Old Ways
New Roads

Travels in Scotland 1720 – 1832

Welcome

Old Ways New Roads draws on the output of key travellers – from soldiers, surveyors and scholars to artists, writers and leisure tourists – to consider the connections between the military occupation of 18th-century Scotland and the beginning of modern tourism.

It also offers a new insight into the experience of travellers as they explore Scotland and its landscape by considering their responses to four key themes: ‘Natural History’, ‘Antiquities’, ‘Custom and Improvement’ and ‘Literary Landscapes and Picturesque Prospects’.

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.

Exhibition

Order Book

The publication which accompanies the forthcoming online exhibition Old Ways New Roads: Travels in Scotland 1720-1832 is available to buy now.

Illustrated with over 200 artworks from public and private collections, the publication explores how from 1725 onwards, the Scottish landscape was variously documented, evaluated, planned and imagined in words and images. Providing a fascinating insight into the experience of travellers and tourists, it also considers how they impacted on the experience of the Scottish people themselves.

Buy