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Nature-based solutions are increasingly advocated to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss, while improving ecosystem resilience and providing additional ecosystem services. In Scotland, woodland expansion and restoration of degraded peatlands are expected to play a major role in meeting net-zero emissions by 2045 and have prompted debates about the impact of increased woodland cover and prescribed fire on the biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by upland landscapes. In alignment with national policy, the Cairngorms National Park, the UK's largest national park, has committed to an ambitious programme of woodland expansion and peatland restoration in a landscape dominated by heather moorlands that is predominantly managed through prescribed burning for game management. Using the Native Woodland Model and the InVest modelling platform, we assessed the effects of five land cover and land use change scenarios, with different levels of prescribed fire regulation and woodland expansion, to evaluate their benefits and costs on biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Results show that changing the extent and management of habitats will result in different carbon sequestration pathways, as well as biodiversity winners and losers. The scenario presenting greater benefits for the conservation of biodiversity also has lower above-ground carbon sequestration potential and a larger negative impact on red grouse habitats, thus being less profitable to sporting estates. Hence, trade-offs will be necessary to achieve optimal carbon sequestration and biodiversity gains, with a potential role played by the continuation of prescribed fires and traditional moorland management practices as well as complementary grants and support measures based on biodiversity benefits rather than carbon sequestration. The results from this study could support discussions regarding future management of the uplands, trade-offs between loss of carbon in soils, carbon sequestration in woodlands and conservation of biodiversity, as well as stakeholders likely to be affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent interest in landscape re‐wilding and ecological restoration has resulted in a proliferation of large‐scale projects in many countries that have the potential to cause significant ecohydrological change. In Scotland an increasing number of watershed "restoration" schemes are motivated by declining Atlantic salmon populations and the threat of climate change. These usually involve riparian planting to shade salmon streams and re‐engineering of river channels to "enhance" salmon habitat. However, the need for, and objectives of, these schemes are often highly uncertain and there is no compelling scientific evidence to suggest that they are likely to be successful in halting salmon declines. Remarkably, these schemes ‐ which affect can affect rivers with the highest conservation designations in protected landscapes ‐ have been subject to limited environmental assessment. In some cases, engineering activities pose significant potential risk to juvenile salmon, and existing high quality salmon habitat may be degraded in the re‐engineering of streams. This commentary highlights the urgent need for more evidence‐based approaches in the management of complex ecohydrological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GPS satellite tracking allows novel investigations of how golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos use the landscape at several scales and at different life history stages, including research on geographical barriers which may prevent or limit range expansion or create population/sub-population isolation. If there are significant barriers to golden eagle movements, there could be demographic and genetic consequences. Genetic studies have led investigations on the identification of sub-species, populations, and sub-populations but should be conjoined with demographic studies and dispersal movements to understand fully such designations and their geographic delimitation. Scottish eagles are genetically differentiated from continental European birds, with thousands of years of separation creating a distinct population, though without sub-species assignation. They present unique research opportunities to examine barriers to movements illustrated by satellite tracking under Scotland's highly variable geography. We primarily examined two features, using more than seven million dispersal records from satellite tags fitted to 152 nestlings. The first was the presence of unsuitable terrestrial habitat. We found few movements across a region of largely unsuitable lowland habitat between upland regions substantially generated by geological features over 70 km apart (Highland Boundary Fault and Southern Uplands Fault). This was expected from the Golden Eagle Topography model, and presumed isolation was the premise for an ongoing reinforcement project in the south of Scotland, translocating eagles from the north (South Scotland Golden Eagle Project: SSGEP). Second was that larger expanses of water can be a barrier. We found that, for a northwestern archipelago (Outer Hebrides), isolated by ≥24 km of sea (and with prior assignation of genetical and historical separation), there were no tagged bird movements with the Inner Hebrides and/or the Highlands mainland (the main sub-population), confirming their characterisation as a second sub-population. Results on the willingness of eagles to cross open sea or sea lochs (fjords) elsewhere in Scotland were consistent on distance. While apparently weaker than the Outer Hebrides in terms of separation, the designation of a third sub-population in the south of Scotland seems appropriate. Our results validate the SSGEP, as we also observed no movement of birds across closer sea crossings from abundant Highland sources to the Southern Uplands. Based on telemetric results, we also identified where any re-colonisation of England, due to the SSGEP, is most likely to occur. We emphasise, nevertheless, that our study's records during dispersal will be greater than the natal dispersal distances (NDDs), when birds settle to breed after dispersal, and NDDs are the better shorter arbiter for connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores generic and specific aspects of Scottish emigration to Australia in the century and a half since 1830, beginning with the onset of free emigration and ending shortly after the termination of the £10 assisted passage programme. The overarching theme of continuity and change is harnessed to a number of sub-themes, including reasons for leaving and the process of adjustment to life in the Antipodes or back in Scotland. The motives, attitudes and experiences of individuals who settled or sojourned in Australia are scrutinized through the lens of personal testimony, both written and oral. In addressing broad issues of migration philosophy, process and practice over a long time-frame and in multiple locations the study deploys Eric Richards' methodology of evaluating the global through the local. While coverage relates to Scotland as a whole, tribute is paid to Eric's other influential area of scholarship by incorporating the experiences of