Fifteen of the medieval burghs of the South West Scotland region have had a Scottish Burgh Survey published between 1977 and 2010 across three series. These surveys, funded by Historic Scotland (now Historic Environment Scotland), were subtitled ‘the archaeological implications of development’ (1st and 2nd series) and then ‘archaeology and development’ (3rd series). The Scottish Burgh Survey was designed to provide reliable information to help manage the archaeology and historic environment of Scotland’s urban centres. As such they summarised the known historical development of each burgh alongside the archaeological research that had been conducted.
Trove holds open access versions of these publications and the volumes are commonly held by local history sections of Local Authority libraries.
1st Series
Historic Ayr (1977) Goulay, R and Turner, A
Historic Dumfries (1977) Goulay, R and Turner, A
Historic Kirkcudbright (1978) Goulay, R and Turner, A
Historic Irvine (1980) Simpson, AT and Stevenson, S
Historic Lochmaben (1980) Simpson, AT and Stevenson, S
Historic Annan (1981) Simpson, AT and Stevenson, S
Historic Kilmarnock (1981) Simpson, AT and Stevenson, S
Historic Kilwinning (1981) Simpson, AT and Stevenson, S
Historic Wigtown (1981) Simpson, AT and Stevenson, S
2nd Series
Historic Cumnock (1995) Torrie, EPD and Coleman, R
Historic Stranraer (1995) Torrie, EPD and Coleman, R
3rd Series
Historic Mauchline (2005) Dennison, EP, Gallagher, D and Ewart, G
Historic Maybole (2005) Dennison, EP, Gallagher, D and Ewart, G
Historic Whithorn (2010) Oram, RD, Martin, PF, McKean, C and Neighbour, T
Historic Wigtown (2010) Oram, RD, Martin, PF, McKean, C and Anderson, S
Reviews and Analysis of the Burgh Survey
A review of the 1st series of the Scottish Burgh Survey that explores these reports in an attempt to assess their value and contribution to the study of medieval towns was published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland Murray, JC (1983) ‘The Scottish Burgh Survey – a review’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 113, 1-10.
After the 2nd series, a conference on change in historic towns was held in Edinburgh. The Council for British Archaeology Research Report 122 presents the papers from the conference Conservation and change in historic towns, research directions for the future (1999) Dennison EP (ed) and includes two papers that discuss the purposes, methodologies and progress of the Scottish Burgh Survey project from a historical (Paper 8) and archaeological (Paper 9) perspective.
Within a 2002 review of the state of Scottish archaeology in the journal Antiquity there was a synopsis of the survey and its impact. The paper – Owen, O (2002) ‘Sound foundations: archaeology in Scotland’s towns and cities and the role of the Scottish Burgh Survey’, Antiquity Vol 76, No. 293, is not open access.
A paper in the journal Architectural Heritage describes how the 3rd series team carried out their surveys of Fraserburgh, Tain, Whithorn and Wigtown with examples of the distinctive history, architecture and character of two of the burghs, Fraserburgh and Wigtown. The paper – Martin, P (2008) ‘The Scottish Burgh Survey Case-Studies: Fraserburgh and Wigtown’, Architectural Heritage Vol 19, pp 12-28 is not open access.