The Road North: 300 Years of Classic Scottish Travel Writing

Scotland is one of the most well-recorded countries in term of travel writing. The Romans were the first to record their impressions of the bleak and formidable frontier they had to confront and attempt to tame, but it is only over the last 300 years that a catalogue of published material has been created which allows the reader to discover the country as it once was. This volume presents a selection of these writings, from authors including Thomas Pennant, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, R.L. Stevenson, Edwin Muir, Virginia Woolf, Sir Alastair Dunnett, Gavin Maxwell, T.S. Eliot, Muriel Spark, Paul Theroux and Margaret Fay Shaw. Presented on a regional basis, the compendium takes readers on a “virtual journey” through Scotland, revealing its differing aspects as observed by these writers.