a number of Highland emigrants into the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political and social circumstances in fourteenth-century northern Scotland and the central Highlands have long received attention in late medieval Scottish history. However, compared with many studies on the late fourteenth century, discussions on the first half of the century are scarce, except from the perspectives of kingship and regnal politics. There has been little research on Moray under the Randolph family, though detailed examinations of other northern regions and baronial families have been made. In this article the structure and exercise of power in Moray under the first earl, Thomas Randolph is discussed. This paper demonstrates that the earl's building ties with influential local families and utilising the pre-existing informal political network and formal royal administrative systems, were as crucial for the governance of his northern estates as acquiring proxy-royal, regalian, and judicial power. Indeed, the earl took the opportunity to reinforce his rule by migrating his southern followers and expressing his authority in a unique fashion. However, due to his dependence on the pre-existing power networks and structure, the local political society kept its continuity too. Moray under Thomas I was never free from disputes, but the relatively stable regional situation was the product of such continuity and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reads three poems responding to the emigration of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders from Scotland during the early Romantic era: Henry Erskine's «The Emigrants» (1773), Luke Booker's «The Highlanders» (1787), and Anne Grant's «The Highlanders« (1795). All three poems opposed the emigrations and particularly the increase in land rents that precipitated them and the Clearances generally. But they also encouraged their readers to sympathize with the Highlanders' dispossessed state and to recognize their military prowess, their natural perseverance, their virtue, and, above all, their whiteness. Whiteness is defined as a mobile «property» that «orients» (Hartman) the multifarious entanglements of space, colour, and movement in order to ensure the security once available in land that is denied to the Highlanders themselves. The poems thus delineate a new kind of migrant subject, the white Highlander, whose embodiment of the abstractness of mobile property exculpates imperial dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Searle (2022) argues, based on data from Scotland alone, that the deformation and metamorphism of the Scottish Highlands is continuously diachronous from the early Ordovician (Grampian) in the Dalradian of the Grampian Highlands to the mid-Silurian (Scandian) in the Moine of the Northwest Highlands. Necessarily, he disputes substantial offset along the Great Glen Fault (GGF). He compares the Scottish Caledonides with the Himalayas. We take the different view, which also considers evidence from along-strike in Ireland and Newfoundland, that the Grampian and Scandian orogenies were discrete events. The Grampian Orogeny involved major deformation and metamorphism across the Grampian and Northwest Highlands to the Moine Thrust Zone, whereas the Scandian Orogeny affected only the Northwest Highlands. The early Ordovician Grampian Orogeny was generated by the collision and obduction of an oceanic arc-ophiolite with and onto the Laurentian continent. The mid-Silurian Scandian Orogeny was caused by continental collision between Laurentia and Baltica. Late Silurian – early Devonian sinistral slip along the GGF emplaced the the Moine of the Northwest Highlands from a distant location to the north in the Scandian collision zone, against the Dalradian, which had not been involved in the Scandian collision. We outline several (eight) arguments that we believe contradict evidence for progressive northwestward propagation of a Himalaya-style thrust wedge from the early Ordovician to the mid-Silurian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In relation to the exercise of violence and disorder in late fourteenth-century northern Scotland, previous studies have suggested that the waning of royal and magnate control, owing to successive wars and the economic crisis caused by European-wide climate regression and plague, led to the rise of lesser Gaelic military kindreds in the central Highlands. The disorder at the end of that century, in particular, has been discussed in terms of the adoption of a Gaelicised style of lordship by Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan, and his conflicts with the neighbouring secular and ecclesiastical authorities. This paper, however, investigates another aspect of the disorder in the north, focussing on the conflicts between other local non-Gaelic lords and the regional ecclesiastical communities in Moray, which have received limited attention so far, and also discusses the political, economic and social factors behind these disputes with a view to the contribution of recent environmental history. In addition, the study highlights that the adoption of the Gaelicised style of lordship, traditionally considered a peculiarity of the earl of Buchan, was also found among other non-Gaelic local magnates, suggesting the possibility of a more nuanced understanding of Highland–Lowland divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alexander McQueen's Fall 1995 show Highland Rape was a turning point in his career. The title of the show, in conjunction with the models' appearance on the runway in ripped, revealing clothes, was undeniably provocative, and the controversy raised his profile considerably. Several reviewers criticized the show, labeling it "misogynistic." McQueen consistently objected to this characterization, saying that the phrase "Highland Rape" referred to England's historical "assaults" upon his ancestral homeland of Scotland and drew from witnessing the abuse that his sister suffered at the hands of her ex-husband. Because of this, some fashion scholars have dismissed the idea of McQueen's misogyny as merely a failure to fully understand his oeuvre and his biography. While critiquing McQueen's use of sexual violence, it is necessary to find a middle ground between the idea that either McQueen's work is too complex and authentic to be criticized or that his sometimes-troubling approach to race and gender politics should condemn him to wholesale dismissal. However, examining Highland Rape through its authorial intent and a close reading of the garments themselves, while considering the power dynamics between model and designer, reveals a performance that reinforces the glamorization of rape and the manipulation of women's bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the popularisation of the concept of haunted space in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland. While earlier ghost stories were usually about the haunting of people, the rise of Gothic and Romantic literary aesthetics fuelled a new interest in both the Scottish landscape, and the dramatic potential of lurking spectres. Amid the upheaval of industrialisation and the Highland Clearances, and in a period when Scots were still wrestling with the implications of the 1707 