On Friday, 19th November, 2021, Dr Liz Auty, East Schiehallion Property Manager for the John Muir Trust, presented a talk to our Society on the subject: “Schiehallion: The attraction of mountains, ‘weighing the world’ and contour lines”. Liz discussed Neville Maskelyne’s 1774 expedition to Schiehallion, the people, the experiment and the mountain.
The Schiehallion experiment was set up to determine the mass and mean density of the Earth and involved measuring the tiny deflection of a pendulum due to the gravitational attraction of a nearby mountain. After a search for candidate mountains, Schiehallion was considered the ideal location thanks to its isolation and almost symmetrical shape.
Towards the end of her presentation, Liz talked about the work that she does at East Schiehallion as Property Manager for the John Muir Trust and, in particular, to the collaborative work that the John Muir Trust carries out in the area with the Heart of Scotland Forest Partnership.
You can view Liz’s talk to our Society here:
If you wish to view this video at a larger size, click on the ‘full screen’ button at the bottom right-hand corner of the image above:
Nineteen members of the Breadalbane Heritage Society enjoyed an excellent day out on Monday, 23rd May, 2022, exploring some of the remains of the Antonine Wall, guided by expert Jim Walker who has spent many years researching it and excavating along its length. In 2019, Jim had given a fascinating talk on the wall to our members, but the associated summer trip had to be postponed due to Covid restrictions.
Starting in 142 AD and stretching from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde across the narrowest part of Scotland, the wall was constructed in a remarkably short time by Roman legionaries. Built of slabs of turf on a stone base, topped with a wooden palisade and aligned with a deep ditch, almost nothing now remains of the turf wall itself. However, at intervals the remains of the ditch and the substantial ramparts on which the wall was built can still be seen, plus some of the 16 forts that protected the wall and the small fortlets and signalling stations between them.
Map courtesy of OpenStreetMaps
Our tour today visited the sites of a section of the Antonine Wall and associated Roman Forts between Callendar Park in Falkirk to the east and Castlecary to the west, stopping at Watling Lodge, Rough Castle and Castlecary Fort.
First stop was the heritage centre at Callendar House in Falkirk to visit the permanent exhibition on the Antonine Wall which includes an assortment of objects ranging from large, inscribed stone distance panels which Jim explained that the Romans erected at regular intervals as each section of the wall was completed, to small finds of potsherds, gaming counters, etc., uncovered during excavations. This provided an excellent introduction to the sites we were about to visit.
The group then moved on to an area nearby known as Watling Lodge, to explore a section of the north mound of the Antonine Wall, now covered in trees, and its deep ditch.
A break for lunch at the café at the Falkirk Wheel provided the opportunity to watch the canal boats being raised and lowered.
The group moved on to visit the remains of the large fort at Rough Castle beside a substantial section of rampart wall and ditch. Jim pointed out that the remains of a Roman road, now grassed over, can still be identified by its distinct camber and shallow depression on each side.
Extra protection to the wall was provided by what are known as lilia – deep holes dug in staggered rows, each containing sharpened wooden stakes as a simple but effective deterrent to attackers. A section of these pits can still be seen at Rough Castle.
Green-veined white and Orange-tip butterflies on the right were seen in this area.
Green-veined1 on the left, Orange-tip on the right
We had originally intended also to visit the Seabegs Wood section of the wall but due to very limited parking there, we had to omit it from today’s visits. However, from a previous visit, this is what we would have seen. Jim had mentioned that he had been involved in the discovery and excavation of a Roman Fort just to the west of the wood, but this is now buried under a farmer’s field.
The final stop was to see what is left of the fort at Castlecary, which had a railway line built right through it in 1841.
Jim said that there are records that, until then, parts of the stone buildings of the fort were still standing to a height that provided shelter for shepherds in bad weather, but the landowner allowed them to be completely demolished, and now there is little to see. He pointed out that many of the distinctive squared stones from the fort are now built into the 19th century wall which borders the area.
Without expert guidance it would have been hard to fit visits to such a varied and interesting range of places into a day’s tour, and the meticulous planning by Jim and Ian Stewart ensured that it was a great success. Jim Walker’s short and clear talks, as well as the extensive illustrated handouts which he provided at each site, added greatly to the enjoyment and understanding of this remarkable wall and its forts.
Thanks for this review compiled by Fran Gillespie, and photographs provided by Lesley Whitwood and Ian Stewart
In what may be the Society’s first-ever offshore excursion, fourteen members visited the tiny island of Iona for three nights at the beginning of September last year. This long-awaited trip had been booked for September 2020 but had to be postponed due to Covid lock-down.
