The Drove Roads of Scotland

by A.R.B. Haldane

Overview

One of the great classics of Scottish history, The Drove Roads of Scotland interweaves folklore, social comment and economic history in a fascinating account of Scotland's droving trade and the routes by which cattle and sheep were brought from every corner of the land to markets in central Scotland.

In pastoral Scotland, the breeding and movement of livestock were fundamental to the lives of the people. The story of the drove roads takes the reader on an engrossing tour of Scottish history, from the lawless cattle driving by reivers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the legitimate movement of stock which developed after the Union of the Crowns, by which time the large-scale movement of stock to established markets had become an important part of Scotland's economy, and a vital aspect of commercial life in the Empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912476534
Publisher:	Birlinn, Limited
Publication date:	07/23/2019
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

Archibald Richard Burdon Haldane was born in 1900, the nephew of Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane. Like his father and uncles, he attended the Edinburgh Academy, after which he went to Balliol College, Oxford to read history. He returned to Scotland to enter his father's legal firm. In 1982, he was awarded the CBE in recognition of his work for the bank. He was principally known, however, as a social historian and author. In recognition for his work in this field, he was awarded the honorary degree of D Litt from the University of Edinburgh. He died in 1982.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Early Drovers 6

2 The Life and Work of a Drover 20

3 The Economics of Droving 45

4 The Drove Road from Skye and the Western Isles 68

5 The Drove Roads of Argyll 84

6 The Drove Road from the North 102

7 The Drove Roads of Morayshire, Aberdeenshire and Angus 115

8 The Trysts 133

9 The Drove Roads of Southern Scotland 150

10 Beyond the Border 168

11 The Coming of Sheep 187

12 The Decline of the Drove Roads 204

Appendices 223

Bibliography 245

Index 254

Editorial Reviews

Comprehensive and continuously engrossing

The Scotsman

a great classic of Scottish history - a masterpiece

Highland News