1.
Lewis
–
Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides. The total area of Lewis is 683 square miles, Lewis is, in general, the lower-lying part of the island, the other part, Harris, is more mountainous. Due to its flatter, more land, Lewis contains three-quarters of the population of the Western Isles. The islands diverse habitats are home to an assortment of flora and fauna, such as the eagle, red deer and seal. Lewis has a Presbyterian tradition and a rich history and it was once part of the Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles. Today, life is different from elsewhere in Scotland, with Sabbath observance. Lewis has a cultural heritage as can be seen from its myths and legends as well as the local literary. The Gaelic name Leòdhas may be derived from Norse Ljoðahús, although other origins have been suggested – most notably the Gaelic leogach and it is probably the place referred to as Limnu by Ptolemy, which also means marshy. It is also known as the Isle of Lewis, another name usually used in a cultural or poetic context is Eilean an Fhraoich. Although this refers to the whole of the island of Lewis and Harris, the earliest archaeological remains date from about 5,000 years ago. At that time, people began to settle in permanent farms rather than following their herds, the small houses of these people have been found throughout the Western Isles, in particular, at Dail Mhor, Carloway. The more striking great monuments of this period are the temples, about 500 BC, island society moved into the Iron Age. The buildings became larger and more prominent, culminating in the brochs – circular, the best remaining example of a broch in Lewis is at Dùn Chàrlabhaigh. The Scots arrived during the first centuries AD, bringing the Gaelic language with them, as Christianity began to spread through the islands in the 6th and later centuries, following Columban missionaries, Lewis was inhabited by the Picts. In the 9th century AD, the Vikings began to settle on Lewis, the Norse invaders intermarried with local people and abandoned their pagan beliefs. At that time, rectangular buildings began to round ones. Lewis became part of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, the Lewis chessmen, found on the island in 1831, date from the time of Viking rule. The people were called the Norse Gaels or Gall-Ghàidheil, reflecting their mixed Scandinavian/Gaelic background, the Norse language persists in many island placenames and some personal names to this day, although the latter are fairly evenly spread across the Gàidhealtachd
2.
Dry stone
–
Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction method. Dry stone technology is best known in the context of wall construction, but dry stone artwork, buildings, bridges, Dry stone walls have been traditionally used in building construction as field boundaries and garden or churchyard walls, and on steep slopes as retaining walls for terracing. Some dry-stone wall constructions in north-west Europe have been dated back to the Neolithic Age, some Cornish hedges are believed by the Guild of Cornish Hedgers to date from 5000 BC, although there appears to be little dating evidence. In County Mayo, Ireland, a field system made from dry-stone walls. The cyclopean walls of the acropolis of Mycenae have been dated to 1350 BC, in Belize, the Mayan ruins at Lubaantun illustrate use of dry stone construction in architecture of the 8th and 9th centuries AD. When used as boundaries, dry stone structures often are known as dykes. Dry stone walls are characteristic of areas of Britain and Ireland where rock outcrops naturally or large stones exist in quantity in the soil. They are especially abundant in the West of Ireland, particularly Connemara and they may also be found throughout the Mediterranean, including retaining walls used for terracing. Such constructions are common where large stones are plentiful or conditions are too harsh for hedges capable of retaining livestock to be grown as field boundaries. Many thousands of miles of such walls exist, most of them centuries old, the technique of construction was brought to America primarily by English and Scots-Irish immigrants. The technique was taken to Australia and New Zealand. Similar walls also are found in the Swiss-Italian border region, where they are used to enclose the open space under large natural boulders or outcrops. The higher-lying rock-rich fields and pastures in Bohemias South-Western border range of Šumava are often lined by dry stone walls built of field-stones removed from the arable or cultural land and they serve both as cattle/sheep fences and the lots borders. Sometimes also the dry stone terracing is apparent, often combined with parts of masonry that are held together by a clay-cum-needles composite mortar. Great Zimbabwe is a city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe, near Lake Mutirikwe. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the countrys Late Iron Age, construction on the monument began in the 11th century and continued until the 15th century. The exact identity of the Great Zimbabwe builders is at present unknown, the stone city spans an area of 722 hectares which, at its peak, could have housed up to 18,000 people
3.
