Projects //
Past & Present
The following projects are currently being – or have recently been – undertaken by members of the ISHR
Mediaeval St Andrews
Mediaeval St Andrews began as a team-taught honours module offered in the School of History and has evolved into a cross-faculty collaborative project. Bringing together a range of projects across the University, the principal purpose is to collect, research, teach and share knowledge about St Andrews up to the Reformation.
The Mediaeval St Andrews team has developed a mobile app that lets you explore the medieval sites of St Andrews and includes information, videos, images and more.
16th century map of St Andrews
Download the Mediaeval St Andrews App in iTunes and on Google Play.
Medieval St Andrews Exhibition:
Cult, Church, City.
20 february – 2 July 2022
This exhibition brought together unique and often dazzling artworks, artefacts, manuscripts and books in St Andrews for the first time in nearly 500 years, telling the story of a town and time that can now only be glimpsed.
Created by Professor Michael Brown and Dr Bess Rhodes, experts in the field, it was complemented by amazing virtual reconstructions of the town and its buildings, showing the cathedral in all its glory, the castle before it was looted and the University as it could only be imagined. The exhibition was accompanied by a range of events and experiences that enabled visitors to dive deeper into the St Andrews of the medieval period. Read more here or listen to a conversation about it here:
John Hardyng’s Map of Scotland
Professor Michael Brown and Daniel Leaver in Critical Conversation with the Wardlaw Museum:
Women Historians of St Andrews
A project that seeks out the women who studied, researched and taught History at St Andrews, at any point in time.
Today, just over half of the undergraduate History students at St Andrews identify as female. So do 45% of our academic research and teaching staff. Even so, we know that there are significant gender inequalities and imbalances in the School. We decided to turn our historical skills to an investigation of the history of women’s participation in, and experiences of, the study of History at St Andrews. This site reports our findings. It is a work in progress, and if you have information, ideas or contacts that might be relevant, please get in touch with us.
Scotland and the Flemish People
Some estimates suggest that up to a third of the current Scottish population may have had Flemish ancestors. While this is almost certainly an exaggeration, many Flemish emigrés did settle in Scotland over a 600 year period between the 11th and 17th centuries. Many shed their continental sounding names to take on the name Fleming or its variants. Others took on different names that give little clue as to their country or region of origin. As the Flemish left Flanders over a relatively long time period they were absorbed into Scottish society gradually. So while the Flemish may well be one of Scotland’s largest immigrant groups the question of why they came, their significance in Scottish history, and their broader impact on the economy, society and culture of their adopted homeland has never been examined in detail. The overall aim of the Project is to provide an accessible overview of the impact of the Flemish people on Scotland and the historical interactions between Scotland and Flanders (the Low Countries or modern-day Belgium). Combining genealogical and historical research, the project will reassess the settlement of Flemings in Scotland – their distribution and local impact – as well as reviewing the role of the Flemish in the broad sweep of Scottish history. The project has been made possible by generous grants from the P F Charitable Trust, the Wyfold Charitable Trust, the Government of Flanders and the support of Alex and Susan Fleming. The project is conducted through the Institute of Scottish Historical Research at the University of St Andrews. For further details, please contact Professor Roger Mason.
Scotland and the Wider World
The Institute of Scottish Historical Research currently hosts this innovative project which seeks to establish the full extent of Scotland’s links with the ‘Wider World’ particularly in the Early Modern Period.
Records of the Parliaments of Scotland
The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 (RPS) is a fully searchable database containing the proceedings of the Scottish parliament from the first surviving act of 1235 to the union of 1707. The culmination of over ten years’ work by researchers from the Scottish Parliament Project based in the School of History at the University of St Andrews, the online edition seeks to make this key historical source freely available to all in a technologically advanced and user-friendly format.
Scotland, Scandinavia and Northern Europe Database
The Records of the Parliaments of the SSNE database is an online research tool which originated as a facility to store data for two researchers at the University of Aberdeen’s Scotland and Scandinavia Project (1995-1999), Prof Steve Murdoch and Dr Alexia Grosjean. Now based permanently at the University of St Andrews, the database represents an ongoing project of interest to historical researchers, human geographers, genealogists and those with an interest in the development of online research and/or teaching tools.
LASH-BASH
In 2007, the ISHR secured, through competitive tender, the management of the LASH-BASH project (the curious acronym deriving from the list of articles and books relating to Scottish History, published originally in the Scottish Historical Review). These lists are now managed by the Royal Historical Society [RHS] and the LASH-BASH project is funded by the Scottish Historical Review Trust [SHRT], allowing the Institute to employ a team of postgraduates to check the bibliographical details on lists sent out four times a year of books and articles published in the field of Scottish history. Typically, this involves the verification or addition of such information as date ranges, book chapters, page references, name indexes, etc., in addition to checking entries for relevance and offering translations of, for example, Gaelic titles. The checked entries are then uploaded and incorporated into the Bibliography of British and Irish History [BBIH] database.
LASH-BASH in the ISHR is co-ordinated by Dr Christine McGladdery.
Dark Ages Studies
In 1955 the University of St Andrews appointed F. T. Wainwright, a pupil of the great Sir Frank Stenton, to the post of Senior Lecturer in Dark Age Studies. Wainwright held this post until his early death in 1961. Since Wainwright’s time St Andrews has continued to show a commitment to teaching and research in this area and first Nicholas Brooks and then Barbara Crawford took on Wainwright’s mantle. In the 1990s, together with a nucleus of committed colleagues, both within and beyond the University, Barbara Crawford established the Committee for Dark Age Studies with the aim of promoting the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study of early medieval Scotland within its Insular and European context. Since Barbara Crawford’s retirement in 2002, Alex Woolf has taken on the chairmanship of the committee.
Committee for Dark Age Studies publications can be purchased online through the University of St Andrews.
Enquiries should be made to Alex Woolf ([email protected]).