Union, authors recorded stories of wandering ghosts as part of a broader movement to fashion a distinctive identity rooted in a specific cultural context. Against the frequently broad scope of academic literature on spectrality, this article draws attention to the crucial significance of contextual nuances and specific historical and social circumstances. In particular, it points to the fraught politics of loss and repossession in relation to the Highlands' history of depopulation and modernisation, casting a fresh light on the historical events that have given shape to Scottish haunted space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews documentary and pictorial evidence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries concerning the wearing of plaids by men. Initially, sixteenth-century sources that specifically use the term 'plaid' are examined, in order to build a working definition, and this is then applied to earlier sources in languages other than Gaelic, where the terminology is uncertain. The early sources provide insight regarding the origins of traditions associated with plaid wearing. It is suggested that the origins of Highland military dress lie in the west Highlands and Islands in the mid-sixteenth century with the adoption of tartan plaids by local warriors. The article also draws attention to an apparent long running belief that plaids were derived from ancient Greek or Roman dress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This two-part article presents a holistic approach and a comprehensive background to intellectual and practical education in the northern Highlands before the SSPCK. It underlines the way in which intellectual and technical education was experienced, consumed, but also encouraged in one culturally heterodox part of Scotland, essentially the northern Highlands, with its population of Gaels and non-Gaels, from around the Reformation until the mid-seventeenth century. The first part will investigate education through the institutional system of schools and universities as well as education abroad and the patronage of education. It demonstrates that a number of northern Highlanders fully embraced the educational opportunities presented to them by the Crown and by local agencies. As a result, State formation and the integration of the region gradually unfolded through soft power and the shaping of minds. Northern Highlanders, mainly but not solely the clan elite, exploited the educational developments of the time and fully participated in and supported the broader dynamic of education and culture but at times balked at funding it. The education in the northern Highlands presented in this article thus appears much more in flux and less antagonistic between the area and the educational structure developed by the Crown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, there is increasing interest in tree planting, leading to many country‐level commitments to reforestation. In the UK, current commitments would achieve 17% forest cover by 2050, with the highest rates of forest expansion expected in Scotland. Forest expansion with native trees is expected to increase biodiversity, particularly woodland specialist species, and associated ecosystem services. Despite this, data on biodiversity changes over the early stages of reforestation are sparse, particularly for upland areas in Scotland where opportunities for forest expansion are greatest.We collected data on the response of plants, carabid beetles and birds to native reforestation and grazing exclusion, using sites reforested over the last 30 years in the Scottish Highlands. Biodiversity in ungrazed, reforested sites was compared to unforested controls and mature native forest, both grazed and ungrazed.Mean bird species richness in reforested plots (4.4 [95% CI: 3.2, 5.9]) was higher than in unforested plots (0.8 [0.5, 1.3]), but lower than in mature forest plots (7.0 [5.4, 8.3]). In contrast, there was no systematic difference in plant or carabid beetle species richness in reforested, unforested or mature forest plots, or between grazed and ungrazed plots for the species richness of any groups. Woodland specialist bird and plant species were found in the reforested plots, and richness of woodland specialist bird species was predicted to reach levels in mature forest c. 36 years after reforestation.Species assemblages differed across habitat categories. For birds and plants, species assemblages in reforested sites were intermediate to unforested and mature sites. For carabid beetles, the assemblages in mature and reforested sites were comparable and differed from unforested sites. Grazing did not strongly influence species assemblages.Policy implications. We show that woodland specialists colonise reforested sites and species assemblages transition towards those found in the target habitat within the first 30 years of reforestation with native species. Native forest should be prioritised in Scotland's future forest expansion targets, given that mature native forest is scarce and fragmented in the Scottish Highlands and that the ultimate gain from native forest expansion may accrue over long time‐scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a right to responsible access across almost all land in Scotland, millions of recreationists make free use of an extensive upland path network. These paths provide easy access to some of the most spectacular, but most fragile habitats in the country. This path network is expected to come under increasing pressure from both use and climate. With many hundreds of kilometres already in poor condition, a new strategy to sustainably manage this important resource is required. As key stakeholders in the management of upland paths, understanding landowner engagement is key. Based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with land management representatives we found a diverging sense of responsibility for path management along the private/non-private landownership divide, but a positive attitude towards public access across the board. This resulted in a generally positive intention to engage in upland path management. Principal factors influencing engagement are; landowner awareness of the complex and nuanced issues associated with path degradation, the perceived benefits of path works, and the availability of and access to appropriate funding. From this, a typology of behaviours was developed. More than one behaviour type was identified on most properties, with engagement increasing in-line with severity of path degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glacier surges are cyclic oscillations of velocity and mass resulting from internal dynamic instabilities. For surge-type glaciers, cycles of advance and retreat are decoupled from climate forcing, so it is important to consider the possibility that former glaciers may have been surge-type when making climatic inferences from their dimensions and chronologies. In this paper, climatic and glacier geometric data are used to show that Scotland was likely the location of a surge cluster during the Loch Lomond Stade (∼12.9–11.7 ka), with high probabilities of surging for outlets of the West Highland Icefield and the larger glaciers in the Inner Hebrides and Northern Highlands. Terrestrial and