Scotland
–
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
4.
Archaeology
–
Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
5.
Antiquarian
–
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives. Today the term is used in a pejorative sense, to refer to an excessively narrow focus on factual historical trivia. The Kaogutu or Illustrated Catalogue of Examined Antiquity compiled by Lü Dalin is one of the oldest known catalogues to systematically describe and classify ancient artifacts which were unearthed. Interests in antiquarian studies of ancient inscriptions and artifacts waned after the Song Dynasty, Books on antiquarian topics covered such subjects as the origin of customs, religious rituals, and political institutions, genealogy, topography and landmarks, and etymology. By contrast, antiquarian works as a form are organized by topic. Major antiquarian Latin writers with surviving works include Varro, Pliny the Elder, Aulus Gellius, the Roman emperor Claudius published antiquarian works, none of which is extant. Some of Ciceros treatises, particularly his work on divination, show strong antiquarian interests, roman-era Greek writers also dealt with antiquarian material, such as Plutarch in his Roman Questions and the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus. The aim of Latin antiquarian works is to collect a number of possible explanations. The antiquarians are often used as sources by the ancient historians, despite the importance of antiquarian writing in the literature of ancient Rome, some scholars view antiquarianism as emerging only in the Middle Ages. Antiquarianisms wider flowering is more associated with the Renaissance, and with the critical assessment. The development of genealogy as a scientific discipline went hand-in-hand with the development of antiquarianism, genealogical antiquaries recognised the evidential value for their researches of non-textual sources, including seals and church monuments. Many early modern antiquaries were also chorographers, that is to say, they recorded landscapes, in England, some of the most important of these took the form of county histories. They increasingly argued that empirical evidence could be used to refine. Antiquaries had always attracted a degree of ridicule, and since the century the term has tended to be used most commonly in negative or derogatory contexts. Nevertheless, many practising antiquaries continue to claim the title with pride, Antiquary was the usual term in English from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries to describe a person interested in antiquities. From the second half of the 18th century, however, antiquarian began to be used widely as a noun. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, a distinction was perceived to exist between the interests and activities of the antiquary and the historian
6.
Shetland
–
Shetland /ˈʃɛtlənd/, also called the Shetland Islands, is a subarctic archipelago that lies northeast of the island of Great Britain and forms part of Scotland, United Kingdom. The islands lie some 80 km to the northeast of Orkney and 280 km southeast of the Faroe Islands, the total area is 1,466 km2 and the population totalled 23,210 in 2012. The largest island, known simply as Mainland, has an area of 967 km2, making it the third-largest Scottish island, there are an additional 15 inhabited islands. The archipelago has a climate, a complex geology, a rugged coastline and many low. Humans have lived in Shetland since the Mesolithic period, and the earliest written references to the date back to Roman times. The early historic period was dominated by Scandinavian influences, especially Norway, when Scotland became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, trade with northern Europe decreased. Fishing has continued to be an important aspect of the economy up to the present day, the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s significantly boosted Shetland economy, employment and public sector revenues. The local way of life reflects the Scots and Norse heritage of the isles including the Up Helly Aa fire festival, the islands have produced a variety of writers of prose and poetry, often in Shetland dialect. There are numerous areas set aside to protect the fauna and flora. The Shetland pony and Shetland Sheepdog are two well known Shetland animal breeds, other distinguished local breeds include the Shetland sheep, cow, goose, and duck. The Shetland pig, or grice, has been extinct since approximately 1930, the islands motto, which appears on the Councils coat of arms, is Með lögum skal land byggja. This Icelandic phrase is taken from the Danish 1241 Basic Law, Codex Holmiensis, and is mentioned in Njáls saga. The name of Shetland is derived from the Old Norse words, hjalt, in AD43 and 77 the Roman authors Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder referred to the seven islands they call Haemodae and Acmodae respectively, both of which are assumed to be Shetland. Another possible early reference to the islands is Tacitus report in AD98, after describing the discovery and conquest of Orkney. In early Irish literature, Shetland is referred to as Inse Catt—the Isles of Cats, the Cat tribe also occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland and their name can be found in Caithness, and in the Gaelic name for Sutherland. It is possible that the Pictish cat sound forms part of this Norse name and it then became Hjaltland in the 16th century. As Norn was gradually replaced by English in the form of the Shetland dialect which shares similarities with Scots English. The initial letter is the Middle Scots letter, yogh, the pronunciation of which is almost identical to the original Norn sound, /hj/
7.
