Scottish Highlands Research Articles

Population Checks and Natural Laws: Malthus, Climate Determinism and Emigration

Through the lens of emergent laws of climatology developed to advance the scientific foundations and popular reach of practical meteorology in the nineteenth century, this article examines the checks on population and the global movement of people linked to reoccurring climate patterns and abnormal climatic events. Meteorological research contributed to debates within political economy and the public health movement, and to the disputed moral rationale for poor law reform. Scientific authority for this new analysis rested on a network of personal, religious, and professional links between T.R. Malthus, Thomas Chalmers, Francis Jeffrey, David Brewster, James D. Forbes, James Stark, Edwin Chadwick and William Pulteney Alison. The work of climate determinists argued that several causations were simultaneously affecting the nation’s vital statistics. The potential advantage to health from moving on a permanent basis to a more salubrious climate was explored. Adding further to the conundrum of colonisation, and the case for assisted migration, the laws of climatology offered reasons why any migrants pulled into parts of urban and Highland Scotland by freed resource – the vacuum effect – would still experience a positive Malthusian check on their life chances.

‘There sails the ships; there is the Leveathon’: A Transatlantic Missionary's Journeys

A first-person account of a missionary's return transatlantic voyage linking the Scottish Highlands and Upper Canada in the 1850s offers a valuable insight into church operations and migrant networks as well as the realities of travel at a time of profound societal change. By considering the journal in its local contemporary situations, and by drawing on modern scholarship, this article considers the motivations for keeping the journal, push and pull factors related to religious and socioeconomic influences and observes that previous scholars have been correct in identifying an ongoing trend of episodic or temporary emigration for Highlanders and Scots in the mid-nineteenth century.

Scottish Gaelic Studies: Language, Linguistics, and Literature

Scottish Gaelic Studies: Language, Linguistics, and Literature

Social Relations Among Diverse Rural Residents in the Scottish Highlands

This article focuses on the development and the limitations of convivial, instrumental, and intimate family relations among diverse rural residents in the Inner Moray Firth area of the Scottish Highlands. Drawing on 22 semi‐structured interviews with international migrants (EU nationals), internal migrants (UK nationals), and participants who were born there and never left, this article identifies and critically discusses how different types of social relations develop, or not, within and between these groups of rural residents. This article indicates that while all participants experienced convivial relations, these encounters did not always transfer into close, meaningful relations. The instrumental and meaningful relations, however, were more ambivalent in practice and related to internal divisions within rural communities defined along the lines of who is perceived to be “local” or “not local.” The instrumental ties were developed among participants with common interests, similar life stages, and experiences and varied in terms of ethnic and national composition. Similarly, while family ties were crucial for a sense of belonging, their ethnic and national composition differed. By illustrating the complex composition of convivial, instrumental, and family ties in rural Highlands, this article highlights that meaningful social relations supporting social integration should not be understood via social encounters with “local” residents only, but also intimate and instrumental social relations within and between migrant populations.

Comparative genomics of a novel Erwinia species associated with the Highland midge (Culicoides impunctatus).

Erwinia (Enterobacterales: Erwiniaceae) are a group of cosmopolitan bacteria best known as the causative agents of various plant diseases. However, other species in this genus have been found to play important roles as insect endosymbionts supplementing the diet of their hosts. Here, I describe Candidatus Erwinia impunctatus (Erwimp) associated with the Highland midge Culicoides impunctatus (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), an abundant biting pest in the Scottish Highlands. The genome of this new Erwinia species was assembled using hybrid long and short read techniques, and a comparative analysis was undertaken with other members of the genus to understand its potential ecological niche and impact. Genome composition analysis revealed that Erwimp is similar to other endophytic and ectophytic species in the genus and is unlikely to be restricted to its insect host. Evidence for an additional plant host includes the presence of a carotenoid synthesis operon implicated as a virulence factor in plant-associated members in the sister genus Pantoea. Unique features of Erwimp include several copies of intimin-like proteins which, along with signs of genome pseudogenization and a loss of certain metabolic pathways, suggests an element of host restriction seen elsewhere in the genus. Furthermore, a screening of individuals over two field seasons revealed the absence of the bacteria in Culicoides impunctatus during the second year indicating this microbe-insect interaction is likely to be transient. These data suggest that Culicoides impunctatus may have an important role to play beyond a biting nuisance, as an insect vector transmitting Erwimp alongside any conferred impacts to surrounding biota.