marine landforms consistent with surging occur in all of these areas, and it is proposed that surge-type glaciers existed on the Islands of Skye and Mull, in the Northern Highlands, and in a 'surging arc' along the western, southern and south-eastern margins of the West Highland Icefield. The possibility that surge-type glaciers were widespread in Scotland during the Loch Lomond Stade offers a fresh perspective on some long-standing issues, including the relationship between style of deglaciation and climate change, the climatic significance of glacial chronologies, palaeoclimatic reconstructions, and the interpretation of numerical model results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diverse assemblage of moderately well-preserved radiolarians occurs in the Ordovician cherts of the Crawford Group in the Southern Uplands terrane of the Scottish borders. A total of 8 genera and 11 species are described. Taxa present correlate to the Middle Ordovician Pygodus anserinus biozone. Key species identified include: Proventocitum procerulum, Inanigutta gansuensis, Inanigutta sp. cf. I. complanata, Inanibigutta sp. cf. I. verrucula, Inanibigutta sp. cf. I. pinglianensis, ?Inanibigutta inconstans, ?Inanihella penrosei, Haplentactinia armillata, ?Oriundogutta ramificans and Syntagentactinia sp. A new species Haplotaeniatum albaensis is introduced here and described on the basis of details of skeletal architecture observed using microcomputed tomography, demonstrating the potential of this technique as a tool for improving the understanding of radiolarian taxonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the evidence for periodic human activity in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland from the late 9th millennium to the early 4th millennium cal bc. While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone. Results of excavation at Chest of Dee, along the headwaters of the River Dee, are set into a wider context with previously published excavations in the area. A variety of site types evidences a sophisticated relationship between people and a dynamic landscape through a period of changing climate. Archaeological benefits of the project include the ability to examine novel aspects of the archaeology leading to a more comprehensive understanding of Mesolithic lifeways. It also offers important lessons in site survival, archaeological investigation, and the management of the upland zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change, combined with industrial growth and increasing demand, could result in serious future water shortages and related water quality and temperature issues, especially for upland and humid areas. The extreme 2018 drought that prevailed throughout Europe provided an opportunity to investigate conditions likely to become more frequent in the future. For an upland rural catchment utilised by the distilling industry in North‐East Scotland, a tracer‐based survey combined discharge, electrical conductivity, stable water isotopes and temperature measurements to understand the impacts of drought on dominant stream water and industry water sources, both in terms of water quantity and quality (temperature). Results showed that water types (groundwater, ephemeral stream water, perennial stream water and water from small dams) were spatially distinct and varied more in space than time. With regards to the drought conditions we found that streams were largely maintained by groundwater during low flows. This also buffered stream water temperatures. Water types with high young water fractions were less resilient, resulting in streams with an ephemeral nature. Although our results demonstrated the importance of groundwater for drought resilience, water balance data revealed these storage reserves were being depleted and only recovered towards the end of the following year because of above average rainfall in 2019. Increased storage depletion under continued trends of extreme drought and water abstraction could be addressed via informed (nature based) management strategies which focus on increasing recharge. This may improve resilience to droughts as well as floods, but site specific testing and modelling are required to understand their potential. Results could have implications for management of water volumes and temperature, particularly for the sustainability of an historic industry, balancing requirements of rural communities and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the journeys of a group of North American Master athletes who travelled to Scotland to compete in the 2014 Masters World Championship Highland Games. Conceptualising, the Masters World Championship Highland Games as a unique form of sport heritage tourism, the paper explores how imaginations of the host venue are caught within individual and collective histories, while also being influenced by the socio-political context of contemporary Scotland. Design/methodology/approach: After detailing the histories of the Highland games and Scottish emigration, the study draws upon a qualitative methodology to explore how such histories impact the imaginations of the Highland region. Findings: This paper examines the journeys of athletes to the games, how they understood the games venue space and surrounding areas, and also how the Highland region itself was the site of contested meanings. The study concludes with a discussion of the narratives that frame imaginations of the Highlands and Scotland more broadly. Originality/value: The paper adds to existing knowledge on sport heritage tourism and considers how conceptualisations of Scotland continue to be renegotiated in light of contemporary political developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws from existing work relating to the creative writing strand of the Major Minor Cinema project, which was inspired by the surprising discovery of project's pilot study that some cinema-goers from the period of research had been inspired to write poems or stories in response to their experience of going to the Film Guild screenings. Building on an earlier publication in the journal Participations (May 2019), which largely focused on the project's use of creative methodologies and creative writing workshops as a way of exploring cinema memory, this article will consider the way which cinema memory was narrativised in project's oral history interviews and their surrounding metadata, focusing in particular on the specificities of cinema-going in rural Scotland, and taking into consideration the significance of Scotland's oral history and storytelling traditions in relation to the arrival of cinema to the Highlands and Islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the development of the North Coast 500 (NC500) route as a key initiative contributing to the increase of tourism in one of the least visited parts of Scotland. Drawing upon data on visitor numbers within the area between 2014–2018 it considers whether the NC500 has catalysed and encouraged tourism to an area of the country that has for many years been a peripheral region in terms of visitation. The findings highlight that the route seems to have had an impact upon a number of different aspects of tourism within the area generating increased expenditure and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounts of empire in postcolonial critique largely remain silent on colonial relations internal to the United Kingdom, tending to elide the work of Scots, Irish, and Welsh within a solely English imperial enterprise. This article draws on recent reevaluations of the Scottish role in empire to outline the ambivalent place of Britain's "Celtic Fringe" in its global hegemony. Focusing on eighteenth-century cartography and Scottish accounts of African exploration, it argues that the aesthetic practice of colonial control developed in Scotland established a pattern imperial agents could repeat in overseas territories. The colonization of the "White Highlands" in Kenya, it suggests, relied on aesthetic forms that originated in the landscape of the Scottish Highlands. By focusing on landscape's influence in a constellation of fields—in aesthetics, cartography, and natural history—this article also moves toward an understanding of landscape as a form of aisthesis, a "regime of sense perception." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of successful ageing discourse, a growing number of older adults are turning to competitive sport. The phenomenon known as Masters sport is a form of serious leisure that challenges stereotypes of ageing. Contemporary research has explored how individuals become Masters athletes in a variety of sports, focusing upon on the mainstream sports of running, swimming and tennis. Research has yet to explore how people become involved in activities that have less universal appeal. This article begins filling this gap by examining how Masters athletes became involved in the Highland Games, a sport contextualised by its links to Scotland and its diaspora. A pragmatic theoretical approach lending from three existing models is used to make sense of how people enter the Games. Drawing on semi-structured life history interviews with 19 Masters athletes, this case study details two pathways to the Highland Games. The article describes how, unlike previous research, most athletes enter the sport later in life and are either drawn to competition through an emergent identification with Scotland or a diversification of bodily dispositions that existed before Games participation. The article concludes that theoretical flexibility is required to understand better the socio-cultural factors that influence Masters sport participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple reactivation episodes and long slip histories lead to complex fault structures, whose unravelling remains challenging in the absence of absolute time constraints. We apply K–Ar isotopic dating of illitic fault rocks, coupled with X-ray diffraction and microstructural analyses to constrain, for the first time, timing of illite-producing brittle fault movements accommodated by the Highland Boundary Fault (HBF), Scotland. Illite Age Analysis (IAA) plots indicate multiple fault reactivation events on the HBF. IAA plots for the red foliated chaotic fault-breccia conform to a 'normal' IAA pattern with younger ages recorded for 'authigenic' 1 M illite (306-276 and 300-272 Ma) and older dates for 'detrital' 2M 1 illite (554-502 and 471-427 Ma). Conversely, IAA plots for the superimposed blue fault-gouge reverse the 'normal' trend, with older 'authigenic' 1 M illite (348-314 and 276-25 Ma) and younger 'detrital' 2M 1 illite (258-234 and 250-226 Ma) ages. We propose this results from heterogeneous shearing and strain localisation. In localised pods of the blue fault-gouge, strain accelerated clay mineral growth, increased crystallite-size, and facilitated polytypic transformation from 1 M to 2M 1 illite via defect migration. Elsewhere in the blue fault-gouge, and in the red foliated chaotic fault-gouge, low strain regimes allowed the 1 M polytype to remain unaltered. • K–Ar ages reveal multiple Carboniferous to Lower Triassic thermotectonic events. • A total age span of 290 Ma separates the oldest and the youngest fractions. • HBF accommodated previously unknown and significant strain in the Triassic. • Reversal of IAA plots indicate heterogeneous shearing and localised strain. • Results indicate temporally variable, localised reactivation of fault gouges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Red deer (Cervus elaphus) are a common wild definitive host for liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) that have been the subject of limited diagnostic surveillance. This study aimed to explore the extent to which coprological diagnoses for F. hepatica in red deer in the Scottish Highlands, Scotland, are associated with variability among hosts and habitats. Methods: Our analyses were based on coproantigen ELISA diagnoses derived from faecal samples that were collected from carcasses of culled deer on nine hunting estates during two sampling seasons. Sampling locations were used as centroids about which circular home ranges were quantified. Data were stratified by season, and associations between host, hydrological, land cover and meteorological variables and binary diagnoses during 2013–2014 (n = 390) were explored by mixed effect logistic regression. The ability of our model to predict diagnoses relative to that which would be expected by chance was quantified, and data collected during 2012–2013 (n = 289) were used to assess model transferability. Results: During 2013–2014, habitat and host characteristics explained 28% of variation in diagnoses, whereby half of the explained variation was attributed to differences among estates. The probability of a positive diagnosis was positively associated with the length of streams in the immediate surroundings of each sampling location, but no non-zero relationships were found for land cover or lifetime average weather variables. Regardless of habitat, the probability of a positive diagnosis remained greatest for males, although males were always sampled earlier in the year than females. A slight decrease in prediction efficacy occurred when our model was used to predict diagnoses for out-of-sample data. Conclusions: We are cautious to extrapolate our findings geographically, owing to a large proportion of variation attributable to overarching differences among estates. Nevertheless, the temporal transferability of our model is encouraging. While we did not identify any non-zero relationship between meteorological variables and probability of diagnosis, we attribute this (in part) to limitations of interpolated meteorological data. Further study into non-independent diagnoses within estates and differences among estates in terms of deer management, would improve our understanding of F. hepatica prevalence in wild deer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: The hydrophilous tall herb community is an important refuge for grazing‐sensitive broad‐leaved flowering plants. It is distributed throughout upland Europe but overgrazing has contributed to an unfavourable conservation status. To guide tall herb restoration, we asked: (a) Does using grazing exclusion where the tall herb habitat is confined to cliff ledge patches promote an expansion into the grassland below? (b) Does this management negatively affect vascular plant diversity? Location: Ben Lawers NNR, Scotland. Methods: Large herbivores have been excluded from