Final winter season talk on Friday
The final talk of our 2023-24 winter season takes place this Friday, 19th April at 7.30pm in the Assembly Hall at the Breadalbane Community Campus, Aberfeldy. Donald Riddell will be presenting an illustrated talk on “The Mysteries, Folklore, and History of Glen Lyon”. Our 2024-25 winter season of talks will start on Friday, 20th September 2024 with a talk on the restoration work being carried out at Taymouth Castle near Kenmore. Other topics throughout the season will include talks on Wade’s Road (from Crieff to Dalnacardoch), 19th century Ardtrasgairt Social History,…
BBC Scotland Out of Doors
Recently, there have been two short items on BBC Scotland’s early Saturday morning radio programme ‘Out of Doors’ which relate to the activities of the Breadalbane Heritage Society. First, following Colin Liddell’s excellent and informative talk ‘Deciphering the Language of our Local Landscape’ to the Society in November last year, he was interviewed by Rachel Stewart on how, with his own project during Covid lockdown, he went about translating and interpreting the Gaelic names to be found on Ordnance Survey maps covering an area…
BHS March talk live in-person
The next BHS meeting takes place next week on Friday 15th March at 7.30pm in the Assembly Hall at the Breadalbane Community Campus, Aberfeldy. Mike Benson will be presenting an illustrated talk on “The Scottish Crannog Centre, Past, Present and Future”.
February Zoom Talk
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,…
Remaining Winter Talks
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.
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…
November Talk
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…
Rescheduling of the Glen Lyon Talk
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
‘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…
October Talk
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
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…
Killiechassie Burial Ground
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…
2022-23 Winter season talk recordings
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.…
Discovering Froglife’s Scottish Projects
As an addition to our normal series of six winter talks, on the 21st April James Stead, Froglife’s ‘Come Forth for Wildlife Project Manager’, presented on Zoom a very interesting talk on the reptiles and amphibians that can be found in Scotland as well as two recent conservation projects (‘Come Forth for Wildlife’ and the ‘Fife Living Water’ projects) which Froglife have undertaken in Scotland. You can view the recording of his talk here: https://vimeo.com/823712945?share=copy or by playing the video below. Subsequent to the talk, James, in…
Additional Zoom Talk
‘Discover Froglife’ Friday, 21st April 2023 At short notice, we have added another, and final, Zoom talk to our 2022-23 winter season of talks and we invite you to attend this free, natural history Zoom talk on Friday, 21st April, at 7.30pm. Froglife is a national wildlife charity committed to the conservation of the UK’s amphibians and reptiles in addition to the habitats these species depend upon. Froglife has been operating since 1989 with a number of national and regional projects. They want to…
Next BHS Winter Talk on 17th March
Old Ways and New Roads : Roads, Bridges, Landscapes and New Towns on the Highland Circuit 1720-1832 Christopher’s talk will look at the development of transport in the Highlands of Scotland between the building of the first military roads in the 1720s and the arrival of railways in the 1830s. This was a period of rapid change in the Highland landscape, involving the building of bridges, the diversion of roads and the establishment of new settlements along the route followed by the ever-increasing number…
Mar Lodge Estate Regeneration
The past, present and future of the Caledonian pinewoods of Mar Lodge Estate NNR Few landscapes in Scotland are as evocative or as celebrated as the Caledonian pinewoods. In these places, pines have survived uninterrupted since the ice retreated just over 10,000 years ago. These are landscapes of great ecological value, but they are also storied, mythologised, and even misunderstood. They have also suffered at human hands with just a few precious fragments remaining across the Highlands. The pinewoods of Mar Lodge Estate…
August BHS Visit to Angus
17 BHS members participated in the final BHS summer excursion for a 4-day trip to the Angus area to visit a number of archaeological and historical sites, predominantly owned by Historic Environment Scotland, from Monday the 22nd to Thursday the 25th of August. On the Monday, we visited the Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum, the Eassie Sculptured Stone and the four sculptured stones at Aberlemno before travelling to the George Hotel in Montrose, our base for the following days. We were very lucky that John…
Hillforts of the Tay
David has worked in archaeology at both national and local level in Wales, England and Scotland since the late 1980s. Over the last two decades with the Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust he has established the Historic Environment Record and planning archaeology service for Perth and Kinross. He has developed and delivered several projects including the Carpow logboat, Tay Landscape Partnership Scheme, Glenshee Archaeology Project and Kings Seat Archaeology Project. His areas of interest include community archaeology and, in particular, Iron Age forts and…
The Attraction of Mountains, 1774 (The Schiehallion Experiment)
In November last year, Dr. Liz Auty, John Muir Trust’s East Schiehallion Property Manager, presented a comprehensive talk to our Society on the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne’s 1774 expedition to Schiehallion, and the organisation and the people behind his experiment to ‘weigh’ the mountain and the world. In the poem below, Jon Plunkett, a well-known poet resident in Aberfeldy, creates an evocative picture of the mountain, Maskelyne’s expedition and his experiment. 1 – Theory An apple tree among the stars, and from it a single…
Start of the BHS 2022-23 Winter Season of Talks
Friday, 16th September, 2022 at 7.30 p.m. ‘The Wolf of Badenoch’ On Friday, the 16th September, we open the new winter season of talks and events with a talk on Alexander Stewart, aka ‘The Wolf of Badenoch’. This starts a season which includes talks on ‘The Hillforts’ of the Tay’, ‘Culloden’, ‘The Regeneration of the Mar Lodge Estate’ and ‘Old Ways, New Roads’. This opening talk on Alexander Stewart is presented by Steve Boardman, Professor of Medieval Scottish History at The University of Edinburgh,…