Minority language broadcasting beyond the core audience: the approach of BBC Alba and S4C to non-speakers of Scottish Gaelic and Welsh

ABSTRACT Public broadcasting in minority languages forms a core pillar in policy relating to language maintenance/revitalisation, yet it also overlaps with cultural policy more broadly when considering the wider audience. BBC Alba and S4C are channels dedicated entirely to public broadcasting in a minority language, however, they differ in policy aims and legal structure as well as being launched in different media eras. This article unpacks these aspects across the history of the broadcasters’ audience strategies, specifically focusing on non-speakers of Scottish Gaelic or Welsh, and then assesses whether and how they have been successful in this regard. Using the broadcasters’ data alongside 19 expert interviews with practitioners and scholars, the article finds that the core attraction for non-speakers is that of exclusivity. Two main approaches of achieving this are identified, exclusive broadcasting rights – such as with live sports – and unique content through localised cultural or geographic proximity – in both factual and fiction programmes.

Talus rock glaciers in the Cairngorm Mountains

ABSTRACT Although several relict talus rock glaciers (TRGs) of Lateglacial age have been identified in the British Isles, all have been refuted by some authors and their absence attributed to the lack of permafrost. The evidence provided by palaeoclimatic reconstructions and periglacial features, however, implies that Lateglacial permafrost was present throughout Scotland during the Loch Lomond Stade (LLS; ∼12.9–11.7 ka). Across much of the Scottish Highlands, the absence of Lateglacial TRGs is attributable to occupation of potential sites by glaciers during the LLS. In the Cairngorms, however, where limited snowfall at that time left some corries glacier-free, there is convincing evidence for TRG formation. Three examples illustrating different degrees of TRG development are described; all occur at high-level (>840 m) sites that remained glacier-free during the LLS, and all lack plausible alternative explanations. The apparent scarcity of relict TRGs even in the Cairngorms may reflect the development of ‘cold’ permafrost and/or a lengthy time lag between permafrost development and the accumulation of a sufficient volume and thickness of ground ice to permit permafrost creep and deformation of an overlying mantle of bouldery debris. In consequence, relict TRGs may occur only at favourable high-level sites where permafrost developed earliest.

Factors related to longevity and mortality of dogs in Italy

Besides its translational value, an improved understanding of dog longevity and mortality is necessary to guide health management decisions, breed selection, and improve dog welfare. In order to analyse the lifespan of dogs in Italy, identify the most common causes of death, and evaluate possible risk factors, anonymised medical records were collected from 9 veterinary teaching hospitals and 2 public health institutions. Data regarding breed, sex, neuter status, age, diagnosis, and mechanism of death were retrieved. Cause of death (COD) was classified by pathophysiologic process (PP) and organ system (OS). Of the 4957 dogs that died between 2004 and 2020 included in the study, 2920 (59.0%) were purebred, 2293 (46.2%) were female, 3005 (60.6%) were intact, 2883 (58.2%) were euthanised. Overall median longevity was 10.0 years. Median longevity was significantly longer for crossbreds, females, neutered dogs, and small-sized breeds. The breeds with the highest median age at death were the Yorkshire terrier, English cocker spaniel, West Highland white terrier, Italian volpino, and Shih Tzu, whilst the American bulldog, English bulldog, American pit bull terrier, Bernese mountain dog and the Maremma and the Abruzzes sheepdog had the lowest median age at death. The most frequent COD by PP was neoplasia (34.0%), which occurred more frequently in large breeds, namely German shepherd, Labrador retriever and Boxer. Degenerative diseases mostly affected small-sized dogs like Miniature pinscher and Dachshund. Regarding the OS involved, diseases of the renal/urinary system were most frequently responsible for COD (15.0%), prevalently degenerative and inflammatory/infectious. Substantial variation in median longevity according to causes of death by PP and OS was observed. These data are relevant for breeders, veterinary practitioners, and owners, to assist breed selection, facilitate early diagnosis, guide choice when purchasing a purebred dog and making health management decisions, and ultimately improve dog welfare.

