Welcome to the collection of open access e-books about Scotland's past published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland thanks to the support of our Fellows.

Browse our Catalogue to see all our e-books, or search by time period using the Categories on the right-hand side of the screen.

 

Spotlights

  • Rhynie, A Powerful Place of Pictland: The development of a landscape of Pictish royal power from the Roman to the early medieval period

    Rhynie, A Powerful Place of Pictland: The development of a landscape of Pictish royal power from the Roman to the early medieval period

    Spotlight

    Offering a transformative reassessment of power, settlement and material culture in Late Roman Iron Age and early medieval northern Britain, this volume provides the first comprehensive analysis of a Pictish central place complex. Integrating artefactual, environmental, stratigraphic and scientific datasets, it explores themes of rulership, cult and connectivity between northern Pictland and the wider European world. 

    Read More
  • The Archaeology of Finlaggan, Islay: Excavations at the Centre of the Lordship of the Isles, 1989–1998

    The Archaeology of Finlaggan, Islay: Excavations at the Centre of the Lordship of the Isles, 1989–1998

    Spotlight

    Finlaggan on Islay has long been recognised as an important medieval site; the centre from which the MacDonald Lords of the Isles exercised control and patronage over large areas of Scotland. This major archaeological project undertaken from 1989 to 1998 led to a better understanding of how the Lords of the Isles created a Gaelic state and how Finlaggan contributed to the culture and heritage of Scotland. 

    Read More
  • Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness: Changing Ideologies in North-East Scotland, Sixth to Sixteenth Century AD

    Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness

    Spotlight

    Portmahomack on the Tarbat peninsula overlooking the Dornoch Firth is a fishing village with a 1,500-year-old history. Rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1980s, from 1994 to 2007 the site at Portmahomack saw one of the largest research excavations to have taken place in Scotland

    Read More

Featured

Rhynie, A Powerful Place of Pictland: The development of a landscape of Pictish royal power from the Roman to the early medieval period

Gordon Noble (Author); Lucy Koster, Daniel MacLean, Ingrid Mainland, Fiona McGibbon, Ellen McManus, Sesilia Niehaus, Marc Oxenham, Shalen Prado, Susan Ramsay, Ermine Roshem, Alison Sheridan, Andreas Rau, Andy Hickie, Hamish Fenton, Samantha Jones, Fraser Hunter, Derek Hamilton (Contributor); Gemma Cruikshanks, Nicholas Evans, Meggen Gondek, Cathy MacIvor, Edouard Masson-MacLean, James O'Driscoll, Simon Taylor (Chapter Author); Kate Britton, Ewan Campbell, Orsolya Czére, Mary Davis, Leanne Demay, Jovita Fawcett, James Gerrard, Joana Valdez-Tullet (Contributor)
March 23, 2026

The Archaeology of Finlaggan, Islay: Excavations at the Centre of the Lordship of the Isles, 1989–1998

David Caldwell (Author); Kath McSweeney, Roger McWee, N Milner, Nicola Murray, Norman Newton, Marion O’Neil, Leonie Paterson, Alan Radley, Nigel Ruckley, Alan Saville, Paul Sharman, Helen Spencer, David Stewart, Jonathan Triscott, Clive Warsop, E M Laurie, Fraser Hunter, Fiona Baker, Sheila Boardman, Chris Burgess, Ruby Ceron-Carrasco, John Chesher, David Connolly, Trevor Cowie, Michael Cressey, Jo Dawson, Valerie Dean, Gordon Ewart, Mark Hall, Karen Hardy, Judy Holmes, Nicholas Holmes, Paul Wilthew (Contributor)
September 17, 2025

Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness: Changing Ideologies in North-East Scotland, Sixth to Sixteenth Century AD

Martin Carver, Justin Garner-Lahire, Cecily Spall (Author)
June 28, 2019

Culduthel: An Iron Age Craftworking Centre in North-East Scotland

Candy Hatherley, Ross Murray (Author); Torben Bjarke Ballin, Hillary E M Cool, Mary Davis, David Dungworth, Rob Ellam, Ian Freestone, Sarah-Jane Haston, Nick Holmes, Fraser Hunter, Susanna Kirk, Ann MacSween, Fiona McGibbon, Dawn McLaren, Abby Mynett, Gillian Paget, Daniel Sahlén, Jim Tate, Scott Timpany, Colin Wallace (Contributor)
February 18, 2022

New Releases

A Cromwellian Warship wrecked off Duart Castle, Mull, Scotland, in 1653

Colin J M Martin (Author); James H Barrett, David Bate, Sue Black, Darren Cox, George Dalgleish, Peter Spencer Davies, Peter Ditchfield, Glenn Foard, Headland Archaeology Ltd, David Lamb, Ian MacLeod, John McManus, Wolfram Meier-Augenstein, Rachel L Parks, Andrew Ramsay, Janet Shelley, Theo Skinner, Catherine Smith, Lore Troalen (Contributor)
August 15, 2025

On the Fringe of Neolithic Europe: Excavation of a Chambered Cairn on the Holm of Papa Westray, Orkney

Anna Ritchie (Author); Patrick Ashmore, Marie Balasse, R Barnett, Don Brothwell, M Collins, Thomas Cucchi, Keith Dobney, Jennifer Harland, Mary Harman, Audrey Henshall, Frances Lee, Monika Maleszka-Ritchie, Rachel Parks, Mike Richards, J Searle, M Shafer, Rick Schulting, Anne Tresset, David F Williams, C C Wright (Contributor)
January 19, 2024

The Moon and the Bonfire: An Investigation of Three Stone Circles in North-East Scotland

Richard Bradley (Author); Tim Phillips, Alison Sheridan, Angela Boyle, Stephen Lancaster, Donald Davidson, Ian Simpson, Brian Matthews, Peter Brewer, Sharon Arrowsmith, Chris Ball, Catherine Chisham, Petra Dark, Donald Davidson, Stephen Lancaster (Contributor); Ian Simpson; David Trevarthen (Contributor)
December 15, 2023

The Traprain Law Environs Project: Fieldwork and Excavations 2000–2004

Colin Haselgrove (Author); Peter Carne, David C Cowley, Duncan Hale, Leon Fitts, Derek Hamilton, Fraser Hunter, Jacqui Huntley, Pamela Lowther, Kevin H J Macleod, Ann MacSween, Charlotte O'Brien, Anwen Caffell, Phil Clogg, Louisa Gidney, Charlotte Henderson, Dave Heslop, Cath McGill, Jennifer Jones, Jason Mole, Jennifer Price, Alison Sheridan, John Thomas, Steven Willis (Contributor)
May 26, 2023

The Antiquarian Rediscovery of the Antonine Wall

Lawrence Keppie (Author)
April 28, 2023

Rhum: Mesolithic and Later Sites at Kinloch, Excavations 1984–86

Caroline R Wickham-Jones (Author)
November 11, 2022