{"id":345,"date":"2024-02-15T20:40:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T20:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/?p=345"},"modified":"2024-02-15T20:41:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T20:41:15","slug":"seeking-the-highland-cow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/?p=345","title":{"rendered":"Seeking the Highland Cow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Vivienne Corgoova <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Automobile touring the Highlands, 1958<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The year was 1958 when Addie Donaldson went on a cycling holiday with his wife Barbara to explore the Highlands. While cycling, they simply had to capture the approaching automobile in a photograph as they happened to be fellow tourists captivated by the mysterious atmosphere of the Highlands. The romantic promotion of the Scottish Highlands saw its peak after the publication of Sir Walter Scott\u00b4s historical novels in the early 19th<\/sup> century. \u201cMy heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer,\u201d (Scott, line 2) is one of his profound quotes which summarizes the importance the Scottish nature resembled to the author himself. Scott\u00b4s depictions of the Scottish Highlands as a mythical, melancholic, and yet bewitching and beautiful place inspired tourists and families across Britain to use the Highlands as their weekend getaway. The illustrations in Scott\u00b4s novels by a history painter, William Allan, complimented his literary depiction of Scottish heritage and enhanced the reader\u00b4s desire to visit the landscape. The mid-19th century therefore marked the emergence of literary tourism in Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the literary works of Scottish authors, the British royal family also contributed to the popularization of touring Scottish nature mainly thanks to Queen Victoria\u00b4s numerous visits to the Balmoral Castle. Many English people wanted to follow her travels and participate in the new \u201ctouring Scotland trend.\u201d This can raise several questions concerning Scottish uniqueness. What makes Scotland different? How is Scottish identity defined and why is it so attractive to tourists? The iconography in a typical Scottish souvenir shop would be filled with images of tartans, bagpipes, whiskey, and predominantly magical Scottish nature with the cutest Highland cows and vibrant blue skies without any sign of rain. While these images are usually used to lure tourists into the country, they are also associated with Scottish nationhood. The way most nations started to form is by declaring what they are not like rather than emphasizing their most prominent features. Scotland sought to distinguish itself from the English identity by stating that it was different from England building the evidence from stereotypical images such as men in kilts, bagpipers in the Highlands and magnificent nature. This distinction was the point that made the English public interested in the country and it forced them to explore the country to witness those mythical characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John Howden with his family in the Highlands, 1960<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As the railway system across Britain evolved and improved throughout the 20th<\/sup> century, tickets soon became more accessible to the working classes who could travel to different parts of the country for leisure. In 1983, ScotRail was first introduced to public transport making the travel from southern parts of the UK to the north even easier. The accessibility of the transport system was strongly interlinked with tourism as the decision to go on a holiday to the other side of the country often depended on the convenience of railways, roads, and buses. In very recent history, we can see how imperative transportation is for touring companies as hundreds of Edinburgh Tour Buses pass us every day. These buses can easily go from the Royal Mile to Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith just in a few minutes while providing the guides with the possibility to cover a wider area of Edinburgh\u00b4s history all while looking out the window and seeing the mentioned places. The popularity of such buses shows the importance of the tourism sector in Scottish history which also provides 13% of Scotland\u00b4s total employment (Bhandari, 21). Even though the stereotypical images on postcards and guide tour leaflets barely represent the complexity of Scottish identity, they are a profound part of a visitor\u00b4s idea of Scotland which can only encourage them to visit the place and experience the full extent of Scottish heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cTrasport and Tourism\u201d display in The Wee Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Don\u00b4t forget to visit us in The Wee Museum of Living Memory to see our \u201cTransport and Tourism\u201d monthly table!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott, Walter. \u201cMy heart’s in the Highlands\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhandari, Kalyan. Tourism and National Identity:\u202fHeritage and Nationhood in Scotland<\/em>. Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications, 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glendening, John. The High Road: Romantic Tourism, Scotland, and Literature, 1720-1820<\/em>, Macmillan, 1997.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Vivienne Corgoova The year was 1958 when Addie Donaldson went on a cycling holiday with his wife Barbara to explore the Highlands. While cycling, they simply had to capture the approaching automobile in a photograph as they happened to be fellow tourists captivated by the mysterious atmosphere of the Highlands. The romantic promotion of… Continue reading Seeking the Highland Cow<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingmemory.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}