Author: ianbhs

February Zoom Talk

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Kilmartin Glen is one of Scotland’s most important Prehistoric landscapes with many important burial and ritual sites, including cairns, rock art sites, standing stones and a stone circle. 

Dr. Sharon Webb came to Kilmartin Museum as Curator in 2003 and has served as Director from 2004. She instigated plans for redeveloping the Museum in 2012 and led the team that raised over £7 million to bring those plans to fruition. The new £7.8 million Museum facility opened in September last year to celebrate this special place, and to care for over 40,000 archaeological artefacts from all over Argyll. 

As well as playing a leading role in the renewal of our facilities, Sharon inher current role of Director and Curator of the Kilmartin Museum is guiding the development of new exhibitions and caring for the Museum’s Collections. She was awarded an MBE for services to Heritage and Archaeology in 2015.

Remaining Winter Talks

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There are four talks remaining from the 2023-24 winter season. The January and February talks are presented only online on Zoom, whilst the March and April talks will be held ‘in-peson’ in the Breadalbane Community Campus building in Aberfeldy.

The first of these talks, ‘The Black Watch’ presented by Major Ronnie Proctor, will be held on Zoom on Friday, 19th January, starting at 7.30 p.m.. To view this talk you must register in advance with Ian at bhsaberfeldy@gmail.com. 

‘Deciphering the Language of our Local Landscape’ – now available to view the recording.

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An illustrated talk presented by Colin Liddell to the Breadalbane Heritage Society on Friday, 17th November, 2023. 

During the Covid lockdown, Colin, a long-standing supporter of, and a speaker to, the Breadalbane Heritage Society, researched and endeavoured to translate all of the Gaelic place names noted on maps within 175 square miles surrounding Pitlochry.  He explained why and how he did this, and illustrated a number of fascinating features of the life carried on in the foothills of Highland Perthshire and beyond, which have been revealed through his translations. 

You can view the video recording of his talk here:  ‘Gaelic Map Names’, or by playing the video below. To view the video at the full size of your screen, click the ‘full screen’ button found at the bottom right hand side of the screen:

November Talk

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The next BHS Winter Talk takes place in the Assembly Hall at the Breadalbane Community Campus at 7.30 p.m. on Friday 17th November, when Colin Liddell will be talking about “Deciphering the language of our local landscape”. 

During the Covid lockdown, Colin researched and endeavoured to translate all of the Gaelic place names within 175 square miles surrounding Pitlochry.  He will explain why and how he did this, and will illustrate a number of fascinating features of the life carried on in the foothills of Highland Perthshire and beyond, which have been revealed through translations .

Prior to Colin’s talk at 7.30 p.m., we will hold the Breadalbane heritage Society’s Annual Members’ Meeting (AMM) at 7.15 p.m., during which the Chairman’s Report on the activities of the Society during the 2022-23 season, and the receiving of the Annual Accounts for the period 1st September 2022 to 31st August 2023, will be presented.

From this date, the Annual Members’ Meeting will be held in November prior to the November talk as this date relates more closely to the end of the Society’s financial year on the 31st of August than the previous meetings being held in March.

Rescheduling of the Glen Lyon Talk

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In mid-October, and taking into account the possible damage that might be caused by Storm Babet, Perth & Kinross Council closed a number of their public buildings including the Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy where we hold our ‘in-person’ talks. This resulted in us having to cancel our talk on ‘The Mysteries, Folklore and History of Glen Lyon’ on Friday, 20th October. We have now rescheduled this talk to take place in the Breadalbane Community Campus on Friday, 19th April, 2024 at 7.30 p.m.

This evening’s talk CANCELLED

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‘THE MYSTERIES, FOLKLORE AND HISTORY OF GLEN LYON’: A talk to be presented by Donald Riddell.

It is with regret that we have had to cancel tonight’s talk (on Friday, 20th Ocober, at 7.30 p.m.).  While we were still considering whether or not to go ahead, at lunchtime the question was taken out of our hands as Perth & Kinross Council has taken the decision to close the Community Campus, the venue for the talk, due to weather conditions.

Our proposal now is that we will reorganise a date for this talk, possibly adding it on to the end of our winter season of talks in April, but with the final date still to be considered.

