West Moray is the area of Scotland in which Forres and Findhorn are situated. In this section we consider the natural environment of Moray, the history of Scotland and Moray’s place within it, and the modern economy and political geography of the county. Lastly, there are some suggestions aimed at improving communications between members of the Foundation and its associated Community, and the resident local population.

Introduction
Scotland is a remarkable country, famous the world over for its mountains and glens, whisky, romantic history, golf courses and tartans. These attractions are certainly one of the reasons many individuals decide to take the long journey to Findhorn. Indeed, in many people’s minds there is already an association between Scotland and the paranormal, even before they have heard of the Foundation. Ancient castles imply ghosts, the Celtic mythos hints at mysterious bards, druids and pagan gods, and few are unaware of the enigma of Loch Ness and its fabulous denizen.

There is of course a different side to Scotland, and one that is more real to its people than the country depicted in tourist brochures. For all its beauty it is a country with a short growing season, and the farmers of the uplands and the crofters of the west and north do not find it easy to make a living. Although Glasgow has seen something of a revival in recent years it still faces many economic and social difficulties, not least in housing. Despite the economic buoyancy of the financial sector in Edinburgh and the oil industry based around Aberdeen, Scotland is still a country with a genuine emigration problem.

Indeed, one of the reasons for Scotland’s international fame, and its reputation for innovation and engineering wizardry is that so many of its talented young people have left to seek work abroad. Today the country’s population stands at 5 million. Roughly a half of that number have emigrated from their homeland during the course of the last century.

Furthermore, just as there has been an exodus of Scots, so there has been an influx of outsiders, particularly to rural areas – the so called ‘white settlers’. Most Scots are generous in their welcomes, just as Scots are themselves welcomed abroad, but many also suspect their indigenous culture is under threat. Yet there is more than one Scotland. The working classes of Glasgow, the middle classes of Edinburgh, and Highlanders of any background, live in quite different worlds, often united only  by a passion for their nation, and less laudably, a suspicion of all things English.

It is easy to over-simplify. Despite her problems Scotland is not by any means a poor country by the standards of the world, and life is for the most part conducted within a system that offers both opportunity and a measure of justice. Let us now examine in a little more detail her nature, history, and culture, with specific reference to Morayshire.

Natural Environment
Scotland has a climate dominated by the Atlantic Ocean. The prevailing westerly winds bring damp air warmed by the currents of the Gulf Stream, which flows from the Caribbean across to western Europe and Scandinavia. Forres is as far north as Juneau, Alaska and further north than Moscow, but these maritime influences bring winters which are cool rather than cold, and summers which are warm rather than hot. The northern latitudes mean long winter nights, but almost endless summer days with no true darkness.

In the west of the country, the rugged mountain scenery, formed in the ancient Caledonian upheavals around 500 million years ago, attracts clouds like a magnet. The island of Skye and the mountain massifs on the mainland experience over 300 cm of rain per annum. Our outpost on the isle of Erraid is relatively low lying and receives ‘only’ about 100 cm annually. This regular downpour – there is no month where rain is unlikely – and the cool temperatures produce a waterlogged soil almost everywhere except some sandy coastal margins called machair. The accumulation of moisture in the ground prevents bacterial breakdown and over the centuries huge deposits of peat have built up. The region is largely lacking in woodland, but this is due to the action of mankind, both ancient and modern. Once almost the whole of the country was thickly forested.

The east coast is in a relative rain shadow and much drier than the west. Forres has about 70cm of rain each year, Findhorn less than 62cm (only 24 inches). The prevailing westerly winds bring warm air, but winter temperatures are generally lower than in the west as the  effects of the Gulf Stream are largely absent, and the North Sea generates cool easterly breezes. Such conditions are however beneficial to agriculture, the sandy soils and dune systems around Findhorn being quite atypical. [1] The fertile acres of lowland around Forres – know as the Laigh of Moray –  have been an important granary throughout Scotland’s history. The hills of the interior are however significantly less productive. Climatic conditions deteriorate sharply with an increase in height and the soils above 100 metres are more like those of the west coast than they are to the farmland of the Laigh.

Higher still are the granite Cairngorm mountains. Any hill in Scotland with an elevation of 3,000 feet (914metres) or more is known as a ‘Munro’ and walkers intent on scaling them are well advised to take sensible precautions. These modest heights belie the possibility of blizzards at any time of the year on the summits and plateaux.