Broch of Mousa
–
Broch of Mousa is the finest preserved example of an Iron Age broch or round tower. It is in the island of Mousa in Shetland, Scotland. It is the tallest broch still standing and amongst the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe and it is thought to have been constructed c.100 BC, one of more than 500 brochs built in Scotland. The site is managed by Historic Environment Scotland, the broch is located on the western shore of the island of Mousa. It is accessible by boat from Sandwick, Shetland,14 miles south of Lerwick and it stands on the flat rock surface of a low promontory near the shore overlooking Mousa Sound. It is the tallest broch still standing and amongst the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe and it stands 13.3 metres high and is accessible via a single entrance at ground level. Once inside, a visitor may ascend a staircase to the top. It is the only broch which is nearly to the top. It is built of dry stone with no mortar, the entrance is on the west side but has been altered at various times from its original appearance. The entrance passage is 5 metres long and still has an original bar-hole, inside a hearth and floor tank can be seen in the central space. There is a low stone bench around the base of the inside wall, the broch went through at least two phases of occupation. In its original condition it may or may not have contained a wooden roundhouse resting on the scarcement ledges, at a later date, if the wooden building existed, it was demolished to make way for a small wheelhouse in the interior. Scarcement ledges at heights of 2.1 and 3.7 metres might have supported the putative timber building, the other main feature of the ground floor is the three large cells within the walls. They are entered via thresholds which are 0.7 metres above the floor level, above the lintel of each cell door are further openings which seem designed to let light and air into the chamber behind. The cells all have recesses, or large cupboards, set into the thickness of the wall, above the solid base of the broch are six galleries. They are formed by the space between the two walls of the upper part of the broch, and are partly lit by voids. It is possible to walk along most of the galleries and they were probably used by the builders as an aid to constructing the building, rather than for accommodation or storage. The stair, which begins at the level, is reached by a doorway in the inner wall face
8.
Scotland during the Roman Empire
–
Scotland during the Roman Empire refers to the protohistorical period during which the Roman Empire interacted with the area that is now Scotland, which was known to them as Caledonia. Roman legions arrived around AD71, having conquered the Celtic tribes of Britain over the three decades. Aiming to annex all of the island of Albion, Romans under Q, Julius Agricola invaded the Caledonians in the 70s and 80s. An account by Agricolas son-in-law Tacitus mentions a Roman victory at Mons Graupius which became the namesake of the Grampians but has been questioned by modern scholarship and this line was fortified as Hadrians Wall. Several Roman commanders attempted to conquer lands north of this line. The history of the period is complex and not well-documented, the province of Valentia, for instance, may have been the lands between the two Roman walls, or the territory around and south of Hadrians Wall, or Roman Wales. Romans held most of their Caledonian territory only a little over 40 years, some Scottish historians such as Moffat go so far as to say Romes presence was entirely uninfluential. Scots and Scotland proper would not emerge as unified ideas until centuries later, the Scoti, Gaelic Irish raiders who would give Scotland its English name, had begun to settle along the west coast as well. All three groups may have involved in the Great Conspiracy that overran Roman Britain in 367. The era also saw the emergence of the earliest historical accounts of the natives, the most enduring legacies of Rome, however, were Christianity and literacy, both of which arrived indirectly via Irish missionaries. Scotland had been inhabited for thousands of years before the Romans arrived, however, it is only during the Greco-Roman period that Scotland is recorded in writing. The work On the Cosmos by Aristotle or Pseudo-Aristotle mentions two very large islands called Albion and Ierne, the Greek explorer and