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Scotland Magazine section Scottish HistoryThe Earls of ArgyllJames Irvine Robertson looks at the dramatic history of the noble Campbells Every Highlander knows that the greatest of all Scottish clans is their own. Many of us are prepared to concede that Clan Donald has had its moments. And what we think of the Campbells is really best left unsaid in a family magazine such as this - which is grossly unfair. The Campbells are unpopula... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 35 published on 15/11/2007 The battle of Stirling BridgeJames Irvine Robertson describes the battle of Stirling Bridge and Wallace’s legendary defeat over the English One of the problems about early Scottish history is the lack of sources. Edward I deliberately removed and destroyed most of the records that existed before the 14th century. Those that survived were taken by Oliver Cromwell and, at the Restoration, the ships carrying them back north sank. Thus the... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 34 published on 30/08/2007 Islands of lost soulsScotland has numerous islands. Some of them are inhabited, others are deserted. More than 80 of them used to have inhabitants, but the locals left for several different reasons. Marieke McBean investigates Scotland’s national tourist organisation, VisitScotland, says there are 790 Scottish islands, whereas Hamish Haswell-Smith, author of the book The Scottish Islands, a Comprehensive Guide to Every Scottish Island says there are 165, but that’s because he only counts islands that are bigger than 40 he... By Marieke Smegen from Issue 34 published on 30/08/2007 The first Highland chargeThis issue, James Irvine Robertson looks at the bloody history that surrounds Sir David Lindsay, 1st Earl of Crawford, and the battle at Glasclune April 23, 1390, the Feast of St George, was a fine sunny day. The windows of the houses lining old London Bridge were packed with spectators. Pennants and multicoloured awnings fluttered in the gentle breeze and a grandstand, ‘a summer castle,’ had been erected for King Richard and the ladies of hi... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 33 published on 22/06/2007 Lord George and the last siege in BritainJames Irvine Robertson looks at one of Scotland’s greatest military leaders In September 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart made Lord George Murray a Lieutenant General. The second Jacobite Rising was a couple of months old, and the little rebel army had entered Perth. Lord George was in his 50s with little military training or experience and had been living peacefully on ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 32 published on 13/04/2007 The life of King James IVThis issue, James Irvine Robertson looks at the history of James IV, the man responsible for the creation of the Kingdom of Scotland When one considers Scottish institutions, the Conservative Party does not immediately spring to mind. Today it fields but a single minister of parliament from a Scots constituency in the House of Commons, although as recently as 1955 it, uniquely, managed to obtain more than half the Scottish votes... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 31 published on 16/02/2007 Meet the RomansIan R Mitchell looks at where you can find traces of the Roman invasions of Caledonia, the only territory their legions failed to conquer Scotland’s Antonine Wall is currently the subject of an application that it be added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites existing in Scotland, these already include Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns, St Kilda, and New Lanark. Such a listing would raise the profile of Scotland’s Roman sites in gen... By Ian R Mitchell from Issue 30 published on 01/12/2006 Written in the blood (Auld Alliance)The Auld Alliance was an ancient series of treaties that allied Scotland and France against their mutual enemy. James Irvine Robertson reports ‘Gardy loo’ was the famous shout from the upper floors of the Edinburgh tenements. It behoved the pedestrian to be quick on their feet, as it presaged a shower of effluent from a chamber pot onto the street below. In the taverns they burned brown paper to counter the stench. The shout was actually ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 30 published on 01/12/2006 Under the great dictatorThis issue James Irvine Robertson looks at a dark chapter of Scotland’s history Indomitable Scotland. For century after century it fought off its vastly more powerful neighbour to the south. In 1603, her Stuart kings took the throne of Great Britain, uniting the four nations of Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales under one monarch, but it took more than another century before... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 29 published on 25/10/2006 A golden opportunity missedJames Irvine Robertson The Jacobite Rising of 1715 Everyone has heard of the 1745 Jacobite Rising and Bonnie Prince Charlie, but the 1715 Jacobite Rising is much less understood. And it even seemed to baffle people at the time, because it should have succeeded, in Scotland at least. The historical sources are far less forthcoming than might be expec... