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The Bass Rock Lighthouse built in 1902 was designed by  David Stevenson. The 13th century keep and the governor’s quarters were demolished along with a few other buildings to provide the stone for the project. The illustration was drawn by R P Phillimore.

The illustration by R P Phillimore shows the Canty Bay Inn.

Canty Bay lies not far from North Berwick. The village’s inhabitants would have been able to set their clocks and watches with the One o’ Clock Gun when the wind was blowing in the right direction. The illustration appears in “R P Phillimore’s East Lothian” by Jan Bondeson.

Please join us for a fascinating evening as we explore the history of the World Heritage Site through the National Library of Scotland’s outstanding map collection, with Dr Christopher Fleet, Curator of Maps and author of ‘Mapping the City’, published by Birlinn. The National Library’s collection of Edinburgh city views and maps stretches back to […]

The ball was made of rags covered with a sheepskin cover. The balls were hand made by the pupils.

The pupils played a ball game called scuddin’ in the quadrangle which was similar to squash. The players hit the ball as hard as possible with their fist after bouncing it against the wall.

The illustration by J.R. Abercromby shows Heriot’s school band playing outside the north entrance in the 1860s.

“The Scotsman” and “Evening News” published Jan Bondeson’s article on the worthies of Edinburgh. https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/old-edinburgh-worthies-5-tory-gunn-piper-campbell-and-apple-glory-3092056

The illustration by Phillimore shows Dowie’s Tavern which later became Burns Tavern as the the poet was known to have visited the public house. Demolished to make way for George IV Bridge which began construction in 1827. It may have been one of the last buildings to be demolished during the 1830s. According to some […]

Jan Bondeson has written an article on David Haggerty for the “Evening News” and “The Scotsman” https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/confessional-book-penned-edinburgh-murderer-hanged-1821-bought-ebay-ps20-poses-literary-mystery-3116289