‘Càrn-slaodaidh or Slide-car’, ‘Light cart or lòpan’, in Edmund Burt, Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland, London, Vol. 1

Edmund Burt’s account of the Highlands was illustrated with nine plates mostly depicting living and working conditions and customs. Here, the focus is on traditional forms of transport in Gaelic Scotland adapted to carrying goods over difficult terrain. In his text, complaining of “the old Ways (for Roads I shall not call them) that consisted chiefly of stony Moors, Bogs, rugged, rapid Fords, Declivity of Hills, entangling Woods, and giddy Precipices”, Burt favourably compared the ‘new roads’ with the traditional ‘old ways’.