a 180‐ha area containing patches of outcrops rich in tall herb habitat. Using 1999 and 2017 surveys of permanent plot transects located in the grassland below (Before–After design), we quantify impacts on community composition and tall herb abundance. Results: Species diversity remained constant although total species richness declined slightly and tall herb species richness increased significantly. There was a large expansion in tall herb cover (+29.67%) and a corresponding decrease in grass cover (−26.16%), as well as smaller increases in bryophytes and small herbs and a reduction in bare ground. Community composition shifted significantly from species typical of upland calcareous grassland towards those found in tall herb habitats. Seven tall herb species were amongst those showing the greatest increase in cover, along with taller grasses and understory herbs. Grazing tolerant grasses and low‐growing, prostrate and annual herbs decreased. Competition for light, rather than resilience to herbivory, now has a major influence on the vegetation. Conclusions: Using grazing exclusion where the tall herb habitat is largely confined to patches on cliff ledges facilitates an expansion into the upland grassland below. Although this management favours species tolerant of shadier conditions, there is no evidence of a negative impact on vascular plant community composition. It is therefore an effective strategy for promoting the restoration and favourable condition of this grazing‐sensitive habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many ways the Scottish Reformation was a centralised, top-down event, driven by prominent members of the aristocracy, and imposed in stages throughout the country with greater or lesser success. Certain areas, in particular the Highlands and Islands, were harder to reform than other parts of the country, and certain aspects of pre-Reformation religious life were never fully excised from daily practice. This chapter examines the process of reform as applied to death, burial, and the emotions surrounding these events in the Highlands and Islands, in order to determine what aspects of pre-Reformation practice survived intact, which were modified, and which were removed entirely. The chapter investigates the speed of these changes, and the resistance to them, as this will determine the degree to which the reform of death was welcomed in the most remote parts of Scotland. Finally, this paper will briefly compare the practices surrounding death and burial in the Northern Isles with those of other parts of Scotland in order to determine the influence upon these islands from Scotland in comparison to the lingering practices from before they came under Scottish control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the tourism imaginary can be employed to illuminate representational histories of the inn and the innkeeper in the nineteenth-century Scottish Highlands. In evaluations of Scottish hospitality, the innkeeper's relationship to modern tourism culture was appraised in tandem with the wider role of the inn and its local social, cultural and commercial functions. Some commentators critiqued Highland tourism practices as inhospitable, often through caricatures of the miserly innkeeper. Other writers treated Highland inns as indices of local economic prosperity, and the innkeeper as either an upholder of local morality or a victim of economic structures and even climatic conditions. As the tourism sector expanded, a variety of texts positioned inns and innkeepers at the heart of debates over the relationship between Highland culture and practices of commercial hospitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary requirement for policy objectives is reliable figures on the composition of any region. Currently there is no comprehensive, definitive set of statistics for the British Uplands, hence the present paper. An overview of the background to the region is first provided, together with some examples of the available figures and a discussion of their limitations. The paper uses a formal structure, with landscapes at the highest level followed by habitats, then vegetation, and finally species, with exact definitions of the categories applied at all levels. The figures are produced from a survey of stratified, random one kilometre squares. The tables give comprehensive figures for Great Britain (GB) as a whole, and also England, Wales and Scotland. The Uplands are shown to cover 38 % of the country. In terms of UK Broad Habitats, Bog is the most common overall (2062 k ha). It is estimated that 41 % of upland vegetation in Britain is grazed by sheep, and Cervus elephus (red deer) are particularly evident in Scotland. Walls (mainly drystone) are the most important linear feature (84 k km) but hedgerows (30 k km) are also widespread. The major vegetation classes are those linked to moorlands and bogs (about 25 %) but those associated with fertile soils are also common (10 %). In terms of species, Potentilla erecta (tormentil) is the most frequent species with four other acid grassland species in the top ten. Calluna vulgaris (ling heather) has the highest cover in Great Britain (14.8 %). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper demonstrates that the British Uplands have been influenced to a great extent by policy - for example, the planting of almost a million hectares of exotic conifers since the Second World War, and the extent of designated areas. Otherwise, climate change transcends policy and is locally important to coastal and high mountain habitats. The different policies affecting the Uplands, such as the Common Agricultural Policy, are described, as are the wide range of designations such as National Parks, which may have a stabilising effect in times of great change. A new trend has started in Scotland in the last 20 years of local initiatives, such as the community ownership of Eigg, however large landowners still dominate. An impact table is presented of the habitats that make up the Uplands and their links to driving forces, with potential changes described that are likely to take place under future policies such as Brexit. Dwarf shrub heath is the habitat affected by many management drivers, whereas habitats such as Inland Rock, are relatively stable but most likely to be affected by climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poorly defined occupation surfaces restrict the ability to interpret the use of space in archaeological structures and settlements around the world. