Antiquarian Scottish Books in Adobe Reader format

Over the years Electric Scotland has acquired many antiquarian books with the intention of adding them to the site.  However in very recent times we have seen a start made by various libraries to scan in copies of their books.  Also, companies like Microsoft and Google are now busy scanning in books from libraries around the world.  We note that some of the books that are appearing in Internet archives have been taken from ourselves and we really don't mind that being done. The purpose of Electric Scotland is to make a body of work available so people can learn about the History of Scotland, the Scots and people and places of Scots descent.

The files in here have been downloaded from various sources and we have then optimised them for the web.  For example one book was 525Mb in size but after we optimised it we got it down to 85Mb and so making it much easier to download. Many of the books in here we have purchased ourselves but see little point in duplicating work already done by others.

Each link goes to a web page where we endeavour to provide an introduction to give you a better opportunity to decide if you wish to download it. At the foot of each page you'll find a link to download the book and information on the file size.

Here is a list of the books that we've made available so far...

• Dictionary of the Gaelic Language
  Part I - Gaelic to English. Part II - English to Gaelic

• A Highland Tour
  Three weeks with Dr Candlish

• Campbells of Argyll
  A 150 page book about the Campbells of Argyll and around the world.

• A Volume of Verses
  Some great poetry of Will Buchanan

• Scot in America
  A history of the Scottish race in America

• Henry Drummond
  The author of "The Greatest Thing in the World", it went on to sell over 12 million copies and it continues today to influence people to follow God's two great commandments: to love God and to love each other.

• Out On The Pampas
  This is a story of an English family that emigrated from England to Argentina and settled on the Pampas. As we have books on the site about Scots in Argentina it was felt that this book would provide some interesting information on the process of settlement and in fact near neighbours of this family were Scots.

• Urquhart and Glenmoriston in Olden Times
  By William MacKay LL.D.  (1914). THE following pages are the result of much gathering, begun during my school and college days, of the traditions and legends and songs of my native Parish, and of much searching, in more recent years, for written records referring to it. I have endeavoured to give in them a plain and accurate account of the Olden Times, and a true picture of the Past.

• Scotch-Irish in New England
  A short 55 page book by the Rev. A. L. Perry published in 1891.

• War Diary of the Fifth Seaforth Highlanders 51st (Highland) Division
  Great information of this Division during the 1st World War.

• The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland
  From the Twelfth to Eighteenth Century in 5 volumes, by David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross (1887)

• The Scots Peerage
  Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom, Edited by Sir James Balfour Paul, Lord Lyon King of Arms with Armorial Illustrations.

• Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
  In 7 volumes published in 1837.

• How to Learn Gaelic
  By Alexander MacBain LL.D. and John Whyte

• The Black Book of Taymouth and Other Papers
  From the Breadalbane Charter Room (1855)

• Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland
  In 4 volumes by Billings

• Gazetteer of the United States of America
  By John Hayward (1853)

• Ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings or Crannogs
  By Robert Munro (1882)

Return to our Book Page