The Double Life of William Brodie
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 8, 2026
In the late 18th century, no man in Edinburgh seemed more respectable than William Brodie. By day, he was a successful cabinetmaker, a membe...
Showing posts with the label Scotland
Edinburgh Seven And The Surgeons' Hall Riot
Kaushik Patowary
May 14, 2026
On 18 November 1870, a crowd gathered outside the Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh. Inside, seven young women sat for an anatomy examination alon...
Schiehallion Experiment: How Astronomers Weighed The Earth
Kaushik Patowary
May 11, 2026
In the summer of 1774, a team of British astronomers working under the patronage of the Royal Society established camp at the foot of a lone...
Barbara Thompson: Prisoner of the Aboriginal
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 15, 2026
When Captain Joseph Frazer rescued Narcisse Pelletier from Aboriginal people in 1875, it was not the first time a white captive had been re...
The Poyais Scam: A Nation That Never Was
Kaushik Patowary
May 7, 2025
A panoramic view of Black River in the fictional territory of Poyais. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons In the early 19th century, a Sc...
How Students Stole Britain’s Coronation Stone, The Stone of Scone
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 13, 2023
For more than seven hundred years, British monarchs have sat on a large block of rectangular sandstone during their coronations. This block ...
The Tay Whale
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 31, 2023
The city of Dundee on the Firth of Tay, on the east coast of Scotland, was a major whaling port in the 19th century. But few locals had actu...
Curfew Bell
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 20, 2023
Nearly every medieval house in Europe used to have an open hearth where a fire was kept going at all times to keep the occupants warm, and a...
Helen Duncan: The Last Witch of Britain
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 20, 2022
The Witchcraft Act of 1735 was a landmark act for Britain. Unlike the earlier Witchcraft Acts which legalized witch-hunting and the executio...
The Vanishing of Flannan’s Lighthouse Keepers
Ria Gupta
Jun 27, 2022
During the cold December days of 1900, three men disappeared off a remote island in the Outer Hebrides. They left no trace or trail, save fo...
