Stobs Camp - Art & Creativity in a Barbed - Wire World. Andrew Jepson, Archaeology Scotland
2024-10-10 19:30 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | D137/9, McLean Building, UWS, Storie Street, Paisley, PA1 2BE, United Kingdom
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting session of Lectures at Paisley University. We will meet in the same room as before D137 ground floor of the McLean Building

Stobs Military Camp

For nearly 60 years, thousands of young men used the facilities at Stobs Camp near Hawick in the Scottish Borders to train for war. Now the bleak, windswept hills lie as silent witnesses to all that passed before them.
Stobs Camp has significant historical importance with its quality of remains, intact training ground, massive archaeological potential and huge educational resource. Due to its extraordinary level of preservation Stobs Camp is an internationally important site relating to Scotland’s preparation for and subsequent handling of First World War prisoners.
Within Scotland no site exists with the mix of army training camp and prisoners of war and internees in one place, none has the surviving remains visible as at Stobs, no other camp has any standing buildings and much of the training ground including firing ranges and trenches surviving. And within the UK, no First World War prisoner of war camp has upstanding buildings remaining, no internees’ camp survives on the mainland, and no training camps survive to the same level of preservation.
This is why Stobs is so important.
Mr Andrew Jepson a.jepson@archaeologyscotland.org.uk will be discussing the similarity of internment and lockdown and how, today, we can be inspired by the resolve of the First World War prisoners at Stobs by looking at their material culture. The talk starts with a brief overview of the camp to set the scene.
About Andrew,
“After moving to Scotland in 2006 Andrew set in motion his plan to transition from working in IT to following his passion for history and archaeology. His interest in practical archaeology began in 2011 when he started volunteering for the National Trust for Scotland. In his spare time, he continues to help the Trust supervise community archaeology digs. In 2017 he became an NTS Thistle Camp Leader.

Andrew joined Archaeology Scotland in 2015 to run an educational project focusing on the Jacobite’s in Stirlingshire. This included managing two archaeological digs at St Ninians Kirk and Dunblane for over 300 children. In the same year he graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in History, helped organise the Borders Heritage Festival and ran Gallipoli-related exhibition school workshops at Old Gala House. In 2016 he helped curate a Celts exhibition for Borders Museums and for Archaeology Scotland he began work on the Stobs Camp Project with the aim of exploring, sharing and commemorating the First World War site near Hawick in the Scottish Borders. He has subsequently developed a keen interest in First World War internment camps.

He is passionate about promoting the history, heritage and archaeology of the Scottish Borders.”

Lost Lives, New Worlds. Unlocking the story of the 1650 Scottish soldiers buried on Palace Green in Durham. Dr Chris Gerrard, Professor of Archaeology, Durham University
2024-11-14 19:30 - 21:00

From Holy Days to Holidays : Changing Attitudes to Festivals from the Middle Ages. Dr Vanessa Traill, University of Glasgow
2024-12-12 19:30 - 21:00

"We wined them and dined them, they ate o' our meat; new insights into subsistence, settlement and status in Early Modern Glencoe. Edward Stewart, University of Glasgow
2025-02-13 19:30 - 21:00
From travellers’ accounts and romantic re-imaginings perceptions of the Highlands of Scotland as a backward, isolated and impoverished region in the early modern period dominate popular narratives around landscapes such as Glencoe, and frame events such as the Cromwellian, Williamite and Jacobite wars. Recent excavations by the University of Glasgow and National Trust for Scotland in Glencoe at the Summerhouse of Maclain, and townships of Achnacon and Achtriochtan, and shielings of Gleann Leac-na-Muidhe, can allow us to construct new narratives around the connectivity of communities in this region and the strategies these communities developed for subsistence. These excavations allow us to build a picture of life in Glencoe before and after the events of the 1692 massacre and consider the responses of the communities of this landscape to this event, and the worsening climatic conditions of the Little Ice Age.

An introduction to Renfrewshire's land-assessment system, Denis Rixson
2025-03-13 19:30 - 21:00
For anyone interested in the early history of Renfrewshire we have very limited historical records; what archaeology tells us and what place-names imply. However we conjure it, the legacy is sparse and we must extract all that we can from those records we do have. There is one source of historical information which has been relatively neglected and that is land-assessment. Land-assessment simply means the study of the relative valuations put on land over many centuries. It sounds tedious. Dry-as-dust collections of data where Farm A is worth so many merklands, Farm B so many pennylands and Farm C a davach, an arachor, or a carucate. But, put it all together and the landscape soon reveals an arithmetic pattern. The earliest settlers in Renfrewshire behaved exactly as they did in every other cultivable county in Britain. They divided up the landscape in a coherent manner and gave it a fiscal overlay. In most parts of Scotland there are at least two fiscal overlays, geared to each other by exchange rates. Arithmetic is the key to unlocking these systems and the relationships between them.
From Inverkip to Houston Parish, 1065 to the present day. If you have ever wondered where nameplaces and areas within the old County of Renfrewshire came about this is definately for you.
Denis has published several books on the Scottish Highlands some you may know : The West Highland Way, Arisaig & Morar, Knoydart, The Hebridean Traveller and more.

