Susan Morrison catches up with Dr Katie Barclay of Adelaide University to find out what life was like for Scotland’s travelling poor in the 18th century - were we more generous back then, and how hard a life was it for women tramping the road? But if it gave you sore feet, might there have been an ancient remedy for that? Dr Sharon Arbuthnot of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s National Centre for Gaelic Language in the Isle of Skye has been digging into the Gaelic medical manuscripts of the middle ages. They’re a treasure trove of cures, charms and surprising uses for bits of bird and animal - all plugged into the learned culture of Europe, and we meet someone who might have used the services of the learned medical men who wrote the books - Christina MacRuairi - a key supporter of King Robert Bruce. Dr Callum Watson of National Trust for Scotland has the story.

Susan Morrison gets to grips with the South Queensferry witch-hunt. We know about the horrors which people accused of witchcraft suffered but we very rarely get to see what happens to their families. How could you try to save your accused loved ones? Who did you have to take on and what could they do to you in return? Dr Ciaran Jones and Dr Louise Yeoman follow one family in the South Queensferry witch hunt of 1643-44 with Susan and look at how they took on the authorities and with what results. Moving forward in time to 1813 in Glasgow, we find another family - the Hastings who want to keep a wee ten year old boy they’ve adopted called John Fee but then John’s dad turns up and he isn’t happy. Dr Katie Barclay of Adelaide University helps us look at child stealing and what counts as a good home for a child among the very poorest people in Scottish society.

Susan Morrison reckons you can’t have a mediaeval Hollywood movie without knights in shining armour but wants to know when did the Norman knight come to Scotland and who was hiring him? Dr Fiona Watson has the answers and it’s earlier than you might think. But if you wanted to refight those historic battles on your living room carpet, you’d need some toy soldiers. They’ve always had a topical side to them too, reflecting whatever conflict was going on at the time. The great age of the lead toy soldier covered the big conflicts of the 20th century and sparked controversy about war toys - did they cause war-mongering or were they good for your kid’s mental development? Euan Loarridge of Glasgow University has been in the miniature trenches examining their campaigns. And we’re kicking off an investigation into a witch-hunt in South Queensferry with Dr Ciaran Jones - more on that next time.

Susan Morrison explores the rich and sometimes murky depths of Scotland's past.

Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia- the Scottish princess born in Dunfermline who could have become Elizabeth I of Scotland and II of England is the subject of Dr Nadine Akkerman’s book. Susan Morrison asks Nadine how close to the thrones of Britain this remarkable woman got and about her sometimes stormy relationship with her brother, the future Charles I. Leaping ahead in time, we hit the railways and discover the perils of scoffing on your commute Dickensian-style. Chloe Shields of the University of Strathclyde has the low down on fashionable Victorian maladies and the dining car.

How do you write a persuasive letter in your poshest Scots to the Queen of England? Susan Morrison would like to know. So let's meet Annas Keith, Countess of Moray, at one time Scotland’s first lady. After her husband's assassination, she was trying to hang onto Mary Queen of Scots’ splendid jewels, Dr Jade Scott of Glasgow University shows us how Annas went about it. Leaping forward to Victorian times and Dundee’s extremely not posh Overgate, Dr Hannah Telling explores a murder in a tenement stair which reveals surprising things about the residents’ attitudes.

Alison Rough was a 16th century Edinburgh war widow - her husband was killed at Flodden and she was left raising a family on her own - which she did in her own feisty and formidable manner - often with the cards stacked against her. Professor Elizabeth Ewan formerly of the University of Guelph takes presenter Susan Morrison into Alison’s world. Raising a family on your own was tough in the 16th century but even as late as the 1970s in Scotland for single mums who refused marriage it was well-nigh unthinkable - they found stigma rather than respect. The result was that many young women got caught up in ‘shotgun weddings’ more in Scotland than in England and Wales. Oral historian Kristin Hay of Strathclyde University explores why.

Are you sure that cat is just a cat? Accused witches in Scotland (who were over 80% female) were sometimes believed to have shape-shifted into animal form - but why? Nicole Cumming, researching at Strathclyde University, has been on the trail and she shares her research with Susan Morrison. Women’s lives changed a lot between the 1950s and 1990s - but how far did they come in terms of escaping domestic abuse? Dr Anni Donaldson, Honorary Research Fellow at Strathclyde University takes Susan into the toxic attitudes and lack of help available to women facing violence and coercive control, and if you're affected by these issues, please see bottom right under 'related links' for the BBC Action line on domestic abuse. Our series ends with Lost Villages of Ayrshire - places like Glenbuck and Benquhat. The houses have gone but can the stories be recovered? Dr Yvonne McFadden of Strathclyde University is part of an oral history project which has been finding out how a woman’s work was never done in the miners’ rows. If you're from one of those villages and want to get in touch with the project, you can email her on [email protected] up till the end of October 2021.

If you were poor what kind of medical help could you expect in the Highlands and islands in the 1850s? You’d better believe there were some pretty grim remedies in your future. Dr Daisy Cunynghame heritage manager and librarian of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh introduces Susan Morrison to ‘Remote and rural remedies’ their new online resource on Highland medicine then and now. You might have been better off with your local accused witch in earlier days. Dr Sierra Dye of Guelph University Canada takes Susan into a zealous witch-hunter’s first case and the rare healing charms it reveals. If healing wasn’t your thing, there was always poison, but by the Victorian period forensic experts like the accomplished Dr Henry Littlejohn of Edinburgh were hot on the heels of murderers. Louise Wilkie of Surgeons’ Hall Museums Edinburgh introduces us to one of his most difficult cases.

If you think the Darien Venture for Scottish settlers to colonise part of the isthmus of Panama and set up a trading hub was only a disaster, think again. Even though nothing about imperial projects is very moral, they’re still windows into many lives. In this case women - Dr Gina Bennett of the University of Arlington at Texas joins Susan Morrison to take us into the worlds of 1690s Scottish female investors, businesswomen and settlers. There’s getting into empire and there’s getting out of it. Samuel Hume at Aberdeen University is researching imperial conferences. What’s one of them? Find out how the British self-governing settler colonies - the dominions like Australia, Canada and New Zealand moved towards full independence with Sam (He’s also a podcaster doing his own history of the British empire at Pax Britannica - https://paxbritannica.info/ ) Finally, the women who would have won ‘Most Wicked Lady in Scotland!’ several years running had it been an award category in James VI’s kingdom: Elizabeth Stewart Countess of Arran, but was she just getting a bad rap from her enemies? Lisa Baer-Tsarfati of Guelph University explores female ambition.