Kingussie Walkfest marches on
Badenoch’s little town of festivals went walkabout and talkabout this week.
The 2015 Walkfest was so well supported that even when the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds increased the allocation for Saturday morning’s big Insh Marshes excursion all places went immediately.
"The walks went well," confirmed Ian Moffett, one of the organisers of the Walkfest which began very successfully on Friday night with a fascinating talk from map man Chris Fleet, of the National Library of Scotland.
Those who turned out at Talla nan Ros were treated to a tour-de-force from the NLS’s senior map curator as he told the story of how Scotland’s walks had been mapped down the centuries.
"At a general level, maps frame our view of the world and our place within it," said Mr Fleet, "but they also simplify and select from the world, embellish and engrace it, and misrepresent and distort it; in doing so, they promote particular ways of seeing it.
"Over time, as both the makers and users of maps have radically changed, these ways of seeing the country have completely altered too, and Badenoch appears in a range of different aesthetics and with different content."
A comprehensive slide show told the story almost as articulately as the curator himself, with the earliest map of Scotland revealed on a single piece of paper dating from the 1560s, and based on a copy of George Lily’s Scotia of the 1540s.
"Lily was based in Rome and took his main information from historical narratives...by the late 16th century, there were several reasons why better maps of Scotland were needed.
"Perhaps we all instinctively want to trust the map, to believe its features are a true and accurate reflection of reality - but in practice, it may be safer to mistrust the map until we know more about it, or can confirm its information from other sources!"
Mr Fleet included a fascinating account on the development of Ruthven Barracks from 1717:
"One of the main spurs to cartography in the world has always been warfare, and we find several maps associated with the Jacobite rebellions, and the constructions of forts, defences and roads. Internationally, there was a steady militarisation of cartography during the eighteenth century, with new state-funded military academies in several European states, and a growing military appreciation of the value of maps.
"It was decided in August 1717 that in response to the 1715 uprising, four new barracks would be built in Scotland as a show of strength, including Ruthven.
"The design was simple as two piles of barracks facing each other with the rear of the piles forming part of the enclosing wall - designed to resist an assault by lightly armed Highlanders only, but not to withstand an artillery siege.
"By the 18th century, Board of Ordnance engineers were polymaths, skilled in mathematics, geodesy, trigonometry, and engineering, carrying these skills into practice too by estimating the charge for all proposed fortifications, to supervise the building and design of fortifications and conduct sieges.
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"Many of these engineers were from the Continent, and brought with them cartographic practices in colour, style and scale that is distinctively recognisable. For example, the use of red to depict masonry, and the use of yellow to depict proposed works. This plan shows a set of four bastions with one at each corner, but the two depicted in yellow were "to be built in case the money doth answer" Unfortunately, the money didn’t!"
Ordnance Survey first mapped Kingussie in 1870, he explained, "relatively late in terms of our longer history of Scottish mapping. The 25in to the mile map captures the town soon after the construction of the Highland Railway in 1862, depicting the wauk mill and cording mill, school, church, court house, bank, Duke of Gordon hotel, different types of woodland scattered around, and many other features - even signals along the railway line!"
The turnout at Talla agreed with Mr Moffett that the detailed and beautifully illustrated talk was "wonderful" and the walkers were all raring to go on Saturday in a variety of walks of all grades.
"They all went well," confirmed a well-exercised Mr Moffett. "Now for next year..."
