This MAD evening will be at Strathpeffer Community Centre, see here for Google Map directions. It will be open to the public, with a specific invitation to ARCH members, at an entrance fee for non NOSAS members of £2. 

The 12th to 13th centuries saw major development in urban living around the margins of the Moray Firth. Driven by Royal charters from Alexander I and David  I, new burghs were formed from Banff to Dingwall (1150-1250). These provided foci of mercantile activity, new people coming in to the area to be burghers, and new sources of tax income for the crown. 

The talk will consider this extraordinary change in Highland life, the manner in which the Burghs were constructed, and the life inside a Burgh. You will never look at a Burgh high street the same again!

John Barrett lives in Moray, and is a professional archivist, archaeologist and independent historical researcher. He has worked on various aspects of Northeast history and landscape including: seventeenth-century religious conflict; agriculture and society in the age of improvement; and burgh foundation and political change in the twelfth century.