The Gaidhealtachd and the emergence of the Scottish Highlands

Abstract

During the early modern period the patterns of identity and consciousness found within Scottish Gaeldom underwent a major transformation. This was an extended but ultimately overwhelming, process which involved two interlocking developments. The first took place within Scotland's Gaidhealtachd. There a gradual shift occurred which gave much greater prominence to the Scottish elements within a broader Gaelic consciousness. The evolution was mirrored in Ireland by a corresponding emphasis upon the Irish dimensions of being a Gael. By the end of the early modern period separate and distinctive Scottish and Irish identities had emerged within the Gaelic world, although the consciousness of sharing a common culture and language and of being branches of the same people was never entirely lost. The internal awareness of a specifically Scottish Gaelic identity was joined to an external shift in the way in which a Gael was perceived by his fellow Scots. This second development was the consequence of a change in the relationship between Scotland's Gaelic heartlands and the rest of the Stewart kingdom. That process was accelerated by the adoption of a novel and simplistic analysis which divided Scotland into two starkly contrasting regions, the Highlands and the Lowlands. The Highland/Lowland boundary which was drawn in the early modern period was a matter of perception, not precision. It produced a single division which overrode the previous regional diversities to be found throughout Scotland and neatly filed all the inhabitants of the kingdom under two simplistic labels: ‘Highlander’ or ‘Lowlander’. To outsiders, the Scottish Gael became a ‘Highlander’.

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