Travels to Terra Incognita: The Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts c. 1600 to 1800

by Martin Rackwitz

In the early modern period Scotland was one of the least-known regions of Europe. This was particularly true of the Highlands, an area that was overshadowed by myths and stereotypes that often dated back to the Middle Ages. This monograph examines the stereo-typing of Scotland and the Scots and the way in which this was reflected in late medieval and early modern travellers' accounts.

Special emphasis is put on the discovery and the opening up of the Highlands and Hebrides to foreign visitors. This region kept its distinctive Gaelic tradition and identity until well into the nineteenth century. The accounts of foreign visitors offer a unique insight into everyday Highland life. Travellers became eyewitnesses to the dramatic economic changes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their first-hand accounts are valuable sources for Highland history, covering all aspects of society from clanship and the Highland economy to the locals' agricultural techniques and their customs and manners.

The attached CD-ROM, including 120 short biographies of travellers and 115 maps showing their individual routes, makes this study an important reference work on travel and the history of the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides.

620 pages, Paperback

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, readable, scholarly account of the Highlands and Islands which investigates two crucial centuries of change through the eyes of travellers to the area.