Brian Smith

Honorary Research Fellow

Institute for Northern Studies
University of the Highlands and Islands
Scott's House

Grainshore Road
Kirkwall
Orkney
KW15 1FL

d: +44 (0)1856 569300

Biography

Brian Smith is archivist at the Shetland Museum and Archives. He has been studying the history of Shetland and Orkney for more than 45 years and helping people to do the same. He is the author and co-editor of many books and articles on the subject, and is especially interested in the history of the islands from the Iron Age to modern times, with special interest in the late Middle Ages, the early modern era, and the period between 1707 and the present.

Mr Smith tries to keep in mind that islands are linked in many ways with societies elsewhere in the world, and is not keen on sentimental or romantic treatments of the subject.

Select publications

(with L.I. Graham) MacDiarmid in Shetland, co-edited, (Lerwick 1992)

(with J.H. Ballantyne) Shetland Documents 1580-1611 (Lerwick 1994)

(with D. Waugh) Shetland's Northern Links: language and history (Lerwick 1996;

(with J.H. Ballantyne) Shetland Documents 1195-1579 (Lerwick 1999)

Toons and tenants : settlement and society in Shetland, 1299-1899, (Lerwick 2000)