayrshire is a council area in the south-west of Scotland. Set along the coast of the Firth of Clyde and with a population of over 135,000 at the last census; it is the most populous of the three Ayrshire regions. The area was formed in 1996 from the former Cunninghame district, and includes the Isle of […]
Zoom Into East Ayrshire
Collated by Emma Boyd East Ayrshire is a largely rural council area in the south-west of the country with a population of over 122,000 at the last census. The area was formed in 1996, from the former Kilmarnock and Loudoun, and Cumnock and Doon Valley districts; and the majority of people live in or around […]
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 […]
Zoom into the Scottish Borders
Collated by Charlotte James Robertson. The Scottish Borders, which are sometimes simply called The Borders, stretch from the Pentland Hills, which mark their boundary with the Lothians, to the River Tweed at the border with England. As an area of exceptional beauty the Scottish Borders have inspired writers like Sir Walter Scott and John Buchan. They are also home to several […]