Welcome to the Drymen and District Local History Society's website. Set up a bookmark and follow our developments!

NEW, we now have a Facebook page! Follow us at "https://www.facebook.com/drymenhistorysociety".

Drymen is a small village in Scotland's Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. It is located on the West Highland Way and John Muir Way long distance paths, and forms the gateway to east Loch Lomond.

Our Society was established on 7 October 1982, the first in this area, although there are now heritage societies in several other local villages. We arrange an annual programme of talks which are held on the fourth Thursday of the month from September to November and from January to April in Drymen Village Hall starting at 19:30.
Membership, which includes free entry to all lectures, costs £10 for a full year starting in September. Visitors are welcome to attend our talks for £3 per talk.
Our 2024/25 talks programme, starting on 26th September 2024, has been finalised and details can be found by following the "Winter Programme" link.

In most recent years we have organised summer trips to sites of historical interest in the area. These have varied from visiting a number of the local Brochs led by Irwin Campbell, to Stirling Castle to see the restored Royal Apartments with the new tapestries, a conducted tour of the Smith Museum and Art Gallery in Stirling, a visit to Cambuskenneth Abbey which included the rare opportunity to go up the tower, and a visit to Innerpeffray Library near Crieff, the first public lending library established in Scotland.

The aims and activities of the Society include :-

1. Organising a regular series of winter lectures on topics of historical interest both local and national.
2. The collection of historical material including books, articles, maps, photographs and reports relating to Drymen and the local area.
   This archive is kept as a special collection in Strathblane Library and may be used for study and research. A listing of the items in our archive may be found by following the "Archive Listing" link
3. To encourage research on topics relevant to the history of Drymen and district and to prepare reports to be included in the above collection.
4. To undertake an oral history programme based on interviewing older members of the community.
5. The long term aim of publishing a booklet on local history.

In 2000 the Society produced "A Millennium Account of Drymen & District". A series of 11 papers by a number of different authors on various aspects of the history of Drymen and the surrounding district. The book, running to over 160 pages in A4 format with a card cover, is available for £9 from the secretary or from Drymen Library. More details are available on the "Publications" page.

Later Papers

As a continuation of the Millennium Project the Society intends to publish further papers on new subjects. Eight such papers have been produced to date. Details of all are available on the "Publications" page.

The papers are available from the secretary at a cost of £2 to £9 per copy.