Contents

Dedication

Epigraph

Introduction

Discovering Skara Brae

PROFESSOR VERE GORDON CHILDE

Agricola Sails around Scotland, AD c. 80

TACITUS

Death of St Columba, 597

ADAMNAN

Viking Invaders, 870

MATTHEW PARIS

Battle between the Saxons and Northmen, 937

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

The King of Scots Insults the English King, c. 971–975

WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY

English Fashion, Eleventh Century

SCOTICHRONICON

English Invective against the Scots, Eleventh Century

AILRED OF RIEVAULX

Capture of William I by the English, 1174

WILLIAM OF NEWBURGH

Guidelines for the Clergy, Thirteenth Century

SCOTTISH ECCLESIASTICAL STATUTES

Religious Houses, 1207

GERVASE OF CANTERBURY

The Burning of a Bishop, 1222

ANNALS OF DUNSTABLE

Church Corruption, 1271

THE CHRONICLE OF LANERCOST

The Death of Alexander III, 19 March 1286

THE CHRONICLE OF LANERCOST

The Death of the Maid of Norway, c. 26 September 1290

ANONYMOUS

The Rise and Fall of William Wallace, 1297–1305

BLIND HARRY AND ANONYMOUS

The Execution of William Wallace, 23 August 1305

ANONYMOUS

The Battle of Bannockburn, 23–24 June 1314

JOHN BARBOUR

The Battle of Bannockburn: an Englishman’s View, 23–24 June 1314

ROBERT BASTON

The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320

Robert Bruce’s Epitaph, 1329

WALTER BOWER

Bird Flu, or Similar, 1344

JOHN OF FORDUN

The Black Death, 1350

JOHN OF FORDUN

The Auld Alliance, 1385

JEAN FROISSART

Acts of Parliament

JAMES I, JAMES II AND JAMES III

The Murder of James I, 20 February 1437

? ONE OF QUEEN JOAN’S ATTENDANTS

The Battle of Flodden, 9 September 1513

THOMAS RUTHALL

A Paen to Oatcakes, 1521

JOHN MAJOR

The Burning of George Wishart, 1 March 1546

JOHN KNOX

The Murder of Cardinal David Beaton, 29 May 1546

JOHN KNOX

John Knox Apologizes to Queen Elizabeth I, 1559

JOHN KNOX

Schooldays, 1560s

JAMES MELVILLE

Mary, Queen of Scots, Arrives in Scotland, 19 August 1561

JOHN KNOX

The Murder of Riccio, 9 March 1566

SIR JAMES MELVILLE

Mary, Queen of Scots, Appeals to Elizabeth I for Help, 1 May 1568

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

Act against Luxury, 1581

THE PARLIAMENT OF SCOTLAND

The Habits of Highlanders, 1582

GEORGE BUCHANAN

The Morning of Mary, Queen of Scots’s Execution, 8 February 1587

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, 8 February 1587

ROBERT WINGFIELD

The North Berwick Witches, 1591

NEWS FROM SCOTLAND

No Pipe-playing on Sundays, 1593

THE PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW

Grammar School Mutiny, 1595

ROBERT BIRREL

Border Reivers Defy Capture, 14 April 1596

THE LORD TREASURER OF ENGLAND

The Scottish Diet, 1598

FYNES MORYSON

The First New Year’s Day, 1600

THE PRIVY COUNCIL

The Union of the Crowns, 24 March 1603

ROBERT CAREY

The Evils of Tobacco, 1604

JAMES VI AND I

Ben Jonson Walks to Scotland, 1618–1619

WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN

A Visitor’s Impression of Edinburgh, 6 June 1634

SIR WILLIAM BRERETON

The National Covenant, 1638

JOHN LIVINGSTONE

The Battle of Dunbar, 3 September 1650

OLIVER CROMWELL

A Good Use for the Plantations, 1665

