isle mull family holiday
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You may find this relevant information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit
The pattern of society in
the Highlands had come to differ profoundly from that prevailing in
the Lowlands, but these differences have been dwelt upon in modern
times rather more lovingly than the historical facts warrant. There
was no particular distinction between Highland and Lowland as such
in the early days of Scotland's existence. Differences were not
fundamental; they developed, in consequence of certain facts of a
practical nature, not from any mutual hostility, acts of will or
racial distinction. The real point was that the medieval Scottish
state and its rulers moved as far towards centralising authority as
they reasonably could, but their success was limited by technology.
Kings anxious to impose order and obedience could succeed within
limited distances from the centre of royal power. At greater
distances the task became increasingly difficult. Policing and
supervision were more difficult to organise the further one went
towards the periphery of Scotland. That is why the exercise of local
independence as, for instance, by the Lords of the Isles, was
feasible; and why the best that kings of Scots from Alexander II to
James VI could do was to mount expeditions from time to time, to
reassert the principle that the Highland areas were part of a
greater whole. Between such periodic demonstrations however, the
facts of time and distance took over, and power in the Highlands
reverted to those who were strong enough to claim and exercise it in
their own localities.
Even this feature was not unique to the
Highlands. Lowland nobles often enjoyed considerable freedom of
action in their own areas; and in England too, the further north and
west from London one might travel, the more immunity from royal
control one would find. What did perhaps make a rather different
case of the Highlands was that, unlike Lowland aristocrats in
Scotland, or territorial magnates in England, the Highland chiefs
are found very seldom playing any significant role in affairs of
state or national politics. Of the truly Highland, Gaelic chiefs,
only the Campbells of Argyle were consistently involved in such
matters. Partly, therefore, indifference to Council, Parliament and
state business in general on the part of the chiefs was responsible
for the detachment of the Highlands from the rest of the country.
Detachment, arising from the facts of geography and the purposes of
the chiefs, was reinforced by developments over generations. In
particular, English, the language of administration and commerce,
came in time to dominate the Lowlands and the eastern seaboard, but
Gaelic prevailed elsewhere, and a linguistic border is a very
difficult barrier to surmount.
In their comparatively isolated territories, the chiefs and their followers had evolved a society whose assumptions and purposes differed greatly from the rest of the country.