In the first half of the 18th century, Scotland was torn apart by a succession of Jacobite uprisings, motivated by the desire of the exiled Stuart kings to regain their throne.

By the 1720s, the British government’s attempts to pacify the Highlands resulted in a colossal road and bridge-building programme. Its aim was to link up the towns and forts across the glens and mountains that until then were all but inaccessible.

Designed to replace the ‘old ways’ and ‘tedious passages’, this endeavour would dramatically transform the way Scotland was perceived and experienced. 

Over the course of the century, the profits of Britain’s growing maritime empire, including the transatlantic slave economy, would increasingly play a part in the widescale changes reshaping Scotland. Travellers were as focused on modern Northern Britain as on its antiquities and natural wonders. Taken together, their accounts conjure up a rich and complex picture of 18th-century Scotland and of its place in the world.