REGISTER OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL

Murder of Archbishop Sharp, 3 May 1679

JAMES RUSSELL

The Battle of Killiecrankie, 27 July 1689

THE EARL OF BALCARRES

The Massacre of Glencoe, 13 February 1692

A GENTLEMAN IN SCOTLAND

A Gael’s View of the Islands, 1695

MARTIN MARTIN

Famine, 1698

PATRICK WALKER

The Darien Venture, 25 December 1699

REVEREND ARCHIBALD STOBO

The Run-up to the Union of the Scottish and English Parliaments, 1707

DANIEL DEFOE, STIRLING TOWN COUNCIL AND GEORGE LOCKHART OF CARNWATH

A Jacobite Escapes from the Tower of London, 23 February 1716

THE COUNTESS OF NITHSDALE

Manners, 1720

REVEREND ADAM PETRIE

The Aftermath of the Union of Parliaments, 1723

DANIEL DEFOE

The Porteous Riot, 14 April 1736

REVEREND ALEXANDER CARLYLE

The Battle of Prestonpans, 21 September 1745

REVEREND ALEXANDER CARLYLE

The Battle of Culloden, 16 April 1746

COLONEL KER OF GRADYNE

The Aftermath of Culloden, April 1746

ROBERT FORBES

Jacobite Orphans, 1746

JOHN MACDONALD

Superstition and Punishment, 1754–1777

REVEREND JOHN MILL

Taking a Play to London, 1755

REVEREND ALEXANDER CARLYLE

A Scot Meets Voltaire, 24 December 1764

JAMES BOSWELL

The New Town Is Conceived, 1767

THE SCOTS MAGAZINE

The Invention of the Steam Engine, 1769

JAMES WATT

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1771

WILLIAM SMELLIE

Dr Johnson Arrives in Scotland, 14 August 1773

JAMES BOSWELL

A Visitor’s Impressions of Scotland, 1773

SAMUEL JOHNSON

The American Independence War, 19 June 1776

COLONEL ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL

The Wealth of Nations, March 1776

DAVID HUME

Death of David Hume, 25 August 1776

ADAM SMITH

A Jamaican Sugar Plantation, 1784

ZACHARY MACAULAY

A Bagpipe Competition, 1784

B. FAUJAIS ST FOND

Robert Burns Is Hailed as a Genius, 1786

HENRY MACKENZIE

The Age of the Earth Is Proved by James Hutton, 1788

JAMES HUTTON AND JOHN PLAYFAIR

Robert Burns Meets Walter Scott, 1787

SIR WALTER SCOTT

Smallpox, 1791

THOMAS POLLOCK

Twenty Years of Dramatic Change, c. 1792

WILLIAM CREECH

The Trial of ‘the Pest of Scotland’, 30–31 August 1793

THOMAS MUIR

African Exploration, 1796

MUNGO PARK

Henry Raeburn, Early 1800s

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM AND ANONYMOUS

Highland Emigration, 1806

JAMES CRAIG

The Ossian Fraud, 1806

SIR WALTER SCOTT

Building the Bell Rock Lighthouse, 2 September 1807

ROBERT STEVENSON

Conditions in the Mines, 1808

ROBERT BALD

The Historical Novel Is Born, 1814

HENRY COCKBURN

The Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815

SERGEANT-MAJOR DICKSON

Law and Justice in the Highlands, c. 1816–1826

JOSEPH MITCHELL

An Experiment in Humanity, 1816

ROBERT OWEN

The Sutherland Clearances, 1816

DONALD MACLEOD

The Scotsman Is Launched, January 1817

HENRY COCKBURN

Radicals in the Playground, 1819

ALEXANDER SOMERVILLE

George IV Visits Scotland, 14 August 1822

JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART

Child Worker in a Dundee Factory, 1824

JAMES MYLES

The Recipe for Haggis, 1826

MEG DODS

The Search for the Sugar Pine, 1826

DAVID DOUGLAS

Travelling Conditions for Emigrants, 1827

A HUNTER, W.S.

