Library of Innerpeffray

03/03/2025

25/02/2025

Thank you to the visitors who left this special note of appreciation!
Our schoolroom is open for hot drinks if you are visiting the grounds to see the snowdrops or going for a walk. 10am til 4pm.
The library reopens for visitors on Saturday entry is free all through the month of March thanks to the support of the Friends.

14/02/2025

Today is the launch of the National Library of Scotland's campaign! 📚❤️📚 Libraries give free access to a host of resources and open up a world of adventure. ❤️

Our Chief Executive Alison Nolan explained: “The Love Libraries campaign is a great platform to bring communities together to celebrate the transformative power of our libraries. We’ve seen first-hand how these hubs play a valuable role in not only supporting education and literacy, but also promoting social inclusion, tackling inequality and bridging the digital divide. We hope people will take this opportunity to remember - and rediscover - all that our captivating libraries have to offer, right on their doorstep.”

SLIC has worked closely with the national library to ensure libraries have all they need to take part in the national campaign. You can download the Love Libraries Toolkit and lots of resources on the SLIC website
👉 https://scottishlibraries.org/love-libraries/

Scottish Book Trust Young Scot

13/02/2025

Delighted to be loaning some books from our collection for this!

30/01/2025

Hooray, you can reach us again, thank you for mending the line!

28/01/2025

Our Keeper was delighted to be part of this event celebrating at the weekend.

The photograph below shows the top table group at the Annual Dinner of Perth Burns Club which was held in the Salutation Hotel, Perth during the evening of Saturday, 25th January. Standing (left to right) - Elliott Boyle (club secretary). Forbes Gauld, Alan Telfer (club president), Donald Paton (honorary life president), piper Martin Bristow. Seated (left to right) - Linda Boyle, Lesley Riddoch, Lara Haggerty.

The gathering of around 120 were treated to an evening of quality speeches, music, songs and verse. The principal speaker and proposer of the Immortal Memory was the well-known broadcaster and journalist Lesley Riddoch. Perthshire farmer Forbes Gauld proposed a light-hearted toast to The Lasses which was ably replied to by Lara Haggerty the Keeper of Books at historic Innerpeffray Library.

A large group from The Haggis Society of Norway attended the event and a toast to Norway and Scotland was proposed by Donald Paton and replied to by Rolf Kjonnerud from the Norwegian club.

The songs of Burns were sung by Paul Vaughan and Fiona Brownsmith accompanied by Edna Auld; fiddle selections were provided by Douglas Sime and the piper was Martin Bristow. Verse speaking was in the hands of Donald Paton (Tam o' Shanter) and Alan Telfer (Holy Willie's Prayer).

The evening was under the chairmanship of club president Alan Telfer who also addressed the haggis and a past president, Jim Calderwood, proposed the vote of thanks before the evening ended with the traditional singing of Auld Lang Syne.

28/01/2025

Sadly we lost a couple of trees to Storm Eowyn, and also our telephone line. The car park is open and so is the heritage trail, but watch your step as there are still a few branches and fir cones about. We are contactable by email.

03/01/2025

Scotland is full of treasures, see some of them with Scotland's Stories

31/12/2024

19/12/2024

🔔 Would you like to do a PhD in this amazing library, combining data science and book history to surface marginalized voices in our collections?
👉 There is a fully-funded scholarship available to work on ‘Hidden voices of early printed books (c. 1450-1750)’ with the University of Manchester. Deadline for applications is 25 January.

Find out more here ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/2s3y9v34

18/12/2024

Festive Footnotes from Innerpeffray - https://mailchi.mp/f34d26f39e54/festive-footnotes-from-innerpeffray

18/12/2024

We had great fun with a caption competition featuring some of the more entertaining and inexplicable illustrations from various volumes in the Library at our volunteers' festive gathering last week. The winning entries are given below - we'd love to hear some of your ideas too!

1: 'Remind me, how did your last wife die?'
2. You'll never get a date with a profile picture like that!
3. This sport should be banned from the Olympics!
4. When they said there was just a skeleton staff for the massage I wasn't expecting this...

Images taken from 1. New Domestic Medicine, Buchan, 1835. 2. Epistolae itinerariae, Tollius, 1799. 3. Fall of Prynces, Boccaccio, 1554. 4. Defiance to Death, Cowper, 1610.

06/12/2024

First-time visitors to the Rare Book Reading Room are often surprised by the good condition of even the oldest books in our collection.

Yes, the Library of Congress takes its responsibility to preserve its materials very seriously and, yes, the stacks are controlled for temperature and humidity (though they are not air-sealed), but the primary reason that our books have survived the centuries so well is that many were printed on paper of extremely high quality.

A 19th century change in Western papermaking practices, when industrial paper mills were trying to meet the rising demand for reading material within an increasingly literate society, began using wood pulp in a cheaper, faster, mass-produced type of paper. Unfortunately, wood pulp is highly acidic, and books made from that kind of paper deteriorate over time and become borderline impossible to preserve, repair, or restore.

Older books, by contrast, were printed on high-quality paper made from cloth rags, not wood pulp. Beginning in the 1300s, the Italians adopted and adapted techniques first developed in China and the Middle East, and their innovations spread throughout Europe, lasting for centuries as the highest standard in paper production.

If the details of this process interest you, click the link to learn more! https://blogs.loc.gov/bibliomania/2024/12/05/papermaking-a-rags-to-riches-story/?loclr=fbloc

Image: An illustration of a vatman dipping a mould into a vat of slurry, part of the rag paper making process. Illustration from The Encyclopédie, recueil des planches, v. 5, 1767. Rare Book and Special Collections.

29/11/2024

Our shop is looking very spruce and festive - and will be open this weekend during our carol concerts - in perfect time for . If you can’t make it along for a browse, try our online shop - it’s full of unique gift ideas and every purchase helps support the Library.

https://innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk/shop/

29/11/2024

Join us for Carols at Innerpeffray this weekend: a beautiful start to the festive season from the Friends of Innerpeffray Library.
Carols in the Library on Saturday 30th Nov SOLD OUT!
Carols in the Library on Saturday 30th Nov @ 6pm
tickets here: https://innerpeffray-library.arttickets.org.uk/innerpeffray-library/innerpeffray-carols-in-the-library-66fffaea270cf
Carols in the Chapel Sunday 1st Dec @ 6pm
tickets here: https://innerpeffray-library.arttickets.org.uk/innerpeffray-library/innerpeffray-carols-in-the-chapel-66fffc993e2aa wrap up warm for the Chapel!

27/11/2024

As Advent draws nigh, so too do our traditional carol concerts. Next weekend sees a series of concerts led by the Innerpeffray Singers - two in the Library on Saturday 31st November (with a Scottish twist as a nod to St Andrew’s Day) and one in the 16th century Innerpeffray Chapel on Sunday 1st December.

Tickets available here: https://innerpeffray-library.arttickets.org.uk/ Book yours now and come join the happy throng!

23/11/2024

Despite the snow we had a great day wreath making! Doing it all again tomorrow ❄️😊

23/11/2024

The Wreath Making Workshop is going ahead today - and a repeat session tomorrow, Sunday 24th at 2.30pm. Spaces available on the door for both.