geographer Pytheas visited Britain sometime between 322 and 285 BC and may have circumnavigated the mainland, which he describes as being triangular in shape. In his work On the Ocean, he refers to the most northerly point as Orcas, pomponius Mela, the Roman geographer, recorded in his De Chorographia, written around AD43, that there were 30 Orkney islands and seven Haemodae. There is certainly evidence of an Orcadian connection with Rome prior to AD60 from pottery found at the broch of Gurness. By the time of Pliny the Elder, Roman knowledge of the geography of Scotland had extended to the Hebudes, Dumna, the Caledonian Forest, and the Caledonians. His information becomes much less reliable in the north and west, famously, his coördinates place most of Scotland north of Hadrians Wall bent at a right angle, stretching due eastward from the rest of Britain. It is likely all of these cultures spoke a form of Celtic language known as Pritennic. The occupants of southern Scotland were the Damnonii in the Clyde valley, the Novantae in Galloway, the Selgovae on the south coast and these peoples may have spoken a form of Brythonic language
9.
Dumfries and Galloway
–
Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It comprises the counties of Dumfriesshire, Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and Wigtownshire. The administrative centre is the town of Dumfries, following the 1975 reorganisation of local government in Scotland, the three counties were joined to form a single region of Dumfries and Galloway, with four districts within it. Act 1994, however, it has become a local authority. For lieutenancy purposes, the counties are largely maintained with its three lieutenancy areas being Dumfries, Wigtown and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. To the north, Dumfries and Galloway borders East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire, in the east the Borders, and to the south the county of Cumbria in England, to the west lies the Irish Sea. The Dumfries and Galloway Council region is composed of counties and their sub-areas, Dumfries and Galloway covers the majority of the Western area of the Southern Uplands, it also hosts Scotlands most Southerly point, at the Mull of Galloway in the west of the region. This road leaves the A714 at Bargrennan, Water of Ken and River Dee form a corridor through the hills called the Glenkens which carries the A713 road from Castle Douglas to Ayr. The Galloway Hills lie to the west of route through the hills. River Nith rises between Dalmellington and New Cumnock in Ayrshire and runs east then south down Nithsdale to Dumfries, Nithsdale carries both the A76 road and the rail line from Dumfries to Kilmarnock. It separates the Carsphairn and Scaur Hills from the Lowther Hills which lie east of the Nith and this gap through the hills separates the Lowthers from the Moffat Hills. River Esk enters the Solway Firth just south of Gretna having travelled south from Langholm, the A7 travels up Eskdale as far as Langholm and from Langholm carries on up the valley of Ewes Water to Teviothead where it starts to follow the River Teviot to Hawick. Eskdale itself heads north west from Langholm through Bentpath and Eskdalemuir to Ettrick, the A701 branches off the M74 at Beattock, goes through the town of Moffat, climbs to Annanhead above the Devils Beef Tub before passing the source of the River Tweed and carrying on to Edinburgh. Until fairly recent times the ancient route to Edinburgh travelled right up Annandale to the Beef Tub before climbing steeply to Annanhead, the present road ascends northward on a ridge parallel to Annandale but to the west of it which makes for a much easier ascent. From Moffat the A708 heads north east along the valley of Moffat Water on its way to Selkirk, moffatdale separates the Moffat hills from the Ettrick hills to the south. There are three National Scenic Areas within this region, Nith Estuary - This area follows the River Nith southward from just south of Dumfries into the Solway Firth. His mausoleum is in St Michaels graveyard, criffel offers the hill walker a reasonably modest walk with excellent views across the Solway to the Lake District. The house of John Paul Jones founder of the American Navy is also open to visitors near Kirkbean, East Stewartry - This takes in the coast line from Balcary Point eastward across Auchencairn Bay and the Rough Firth past Sandyhills to Mersehead
10.
