Lost Horizon or Living Landscape: Place, Time and People in Gaelic Scotland by Virginia Blankenhorn

James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon, set in the mountains of Tibet, created the fictional ‘Shangri-La’ – a place of the spirit, seemingly outside time, where people lived long lives in a fastness far removed from a world beset by war. For most visitors and many Scots, the Highlands of Scotland – the Gaidhealtachd – seem to suggest a similar refuge. And today, the Gaidhealtachd – like Shangri-La – is for the most part a safe place. You won’t see anyone remotely like William Wallace and his blue-painted, half-naked clansmen, pursuing vengeance across the mountainsides, as portrayed in films like Braveheart.

This might actually be a relief.

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Podcast: A Memory of Blood; Livestreaming and the Fall of the Mongolian Empire by Donald Carrick

On the 29th October 2015, Donald Carrick gave the third of three talks on the life and legacies of Ghengis Khan.  Donald tells us: Stories are everything. Many stories are influenced by history, but could it be that history itself is shaped by stories, even fictional ones? Can we honestly say only fact matters in any historical narrative? Is the past set in stone or is it a fluid entity like the future? Read more…

The Study of the History of Languages

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources.  It involves the analysis of literary texts, written records, where they have come from, who wrote them, and what meaning they hold. The philological community has differing beliefs as to many aspects of the history of language, and often these differences have given rise to heated debates.  The history of language can also be viewed as involving a debate about the meaning of things which have been written that have shaped whole cultures and ultimately the way we have come to behave in certain contexts. Read more…

An Essay on the History of Written Language: Ivory Towers and Mythical Landscapes

This is an essay on the history of written language, it starts with a look at the mysterious figure of Socrates and his discussion of the god Thoth, reputed in myth to have created language.  This has been chosen as a starting point as this essay is already out of its depth in suggesting that such a subject can be tackled adequately.  We find ourselves confronted with the study of history and the art of historiography – what stories are told and how truely they hold any facts.  The most useful tool here will be a helping of doubt upon which a healthy scepticism to question things. Read more…

Podcast: Singing The Law and Riding The City; The Story of Ghengis Khan by Donald Carrick

Donald Carrick takes us through a history of Ghengis Khan and raises questions about how we read history. He confers what we know about Ghengis Khan as a series of stories which we repeat to ourselves, and invites the listener to treat them as such. Talking about one of the biggest empires ever, Donald communicates some insights as to how this could have come about. Read more…

Working Men’s Clubs and Education by Dr Ruth Cherrington

It’s for a good reason that I gave my book on working men’s clubs (WMCs) the title ‘Not just Beer and Bingo!’ They were always about much more than drinking and low level gambling. I will outline here the important educational aspects that WMCs started out with which were part of their ‘self help’ ethos. Another article will follow WMCs into the 20th century describing how, whilst educational aspects declined, they did not entirely disappear. Read more…