Researching family histories in Scotland brings you into close contact with the history of the people right across Scotland. Not the history of the monarchy or the history of the nobility but the history of the ordinary person in the street, on the farm or even on the battlefield.
There are many well-researched books covering the history of all parts of Scotland and its people. However the accessibility of Youtube has much to recommend it in my opinion. Although there is rumoured to be some 6 billion videos on Youtube, its very easy to be selective.
Here is my GO TO selection of Youtube channels which give me a fix on Scottish history.
https://www.youtube.com/@ScotlandHistoryTours Bruce Fummey is a Scottish professional comedian whose comedy centres on the unlikely source material of Scottish History. He has made a large number of entertaining and engaging videos covering widely varying aspects of Scottish history. With reference to the areas in the south of Scotland where a lot of my own family history research is based, he has produced a number of videos on the Border Reivers, the Covenanters and the Galloway Levellers. Bruce also periodically leads multi-day luxury tours of Scotland focusing on a particular aspect of Scottish history.
https://www.youtube.com/@ClanBroonford Tony’s style is to walk around modern Edinburgh’s streets, walls and closes and show you the evidence that remains from fascinating chapters in the city’s history. In fairly recent genealogy research that I undertook for a client, I found evidence that a family member had operated a bookshop right next to the Edinburgh City Chambers in the 19th century. At the time I was puzzled about where that might have been. From a ClanBroonford video that I watched today, I learned for the first time that there had been a row of shops under the arches in front of the Chambers. Fascinating!
https://www.youtube.com/@MarkNicol123 Mark is very passionate about the Scottish Borders and this is obvious in the many videos he has produced often with a dramatic twist on lesser known corners, castles and stories. He often conducts his own research.
On such a huge platform as Youtube there is clearly much of lesser interest and quality but I am delighted to have found these three channels to get my regular history fix. I would encourage you to see what you can find to do the same. Let me know in the comments if you find anything worth sharing.