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.

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History Scotland

World’s largest Jurassic pterosaur found on the Isle of Skye • A spectacular fossil of a huge flying reptile known as a pterosaur, found on the Isle of Skye, is the largest of its kind ever discovered from the Jurassic period

ABERDEEN CHILDREN OF THE 1950S • The story of one of the world’s most unique group of study participants and what life was like for them growing up in 1950s Aberdeen is told in a new online exhibition

See a handwritten Stuart treasure • A poem handwritten by a young Mary Queen of Scots has gone on display at National Museum of Scotland

PLOCKTON’S SPORTING DILEMMA • Sandy Thomson shares his recent sport history research, in which he explores why the young men of 19th-century Plockton established a quoiting club instead of the more popular sport of shinty

Urban standing stones • Picture a standing stone and you will possibly think of a monument standing in wild, rural surroundings. Dr Kenneth Brophy takes us on a tour of urban standing stones, challenging us to reassess our connections with such monuments and the role they play in today’s world

THE DISCOVERY OF A UNIQUE WORLD WAR II DOMESTIC AIR RAID SHELTER • Dr Patricia ‘Iolana shares a unique insight into the excavation of a unique, and possibly prototype, World War II domestic air raid shelter that she discovered in Bainsford last summer

THEORIES FROM A BRIEF HISTORY

ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: MAPS, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND SITE BRICKS

PLAGUE RETURNS TO GLASGOW • Plague is usually discussed as a medieval disease, indelibly linked in public consciousness with the Black Death of the 14th century. But plague has recurred frequently since the Middle Ages, including in an outbreak in early-20th-century Glasgow. William B. Black tells the story of this widely forgotten epidemic

THE ANNALS OF THE GOODSIR-TAYLOR BROOCH • Michael T. Tracy charts the history of a brooch that tells the stories of three families in Scotland and Canada, in a tale that spans the centuries

THREE CENTURIES OF PERFORMANCE: ALLAN RAMSAY’S THE GENTLE SHEPHERD • As a new scholarly edition of Allan Ramsay’s The Gentle Shepherd is published, Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland and Professor Murray Pittock reflect on the making and significance of the work, and ask what the new edition can do to highlight Ramsay’s legacy

DIARY DATES • EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY, PLUS SELECTED ONLINE EVENTS TO ENJOY FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD

THE POLICE AND THE ROYAL AIR FORCE IN WARTIME BERWICKSHIRE • For Scotland’s small, under-staffed police forces, hugely increased contact with the Royal Air Force was one of the lesser-recognised challenges of wartime. Dr David M. Smale explores the nature of this relationship in the country of Berwickshire

CALL THE MIDWIFE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MIDWIFERY PROFESSION IN SCOTLAND • In 2015, National Records of Scotland held the exhibition Safe Delivery: A History of Scottish Midwives. Veronica Schreuder revisits some of the archives to tell the story of the establishment of professional registration in the field, to recognise National Midwives Day on 5 May

HOW TO TAKE A TOWN • In the latest instalment of Spotlight: Jacobites, Dr Darren S. Layne takes a closer look at some of the logistical and administrative directives of Jacobite...