Expeditions to the HebridesGeorge Clayton Anderson (1808-77) was only twenty-three when he set out from Newcastle in 1831 with his brother, Dick, and the professional artist William Train to explore the Western isles and remote St Kilda. The following year he journeyed to the Shetlands and in 1833 returned again to Skye and the Western Isles while on his way to the Faroes. Atkinson was a keen naturalist, founder member of the Natural History Society of Northumberland and Durham and Newcastle, and a friend of the engraver Thomas Beckwith. His travels brought him into contact with such giants of the day as William MacGillivray, Dr William Hooker and John Scoular. His keen interest in birds led him to become the first curator of the ornithological section of the Hancock Museum, an interest reflected in his descriptions of the bird-life of these islands. The large leather-bound journals chronicling their adventures, and largely unknown outside his family, were richly embellished with original watercolours and drawings of his tours, made by some of the finest local artists of the day.While vividly resurrecting a living, breathing portrait of those whose lives added such a a colour to the landscape, his diary also reveals a community in the painful throes of transition and at a watershed between the ancient and the modern. |
Contents
PREFACE by George Clayton Atkinson | 3 |
ST KILDA AT LAST May 31June 2 | 41 |
Climbing Roneval Harris Looking for Mr Train | 71 |
Copyright | |
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Acquisition Person Admin Category subject amusing Atkinson Bewick birds boat Borera breed called Callernish cave cliffs climbed Corry Crinan Canal Dick Donated Documentation group Early Trans Nhs east Edinburgh eggs expedition Field Collection Place fish Flannan Isles friends Fulmar G.C. Date Gaelic Gannet GCA's Glasgow Guillemotte Harris Hashkir Hebrides Highlander hills Hushinish Iceland island Isles Journal land ledges Lewis Loch Macleod Maid of Isla Method Donated Documentation miles minister morning mountain Mull Museum Natural History Society nest Newcastle upon Tyne Nhs Record number North Rona Oban Petrel Portree Puffin Raasay Rasa Record number NEWHM rock Rock Pigeons Rona Roneval rope Rowdill sail scene scenery Scotland sea fowl Shiant Islands shore side Sir John situation sketches Skye specimens St Kilda Stac Stack stones Stornoway Storr Sunderland Tacksman Tarbert Thomas Bewick Trans Nhs Record voyage whiskey ZOOL Brief Description