October Talk

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The next BHS Winter Talk takes place at 7.30pm in the Assembly Hall at the Breadalbane Community Campus on Friday 20th October, when Donald Riddell will be talking about “The Mysteries, Folklore and History of Glen Lyon”. 

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the meeting on Friday, 20th October, for what should be a very interesting talk.

2023 – 24 Winter Season of Talks

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Our first talk of the new season, ‘The Work of the Tayside & Fife Raptor Study Group’, is on Friday, 15th September, held in the Breadalbane Community Campus, Aberfeldy, commencing at 7.30 p.m. This talk will be presented by Logan Steele, Secretary of the Tayside & Fife Raptor Study Group and he will discuss the work of the Scottish Raptor Study Group and focus in on the local Tayside & Fife Branch and their recent monitoring activity.

Our winter season of six monthly talks runs through to March on the third Friday of the month, apart from December when there is not a talk. With the exception of the January and February talks which are presented online on Zoom, they are held in the main hall of the Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy at 7.30 p.m.

From our constitution, one of the Charitable Purposes of the Society is to advance education, heritage and culture by promoting and encouraging an interest in the study of the archaeology, history, antiquities, folklore and natural history, particularly concerning the Breadalbane and Upper Tay area of Perthshire. With this in mind and when possible, we try each year to build our programme of talks around these five topics associated with our local area. Our 2023-24 season listed below includes talks on all these topics.

Further details of each of these talks will be provided in due course.

Killiechassie Burial Ground

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Information Boards

The Breadalbane Heritage Society have been maintaing the Killiechassie Burial Ground on and off since before 2010. Recently, they have installed two information boards at the inner burial enclosure.

The first board provides an introduction to the history of the Stewarts of Fothergill family.

The second board provides information on each of the graves situated within the inner burial enclosure.

The different QR codes on these boards provide links to different Killiechassie Burial Ground pages in this website which will provide more detailed information than is provided on the boards.

2022-23 Winter season talk recordings

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The following talks from our 2022-23 winter season were recorded and can be viewed following the links below:

Friday, 16th September, 2022: ‘The Wolf of Badenoch’, presented by Professor Steve Boardman.

Click on this video link:

‘A Species of Celtic Attila?’

Professor Steve Boardman is the Professor of Medieval Scottish History at The University of Edinburgh with research interests in Late Medieval Scottish Kingship. His talk was based on his current research activities on the life and post-medieval mythologizing of the Wolf of Badenoch.

Friday, 21st October, 2022: ‘The Hillforts of the Tay’, presented by David Strachan

Click on this video link:

‘Hillforts of the Tay’

David Strachan is a Director of the Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust and his areas of interest include Iron Age forts and settlements c.700 BC to AD 700, and community archaeology. In this talk, he concentrated on the hill forts of Castle Law, Abernethy; Moncreiffe Hill, Bridge of Earn; and Kings Seat, Dunkeld.

Friday, 20th January, 2023: ‘Culloden’, Presented by Caitklin Greig

Click on this video link:

‘Culloden’

Caitlin is the Visitor Services Supervisor (Engagement) for the National Trust for Scotland at their Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre. Her talk covered how the battle came about with the Jacobite supporters seeking to restore the Stuart monarchy to the British thrones, and how the current survey work carried out by the National Trust for Scotland on the site of the battle is changing the understanding of how the battle progressed.

Friday, 17th February, 2023: ‘Mar Lodge Estate Regeneration’, presented by Andrew Painting

Click on this video link:

‘Mar Lodge Estate Regeneration’

Andrew is the Conservation Officer for the National Trust for Scotland at their Mar Lodge Estate to the west of Braemar. He is an upland ecologist with specialisms in native woodland restoration, bird monitoring and botany. His talk covered the work of NTS during the last 25 years and, in particular, to the advances made in regeneration in the last 10.

Friday, 21st April, 2023: ‘Discovering Froglife’s Scottish Projects’ presented by James Stead

Click on this video link:

‘Discovering Froglife’s Scottish Projects’

James Stead is Froglife’s ‘Come Forth for Wildlife Project Manager’ and, in this talk, James aims to raise awareness of native reptiles and amphibians and will guide you to learn more about amphibians and reptiles in the area as well as the exciting work underway on the ‘Come Forth for Wildlife’ and ‘Fife Living Water’ projects.