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Featuring many images which have never before been published, this book explores the lost architectural heritage of the capital of the Highlands. The list of vanished buildings and streets is a long one. The medieval town was gutted by our mid-Victorian ancestors in a frenzy of redevelopment, but in the process many fine public buildings were created.Sadly, the post-war ‘improvements’ in the town centre, especially in the 1960s, have left an unfortunate legacy of architectural blight. However many fascinating old photographs and drawings survive, allowing us to celebrate much of what has been lost. This book draws on the resources of Highland archives, libraries and museums to create a memorable record of a missing urban landscape, from the speculative sites of Pictish forts and Macbeth’s castle, to Queen Mary’s House and the old suspension bridge below Inverness Castle, itself blown up by the Jacobites in 1746 and replaced by the 1830s prison and courthouse.

Lost Dundee brings the second city of renaissance Scotland back to life showing, through previously undiscovered photographs and drawings, the life and the maritime quarter of this great port. It illustrates Dundee''s transformation into a major Georgian town at the centre of the flax trade between St Petersburg and the USA, with the development of major public buildings a result of the influx of wealth into the region. This book goes on to examine Dundee''s next transformation into the jute capital of the world. Its identity was transformed by the arrival of railways, which separated the town from the sea, and by the great mills and factories which engulfed it on both sides. The pressures upon medieval Dundee proved so great that in 1871 the process of replacing it with grandiose Victorian boulevards began.The final section illustrates the changes wrought in the twentieth century with the death of jute and its replacement as the city''s major employer by tertiary education.This book draws particularly upon the rich visual history sources of Charles Lawson''s drawings of old Dundee in the Central Library, the DC Thomson photographic collection, and the University of Dundee Archives. Essential to the understanding of this constantly re-generating city, this book contains 150 drawings, photographs and plans of Dundee.

Devon’s colourful past may still be visible in its street names and pub signs, but in fact much of the region’s history has been obliterated – through necessity, social change and the demands of the outside world. The traditional occupations of farming, fishing, pottery, copper and tin mining, wool production and quarrying have all seen change over the past several hundred years. Many of these industries are now lost, replaced instead by ever-expanding tourism.Although many historic buildings have been preserved and are now protected properties, a large number of houses, ecclesiastical ruins and settlements such as Hope Cove, a coastal village once renowned for its tough fisherwomen, have tragically vanished. The county’s coast is also peppered with ruined pillboxes once manned by the Home Guard to watch for invaders; Devon has played a significant military role in the past, from acting as a mooring place for prison hulks in the Napoleonic wars to being the location of a training camp for spies in the Second World War.Superbly illustrated with photographs, paintings, maps and etchings from the county’s museums and art collections, Lost Devon provides a fascinating insight into Devon’s history, as Felicity Goodall explores what little remains of the past and discusses the events which have formed the county as it is today.

Badenoch and Strathspey is a land of many contrasts, and in modern times a land of many uses. Not always has it been the playground of winter sports enthusiasts and a mecca for tourists - for centuries the mountains which protected the province of Moray to the north and the Highland glens to the west were an obstacle to travel and a haven for cattle thieves and reivers.In this fascinating book, illustrated with over 100 period photographs, Bruce B. Bishop explores the changing face of the area over millennia, from the Ice Age, Pictish and Celtic times through the coming of Christianity, the Jacobite rebellions, the more leisured Victorian age, and the twentieth century. Being a rural part of the country, Lost Badenoch and Strathspey covers not only lost buildings - churches, castles and other structures in the main settlements of Badenoch and Strathspey, Aberlour, Tomintoul, Grantown-on-Spey, Aviemore, Kingussie, Newtonmore and Dallwhinnie - but also lost ways of life and industry, from droving and fishing to milling, transportation.

As one of Scotland''s most historically significant cities, Perth has played an important role in the nation''s story. Not surprisingly for a place that has seen continuous human settlement for thousands of years, much has come and gone over the centuries. The followers of Knox and Cromwell, and later the slum clearers, planners and developers, each had their own reasons for taking a pickaxe to Perth, but the cumulative effect of their actions has been to convert most of the ancient city to rubble and road infill.This is the first book to consider just how much of Perth has been lost over the centuries and why. As well as looking at the ancient monasteries and chapels, and other great buildings such as Gowrie House, Cromwell''s hated citadel and the first City Hall, Jeremy Duncan uncovers the vanished streets, waterways and open spaces, the once-cherished industries, beloved sporting venues and many other topics, ranging from schools and shops to post offices and prisons.Superbly illustrated with over 100 old photos and engravings, this book, written by a son of Perth and a keen student of its history, makes lost Perth visible again to new generations.

In Lost Aberdeen, beautifully illustrated and rich in fact and lore, Diane Morgan introduces the history and fate of numerous city buildings which had enormous historic and architectural value, but which now, regrettably, are gone forever.Starting with an odyssey through the early town, from the Green to the Gallowgate, she charts the disappearance of the irreplaceable medieval townscape before moving on to more modern times, tracing the evolution and gradual erosion of the Granite City, whose stylish yet restrained architecture once brought visitors from all over the world. She introduces George Street, originally planned as ‘an elegant entrance to the city’ and Union Street, a marvel of early nineteenth-century engineering with stunning symmetry, elegant terracing and memorable shops.Featuring a large number of archive photographs, many of which are published for the first time, Lost Aberdeen paints a fascinating portrait of the changing face of one of Scotland’s greatest cities.

