Urban Highlanders: Highland-Lowland Migration and Urban Gaelic Culture 1700 - 1900

by Charles W.J. Withers

This text offers a full-scale examination of the out-movement of migrant Highlanders from the Highlands to the urban Lowlands in the 18th and 19th centuries and of the migrant culture of urban Gaels within this new urban context. It follows work by the author on the historical geography of the Gaedhealtachd, the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland. The author demonstrates through the use of maps, tables and detailed archival analysis how, at what time, and in what numbers Highlanders moved to the Lowlands, what cultural expression they gave to their new Lowland location and to the development of a Gaelic migrant culture in the towns and cities of urban Lowland Scotland.

220 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

Professor Charles W. J. Withers FBA, FRSE, FAcSS, FRSGS is professor of historical geography at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
He has been the Geographer Royal for Scotland since 2015, and held the Ogilvie Chair of Geography at the University of Edinburgh from 1994 to 2019.