Scottish Travel Writers

In 1773, Dr Samuel Johnson's classic text of travel writing about Scotland, A Journey to the Hebrides, was published. Johnson had been influenced, in part, by the writings of Martin Martin (Màrtainn MacGilleMhàrtainn), an early 18th century writer from the Isle of Skye. Martin Martin's most famous work, A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, was published in 1703. Johnson felt, however, that Martin's book lacked sufficient understanding of the 'modern world' outside of the Western Isles, and so failed to report the more interesting aspects of island life.

Johnson's companion, James Boswell, was already highly regarded for his writing, in particular his An Account of Corsica, which was first published in 1765. The journal combines a history of Corsica with a debate over the identity and independence the Mediterranean island. Written with his home audience in mind, who will have had heard of Corsica and its struggle for independence, but known nothing of the details, An Account of Corsica combines scholarly research with a personal travelogue.

In 1766 the Scottish doctor, author and satirist Tobias Smollett published Travels Through France and Italy. His two-year Grand Tour, taken after the death of his 15-year-old daughter Elizabeth, took Smollett to Nice, and then on to Genoa, Rome and Florence. Saddened by the death of Elizabeth, and himself sick with an intestinal disorder, his account of the travels is filled with prejudices, acerbic wit, and anger. Quarrelling with innkeepers, travellers and contemptuous of foreigners; Travels Through France and Italy reveals as much about Smollett as it does about the two countries. He was described by one publisher as 'the world's champion bad traveller', and fellow traveller Laurence Sterne nicknamed Smollett 'Smelfungus' in his own account, A Sentimental Journey.

Another 18th-century writer was mariner John Nicol, who travelled around Greenland, the West Indies, the South Pacific and Australia. When he returned to Scotland, he lived in poverty before publishing his memoirs. His writing is collected in The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner by Tim Flannery.

Robert Louis Stevenson, one of Edinburgh's greatest literary sons, is most famous for his swashbuckling tales of adventure such as Kidnapped and Treasure Island, and the seminal The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. But of his many books, the earliest still in print is the travelogue Travels With A Donkey in the Cévennes, written in 1878. Struggling with ill-health in Edinburgh, and longing to see his beloved Fanny Osbourne but without the funds to do so, Stevenson embarked on a 12-day, 120 mile hike through the Cévennes region in southern France. Still in his twenties, he was accompanied by his notebook and a stubborn donkey named Modestine.

The book begins with a description of the people of Monastier, his starting point:

"There are adherents of each of the Four French parties... - and they all hate, loathe, decry, and calumniate each other. " [Yet] "In the midst of this Babylon found myself a rallying-point, every one was anxious to be kind and helpful to a stranger."

Travel with a Donkey was a success; just a few months after publication, Stevenson had raised enough money to visit Fanny in the USA. His travels in America were recounted in The Amateur Emigrant, which was published in 1895. Stevenson's travels have been translated into a walking guidebook to the Cévennes region.

Mountain Writing

For some writers, Scotland's mountains and scenery are just not enough. Dunbar-born John Muir emigrated to the United States in 1849, where he studied in the "university of the wilderness", hiking across the American states. Muir is now regarded as the father of the environmental movement, and he founded the influential Sierra Club. Muir's journals have been collected in The Wilderness Journeys.

Although born in Sri Lanka, Hamish Brown is one of the best-known contemporary Scottish writers on mountaineering and the great outdoors. He has written numerous walking guides to the Scottish hills, but he is also the author of The Mountains Look on Marrakech, the story of a 900-mile trek through the Atlas Mountains in Northwest Africa. Another Scottish mountain writer is Cameron McNeish, author of The Wilderness World of Cameron McNeish.

See also: Scottish Mountaineering Books

Contemporary Travel Writers

What Peter Mayle did for Provence, Peter Kerr has done for the Spanish island of Mallorca. Escaping the recession of the early 1980s, Peter Kerr sold his East Lothian farm and moved his family to Mallora, intending to become an orange farmer. But when a freak snowstorm descended on his orange groves, he turned to writing. His Mallorcan experiences are recounted in Snowball Oranges, Mañana Mañana, Viva Mallorca!, A Basketful of Snowflakes and From Paella To Porridge, the final book in the series about Kerr's eventual return to Scotland.

William Dalrymple is perhaps Scotland's finest contemporary travel writer, winning awards for each of his Indian travel books. He was only 22 when he wrote In Xanadu, already considered a classic of travel writing. Dalrymple moved to Delhi in the late 1980s, and his two years in the city inspired City of Djinns, book which not only explores modern-day Delhi, but also uncovers the history of the great city which has been capital of several ancient Indian empires as well as modern-day India. Other travel books by Dalrymple are From The Holy Mountain and The Age of Kali. Dalyrmple's work is praised equally in the UK and India; as David Robinson of the Scotsman has said, "What Edward Gibbon was to ancient Rome, William Dalrymple will be to the magnificent Mughals.".

Described by the Evening Standard as 'Bill Bryson with Tourette's', Daniel Kalder, from Dunfermline, was determined to be an 'anti-tourist', and the result is Lost Cosmonaut. Exploring the forgotten provinces of Russia, desolate cities and bleak deserts, Lost Cosmonaut is a black comic travel guide of the places most of us would chose to avoid.

Similarly off-beat is Angus Bell's Slogging the Slavs: A Paranormal Tour from The Baltic to the Bosphorus, in which the Scotsman travels round Eastern Europe, playing cricket with unheard-of national teams and MI6 secret agents.

Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor, and friend Charley Boorman, travelled the Long Way Round the world by motorbike. Their adventures, from Kazakhstan to Canada, became a hugely successful TV series and one of the best-selling Scottish books of 2005.

Even musicians have got in on the act recently. Alex Kapranos, lead singer with Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand, started writing about the food he ate while on tour, and the essays were collected in Sound Bites.

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