Twitter account of Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group. Also on insta /scottish_vernacular_building . Est in 1972. #SVBWG banner photo: Inverey Braemar
We are very sorry to report that our recent chair, Prof Niall Logan, died on 3 October. #SVBWG is in his debt for the big reboot he gave us. Photo from our work party recording #EastLothian’s #Innerwick corrugated-iron village hall this weekend. @VArchGroup
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Culross - what a wonderful place to visit on the final day of the VAG Spring Conference. Vernacular surprises around every corner (even on a rainy day)!
ALT Window with shutters in Culross.
ALT View of rooftops in Culross.
ALT Culross Palace.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
A castle, a long house, a tin tabernacle and a historic library and chapel - a wonderful variety of buildings for day two of the VAG Spring Conference in Stirling!
ALT Castle Menzies.
ALT Moirlanich longhouse.
ALT Scottish Episcopal Church, Killin.
ALT Innerpeffray Library and Chapel.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Just published in the Georgian Group Journal (2026) - Mylne's Land - Scotland's first modern tenement ? The story of a stone tenement in Leith designed by Robert Mylne (1633-1710), Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland, in 1678.
It survived until 1955.
SVBWG exploring Culross and the origins of building conservation in Scotland, the Little Houses Scheme led by Ian Lindsay (interpreted by his disciple James Simpson) and @N_T_S
ALT People examine a house in Culross.
ALT People in front of harled and pantiled houses on a stone street surface.
ALT View from above of Culross and its ‘Palace’ in yellow, a pier and sea water.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Now out, the SVBWG journal Vernacular Building 48 covers the rethatch of 12 Lower Ardelve in Lochalsh, other vernacular materials like brick, wanton walls, underground waterwheels and healing stones. Join us!
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Join our archivists for a Maps Festival with @NatLibScot at Causewayside tomorrow.
We nominated this plan from our collection for a “Battle of the Maps”: gardens in Alloa, designed by the Earl of Mar.
Find out more 👉nls.uk/whats-on/map-festival…
ALT A design for improvements to the policies at Alloa drawn by the Earl of Mar, who led the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. Influenced by French taste, Mar drew up an elaborate design for a house with a lake and cascade in the grounds. It included an impressive avenue leading to the house, formal gardens, woodland and walks, as well as a kitchen garden and fruit garden. Horse chestnuts and orange trees were to be planted. The vistas from the garden walks were to historical features like Clackmannan Tower.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Please RT! As editor of the online 'Review of Scottish Culture', I'd like to invite submissions to the '26 issue. Submissions at: journals.ed.ac.uk/rosc/about…
If you have questions, please feel free to email me directly: valentina.bold@edinburgh.ac.uk. Thank you.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
#ThatchThursday - Looking for #WaterReed Supplies?
Our friends at Tay Reed have Water Reed for sale, get in touch with them if you are looking for some UK material.
bit.ly/Tayreed
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
New year, new case studies for the North UK Mills Group!
Join us January 20th to hear from Finzean Bucket Mill CIC on the technical challenges and opportunities facing them as they try to bring a unique A-listed Scottish sawmill back to life.
Book now: buff.ly/oSjqHuB
ALT A photograph of a wooden waterwheel, situated against the side of a stone and corrugated metal building, surrounded by overgrown bracken and other greenery.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Repairing or operating a historic mill? Join the discussion at the next North UK Mills Group meeting as we hear from Finzean Bucket Mill CIC on the technical challenges involved in their journey to repair and operate a unique A-listed sawmill.
Book now: buff.ly/oSjqHuB
ALT Finzean Bucket Mill, a wooden building with a metal corrugated roof. There is a pile of timbre in the foreground.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Calling all Interpretation Consultants!
Our members Birse Community Trust are out to tender for a Digital Interpretation Consultant for their exciting Ballogie Souter's (shoemaker's) shop.
You can find the full details on our website.
buff.ly/cYT22CJ#HeritageJobs
ALT A photograph of the interior of the shop. It's a time capsule space full of original boxes and tools.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
The 2025 Review of Scottish Culture includes an insightful
piece by Petra Johana Poncarová
showing how Ruaraidh Erskine's early 20th century Gaelic magazines engaged with amount of Gaelic folklore and traditions, with lasting impact:
journals.ed.ac.uk/rosc/artic…@bordnagaidhlig
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Next weekend is a big one for Provan Hall - first up is our Winter Garden Gathering on Saturday the 29th, then it's our Caledonian Craft Fair on the 30th. Both events are free and run from 11:00-15:00 - find out more on our Eventbrite listings. See you there!
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
The new issue of Review of Scottish Culture is ethnologically erudite, engaging and definitely eclectic!
First up: Stephen Miller explores W.G. Black’s coinage of the term folk medicine in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association in 1878:
journals.ed.ac.uk/rosc/artic…
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
The superb Skye Museum of Island Life, near the tip of the Isle of Skye's Trotternish peninsula, gives an insight into a way of life common on Skye at the close of the 1800s but which has since virtually disappeared. More pics and info: undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/s…
ALT The Skye Museum of Island Life. The image shows two thatched stone single-storey buildings with a green and red cart in the left foreground that has a large barrel mounted on it. Other parts of green or red farming implements are visible bottom left and in the right middle of the frame. The scene is in sunlight.
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Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group retweeted
Interested in a free place at the VAG Winter Conference? The topic is 'Vernacular buildings in urban contexts: the study of urban building types and integration with urban studies', 10-11 Jan 2026 in Nottingham. Bursaries are available - more info at vag.org.uk/conferences.htm.