Proceedings

The early history of the society was recorded by Sir Hugh Gladstone in his Presidential Address of 19122 – and indicates that the Society, having commenced in 1862, ran ‘in a prosperous condition till May 1875 when its meetings ceased’ . It was‘re-constituted’ in November 1876 and has continued to the present day. The published transactions do not provide any record of proceedings for the period from 1869 to 1875. In spite of two references by Gladstone there is a perception that nothing happened between 1869 and 1875 – and this apparent hiatus is re-inforced by the existence of two separate series of printed Transactions – from 1862-1869 and then 1876 to the present. The information gap from 1867-9 until 1874-5 can, however, be filled out to some extent by examining the various reports which appeared from time to time in the local press. The collating of these extracts is eased by an understanding that at this time in the Society’s history it was organised around having the first, or Annual General Meeting, of each session during the month of December: this was then usually followed by a further five ‘Winter Meetings’ finishing in May. Thereafter, there normally followed five monthly ‘Field Meetings’ until October. Such of these reports that can be found have been collated and the following pages are a summary of the Society’s activities during those ‘missing years’.

A presentation which revealed how the Murray family developed their parks and pleasure grounds at Cally, Gatehouse of Fleet. Although the designed landscape is now largely hidden by forestry planting many historical features are still recognisable and hel

Lecture in Kirkcudbright Town Hall The speaker showed how records from some dozen English and Scottish archives had enabled a picture to be built of the lives of three generations of the Birtwhistle family, possibly the greatest drovers and graziers of th

The illustrated talk was a journey from about 1600 to the late 20th century, showing how communion vessels developed in the Church of Scotland. The earlier cups date from 1617 when the Scottish Parliament passed an act that communion should be dispensed

Since last speaking to the Society, major technical advances in the Sites and Monuments Record database and the use of a Geographic Information System have been made, facilitating electronic communication with the area planning offices and others. Key ar

The Vikings have a bad name in history as harbingers of wanton destruction piling off longships to raid villages and sack monasteries. Recent movies such as Pathfinder and Beowulf reinforce the stereotype of early mediaeval warriors engaging in drinking

From earliest times mankind has used the movement of shadows produced by the apparent movement of the sun to reckon time and to determine the importance of daily and seasonal activities. Any device, which uses the direction of the shadow by the sun, or th

This presentation described the content and interim results of a field project being undertaken by the Peeblesshire Archaeological Society, of which the speaker is currently Chairman. Since its formation in 1994, the society has undertaken an active prog

Mr Unwin took advantage of an organised group visit to the Antipodes to go plant-hunting in the South Island of New Zealand and Tasmania in 1996, since when he has made return visits to the latter. It was mid-summer with temperatures of 30 degrees C when

This talk covered the new information that has emerged about the early farming communities (4000-2500 BC) in this part of Scotland over the past 25 years. It emphasised the importance of Bill Cormack’s work in laying the foundations for what we know today

Since the 1960s the historiography of the Union has been dominated by those historians who believe it was achieved by means of corruption, English threats and the venality of Scots MPs, and on the other hand, those who have concentrated on Scotland’s de

Mr Kirkland made a comment at the start of his talk that it might seem to be an odd title for his talk to link the butterflies of Scotland with those of Bulgaria. There were two main reasons for the choice. Firstly the contrast between the two countries

In an illustrated lecture, the retiring President, David Devereux, Museums Curator for the Stewartry in Dumfries and Galloway Museums Service, presented a wide variety of archaeological and local historical artefacts, fine and decorative art, photographs,