Who Built Scotland

A History of the Nation in Twenty-Five Buildings

Alexander McCall Smith, Alistair Moffat, James Crawford, James Robertson, Kathleen Jamie

• Publisher: Historic Environment Scotland
• eBook ISBN: 9781849172455
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

Experience a new history of Scotland told through its places. Writers Kathleen Jamie, Alexander McCall Smith, Alistair Moffat, James Robertson and James Crawford pick twenty-five buildings to tell the story of the nation.

Travelling across the country, from abandoned islands and lonely glens to the heart of our modern cities, these five authors seek out the diverse narrative of the Scottish people. Follow Kathleen Jamie as she searches for the traces of our first family hearths in the Cairngorms and makes a midsummer journey to Shetland to meet the unlikely new inhabitants of an Iron Age broch. Tour the wondrous and macabre Surgeons' Hall with Alexander McCall Smith, or walk with him over sacred ground to Iona's ancient Abbey. Join Alistair Moffat as he discovers a lost whisky village in the wilds of Strathconon, and climbs up through the vertiginous layers of history in Edinburgh Castle. Accompany James Robertson as he goes from the standing stones of Callanish to the humble cottage of Hugh MacDiarmid – via the engineering colossus of the Forth Rail Bridge. And journey with James Crawford from a packed crowd in Hampden Park, to an off-the-grid eco-bothy on the Isle of Eigg.

Who Built Scotland is a landmark exploration of Scotland's social, political and cultural histories. Moving from Neolithic families, exiled hermits and ambitious royal dynasties to highland shieling girls, peasant poets, Enlightenment philosophers and iconoclastic artists, it places our people, our ideas and our passions at the heart of our architecture and archaeology. This is the remarkable story how we have shaped our buildings and how our buildings, in turn, have shaped us.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Creative Scotland
• Contents
• Introduction
• Geldie Burn – 01 – Signs and Traces – Kathleen Jamie
• Cairnpapple Hill – 02 – The Sky Temple – Alistair Moffat
• Calanais – 03 – Who are You, and What do You Think You’re Looking at? – James Robertson
• Mousa Broch – 04 – The Stone Mother – Kathleen Jamie
• Iona Abbey – 05 – They Came in a Small Boat – Alexander McCall Smith
• Glasgow Cathedral – 06 – The Masons’ Marks – Kathleen Jamie
• Edinburgh Castle – 07 – Rock of Ages – Alistair Moffat
• The Great Hall, Stirling Castle – 08 – Cool Scotia – James Crawford
• Innerpeffray Library – 09 – Never-Failing Springs in the Desert – James Robertson
• Mavisbank House – 10 – The Lost Estate – James Crawford
• Auld Alloway Kirk – 11 – Kirks Without People – James Robertson
• Charlotte Square – 12 – The Making of a Classical Gem – Alexander McCall Smith
• Glenlivet Distillery – 13 – The Fire of the Dram – Alistair Moffat
• Bell Rock Lighthouse – 14 – On This Rock – Alexander McCall Smith
• Abbotsford – 15 – Nothing Like My Ain House – James Robertson
• Surgeons’ Hall – 16 – Surgery’s Temple – Alexander McCall Smith
• The Forth Bridge – 17 – The Greatest Wonder of the Century – James Robertson
• Glasgow School of Art – 18 – A Little Girl Remembers – Alistair Moffat
• Hampden Park – 19 – The Bewteis of the Futeball – James Crawford
• The Italian Chapel – 20 – Far From Home – Alexander McCall Smith
• Inchmyre Prefabs – 21 – Arcadia – Alistair Moffat
• Anniesland Court – 22 – Views and Vision – Kathleen Jamie
• Sullom Voe – 23 – Homecoming – James Crawford
• Maggie’s Centre – 24 – Caring for the Carers – Kathleen Jamie
• Sweeney’s Bothy – 25 – A View with a Room – James Crawford
• Locations
• Image Credits
• Historic Environment Scotland