War Paths: Walking in the Shadows of the Clans

by Alistair Moffat

Acclaimed historian Alistair Moffat sets off in the footsteps of the Highland clans. In thirteen journeys he explores places of conflict, recreating as he walks the tumult of battle. As he recounts the military prowess of the clans – surely the most feared fighting men in western Europe – he also speaks of their lives, their language and culture before it was all swept away. The disaster at Culloden in 1746 represented not just the defeat of the Jacobite dream but also the unleashing of merciless retribution from the British government which dealt the Highland clans a blow from which they would never recover. From the colonisers who attempted to 'civilise' the islanders of Lewis in the sixteenth century through the great battles of the eighteenth century – Killiekrankie, Dunkeld, Sheriffmuir, Falkirk and Culloden – this is a unique exploration of many of the places and events which define a country's history. Locations included Prestonpans Glenfinnan The Isle of Lewis Edinburgh Inverlochy Tippermuir Mulroy Killiecrankie Dunkeld Sherriffmuir Falkirk Culloden Moor Arisaig & Morar

Genres: History, Scotland

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published June 4, 2024

About the author

Alistair Moffat is an award winning writer, historian and former Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Director of Programmes at Scottish Television.

Moffat was educated at the University of St Andrews, graduating in 1972 with a degree in Medieval History. He is the founder of the Borders Book Festival and Co-Chairman of The Great Tapestry of Scotland.

Reviews

[Russell O. Redman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book. Moffat has a deep kinship with the many peoples who comprise Scotland. A lowlander himself, he admires the raw, physical courage and strength of the highlanders in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These warriors were the heroes of lore, the mighty men of yore. Yet... Yet... Their leadership was often foolish, unskilled and indifferent to the suffering they caused. The endless clan warfare of the highlands and islands reaches back to the days of the viking raiders and beyond. The best documented battles involved the relentless quest of the Stuart dynasty to claim the thrones of both Scotland and England. Even Moffat ultimately dismisses these ambitious thugs as selfish, egotistical, and incompetent.

Visiting the sites of the great battles, he brings an immediacy to the scenes that most accounts omit. He weaves into the story a nostalgia for the virtues and vices of the people. As someone with Scottish roots, I read this with a mixture of fascination and distress at the suffering that could have been avoided if a better criterion than victory in battle had ruled their political system.

It is often said that history is written by the victors. It is not. History is created by the victors, but is written and remembered by the bards. They sing (yes, I think of this book as a song in prose) of the heroes who won and lost. The most memorable of their songs are about heroes who lost in a noble cause. This is true throughout the book, since the courage of the highlanders led to their ultimate defeat in the Battle of Culloden, which led to the Clearances (still not forgiven today), and to the spread of the Scottish people across the entire British Empire. It was bad for Scotland, but may have been good in an ultimate sense for the Scottish people.

One other detail struck me as I read this book. I live in Canada and many place names commemorate great battles fought elsewhere. This is not true of the Gaelic place names in Scotland, which usually describe the features of the landscape that were of interest to farming and herding people - bunchy woods, little ponds, mountains watching over the herds, and the like. Today, Scotland is a peaceful, welcoming land. The ancient names seem appropriate again, describing the beautiful and dramatic landscape that is the ancestral homeland of the Scottish people wherever they live. Are those names remembering a more distant, pastoral life when the people of Britain were not locked in a perpetual cycle of warfare and revenge?

[Erik Empson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't get on terribly well with this book not least because at times the author was gratuitously condescending and opinionated about people he encountered. I found he failed to adequately explain the broader politics of the conflicts behind the book, or assumed a familiarity with the subject matter. When it came to describing the battles, one got lost in the sea of detail of names, and it was difficult to trace which party he was referring to. And finally, the so-called "walks" described were often so short I'd count more steps getting a pint of milk from my local shop. I agree that visiting battle sites is a good way to put things in focus, but if those observations are limited to the ground being boggy or steep, and the author's willingness to explore is restricted to a fear of rain, he is not best suited to such a project.

[Ross Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Alistair Moffat’s books. He writes in a very accessible and entertaining manner. He finds ways to present information to a general audience and the walks he does generally inform his work.

Not here though. The excellent writing is there. The warmth of the author to his subject and the knowledge, particularly of the Gaelic language. But this book is scatter gun and unfocused. He is visiting a collection of battlefields tied together only by the fact they involved highland armies, but his walks add very very little to what often is a very brief and general run through of a battle’s history with no references or footnotes. Anecdotes from his other books are repeated and there are errors such as calling the Cameron Chief at Culloden ‘Ewen’ and not ‘Donald’.

[David Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read to date about the Scottish Clans, Alistair Moffat makes the reader feel he is there with the clans charging into battle.