Abstract
In one sense the theme of Highland and Lowland is merely that of Centre and Locality writ large. In another the relation between the two major divisions of Scotland is a different question because of the cultural contrasts between them. The tendency to treat the Highlands separately is sometimes deplored by Scottish historians yet the fact remains that contemporaries perceived and treated the region and its inhabitants as different from the rest of the country.
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Further Reading
The most recent study of the rise and fall of an individual clan is M.D.W. MacGregor ‘A Political History of the MacGregors Before 1571’, unpublished PhD thesis, Edinburgh, 1989.
T.C. Smout A History of the Scottish People 1560–1830 (London, 1969) provides a good general survey of clanship.
For a challenging recent reinterpretation see R.A. Dodgshon ‘Pretense of Blude and Plaice of thair Dwelling’, in R.A. Houston and I.D. Whyte (eds) Scottish Society 1500–1800 (Cambridge, 1989), 169–98.
The integration of Highland and Island, as well as Highland and Lowland, is discussed by J.E.A. Dawson ‘The Origins of the “Road to the Isles”: Trade Communication and Campbell Power in Early Modern Scotland’, in R. Mason and N. Macdougall (eds) People and Power in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1992), 74–103.
The changing boundaries of the Gaidhealtachd are delimited by C.W.J. Withers Gaelic in Scotland 1698–1981. The Geographical History of a Language (Edinburgh, 1984).
For changes in Highland society during the seventeenth century see D. Stevenson Alastair MacColla and the Highland Problem in the Seventeenth Century (Edinburgh, 1980),
E.J. Cowan ‘Clanship, Kinship and the Campbell Acquisition of Islay’, Scottish Historical Review, 58 (1979), 132–57,
and A.I. Macinnes ‘Scottish Gaeldom 1638–1651: the Vernacular Response to the Covenanting Dynamic’, in J. Dwyer, R.A. Mason and A. Murdoch (eds) New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 1985), 59–94.
Changing illegitimacy levels in the Highlands are discussed in R. Mitchison and L. Leneman Sexuality and Social Control in Scotland 1660–1780 (Oxford, 1989).
For changes in the Highland economy see R.A. Dodgshon Land and Society in Early Scotland (Oxford, 1981),
‘Strategies of Farming in the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland Prior to Crofting and the Clearances’, Economic History Review, 46 (1993), 679–701,
and ‘The Ecological Basis of Highland Peasant Farming 1500–1800’, in H.H. Birks, H.J.B.Birks, RE. Kaland and D. Moe (eds) The Cultural Landscape, Past, Present and Future (Cambridge, 1988).
The case study of the first Earl of Cromartie comes from E. Richards and M. Clough Cromartie: Highland Life 1650–1914 (Aberdeen, 1989).
For changes on the Argyll estates see E. Cregeen ‘The Tacksmen and their Successors: a Study of Tenurial Reorganisation in Mull, Morvern and Tiree in the Early Eighteenth Century’, Scottish Studies, 13 (1969), 93–145,
and I.G. Lindsay and M. Cosh Inveraray and the Dukes of Argyll (Edinburgh, 1972).
Industrial activity in the Highlands in the early eighteenth century is reviewed by A.J.G. Cummings ‘Industry and Investment in the Eighteenth Century Highlands: The York Buildings Company of London’, in A.J.G. Cummings and T.M. Devine (eds) Industry, Business and Society in Scotland Since 1700 (Edinburgh, 1994), 24–42.
For the work of the Forfeited Estates commissioners see A. Smith Jacobite Estates of the Forty Five (Edinburgh, 1982).
Gaelic culture in Lowland Scottish towns is discussed by C.W.J. Withers ‘Kirk, Club and Culture Change. Gaelic Chapels, Highland Societies and the Urban Gaelic Subculture in Eighteenth Century Scotland’, Social History, 10 (1985), 171–92.
For a recent survey of longterm change in the Highlands see A.I. Macinnes ‘Landownership, Land Use and Elite Enterprise in Scottish Gaeldom: from Clanship to Clearance in Argyllshire 1688–1858’, in T.M. Devine (ed.) Scottish Elites (Edinburgh, 1994), 1–42.
For more general studies of changes in the Highlands during the eighteenth century see C.W.J. Withers Gaelic Scotland. The Transformation of a Culture Region (London, 1988) and
A.J. Youngson After the Forty Five (Edinburgh, 1973).
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© 1997 Ian D. Whyte
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Whyte, I.D. (1997). Highland and Lowland. In: Scotland’s Society and Economy in Transition, c.1500–c.1760. Social History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25307-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25307-4_6
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