Art as an Expression of Northernness: The Highlands of Scotland

Abstract

This article explores northernness with respect to the Highlands of Scotland, in the process touching on both prehistoric and contemporary art. There is a particular moment of northernness in the Highlands, which relates both to the indigenous Gaelic culture and to external perceptions of it. This is the publication of James Macpherson's Ossian in the 1760s. It gave rise to a response in visual art across Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and continues to be explored today. It provides a linking theme. The article was made possible by an AHRC-funded project ‘Window to the West: Towards a Redefinition of the Visual within Gaelic Scotland’.