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 28 published on 20/09/2006 The greatest fraud of all?James Irvine Robertsonon the strange but highly lucrative case of James Macpherson Culloden was the last battle to be fought on British soil. After centuries of trying to integrate the alien and barbaric culture that had clung on in the north for so long into mainstream Scottish life, it was finally destroyed and could be forgotten. A few romantics clung on to the myth of the her... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 27 published on 09/06/2006 The Lady of LawersJames Irvine Robertson on a prophet with a pretty good track record The Brahan Seer is the best known of the Highland prophets, those folk who often considered themselves cursed by having the power of foretelling the future. This is strange because one would have expected him to lose most of his glen cred when he failed to predict that Lady Seaforth would burn him ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 26 published on 21/04/2006 A lament for KillicrankieIt was one of Scotland’s bloodiest conflicts but Killicrankie is often forgotten today. James Irvine Robertson reports King James VII of Scotland and II of Great Britain was Catholic. His father Charles I had been found guilty of tyranny and decapitated in 1649 but the son believed himself to be the divinely appointed absolute ruler of the realm. He busied himself appointing Catholics to positions of political powe... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 25 published on 17/02/2006 The most famous FillanThere have been 16 Saint Fillans. James Irvine Robertson recalls the eighth century one According to Saints of Scotland, a list of those important to the spiritual life of Scotland, there are 16 saints named Fillan. They were all priests of the Celtic Church which operated in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Scotland centuries before St Augustine came from Rome to convert the En... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 24 published on 05/01/2006 Many strings to their bowsScots grandees have a number of ceremonial roles based on history. One of the most prestigious is based around its pursuit of fine archery. James Irvine Robertson reports Scots grandees can be the Lord Lieutenant, the Queen’s representative in their county. Or they can be one of the 20 or so deputy lieutenants who back these up. All wear magnificent uniforms. Less formally, they can be High Constables of Edinburgh, of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, of Leith, of Perth ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 23 published on 14/10/2005 A tale of two kingdomsJames Irvine Robertson delves deep in to history to explain the fundamental cultural divisions of Scotland The great cultural division in Scotland was once Pict and Scot. It lasted for some three and a half centuries and is forgotten. Asimilar gulf, now virtually petered out after lasting somewhat longer was, in the language of one of them, Gael v Gall. The Gall were the southerners, the sassenachs spea... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 22 published on 10/08/2005 What Flora did nextWhatever happened to Flora Macdonald, the woman who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from the British? Jackie Cosh reports The name Flora Macdonald is famous the world over as the woman who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from the soldiers of the Hanovarian army. With the Prince disguised as an Irish maid, Betty Bourke, they sailed from the island of Benbecula to Skye where they parted and Prince Charlie fled to ... By Jackie Cosh from Issue 22 published on 10/08/2005 Murder most horridThe Appin Murder still resonates more than 250 years after it happened. James Irvine Robertson explains why 1752 – Culloden was six years ago. The old culture was crushed, the rebel leaders dead or in exile, and their estates confiscated. It should have been all over but rumours were rife of another impending landing by Prince Charles in the Highlands. Spies had reported to the government that he had sli... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 21 published on 10/07/2005 Those who lay beneath usYou don’t normally associate mummies – the wrapped up kind – with Scotland. But the ones at Cladh Hallan are worth investigating Scotland goes with mummies about as well as Egypt goes with bagpipes. Traditionally, the two are most definitely mutually exclusive. So to say that the islands of the Outer Hebrides are an unlikely place to find mummified remains would most certainly be an understatement. The world’s most famous m... By Dominic Roskrow from Issue 21 published on 10/07/2005 A call to armsHeraldry was the way you identified yourself in battle. James Irvine Robertson looks at its significance Heraldry is about who you are. In the midst of battle a thousand or more years ago, it was no use putting on a name tag because only priests could read and not many of them were fighting. It was no use relying on your face being recognised because you had a helmet over your head and, besides, few k... