#historical research #Trimontium Roman Fort Melrose #Scotland

Monday Moments! 

There may well be some memorable moments this Monday, but right now I'm writing about my fabulous trip last Friday to the... 

Trimontium Museum 5th Oct 2018

I could not have picked a better day to drive the roughly 180 miles down to Melrose on the Scottish Borders. The sky was almost uniformly blue all the way from Aberdeenshire (NE Scotland) down to Edinburgh. The traffic was fortunately light and I managed to negotiate the Edinburgh City Bypass, even though it was my first time on that particular stretch of road.

I had two route choices leading south to Melrose. The A7 was not the route Google Maps directed me on – Google Maps suggested the A68. I wasn’t too keen on the A68 because the map showed signs of two areas of major road works but it was less clear how to exit onto the A7.

I’m a map person with no GPS system in my car, so I prepared my journey with print outs and lovely little post-it notes with the routes marked in large letters, easy to read  along my dashboard without taking my eyes off the road for more than a second as I was driving.

Fortunately for me, the A7 was easy to access so I ventured south. I didn’t know till afterwards that the railway that was often to be seen at the side of the road was the newish Borders Railway line. The drive was stunning, the autumn colours absolutely breathtaking but sadly it is not a road where it is easily possible to stop and take photographs. Driving down through the endless valleys and hills was exactly what I needed to get a feel for the layout of the land since one of my main characters in Book 5 spends time in the area some 2000 years ago. The current trees and vegetation might be relatively newly planted but the actual contours of the valleys is mainly unchanged except for the fact that a paved road was carved into the area a long time ago, and latterly the new railway line.

My 4 hours estimate to drive to the small town of Melrose was pretty accurate. Having left my house at 8 a.m., I arrived at Melrose a little after midday. I found a local Baker’s shop with an integral coffee shop and spent a short while having lunch and a rest.

The main street in Melrose isn’t large so it was easy to find the Three Hills Ancient Roman Heritage Centre sometimes known as the Trimontium Trust Museum (Newstead). The actual Roman fort currently named Newstead (named Trimontium by the map maker Ptolemy) was situated a short way out of Melrose and was established by General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola, Commander of the Britannic legions and Governor of Britannia from C. A.D. 77-84. 

Agricola is a main character in Agricola's Bane , Book 4 of my historical fiction series and he will play an important role in Book 5 (work in progress and currently named Beathan the Brigante)   

Eildon Hills , Melrose (Trimontium) 

It’s almost easy to see why the Romans named it Trimontium - two of the three hills are backdrops visible from within the town of Melrose and from outside the town all three are a stunning and arresting geographical feature.

The Trimontium Parade chamfron (replica)
-Trimontium Trust Museum, Melrose 

The Museum is the old- fashioned kind that I love to visit. The relatively small space is jam packed with display information; glass cases; tightly packed reconstructions- the finds from the Newstead fort absolutely amazing. I personally am so glad that the Museum Trust was formed in the 1970s to ensure that some of the wonderful objects uncovered at Newstead remain on view in the area of Melrose. It was a huge undertaking to set up the original museum and remains the same as the Trust currently raises funds to pay for a new extension which will allow them to modernise (hopefully not too much) and display items that have been decades in storage.  

 

The bulk of the finds from Newstead Roman Fort are either on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh or in their main storage facility. I visited the National Museum of Scotland in June 2018 and was suitably impressed by the items excellently displayed there, in very modern museum style.

I took almost two hundred photographs which I need to process and label – expect to see a trickle of them since I cannot post all of them.

The whole experience of visiting the museum and of driving around the area was exactly what I needed for imagining Beathan (Book 5 of my Celtic Fervour Series) in the locality of Newstead in A.D 85.

Given time, look forward to further posts about the importance of  Trimontium Roman Fort! 

Slainthe!

#Aye. Ken it wis like this...with Wendy H Jones

Dunkeld Cathedral

It's Friday and "Aye. Ken it wis like this..." time again. 

Today, I welcome versatile author Wendy H. Jones who has come to this blog series with yet again something a little bit different. Wendy writes a very successful crime series for adults but she's here today to tell us about some of her work in other genres - historical novels for older children. The second book of the series The Haunted Broch has recently been launched.  

Welcome to the series, Wendy. Please give us the historical background to your recently published historical fantasy fiction for teens.  

Bringing History to Life for Children

Thank you for inviting me to join you on your blog, Nancy. It is an absolute honour and privilege to be here. I’m even more thrilled that I’m able to talk about three of my favourite subjects – crime writing, history and Scotland.

At first glance, I may not seem the ideal candidate for this historical fiction blog but let me explain. The first series I wrote, The DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries, was contemporary crime with only the odd hint of history. A little bit of ancient Greek salted with a liberal dose of Dundee through the ages. Yet, contemporary none-the-less.

