The Drove Roads of Scotland

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One of the great classics of Scottish history, The Drove Roads of Scotland interweaves folklore, social comment and economic history in a fascinating account of Scotland’s droving trade and the routes by which cattle and sheep were brought from every corner of the land to markets in central Scotland.

In pastoral Scotland, the breeding and movement of livestock were fundamental to the lives of the people. The story of the drove roads takes the reader on an engrossing tour of Scottish history, from the lawless cattle driving by reivers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the legitimate movement of stock which developed after the Union of the Crowns, by which time the large-scale movement of stock to established markets had become an important part of Scotland’s economy, and a vital aspect of commercial life in the Empire.

Archibald Richard Burdon Haldane was born in 1900, the nephew of Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane. Like his father and uncles, he attended the Edinburgh Academy, after which he went to Balliol College, Oxford to read history. He returned to Scotland to enter his father’s legal firm. In 1982, he was awarded the CBE in recognition of his work for the bank. He was principally known, however, as a social historian and author. In recognition for his work in this field, he was awarded the honorary degree of D Litt from the University of Edinburgh. He died in 1982.