Innovations

Our properties have witnessed many firsts and innovations – some have helped shape the country and even the world, others were more quirky. Listed below are just some of the ways in which attractions in our care have been at the forefront of new developments and change of many kinds.

Kinnaird Head Lighthouse

Kinnaird Head was a remarkable piece of innovation that helped transform the safety of mariners at sea. When the original light was lit in 1787 it was the most powerful in the world and visible for up to 14 miles.

It was designed by Thomas Smith using a revolutionary system of parabolic mirrors to magnify lamps fuelled by whale oil. Smith had first used parabolic reflectors to boost the brightness of gas street lights in Edinburgh.

The Kinnaird light was built in Edinburgh and contained 17 reflectors set out in three tiers. The lighthouse was the first created in Scotland by the Northern Lighthouse Trust (which is still at work today as the Northern Lighthouse Board). Smith’s light was on top of a medieval tower house bought by the trustees from the Fraser family. In 1929 Kinnaird head was fitted with the first radio beacon in Scotland.

Stanley Mills

This magnificent eighteenth century watermill complex by the river Tay was a herald of the industrial revolution. The original Bell Mill, built in 1786, is the best-preserved cotton mill directly associated with Richard Arkwright, inventor of the factory system which transformed industrial production.

The mill harnessed the power of the Tay to drive cotton spinning machines. Its equipment developed and changed over the decades, frequently leading the way in industrial developments, and its products were sold throughout the British Empire. Much of the raw cotton was imported by sailing ship from the USA and brought from Glasgow by cart.

Stanley Mills developed and changed for 200 years, only finally closing in the 1980s

Fort George

One of the outstanding artillery fortifications of Europe and still an operational military barracks today. The fort was completed in 1769 and was designed to deter any further Jacobite risings after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746.

Created on a monumental scale it contained barracks for 2,000 men, including gunners and infantry, within an impregnable stronghold. It was the largest ever construction job carried out in the Highlands by this time and cost over £200,000. Standing on the edge of the Moray Firth, the fort’s walls have endured an enormous battering from the sea and a maintenance programme is underway.

Historic Scotland needed to find a way to give replacement stones the chance to set in place without being washed away by the sea. Going back to the original plans it was discovered that the builders managed the job with the innovative approach of building a huge temporary shingle barrier to absorb the power of the waves. The eighteenth century approach was so simple and effective that Historic Scotland imitated the idea and created its own rock armour barrier.

Edinburgh Castle

Spiritual home of the modern map – it was here that William Roy, father of the Ordnance Survey, based his great mapmaking enterprise in the 1740s. He worked in collaboration with  Paul Sandby, who was a major influence on British watercolour painting. From this flowed the surveys that are the essence of the maps, road atlases and street plans that are vital to so many aspects of modern living.

Roy was a 22-year-old from Miltonhead, near Carluke, when he and Sandby were employed by the army to create the first comprehensive scale maps of Scotland. Their systematic mapping of the entire Scottish mainland was such a success that Roy was able to lay the foundations for the Ordnance Survey. His boss, Colonel David Watson, was so impressed by the young man’s work he paid some of his wages from his own pocket.

Roy spent his summers in the field with the survey teams then headed back to Edinburgh Castle where the maps were probably made in the basement of the Governor’s House in winter. Each spring Watson would gather up the latest batch of completed maps and head to London where they would be displayed before royalty. Watson had got royal backing for the scheme, which lasted from 1748-55, following Bonnie Prince Charlie’s uprising of 1745. Good maps were needed for the efficient movement of troops.

Trinity House

This delightful maritime museum in Leith is a treasure trove of objects recalling many seafaring innovations. There are also exotic objects brought back by merchant sailors and whalers including coral, narwhal tusks and a flying fish wing.  The collection includes a penguin egg brought back by whalers from the South Atlantic.

It was whalers docking at Leith who brought the first penguins to Edinburgh Zoo back in 1914. Indeed, Trinity House has a penguin carved from a whale’s tooth. There is also a scale model of the Bell Rock Lighthouse off Arbroath which was one of the great engineering achievements of the eighteenth century.

Trinity House itself has been a centre of change and innovation. It is the base for the Incorporation of Mariners and Ship’s Masters, a charity which dates from 1380 and which had the mansion built in 1816. In the past the incorporation was a pioneer of maritime safety, having responsibility for piloting vessels through the hazards of the Firth of Forth and looking after the lights. The Isle of May, in the firth, was home to the very first purpose-built lighthouse in Scotland, which was built in 1636, and relied on a coal-fired brazier.

Stirling Castle

The castle is the home of the Stirling Heads – these unique carved oak medallions are sometimes spoken of as Scotland’s other crown jewels. Dating from the mid-sixteenth century they are remarkable works of art which were once used to decorate ceilings in the castle’s royal palace built by King James V around 1540.

The palace itself is of huge significance as the most complete surviving Renaissance building in Britain. Some 33 heads survive, each up to a metre wide, and Historic Scotland is currently creating a gallery where they will be on permanent display from 2011. New research suggests that the heads include portraits of famous historical figures including Scottish kings James I and James V, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the English king Henry VIII and his sister Margaret Tudor.  

Historic Scotland is having a complete replica set hand-carved by a skilled craftsmen to decorate the ceiling in the King’s Presence Chamber as part of a £12 million project to return the palace to how it may have looked in the Renaissance.

Arbroath Abbey

It was Abbot Bernard de Linton who drafted the letter, now known as the Declaration of Arbroath, which many regard as the most important document in Scottish history. And, after some revisions, the final draft was agreed at Arbroath Abbey in 1320. Beyond proclaiming the kingdom’s independence from England it contained the novel idea that the monarch could only enter into treaties – a vital aspect of rulership – with the consent of his nobles.

The declaration was sent to Pope John XXII in Avignon in an attempt to persuade him to withdraw his support from Edward II of England and back Robert the Bruce as legitimate king of Scotland. It was not an immediate success but nine years on, when Robert I was dying, Pope John wrote to the Scottish nobles to say he had granted what they asked.

Melrose Abbey

A curious fragment of history survived against all the odds and is on display at Melrose Abbey, what could have been Scotland’s first pair of spectacles. Part of one of the circular rims, which dates from the fourteenth century, was discovered in a drain at the abbey. Very few examples of such early glasses, which had a pair of round lenses hinged in the middle to tighten them round the bridge of the wearer’s nose, have been discovered anywhere.

Whithorn Priory and Museum

Often referred to as the Cradle of Christianity, Whithorn is believed by many to be where the country’ first church was founded. Called Candida Casa, or the Shining White House, it was believed to have been built by St Ninian in the late fourth century, though this can never be known for sure.

Whithorn has produced the earliest dateable Christian monument in Scotland – the so-called Latinus inscribed memorial stone. Visitors today can see the delightful medieval priory and one of the best collections anywhere of early Christian carved stones. Nearby is St Ninian’s Cave, where the weathered remains of carved crosses can be seen on the walls, which tradition says is where the saint went for solitary prayer and contemplation.