Superbugs online: co-production of an educational website to increase public understanding of the microbial world in, on, and around us.

Digital tools and online presence have become a cornerstone in public engagement and involvement strategy and delivery. We here describe the co-production process behind launching a new multilingual resource for schools in the United Kingdom and beyond, jointly between university scientists, engagement professionals, primary and secondary teachers, and web designers. The 'Superbugs' website aims at raising awareness and increasing the public understanding of the microbial world in, on, and around us-with a focus on infection, hygiene, and antimicrobial resistance-and attracted >19,000 online visitors, >33,500 page views, and > 775,000 Twitter impressions over the past 24 months. Superbugs.online is available in English, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic, thus making it accessible to everyone in the United Kingdom and Ireland, regardless of the language in which they receive and deliver their science education. The website is easy to navigate and features background information, quizzes, animations, videos, illustrated stories, interactive timelines, games, and protocols for home experiments. All materials are presented in a non-prescriptive way, aimed at allowing flexibility for the materials to be adapted to the individual needs of teachers and pupils alike. Our study has led to a demonstrable impact on the co-production team and on pupils and teachers as key stakeholders, based on a comprehensive evaluation of the co-production process itself, the impact of the end product, and the creation of lasting relationships with stakeholders and co-producers, for the mutual benefit of everyone involved.

Land cover preferences and spatiotemporal associations of ungulates within a Scottish mammal community.

In the degraded and modified environment of the Scottish Highlands, novel ungulate communities have arisen following local extinctions, reintroductions, and the introduction of non-native species. An understanding of the dynamics and interactions within these unique mammal communities is important as many of these mammals represent keystone species with disproportionate impacts on the environment. Using a camera trap survey, we investigated land cover preferences and spatiotemporal interactions within a Scottish ungulate community: the sika deer (Cervus nippon), the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the red deer (Cervus elaphus), and the wild boar (Sus scrofa). We used generalised linear models to assess land cover preferences and the effect of human disturbance; spatiotemporal interactions were characterised using time interval modelling. We found that sika deer and roe deer preferred coniferous plantations and grasslands, with sika deer additionally preferring woodland. For red deer, we found a slight preference for wetland over woodland; however, the explained variance was low. Finally, wild boar preferred grassland and woodland and avoided coniferous plantations, heathland, and shrubland. Contrary to our expectations, we found no evidence that human disturbance negatively impacted ungulates' distributions, potentially because ungulates temporally avoid humans or because dense vegetation cover mitigates the impacts of humans on their distributions. Furthermore, we detected a spatiotemporal association between sika deer and roe deer. Although the underlying cause of this is unknown, we hypothesise that interactions such as grazing facilitation or an anti-predator response to culling could be driving this pattern. Our work provides a preliminary analysis of the dynamics occurring within a novel ungulate community and also highlights current knowledge gaps in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms dictating the observed spatiotemporal associations.

Geological feature of Barrovian-type metamorphism and its tectonic implications: Insights from the Scottish Highlands and Himalayan orogen

Geological feature of Barrovian-type metamorphism and its tectonic implications: Insights from the Scottish Highlands and Himalayan orogen

An unusually dense bloom of the cyanobacterium Gloeotrichia echinulata in Loch Watten, a Scottish highland loch, during July 2023

An unusually dense bloom of the cyanobacterium Gloeotrichia echinulata in Loch Watten, a Scottish highland loch, during July 2023