The Sale of a Wife, 1828

Sutherland after the Clearances, 1828

DONALD MACLEOD

The Trial of Burke and Hare, 24 December 1828

WILLIAM HARE

Mendelssohn Visits Scotland, 1829

FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY

Reminiscences of Edinburgh Life, Early 1800s

HENRY COCKBURN

Cholera Epidemic, 1832

THE GREENOCK ADVERTISER

Testimony of Coal Workers, 1840

JANET CUMMING, JANET ALLEN, JANE JOHNSON, ISABEL HOGG, JANE PEACOCK WATSON, KATHARINE LOGAN, HELEN READ AND MARGARET WATSON

Streets of Sewage, 1842

DR W. L. LAWRIE

The Disruption of the Church of Scotland, 1843

REVEREND MCLEAN

The Origins of Photography, 1845

DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL

Railway Mania, 1847

JOSEPH MITCHELL

Experimenting with Chloroform, 1847

JAMES SIMPSON

Rioting in Caithness, 1847

THE INVERNESS COURIER

Victoria and Albert at Balmoral, 1848

QUEEN VICTORIA

Andrew Carnegie Shows an Early Interest in Libraries, 1853

ANDREW CARNEGIE

Thomas Carlyle’s Tax Return, 21 November 1855

JANE CARLYLE

Fish Gutters, 1859

CHARLES RICHARD WELD

Scavenging, May 1859

THE ARGYLLSHIRE HERALD

The Glorious Twelfth, 1859

CHARLES RICHARD WELD

An Edinburgh Detective at Work, 1861

JAMES MCLEVY

Abbotsford, the Tourist Trap, 1863

EDWARD BRADLEY

A Missionary Visits Greenock, 1865

WALTER GUNN

The First Scottish Football Match, 1868

ROBERT GARDNER

Mayhem at Musselburgh Golf Match, 22–23 April 1870

THE SCOTSMAN

Dr Livingstone Is Found by Henry Morton Stanley, November 1871

DAVID LIVINGSTONE

The Invention of the Telephone, 1875

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

‘Saxpence in ma claes, ninepence in ma skin’, 1876

JOHN LAVERY

Mary Slessor’s Campaign to Save Babies, Late 1870s/1880s

MARY SLESSOR

The Mental Asylum, 1878

CHRISTIAN WATT

The Tay Railway Bridge Disaster, 28 December 1879

WILLIAM MCGONAGALL

Among the Residents of Black Houses, c. 1880

JOHN WILSON

The Eyemouth Fishing Disaster, 14 October 1881

GEORGE COLLIN AND GEORGE PATERSON

The Battle of the Braes, 18 April 1882

ALEXANDER GOW

Treasure Island, 1882

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

The Origins of Sherlock Holmes, 1891

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Keir Hardie Elected as First Labour MP, 3 August 1892

KEIR HARDIE

Unknown Comedian Tries His Luck in London, March 1900

HARRY LAUDER

Down the Mine in Fife, 1900

KELLOGG DURLAND

The Opening of Peter Pan, December 1904

MAX BEERBOHM

The Early Adventures of Toad, May 1907

KENNETH GRAHAME

Force-feeding Suffragettes, 1909

MEDICAL OFFICERS OF PERTH AND BARLINNIE PRISONS

Life at the Front in France, 1915–1918

DAVID SMITH

Glasgow Rent Strike, September–October 1915

THE GLASGOW HERALD

A Hospital on the Western Front, July 1916

MISS V. C. C. COLLUM

Red Clydeside Erupts, 31 January 1919

THE STRIKE BULLETIN

The Scuttling of the German Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, 21 June 1919

JAMES TAYLOR

Churchill on the Eve of Defeat, 14 November 1922

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Sectarian Anxieties, 1923

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND

Eric Liddell Wins Gold at the Olympics, 11 July 1924

THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS

The Invention of Television, October 1925

JOHN LOGIE BAIRD

The Origins of Miss Jean Brodie, 1929

MURIEL SPARK

The Evacuation of St Kilda, 29 and 30 August 1930

THE GLASGOW HERALD

Burns’s Halo Is Tarnished, 1930

CATHERINE CARSWELL

The Loch Ness Monster, 1933

LT-COMMANDER R. T. GOULD RN (RETIRED)

