March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 threadinburgh

The thread about the execution of John Young, the soldier turned forger who refused to give up on life and met a farcical end on the gallows

January 6, 2023January 10, 2023 threadinburgh

The thread about the Edinburgh Hostels for Women Students and their brief wartime role as an Internment Camp for German “Enemy Aliens”

December 5, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about the wealthy inventor, the Bard, the first steamboat, the paddle-powered Georgian warship, the Kings of Denmark and Sweden and what any of this has to do with turnips

December 4, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about an old gravestone in Leith, the King’s Botanist, a bungled attempt to capture Edinburgh Castle for the Jacobites and a death by “surfeit of figs”

November 24, 2022November 25, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about Leith Fort; why and where it was built, what it was armed with and why it soon had to be abandoned as a defensive position

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about the air raids on Edinburgh and Leith during WW2 and the civilian loss of life they caused

November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about a curious hole in a wall, its former life as part of the Leith Naval Yard and what it has to do with “Mons Meg”

November 6, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about the brief life of the Dalmuir aero industry; when Clyde shipbuilders constructed the largest aircraft in the world

October 28, 2022October 29, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about Portobello’s Marine Gardens in WW2; when an old seaside ballroom was converted into a bus garage before being turned into a factory for building landing craft

October 17, 2022 threadinburgh

The thread about the Scottish industrialist, the sleepy Ayrshire village, the Spanish aristocrat and groundbreaking work on rotary-winged flight