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Life, letters and low tide in Shetland: Valda and MacDiarmid

Letters between Valda Trevlyn Grieve and her husband, poet Hugh MacDiarmid, shine a light on a story of hardship, creativity, and devotion.

Christopher and Valda Grieve standing facing each other in a field on Shetland.

Bearing and begetting

Inspired by a Gaelic poem in our collections, author Mairi Kidd has written her own fictional account of the origins of the poem.

A painting of a person riding a horse towards a group of people.

A Jacobite abroad: Queer lives in the archives

A Jacobite’s archive reveals hidden traces of James Byres and Christopher Norton’s queer partnership across exile, art and silence.

A colourful illustration of two eighteenth‑century figures reclining on a hillside, reaching toward each other across scattered artworks and objects, with floral patterns in the foreground and rolling hills and statues in the background.

The last letter of Mary, Queen of Scots

Read about the emotional farewell from a queen who claimed martyrdom and a rightful crown.

Close-up of Mary's last letter, written in French and showing her signature.

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George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

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Maps at Causewayside, Edinburgh

Visit the Maps Reading Room in our Causewayside building in Edinburgh to access our extensive maps collection.

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Kelvin Hall, Glasgow

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