Leighton Library

Leighton Library The Leighton Library in Dunblane, oldest purpose-built independent library in Scotland

The library is normally open to the general public from the beginning of May until the end of September. In addition the library is regularly included in Stirling Council Doors Open Weekends in September each year.

🗓️🇮🇹✍️📖 Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has a 1615 edition of "De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas" (On the Christ...
11/05/2026

🗓️🇮🇹✍️📖 Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has a 1615 edition of "De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas" (On the Christian Mission among the Chinese) by Italian priest and mathematician Matteo Ricci who died 1610. He argued that Confucianism and Christianity are remarkably similar. His journals contained an overview of the late Ming China's geography, politics, and culture, its philosophy and religions, and described the history of Christianity's inroads into China. This was the first major book published in Europe by an author who was not only fluent in Chinese and conversant in Chinese culture but also had travelled over much of the country. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing. He was the subject of a documentary by Italian film director Gjon Kolndrekaj in 2009, entitled Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Dragon's Kingdom

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

🗓️🇪🇸🗣️✍️ Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has a 1588 edition of "Obras del padre maestro Iuan de Avila" - the works ...
10/05/2026

🗓️🇪🇸🗣️✍️ Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has a 1588 edition of "Obras del padre maestro Iuan de Avila" - the works of Spanish priest, preacher, author, and religious mystic declared a saint and Doctor of the Church by the Catholic Church, Juan de Ávila, who died 1569. During his nine years of missionary work in Andalusia (where he was known as the "Apostle of Andalusia", for his extensive ministry in that region) crowds packed the churches at all his sermons. However, his strong pleas for reform and his denunciation of the behaviour of the aristocracy meant that he was denounced to the office of the Inquisition in Seville in 1531, and put in prison in the summer of 1532. He was charged with exaggerating the dangers of wealth and with closing the gates of heaven to the rich. The charges were refuted and he was declared innocent and released in July 1533

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

08/05/2026

Watch a video created by Max and Murray about the range of items, available to purchase in Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library, and from the online shop, all featuring an image of a Ptarmigan, a characteristically Scottish bird, as found in the Leighton Library’s 1771 edition of Buffon’s “Oeuvres Complètes”, Volume 17 Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux Tome 2.

Max and Murray are members of 25th Stirling (Dunblane) Boys’ Brigade, who are volunteering their time at the Leighton Library in support of their Duke of Edinburgh Award, by creating weekly promotional videos for the Leighton Library.

https://leighton-library-shop.co.uk/collections/scottish-birds

1737 English essayist, historian, and politician Edward Gibbon was born. Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has an e...
08/05/2026

1737 English essayist, historian, and politician Edward Gibbon was born. Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has an edition published between 1776-1788 of the 6 volumes of his most important work "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

1711 David Hume, one of the most important figures in the history of western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
07/05/2026

1711 David Hume, one of the most important figures in the history of western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment, was born. He was a philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist. Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has the 8-volume 1763 edition of his "The history of England, from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the revolution in 1688"

▶️ https://youtu.be/klI9KU1ZkDU

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

6 May 2023 Charles III and Camilla were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms...
06/05/2026

6 May 2023 Charles III and Camilla were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms.

🤴 Robert Leighton under three kings named Charles:

👑 Charles I - the persecution and punishment of Robert Leighton's father, Dr Alexander Leighton, was described as "one of the most disgraceful incidents of the reign of King Charles I"

👑 👑 Charles II - Robert Leighton was appointed Bishop of Dunblane, and leaves in his will his collection of books and money to build a library in Dunblane

👑 👑👑 Charles III - Dunblane's historic Leighton Library underwent its first major restoration in 300 years

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

1790, Mr John James Edmonstoune, a borrower at Dunblane's Leighton Library borrowed the library's 1781 edition of "Jo...
05/05/2026

1790, Mr John James Edmonstoune, a borrower at Dunblane's Leighton Library borrowed the library's 1781 edition of "Journal of Captain Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean, on Discovery ; performed in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779" by John Rickman and James Cook.

James Cook was famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

The borrower,
Mr John James Edmonstoune was from Newton. He had taken out a subscription to the Leighton Library on 21 November 1786 at a cost of 10 shillings and sixpence, borrowing a total of 21 books between 1786 and 1804. He died in 1840.

If you'd like to explore what other books were borrowed on this day in Dunblane's historic Leighton Library then you can search the "Books and Borrowing: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers, 1750-1830" website database accessible from the Leighton Library website https://www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/books-and-borrowing-1750-1830

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

💫 It's today, so it's . Follow in the footsteps of these Star Wars characters and visit Dunblane's historic Leighton ...
04/05/2026

💫 It's today, so it's . Follow in the footsteps of these Star Wars characters and visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library, uttering the words

💷 And it would help, in the words of Yoda,
"Give a donation, you could"

Please support the Leighton Library Undercroft Development project - find out more about what’s planned & donate at the following link:
https://www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/undercroft-development

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

03/05/2026

The Leighton Library has a 1791 edition of “Common sense; addressed to the inhabitants of America” by Thomas Paine - the importance of this publication being described in this video

🗓️✍️📖 Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has a 1550 edition of "Tutte le opere" (All works) by Italian historian, poli...
03/05/2026

🗓️✍️📖 Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has a 1550 edition of "Tutte le opere" (All works) by Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer Niccolò Machiavelli who was born 1469. The term "Machiavellian" refers to the traits Machiavelli described in his book "The Prince," considered to have contributed to negative connotations of politics and politicians

🚶Visit Dunblane's historic Leighton Library
📅 Open Monday-Saturday
🕚 11am-4pm
🆓 Free admission (donations invited)

Address

The Cross
Dunblane
FK150AQ

Opening Hours

11am - 4pm

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