Surprisingly perhaps, Scotland is a net exporter of food. The abundant seas and modern farming methods provide a healthy harvest of fish, grains, vegetables and fruits. Yet the agricultural scene is not lacking in challenges. The problems of over-fishing are a hotly debated issue, reduced government subsidies threaten many marginal hill farms, which are heavily dependent on a double crop of wool and mutton, and unseasonal weather is a constant worry for horticulturists. Nor should we take the 20th century’s success for granted. Despite the inherent bounty of nature, during the 17th century there was famine in eastern Scotland in 20 separate years.

Gardening for its own sake is a popular Scottish past-time, and many local stately homes have annual open days to show off their floral exhibits. The team of council gardeners in Forres are Scotland’s finest. ‘Flower of Scotland’ (co-penned by Roy Williamson who had strong Moray connections), is the country’s unofficial national anthem.

The fauna of Scotland, while containing much of interest, is much reduced from its former glory. Ursus caledonius, the Scottish brown bear, is long since extinct, and the last wolf in the country was shot in the 18th century. The Victorian fascination with hunting denuded the glens of much of their wild creatures, and the lonely hills are now the domain of the red deer, whose feeding habits keep the re-growth of forest to a minimum.

Nonetheless, golden eagles still soar over the mountains from their eyries, and recently several other important birds of prey have been successfully re-introduced, including the osprey, red kite, white-tailed sea eagle and the fearless capercaillie. There has also been a revival in the fortunes of the elusive and untameable Scottish wildcat, a herd of reindeer have bred successfully in the Cairngorm area, and each county of the country can boast a wildlife secret or two.

Morayshire’s most famous is probably the ‘Kellas cat’. It is not yet clear if this extraordinary animal, which is long legged and jet black, is the result of a modern wild cat/domestic cat cross, or a discovery of a hitherto unknown species. There have been regular sightings in the hinterland of Forres, and the mystery has been the subject of several television programmes, and a recent book.

Our Community’s contribution to the understanding of Scotland’s natural environment includes the hosting of the 3rd World Wilderness congress in 1983, (which was dedicated to the memory of Sir Frank Fraser Darling who was both a resident of Forres and the foremost Scottish naturalist of his generation), and the ongoing work of ‘Trees for Life‘.

History
Ancient Times
No reliable evidence has been found of Palaeolithic peoples in Scotland. The first recorded human presence is that of Mesolithic hunter gatherers who arrived about 7,000 years ago, and who left signs of their passing in the Culbin area. A major site of local interest from the Neolithic period is the Clava Cairns in Strath Nairn, a collection of large burial mounds near, but quite unconnected with, Culloden battlefield (of which more below).  Further afield on the Outer Hebrides are the Callanish standing stones which rival Stonehenge in their scope and provide a dramatic setting on the rugged shores of the Atlantic. Although lacking the balanced horizontal sarsens of the latter, this site evokes far clearer images of the past than does the combination of tourist trap and military playground that is Salisbury Plain.

The stone builders were followed by the first metal users. They were the  Beaker people,  so called because of their habit of leaving a drinking vessel in the graves of their dead. They built a small henge in Quarry Wood above the Oakwood restaurant to the west of Elgin. These workers of copper, bronze and lead were superseded by the first iron-using Celtic tribes about 700 BC.

The Celts
The Celtic culture exerts a curious fascination for many modern westerners. Somehow the very word [2] seems to evoke the notion of  pre-industrial Golden Age, when humanity lived in harmony with nature, and discussions of the public sector borrowing requirement were considered tedious by all. Perhaps, goes the myth, the Celtic peoples were a kind of white-skinned American Indian.

Certainly, until relatively recently the lifestyle of those parts of Scotland still retaining a close affinity with the Celtic culture was far removed from that of the urban centres of Europe.
Cattle stealing or reiving was a common practice, particularly amongst young men. On the other hand, Highland hospitality was renowned. As late as the 19th ‘explorers’ from other parts of Scotland could walk the mountain tracks until dusk, and then simply rap on the door of the first cottage they came to and be assured of a meal and a bed for the night.

Many other paradoxes existed. We know of the mysterious druids, whose influence was presumably considerable, but it is not clear why Christianity found it so easy to supplant their role. In some societies royal descent was traced through the female line, and poets and musicians were everywhere held in high regard. On the other hand these apparently enlightened attitudes were balanced by the Celtic fighting men’s bare-breasted charges at the enemy which seem to have involved a spectacular lack of finesse, which the Romans attributed to their belief in reincarnation.

These elements of gentility and brutality all exist in the poignant story of Dierdre, who was exiled from Scotland and laments her loss thus.