MICROSTRUCTURAL REPRESENTATION OF NATIONALLY MARKED UNITS IN SCOTS-ENGLISH AND GAELIC-ENGLISH DICTIONARIES

The article presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of dictionary entries of nationally marked units in Scots-English and Gaelic-English dictionaries. For the first time, the dictionary entries for nationally marked units of the minority languages of Scots and Scottish Gaelic were analysed. The main microstructural components were considered and the main approaches to dictionary entries compiling were highlighted.
 The analysis of the vocabulary entries of nationally marked units in Scots-English and Gaelic-English dictionaries has revealed both common and distinctive features. Among the common features it is worth mentioning the presence of such components as headword, synchronic data, diachronic data, marking, explanatory data, syntagmatic data, illustrations and examples.
 Dictionary entries of nationally marked units in Scots-English dictionaries are distinguished by the presence of more complete data presentation, detailed explanations, as compared to the corresponding dictionary entries in Gaelic-English dictionaries.
 On average, a dictionary entry for a nationally marked unit in a Scots-English dictionary includes up to seven or eight microstructure components, while a dictionary entry in a Gaelic-English dictionary includes from three to five components. At the same time, the interpretation of a nationally marked unit in Scots-English dictionaries is more rational due to the joint presentation of the interpretation and the equivalent in the target language, whereas Gaelic-English dictionaries only provide equivalents. The absence of illustrative examples for nationally marked units in Gaelic-English dictionaries is also considered as one of distinctive features.
  
  

An Active Approach to Health: Increasing physical activity amongst individuals with sedentary lifestyles through person-centred motivational support.

Introduction: The Active Health Project assists sedentary patients to increase physical activity levels using Link Workers (LWs) employed by a social enterprise and embedded in primary care centres in the Scottish Highlands.  By delivering person-centred motivational support, the LWs help people to address long-standing personal barriers to being physically active and develop the self-motivation to change habitual inactive lifestyles.  The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) evaluated the programme by gauging the intervention’s impact on activity levels and participants’ attitudes to exercise.
 Intervention: Non-clinical based health interventions such as exercise groups, outdoor activities, art therapies and peer support are all proving popular in ‘treating’ both mental health conditions and addressing sedentary lifestyles. However, GPs and other primary care health professionals do not have capacity to undertake the required person-centred assessment and support required.  Nor do they necessarily have the local knowledge of community assets for ‘signposting’ activities.  Health professionals refer patients to the LWs, who help to develop an activity plan with targets tailored to individual needs, preferences and self-confidence.  These are not necessarily structured group activities but can be personalised goals such as walking to a local shop or being more active at home.  Goal setting is patient-led to ensure targets are in reach which builds self-confidence.  LWs support participants to make these changes over three months.  The project offers more than activity signposting and differs from generic health advice participants may have received previously.  The project is funded through the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) Open Fund, which focusses on behaviour change, aiming to encourage everyday walking or cycling and sustainable travel methods for longer journeys.
 Methods: The pilot programme was evaluated in two stages by the Rural Health and Well-being team at the University of the Highland and Islands (UHI).  The evaluation used questionnaire data on participants’ activity levels gathered before and after the programme.  Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with participants and staff and then analysed thematically.  UHI worked closely with the social enterprise when developing the research design.
 Findings: In stage 1 (2019/20) data analysis indicated the experience had helped some participants make lifestyle changes. Even small progress towards increasing physical activity appeared to yield significant results in terms of generating the self-motivation and confidence required for longer term behavioural change. In stage 2 (2021/22), the research further investigated the transformative process underlying the impact of person-centred motivational support, challenges of embedding non-NHS LWs in primary care settings and the impact of the LW/patient relationship on the sustainability of lifestyle change. 
 Conclusions: Data analysis shows the importance of person-centred support and individually tailored exercise targets in changing attitudes to increasing physical activity.  The LWs have time to develop a relationship with the patient which engenders trust and a sense of accountability, which is key to developing self-motivation and adopting lifestyle changes.  This research adds to the social prescribing evidence base by examining key factors such as the accessibility of ‘prescribed’ activities, barriers to lifestyle change, building self-motivation and the dynamics of the patient/LW relationship.
  