Based on our three-night stay there and on photographs taken at the time, we have compiled a short video of many of the places that we visited. If you have never been to Iona, hopefully this may encourage you to visit this beautiful, spiritual island.
Breadalbane Heritage Society talk to be presented on Zoom on Friday, 18th February 2022 by Dr. Nicki Scott, Senior Cultural Resources Advisor at Historic Environment Scotland
The survival of so many Pictish carvings highlights the long tradition of Christian worship across Angus. But the tradition of monumental display continued in the medieval period; the most famous example of this is Arbroath Abbey.
Arbroath Abbey, courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland
But while this royal foundation rightly draws much attention, sites such as Restenneth Priory and Maison Dieu show it wasn’t just the elites whose lives were connected to the Church.
Restenneth PrioryMaison Dieu Chapel
In this talk, Nicki will provide some insight into the lives of these foundations and the people associated with them. This talk follows on from last month’s talk by John Borland on ‘The Early Medieval Sculpture of Highland Perthshire’ but concentrates on the area of Angus.
Please note that, in order to obtain the Zoom joining instructions for this talk, you must contact Ian by email at bhsaberfeldy@gmail.com.
Although Perthshire was part of Pictland, the corpus of Early Medieval sculpture in north-west or “Highland” Perthshire comprises very few Pictish stones. The prominence of simple crosses – linear, sunken and outline – which have their origins in the Scots’ kingdom of Dál Riata, suggests not only the spread of Christianity from the west but perhaps even gradual Scottish settlement.
In this talk, John Borland will give an overview of the early medieval sculpture of Highland Perthshire, follow its distribution from west to east along the glens and straths, highlighting what is rare and unusual. He will examine the distribution of the sculpture to see what that tells us about its cultural origins and thus assess just how “Pictish” this part of Perthshire was.
John Borland worked as an archaeological surveyor for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and Historic Scotland (RCAHMS) and then Historic Environment Scotland (HES) for 36 years, retiring as Measured Survey Manager in May 2020. In that time, John had the opportunity to survey almost every type of archaeological and architectural monument, from Neolithic chambered cairns to WWII coastal batteries and everything in between, including castles, churches, croft houses and country houses. However, the main focus of his work latterly was recording Scotland’s Pictish and other Early Medieval sculpture. John has been a member of the Pictish Arts Society for more than 20 years and is the current PAS President.
To register for the talk and to receive the Zoom joining details, you must send an email to Ian at bhsaberfeldy@gmail.com.
Our next meeting takes place in Breadalbane Community Campus at 7.30pm on Friday 19th November. The speaker will be Dr Liz Auty, East Schiehallion Property Manager for the John Muir Trust, on the subject: “Schiehallion: The attraction of mountains, ‘weighing the world’ and contour lines”.Doors open at 7pm and the talk will start at 7.30pm.
Dr Liz Auty will discuss Maskelyne’s 1774 expedition to Schiehallion, the people, the experiment and the mountain and her work as property manager for the John Muir Trust.
Schiehallion from the Braes of Foss
The Schiehallion experiment was set up to determine the mass and mean density of the Earth. The experiment involved measuring the tiny deflection of a pendulum due to the gravitational attraction of a nearby mountain. Schiehallion was considered the ideal location after a search for candidate mountains, thanks to its isolation and almost symmetrical shape.
Maskelyne’s south observatory site on the side of Schiehallion
The Campus management have provided guidance regarding the Covid-related procedures that will have to be followed on the night:
Face coverings must be worn when moving around within the building but can be removed once seated;
Hand sanitiser should be used on entering and leaving the building and when moving to a different location;
The Hall will be as well ventilated as possible ;
Unfortunately we will not be able to serve any refreshments. ;
We are required to keep a register of all attendees as we will be responsible for any contact tracing in the event of a positive case. (Lesley Whitwood is the BHS Covid Officer).
Due to the Covid restrictions in place at the time, we were not able to hold any of our 2020-21 winter season of talks ‘in person’ at our normal venue in the Breadalbane Community Campus. Consequently, in order to offer a programme of talks to our membership, we ventured into the unknown world for us of online Zoom presentations.
From the October talk onwards, we recorded these talks to make them available to a wider audience, but we were not sufficiently prepared to do this for Colin Liddell’s talk on ‘Pitlochry in Threes’ which opened our winter season in September 2020. However, we are delighted that Colin subsequently was keen to present his talk once again, but without an audience in this instance, and have it recorded.
