This year's Forth Naturalist and Historian annual conference will be held (as usual) at Stirling University. The theme will be Our Urban Heritage: Natural and Cultural. Details will be announced very shortly but do put the date in your diary NOW. The great attraction of this event has always been that it provides a chance to hear (and see) experts talking on a wide range of aspects of the theme - it can be enjoyed by those with a general interest but is not beneath the interest of specialists. and the draft programme certainly promises that. There will be a range of stalls run by societies and organisations related to the interests of FNH and its members.

The day will also see the launch of Volume 39 of the Forth Naturalist and Historian journal - a chance to grab your copy, hot off the press! And there are always lots of interesting people in attendance. It's a regular date in many calendars.

Further details will be posted here and at http://www.fnh.stir.ac.uk/ as the programme is finalised.

Dr Murray Cook, Stirling Council Archaeologist, writes:
 
Not many people these days have heard of Christian Maclagan (1811-1901) who lived in Stirling and is buried in the old town cemetery: she was Scotland’s first female archaeologist and she is often credited with being one of the first people to undertake modern excavation and in 1872 she identified a possible broch at Livilands. Unfortunately, she suffered from contemporary sexism and her work was overlooked and the broch ‘lost’. Indeed her first paper to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland had to be transcribed by a man.
 
Maclagan, C. 1872. On round castles and ancient dwellings of the Valley of the Forth, and its tributary the Teith,as communicated by John Stuart, Esq, L.L.D. Sec. S.A Scot, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 9: 29-44. http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/psas/contents.cfm?vol=9&CFID=1785744&CFTOKEN=213A4995-C15F-489B-837FB00D61960C2B
 
I’m launching a Crowdfunding campaign to help rediscover Stirling’s lost broch and restore her reputation……can you help?
 
Crowdfunding campaign http://digventures.com/projects/lost-broch-2016/
 
Project website https://christianmaclagan.wordpress.com

A direct link to the appeal can be found here.