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can provide information about site preservation and characterise the use of archaeological space when stratigraphy is lacking but have rarely been applied in such contexts. This paper presents a comparative study of multiple geoarchaeological methods that were used to study ephemeral occupation surfaces in a 7th to 9th century AD turf longhouse in the upland settlement of Lair in Glen Shee, Perthshire, Scotland. When subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) and k-means clustering, the combined data were successful in identifying activity areas and relating this to maintenance practices, the organisation of space, and post-depositional processes. Most significantly, the integrated multi-method approach demonstrated that ephemeral occupation surfaces retain surviving characteristics of the use of space, even if floors are not preserved well enough to be clearly defined in the field or in thin-section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1894, two-fifths of the men who served in the Royal Naval Reserves (RNR) were drawn from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, despite the region containing only 0.5% of the total UK population. This was not an atypical spike in recruitment, however, but represents merely one moment in a relationship that lasted for nearly a century. Highlanders and Islanders had served in the RNR since its inception in 1859, and continued to do so in large numbers right up to the outbreak of war in 1939. This article explores the association between region and military institution that developed as a result, and the economic and social reasons that lay behind this. In doing so, it challenges the tendency for Scottish historians to focus overwhelmingly on questions of national identity when examining the British military. It also suggests that the historiography of the Highlands and Islands has focused too much on questions of land and land ownership, and not enough on the wider economic and social circumstances impacting on individual and community life across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predators are frequently victims of wildlife crime due to conflicts with human interests. Where predators are protected, killing may occur covertly and novel methods, including satellite tracking, are often required to assess population consequences. Wildlife crime persists in the British uplands, where raptors are illegally killed on moorland managed for Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica shooting. To understand impacts on one such species, the Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus , we analysed data from 148 individuals tracked across Britain between 2014 and 2021. Using remotely sensed land-use data and continuous-time survival methods, we quantified survival rates, contributions of natural causes and illegal killing to mortality, and spatial and temporal associations between mortality and land managed for grouse shooting. Annual survival was low, especially among first-year birds (males: 14 %; females: 30 %), with illegal killing accounting for 27–43 % and 75 % of mortality in first-year and subadult (1-2 years) harriers respectively. Illegal killing is likely attributable to grouse moor management because i) a 10 % increase in grouse moor use resulted in a 43 % increase in mortality risk; ii) a strong overlap existed between mortality and grouse moor extent in 20 km squares, identifying hotspots of illegal killing in northern England and northeast Scotland; iii) death due to natural causes showed different spatial and temporal patterns; and iv) timing of mortality peaked around the shooting season and during breeding territory establishment. Governments have failed to reduce illegal killing of Hen Harriers and other raptors in Britain and our results emphasise that further legislative reform is needed to tackle this enduring criminality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands are key components of upland landscapes and support a diverse and specialised biota. These habitats are subject to multiple drivers of change including pollutant deposition, climate change and grazing, which have varied over the last four decades. We used a resurvey approach to investigate vegetation change in Carex swamps and spring communities in the Scottish uplands between the 1970s and 2000s. We assessed changes in species group richness and cover and cover-weighted mean Ellenberg values between surveys, and related this to change in nitrogen and sulphur deposition, climate and grazing by sheep and deer. Species richness, particularly of graminoids and forbs, but also bryophytes in springs, increased between surveys. Graminoid cover in springs increased while forbs and bryophytes declined. Changes in Ellenberg values, suggested slight eutrophication in swamp habitats, but acidification and reduction in nutrient availability in springs. This apparent acidification occurred despite large reductions in sulphur deposition over the survey period and was associated with both cumulative sulphur and oxidised nitrogen deposition. Impacts of climate change were detected in spring habitats, where increases in growing degree days were associated with increased graminoid cover and a decline in forb cover. Grazing impacts were detected only in springs, where sheep grazing appeared to counteract the deleterious effects of warming by reducing graminoid cover. Our study highlights the multiple threats facing wetland communities in the uplands. The results show the need for ongoing pollution reductions to prevent further degradation of sensitive wetland habitats which are further impacted by climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the career and writings of the Highland land reformer Alexander Mackenzie, to shed new light on the evolution of Highland land reform in the years leading up to the Crofters' Act of 1886. Mackenzie's output as a writer and journalist shows that his early experiences of living and working on the land are vital to understanding his approach to the land question, and led him to focus not on abstract or ideal principles but on building popular consensus to secure the most pressing reforms. This moderate and pragmatic approach was not universally popular though, especially among Mackenzie's more radical reformist contemporaries. The tensions these disagreements created are symptomatic of the problems that beset the 'Crofting Community' in the 1880s and '90s: problems that would eventually cause the land reform movement to split. Nevertheless, Mackenzie's influence on the Crofters' War was huge, and deserves greater scholarly recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An iconic road in the north-west Highlands of Scotland has been portrayed as an ideal sporting and leisure landscape due to its severity and perceived remoteness, once on the periphery of Britain’s motoring reality in the early twentieth century, and again in the early twenty-first century as an unintended consequence of British governmental defence spending. This paper will explore the historic background to the route, and how the print media of the Victorian and Great War eras helped to shape its identity as a physical challenge, at a time when global exploratory firsts still captured the public imagination. Portrayed variously as ‘a terror’ to be feared and a hill ‘to slaughter’, the road could be argued to have become a legend in and of itself to motorists, cyclists and motorcyclists, as well as offering an access into an archetypal Scottish Highland landscape for walkers, climbers and hunters. Now, one hundred years on from its first flourishing as a sporting location, print and new media are once again driving the road’s increased profile. