The History of Scotland Magazine

Robert The Bruce’s female relatives paid a heavy price during the First War of Scottish Independence. They were imprisoned in barbaric conditions, placed under house arrest and sent to convents by the English King Edward I – just because they shared “a common danger of loyalty” to the newly crowned King of Scotland, Robert I.

In a bold scheme to defraud land investors, after fighting in the South American wars of independence Gregor MacGregor returned home, declaring himself “Cazique” (prince) of a imaginary Central American country, “Poyais”. After emigrating to MacGregor’s Poyais, nearly 200 investors died…

Voted “the Greatest Canadian” in 2004, Tommy Douglas was in fact born in Scotland and spent most of his youth there…

Captain Kidd can be said to be the most unfortunate pirate ever to sail the high seas! For it was his bad luck to sail as a privateer/pirate just when the rules changed and the privateer/pirate became an outlaw.

The last ever pitched battle to be fought on British soil took place on 16th April 1746 on Drummossie Moor…

Most famously called by its resident architect the “pride and poverty of us Scots”, the National Monument of Scotland is one of the iconic landmarks of Edinburgh…

Rattling and screeching, the wooden waggon trundles down the track. On top of the wagon sits the brakeman, clutching a lever to press against one of the wooden wheels to slow the train as it approaches the bends at some speed. It is 1722 and this is the first railroad in Scotland, from Tranent to Cockenzie on the East Lothian coast…

Robert Burns is the best loved Scottish poet, admired not only for his verse and great love-songs, but also for his character, his high spirits, ‘kirk-defying’, hard drinking and womanising!