Eileen Stewart

Eileen’s own interest in exploration was aroused during studies in Geography and English at the National University of Ireland in Cork in the 1960s where she gained a double-first honours BA.

Her PhD thesis, entitled “John Buchan Borderer”, was presented at Edinburgh University in 1979. She was the catalyst of the still-thriving “John Buchan Society”. 

She is also the author of "Honest George", an introduction to the life of George Brown who gave his name to George Square in Edinburgh available at present only as an ebook.

Although Eileen is a thoroughbred Yorkshire woman herself she married a Scot with his roots so widely spread out in this part of Scotland that a study of local and family histories was inevitable.

It became a fascinating, thoroughly enjoyable and addictive hobby though at times so knotted in its interconnections that Gordian tactics have had to be applied.

The fact that the house in which her husband was born had also been home to a co-founder of the Canadian North West Fur Company set her off on this particular journey into local diaspora studies.

It is a journey that looks likely to continue as long as life holds out but hopefully others will continue it with new skills, more knowledge and more youthful energy. That is the main purpose of this “Scots Awa” current venture.