Dr Michael Penman, of Stirling University, is to run a lecture series on the Wars of Independence, the background, the course of the wars and their later mythologising.

the series will run on Tuesday nights, 7pm – 8.30pm in the Pathfoot Building at the University of Stirling, from 7 October. The cost is £100 for all 11 sessions if paid in advance; or £10/lecture, collected each week of attendance.

The income from the series will go to support the publication of The Battle of Bannockburn, 1314-2014, a collection of conference essays on the battle and its later history: the names of those enrolled for the lectures will appear in the volume cf Tabula Gratulatoria. A certificate will also be provided to those attending more than two-thirds of the lectures as proof of cpd. The series will require at least twelve enrollments to run.

Lectures – each will have a PowerPoint slides, accompanying primary source documents, basic recommended reading and time for Q&A.

1. The Scottish Kingdom and Anglo-Scottish Relations before 1286 [7 Oct]

2. The Interregnum and ‘Great Cause’, 1286-92 [14 Oct]

3. The Kingship of John Balliol and the outbreak of war, 1292-6 [21 Oct]

4. William Wallace and Scottish military resistance, 1297-1304 [28 Oct]

5. Scottish Diplomacy, 1298-1304 [4 Nov]

6. Bruce’s revolution, 1305-9 [11 Nov]

7. The road to Bannockburn, 1310-14 [18 Nov]

8. After Bannockburn: patronage and propaganda, 1314-29 [24 Nov]

9. Military Hegemony? The Scots in Ireland and northern England 1314-28 [2 Dec]

10. Peace and war again, 1322-57 [9 Dec]

11. The Aftermyth of the Wars – from Barbour and Blind Hary to Braveheart and Bannockburn Live!; Dissertation topics [16 Dec]


Anyone wishing to enroll should contact Dr Penman directly
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; 01786 467575. An invoice can be prepared if your institution will fund your attendance.

We have had a contribution from Tom Welsh who is concerned that the 'traditional' site of the Battle of Bannockburn and the evidence for it, has been overlooked in recent work. There have been examples of battles where archaeology has shown 'tradition' to be the better guide to the location than modern scholarship! So we are happy to record his contribution. Note that neither he nor SLHS are saying that the 'traditional' site is necessarily where the battle took place, simply that the evidence should not be overlooked.

This important local wildlife and history journal has now been published. As usual it covers a wide range of topics.
Of particular interest to visitors to this website might be;

John G Harrison, 'Gardens and Gardeners in Early-Modern Stirling'.

Stephen Digney and Richard Jones, 'Recent Investigations at the King's Knot'.

Harrison's paper looks at the significant impact the presence of gardens had on the early evolution of Stirling's street plan as well as at the crops grown in gardens and the gardeners themselves.

Digney and Jones discuss the history of the royal gardens in Stirling and report in detail on the geophysical investigations, which have now show that there is older structure beneath the Knot that we see today.

Copies of the Forth Naturalist and Historian (price £10) can be bought at the Stirling University Book Shop or at the Smith Art Gallery and Museum; there is a discount for members of the Forth Naturalist and Historian - click for details.

With the lead-up to Bannockburn well under way, there is going to be a good deal on this topic. This looks like being a wide-ranging event with a broad perspective - and is FREE if you register soon for your tea and coffee!


New perspectives on the Scottish Wars of Independence: Scotland and the governance of England in the thirteenth century.



Free day conference as part of the AHRC-funded project, 'The Breaking of Britain: cross-border sociaety and Scttish independence 1216-1314'.



Friday 23 August

(Senate Room, Univ. of Glasgow)



9.10 Registration

9.30 Preliminaries



Part I: Government and People in Scotland and Northern England

9.45–11.15

Beth Hartland, ‘The People of Northern England: Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland, 1216–1286’.

David Carpenter, ‘The King’s Government in Northern England in the thirteenth century’.

Matthew Hammond, ‘North of the Forth in the Ragman Roll’.



11.30–12.30

Richard Cassidy, ‘Sheriffs, kings and rebels in Cumberland and Northumberland’.

Keith Stringer, ‘Scottish Royal Lordship in the Thirteenth-Century English Borders’.



Part II: English politics in Scotland

13.45–3.15

John Reuben Davies, ‘England in the Chronicle of Melrose’.

Fergus Oakes, ‘Alexander III and the Barons’ Wars’.

Sophie Ambler, ‘The Montfortian revolution and Scottish political thought’.



