Blog

During my years as a writer I've researched many violent and unnerving stories from Scotland's turbulent history.

2022 marks the 300th anniversary of Flora MacDonald's birth. With it comes the opportunity to honour her life and bravery, in assisting Prince Charles Stuart.

During the lockdown of 2020 I wrote a series of articles, about the remote and unique island archipelago of St Kilda. Somehow the isolation of lockdown matched the mood of the islands.

The small estate of Gight in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire is perhaps best known as the location of the 16th-century Gight (or Formartine) Castle, the ancestral home of Lord Byron.

Following the publication of The Beacon On The Hill at Christmas 2020, I received lots of messages from readers who enjoyed the story of the errant Vicar of Christ Church, the infamous Mr Newton Ebenezer Howe.

During some research I had undertaken recently, I stumbled across a long forgotten article from an obscure regional newsheet, the (rather pointedly named) The Carlisle Patriot.

31st December 2020 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart - better known to us as 'The Young Pretender' or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'.

One of Scotland's most famous castles is almost certainly its most haunted. In fact, Glamis Castle in Angus may well be the most haunted place in Europe!

As you pass through the attractive Perthshire village of Fortingall, tucked against the hill line at the gateway to Glen Lyon, your eyes cannot but help to be drawn to the pretty…

While recently researching some background information on the American legal system, for another story I’m piecing together, I came across this despatch…

Encouraged by an upturn in public interest in St Kilda, in the middle of the 19th century, and having just returned from delivering a public lecture on the islands…

The population of St Kilda, before the island’s evacuation, survived mainly on seabirds and their eggs. Because fishing in the waters around the archipelago…

The island archipelago of St Kilda, sitting alone in the Atlantic some 40 miles west of North Uist, was once home to a small population…

90 years ago today, at 8am on 29th August 1930 the evacuation of the far flung island archipelago of St Kilda began. The HMS Harebell pulled away from the harbour on the main island of Hirta…

The four-day inquest in the killing of Janet Smith recorded the following verdict. The Killing Of Janet Smith (Part Two)

This month marks the 96th anniversary of the killing of a young girl from Perth that sent shockwaves around the world. The death of Janet Smith was so notorious, so scandalous, and so controversial…

By way of a follow up to yesterday’s story The Link And The Legacy, and to conclude the piece, I came across two interested newspaper articles during the course of my research.

Remarkably, given the extent of the involvement of Highland Scots in the history of Guyana, their role has been all but airbrushed from history. WARNING This story contains elements that some readers may find upsetting (explanations of torture and historical references)

Nestled on the gently sloping hillside above Bridge of Tilt in Highland Perthshire sits the neat and attractive Kilmaveonaig Episcopal Church.

This is the story of the rise and fall of one of Scotland's wealthiest slavetraders and the 'perpetual servant' who took on his master and, with him, the whole establishment.