Scotland's Northwest Frontier: A Forgotten British Borderland

Front Cover
Troubador Publishing Ltd, Aug 28, 2014 - History - 576 pages

 The western coastal lands of the Northern Highlands are squeezed between the northern Hebrides and Drumalban, the mountainous spine of Highland Scotland. This is a region justly famed for some of the finest and most unspoilt scenery in the British Isles – but what happened here in times past? Scotland's Northwest Frontier provides the answer. 


For a long time, this area was a frontier zone between the medieval kingdoms of Norway and Scotland, and then between the Gaelic Lords of the Isles and the Scottish kings. In the 18th century, this remote seaboard was Britain’s ‘Afghanistan’, a dangerous region often beyond the control of London and Edinburgh. It was the last hiding place of Bonnie Prince Charlie before his escape to France after his Jacobite army had been crushed on Culloden Moor. 

A land of clans and lost causes, this is the story of powerful lords and warrior chiefs, Presbyterian soldiers of the Covenant and Hanoverian redcoats, Highland Clearances, road and railway builders, whisky smugglers and opium traders, from Viking times to the beginning of the 21st century. 

Scotland's Northwest Frontier is the entertaining story of what was for long a lawless region, followed through eight turbulent centuries. Backed by comprehensive appendices and glossary, this is one for the fireside, a travelling companion and an invaluable reference source for the bookshelf. Scotland's Northwest Frontier will appeal to those interested in Scottish history, and people who descend from Scottish clans and families.
 

Contents

Introduction to the Northwest Coast
3
Lords of the Northwest Coast
15
A Crumbling International Frontier
17
Rivalry for the Vacant Scottish Throne
35
Wars for Scottish Independence
54
Rise and Fall of the MacDonald Earls of Ross
81
Age ofRaids Tussles for Ross
116
Age of Raids Conflict around the Minch
152
Closeup on an Old Frontier Land of the Three Sea Lochs
297
Early Times
299
Clan Beginnings
320
Under the Lordship of the Isles
339
The Struggle for Lochalsh
353
Final Centuries of the Clan Era
379
The Long Adjustment
417
19th Century The Background
419

Seaforth Indecision during the Wars of the Covenant
176
The Royalist Seaforths
213
Black William of Seaforth a Committed Jacobite
234
The 45 Rising Hanoverian Reprisals
251
End of the Clans Doom of the Seaforths
282
19th Century Lochalsh and its Environs
439
20th Century Aftermath
481
vii
505
Glossary
551
Copyright

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About the author (2014)

Alister Farquhar Matheson was born and brought up in Edinburgh. He obtained his first degree at Edinburgh University and his doctorate from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dr Matheson now lives with his wife in Richmond, North Yorkshire, where he is a volunteer at the Citizens' Advice Bureau, and a keen photographer and rambler.

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