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 20 published on 10/04/2005 The wild world of the original cowboysCattle droving was a core part of Highland life and drovers lived a tough and hardy lifestyle. James Irvine Robertson reports For centuries cattle were the only product of the Highlands that anybody wanted and the only product that generated cash. The animals were the ancestors of today’s Highland cattle, but much smaller. A bull might weigh 250lbs – a modern beef bull can weigh 2,000lbs. The most humble tenant might own ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 19 published on 20/3/2005 Sinclair's snapshot of a nationJames Irvine Robertson on Sir John Sinclair and The Statistical Account of Scotland Even within the memory of man, the past is foggy. Go back before the creation of modern media of record and historians struggle to interpret the facts that survive, let alone the motivation of those that recorded them. In Scotland we have one great work which illuminates the lives of the entire popu... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 18 published on 8/1/2005 No compromiseJames Irvine Robertson on the struggles of the Covenanters The Covenanters are not in the conventional mould of Scottish heroes. There’s no romance here, just hard people willing to fight and die for a hard religion that eschewed symbolism – no Easter, no Christmas, no altars, no crucifixes. Theirs was the God of Calvin. The Word of God was in the New Test... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 17 published on 29/11/2004 Shrouded in mystery and farce...The Gowrie Conspiracy is one of the stranger incidents in Scottish history. James Irvine Robertson tries to make sense of the event, which happened more than 400 years ago On August 6th 1600, 34 year old King James VI was staying at Falkland Palace some 14 miles from Perth. Up early in the morning, he and his retinue were going to hunt deer. They went to the stables to saddle up. The king had his foot in the stirrup when the Master of Ruthven, brother to the Earl of G... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 16 published on 15/9/2004 A history pursued religiouslyUnsurprisingly for a country where religion has meant so much, Scotland has some stunning churches. David Gordan visits some of them Throughout history, Scotland has found itself involved in religion. This important history can be seen in the number and variety of religious buildings and sites throughout the country, from the smallest kirk to the largest cathedral. Here are some of the more interesting ones. Pluscarden Abbey S... By David Gordon from Issue 15 published on 18/7/2004 The Darien disasterJames Irvine Robertson looks at one of the worst misjudgements in Scotland’s commercial and economic history There are only eight Commandments in Scotland as there is nothing to covet or steal ran the grim jest in London at the end of the 17th century. After James VII abandoned his throne to the Protestant William of Orange in 1688, there followed dreadful years of want north of the border – King William’s... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 15 published on 18/7/2004 One of our greatest 'whodunnits'James Irvine Robertson looks at the strange case of Lord Darnley - King Henry - who was a victim of political intrigue and murder It was such a pity that neither Mary of Scotland nor Elizabeth of England had been born a man. Everyone knew theirs would have been a match made in heaven as well as on earth. Both queens regretted it, and so did their advisers for in the 16th century queens needed husbands, not only to produce an ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 14 published on 2/5/2004 Totally torn in twoThe 'disruption' saw Scotland's Kirk split for more than 85 years. James Irvine Robertson explains why it happened. The free kirk, the wee kirk, the kirk without the steeple; the auld kirk,the cauld kirk, the kirk without the people. In 1603, James VI inherited the English throne. The monarchy left Edinburgh for London for good. Parliament followed in 1707. Scottish national identity coalesced around the two rem... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 13 published on 25/3/2004 A bloody end to an uprisingCulloden stands out as a defining moment in Scottish history. James Irvine Robertson looks back There have been far bloodier battlefields than the nondescript stretch of moorland a few miles east of Inverness called Culloden. But stand there amid the flapping banners from where the Highlanders began their final charge towards the immaculate lines of redcoats and even the most hard-boiled is a... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 12 published on 19/1/2004 The Massacre of GlencoeMUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN AND SAID ABOUT GLENCOE BUT WHAT ACTUALLY Truth often loses out to myth. Myth is more simple, and better at rousing the emotions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692, when the Campbells treacherously fell upon the Macdonalds of Glencoe and slaughtered them, man, woman and child. But it wasn’t quite like tha... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 11 published on 17/11/2003 Opportunity KnoxJAMES IRVINE-ROBERTSON LOOKS AT HOW THE REFORMATION TOOK SHAPE IN SCOTLAND In Scotland, the Reformation came late and, when it came, Roman Catholicism was replaced by the Protestant faith in a velvet revolution. Throughout much of northern Europe it had been a brutal, bloody affair. In the decades after Martin Luther hammered his 95 theses against the abuse of indulgences... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 10 published on 5/9/2003 Shaping the modern worldJAMES IRVINE-ROBERTSON EXAMINES THE PROLIFERATION OF GREAT MINDS AND IDEAS DURING THE 18TH-CENTURY ‘SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT’, WHICH HELPED SHAPE THE MODERN WORLD The 17th century was grim in Scotland. Civil wars racked the nation, and it ended with religious fundamentalism, mass starvation, a Dutch king on the throne and virtual bankruptcy. In 1696, an 18 year-old student, Thomas Aitkenhead, declared that theology was “a rhapsody of feigned and ill-invented ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 9 published on 20/7/2003 Unhappy UnionJAMES IRVINE-ROBERTSON LOOKS AT THE MOTIVATIONS BEHIND THE DEEPLY Constitutionally, the British Isles today is a pig’s breakfast. Ireland is an independent nation, except for the north, which, at the time of writing, is ruled by Westminster. So is England. Wales is mostly governed from London, but some internal decisions can be made at the Welsh Assembly in Cardi... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 8 published on 17/5/2003 The PatriotNEIL GUNN EXAMINES THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANDREW FLETCHER, WHO FOUGHT FOR SCOTTISH DEMOCRACY AND INDEPENDENCE Throughout Scotland’s long history there have been many who fought for and were devoted to their country. The names of Bruce and Wallace remain uppermost in our psyche as heroes of the battlefields of Bannockburn and Stirling Bridge. But only one man has been given the epithet ‘The Patriot’. Certai... Mary Queen of ScotsMARY STEWART WAS BORN INTO CONFLICT AND DIED AS A TRAGIC RESULT OF IT. The House of Stewart provided 14 monarchs for its country. Beginning as stewards to the rulers of Scotland, they became kings of the four nations of the British Isles. The last of the line died a Cardinal in Rome. Two were executed, two were assassinated, one died in battle, one died accidentally, a... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 6 published on 6/2/2003 War of IndependenceJAMES IRVINE-ROBERTSON LOOKS AT THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE WHICH FINALLY SAW AN END TO THREATS ON SCOTLAND’S NATIONHOOD In bed with an elephant – the phrase used by author Ludovic Kennedy to describe Scotland’s relationship with its neighbour to the south. The elephant was never a more awkward bedfellow than during the Wars of Independence which began after the death of Alexander III in 1286. Uniquely in Christendom... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 5 published on 4/11/2002 Seeds of the nationJames Irvine-Robertson wades into the ‘exceedingly murky’ history of the pictish peoples, direct predecessors of the men and women who united scotland as a nation People first came to Scotland some 10,000 years ago when the first hunter-gatherers ventured into a landscape still raw from the retreat of the glaciers. To their remote Highland descendants, those early folk from prehistory became the legendary Fingalians who left the land studded with the massive ... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 4 published on 9/9/2002 Dumfries & GallowayBroadcaster and writer Fiona Armstrong, who lives and works on the English border, takes a look at the fascination of this unspoiled and magnificent part of the country This is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland. But, then I would say that, wouldn’t I? Living here in the eastern stretches of the region, on the banks of the glorious Border Esk. It’s where green-clad fly-fishers come to try for silvery sea-trout and, truly, if you’ve never ... By Fiona Armstrong from Issue 2 published on 5/6/2002 Roman holidayJames Irvine Robertson asks the searching question: 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' The Romans are unique. In the history of mankind no other people have ever been so in advance of their contemporaries that they were able to conquer the known world. From their Mediterranean isthmus, thanks to their astonishing organisation and administration, they created a tightly-controlled empir... By James Irvine Robertson from Issue 1 published on 5/3/2002 |  | ||||||||||||
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