East Lothian Antiquarian & Field Naturalists' Society

“New looks at old pasts: the impact of LiDAR on our understanding of the landscape in the Border counties.”
2025-11-22 14:30 - 17:00 (Europe/London)
Stratford Halliday LIDAR FINAL PDFDownload

“An Eighteenth Century North Berwick Love Story”
2025-12-13 14:30 - 17:00
a personal family account

by Sir Hew Dalrymple

Sir Hew and Margaret Sainthill article- lectureDownload

The Society is delighted to present this talk by Sir Hew Dalrymple at 2.30 PM, Saturday, December 13th, 2025. Sir Hew and his family have been involved in the Society since its inception and in North Berwick and East Lothian life for more than 300 years. Sir Hew was a founding trustee of the Scottish Seabird Centre and is a Deputy Lieutenant of the county. He is also president of North Berwick RNLI and North Berwick Yacht Club. His family home, Leuchie House, is well known as the National Respite Centre. Sir Hew’s family archives are deposited in the National Record Office and are the source for this talk.

Sir Hew will take us back to the year 1744 and will paint a picture of life in North Berwick and London at that time. The talk is based on an intimate & delightful correspondence between Hew and Margaret Dalrymple, who were newly married but separated for four months when he left her in London to attend to his business affairs in Scotland. What emerges is a fascinating picture of a life very different to our own and yet the emotions, ambitions and anxieties that they exhibit are completely relatable to us today.

The venue will be at Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Haddington

Join us for refreshments afterwards.

For any enquiries contact Elaine Whewell: info@eastlothianantiquarians.org.uk

Non members welcome with a modest cash donation appreciated

Church parking is limited to Blue Badge holders plus otherwise mobility compromised

Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation No: SC052295

Unearthing and conserving the Peebles Hoard
2026-01-31 14:30 - 17:00
by Dr Matthew Knight and Ms Bethan Bryan

The Society is delighted to present this talk by Matthew Knight and Bethan Bryan at 2.30 PM, Saturday 31st, January, 2026.

The venue will be at Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Haddington, EH41 3EX

Matt Knight is Senior Curator of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age collections at National Museums Scotland, specialising in the production, use, and deposition of Bronze Age metalwork. His active research interests include the treatment of metalwork as well as the inclusion of older objects in later deposits. He is also Project Lead on the AHRC-funded Scotland’s Archaeological Human Remains Collection project.

Bethan Bryan is Peebles Hoard Conservator and Artefact Conservator at National Museums Scotland. She holds degrees in Celtic Archaeology and Medieval History from the University of Edinburgh and worked for five years at the National Trust for Scotland, before completing the MA Conservation of Archaeological and Museum Objects at the University of Durham.

Talk summary

The Peebles Hoard is one of the most remarkable hoards ever found in Scotland. Dating to the Late Bronze Age, it contains several hundred elements from a complex set of bronze and organic objects, as well as a complete sword in a scabbard. The hoard includes highly decorated bronze fittings, studs and buttons, as well as organic straps that linked multiple objects. Many of these objects have never been found before in Scotland, such as jingle plates that would have hung from horses; others have no clear parallels. This talk will present the discovery and excavation of the hoard as well as highlighting some of the ongoing conservation work, which is revealing intriguing insights into how the objects were made and used.

Join us for refreshments afterwards.

For any enquiries contact Elaine Whewell: info@eastlothianantiquarians.org.uk

Non members welcome with a modest cash donation appreciated

Church parking is limited to Blue Badge holders plus otherwise mobility compromised

“Farm servants of South East Scotland between 1750 and 1914”
2026-02-21 14:30 - 17:00
David McLean will give a talk on the farm servants of South East Scotland between 1750 and 1914. This will describe the lives of thousands of farm servants and bondagers who worked on the improved farms of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and East Lothian through the years of the great agricultural revolution.

The Society is delighted to present this talk by David McLean at 2.30 PM, Saturday, 21st February, 2026.

Please note that the venue will be at Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Haddington, EH41 3EX

David McLean

After graduating in history at Edinburgh University, our speaker began a professional career in education which eventually spanned 38 years, teaching history and modern studies. Posts included principal teacher of History at Berwickshire High School and depute headteacher at Earlston High School. After retirement in 2010, he found more time for deeper historical research into both Scottish and American history which has led on to giving a variety of talks to various clubs and societies across the Borders. In more recent years, he has added a new project: researching the stories of the old Duns houses and the families who lived in them, work which has not been done before.

Talk summary

The talk will look at the lives of those thousands of farm-servants and bondagers who worked on the improved farms of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and East Lothian through the years of the great agricultural revolution. It will explain the rural hierarchy from ploughmen downwards, the main tasks of the farming year, how farm-servants were paid, their living conditions and relationships with employers. Attempts to promote trade unionism in the countryside will be explored before reaching the watershed of the Great War.

Members can expect a moving historical journey into past agricultural times.

For any enquiries contact: info@eastlothianantiquarians.org.uk

Non members welcome with a modest cash donation appreciated

Church parking is limited to Blue Badge holders plus otherwise mobility compromised

Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation No: SC052295

“The incredible scientific pioneering life of Lord Kelvin”
2026-03-21 14:30 - 17:00 | Holy Trinity Church, Haddington, 6A Church Street, Haddington EH41 3EX ·
Professor Martin-Torres FRSE will describe the life of William Thomson, known in history as Lord Kelvin (of the temperature scale). Thomson enrolled at the University of Edinburgh at just 10 years old. He had an insatiable curiosity and interdisciplinary approach to science leading him to explore diverse areas of inquiry – from thermodynamics, electromagnetism to geophysics and navigation and much more besides.
