Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 8 on 17/5/2003.

This article is 65 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

The Wild, Celtic West

Roddy Martine talks...

Two books have recently caught my attention. The first, Adventures and Exiles by Marjory Harper (Profile Books), argues that Scots emigration during the 18th and 19th centuries was prompted not by necessity, but by the prospect of self-improvement and personal gain. The other book, Plaids & Bandanas by Rob Gibson (Luath Press), describes the influence of Highland cattle drovers on the American West and Canada.

Although the authors offer differing perspectives on the exodus from Scotland, both enthusiastically enlarge upon the extraordinary qualities of those individuals, men and women, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in search of fame and fortune.

Every Scots family has a similar story: every Scots family has at least one relative who left home to settle in the far-flung corners of our unsettled world. But contrary to the popular and politically accommodating belief that the majority of those who departed left under duress, Harper writes: “For most emigrants, hope and adventure were far stronger sentiments than despair and resignation.”

At the heart of this was the entrepreneurial spirit that would see them through. Many Scots felt stifled by the lack of opportunity at home. In Canada, the Hudson Bay Company beckoned to the extent that at one stage, four out of every five of its employees was a Scot. In America, by the 1880s, cattle ranches owned by the sons of relatively well-off Scottish families were becoming commonplace.

And concerning this, Gibson provides an interes.....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Scotland Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Roddy Martine

Section : Roddy Martine's World

Page number : 7