​Stirling’s landscape, people, and institutions have played a quiet but significant role in the history of aviation. From early balloon ascents and experimental flights to wartime airfields, training activity, and the local industries that supported them, Stirling’s skies have long been more active than they first appear.
Everyone knows the Wright brothers, but far fewer people know the story of the two brothers who helped change aviation forever and placed Stirling on the world map of flight. In this talk, Jonathan Kaney of Stirling Central Library explores the remarkable story of the Barnwell brothers, pioneering aircraft designers whose work from Stirling helped shape modern aviation at a crucial moment in its development. Their early experiments, technical innovations, and personal tragedies influenced both military and civilian aircraft design in ways that are still felt today.
Originally developed as an exhibition for Stirling Science Festival and Stirling 900, this talk brings the story to life through a rich visual presentation of rare and beautiful photographs from Stirling Council Libraries and Archives. These images reveal the people, places, and machines behind the headlines, showing how Stirling became central to a global story of innovation, risk, and ambition.

Susan Ferrier (1782-1854) was a celebrated Scottish novelist, known as the "Scottish Jane Austen" for her witty social commentary in books like Marriage, The Inheritance, and Destiny, and her close ties to Stirling involved her staying at Stirling Castle (where her husband's relative was Governor) and writing her novel Destiny there, while also being connected to the city's literary scene via her friend Sir Walter Scott. Her father, James Ferrier, was a lawyer and colleague of Sir Walter Scott, introducing Susan to Edinburgh's elite literary circles.

Sir Walter Scott was a great admirer, Scott helped secure a generous payment for her novel Destiny and called her his "sister shadow".  Both women knew Sir Walter Scott and although somewhat younger than him Susan seemed to have helped him in his later years. These Scottish literary women in that period often wrote anonymously and it was thought at first that Walter Scott was the author of Inheritance. Though incredibly famous in her time, her name faded, but modern efforts (like Val McDermid's) have highlighted her significant contribution to Scottish literature. 

Destiny (1831): Ferrier's final novel was likely written at Stirling Castle, where she visited her sister Jane (wife of the castle's Governor) after her father's death. Her anonymously published novels were hugely popular, often compared to Jane Austen's for their sharp observations of Scottish life and social manners. 

Although born in Belfast in 1756 (the date is uncertain), Elizabeth Hamilton spent most of her life in Scotland. The daughter of a Scottish merchant who died when she was less than a year old, she moved to Stirlingshire aged just six. Hamilton was an essayist, poet, satirist and novelist. Her works ranged from orientalist studies, to historical, educational and domestic subjects. She is best known for her novel The Cottagers of Glenburnie, a popular satire of Scottish peasant life, and she wrote a number of essays on more and educational reforms. Although considered an anti-Jacobean conservative in her time, she was a proponent of equal education for women. Elizabeth Hamilton lived for a time in London, and later in Edinburgh. In 1804 she was awarded a pension from King George III for her contribution to “religion and virtue”. She died in Harrogate in 1816 after a short illness. Her novel The Cottagers of Glenburnie has recently been republished by the ASLS, along with a number of her essays on education.