‘James MacLaren and the Arts and Crafts Movement’ talk video
On Friday, 18th March 2022, Annette Carruthers, an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the School of Art History at the University of St. Andrews, presented her talk to the Breadalbane Heritage Society and described how, despite the tragic shortness of his life, James Marjoribanks MacLaren (1853-1890) achieved much in his architectural career and is recognised as a pioneer of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Annette discussed how his work as an architect and designer impacted on his contemporaries in the context of this movement in…
‘Ancient Magnificence: Arbroath Abbey and Beyond’ talk video
On Friday, 18th February 2022, Dr. Nicki Scott, Senior Cultural Resources Advisor with Historic Environment Scotland, presented her talk and described how although the survival of so many Pictish carvings highlights the long tradition of Christian worship across Angus, the tradition of monumental display continued in the medieval period, most famously at Arbroath Abbey. But while this royal foundation rightly draws much attention, sites such as Restenneth Priory and Maison Dieu show that it wasn’t just the elites whose lives were connected to the…
‘The Early Medieval Sculpture of Highland Perthshire’ talk video
On Friday, 21st January 2022, John Borland presented his talk which provided an overview of the early medieval sculpture of Highland Perthshire, following its distribution from west to east along the glens and straths, highlighting what is rare and unusual. He examined 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 worked as an archaeological surveyor for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments…
‘The Attraction of Mountains’ talk video
On Friday, 19th November 2021, Dr. Liz Auty, John Muir Trust’s East Schiehallion Property Manager, discussed the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne’s 1774 expedition to Schiehallion, the people, the experiment to ‘weigh’ the world and the mountain, along with her work for the John Muir Trust.
‘Salmon and Salmon Fishing in the River Tay’ talk video
On Friday, 17th September 2021, Dr. David Summers, the Fisheries Director of the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board presented his talk which encompassed the life cycle of the salmon, the drastic reduction in salmon numbers and current scientific research studies. He 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.
Fortingall Sculptured Stones’ visit
Wednesday, 6th July, 2022 tour of the Pictish stones in Fortingall Kirk and kirkyard led by John Borland. Twenty members of the BHS gathered in Fortingall Kirk on 6 July to hear John Borland talk about the remarkably rich selection of fragments of carved stones displayed within the church and also outside. John is well known to many of our members, having previously given talks on the subject both at BHS meetings and at TAFAC conferences. He worked as an archaeological surveyor for the…
The Early Medieval Sculpture of Highland Perthshire
A talk presented on Zoom by John Borland to the Breadalbane Heritage Society on Friday, 21st January, 2022. In this talk, John gave an overview of the early medieval sculpture of Highland Perthshire, following its distribution from west to east along the glens and straths, highlighting what is rare and unusual. He examined 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…
BHS Tour of the Dupplin Moor and Tibbermuir Battlefields
On Wednesday 22nd June, 2022, a group of ten members joined Rob Hands at two local battlefield sites just to the west of Perth. We assembled at the Community Hall at Bridge of Earn and drove in convoy to the Dupplin Moor site pausing on the way to see the area where the predominantly English army camped before the battle. This gave a sense of the terrain, especially the high ground rising from the River Earn. Then we went on to the Dupplin…
BHS Visit to East Schiehallion
Undeterred by the sightly damp weather which had followed several days of bright sunshine, sixteen members of the Society set out on the morning of 8th June to explore the lower eastern slopes of Schiehallion. Dr. Liz Auty, the Property Manager of East Schiehallion site which is owned by the John Muir Trust, acted as our guide. Liz is familiar to members of the BHS as a speaker, most recently on the subject of Neville Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, who between 1774 and 1776…
“Schiehallion: The attraction of mountains, ‘weighing the world’ and contour lines”
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…
BHS visits the Antonine Wall
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…
BHS visit to Iona, September 2021 – Video
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…
Ancient Magnificence: Arbroath Abbey and Beyond
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. But while this royal foundation rightly draws much attention, sites such as Restenneth Priory and Maison Dieu show it wasn’t just…
The Early Medieval Sculpture of Highland Perthshire
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…
Schiehallion, ‘Weighing’ the World and Contour Lines
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. The Schiehallion experiment was…
‘Pitlochry in Threes’: A talk by Colin Liddell
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…
Salmon and Salmon Fishing in the River Tay: Past, Present and Future
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…
Battles of the Three Muirs
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…
BHS Visit to Iona
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. 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…
Our new 2021-22 Season of Winter Talks and Summer Excursions
After 18 months of Covid restrictions with all our 2020-21 winter programme of talks having been presented online by Zoom, we were hopeful that we would be able to present our new season of winter talks commencing in September 2021 ‘in person’ in our regular venue, the Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy. However, we were informed that public use of the main hall in the Breadalbane Campus complex would only be possible from the beginning of October. Consequently, our first winter talk on the…
Back to Summer Visits!
