May 2005 (projected date 19th May) sees the launch of a re-print of Tain Through The Centuries, the history of Tain commissioned by Tain Town Council as part of their 9th Centenary Celebrations in 1966.  It was written by the late RW Munro, FSA Scot., an historian and journalist born in Ross-shire, and his wife, Dr Jean Munro (nee Dunlop), an Honours Graduate in History and a PH.D of  Edinburgh University.  These distinguished authors researched their book thoroughly, using many published and unpublished sources including both local and national records and consultations with local people.  The resultant book remains the most comprehensive history of Tain ever to be written. Apart from a brief Foreword summarising the main changes/developments of the last 39 years and a new cover, this paperback re-print appears in the original form of the first edition.

In 10 chapters and over 40,000 words the Munros deal with Tain’s physical setting and origins and trace its development from its early associations with St Duthus and Malcolm Canmore; from Sanctuary and place of privilege through the unsettled times of the 11th-15th Centuries; from the building of the St Duthus Church and its establishment as a Collegiate Church to the Reformation; from ecclesiastical centre and pilgrim resort to a burgh administered by a Town Council within which trade, commerce and local craftsmen flourished;  through the period of the Civil War (1639-51) and the Covenanters to the Union of the Parliaments and the consequent influence of politics both local and national.  The main factors that shaped Tain’s 19th and early 20th Century development – the establishment of St Duthus Lodge of Freemasons, the birth of Tain Royal Academy, the Disruption out of which the Free Church emerged and the coming of the railway are also explored in detail.  Throughout it all we are introduced to the people, the landed families and clans, who made it all happen and created Tain as it was in1966.
 
This edition of a book which has been out of print for many years can be recommended to anyone who would like to know the history of Tain, be they newcomers to the town, Tainites who have, for one reason or another, had to quit the town of their birth or descendents of people who left Tain much longer ago.  However, there is much of interest in Tain Through The Centuries not only for people with Tain and Easter Ross associations but also for anyone interested in Scotland’s history generally.

Tain Through The Centuries retails at £9.99 a copy and will be available from the Tain Through Time shop and Tower Book shop, Tain.  It can also be ordered through the online shop at www.tainmuseum.org.uk