Our hearts are in the Highlands

Published on Thursday 6 April 2006 01:39

WHAT IS MOST striking about this project is the remarkable interest that it has stimulated among Scotsman readers. Thousands of them have taken the trouble to follow the series and then place votes for their favourites.

This impressive response is further confirmation of the current interest in things Scottish and Scottish identity, a major feature of the modern nation often forgotten amid the criticism levelled at Devolution and the Scottish Parliament in its formative early years. This poll and the degree of widespread interest it has provoked confirms the results of recent academic inquiries revealing well over two-thirds of those surveyed regard themselves as exclusively Scottish or more Scottish than British. The dual identity of the Scots, forged in the 19th century, may not yet be broken but undeniably the pendulum has swung more emphatically towards Scottishness than Britishness. The huge majorities for devolution and the foundation of the Parliament itself are among the political manifestations of a confident Scotland, more secure in its own sense of itself than for many decades. The 'Scottish cringe' may well be in its death throes.

If the reaction to the Wonders poll is itself revealing about other issues, what of the top seven icons? My main response to the list is to suggest it contains few surprises. VisitScotland will be pleased its own favourites not only appeal to overseas tourists but are also clearly popular among Scots themselves. If the poll is to be believed, the nation mainly defines itself in terms of its glorious landscape and some iconic historic physical formations (Forth Bridge and Edinburgh Old and New Towns). The Wonders are also timeless and enduring. Late Victorian Scots would have recognised them all; there is no place for the 20th century in the list. When we define ourselves, we look back for markers of identity. Nor for a nation which has prided itself on educational achievements and contributions to global civilisation is there evidence of regard for Scotland of the Mind. Persuasive essays for the history of innovation, the extraordinary worldwide impact of the Scottish Enlightenment and the nation's literary traditions, failed to produce any winners.

Interestingly, too, the choice of Seven Wonders is geographically skewed. There is no place for icons from the Borders, Western Lowlands and eastern mainland north of Edinburgh. On the other hand, the Highlands are over-represented. Glencoe, not surprisingly, is listed. But Kathleen Jamie in her essay on light and sky pays special attention to places "where the sky is vast as on Orkney or the Hebridean Islands" while John Wheeler draws on Highland imagery to support his case for whisky: "Single malt whisky is Scotland in a bottle....the rugged landscape, the mist from the sea blowing across peat-covered hills'. My understanding is that the Cuillin of Skye and Fingal's Cave also polled well, though not quite making the final cut.

The strong support for the kilt, with its Highland connotations, is also striking; there is no evidence of hostility to tartan kitsch here. Indeed, as anyone can see with their own eyes at any Scottish social event, tartanry has never been more popular.

This seductive power of Highlandism on the Scottish imagination was fashioned in the 19th century and shows no sign of waning in a new millennium. For most Lowland Scots before 1800, the culture of the Gael was regarded with ethnic contempt and heather-covered bens and glens were neither romantic nor attractive, merely ugly and sinister. As the General Gazetteer put it in the later 18th century: "The North division of the country is chiefly an assembly of vast dreary mountains."

These perceptions did not last. The Romantic Movement of the early 19th century led to the transformation in aesthetic responses to the Highlands. Modern notions of seeing beauty in rugged and untamed landscapes and indeed the whole notion of 'scenery' were born. What was previously repellent was now a region of compelling beauty.As the steamship and railway networks made access easier and more comfortable, the Highland tourist trade took off with Thomas Cook offering all-inclusive packages by the 1840s. The Highlands had a seductive appeal in an age of massive economic transformation. Elsewhere by the early 19th century, 'natural' landscapes had been permanently altered by enclosed fields, neat farm steadings and improved agriculture; only the remote areas of the north seemed untouched. Despite the reality of large-scale commercial sheep-farming, as efficient as any in the country, which dominated the region, the Highlands seemed to exude, as one author has put it, "the radiance of a disappearing authenticity" which gave it a special magic. The adoption of Highland emblems and associations as the national image for a modernising Scotland had other roots. Scottish society was in a contradictory position within the Union. On one hand, the nation's rise to prosperity depended on the new connection, but on the other, the political and material superiority of England threatened the full-scale assimilation of Scotland. At the same time, from the later 18th century, romantic nationalism spread through Europe and it was unlikely Scotland would remain isolated from this vital cultural and political revolution. Any vigorous assertion of national identity would, however, threaten the English relationship on which material progress was seen to depend, so Highlandism came in to being to answer the emotional need to maintain distinctive Scottish identity without compromising the Union.

It was Sir John Sinclair who composed the resolution passed by the Highland Society of London in 1804 to wear tartan at its meetings. He did so in order to recall "the high character of our ancestors", and in doing so he stressed the need to assert Scottish identity before "Scotland becomes completely confounded in England". As Peter Womack noted: "As Lowland Scotland becomes more and more like England, it turns to the Highlands for symbols and beliefs to maximise its difference." Among these was the notion that the kilt had been the national dress of Scotland since time immemorial. It was an alluring myth for a society searching for an identity amid unprecedented economic and social change and under the threat of cultural assimilation by a much more powerful neighbour. It also proved remarkably enduring as the poll results for the Wonders of Scotland reveal. Apparently for many modern Scots, as for their Victorian ancestors, their hearts are still in the Highlands.

• Tom Devine is the Sir William Fraser Chair of Scottish History and Palaeography, University of Edinburgh. His inaugural lecture, In bed with an elephant: Almost 300 years of Anglo-Scottish Union is on Tuesday, 2 May at 5:15pm in the George Square Lecture Theatre. It is free and open to the public.