Deeside, the southern border of the Northeast shires of Aberdeen and Banff, is very much frontier country – its lonely passes through a barely penetrable mountain range were of massive strategic importance for centuries. The legions of Emperor Septimus Severus came in by Elsick Mounth in the early third century ad, and the B974 Fettercairn–Banchory road marks the way taken by Edward I’s army as it withdrew from the North-east in 1296, as well as the route Macbeth took to his doom two and a half centuries before.In this book, Daniel MacCannell looks at the rich and varied lost legacy of this haunting part of Scotland, from castles, houses, and whole villages to hospitals, illicit stills and even a number of lochs. In addition to tangible things, he also considers much else that has been ‘lost’ from the history, landscape and collective memory of the area – such as forgotten astronomers, inventors, roisterers and rebels; the local Gaelic of the area which has now died out; the wolf, which lived freely there until the 1680s; and the ways of life of past generations of Deeside people. The result is a vivid and stimulating insight into the way Deeside has changed over many hundreds of years.

In August 1956 a young shepherd, his wife, two-year-old daughter and ten-day-old son sat huddled in a small boat on Loch Monar in Ross-shire as a storm raged around them. They were bound for a tiny, remote cottage at the western end of the loch which was to be their home for the next four years.Isolation Shepherd is the moving story of those years. Set against the awesome splendour of some of Scotland''s most spectacular scenery, Iain R. Thomson''s classic book provides a sensitive, richly detailed account of the shepherd''s life through the seasons and recreates the events that shaped the family''s life in Glen Strathfarrar before the area was flooded as part of a huge hydro-electric project.

In ''Hebridean Sharker'' Tex Geddes describes his exploits during the 1950s as a hunter of basking sharks in the waters of the Minch, between the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Using an adapted whaling harpoon, he and his crew stalked these huge fish often in perilous conditions, the liver of which is a valuable source of oil. Always a maverick, before World War Two Geddes had been a boxer and a rumrunner to Newfoundland. During the war he established a reputation as an expert knife-thrower and bayonet fencer and served in the Special Forces with Gavin Maxwell (author of Ring of Bright Water). He combined the hazardous pursuit of sharks with crewing the local lifeboat, ring-net fishing, lobstering, deer-stalking and salmon poaching.He went on to purchase the tiny island of Soay, where he lived with his wife Jeanne, continued to hunt sharks and became the Laird. His story is full of adventures and fantastic descriptions of a seagoing life in the islands. It has become a Hebridean classic.

Alistair Moffat tells the extraordinary story of the Highlands in the most detailed book ever written about this remarkable part of Scotland. This is the story of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as it has never been told before. From the formation of the landscape millions of years ago to the twenty-first century, it brings to life the events and the people who have shaped Highland history, from saints, sinners and outlaws to monarchs, clan chiefs and warriors.Highly readable and informative, it mines a wide range of sources including medieval manuscripts and sagas, poetry and popular culture. Picts, Romans, Irish missionaries, Vikings, Jacobites and the flood of emigrants who left to forge new lives abroad are just some of the important players in the drama. As he paints the bigger picture, Alistair Moffat also introduces many key aspects of Highland culture and explores the experience of ordinary Highlanders and Islanders over thousands of years.

A cold case in the city of the dead.D.I. Lomond is a devoted family man. A good detective.When the body of a young woman involved in the worlds of art and adult streaming is found in the River Clyde, Lomond believes there may be echoes of a cold case from the start of his career: an unsolved death on a rural Scottish estate in the 1990s.Then, a Swedish feminist activist, who also has a connection to Lomond’s past, arrives in the city to protest against the failure of the police to find the killer.The victims all seem to be drawn from the world of art and business. Is the cold case the answer, or just part of the key, and could the killer be about to get dangerously close to Lomond and his family?

What if you met the person you were destined to be with? And what if you never saw them again . . . ?There’s a new case for the Perfect Passion Company. After a serendipitous meeting in a supermarket, Clea meets the man of her dreams. But having left suddenly without his phone number, she can’t stop thinking about what might have been. Can apprentice matchmaker Katie, with the help of her enigmatic neighbour William, help orchestrate the forces of Kismet and choreograph another happy unio? nd now that the newly single William’s engagement is off, can Katie seize the moment to tell him how she feels before her chance has gone forever?

One of the best-known works of English literature, Frankenstein gave rise to the science-fiction and horror genres and has enthralled generations of readers since its publication in 1818.The book follows the story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster: the result of his desire to create life. But his botched experiment is so grotesque that the doctor immediately regrets what he has done and abandons the monster, leaving him to fend for himself. The creature finds and confronts his maker pleading for a companion – his human right to happiness. Fearing what this may lead to, Victor refuses, causing the monster to vow to ruin any happiness in Victor’s life.A tragedy and a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of ambition and creation, Mary Shelley’s masterpiece is more relevant now than ever.

This book brings together the major writings of David Sellar (1941–2019) on the genealogies (pedigrees) claimed by some of the major clans of medieval Highland and Island Scotland, especially the descendants of their twelfth-century king Somerled.The claimed pedigrees in the medieval Gaelic 1467 manuscript and the Irish genealogies are critically analysed in relation to each other, and their historical authenticity tested against other evidence, including the Gaelic or Norse quality of their recorded names. Contemporary literary material is considered alongside later recorded traditions descending from the seanchaidh, whose work was to hand down to posterity the valorous actions, conquests, battles, skirmishes, marriages and relations of the chiefly ancestors by relating and singing them at births, baptisms, marriages, inaugurations, feasts and funerals. The family pedigrees offer crucial insights into the nature of medieval society, supporting and sometimes explaining a family’s socio-political position. As an exercise in propaganda, a pedigree was susceptible to fabrication and not to be trusted uncritically.David Sellar’s meticulous analysis reveals the social and political realities of medieval Celtic Scotland, making use of heraldic evidence as well as his legal expertise, in a fluent and reader-friendly style.