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The Rutland Press, the publishing division of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, is delighted to announce the release of The Western Seaboard, the latest publication in its popular series of illustrated architectural guides. Neil Baxter, Secretary and Treasurer of the RIAS, commented: “The RIAS guides are a work in progress. Once complete this series will enable Scotland to boast that its architecture is the best recorded on Planet Earth. Mary Miers work is a huge and notable contribution to one of Scotland’s most extraordinary international endeavours.”

Drawing on a lifetime’s knowledge of this wild corner of Britain, Mary Miers takes us beyond the familiar sounds and scenery of the West Highlands and Islands to uncover an extraordinary record of human settlement, from the earliest ‘terraced’ houses on the machair of Bronze Age Uist to Scots Baronial piles set amid semi-tropical gardens. On the way she encounters the shrines and strongholds of medieval Gaeldom; planned fishing stations, canals and railways; houses ranging from the fashionable to the vernacular and the Highland urbanism of Portree, Fort William and Stornoway.

This richly illustrated guide reveals how the architecture of the Western Seaboard has transformed itself through at least four cultures – a compelling story of survival and revival. It is a story of holy men and holiday-makers, seafarers, warriors and crofters, and of the enduring influences of religion and clanship in the face of repeated waves of modernisation. This is the ideal accompaniment for anyone wishing to visit some of the most haunting landscapes in the world and learn something of those who inhabit them.

View more information on our series of illustrated architectural guides.