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using everyday human encounters with the wind as a starting point for exploring ideas about energy, I argue that human experiences of energy are not experiences of a 'thing-in-itself', but emerge through a skilled process. Following Rupp (2013), who states that success is achieved through managing flows of energy, I discuss how people become proficient at managing wind flow in relation to specific tasks and places and what this process entails for them. I advance the notion that wind energy can be understood both as an influence that mediates action and as subject to influence by actions, creating an emerging point of continual negotiation. People become skilled at managing energetic flows in order to obtain desired results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We present a glaciological and climatic reconstruction of a former glacier in Coire Breac, an isolated cirque within the Eastern Grampian plateau of Scotland, 5 km from the Highland edge. Published glacier reconstructions of presumed Younger Dryas-age glaciers in this area show that equilibrium line altitudes decreased steeply towards the east coast, implying a arctic maritime glacial environment. Extrapolation of the ELA trend surface implies that glaciers should have existed in suitable locations on the plateau, a landscape little modified by glaciation. In Coire Breac, a 0.35 km2 cirque glacier existed with an equilibrium line altitude of 487 ± 15 m above present sea level. The equilibrium line altitude matches closely the extrapolated regional equilibrium line altitude trend surface for Younger Dryas Stadial glaciers. The mean glacier thickness of 24 m gives an ice volume of 7.8 × 106 m3, and a maximum basal shear stress of c. 100 kPa−1. Ablation gradient was c. -0.0055 m m−1, with a mean July temperature at the equilibrium line altitude of c. 5.1°C. The reconstruction implies an arctic maritime climate of low precipitation with local accumulation enhanced by blown snow, which may explain the absence of other contemporary glaciers nearby. Reconstructed ice flow lines show zones of flow concentration around the lower ice margin which help to explain the distribution of depositional facies associated with a former debris cover which may have delayed eventual glacier retreat. No moraines in the area have been dated, so palaeoclimatic interpretations remain provisional, and a pre-Lateglacial Interstadial age cannot be ruled out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of the relative importance of biotic interactions versus abiotic drivers for structuring plant communities is highly debated but largely unresolved. Here, we investigate the relative importance of mean July air temperature, nitrogen (N) availability and direct plant interactions in determining the millennial-scale population dynamics through the Holocene (10 700-5200 cal. years bp) for four temperate tree taxa in the Scottish Highlands., A variety of dynamic population models were fitted to our palaeoecological time-series data to determine the mechanism(s) by which each driver affected the population biomass dynamics of Betula (birch), Pinus (pine), Alnus (alder) and Quercus (oak). Akaike information criterion weights identified the best model(s) for describing the relationship between each population and driver. The relative importance of these drivers was then assessed by the ability of each model to predict the observed population biomass dynamics. We also measured the change in goodness-of-fit of each model over time., We found that models of intra- and interspecific plant interactions described the plant population dynamics better than temperature- or N-dependent population growth models over the 5000-year study period. The best-fitting models were constant over time for pine, alder and oak. However, the plant-N availability and plant-temperature models provided a progressively better fit to the birch data when temperatures rose and N availability declined, suggesting increasing importance of these abiotic factors coincident with changing conditions., Synthesis. Multiple mechanistic models were applied to palaeoecological data to infer the most likely processes driving millennial-scale plant biomass dynamics in a woodland ecosystem. Direct plant interactions provided a better explanation for population biomass dynamics than growing season temperature or N availability over the full study period. The relative importance of all drivers we assessed here varied by species and - in the case of birch - over time in response to warming and reduced N availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The northern mid-high latitudes form a region that is sensitive to climate change, and many areas already have seen - or are projected to see - marked changes in hydroclimatic drivers on catchment hydrological function. In this paper, we use tracer-aided conceptual runoff models to investigate such impacts in a mesoscale (749 km2) catchment in northern Scotland. The catchment encompasses both sub-arctic montane sub-catchments with high precipitation and significant snow influence and drier, warmer lowland sub-catchments. We used downscaled HadCM3 General Circulation Model outputs through the UKCP09 stochastic weather generator to project the future climate. This was based on synthetic precipitation and temperature time series generated from three climate change scenarios under low, medium and high greenhouse gas emissions. Within an uncertainty framework, we examined the impact of climate change at the monthly, seasonal and annual scales and projected impacts on flow regimes in upland and lowland sub-catchments using hydrological models with appropriate process conceptualization for each landscape unit. The results reveal landscape-specific sensitivity to climate change. In the uplands, higher temperatures result in diminishing snow influence which increases winter flows, with a concomitant decline in spring flows as melt reduces. In the lowlands, increases in air temperatures and re-distribution of precipitation towards autumn and winter lead to strongly reduced summer flows despite increasing annual precipitation. The integration at the catchment outlet moderates these seasonal extremes expected in the headwaters. This highlights the intimate connection between hydrological dynamics and catchment characteristics which reflect landscape evolution. It also indicates that spatial variability of changes in climatic forcing combined with differential landscape sensitivity in large heterogeneous catchments can lead to higher resilience of the integrated runoff response. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological study of the postmedieval Scottish Highlands has engaged little with Gaelic oral tradition. The period from 1700 saw the gradual decline of the Gaelic language and the society and culture that supported it. Events and processes such as the Jacobite rebellions (1715 and 1745), 18th-century agricultural improvement, and the 19th-century Highland Clearances made the postmedieval era a turbulent one for both individuals and ways of life. Oral tradition played a key part in Gaelic society throughout this period and is invaluable as a form of evidence for postmedieval society and culture. Previous archaeological approaches are discussed, and the range of available evidence is outlined in order to demonstrate that archaeological engagement with oral sources can greatly enrich the understanding of Scotland's past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]