The maritime dimension to Scotland's "Highland Problem", ca. 1540-1630

MacCoinnich, A. (2019) The maritime dimension to Scotland's "Highland Problem", ca. 1540-1630. Journal of the North Atlantic, 12(Spec.), pp. 44-72. (doi: 10.3721/037.012.sp1210)

Abstract

The relationship of the Gàidhealtachd with the rest of Scotland and with Britain was transformed in the period 1540–1630. Having been relatively autonomous, Scottish Gaelic chiefs were now drawn deeper into the orbit of the Scottish and then British crown, particularly during the adult reign of James VI (and I) (1587–1625). Scholarly study of the Highlands and Islands during the period has tended to concentrate on crown-clan relationships and the way in which the centre imposed reform on the peripheral Gàidhealtachd (Highlands and Islands). Indigenous (Highland/Hebridean) and maritime perspectives have been less well developed in these narratives. Gaelic Scots and visiting Lowland fishermen had different approaches to the exploitation of marine resources. The approaches of both parties, of Gaelic Scots, as well as Lowland fishermen and merchants, to the maritime environment are examined here: a study which can bring new insights into older debates on crown—clan relations if not plantation, state formation, and colonial approaches to resource appropriation and exploitation.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Published in Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 12: Maritime Communities of the North Atlantic Arc in the Early Modern Period, ed. Alison Cathcart. This paper has its origins in a presentation 'Species abundance and the emergence of a fishery in the northern Hebrides, 1580-1640' given at a conference 'Maritime Communities of the North Atlantic Arc,' Glasgow, 23-24 May 2013. This was one of the outcomes of an AHRC funded project led by Dr Alison Cathcart, at the University of Strathclyde, 2010-2012, entitled 'Living on the edge? Plantation and politics in the North Atlantic archipelago'.
• Keywords: Gaelic, maritime, Highlands, Highlanders, resource-exploitation, postcolonialism, clan, clanship, Lowlands, colonial, fish, fishing, fisheries, herring, Atlantic, Minch, burghs, Lowlanders, Hebrides, Hebridean, state-formation, barbarity, civility, plantation, Ireland, taxation, wine, salt, Fife, Adventurers, Lewis, Argyll, Gàidhealtachd, iasgach, Innse Gall, Galldachd, fineachan, fine, Leòdhas, Leòdhais, sgadan, sgadain.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: MacCoinnich, Dr Aonghas
• Authors: MacCoinnich, A.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Celtic and Gaelic
• Journal Name: Journal of the North Atlantic
• Publisher: Eagle Hill Publications
• ISSN: 1935-1984
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 Eagle Hill Publications
• First Published: First published in Journal of the North Atlantic 12(Special): 44-72
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy