A Highland Legacy: The Maitlands of Tain; Their Work and Their World Paperback – 1 Dec. 2020

A HIGHLAND LEGACY – The Maitlands of Tain, their Work and their World - Hamish MackenzieMany a visitor has been struck by the beautiful architecture of the burgh of Tain in Easter Ross, and the attractive houses and farms in its hinterland. A Highland Legacy tells the story of how, during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, three successive generations of the Maitlands, local architects, contributed so much to this architectural heritage: churches, town halls, shooting lodges, and re-imagined country houses. There are superb illustrations and photographs of these buildings and designs, many in colour.This book’s scope goes well beyond the story of building commissions. Its thematically organized chapters offer highly informative and readable accounts of the successive and far reaching economic and social changes in the 19th century Highlands, some highly political, which gave rise to the opportunities for particular commissions: commissions for improved farms steadings and shooting lodges on land freed up by the trauma of the “Clearances”; commissions for new churches from many Easter Ross congregations leaving the established church for the new Free Church in the “Disruption” of the 1840s. And so on.Hamish Mackenzie’s meticulous research brings to life a remarkable Highland family and their local community. Crucially, his trenchant and absorbing book goes a long way to address a long neglected period of Highland and Easter Ross history.[Note for Amazon. This book addresses many themes beside architecture in depth.]