Colin is a local solicitor and historian who in recent years has presented four talks to the Society on Pitlochry and General Wade’s roads. This current talk is an eclectic dip into the assortment box of Pitlochry’s local history, by looking at lots of groupings of three things to show how Pitlochry has been shaped over the years. Topics and artefacts included the Lude Harp, Black Spout toggle and the Clach na Brataich.
The video is approximately 27 minutes long and can be viewed below:
If you wish to view this video at a larger size, click on the ‘full screen’ button at the bottom right-hand corner of the images above:
Dr. David Summers is the Fisheries Director of the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board and has over 30 years’ experience in the field of salmon and freshwater fisheries research and management.
On Friday, 17th September he opened our 2021-22 winter season of talks with a talk on talk entitled ‘Salmon and Salmon Fishing in the River Tay: Past, Present and Future’. Due to on-going Covid restrictions, we weren’t allowed to hold this talk ‘in person’ in our normal venue of the Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy, and presented it online on Zoom instead. 36 people registered for, and attended, this talk, of which 12 were non-members of our Society.
David’s talk encompassed the life cycle of the salmon, the drastic reduction in salmon numbers, current scientific research studies and findings, and local socio-economic benefits. David provided an overview of the status of the River Tay’s salmon population and fisheries, with an emphasis on how things compare with the past and what the future might hold. Particular emphasis was placed on issues local to the Breadalbane area such as hydro development.
Two versions of the recording of the talk are available to view. The first is approximately one hour long and contains just the talk. The second includes an additional subsequent 30-minute Q&A session providing further supplementary information. Both of these videos can be viewed below:
Full Talk with the Q&A session (90 minutes):
Only the talk (60 minutes):
If you wish to view these videos at a larger size, click on the ‘full screen’ button at the bottom right-hand corner of the images above:
We are delighted to confirm that our meeting on 15 October will take place “in person” in the Breadalbane Community Campus Assembly Hall. Our speaker will be Rob Hands, a retired geography teacher and joint founder of Tippermuir Books Ltd., publishing local and military history books. In his talk, entitled “Battles of the Three Muirs”, Rob will explore the outstanding local battles of Dupplin Moor (1332), Tippermuir (1644) and Sheriffmuir (1715) using maps and photographs to get a feel for the landscapes that determined the battle outcomes. Please see attached poster for additional information. Doors open at 7pm and the talk will start at 7.30pm. If you may be interested in purchasing any of Rob’s books he will be bringing some stock to sell on the night, therefore please ensure you have cash or cheque with you.
The Campus management have provided guidance regarding the Covid-related procedures that will have to be followed on the night:
Face coverings must be worn when moving around within the building but can be removed once seated;
Hand sanitiser should be used on entering and leaving the building and when moving to a different location;
The Hall will be as well ventilated as possible ;
Unfortunately we will not be able to serve any refreshments;
We are required to keep a register of all attendees as we will be responsible for any contact tracing in the event of a positive case. (Lesley Whitwood is the BHS Covid Officer).
Membership: Thank you to all who have already paid their subscriptions either online or by cheque. There will be an opportunity to pay your membership subscriptions at the meeting, either cash or cheque, and it is not necessary to complete a new membership form unless your contact details have changed. We are not issuing membership cards this year, however all members will receive email confirmation of their membership and an electronic copy of the Prospectus, hard copies of which will also be available at the meeting. As in previous years visitors will be asked for a donation of £4 on the night.
Looking forward to seeing many of you at the Campus on Friday 15th October.
In what may be the Society’s first-ever offshore excursion, fourteen members visited the tiny island of Iona for three nights at the beginning of September. This long-awaited trip had been booked at the St Columba Hotel in 2019 for September 2020 but had to be postponed due to lockdown last year.
Iona Abbey with Dùn Ìin the background
Lesley Whitwood organised the three days with an ideal mixture of group activities and independent exploring. Some attended the services held nightly or in the morning by the Iona Community in the 12th century Benedictine abbey, and as a group we visited the wonderfully restored abbey buildings, its recently updated museum and the Nunnery and went for varied walks over the beautiful island scenery.
St. Martin’s Cross
We were blessed with warm weather, sometimes bright sunshine, sometimes cloudy, but thankfully not a drop of rain. Everyone agreed that, thanks to Lesley and to Sally Rose who undertook all the bookings, the trip was such a success that annual three-day excursions should take place – next year’s special multi-day trip to Angus is already in the planning.
Breadalbane Heritage Society 
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