ISLANDS – PAST
On Saturday 29 April, learn all about the latest research looking into island history through several different lenses – from personal recollection allied to traditional sources, poetry and demography to language, archaeology, and ornithology:
- Mark the 250th anniversary of Johnson and Boswell’s journey
- Learn about the seaways that connected people of the western islands
- Discuss how island, human, and bird populations have changed
- Discover Scotland’s Jurassic Park
Join the RSE for this day of exploration, questioning and reflection through at the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
09:30 – 09:40 Welcome
09:45 – 10:20 Keynote 1 – Professor Chris Whatley FRSE, Dundee OBE, FRSE, University of Dundee – Pabay, Skye: a reflective odyssey through a small island’s past
10:25 – 11:00 Keynote 2 – Professor Uisdean Cheape FRSE, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig – A’ mhuinntir do rinn an t-seirbhis uile – ‘The folk who did all the business’. Revisiting the Past in the Islands
11:00 – 11:15 Break – teas and coffees
11:45 – 12:20 Keynote 3 – Professor Michael Anderson FRSE, University of Edinburgh – Demographic changes – how island populations have changed
12:20– 13:20 Lunch
13:25 – 14:00 Keynote 4 – Dr Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig – Johnson, Boswell, and the Isle of Skye: 250 years on
14:35 – 14:50 Break
14:50 – 15:25 Keynote 5 – Bob McMillan, Skye Birds – The birds of Skye – some historical changes, trends, and challenges
15:30 – 16:05 Keynote 6 – Dr Alison Cathcart, Stirling University – ‘The scattered isles in the polar ocean?’ Scotland and the isles in the early modern period
16:05 – 16:15 Break
16:15 – 16:50 Keynote 7 – Professor Steve Brusatte, Edinburgh – Scotland’s Jurassic Park: dinosaurs, pterodactyls, and other fossils from the Hebrides
16:50 – 17:00 Plenary
