'Coffin roads' along which bodies were carried for burial are a marked feature of the landscape of the Scottish Highlands and islands – many are now popular walking and cycling routes. This book journeys along eight coffin roads to discover and explore the distinctive traditions, beliefs and practices around dying, death and mourning in the communities which created and used them. The result is a fascinating snapshot into place and culture. After more than a century when death was very much a taboo subject, this book argues that aspects of the distinctive West Highland and Hebridean way of death and approach to dying and mourning may have something helpful and important to offer to us today. Routes covered in this book are: The Kilmartin Valley – the archetypal coffin road in this ritual landscape of the dead. The Street of the Dead on Iona – perhaps the best known coffin road in Scotland. Kilearnadil Graveyard, Jura – a perfect example of a Hebridean graveyard. The coffin road through Morvern to Keil Church, Lochaline - among the best defined and most evocative coffin roads today. The Green Isle, Loch Shiel, Ardnamurchan - the oldest continuously used burial place anywhere in Europe. The coffin road on Eigg – with its distinctive 'piper's cairn' where the coffin of Donald MacQuarrie, the 'Great Piper of Eigg', was rested. The coffin road from Traigh Losgaintir to Loch Stocinis on Harris - popular with walkers and taken as the title for a best-selling thriller by Peter May. The coffin road on Barra – A detailed study of burial practices on Barra in the early 1950s provides a fascinating record of Hebridean attitudes to dying, death and mourning.

Halt! Who goes there? Three times, with gun in hand, the old home guard fellow demanded an answer. I said I wanted to join the air force. I can remember him saying, Are you sure you want to? I suppose he felt a bit fatherlyyou know: here was another young girl going into that terrible place! August 1939 and war clouds looming, May Cameron, Tommy, approached the Balloon Station near Birmingham, England, harbouring ideas of becoming an air ace. On the other side of the world in Sydney, Australia, Ted accompanied a workmate to night classes conducted by the Empire Air Training Scheme, half-expecting that if he were accepted into the air force, his previous job would have him typecast for ground crew. In the end, neither Tommy nor Ted got quite what they bargained for. But they did find each other and so took the first steps on another very different adventure. This is the story of Ted and Tommy, of their formative years, of their coming together in wartime Britain; Ted the Australian flying officer or something of 466 Squadron, and Tommy the Scottish lass in the control tower; and of the struggle they later came to share with fellow ex-servicemen to regain their lives and to raise a family in the changing circumstances of postwar Australia. This then is hagiographya love storythe story of my parents, Ted and Tommy Eagleton, lest we forget!

The BBC travel personality explores the Nordic legacy of these remote Scottish islands: “Engagingly written and superbly illustrated.” —Undiscovered Scotland Paul Murton has long had a love of the Viking north—the island groups of Orkney and Shetland and the old counties of Caithness and Sutherland—which, for centuries, were part of the Nordic world as depicted in the great classic known as the Orkneyinga Saga. Today this fascinating Scandinavian legacy can be found everywhere—in physical remains, place names, local traditions and folklore, and much else. This is a personal account of Paul Murton’s travels in the Viking north. Full of observation, history, anecdote, and encounters with those who live there, it also serves as a practical guide to the many places of interest. From a sing-along with the Shanty Yell Boys to fishing off Muckle Flugga, from sword dancing with the men of Papa Stour to a Norwegian pub crawl in Lerwick, this book paints a vivid picture of these lands and their people, and explores their extraordinary rich heritage.

Includes section "Mountaineering literature."