Brief History

The University of Stirling was established in 1967 and sits on the historic Airthrey Estate just outside
of Stirling, Scotland, close to the village of Bridge of Allan. Though the University’s own institutional
archive forms the core of our collections the Archive & Special Collections team also actively collects
around the research interests of the university and we have amassed unique and rich materials
around research themes such as Sporting Heritage, Film & Media, Health and Wellbeing, Politics and
African History.

The Scottish Political Archive (SPA) was formed directly from a research project created by Politics colleagues and from 2010-2020 sat within the academic Division of History and Politics (as it was named in 2010, when SPA was established). The archive is particularly focussed on evidencing the contemporary history of devolution and independence in Scotland, beginning with the 1979 and 1997 Scottish devolution referenda. As such, it is quite a modern archive collection. SPA now sits with the Archive & Special Collections and continues to grow through donations and contemporary collecting.

Contact Details

Opening Times:
Monday-Friday
10am-1pm and 2pm-4pm

Appointments should be made in advance as the reading room is sometimes closed for University holidays, classes and events.

Please direct enquiries to archives@stir.ac.uk

You can follow us on Facebook – Instagram – BlueSky

Admission
Free, appointments to be made in advance.
For more information on using the Archive & Special Collections.

Collections:
Our two key umbrella collections relating to politics are:

The Scottish Political Archive (SPA) – established in 2010, this archive focuses on devolution and
independence in Scotland through the personal collections of some key politicians and campaigners, including:

Canon Kenyon Wright, Jack McConnell and George Robertson, the collections of movements or groups – such as the Federation of Student Nationalists, The Bus Party and the Scots Independent newspaper and by continuously building a rich oral history archive.

SPA actively takes in donations from the wider community, particularly with respect to photographs
of political campaigns, protests, rallies etc. and the gathering of election ephemera from across
Scotland.

To find out more. visit: https://collections.stir.ac.uk/archive-collections/archive-collections-a-
z/scottish-political-archive/collections/

The Tait & Watson Archive – donated to the University in the 1970s, this archive is the product of two individual Glaswegian collectors who had their own personal interests in left-wing Scottish politics in the late 19th  and early 20th centuries.  It comprises a vast array of pamphlets, newspapers and books, covering the broad spectrum of ‘left-wing’ and also includes some minutes and letter books from small political parties from the early 20the century.

To browse this collection, visit: https://libguides.stir.ac.uk/archives/TaitWatson

Finding Us
The nearest train stations to the University are Stirling or Bridge of Allan.
Unilink buses run frequently from Stirling Station and Next Bikes are available.
The local number 15A bus runs from Bridge of Allan.
For more information.