Aberdeen's 'pirate past' revealed by study of Scotland's oldest civic records

Description

Academics at the University of Aberdeen have been investigating the city’s burgh records, which date back to 1317 and are recognised by UNESCO for their historical importance.

Historians have delved into court rolls and council registers and say the emerging picture is one of a town with significant European influence, despite its small size with just a few thousand inhabitants.

But, they say, this role as a trading partner was often marred by disputes centred around Aberdeen’s perceived leniency towards piracy, which extended up the social scale and even included its fifteenth-century Provost.

Dr Jackson Armstrong and Dr Andrew Mackillop from the University of Aberdeen led the study, funded by the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies.

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/8511/