The Last Wolf
Kenneth Steven sees the new routes opening the Highlands to tourists for the first time.
The Essay · BBC Radio 3
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (open.live.bbc.co.uk) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
With its title drawn from an essential work by ARB Haldane, 'New Ways through the Glens' is Kenneth Steven's personal reflection on the changes brought to the people and landscape of the Scottish Highlands by the arrival of roads and canals in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In his final Essay, he finds that the new routes are opening up the Highlands to tourists for the first time and a romantic view of the lochs and mountains was born. The mission had been to bring the Highlands in to the United Kingdom, to civilise a landscape and a people that had for too long been allowed to remain wild and unaccountable. There is no doubt that change had to happen, but it came at a high price. As Kenneth points out, 'It's little wonder that most of the songs of the Gaels are about loss.'