Duncan Harley takes the reader on a grand tour through Aberdeenshire's fascinating and rich history, culminating in a collection of stories and facts that will make you marvel at the events this county has witnessed. Read about the Beaker People, blue-painted Picts and the Roman legionnaires who tried, but ultimately failed to subdue the local populace. William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Donald Trump inhabit these pages alongside tales of Bloody Harlaw, the Herschip of Buchan and the battle of Mons Graupius. Discover the painter priest of Macduff, the English Dillinger, the famous diggers of Inverurie's George Square and the strange tale of how Lawrence of Arabia 'got his scuds' over at Collieston. The Little History of Aberdeenshire is guaranteed to enthral both residents and visitors alike.

Christopher Harvie, one of Scotland's leading historians and political writers, takes a long view of Scotland: its land, people, and culture. Scotland: A History sweeps from the earliest settlements to the new Parliament of 1999 and beyond. It describes the unique multi-ethnic kingdom which emerged from the Dark Ages, the small, proud nation manoeuvring among the great powers of medieval Europe, and the radical reformation which forced a compromise with its mighty southern neighbour. Harvie follows Scotland's tense partnership with England for over 400 years, through dual monarchy and union, enlightenment and empire, industrialization and de-industrialization. First published over a decade ago, this new edition has been extended - at both ends - to include recent discoveries about Scotland's early pre-historic settlements, through to a new final chapter covering the history, politics, and economics of the country under the Holyrood Parliament - and the background to the controversy over the Independence Referendum of 2014.

Duncan Harley takes the reader on a grand tour of the curious and the bizarre, the strange and the unusual from Aberdeenshire's past. Read about the Beatles' first, and almost their last, tour of the North-east, the Deeside artist who tended plaster sheep, and the strange tale of the Typhoid Queen. Learn about Hitler's secret bunker at Stonehaven, the doomed Marquis of Montrose, and the mysterious Mound of Death at Inverurie. Along the way you'll also meet scandalous residents, determined inventors, and Royal personages galore. The A-Z of Curious Aberdeenshire is guaranteed to enthrall both residents and visitors alike.

Duncan Harley takes the reader on a grand tour through Aberdeenshire's fascinating and rich history, culminating in a collection of stories and facts that will make you marvel at the events this county has witnessed.Read about the Beaker People, blue-painted Picts and the Roman legionnaires who tried, but ultimately failed to subdue the local populace. William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Donald Trump inhabit these pages alongside tales of Bloody Harlaw, the Herschip of Buchan and the battle of Mons Graupius. Discover the painter priest of Macduff, the English Dillinger, the famous diggers of Inverurie's George Square and the strange tale of how Lawrence of Arabia 'got his scuds' over at Collieston.The Little History of Aberdeenshire is guaranteed to enthral both residents and visitors alike.

In early medieval Scotland bitter rivalry grew up between two immigrant families from Flanders in their struggle for the crown: the Stewarts and the Douglases. From the Bloody Heart covers the period from 1286 to what may be thought of as the "final" defeat of the Stewarts at Culloden in 1745.

It was in the year 1119, the twentieth of the Christian dominion in Syria, that nine pious and valiant Knights, the greater part of whom had been the companions of Godfrey de Bouillon, formed themselves into an association, the object of which was to protect and defend Pilgrims on their visits to the holy places. These Knights, of whom the two chief were Hugo de Payens and Godfrey de St. Omer, vowed, in honour of the sweet Mother of God, to unite Monkhood and Knighthood; their pious design met with the warm approbation of the King and the Patriarch, and in the hands of the latter they made the three ordinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; and a fourth, of combating without ceasing against the heathen, in defence of Pilgrims and of the Holy Land; and bound themselves to live according to the rule of the canons of St. Augustine, at Jerusalem. The King assigned them for their abode a part of his palace, which stood close by where had stood the Temple of the Lord. He and his barons contributed to their support, and the abbot and canons of the Temple assigned them for the keeping of their arms and magazines the street between it and the royal palace, and hence they took the name of the soldiery of the Temple, or Templars. When Fulk, Count of Anjou, in the year following the formation of the society, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Order was even then in such repute that he joined it as a married brother, and on his return home remitted them annually thirty pounds of silver to aid them in their pious labours, and his example was followed by several other Christian princes.