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You’d be forgiven for looking askance when you read that Dunbar Castle was once one of the most powerful and important castles in Scotland.

Breaking out the board games on a rainy day? From Roman soldiers to medieval nobles, noughts and crosses to chess, expert Mark Hall explains how people in Scotland have been gaming for over a thousand years.

Human use of the mountain and upland landscapes of Scotland is nearly as old as evidence for human use of Scotland as a whole. However, our ability to understand exactly what people were doing in mountain landscapes in early prehistory is constrained by the difficulty of finding sites.

Archaeologists and volunteers unearth astonishing finds across the country each year and 2019 was no exception.

In the 21st-century, it is sometimes hard to imagine the enormous effect that the various religious houses had on life (and death) in medieval Scotland. [NOTE: Article contains images of human remains]

Curling irons and straighteners may be relatively modern inventions, but people have been taming their tresses for thousands of years. Archaeology can tell us more about how they liked to style their hair, while the strands themselves can help unlock their lifestyles.

From the earliest days of Christianity in Scotland, bishops were among the most powerful men in the land.

A “Viking drinking hall” and bloodstone blade are among the most intriguing finds from the summer.