2025 October Winter Talk: “Aberfeldy’s Industrial Revolution”
Aberfeldy
‘Wade and Caulfeild’ and ‘Cluny Gardens’ winter talks
The October talk by Colin Liddell on ‘The Military Bridges of Wade and Caulfeild’ and the April talk by John Mattingley on ‘Cluny Gardens in the Spring’ were recorded and can now be viewed below.
Colin Liddell who in the past has presented talks on General Wade’s Scottish roads, concentrates this time on the bridges constructed by General Wade and his successor, Major William Caulfeild, who supervised the construction of many more roads and bridges than Wade.
The talk looks at military bridges built between 1726 and 1767, constructed by Major-General George Wade MP, “Commander of Forces in Northern Britain”, and Major William Caulfeild, Chief Engineer, later “Inspector of Roads in Scotland”, including those bridges still in use, some restored, others discovered, and some now lost, culminating in the famous ‘Wade Bridge’ itself in Aberfeldy. Watch here: ‘The Military Bridges of Wade and Caulfeild’
John started his talk with a short introduction on the history of Cluny and its gardens, and how it has developed and the future.
Spring is a glorious time at Cluny with carpets of North American bulbs and tubers in April while May brings colourful Candelabra primulas and wonderful blue Himalayan poppies. Watch here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1083524454
You will also be able to find the recordings of these two talks along with all previous recorded talks on the ‘Recorded Winter Talks’ page in this website: https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/recorded-winter-talks/
Margaret E. C. Stewart: Our first Honarary President
Profile researched by Amy Jo Kearton
Introduction:
Margaret Stewart at the Carse Farm excavation, 1964
In 1962, Dr. Margaret Enid Crichton Stewart who played a central role in community archaeology in Perthshire, was instrumental in encouraging the formation of the present-day Breadalbane Heritage Society.
Amy Jo Kearton, a recent graduate in History from the University of Glasgow, undertook research as part of her Honours’ degree dissertation aiming to help locate women within the history of Scottish archaeology. She focused on Margaret Stewart because her archaeological career represented the wider achievements of female archaeologists in twentieth-century Scotland.
From her dissertation work, Amy Jo has written a profile of Margaret in which she explores the process of excavating Margaret from historical records and then digs into Margaret’s involvement with the Breadalbane Heritage Society. You can read her profile of Margaret by clicking on this link: https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/about/history/margaret-e-c-stewart-in-breadalbane-heritage-society/
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”.
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 17th September was presented online using Zoom, but we were able to return to the Breadalbane Campus for our October talk. We are hopeful that the November and March talks will also still be able to take place in the Breadalbane Campus.
Taking into consideration the likelihood of adverse winter weather during the months of January and February making travel difficult and from comments and suggestions from our members that they are unwilling to venture out on cold, wet winter evenings, we have decided for this season to present the January and February talks online by Zoom. As we hold the talks on the third Friday of the winter months, there is not a talk in December as it would come very close to Christmas. Joining details for each Zoom meeting will be provided prior to each talk.
2021-22 Programme of Winter Talks
Friday 17th September 2021: Dr. David Summers – ‘The Atlantic Salmon’ (by Zoom)
Friday 15th October 2021: Rob Hands – ‘Battles of the Three Muirs’
Friday 19th November 2021: Dr. Liz Auty – ‘The Attraction of Mountains, Schiehallion, ‘Weighing’ the World and Contour Lines’
Friday 21st January 2022: John Borland – ‘The Early Medieval Sculpture of Highland Perthshire’ (by Zoom)
Friday 18th February 2022: Dr. Nicki Scott: ‘Ancient Magnificence: Arbroath Abbey and beyond’ (by Zoom)
Friday 18th March 2022: Annette Carruthers: ‘James MacLaren and the Arts and Crafts Movement’
2022 Programme of Summer Excursions
In association with the programme of winter talks, we also run a short season of half and full-day excursions from late May to mid-July, ideally to locations referred to in some of the winter talks.
Amongst the locations we are currently considering are:
- a full-day trip to visit Watling Lodge, Rough Castle Fort, Seabegs Wood and Castlecary Fort on the Antonine wall, led by Jim walker who presented an excellent informative talk to the Society on the Antonine Wall in November 2019;
- a visit led by Dr. Liz Auty to look at the traces of the social and natural history evident on the the lower levels around Schiehallion;
- a visit to the Duplin Moor and Tippermuir battlefields to the west of Perth, led by Rob Hand following his talk on these battles in October.
In addition, we are considering a three or four-day trip to Angus in late-August to visit a number of HES and other sites, some of which will be referred to in John Borland’s January talk and included in Dr. Nicki Scott’s February talk.
These are our preliminary excursion proposals and may be subject to change. Further details will be confirmed early next year.
Refer to the Events page for further information on the forthcoming season of Winter Talks.
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 a change of use.
His talk was very popular with over 100 requests for joining information, and Tommy’s personal knowledge and stories of the characters, buildings and events brought Aberfeldy to life.
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:
- Only the talk (60 minutes):
- The talk + Q&A session (90 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:
‘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 an email at bhsaberfeldy@gmail.com, and he will send you the joining details.
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 and 60 people viewing each of these online presentations.
We are continuing this series of Zoom talks with:
- a Quiz Night on Friday, 15th January. This will be a fun and informative evening to brighten up January blues, including questions on the history, archaeology, antiquities, folklore and natural history of Breadalbane and beyond, providing opportunities to gain more knowledge of these topics;
- on Friday, 19th February, a talk on ‘The Roman Army in Perthshire’ will be presented by Jim Walker. Jim presented an excellent talk on the Antonine Wall to the Society last year and is now returning to tell us about camps, forts, fortlets and signal stations established and used by the Roman army in Perthshire during the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.
- ‘Aberfeldy Past and Present’, a talk by Tommy Pringle on Friday, 19th March. Tommy will be presenting a series of photographs taken over the last 150 years showing changes to buildings in Aberfeldy starting in Kenmore Street and working along to the Distillery. This follows on from a series of photos taken by Alan Proud.
These talks are free to attend. To register your interest, or if you have any queries on the above, please send an email to Ian Stewart at bhsaberfeldy@gmail.com. A few days before each meeting, Ian will email you the Zoom joining details.
Breadalbane Heritage Society 
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