Welcome to the Drymen and District Local History Society's website. Set up a bookmark and watch our developments!
Drymen is a small village in the west of Scotland forming the gateway to east Loch Lomond. Our Society was established on 7 October 1982 amid dark predictions from sceptical local worthies that it would not last! However, we are still here, with a good membership, and our programme for winter programme for 2009/10 has been arranged. This will start on 24 September 2009 when David Brown will give an illustrated talk "Coaching against the Railway: a tale of stagecoaches and trains"". A further five invited speakers have been booked and our ever popular "Members' Evening" will take place on 28 January 2010.
We invite those of you within reach to join us at our meetings in the coming season on the fourth Thursday of each month in Drymen Village Hall. Meetings are open to non-members (at a cost of £2.00 per meeting) but we hope you will want to join the Society and get in free. Subscription is £5.00 for a full year starting in September. A map showing the location of the Village Hall can be obtained by clicking here. Do return to our site after looking at the map!
25th Anniversary
2007 was the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Society. In celebration we held a 25th Anniversary Dinner on Friday 9th November in the Winnock Hotel.
We also marked this 25th year in another way as the Duke of Montrose agreed to become our Patron. He and the Duchess were our guests at the 25th Anniversary Dinner. The Duke has always had a great interest in local history and spoke to the Society in our 1984/5 season at a meeting on Buchanan Castle when we had our best ever attendance! He also wrote a preface for our first publication, "A Millennium Account of Drymen & District", in 2000.
The aims and activities of the Society include :-
In most recent years we have organised summer trips to sites of historical interest in the area. In 2002 we visited a number of the local Brochs led by Irwin Campbell whose practical knowledge of dry stone construction was invaluable. In 2003 we visited a number of abandoned settlements on Forest Enterprise land recently revealed by tree felling work. Our 2004 trip looked at much older history - the last ice age in the area and the associated classic geomorphology interpreted for us by David Evans. In 2006 Irwin Campbell was again be our guide when we visited Scotland's newest Broch in Strathyre. Irwin, who was the inspiration behind the project, explained the methods he used to construct the part Broch. The 2007 trip was to the Crannog Centre at Loch Tay. In addition to seeing the crannog reconstruction we had a facinating talk on the archaeology of Loch Tay crannogs and demonstrations of various iron age skills. In 2008 we had a conducted tour round our local distillery at Dumgoyne, the most southerly highland malt distillery.
An archive has been established in Drymen library and is continually expanding and we now have a comprehensive index which is available in the library. Contents include a number of papers prepared by members in accordance with point 3 above. The Society is willing to assist others in historical research work related to the Drymen district (time permitting!!) and in particular in giving access to the archive material where practicable.
In 2000 the Society produced "A Millennium Account of Drymen & District". A series of 11 papers by a number of different authors on various aspects of the history of Drymen and the surrounding district. The book, running to over 160 pages in A4 format with a card cover, is available for £9 from committee members or from Drymen Library. More details are available on the "Millennium Project" page.
New Papers
As a continuation of the Millennium Project the Society intended to publish further papers on new subjects. Eight such papers have now been produced. Details of all are available on the "Millennium Project" page.
The papers are available from the Drymen Library (or from the Society) at a cost of £2 to £4 per copy.