The Amazing Loch Lomond

Many of us live in cities with all the crowds, stress, noise and dirt in the environment. Most probably we have not often come across nature, searched for it or even be one with it. But there is this marvelous place in central Scotland that will surely blow you away; a dream place for those wanting...

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Best War Films: "BRAVEHEART"

BRAVEHEART Mel Gibson fights for the independence of Scotland from English ruleA stupendous historical saga, Braveheart won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for star Mel Gibson.He plays William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish commoner who unites the various clans against a...

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Edinburgh: Empress Of The North

The capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is the country's second largest city and the 7th largest city in the United Kingdom. Resting in the south-east of Scotland, Edinburgh has a rugged setting with a collection of many Medieval and Georgian style architecture. It is one of the most picturesque cities...

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The BSA and the Ben Nevis Observatory

The £500 Government Grant to the BSA accounted for more than a quarter of the School's income for the period 1894-1918. However it did not meet with approval in a letter to The Scotsman (5 October 1904). The correspondent was making a complaint to MPs from Scotland over the lack for funding for the Ben Nevis Observatory.Interestingly the BSA funding was on a par (in 1904) with the Royal Geographical...

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BSA Students and Clerical Family Backgrounds

It is striking how many students (about one sixth) admitted to the BSA up to the First World War were sons and daughters of clerical families. Several students were later ordained members of the Church of England, or served as ministers in Scotland.Church of EnglandThomas Dinham Atkinson, son of the Rev. George Barnes Atkinson (d. 1917), Rector of Swanington, Norfolk, and schoolmaster in Sheffield.Edward...

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Mary Hamilton and the BSA

Mary Hamilton (1881-1962) was educated at St Andrews. Her father, Rev. William Hamilton, was the minister of the Trinity Evangelical Union Church in Dundee. (The church had been opened by James Morison [1816-93], founder of the Evangelical Union, in December 1877.) She held a fellowship from the Carnegie Trust (working on incubation) and was subsequently admitted to the BSA for the sessions 1905/06...

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BSA Students and St Andrews

Only a small proportion of students admitted to the BSA had studied in Scotland. There was a single student from St Andrews. Mary Hamilton, originally from Dundee, graduated from St Andrews in Classics in 1902, and subsequently held a Research Fellowship under the Carnegie Trust (1903/04). This resulted...

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Scotland and the BSA

Apart from Oxford and Cambridge, one of the main groups admitted to the BSA in the period up to 1914 consisted of students from Scotland. A key influence was (Sir) William Ramsay (1851-1939), a graduate of the university of Aberdeen, who continued his studies at St John’s College, Oxford. Ramsay had travelled widely in Asia Minor and was elected a research fellow at Exeter College in 1882. He was...

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