Sir Walter Scott achieved superstar status, influenced countless other novelists, and helped embed a tartan-trimmed vision of Scotland in the minds of generations of tourists, and a new exhibition aims to spotlight his legacy continues in many towns and cities.
image: Abbostford – Sir Walter Scott, Historic Environment Scotland Archive
… without Scott’s looming presence….countless buildings….might have looked significantly different…
The Herald writes:
His elaborate stories took readers on a meandering journey back in time, to Jacobite uprisings and days of feuding clans, crusades, and marauding outlaws.
Having offered hungry readers their first taste of the historic romantic novel, Sir Walter Scott achieved superstar status, influenced countless other novelists, and helped embed a tartan-trimmed vision of Scotland in the minds of generations of tourists…
[This exhibition] raises the notion of how, without Scott’s looming presence in 19th century Scottish society, countless buildings – some of which have become national favourites – might have looked significantly different.
The online and ‘in person’ exhibition of drawings, photographs and sketches has been gathered by archivists at heritage body Historic Environment Scotland to show the buildings, monuments and place-names which trace Scott’s influence on Scottish architecture.
… having been inspired by historic locations for his novels, Scott turned his deep appreciation of medieval architecture to develop his own home, Abbotsford.
There, working with architects William Atkinson and Edward Blore, he set about expanding the existing humble farmhouse building to fit his vision of a medieval ‘fairytale silhouette’ and in doing so, inadvertently ignited a new craze in building design….
[Scott’s influence] also spilled into the next century with famous architects like Robert Lorimer putting his own interpretation of it on Rowallan Castle in Ayrshire, Ardkinglas in Argyll and Formakin House in Renfrewshire….
