McLarty of Greenock’s Melbournian Fortune

In 1899 an article appeared in the Greenock Telegraph about an unnamed “aspiring journalist” who went in search of a man rumoured to have inherited a fortune. He was armed only with the information that the supposed inheritor was a man named John McLarty and that he was from Greenock. The journalist had reason to...

Researching Our Family’s Oldest Photograph

I was recently gifted a large collection of historic family photographs thanks to the generosity of a not-too-distant relative. The collection consists of 37 photographs and covers over a century of family history, providing me with a precious insight into two branches of the family, the MacDonalds of Springburn and MacPhersons of Anderston. Any committed...

A Letter from my Great-Great Grandmother

As any family historian will know, so much of our research is taken up with dates and records, numbers and addresses. The further we go into the past the more people we are able to include on the family tree, but it becomes progressively more difficult to get a sense of their character or personality....

The Greenock Skirmish of 1685

For a brief moment on the 3rd of June 1685, Greenock became the centre of an armed rebellion to overthrow the reigning monarch of Scotland, England and Ireland, James II. James had been on the throne for less than two months when his nephew, James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth, decided to launch a rebellion...

John Galt and the Illegal Destruction of Public Statues

In 1823 John Galt published a novel titled Ringan Gilhaize, which charts the fortunes of the fictional Gilhazie (or Gillies) family over three generations from Scottish Protestant reformers to persecuted Covenanters. It's undoubtedly a neglected masterpiece and it begins with the adventures of Michael Gilhaize, the progenitor of the family so far as the story...

Searching for Landmarks in Robert Salmon’s Painting, ‘View of Greenock’ (1816)

While I've long been aware of Robert Salmon's charming 1816 landscape painting, 'View of Greenock, Scotland', I'd never previously thought to examine the impressive and accurate detail that it presents of the town, particularly in relation to the West End of Greenock. Salmon, an Englishman by birth, appears to have spent at least two separate...

Sandy Stoddart’s Monument to the Wars of Independence

It is widely accepted, although not universally agreed, that William Wallace was born in the town of Elderslie in Renfrewshire. Any town across the world would welcome such a unique historical connection but in the West of Scotland it sometimes feels like we quietly acknowledge our connection to Wallace, rather than actively celebrating it. I...

A Review of Darren McGarvey’s ‘Poverty Safari’

If you're interested in Scottish politics then there is a fair chance that you've already heard of Darren McGarvey. I first became aware of him during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum in which he argued the socialist case for an independent Scotland. Over the past few years McGarvey, who is also known by his stage...

New Laws Are Required to Protect Scotland’s Historic Battlefields

Earlier this year my small branch of the clan packed its bags and headed to Skye for a holiday. On the way through Fort William we stopped off at Inverlochy to see the battlefield given that I had passed it many times before without taking the time to explore the site. When we arrived I...

The Craignish Men of Argyll’s 1685 Uprising

The mid-17th century was a tumultuous period in the history of Scotland. Between 1639 and 1651 Scottish soldiers participated in the Bishops' Wars, the Scottish Civil War, the Irish Confederate Wars and a series of English Civil Wars. These complex and interwoven conflicts ultimately led to the execution of Charles I, the establishment of a...