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The Wild Black Region: Badenoch 1750 - 1800

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Wild Black Region: Badenoch 1750 - 1800
Authors and Contributors      By (author) David Taylor
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:336
Dimensions(mm): Height 230,Width 155
Category/GenreLocal history
ISBN/Barcode 9781906566982
ClassificationsDewey:941.158
Audience
General
Illustrations Maps; 8 Plates, black and white; 16 Plates, color

Publishing Details

Publisher John Donald Publishers Ltd
Imprint John Donald Short Run Press
Publication Date 1 February 2016
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

This book tells the fascinating story of Badenoch, a forgotten region in accounts of Scottish history. Situated in the heart of the Highlands and with its own distinct historic and geographic identity, Badenoch was in the throes of dramatic change in the post-Culloden decades. This ground-breaking study reveals some radical differences from trends across the rest of the Highlands. Foremost was the role of the indigenous entrepreneurial tacksmen in driving the rapidly growing commercial economy as cattle graziers, drovers and agricultural improvers, inevitably provoking confrontation with the absentee and ostentatious Dukes of Gordon. Meanwhile, the common people still operated within a subsistence farming economy heavily dependent on a surprisingly sophisticated use of their mountain environment. Though suffering great hardship, they too were quick to exploit any potential commercial opportunities. Economic forces, social ambition and post-Culloden legislation created intolerable pressures within the old clan hierarchy, as Duke, tacksman and erstwhile clansman tried to forge their individual - and often irreconcilable - destinies in a rapidly changing world. In doing so, all were increasingly drawn into the wider, and often lucrative, dimensions of British state and empire.

Author Biography

David Taylor graduated in Scottish Historical Studies from the University of Edinburgh, and gained a PhD from the University of the Highlands and Islands. After teaching history at Douglas-Ewart High School he was Principal Teacher of History and Modern Studies at Kingussie High School (Badenoch) for thirty years. Now retired, he lives in Orkney.

Reviews

'A well written ambitious, original and important contribution to the history of the Highlands' -- Professor Eric Richards, Carnegie Centenary Professor 2014 'David Taylor has walked the ground he writes about. His intimate knowledge of that ground - from the banks of the Spey to the sites of long abandoned sheilings in high mountain corries - adds substantially to the force and persuasiveness of his account of a district whose history has for far too long been unexplored' -- Professor James Hunter, University of the Highlands and Islands