Stirling
–
Stirling is a city in central Scotland. The market town, surrounded by farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its merchants and tradesmen, the bridge. Located on the River Forth, Stirling is the centre for the Stirling council area. It is proverbially the strategically important Gateway to the Highlands and it has been said that Stirling, like a huge brooch clasps Highlands and Lowlands together. Similarly he who holds Stirling, holds Scotland is often quoted, stirlings key position as the lowest bridging point of the River Forth before it broadens towards the Firth of Forth, made it a focal point for travel north or south. This invited control for, military advantage in times of unrest, unsurprisingly an excise man was installed in a covered booth in the centre of the bridge to collect tax from any entering the royal burgh with goods. According to a 9th century legend, when Stirling was temporarily under Anglo-Saxon sway, however the sound of a wolf roused a sentry who alerted his garrison to force a Viking retreat. This led to the wolf being adopted as a symbol of the town, even today it appears with a goshawk on the coat of arms along with the recently chosen motto, Steadfast as the Rock. Once the capital of Scotland, Stirling is visually dominated by Stirling Castle, the poet King was educated by George Buchanan and grew up in Stirling. He was later also crowned King of England and Ireland on 25th July 1603, modern Stirling is a centre for local government, higher education, tourism, retail, and industry. The 2011 census recorded the population of the city as 45,750, One of the principal royal strongholds of the Kingdom of Scotland, Stirling was created a royal burgh by King David I in 1130. In 2002, as part of Queen Elizabeths Golden Jubilee, Stirling was granted city status, Stirling was originally a Stone Age settlement as shown by the Randolphfield standing stones and Kings Park prehistoric carvings that can still be found south of the city. The site has been significant since at least the Roman occupation of Britain, due to its naturally defensible crag and tail hill. Coupled to this it enjoys a position which is not far from the Ochil Hills on the border between the Lowlands and Highlands. Its other notable feature is its proximity to the lowest ancient ford of the River Forth. It remained the rivers lowest crossing point until the construction of the Alloa Swing Bridge between Throsk and Alloa in 1885. It is supposed that Stirling is the fortress of Iuddeu or Urbs Giudi where Oswiu of Northumbria was besieged by Penda of Mercia in 655, as recorded in Bede and contemporary annals. Stirling was chartered as a burgh by King David in the 12th century
11.
Sutherland
–
Sutherland is a county in the Highlands of Scotland. Sutherland borders Caithness to the east, Ross-shire to the south, in Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas, Dùthaich MhicAoidh in the northeast, Asainte in the west, and Cataibh in the east. Cataibh is also used to refer to the area as a whole. The name Sutherland dates from the era of Norwegian Viking rule and settlement over much of the Highlands and Islands, although it contains some of the northernmost land in the island of Great Britain, it was called Suðrland from the standpoint of Orkney and Caithness. The northwest corner of Sutherland, traditionally known as the Province of Strathnaver, was not incorporated into Sutherland until 1601 and this was the home of the powerful and warlike Clan Mackay, and as such was named in Gaelic, Dùthaich Ic Aoidh, the Homeland of Mackay. Like its southern neighbour Ross-shire, Sutherland has some of the most dramatic scenery in the whole of Europe and these include high sea cliffs, and very old mountains composed of Precambrian and Cambrian rocks. Much of the population is based in towns, such as Helmsdale and Lochinver. Much of Sutherland is poor relative to the rest of Scotland, with few job opportunities beyond government funded employment, agriculture, further education is provided by North Highland College, part of the University of the Highland and Islands. The Ross House Campus in Dornoch was the first establishment in the UK to provide a degree in Golf Management, the Burghfield House Campus, also in Dornoch, is a hotel school. The inland landscape is rugged and very sparsely populated, despite being Scotlands fifth-largest