Jewels of the Forth - Ian Archibald

 Ian Archibald is the Convenor of the Burntisland Heritage Trust.

President Theresa introduced him and used her Quote of the Evening from Albert Einstein.

“Somewhere there is an Island of the wise and goodwill” to introduce his illustrated talk on The Jewels of the Forth.

Ian explained that although there were many, many islands on the Forth, some were only visible at low tide and that his presentation would focus on the history and development of the 10, or so Largest Islands.

He spoke and was well supported by illustrations, maps and Photos of the life in the estuary and the islands of Bass Rock, Isle of May, Inchkeith,  Inchcolm, Craigleith, Lamb, Fidra, Cramond, Inchmickery and Inchgarvie.

Almost all have seen similar development from the beginning of Christianity with Monks and Chapels, through, sea defense installations for the Jacobite, WW1 and WW2 wars, isolation islands for the Plague, to the construction of lighthouses and currently many are now famous bird sanctuarys.

His talk was well presented and his detailed  knowledge of each of the islands impressed us all.

Further information on this subject and other interesting aspects of the estuary can be had by visiting the Burntisland Heritage web pages and in this there is a link to Ian if anyone wanted to follow up on his presentation.

Lindsay gave a very warm and appreciative VOT which was supported by all present.