Members' Night: Thursday 15th February 2018

The annual Members' Night will be held on Thursday 15th February 2018. The theme this year is "Members' Collections" and the evening will be an opportunity for members to share, examine and talk about what has been brought along. Mr Peter McCormack, Museums Development Officer for East Dumbartonshire Learning and Culture, will be the Society's special guest for the event and will provide some personal reflections on "collecting" and "collections".

Members' Night is one of the highlights of the winter programme and it is anticipated that this year will maintain this fine tradition. 

 (© I.S.Ruddock)

 (© I.S.Ruddock)

 (© I.S.Ruddock)

All evening meetings of the Society are at 7.30 pm in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF. 

Brainworks Project

Members of Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries are invited to participate in the Brainworks Project supported by the Welcome Centre and the Carnegie Trust. Full details and contact information are given in the poster below.

Rediscovering the Antonine Wall: 12th February 2018

A consultation on the future of the Antonine Wall is being held in the afternoon and early evening of Monday 12th February 2018 in Kirkintilloch Leisure Sports Centre. Full details are given on the poster below and additional information may be obtained by contacting Colin Welsh, Managing Consultant, Jura Consultants Limited (email: colin@jura-consultants.co.uk, tel: 0131 440 6750).

Paul Bishop: Kirkintilloch during and after the last ice age: Thursday 1st Febuary 2018

The Last Ice Age was responsible for much of the landscape, landforms and soils we live on. As the ice ground its way from the highlands to the sea, it carved great valleys (glens) and moulded the land surface. The sea was more than 100 m lower and the Earth's crust was depressed by the great load of ice weighing it down. When the ice melted, the sea returned and the Earth's crust rose again as the weight of the ice disappeared. The land surface then started its long recovery from the deep blanketing by ice, as vegetation slowly returned to the thawing landscape. 

Prof. Paul Bishop is a geographer and has recently retired from the University of Glasgow. In this talk he explores the various lines of evidence around Kirkintilloch and nearby areas for the presence of this ancient massive ice sheet, and then shows how the landscape recovered from the deep freeze.

British ice coverage during the last ice age.
(Reproduced with the permission of the British Geological Survey
© NERC. All rights reserved.) 

Bardowie Loch - an example of a "kettle hole" created by glaciation. (© P. Bishop)

All evening meetings of the Society are at 7.30 pm in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF. 

Don Martin: Lacing the river - Glasgow Harbour during the 1960s: Thursday 11th January 2018

KDSA Secretary Don Martin has several thousand pictures from negatives he exposed during the 1960s. Because of the unaffordable cost many were not printed at the time and some have never been printed. Now the negatives are being scanned to form digital images for use in publications and PowerPoint presentations. The majority reflect the Beeching-era decline of branch railways and steam locomotives, but many other subjects are covered as well. At our 11th January meeting he will present a selection of 1960s images of shipping and ferries on the Clyde at Glasgow.

A Clyde ferry. (© D.Martin)

Shipping on the Clyde in the early 1960s. (© D.Martin)

All evening meetings of the Society are at 7.30 pm in the Park Centre, 45 Kerr Street, Kirkintilloch, G66 1LF. 

William B Black: The Argyll gunpowder industry: Thursday 7th December 2017

For almost a century the glens of Argyll were the scene of an industry that appeared to bely their peaceful atmosphere, the manufacture of gunpowder. Produced primarily to meet the needs of a burgeoning construction industry as 19th century industry expanded, its products were sent not only throughout the United Kingdom but far across the globe. Today silence has returned to these glens but remnants remain of a forgotten industry.

In the Society's December meeting, local historian and long term Antiquaries member, William (Bill) Black, will describe this relatively unknown part of Scotland's industrial history and highlight the artefacts and evidence that can be still be found in that locale.

The monument to the Millhouse Powder Works, 
Cowal Peninsula which was in operation between 
1839 and 1921; it comprises a test mortar, the 
timekeeping bell and a plaque commemorating 

employees who died in accidents. (© W.B. Black)