19 October 2017

At this meeting George Robertson presented “The Lost Village of Lassodie”, the talk originally scheduled for next April, due to the unexpected unavailablity of our advertised speaker.

We were delighted that George was able to present his excellent and informative talk at such short notice. More information about Lassodie is available in Georges articles “The Lost Village of Lassodie” and “A Childhood in Lassodie“.

As usual, we meet at The Abbey Church Halls, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline, at 7:30 pm on the third Thursday of the month. We look forward to welcoming visitors and members to the second meeting of the session.

Our next meeting is the 2016/17 AGM. It will take place on Thursday 18th May, at 7:30 pm in the Abbey Church Hall, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline, and will be followed by “Thirty Years of Fife Constabulary” by George Beattie.

George is an old friend of the society and contributes regularly to our web-site. He is also a good friend and former colleague of George Robertson, so is an ideal guest speaker for this month, as it will be George’s final meeting as Chairman. His talk will, I’m sure,  be very entertaining as well as informative.

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 20 April, at 7:30 pm in the Abbey Church Hall, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline.

Morna Fleming will speak on “Robert Henryson, Dunfermline’s Medieval Poet”.

Dr Fleming first developed her interest in Scottish Literature through Glasgow University’s innovative M.Phil distance-taught course. She went on to undertake a Ph.D by research into the poetry of the court of James VI and I, examining the impact of the Union of the Crowns on the lyric poetry of the Scottish poets of the period. She has published widely on the poetry of James VI/I and his coterie, and is a frequent conference speaker on various topics, increasingly the poetry of Robert Henryson.

She has been the Secretary of the Robert Henryson Society in Dunfermline for many years, and is looking forward to seeing the promotion of the poet in the new Library and Art Gallery.

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 16th March at 7:30 pm in the Abbey Church Halls, as usual.

Prof. David Munro MBE will present “The History of Lochore Castle”.

Currently Heritage Advisor to the Duke of Buccleuch, David is a geographical consultant with a special interest in conservation and landscape studies. As a Research Fellow in the 1980s and 1990s he led Edinburgh University expeditions to the tropical forests of Central America and compiled a number of geographical texts including Chambers World Gazetteer and the Oxford Dictionary of the World. He later co-authored Scotland – An Encyclopedia of Places and Landscapes and in 1996 was appointed Director of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, a post he held for 12 years. A frequent lecturer on cruise ships, David Munro talks on subjects ranging from landscapes and place-names to exploration and travel.

David lives in Kinnesswood and as Chairman of the Kinross (Marshall) Museum, he has been involved with the Heritage Lottery-funded Living Lomonds Landscape Partnership programme which included an archaeological ‘Big Dig’ at Lochore Castle, the subject of his talk this evening.