The Queen’s Governess, 1933

MARION CRAWFORD

Edinburgh and Its Street Girls, 1934

EDWIN MUIR

The Hungry Prostitute, 1935

RALPH GLASSER

The Spanish Civil War, May 1937

ETHEL MACDONALD

Benny Lynch Retains His Triple Crown, 12 October 1937

THE SCOTSMAN

A Glasgow Orange March, 1938

J. R. ALLAN

Rape, Late 1930s

ISA PORTE

The Sinking of the Arandora Star, 2 July 1940

THE TIMES

The Travelling Family, 1941

DUNCAN WILLIAMSON

The Clydebank Blitz, 13 March 1941

THE GLASGOW HERALD

A Conscientious Objector, 1941

NORMAN MACCAIG

Rudolf Hess Crash-lands in Scotland, 13 May 1941

THE GLASGOW HERALD

Prisoner of War, 1944–5

ROBERT GARIOCH

The Second Edinburgh Festival, 1948

TYRONE GUTHRIE

Stealing the Stone of Destiny, 25 December 1950

IAN HAMILTON

Jimmy MacBeath, King of the Cornkisters, 1951

HAMISH HENDERSON

The Flodden of Football, 15 April 1961

DENIS LAW

Petition for Women to Become Ministers in the Church of Scotland, 26 May 1963

MARY LUSK

Prince Charles and the Cherry Brandy, 20 June 1963

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Nudity at the Edinburgh Festival, September 1963

THE SCOTSMAN

Gordonstoun School, 1965

WILLIAM BOYD

A Glasgow Gang, 1966

JAMES PATRICK

Scotland Beats the English World Cup Team, 15 April 1967

JOHN RAFFERTY

Celtic Win the European Cup, 25 May 1967

HUGH MCILVANNEY

The SNP Take Their Second Seat at Parliament, 17 November 1967

WINNIE EWING

Prison, November 1967

JIMMY BOYLE

The Ibrox Disaster, 2 January 1971

THE GLASGOW HERALD

The Upper Clydeside Shipyards’ Work-in, 18 August 1971

JIMMY REID

The Big Yin, 1975

GEORGE ROSIE

The Death of Hugh MacDiarmid, 9 September 1978

ALAN BOLD

Allan Wells Wins Olympic Gold, 25 July 1980

THE SCOTSMAN

The Pope Visits Scotland, June 1982

CHRIS BAUR

Munro-bagging, 1980s

MURIEL GRAY

The Miners’ Strike, March 1984 to March 1985

MICK MCGAHEY

Glasgow’s Cultural Credentials Are Recognized, 1986

BILLY CONNOLLY

The Lockerbie Disaster, 22 December 1988

BARCLAY MCBAIN

Porridge, 1990

GEORGE MACKAY BROWN

Scotland Win the Grand Slam, 17 March 1990

IAIN ANDERSON

Trainspotting, August 1993

KENNY FARQUHARSON

The Flying Scotsman Breaks the World Hour Record, 17 July 1993

GRAEME OBREE

The Poll that Put Gordon Brown out of the Leadership Race, 26 May 1994

THE SCOTSMAN

James Kelman Wins the Booker Prize, 11 October 1994

SIMON JENKINS

The Dunblane Massacre, 13 March 1996

FORDYCE MAXWELL

Dolly the Sheep, 5 July 1996

PROFESSOR IAN WILMUT

The Day They Buried Princess Diana, 6 September 1997

JAMES ROBERTSON

The Scottish Parliament Reconvenes, 12 May 1999

IAN BELL

Sean Connery: a Lifetime’s Perspective

RICHARD DEMARCO

The Death of Donald Dewar, 11 October 2000

TREVOR ROYLE AND ALAN TAYLOR

The SNP Come to Power, 4 May 2007

ALEX SALMOND

Appendices

Personal Acknowledgements

Sources and Permissions

Select Bibliography

Index