Part III: Law and the construction of Scottish independence

3.45–4.45:

Alice Taylor, ‘Robert I’s legal reforms, 1318’

Sarah Tebbit, ‘The legal context of the formulation of nationhood in early fourteenth-century Scottish texts’



4.45–5.15: Summing up (Dauvit Broun)



Please register on-line at http://newperspectives.eventbrite.co.uk/ by 16 August if you wish to have free teas/coffees and lunch, and to guarantee your place.

A 'first' for the society with the launch of a new, hard-copy publication produced in conjunction with Friends of the Holy Rude Kirk. This 22 page booklet describes the burial grounds at the Top of the Town of Stirling and the gravestones and monuments they contain.
The changing use of the area and the emerging styles of gravestones over the centuries are discussed. So, too, is the 'educational sculpture garden' created in the late 1850s as a setting for the town's new cemetery.
The pamphlet brings together material previously only accessible in scattered sources. It has 26 illustrations (mainly in colour) and was written by historian John G Harrison.
Copies can be obtained through any of the Stirling Community Libraries or at the Church of the Holy Rude itself and cost only £2. Copies will also be on sale at the meetings of SLHS next season (if there are any left

Valuation Rolls recorded the value of property in Scotland with the main run starting in 1855. They were the basis for assessing the old Rates (replaced by the Poll Tax in the 1980s). So, the rolls list the owners, tenants and occupiers of all the rateable properties in Scotland.

Over the last few years, the rolls have been gradually appearing in digital format, some searchable online via the Scotland's People webste or directly in National Records of Scotland.

The latest tranche -the rolls for 1905 - have now been launched. The total archive comprises 4.2 million indexed entries and 2.4 million indexed names and, like the previous examples, is fully searchable by name and by address. More years will appear online in the future but it is a big project and will take time.

It will mainly be of interest for genealogists but also very valuable for local historians - who was living in Stiring's Cowane Street at that time and were they property owners or tenants? How did these properties compare in value with those in other parts of town?

There is a charge for remote access though not if you search in NRS. So, if this sounds useful, get clicking.

Stirling Council Libraries and Archives are planning an exciting event for 2014.

Wha’s Like Us? is an ancestry event which promises to be fun and interactive and to give  attendees a chance to meet other people interested in family history research,

It will include a lively selection of talks and workshops by local and national experts, aimed at unearthing the stories and experiences of this kind of research. As part of the planning there is an online survey at http://bit.ly/WhaSurvey.

Further information is also available from Sti Libraries or Archives

Some time ago we posted a page summarising the Stirling Roller Skating Craze of 1909-1911. This has now been undated and greatly expanded and the craze related to wider issues.

This was a fascinating episode, indicative of growing demand for entertainment at this period - a demand which was to culminate in the emergence of the cinema.

The experience of other towns is also brought into the picture. And if popular entertainment in Scotland is your interest, these pages are for you!

One of the highlights of our 2010-11 session was a talk by Professor Richard Oram (Stirling University) about Cambuskenneth Abbey and its lands.

The Abbey was an important local institution from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries - and some of its lands were later taken over by that most crucial of Stirling insitutions, Cowane's Hospital.

The new volume of the Forth Naturalist and Historian (volume 35) has a  paper by Prof. Oram, analysing the abbey's land-holdings and other lands, the first modern and detailed study.

The volume also, as previously noted, has a paper on King's Park Football Club, an excellent discussion of the early post-cards of Drymen (by John Mitchell) and a short paper on the early records of the port of Alloa.

Copies of FNH are available via the Smith Museum. Get further information about current and past issues of the journal at http://www.fnh.natsci.stir.ac.uk/journal/index.php

A book  by James Crawford, Scotland's Landscapes; The National Collection of Aerial Photography (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, 2012) has arrived.

Of course, being published by RCAHMS this is a splendid creation, beautifully designed and with breath-taking photography. Even at the cover price of £25 it is a bargain - an excellent pressie for people who are into pressies! - but you can get it for less, too.

Its particular relevance here is that, as you might expect, it features the King's Knot. But, as you might not expect, it has already incorporated the results of the SLHS work there, just last year, recognising that the Knot that we see incorporates older work and so, when created in the 1620s,was perhaps 'an elaborate tribute' to the Arthurian myths which had so long surrounded Stirling.

We will be flagging up the Commission's other recent publication, on Scotland's gardens, very shortly.

Of course, it is opportune that the landscapes are getting this scholarly attention at a time when their future is in question and discussions are ongoing about the issue of ownership.

But the book had stunning pictures and illuminating commentary for landscapes the length and breadth of the land, from Shetland to an array of giant wind turbines in the Solway.