HUMAN INTERFERENCES TO REWILD THE NATURE DEPICTED IN CHARLOTTE MCCONAGHY’S ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES

Environmental problems have become a severe issue in recent decades. The world has started to change due to human activities that affect the natural environment. Deforestation, industrialization, burning fuels, human overpopulation, and many more have triggered climate change. In her novel, Once There Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy vividly describes such a condition. This novel exposes how the Scottish Highlands begins to ruin because of the overabundant population of deer. They eat the plant shoots, and that makes the plants die. Moreover, this research intends to investigate human interferences in saving damaged nature as depicted in the novel. This study is a literary criticism since it aims to analyze the object used. Furthermore, the Ecocriticism approach was employed to analyze humans' efforts to help nature return to its natural state. The research method involves a deep reading and understanding of Charlotte McConaghy’s Once There Were Wolves, with a focus on the humans’ effort to rewild nature. The result reveals the portrayal of humans’ actions to help nature back into its natural state by releasing wolves as the apex predator, keeping the forest and vegetation, and finding places to grow trees. Doing those actions helps the Scottish Land back naturally. The deer population decreases and the land becomes a beautiful place to go.

Cultural Memory and Nationalism at Scotland’s International Exhibitions: 1886–1938

This paper explores the ways in which Scotland portrayed itself during the run of International Exhibitions in Edinburgh (1886, 1890, 1908) and Glasgow (1888, 1901, 1911, 1938). It will be shown that Scotland, as a fundamental component of the British Empire, served to increase visions of Britishness in these Exhibitions (or World’s Fairs) by hosting a number of colonial exhibits and focussing, for the most part, on modern technological advances in machinery and engineering. While all of these Scottish exhibits did self-reflect on history and Scottish nationhood (via literature, art, and architecture), this paper will show that the novelty of doing this, in sharp contrast with the pomp and exuberance of the imperial display, reduced Scottishness to yet another exotic ‘other’. Following the ‘Old London’ featured in 1884, Edinburgh and – later – Glasgow featured ‘old towns’ which offered visitors an impression of their lost cityscapes, dislocated from their original place and built among the many other temporary pavilions. In the twentieth century, both cities featured human displays: a nefarious turn in Exhibition culture across Europe which curated people from colonial lands on a level with their material culture. Scotland, as part of the British Empire, boasted Senegalese and West Africans as part of their popular attractions. Following this, Glasgow followed London in displaying the people of the Scottish Highlands as part of a pastiche village named ‘An Clahan’: a crystallising moment in Scotland’s disorienting self-portrayal in these British imperial contexts. In working through these case studies, this paper will consider scholarship from the fields of history and memory studies.

LEXICOGRAPHIC FIXATION OF NATIONALLY MARKED UNITS OF MINORITY LANGUAGES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF ELECTRONIC DICTIONARIES OF SCOTS AND SCOTTISH GAELIC)

This paper considers the peculiarities of the lexicographic fixation of nationally marked units of minority languages in Scotland, in particular Scots and Scottish Gaelic. The aim of this paper is to analyse dictionary entries and to determine the features of lexicographic representation of nationally-marked units at the microstructural level by identifying common and distinctive features. The source base is represented by such online dictionaries as The Dictionaries of Scots Language and Am Faclair Beag. The paper presents a brief overview of the creation of dictionaries, which constitute the source base of the research, and also provides a brief overview of their macrostrcture. The common features include the presence of interpretation (translation), transcription and grammatical commentary, while the differences include different formats of illustrating the usage of a lexical item (territorial – in Scottish Gaelic, situational – in Scots). Methods used in the study: general scientific (analysis and synthesis), critical dictionary research, diachronic and synchronic methods.

