As a tour operator, Catriona Stevenson spent years wandering through Scotland’s museums looking in sheer disbelief at the number of casual mistakes and dubious claims on display.
Her frustration grew so intense that she has now decided to set up a national “history police” forum to allow the public to report misleading or inaccurate information they find at museums and on local information boards.
Her disbelief at the “completely biased” displays at famous monuments led the history enthusiast to start pointing out the inaccuracies on Twitter using the “historypolice” hashtag.
She soon realised that others shared her concern and created a Facebook page for people to join.
“As a tour guide I go to places all over the country, and it started with little inaccuracies here and there I was starting to notice. At first I just ignored it but as time went on I thought, ‘No, I’m going to try to do something about this’,” she said.
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On a visit to the Bannockburn battle-field site, she objected to an official display claiming that Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn in Dumfries. Historical accounts of the incident are disputed, with some suggesting that the fatal incident may have been a fight or a duel and not a premeditated killing.
Ms Stevenson, 31, said it was important for curators to avoid presenting disputed claims as facts. “So much of what has happened in our past is up for debate and it is important that we don’t present opinions as facts, especially in museums or places of study that are meant to be educational.”
During the Commonwealth Games in 2014, she saw a plaque in Glasgow saying that James Watt was born in the city. After she pointed out that he was from Greenock, it was changed.
While some museums have contacted Ms Stevenson to offer their support for her work, historical sites have not always responded well to her objections. Last month she sparked a row with the Isle of Arran Heritage Museum over its display on the Highland Clearances. Ms Stevenson argued that it had glossed over the brutal nature of the policy. The museum refused to change the display, claiming that those who left Arran during the clearances had an “element of choice” when it came to their departure.
Ms Stevenson insisted that her “history police” group was not an attempt to demonise or blame people but was primarily a place for people to discuss disputed aspects of Scotland’s history in the hope of inspiring them to find out more. “The idea is that it’s not about me, it’s something that I think everybody should be doing. It’s really more of a discussion than anything else, to make people aware of the history.”