Professor Aonghus MacKechnie

Professor Aonghus MacKechnie is a historian and heritage professional, state-educated, and from the Gaelic-speaking Hebridean island of Islay. His background is in Scottish history, archaeology and Celtic studies. His PhD from Edinburgh University was on Scotland’s 17th century royal and courtier architecture. 

He teaches Architectural Conservation at the University of Strathclyde, where he is based, and Edinburgh. His career has included being assistant minister at Govan Old Parish Church, museum assistant posts in Glasgow and Argyll, and then 40 years as a government adviser with Historic Environment Scotland, dealing with historic buildings, archaeology, historic landscapes and battlefields. 

His published research has focused on Renaissance-Early Modern architecture, Romanticism in Scotland and Germany, and the history and culture of the Highlands. His most recent books (both co-authored) are his Scotch Baronial: Architecture and National Identity in Scotland (Bloomsbury, 2019 and 2021) and The Architecture of Scotland 1660-1750 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), which he also co-edited.

A piper, he lives in Edinburgh, and Duns, in the Borders.