Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Section is not holding any lecture meetings or indoor events until October 2021. However, Zoom talks are being organised – check ‘Latest Posts’.
Latest Posts
For more information about A&H activities contact the section secretary, Percy Shelley, at psns1948@yahoo.co.uk. We welcome visitors and new members.

The Archaeological and Historical Section of the PSNS was founded in 1948 under the guidance of Dr Margaret Stewart, a very notable and distinguished local archaeologist. In the early years, the section carried out and published important excavations and surveys under her guidance, and she also organised courses and seminars to share her skills and knowledge with the section. Accounts of her excavations appeared in specialist journals such as Discovery & Excavation in Scotland.
Members of the section are still involved in occasional excavations and surveys under the guidance of professional organisations, but our main activities are a monthly lecture series during the winter, and excursions to monuments, historic buildings and excavations, generally in the summer. We have close links with Archaeology Scotland, Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust, Tayside and Fife Archaeological Committee and various professional and voluntary organisations. Over the years, as well as contributing papers to the Society’s journal, the Section has issued several important complete publications:
- Dirt, dust and development. 50 years of Perthshire archaeology, available to purchase.
- Pitmiddle Village and Elcho Nunnery, available to download
- A Special Issue of the Society’s Transactions, available to download from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- South-East Perthshire Stone Circle Trail – a guide to three ancient monuments (leaflet, available to download)
The following booklet by Dr Margaret Stewart describes an abandoned farmstead, Allt Lochan Nan Losgunn, near Queen’s View (Tay Forest Park) that was excavated in 1972 & 1974 (not a PSNS publication, reproduced by courtesy of Scottish Forestry).
All regular indoor meetings are held are held on Wednesdays at 7.30pm in the Soutar Theatre, AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP. Evenings conclude over tea and coffee.
Occasional newsletters of the Section
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2019 August – includes reports of Summer 2019 excursions
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2019 March
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2019 February
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2018 September – includes reports of Summer 2018 excursions
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2018 June – includes reports of Summer 2018 excursions
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2018 February – includes report of Summer 2017 excursions
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2017 June – includes report of Summer 2017 excursion
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2016 October – includes reports of Summer 2016 excursions
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2016 August – includes reports of Summer 2016 excursions
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2015 June – includes report of Summer 2015 excursion
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2013 Summer
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2013 Oct-Nov
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2013 January
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2013 December
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2013 Autumn
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2012 Autumn
- PSNS A&H Section Newsletter – 2011 Summer