Time Travels

BBC Radio Scotland

Susan Morrison explores the rich and sometimes murky depths of Scotland's past.

  1. 26/01/2024

    Introducing House of the Lion: A Blood Soaked Throne

    Susan Morrison and Len Pennie explore what it takes to be King in medieval Scotland, where ruthlessness and brutality where qualities at the top of the job description.

    3 min

  2. 08/06/2023

    Delivering Babies, Hunting Jacobites

    Aberdeen is soon getting the Baird Family hospital for Maternity, Neonatal and Reproductive Medicine - but who were the Baird family and why is it named after them? Dr Alison McCall clues in Susan Morrison on Sir Dugald, his wife, Lady May Baird, son Professor David and daughter Dr Joyce Baird. From Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Shauna Irani introduces Susan to Ned Burke, her favourite person from the poignant Jacobite collection of relics and accounts of sufferings ’The Lyon in Mourning’. Their website for their 'Lyon in Mourning' project is https://dhil.lib.sfu.ca/lyoninmourning/ And how did you tell the future in the past and what did people think about it? Dr Martha McGill of Warwick University has the answers.

    28 min

  3. 11/02/2023

    War Wounds and Electricity

    Bee keeping, basket weaving - if you lost limbs in WW1, you might need to retrain for a job, Louise Bell of Leeds University tells Susan Morrison about the Erskine Hospital and a Gordon Highlander who wanted to go there. Servicemen of an earlier age might find care more rough and ready - Dr Catherine Beck of Copenhagen University looks at mental health in the age of Nelson’s navy and why it was thought to be such a pressing issue. In the 18th century electricity was thought to be mysterious and scary, and there was still a whiff of that into the 20th century when savvy female demonstrators were wanted to try and get the highland housewife happy with the power supply of the future. Join us as we travel across the centuries.

    28 min

  4. 04/02/2023

    An Island Tragedy and Wartime Holidays

    It’s one of Scotland’s almost forgotten campaigns. James Graham the charismatic Marquess of Montrose and his allies occupied Orkney in 1649 - they were planning to invade the Scottish mainland. Would the islanders turn out to fight? Dr Andrew Lind of the Institute for Northern Studies takes Susan Morrison through the battle that came next and its tragic aftermath. On a lighter wartime note, Susan chats to Dr Michelle Moffat, Tutor at Otago University in New Zealand about how Scots took their holidays in World War 2 and how sometimes there was nothing the authorities could do but to gnash their teeth.

    28 min

  5. 22/01/2023

    Rags and Religion

    Right in the heart of what’s now Glasgow's 'Merchant City', there was a vanished industry we rarely ever talk about. Dr Jade Halbert, Lecturer in Design Studies at the University of Leeds introduces Susan Morrison to Glasgow’s lost rag trade and what happened to it. Moving back in time to the 16th century we explore the biggest scandal of the early Reformation church - the firebrand minister of Dundee who spectacularly fell from grace. Dr Bess Rhodes of St Andrews University has been digging into the very chequered career of Paul Methven and his relations to women.

    28 min

  6. 15/01/2023

    Medieval Murder and Land Raids

    Susan Morrison explores the real life behind modern dark mediaeval fantasy. Were Scottish nobles really getting starved to death in dungeons? Who by? Dr Katy Jack has the answers. Once you lost your land in the Highland clearances, how did you fight to get it back? Juliette Desportes of Glasgow University looks at the Galson raiders in Lewis. And finally, are you melancholy? Does your parrot have a ‘looseness’? You might need an 18th century recipe book. Susan chats with Dr Charlotte Holmes about their contents

    28 min

  7. 07/01/2023

    Cabbage, Surnames and Dungeons

    Susan Morrison explores cabbage - no, not the stuff that used to bulk out the school dinners, but a mysteriously legal perk they used to carve out of the rag trade. Fashion historian Dr Jade Halbert of Leeds University has the goods on Scotland’s surprising contribution to cabbage history. A bit of sly cabbaging might get you a cheap designer wedding dress, but would a Scottish bride have changed her name in times gone by? Dr Rebecca Mason has the answers and they might surprise you. Scottish traditions were different - find out why. And what does a real dungeon look like? Susan and Dr Katy Jack get medieval.

    28 min

  8. 09/07/2022

    Vikings and Fluorescent Bunnies

    Yes we’ve all heard about Vikings and monasteries but there’s a lot more to it than that - they might make you a business offer you couldn’t refuse but their fashion and language really caught on. Dr Adrián Maldonado of National Museums of Scotland, author of 'Crucible of Nations: Scotland from Viking age to Medieval kingdoms' chats to Susan Morrison about the new cultures emerging in 9th-11th century ‘Scotland’. Norse culture in the Northern isles produced striking carved stones and in the 20th century a Shetlander with a love of carving stone heads came to Montrose asylum - Adam Christie - he’s just one of the people whose work is represented in the Art Extraordinary collection which Dr Cheryl McGeachan is so fascinated by. It’s art work made by people in asylums who had a yearning to create - from Adam Christie’s stone heads to Mrs McGilp’s fluorescent bunnies from Aberdeen.

    28 min
See All (44)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Susan Morrison explores the rich and sometimes murky depths of Scotland's past.

Information

  • Creator
    BBC Radio Scotland
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    44
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2024
  • Show Website
    Time Travels

More From BBC