The Origin imprint publishes Birlinn’s academic books on all aspects of Scottish culture, from architecture to philosophy, specializing in history of the isles.
Just seven miles from the centre of Edinburgh, Rosslyn Chapel is one of the world's most extraordinary places, made famous by Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Here, Roddy Martine sifts through mounds of unfounded conjecture and fantasy surrounding it to let facts speak for themselves, showing ultimately that the truth is no less amazing than fiction.
This book details the Clearances as they affected the island of Mull. Peter Macnab discusses the influences which changed crofting in the 18th and 19th centuries, the triggers for migration, the crofter protests, the Napier Commission of 1883 and the introduction of various laws to provide security of tenure.
Known as 'Britain's most beautiful shortcut', the Crinal Canal runs from Ardrishaig on Loch Fyne nine miles across the Kintyre peninsula to the west coast of Scotland. In the book Marian Pallister tells the story of the canal from its origins to the present day, discussing how it changed life in the surrounding areas, and how it has been used.
Occupying the southernmost part of the largest of the Western Isles, Harris boasts some of the most ruggedly beautiful and unspoilt landscape in Scotland.In this book, Bill Lawson, who has lived on...
Cupar was created a royal burgh in 1328, though its name is Pictish, suggesting that there had been an important settlement there since the 7th or 8th century if not earlier. Until the 16th century...
As an outpost of empire, Scotland played a significant, if unusual, role in the Roman world. The south and east were occupied intermittently from AD 79 to the early third century, while the north and...
An account on the ninetieth anniversary of the 'dark ship' that tells the story of the Iolaire, the astonishing commitment of the people of Lewis to the war against the Kaiser, its sickening end, and the way of life the disaster effectively destroyed.
When Lord Leverhulme bought the Hebridean islands of Lewis and Harris in 1918, his intention was to revolutionise the lives and environments their people. But the men and women of Lewis and Harris fought the law, their landowner, local businesses and the entire media to preserve the settled crofting population of their islands. This is that story.
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