county in terms of area, it has a smaller population than a medium-size Lowland Scottish town. It stretches from the Atlantic in the west, up to the Pentland Firth, the sea-coasts boast very high cliffs and deep fjords in the east and north, ragged inlets on the west and sandy beaches in the north. The remote far northwest point of Sutherland, Cape Wrath, is the most northwesterly point in Scotland, Sutherland has many rugged mountains such as Ben Hope, the most northerly Munro. The western part comprises Torridonian sandstone underlain by Lewisian gneiss, the spectacular scenery has been created by denudation to form isolated sandstone peaks such as Foinaven, Arkle, Cùl Mór and Suilven. Such mountains are attractive for hill walking and scrambling, despite their remote location, together with similar peaks to the south in Wester Ross, such as Stac Pollaidh, they have a unique structure with great scope for exploration. On the other hand, care is needed when bad weather occurs owing to their isolation, Sutherland has many fine beaches, a remote example being Sandwood Bay, which can only be reached by foot along a rough track. The number of visiting tourists is, naturally, minimal, there are pockets of the native Scots Pine, remnants of the original Caledonian Forest. Owing to its isolation from the rest of the country, Sutherland was reputedly the last haunt of the native wolf, the last survivor being shot in the 18th century. However, other wildlife has survived, including the eagle, sea eagle
12.
V. Gordon Childe
–
Vere Gordon Childe, better known as V. Gordon Childe, was an Australian archaeologist and philologist who specialized in the study of European prehistory. Here, he embraced the socialist movement and campaigned against the First World War, growing critical of Labor, he authored an analysis of their policies and joined the far-left Industrial Workers of the World. In doing so he introduced the continental European concept of a culture to the British archaeological community. From 1927 through to 1946 he worked as the Abercromby Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, throughout, he continued to publish prolifically, producing excavation reports, journal articles, and books. With Stuart Piggott and Grahame Clark he co-founded The Prehistoric Society in 1934, remaining committed to his socialist ideals, he embraced Marxism, and used Marxist ideas as an interpretative framework for archaeological data. He also became a sympathiser with the Soviet Union and visited the country on a number of occasions. His beliefs resulted in him being legally barred from entering the United States, upon retirement, he returned to Australias Blue Mountains, there committing suicide. Childe was born on 14 April 1892 in Sydney, New South Wales and he was the only surviving child of the Reverend Stephen Henry and Harriet Eliza Childe, a middle-class couple of English descent. Stephen Childe was a second-generation Anglican priest, ordained into the Church of England in 1867 after gaining a BA from the University of Cambridge, becoming a teacher, in 1871 he married Mary Ellen Latchford, together having five children. They moved to Australia in 1878 and it was here that Mary died, and in 1886 Stephen married Harriet, an Englishwoman from a wealthy background who had moved to Australia as a child. Gordon Childe was raised alongside five half-siblings at his fathers country house. Reverend Childe worked as the minister for St. Thomas Parish, a sickly child, Gordon Childe was educated at home for a number of years, before gaining a private school education in North Sydney. In 1907, he began attending Sydney Church of England Grammar School, gaining his Junior Matriculation in 1909, in July 1910 his mother died, his father soon took Monica Gardiner as his third wife. At university, he became a member of the Debating Society. Also while there, he became a friend of fellow undergraduate Herbert Vere Evatt. Ending his studies in 1913, Childe graduated the year with various honours and prizes. Wishing to continue his education, he gained a £200 Cooper Graduate Scholarship in Classics, allowing him to afford the fees at Queens College. He set sail for Britain aboard the SS Orsova in August 1914, at Queens, Childe was entered for a diploma in classical archaeology followed by a Literae Humaniores degree, although he never completed the former
