Aberfeldy Books
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Highland
Reflections by Donald Fraser, local Aberfeldy resident.
Donald Fraser’s book Highland Reflections is a fascinating insight into a lifetime spent
in and around forestry. It is also an account of life in the Highlands, and offers a very personal
reflection on the often radical changes seen and experienced by that society over recent generations.
The Blue Moon Book by Anne MacLeod, born in Aberfeldy.
Love can leave you breathless, lost for words. Jess Kavanagh knows. Doesn’t know. Twenty
four hours after meeting and falling for archaeologist and Pictish expert Michael Hurt she suffers
a horrific accident that leaves her with aphasia and amnesia. No words. No memory of love.
Michael travels south, unknowing. It is her estranged partner sports journalist Dan MacKie who is at the bedside when Jess finally regains consciousness. Dan, forced to review their shared past, is disconcerted by Jess’s fear of him, by her loss of memory, loss of words.
Will their relationship survive this test? Should it survive? Will Michael find Jess again? In this absorbing contemporary novel, Anne MacLeod interweaves themes of language, love and loss in patterns as intricate, as haunting as the Pictish Stones.
The Dark Ship by Anne MacLeod, born in Aberfeldy. This saga spans three generations on the Isle of Lewis and has at its heart the story of the sinking of the Iolaire in 1919. The ship was bringing troops back from WWI and sank on its entry to Stornoway Harbour, with most on board perishing.
The Black Watch: A Concise History (Hardcover) by Trevor Royle. The Black Watch was formed at Aberfeldy in Perthshire in the early eighteenth century as an independent security force, or 'watch', to guard the approaches to the lawless areas of the Scottish Highlands. Instantly recognisable due to the famous red hackle cap badge and the traditional dark blue and green government tartan kilt from which it got its name, The Black Watch was renowned as one of the great fighting regiments of the British Army and served with distinction in all major conflicts from the War of Austrian Succession onwards.
In a highly controversial move, the regiment served under the operational control of the US Army during the counter-insurgency war in Iraq in December 2004. The Black Watch prided itself on being a 'family regiment', with sons following fathers into its ranks, and this new concise history reflects the strong sense of identity which was created over the centuries. In 2006, as part of a radical review of the country's defence policy, The Black Watch was amalgamated into the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. This new account of the famous regiment is therefore a timely memorial to its long and distinguished history.
Black Watch (Black Watch Photography Archive) (Hardcover) by The Black Watch Photographic Archive. The Black Watch Regimental Archives contain many thousands of photographs graphically illustrating the history of this famous Highland regiment since the first images were recorded some 150 years ago. Over two hundred of these pictures have been selected for this volume to represent different aspects of regimental life both home and abroad, in peace and at war.
From the days when the infantry still practised forming squares to the hand over of Hong Kong, the last significant remnant of the Empire, in 1997, this collection provides a fascinating insight into the activities of the Regiment. Naturally, many of the Regiment's great heroes and characters appear in these pictures but so do many other famous people, members of the royal family, Presidents of the United States of America and other heads of state. The collection of photographs also covers the Territorial battalions of the Black Watch from their early days as Rifle Volunteers through the two World Wars during which they won such renown for the Regiment.
Black Watch: The Inside Story of the Oldest Highland Regiment in the British Army (Hardcover)
by John Parker.
The Black Watch is one of the finest fighting forces in the world and has been engaged in virtually every worldwide conflict for the last three centuries. Named after the dark tartan of the soldiers' kilts, its unique formation - raised from loyal Scottish clans in the wake of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion - make it the oldest Highland regiment.
As part of the British army, their first battle abroad was in Flanders in 1745 but the regiment soon moved to North America to fight the French, and then shared the capture of Montreal, the Windward Islands and Martinique. The American War of Independence saw the regiment once again in America, fighting horrific battles and eventually storming Fort Washington in 1776.
Since then the regiment has held its own from Egypt to the Napoleonic Wars, from the Crimea to the Indian mutiny, from both World Wars to Iraq. The Black Watch is the UK's most decorated regiment, combining the proud history and tradition of an organisation that has been soldiering for over 250 years.
To War with the Black Watch (Paperback)
by Gian Gaspare Napolitano.
First published in an Italian-language anti-fascist newspaper in Switerland in 1944, this remarkable book tells the story of Lieutenant Pinto, appointed Italian liaison officer to the Scottish Black Watch. Based on the author's own experiences as a Black Watch liaison officer, "To War with the Black Watch" is a sharp, witty and moving insight into Scots-Italian relations in the latter part of the Second World War. 
Perthshire and Kinross-shire's Lost Railways (Paperback)by Gordon Stansfield. As well as information on the counties' railway system before the Beeching era, this book contains fifty-two rare photographs of stations at locations including Killin, Aberfeldy, Blairgowrie, Aberfoyle, Meigle, Lochearnhead, St Fillans, Bankfoot, Bridge of Earn and Crieff.
Atholl Glens: A Personal Survey of the Atholl Glens for Mountainbikers and Walkers (Scottish Glens) by Peter D.Koch- Osborne. The aim in this series of books is to provide the mountainbiker and walker with information on a variety of routes so they know something of what to expect. One of the problems is that O.S. maps give no indication as to whether an 'other road' is metalled, a path or a forest fire break, or anything in between. Many bridges shown on O.S. maps do not exist. Rivers are difficult to judge in size from the map, and a building may be anything from a pile of stones to a maintained bothy. All is revealed without removing the sense of adventure and exploration. Gradient profiles help to assess how strenuous a route is, and each hand-drawn page contains a wealth of information. The object is to save wasted leisure time and enable the armchair explorer to plan ahead or relive experiences. "The Atholl Glens" includes: The Glens East of Drumochter, Glen Tilt to Cairnwell, and Aberfeldy to Dunkeld.
In
Famed Breadalbane
By Rev. William A. Gillies
This is a history of a district of the Grampian Mountains in western Perthshire, bordered by Lochaber and Atholl on the north and Strathearn and Menteith on the south.