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# Landscapes of Protest

Resistance to 'improvement' in the Highlands and Islands

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Sliding doors, or the making of a protest historian? By Iain Robertson](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/sliding-doors-or-the-making-of-a-protest-historians-by-iain-robertson/) - Theatrical release poster of the movie Sliding Doors. It is a long time ago. I’m growing up in a small village in the rural west of England. I’m not saying how long ago as the reality of growing up in this village is, looking back, that it feels as if it could have been any
- [Escape to the country (Archives) and other news](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/escape-to-the-country-archives-and-other-news/) - The start of Year 2 has seen the project team take part in a couple of events to disseminate some early findings and engage with other historians and archivists. In late March 2026, Juliette Desportes and Centre for History colleague Philippa Woodcock were invited to speak at the annual gathering of SACHA, the Scottish Association
- [Just passing through? A Case of Trespass in the Isle of Harris, 1807](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/just-passing-through-a-case-of-trespass-in-the-isle-of-harris-1807/) - In the early 1800s, the farm of Northton (Taobh Tuath), Isle of Harris, was the scene of a violent confrontation between the recently introduced farmer and his crofter neighbours in nearby Scarista (Sgarasta). The case, as we shall see, was typical of the growing tensions brought about by the rise of privatisation and ‘improved’ agrarian
- [One Year In: Some Reflections and Looking Ahead](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/one-year-in-some-reflections-and-looking-ahead/) - It has been a busy year for the Landscapes of Protest team. Since the project started in March, we have visited archives in Inveraray, Inverness, Edinburgh, and London and, by the end of year one, will have spent over three months immersed in the eighteenth-century archive. What we have found has confirmed and, in many
- [Bridle the Wind: Agricultural Improvement and Protest in 18th Century Caithness by Charlie Hoskins](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/bridle-the-wind-agricultural-improvement-and-protest-in-18th-century-caithness-by-charlie-hoskins/) - Charlie Hoskins is a Masters by Research student at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently researching agricultural ‘improvement’ in Caithness between 1790 and 1820, focusing particularly on the circulation, implementation, and impacts of new agricultural ideas in the region. By the final decades of the 18th century, the ‘spirit of improvement’ had reached Caithness.
- [Luddite encroachments? archival musings By Alison Diamond](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/luddite-encroachments-archival-musings-by-alison-diamond/) - This blog was written by Alison Diamond, the archivist for Argyll Estates Archives, the family and estate archive of the Campbell family, earls and dukes of Argyll, and a key member of the project's advisory committee. We are immensely grateful to Alison for her expert input. During their first visit to Inveraray Castle in September
- [Why is a historian of English rural protest studying Highland resistance?  By Carl J. Griffin](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/why-is-a-historian-of-english-rural-protest-studying-highland-resistance/) - This blog post was written by Professor Carl Griffin, Visiting Professor at UHI and Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Sussex. Carl is also a lead on the 'Resistance to improvement' project. I am not a historian of Scotland. Nor am I a Scottish historian. I have no family connections to Alba. I
- [“Improvement” and the Dundee Meal Riots of 1773 by Christopher Whatley](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/improvement-and-the-dundee-meal-riots-of-1773/) - Christopher Whatley is Emeritus Professor of Scottish History at the University of Dundee (c.a.whatley@dundee.ac.uk). Part of his published work has been on popular protest in Scotland. His most recent research project culminated in the publication of Harvie’s Dyke: The People, Their Liberty and the Clyde (John Donald, 2025), a study of one of the first
- ['Resistance to improvement' launches in Ullapool](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/hello-world/) - The Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands, was thrilled to officially launch 'Resistance to 'improvement' in the Highlands and Islands, 1750- c.1820' back in March 2025 in Ullapool. The launch marked the first in-person meeting of the research team, composed of Iain Robertson (UHI), Carl Griffin (University of Sussex) and Juliette Desportes
- [Some Early Archival Finds and Upcoming News](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/some-early-archival-finds-and-upcoming-news/) - It has been a busy few months for the ‘Landscapes of Protest’ project team. Since officially launching the project back in Ullapool back in March, Juliette Desportes (RA) has completed two trips to the National Records and National Library in Edinburgh this Spring which produced some promising material. These early archival visits focused on two

## Pages

- [Project Blog](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/news/) - Every month (or so), we share a blog post or personal reflections on histories and geographies of protest and resistance in Scotland and further afield from an expert in the field. George Fennel Robson, A Loch in Scotland. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.
- [Get in Touch](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/contact/) - Address​UHI Centre for HistoryUHI Ionad Eachdraidh, Taigh Burghfield, Cnoc an Lobht, Dòrnach IV25 3HNWeb | Lìn: www.uhi.ac.uk/history Emailjuliette.desportes@uhi.ac.uk Thomas Pennant, A cottage in Islay, 1774
- [Advisory Board](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/advisory-board/) - The research team is lucky to benefit from the experience and expertise of a number of academics and heritage professionals to help steer the project. Briony McDonagh Professor of Environmental Humanities, University of Hull Briony McDonagh is Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Hull. A human geographer and environmental historian by training, she
- [Research Team](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/project-team/) - Iain Robertson Project Investigator Iain Robertson is Associate Professor of Historical Geography at the Centre for History, UHI. His principal research expertise and interest is in the investigation and interpretation of acts of rural social protest whenever and wherever they are found. Iain’s work has, however, focused primarily on the period of intense land disturbances in the
- [About](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/about/) - William Strang, Peasant Couple. Clark Art Institute (1986) An 'uninflammable' people? This project challenges the dominant view that rural workers in the Highlands and Islands were passive and ‘uninflammable’, an idea that runs deep in the national story of Scotland. Resistance to 'improvement' offers the first systematic analysis of the resort to protest in the

## Categories

- [News](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/category/news/)
- [Blog](https://landscapesofprotest.co.uk/category/blog/)