At last! Our first summer outing since July 2019! On the 9th June we held our first public summer visit of 2021 to the Menzies Mausoleum in the Old Kirk of Weem and to the Walled Gardens at Castle Menzies which includes the upper Archibald Menzies Garden. 12 members made up the party, which was limited in size due to Covid restrictions. Clare Thomas gave a splendid introduction to the Mausoleum which we then explored. The party then went up to Walled Garden at…
Earls of Breadalbane & Holland, Taymouth Castle: Lyon & Turnbull Auction
Lyon & Turnbull of Edinburgh are holding an auction of property belonging to the Earls of Breadalbane & Holland from Taymouth Castle on Tuesday, 18 May 2021. We are not suggesting that you might be interested in bidding for any of the items to be auctioned, but there is much history, many wonderful images and fascinating reading in the catalogue. One of the many important auction items is the 16th century manuscript of the Chronicle of Fortingall in the hand of the Dean of…
Aberfeldy Past and Present: Report and Videos
Last month, Tommy Pringle, a life-long resident of Aberfeldy, gave an entertaining and informative talk on ‘Aberfeldy Past and Present’, presenting a series of photographs and postcards taken over the last 150 years showing changes to buildings in Aberfeldy starting in Kenmore Street and working eastwards along to the Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery. By coupling archive images with current photographs, Tommy illustrated the range of shops and garages and other buildings that once graced the streets of Aberfeldy and have now been replaced or had…
BHS 2021 Annual Members’ Meeting
This year’s Annual Members’ Meeting was held online on Friday, 19th March, 2021 at 7.00 p.m. This was attended by 38 members of the Society. The minutes of the meeting, along with the associated papers and a video recording of the meeting can be viewed on this page of the website: Annual Members’ Meetings (from 2020) The video recording of the meeting can be viewed below:
‘Aberfeldy Past and Present’: a talk by Tommy Pringle
A chance to attend the last Zoom online talk of our 2020-21 winter season with what is proving to be a very popular event with 75 people having already expressed an interest in joining in on Friday evening. Tommy will be using archive photographs and postcards to illustrate the range of shops and garages and other buildings that once graced the streets of Aberfeldy and have now been replaced or had a change of use. If you wish to attend, please send Ian Stewart…
The Roman Army in Perthshire: Report and Videos
Last month, we held our most successful online Zoom talk of this unusual Covid-affected Winter season. Jim Walker, past president of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, presented an excellent talk on the Antonine Wall to the Society in 2019 and returned in February to tell us about camps, forts, fortlets and signal stations established and used by the Roman army in Perthshire in different, planned military campaigns during the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. The subject of this lecture and its relevance to Perthshire attracted…
Quiz Night: Report and Video
View this post to view the video of the quiz.
‘Researching your Family History in Scotland’: Report and Video
We have now released the videos of the first two recordings of the winter season talks which were held in October and November of last year. Following on from Lesley Whitwood’s talk last month on ‘Where have all the Churches gone?’, Helen Stewart presented a talk on the 20th November 2020, entitled ‘Researching your Family History in Scotland’. Research has shown that every family has skeletons in their cupboard and black sheep in their family tree. Helen showed how to find yours by illustrating…
Where have all the Churches gone? Report and Video
Video recordings of the first two talks of our Winter 2020 – 21 season which we recorded are now available to view. The first one, ‘Where have all the Churches gone?’ was presented by Lesley Whitwood on Friday, 16th October, and takes a look at the history of many churches in the local upper Tay area from Dull to Strathtay which have been ‘lost’ and those which have survived, to discover what has happened to them and why. If you wish to view this…
Winter Zoom Meetings: January to March 2021
As our replacement for the normal winter season of public meetings held in the Breadalbane Campus in Aberfeldy, we are continuing with our successful foray into presenting a winter season of Zoom meetings and talks in 2021. In September, Colin Liddell gave a talk on ‘Pitlochry in 3s’; in October, Lesley Whitwood asked the question ‘Where have all the churches gone?’ and last month, Helen Stewart presented a talk on ‘Researching your Family History in Scotland’. These were all well attended with between 45…
November Zoom Talk on Friday evening
Just a reminder that our next Zoom talk takes place this Friday, 20th November, at 7.30 p.m. when Helen Stewart will be talking about “Researching your Family History in Scotland”. Helen will show you how to use “Ancestry” and “ScotlandsPeople” to search births, marriages, deaths, censuses and other records, indicating the range of information that is available and what to expect when you start to search. She will touch on the rest of the UK and Ireland and take a brief look at the…
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