Empire: Making ourselves at home overseas

The BBC are currently airing a documentary series which has been developed in conjunction with the Open University. 'Empire' is a major five-part series presented by one of British television’s most distinguished broadcasters, Jeremy Paxman. Here, through different areas of development, it tells the story of the British Empire in a new way, tracing not only the rise and fall of the empire but also the complex effects of the empire on the modern world – political, technological and social – and on Britain.

In episode two, aired on sunday 11th of March in the UK, the subject looked at the development of the empire overseas and how displacement of native cultures led to the development and establishment on the new empire. There is a look at the Scots development in Canada, and although not mentioned, there is is a reference to the vast immobilisation of the Scots to help colonise new lands.

A direct link to the BBC iplayer website can be accessed by clicking on the logo below or by copying and pasting the link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01db7xc/

Mailer fuar, Glen Artney.

Copyright: OS Maps

I recently had the opportunity to visit a new area within Lower Perthshire that I have previously not had the pleasure to visit. Glen Artney is a sleepy glen in the lower area of Perthshire.

I took my young 4 year old assistant with me on a far from perfect day, weatherwise and made my way along the glen to an area that I wanted to start to explore.

This is a new area for me and although not a densley populated area, then and now,  I feel there is significant evidence to record that will help us to understand the clearances.

Copyright: OS/NLS

One of the sites that I wanted to visit was the farmsted of Mailer Fuar.This deserted farmsted provides an interesting insight into what it must have been like to farm in such an area, and to continue to farm when new opportunities,not too far away in the mills and growimh industrial sites in Glasgow and lanarkshire, were beginning to present themselves more readily. This area of Perthshire is not Highland Perthshire but rests within the lowland areas that would have experienced change more that 50 years before the Highland clearances took hold.

This site is interesting in that most of the buildings, albeit damaged, are still in place and one can get a sense of what it would have been like to live and work in this area

 

Copyright: Author

Copyright: Author

Copyright: Author

Copyright: Author

I shall be returning to this glen to further record and collect more information on the few singular sites along this route.I will also be tying this information into the Drovers route that helped to tie the different cultures and people of these glens together as they commuted their livestock to markets in Glasgow, Perth and Edinburgh.