News and Forthcoming Events
Presentation of the Truckell Prize for 2017
The 2017 Truckell Prize, awarded annually by the Society, was won by Alistair Livingston of Castle Douglas, the well-known local historian. Alistair came to the Society's lecture meeting in Castle Douglas Parish Church Hall on Saturday, 24 March 2018, to receive the award. The Society's President, Dr Jeremy Brock, presented Alistair with the award before the start of the meeting, which was attended by an audience of 50 members and guests.
The Truckell Prize was established in 2009 to commemorate the late Mr Alf Truckell and his outstanding contribution to local studies in Dumfries and Galloway region. It is awarded for the leading original research paper submitted to the Society on a human or natural history topic relating to the geographical area of Dumfries and Galloway. Entries are welcome from all, but must meet the editorial standards required by the Society's Transactions, which are published annually. The closing date for entries is the first of October each year. Please further details are available here.
Alistair won the award with a research paper entitled Reassessing the Galloway Levellers the scope of which he has summarised himself as:
On 21 April 1724, the Caledonian Mercury produced a 'first rough draft of history' when it reported that several hundred people in Galloway, roused to action by the oratory of a mountain preacher and 'big with that ancient Levelling Tenet' had demolished enclosures which were a grievance to them. The report appeared to capture the essence of their actions so well that the Galloway Levellers' opposition to enclosure has come to define their uprising. However, when examined more closely, the Levellers' dyke-breaking activities emerge as only part of a more complex and even contradictory series of actions which can best be understood as having an origin within political and economic changes rooted in the later seventeenth century.
The paper will be published in the Society’s Transactions next year and will be of particular interest to those interested in the local history of the Stewartry.
Cumbria Symposium
A symposium on The North Britons is to be held in Carlisle on 28 April 2018. This is organised by Lancaster University in collaboration with the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (CWAAS) and DGNHAS. Our society is sponsoring one of the speakers, Dr Christopher Bowles, who will be giving a talk about our excavation at Trusty's Hill.
The programme
and other information can be found on Lancaster University's website.
Booking online is also available via the University website.
A copy of the programme in PDF format with a postal booking form is available on the DGNHAS website.
Publications News
Available to pre-order now!
Native and Roman on the Northern Frontier is now available to pre-order via the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland's online shop. Order before 31 March to get a £5 discount on the cover price!
This new book, by Roger Mercer FSA Scot, presents the definitive report of a programme of excavation and survey at two sites south of Eskdalemuir, in the valley of the River White Esk, Dumfriesshire, which have wide-ranging implications for the study of the Iron Age and Roman Frontiers.