AGM Election of Office Bearer's and Committee Members 2025/26 A short introduction on the activities of the RLHF from Peter Crawford.
2025-04-10 19:30 - 21:00
An introduction to the activities of the RLHF in and around Renfrewshire. We begin with a presentation of photographs donated to the forum by the Connacher family from Bridge of Weir . The collection of well over 4000 images has revealed some unique photographs taken in Renfrewshire dating back to the early 1900’s . This will be followed by a short talk on how we handle webmail enquiries, web site,facebook, research work and our field trips. If you have an interest in any aspect of the above please speak with any committee member present and we will explain further details to you.

Pioneering Spirit; the archaeology and history of whisky making in Scotland Derek Alexander, Head of Archaeology National Trust for Scotland
2025-05-15 19:30 - 21:00
The Pioneering Spirit project is the first project of its kind. This nationwide archaeology and research programme is working to uncover the hidden history of whiskey-making in the Scottish landscape,from its illicit beginnings to the rise of industrial distilleries.Its seeking to unearth both old and new stories,as well as ground the knowledge and the mythology of illicit whiskey-making back to the very places it happened.
To date the team has identified 30 sites of illicit whiskey production across the landscapes in the care of NTS and it is expected there are more. Illicit stills have so far been uncovered in Trust places including Torridon, Kintail, Grey Mare’s Tail,Nature Reserve,and Mar Lodge Estate National Nature Reserve. We’ve also been exploring the beginnings of licensed whiskey production in Speyside. We are all looking forward to meeting up with Derek again, a long term member of the Renfrewshire Local History Forum.

Final Plague Outbreak in Scotland
2025-10-09 19:00 - 21:00
Professor Marc Oxenham, University of Aberdeen
Marc Oxenham is an Honorary Professor at the University of Aberdeen and an Emeritus Professor in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. He is a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He has worked in the USA, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Professor Oxenham is best known as a bioarchaeologist, focusing on human biological and socio-cultural adaptation to climate and technological variability/change in Holocene Southeast Asia.

Fairlie's Secret War
2025-11-13 19:00 - 21:00
John Riddell
John Riddell had a distinguished career as a civil engineer and is a noted historian of Ayrshire and the Clyde. He is the author of a number of books about the Clyde including Fairlie’s Secret War, about Fairlie’s little known, crucial role in WWII. In 2024 he was honoured by the Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies for his contribution to the recording of Ayrshire’s history. He was the 2024 recipient of the John Strawhorn Memorial Quaich, an annual award presented to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to recording the history and heritage of Ayrshire.

Why Has Paisley so many Churches?
2025-12-11 19:00 - 21:00
Mr Duncan Macintosh
Duncan Macintosh is a retired building conservation officer who worked for Renfrewshire Council and who now champions the retention of historic architecture in Paisley. He is a very knowledgeable local historian involved in activities such as leading architectural walks in Paisley. He currently leads the Paisley and District U3AArchitecture Appreciation group which visits buildings and places of interest in the area about once a month.

The Archaeological Origins of Drumelzier's Merlin Legend
2026-02-12 19:00 - 21:00
Laura Muser, GUARD Archaeology
The archaeological origins of Drumelzier’s Merlin legend
Probably as far back as the 12th century written references to Merlin’s grave at Drumelzier have been made. Is there any archaeological proof?
Dr Ronan Toolis is CEO at GUARD Archaeology Ltd. He has over 30 years experience in a wide range of archaeological projects in Scotland and Germany. He has published the results of his work on assessing and investigating sites and analysing evidence in journals and books. His work has covered a very wide range from the Later Prehistoric to Early Mediaeval.

In the Footsteps of Bonny Dundee? Hunting for (Archaeological) Traces of Covenanters in the Clyde Region
2026-03-12 19:00 - 21:00
Dr Edward Stewart, CVARF Engagement Officer, University of Glasgow
Dr Edward Stewart is the Clyde Valley Archaeological Research Framework (CVARF) Engagement Officer at Archaeology Scotland. He is a field school co-director and excavation director of the Glencoe field school run by the University of Glasgow. He is passionate about making archaeology relevant to contemporary society and has collaborated on projects with the National Trust for Scotland, Glencoe folk museum and local communities in Glencoe and Ballachulish. His PhD in archaeology at the University of Glasgow explored shieling landscapes and the interpretation of upland archaeology in the Scottish Highlands.

AGM
2026-04-09 19:00 - 21:00

The History and Archaeology of the Treshnish Isles
2026-05-28 19:00 - 21:00
Derek Alexander, Head of Archaeology, National Trust for Scotland
Despite the fact they’ve been uninhabited since 1857, there’s a rich human history to the Treshnish Isles. Currently, there are at least 21 known archaeology sites on the islands, spread across the Dutchman’s Cap, Lunga, Fladda, Cairn na Burgh Mor and Cairn na Burgh Beag. These include two medieval chapels, a 15th- or 16th-century castle and an 18th-century barracks.
Derek Alexander is the Head of Archaeological Services for the National Trust for Scotland. After working as a commercial archaeologist he joined the National Trust in 2000 as the West Region Archaeologist and was appointed Head Archaeologist in 2011. He has undertaken fieldwork on many Trust properties including several small islands in the Hebrides some of which are the Treshnish Isles and Staffa. Many books, academic papers and magazine articles on a wide range of archaeological subjects have been written by Derek, including a book about Renfrewshire.