Producing a smaller sound system: Acoustics and articulation of the subset scenario in Gaelic–English bilinguals

Abstract When a bilingual speaker has a larger linguistic sub-system in their L1 than their L2, how are L1 categories mapped to the smaller set of L2 categories? This article investigates this “subset scenario” (Escudero, 2005) through an analysis of laterals in highly proficient bilinguals (Scottish Gaelic L1, English L2). Gaelic has three lateral phonemes and English has one. We examine acoustics and articulation (using ultrasound tongue imaging) of lateral production in speakers’ two languages. Our results suggest that speakers do not copy a relevant Gaelic lateral into their English, instead maintaining language-specific strategies, with speakers also producing English laterals with positional allophony. These results show that speakers develop a separate production strategy for their L2. Our results advance models such as the L2LP which has mainly considered perception data, and also contribute articulatory data to this area of study.

Scottish Gaelic Movement and Celtic Identity: An Comunn Gaidhealach at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

An Comunn Gaidhealach, as the main representative of the Scottish Gaelic Movement in the late nineteenth century, pursued the essential objectives of cultivating, teaching, and promoting Gaelic language, literature, music, and culture. Its members closely collaborated with their counterparts from other so-called Celtic countries, which subsequently resulted in the formation of other pan-Celtic institutions around 1900. The countries involved supported each other in achieving similar goals through common initiatives. This article explores the nature of Celtic connections through the study of the self-representation of the Gaelic language movement. It defines the most articulated topics for An Comunn Gaidhealach and identifies to what extent Celticism was part of the society’s self-representation. An Comunn Gaidhealach looked at the experience of other Celtic countries as a source of inspiration. While Celtic identity formed a negligible part of An Comunn Gaidhealach’s self-representation, a strong Celtic element was present in its discursive strategies and in the argumentation processes, both inspired by Welsh and Irish revivalist movements. The society defended Gaelic language rights, presented itself as a patron to Gaelic education, and organised the Mòd festival, all the while embracing all political and religious beliefs. The methodology of the research, inspired by Israeli sociologist Ruth Amossy, analyzes the discourse of An Deo-Gréine, the official magazine of An Comunn Gaidhealach. This perspective highlights how An Comunn Gaidhealach intended to be perceived, what discursive strategies it employed, and subsequently, how and to what extent there was a pan-Celtic aspect to its work. The results of the analysis are complemented by archival research. The conceptual framework of the study is embedded in comparative and transnational approaches to historical research. This approach is reflected in understanding the formation of collective identities from a perspective that transcends nation-states rather than focusing solely on a national context.

Effect of N Rates and Seeding Rates on Agronomic Efficiency, Partial Factor Productivity, Grain Yield, and Grain Quality of Wheat under Irrigation in West Shewa, Ethiopia

Recently, wheat research has been established in Ethiopia for irrigated areas with the goal of developing high-yielding, higher-quality wheat cultivars. Nonetheless, two of the most crucial production variables are the N rate and the seeding rate, both of which need for the determination of ideal rates. Hence, a field experiment was conducted to determine the optimum N rate and seeding rate for bread wheat production under irrigated conditions in West Shewa highland areas during 2020–21 on different soil types. A factorial combination of seeding rates (125, 150, and 175 kg/ha) and N rates (0, 23, 46, 89, and 111 kg/ha N) with consideration of 19 kg of N content in 100 kg NPS fertilizer that was applied uniformly for all experimental plots except for those without fertilizer (zero rate plot) at sowing. The experiment was laid out in an RCB design with three replications. Most of the interactions were non-significant for grain yield and other parameters, while the main effects of seeding rates and N rates showed a significant effect on grain yield and other parameters measured. The highest test weight, agronomic efficiency, and partial factor productivity were recorded for the black soil type. Agronomic efficiency showed an unpredictable trend, while partial factor productivity showed a decreasing trend with an increasing seeding rate and N rate. Depending on the agronomic and economic analysis results, it can be concluded that a seeding rate of 175 kg/ha and an N rate of 111 kg/ha were found to be optimal for the production of the wheat variety ‘Kakaba’ under irrigation in the highlands of west Shewa.