Thanks to Joyce Gilbert, Education Officer at the RSGS for passing through details of the Stories in the Land project.
This explores the stories connected with the Scottish drovers who moved their cattle through the Highlands for centuries, and created many of the routes that are still used by modern day roads in Scotland.
In places on the modern road, traces of the old road can still be seen, with small stone bridges crossing rivers and streams, or alternative routes paralleling the modern road.
Cattle droving was a vital part of Highland life for three hundred years, with Highland soils better suited to rearing cattle than growing crops. At market time, drovers would move the cattle long distances south on foot, to sell in towns with larger populations. Drovers have been described as the economic heroes of their time In the evenings, around the fire, they would tell stories connected with their journeys – folk and fairy stories, cow and horse tales, legends explaining ancient features in the landscape, stories of place-names spanning centuries. Many of these stories are now forgotten or are held by just a few local people who remember living and working on the land.
This explores the stories connected with the Scottish drovers who moved their cattle through the Highlands for centuries, and created many of the routes that are still used by modern day roads in Scotland.
In places on the modern road, traces of the old road can still be seen, with small stone bridges crossing rivers and streams, or alternative routes paralleling the modern road.
Cattle droving was a vital part of Highland life for three hundred years, with Highland soils better suited to rearing cattle than growing crops. At market time, drovers would move the cattle long distances south on foot, to sell in towns with larger populations. Drovers have been described as the economic heroes of their time In the evenings, around the fire, they would tell stories connected with their journeys – folk and fairy stories, cow and horse tales, legends explaining ancient features in the landscape, stories of place-names spanning centuries. Many of these stories are now forgotten or are held by just a few local people who remember living and working on the land.
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