Keith Marischal House in East Lothian, not too far south of Edinburgh, is in some ways a wonderful metaphor for modern Scotland. A baronial mass of gables, turrets and chimneys, an expression in stone of the kilts-and- bapipes Walter Scott-ery brand Scotland, but one currently being painstakingly renovated, repaired and, where appropriate, modernised by its owners, so it will not only be fit for the 21st century, but also still standing for centuries to come. Yet behind the facade, and below the driveway, lie the most tantalising story of an older and lost Scotland.
In the popular imagination Scottish history is punctuated by a few well-played greatest hits. First there’s the blue-painted Caledonii fighting the Romans, then we skip a bit until all that Braveheart business with William Wallace, then…