Online Talk in January: The Witches of Scotland Campaign

Linlithgow Museum is happy to announce our next virtual talk: 

The Witches of Scotland Campaign
Wednesday 19th January, 7.00pm

We are absolutely delighted to be bringing Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell QC of the "Witches of Scotland Campaign" to talk to us about their excellent work. If you’ve followed the Museum Facebook for a while, you’ll know that Alison, on of our Trustees, recommended their brilliant podcast. You might also have heard them recently on Radio 2, Radio 4 and on the news talking about the campaign as their petition is currently working its way through the Scottish Parliament committee system.

We are delighted they are going to be talking to us about their campaign and what they’ve found out about the witchcraft trials in Scotland at this time.

An estimated 3837 people were accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736 and current estimates are that two thirds of those were executed, some 2558 people. Around 84% of those accused were women. There are small memorials in some places in Scotland which remember those convicted of witchcraft, but like the Witches Well in Edinburgh, they remember the witches, rather than represent an apology for those who lost their lives. To date, there has been no apology, no pardon and no memorial to those who lost their lives in Scotland.

Zoe and Claire are working hard to have a pardon for those convicted of witchcraft, an apology for those accused of witchcraft and a national memorial to respect the memory of those convicted and accused.

Tickets for the talk are £5, and all profits from the event will help keep Linlithgow Museum running. Click here to book on ArtTickets

In the meantime, listen to the podcast and consider signing up to the campaign for updates. More information is on their website here.

And remember - they were just folk!

Booking Information:

After booking you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link to the talk. We look forward to you joining us.

Please note the event will be recorded and screenshots taken. If you do not wish to be recorded please turn off your camera when joining the talk. 

Images Credits: The Witches of Scotland Campaign

Upcoming Online Talk: The Music of Linlithgow Palace in the 15th Century – A Virtual Reality Project

Linlithgow Museum is happy to announce our next virtual talk: 

The Music of Linlithgow Palace in the 15th Century – A Virtual Reality Project
Wednesday 10th November, 19.30

We are delighted to welcome Dr James Cook from the Reid School of Music at the University of Edinburgh.

Imagine it is the 15th century and you are standing in the chapel of the Linlithgow Palace. Envisage all that this experience would entail: the interplay of candlelight on beautiful art, the exquisite performance of sacred music, and the acoustics of a performance space that today no longer exists. This is what the AHRC-funded ‘Space, Place, Sound, and Memory: Immersive Experiences of the Past’ set out to do.

Working closely with game developers, musicologists, architectural historians, and acousticians, the project aimed to recreate the sights and sounds of performance within the Palace chapel, using Virtual Reality. This can now be experienced by visitors to Linlithgow Palace (when the palace re-opens).

Another output from the project was a CD, the first commercial CD to be recorded and produced entirely in virtual reality, which sets Scottish music in our reconstructed acoustic, recorded with The Binchois Consort.

Join Dr Cook to learn more about this project including the process of reconstruction, see some of the VR experience and hear some of the first music created in VR!

Dr James Cook works mainly on early music and is interested fourteenth to sixteenth centuries music.

Booking Information:

Tickets for the talk are £5, and all profits from the event will help keep Linlithgow Museum running. Click here to book on ArtTickets

After booking you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link to the talk. We look forward to you joining us.

Please note the event will be recorded and screenshots taken. If you do not wish to be recorded please turn off your camera when joining the talk. 

Images Credits: Dr James Cook

Spring Talks Series - Tickets now on sale!

We are delighted to announce our second season of talks, taking place in spring 2020!  (We are optimistically calling February, Spring!)   We were so happy with the response to the first season of talks and we really hope that folks will find something that they want to come to in this new series.

Kicking off the season, in February, we are delighted to welcome Alex Adamson with a talk entitled “Trial by Media”.  Alex, who is the author of 'Murder, Poaching and Lemonade: Crimes and Court Cases from Nineteenth Century West Lothian', will talk about the press reporting of crime during the 1800s. This was a period which saw many changes in Scottish society, the way in which crimes and criminal were perceived, and the ways in which they were punished. A study of newspaper accounts of court cases opens a window for us into the lives of our forebears and their changing attitudes to criminality.
This talk will talk place on Thursday 27th February at 2pm in the Museum Community room.  (Tickets for this talk can only be bought in person at the Museum Shop)

In March we are so excited to be welcoming Scott McMaster along to deliver a talk entitled: “The Outlaw King; how accurately did Hollywood portray Robert the Bruce?”  Scott was the Historical Advisor to the movie ‘The Outlaw King’ and is a Property Manager with the National Trust for Scotland. He will discuss how closely the recent film sticks to historical fact and what is was like to work with the director, cast and production team as Chief Historical Advisor. He’ll share some of the secrets of re-creating Scottish history on the big screen and display some of the props from the movie.  Some of the movie was filmed right here in Linlithgow so it will be great to hear Scott’s experiences.
His talk will take place on Friday March 20th at 7pm in St Peters Church. TIckets online here.

Quite literally back by popular demand in April is Dr Tom Brown, who will be reprising his massively popular talk; "Wombs, Witches and Wars - a history of psychosomatic illness through the ages." Tom is a retired Consultant Psychiatrist and this talk was a real highlight of 2019.  Many of you said you couldn’t get tickets the last time and wanted a repeat performance so we are delighted to oblige. 
Don’t miss your chance to hear this talk on the Friday 24th April at 7pm in St Peters Church. TIckets online here.

Also, back by popular demand, in May, is Linlithgow’s resident historian Bruce Jamieson. We are delighted to announce that Bruce will give part two of his talk on “Mary Stewart: Fact and Fiction.”   Don’t worry if you missed part one, Bruce will engage you with lots more fascinating stories about our towns most famous resident.  
This talk will take place on the 15th May at 7pm in St Peter’s Church. TIckets online here.

Entry to the talks are by ticket only and tickets for all talks cost £5 each (plus a 50p online booking fee).  Tickets include a cuppa and, you will be pleased to know, that we will be keeping up the high standard of biscuits we set in 2019!  All proceeds will go to the upkeep of our wonderful museum. 

Members booking is already open and early ticket sales suggest these will sell out again very quickly - so act now to secure your place! We’re looking forward to seeing you there. 

(If you’d like to become a member of the museum and get to book your tickets for any future talks a week early, pop in to the Museum and pick up a form or online here.)