Category:

King's Park; Stirling's Overlooked Jewel

30/7/2013

This important conference will he held in the Smith Art Gallery and Museum on Saturday 31st August. Get an outline flyer here or full details here; this is a FREE EVENT but you need to make your own arrangements for lunch.

It is an honour to be speaking at this conference, the first attempt at an overview of the history of the park and its changing role. It is held at a critical time, when the future ownership and management of these major landscapes is under discussion.

The local importance of these landscapes is obvious; for leisure, for tourism, for views, for wildlife. Culturally, they are important at a European level, rare survivors of the royal past.

So, whatever your interests, come along, listen and contribute.

Nails in Scotland c. 1500-c.1800

19/7/2013

'Polite' side of door in Argyll's Lodging, with bell-headed nails (Photo Author)

I blogged about this project previously though pressure of work has meant it has taken longer than expected to finalise it.

Some of my friends have smiled at the whole idea though most are half converted by my enthusiastic rant about nails; the rest usually at least admit that, if Adam Smith thought they were important, then they are worth a second thought.

If fact, without a vast supply of nails, the industrial transformation of the eighteenth century could not have happened; nails secured the new, architect-designed buildings, the navies, the colonial development - the log cabin and the White House, if you will.

Smith, who was brought up in Kirkcaldy, knew what he was talking about when he saw the nail trade as a paradigm of the benefits of specialisation since one of the main centres of the Scots nail trade was on his doorstep, as readers will see.

I have put this work here in the hope of comments and that someone else will take the study forward - there is lots to do and I would be happy to help with thoughts and references.

Genealogy and Landscapes

11/11/2012

I have posted a new short item about Fossachie and Parkhead, two former farm-sites on the shoulders of Dumyat, on the genealogy page today.

This is the sort of material which I have, sitting on file and which can so vividly illuminate the lives of local people in the past 500 years or so. Who lived at this site, how did they live, why was it abandoned?

It is ironic that it goes up on the same day as I blog about the threat to adjacent Menstrie Glen due to proposals to plant extensive Sitka Spruce and other trees in this wonderful space.

Broken Link

1/10/2012

I am afraid that, during the course of some routine mainenance of the site yesterday, the link to my Report on Scotland's Sixteenth Century Royal Landscapes was broken.

Now that this has been pointed out, it has been fixed and, just in case you are still perplexed, it is to be found at http://www.johnscothist.com/uploads/5/0/2/4/5024620/scottish_royal_landscapes.pdf

Sorry if it wasted your time - it has certainly taken up a good deal of mine!

New Search facility

30/9/2012

I am astonished by the numbers of visitors to the site and aware of its growing complexity so I have decided to add a Search entry to the site. And, to my considerable surprise, have actually succeeded in doing so.

It should make it a lot easier for first-time visitors to find what they want - particularly if you are looking for very specific things amongst the archived blog posts.

Meanwhile, do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]) with any enquiries or suggestions.

More Sheep

7/9/2012

The sheep counting has continued all through this week - and there were a lot of sheep about in east central scotland in the sixteenth century!

Many thousands of people had just a few sheep - sometimes only three or four. At the other extreme, the royal flocks in the 1530s to 1560s ran to thousands.

More interesting are the flocks of a few dozen or a couple of hundred. Slowly, details of flock structure are beginning to emerge from the archives - how many ewes, how many lambs, how many wedders (castrated males).

The next question is 'what did they look like'? What type of sheep were they?

Keep watching!

John's Blog

27/8/2012

3 Comments

So, after years of pondering, I have launched the site. Mainly to put online some of the reports and some material which will, otherwise, take a long time to publish.

The final touches are stilll being put to the site and it might be some time till it is fullly functional.

But, in the meantime, take a browse through and feel free to comment.