This all changed when I was asked by a publisher to pitch a series of mysteries for ten-to-fourteen-year olds. This was my chance to have a bit of fun and I fully intended to do so. I wanted these books to be a rip-roaring adventure but with some history and learning thrown into the mix. I came up with the idea of mixing fact and fiction, using a contemporary mystery based on what could have been historical fact. It is fair to say that whilst much of the history is true to life, some of it has been embellished to allow the contemporary story to be developed.

Nancy says: That's very similar to my aims for my Rubidium Time Travel Series for teens. My adventure is paramount but with a sound historical backdrop that I want my readers to appreciate and enjoy as they learn. 

The first book in the series was based around the idea of Ancient Egyptian Curses. My research was thorough to ensure that the Kings and Queens fell into the correct era and that the names of any historical characters were correct. I also researched tombs, ancient artefacts and even the cost of buying these artefacts in contemporary society. Hieroglyphs were researched in detail and used as the basis for codes used in the contemporary mystery. I alternated chapters with the historical setting and the modern-day story. This led to a couple of teens saving Dundee from a curse which has been laid on Dundee following the theft of an ancient Egyptian Dagger. The dagger itself made an appearance at the book launch, fully sharpened and with its own personal security guard.

Broch of Gurness, Orkney - Wikimedia commons 

For the second book, The Haunted Broch, I moved nearer to home with the historical context. Not Dundee but Stirling in Scotland. Brochs, iron age, dry stane, round dwellings, are found only in Scotland. There are around 500 of these, some of which have been excavated and others which are still in the process of being excavated or can only be seen by x-ray. There is one Broch which has a particularly interesting history and is known as Scotland’s Lost Broch. It was recently discovered, and funds are being raised to commence excavation.

Nancy: There are so many new exciting archaeological developments happening all over Scotland just now. I try but can't possibly keep up with them! 

Christian Maclagan

Why is this Broch of so much interest and why was it lost in the first place? Both good questions deserving of an answer. The answer is a fiesty Victorian lady called Christian Maclagan (1811-1901). Coming from a wealthy family she was a woman of independent means and is widely credited with being Scotland’s first female archaeologist. She catalogued many of the prehistoric sites of prehistoric Scotland and also devised a method of doing rubbings from sculptured stones. Due to the fact she was a woman, the establishment refused to take her seriously. She was refused Fellowship of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Therefore, in what I assume was a fit of pique, she sent all her documents and rubbings to The British Museum of London. One of her major discoveries, Livilands Broch in Stirling, was overlooked and remained undiscovered. This became known in the last few years as Scotland’s Lost Broch.

Keir Hill by Christian Maclagan

Christian was also a great philanthropist and played a major part of clearing the slums in Stirling and providing habitable housing for the poor. This, and her interest in archaeology, helped me to shape her character in the historical sections of the novel. The Book itself finds our intrepid fourteen-year-old detectives on an archaeological dig at Scotland’s Lost Broch. However, like all good detective books there are dastardly deeds and strange happenings. One would almost think the Broch was haunted. Is Christian exacting revenge on those who dare to disturb her Broch?

This was so much fun to research, and it was even more fun to weave the contemporary mystery with the historical facts in a way which educates whilst entertaining. It is such a privilege to be able to write these books and to weave fact and fiction together in one big madcap adventure.

About the Author

Wendy H Jones is the Amazon Number 1 best-selling author of the award winning DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries. Her Young Adult Mystery, The Dagger’s Curse was a finalist in the Woman Alive Readers’ Choice Award. She is also The President of the Scottish Association of Writers, an international public speaker, and runs conferences and workshops on writing, motivation and marketing. Wendy is the founder of Crime at the Castle, Scotland’s newest Crime Festival. She is the editor of a Lent Book, published by the Association of Christian Writers and also the editor of the forthcoming Christmas Anthology from the same publisher. Her first children's book, Bertie the Buffalo, will be released at the end of October 2018. 

Website

Amazon Author Page

Twitter 

Facebook

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broch_of_Gurness_09.jpg / others public domain images

Thank you so much for contributing today, Wendy. It's so great to feature yet another aspect of historical fiction. Best wishes with all of those exciting new projects. 

Slainthe! 

#TuesdayThoughts

Tuesday thoughts...on Amazon pricing

I transferred the printing of a number of my paperback versions from Createspace over to Kindle Direct Publishing on Sunday past, as requested. The process seemed to go easily, and I thought I had successfully managed to ensure that the ebook version and the paperback version of each title appeared on the appropriate page as one item.

Just by chance, I looked at Amazon again today to find it's a bit of a BARGAIN day, Instead of my new Ocelot Press paperback versions showing, it seems they must have 'found' some of the previous edition paperback copies and are flogging them off at very cheap prices even though the previous Crooked Cat Books stock seemed to have been sold weeks, if not months, ago.

So its... Bargain prices today!

A Paperback version of Book 3 is  @£1.52

and weirdly the ebook version is also @£1.52

There just might be an old copy of The Beltane Choice going for even less than a £!

Try this and see... https://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Whorl-Donning-Double-Cloaks/dp/1909841579/

And here's a latest version of my Twitter add for the series. Especially good if you're on KindleUnlimited since you can read it for #FREE.

Slainthe!