First a new book, and an absolute bargain at £5.99.

Scottish Castles and Fortifications, Richard Dargie, GW Publishing, ISBN0 9546701 1 6    2004.

Here's a high quality glossy book at bargain basement price which provides excellent short histories and even better colour photography of 100 of Scotland's best castles and forts. The theme is to explain why the castle was where it was and how it developed, but each entry also has mention of the grizzly tales associated with each. The book is divided into sections, explaining the different stages of castle development in Scotland, which includes 'Royal Strongholds', 'Palaces of Prosperity', The First Fortressess' and 'Keeping the Kingdom 1300-1450'.

Essentially it covers the best of the sites worth visiting for anyone other than the most enthusiastic castle hunter, ie the tourist attractions.

GW Publishing

PO Box 6091

Thatcham

Berks

RG19 8XZ

Tel      +44 (0) 1635 268080  

Second, Martin Coventry is in the preparation stage of the next edition of Castles of Scotland..the 4th.

Publication expected 2004/05

The Making of Scotland, Robin Smith , Canongate 2001 £40 ISBN 1 84195 170 6

A dictionary of Scottish towns and villages, describibg their development from 1st settlement to the millenium. Obhviously contains quite a bit of relevant history and castles, but the bulk is just anything you ever wanted to know about anywhere in Scotland. This is not a book to stick in your pocket, and keep your back straight when you lift it!

 

The Quest For Arthur , Stuart McHardy,Luath Press 2001 £16.99

As plausible an argument as any for the sites of King Arthur's battles, Avalon and a confirmed Capital of the Britons. Dumbarton of course, Central Scotland...why not?...... but no king, just a remarkable warrior.

As with all things Arthurian it's all supposition based on the little factual history available, but in this case the circumstantial evidence based on original dark age documents is a little more convincing than usual!

Stuart McHardy , The Quest for Arthur.

There is a reader review here which is pretty accurate. The writer's style threatens to lose his point, nevertheless he does add to the debate, and scores a few points over academics who dismiss oral traditions, after all if it weren't for them, William Wallace would have been just another outlaw, and we'd just be reading English accounts!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1...product-details

Read The Introduction.

Castles of Scotland, A Voyage Through The Ages, by Chris Tabraham of Historic Scotland.

Basically there was an artist in the early 19thc, named William Daniell who sailed around Scotland and painted about 30 of the coastline castles he found. Tabraham has produced this well illustrated book showing Daniell's prints, and a few others, with some remarkable photography and a short historical perspective on each entry. It's not quite a fount of knowledge since the text is a bit on the short side, but it is excellently presented.

It covers sites like Cardoness, Lochranza, Dumbarton, Girnigoe, Tantallon, Berwick....

 

Cost £15.99

 

William Daniell, an English painter, did scenes around the world,

here's a few links to some of his images of castles, not from the book, do a Google Image search.

 

Dover Castle

 

Slanes Castle ......(Slains, Cruden Bay)

 

Culzean

 

Dunrobin

 

More prints by Daniell

click on the thumbnails for bigger image.

 

The Book

 

And again

COS 4 is available in hardback.

Castles of Scotland 4th ed on amazon

Heavier and more loaded with content than ever, this is a hefty book.

Birlinn, publishers of the latest Castles of Scotland edition are releasing two limited edition classic books

 

Bleau's Atlas of Scotland (2006)

 

and

 

Daniell's Scotland

 

both are high quality limited edition facsimilies of the original from a print run of 600, both are selling at £100.

Got this on saturday.

 

The Castles of Scotland, Fully Revised Edition (COS4) Birlinn 2006.

This fully revised edition of 'The Scottish Castles Bible' has been published by Birlinn due to it's sheer size. At least twice as large as the hardback deluxe version of COS 3, there are a further 500 castle sites on the lists giving approx 3000 in all, with additional mansions added to expand on local histories. A change of font, the addition of further illustrations by MacGibbon & Ross and from the authors extensive postcard collection make the £30 price tag value for money.

 

Birlinn's other two notable publications, Daniell and Bleau might arrive as wee Xmas and Birthday presents.

Before Scotland (The Story of Scotland Before History) Alastair Moffat, Thames and Hudson, 2005

ISBN-10 0-500-01533-x

 

'There is a timelessness about people and landscape which is brought out quite brilliantly here, this book deserves to be very,very widely read'

....and so it does, Alastair Moffat has drawn on archaeological record, common sense conclusion, surviving custom, and the scant historical records to paint a vivid picture of how things were in Scotland before words were written.

From the ice age and the hunter gathers who followed the retreat of the ice to the the union of Picts and Scots under MacAlpin, this book sheds light on a dark past, and corrects a few widely held misinterpretations.

Moffat illustrates more than aptly how little things changed over the millennia.

Superb.

 

This book at Amazon UK

Daniells' Scotland as linked above, is a stunningly beautiful 2 volume set, volume 1 being a narrative, and volume 2 the plates of his artwork. This is not just a record of how Scotland was at the time, Daniell in his narrative records the history of each place as it was known then, and passes social comment on how things were during his visit, the Gaol at Annan , for instance was far to small in his view, for the numbers it held, and filthy.

The artwork volume provides some stunningly beautiful and fascinating records of cities, structures and landscapes as they existed in the early 19thc, some few of which we have illustrated earlier in this thread, but that is only a small proportion of the whole. These books are expensive, but worth every penny, and I willnever be done thanking my wife for this fantastic annniversary present.

Here's that link again;

The book at Birlinn.

The Bleau atlas of Scotland 1654 Birlinn

 

Birlinn

 

Stunning faithful fulsize reproduction of the original atlas complete with the descriptions of the areas compiled at the time, the image on the link above is adapted from the original atlas, and it appears as a frontpiece not the cover of this book.

Yes you can access the maps on- line, yes there was an earlier book by Jeffrey Stone describing the compilation of the maps with smaller reproductions, but neither is a substitute for the quality produced here by Birlinn.