Zulu Wars

We had a near-capacity audience last night (Tuesday 25 January) to listen to Dr. Tony Pollard speak about his battlefield archeology fieldwork at the site of the famous battle in the Zulu War at Isandlwana and at Rorke's Drift. Dr. Pollard is the Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archeology at the University of Glasgow.  As always, Dr Pollard provided the audience with a graphic account of the battle and of his use of modern techniques to uncover present day evidence of the battle. He provided an insight into Zulu culture and military tactics, backed up by many artefacts from the site, uncovered during his excavations in 1999.  A thoroughly enthralling talk.

Glasgow Botanic Gardens

We had a super talk about Glasgow Botanic Gardens on Tuesday 11 January 2011, given by Ewen Donaldson the General Manager of the Gardens. Ewen explained the history of the Gardens, which were founded in 1817. They were founded on an 8-acre site at the West End of Sauchiehall Street at Sandyford. This was through the initiative of Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth who gave his own plant collection to form the nucleus of the new garden.
Mr Donaldson then covered in some detail the recent renovation of the magnificent Kibble Palace.
Finally Ewen

dealt with the plant collections, illustrating his comments with some superb photographs. An excellent start to the 2011 lecture programme.