Sweet are the cries of the brown-backed dappled deer under the oakwood above the bare hill-tops, gentle binds that are timid lying hidden in the great-treed glen.
Glen of the rowans with scarlet berries, with fruit fit for every flock of birds; a slumbrous paradise for the badgers in their quiet burrows with their young.
Glen of the blue-eyed vigorous hawks, glen abounding in every harvest, glen of the ridged and pointed peaks, glen of blackberries and sloes and apples? [3]

Some aspects of the myth live on. Irish rock musicians eagerly discuss the influence of the traditional craft on their work, and early descriptions of the Celtic fighting prowess might equally be applied to the modern Scottish football team, who usually contrive to provide their supporters with a diet of glorious failures. Notwithstanding the importance of this influence, we should be wary of romanticising the Celtic past of Scotland. Cultural inheritances are sometimes not all they seem; for example, the kilt with its distinctive hues and clan associations is an 18th century invention, the original Highland plaids being made of a much longer cloth and coloured in subdued reds and browns.

A further point of note is that the early history of Moray is largely dominated by the Celts, but by Picts rather than Scots. Regrettably little is known of this former group for they left no trace of their language except a few place names, and less still is understood of their customs, philosophies or religion. Even the origin of their name is obscure, although it may have come either from the Roman picti, meaning ‘painted ones’, or the Irish cicht, for ‘engraver’.

Sueno’s Stone on the edge of Forres is one of Scotland’s most impressive monoliths, although  its original purpose is not at all clear. It depicts a battle, but whether erected by the Picts to commemorate victory over Viking invaders, or Scots celebrating their defeat of the Picts has never been satisfactorily established.

The Romans
The legions left less of a mark on Scottish culture than is the case for most of western Europe. The Romans held the line at Hadrian’s wall on the border of what is now England for a century, forayed northwards to  build the less robust Antonine wall between the Firths of Clyde and Forth for a few decades, and half-heartedly attempted to subdue the north. They built a line of forts up into Tayside  and fought and won a battle at a site of unknown location called ‘Mons Graupius’ – later mistranslated as Grampius hence the modern Grampian mountains. A Roman fleet sailed along the Moray coast in AD 84 and the SPQR banner was raised at a small encampment by the Moray Firth just outside Forres. The occupants bequeathed the name ‘Varis’ to this place, and the modern name of the town may be a corruption of that Roman moniker.

Their stay was however short-lived, and Scotland can boast few substantial relics or artefacts of that period. The most evocative Roman site in the north of Scotland is at Fortingall in Perthshire where the site of a fort is overlooked by a spreading yew, estimated to be 4,000 yeas old and reputedly the oldest tree in Europe. It is hard to remain untouched by the thought of a still-living being in Scotland’s most beautiful glen witnessing the coming and goings of the emissaries of that ancient empire.

The Coming of Christianity
Although St. Columba’s landing on Iona in 563 is the most well known arrival of a Christian missionary in Scotland he was something of a latecomer.  St. Ninian was based at Whithorn in the south west of the country 150 years before that, and St Brendan of Clonfert was active in Moray early in the sixth century. Celtic Christianity brought from Ireland was thus the dominant early form.  Although this loosely organised denomination continued to play a role in Scottish affairs until the fourteenth Century, the Pictish king Nechtan adopted Roman Catholicism in 710 AD, and by the 11th century there were Roman bishops in the country. The first bishop of Moray had his seat at Birnie, but the greatest ecclesiastical architectural legacies of this period include the later bishops palace at Spynie, and the abbeys at Kinloss, Pluscarden and Greyfriars in Elgin. The story goes that Kinloss Abbey was founded in the year 1150 by a grateful King David 1 who became lost in the Moray forests and was led out by a white dove. There is also a rock hewn well at Burghead, thought to be of early Christian origin.

The Scots
The Scots, true as ever to the Celtic logic, are from Ireland. They arrived in Argyll early in the sixth century and quickly organised a kingdom called Dalriada. From here they spread out, and the Picts were effectively absorbed into a greater Scottish state by Kenneth MacAlpin, King of Scots, in the ninth century. The Scots spoke a Celtic language called Gaelic, and this superseded the old Pictish tongue. However Kenneth’s kingdom did not include most of the southern half of the modern nation.

The first king to unite the whole of what is now Scotland was Malcolm Canmore (meaning ‘Great Head’) who reigned from 1057-93. His dynasty lasted for over two centuries, but the most famous name from this period of history is that of the man Malcolm defeated for the Scots crown. MacBeth is probably the most maligned figure in Scottish history. He had a legitimate claim to the throne, and his defeat of Duncan in battle near Elgin was a victory over a man he considered a usurper rather than a legitimate king. MacBeth reigned for seventeen years and by all historical accounts he was a strong and self-confident ruler, rather than the troubled murderer encountered by witches on a heath near Forres in Shakespeare’s fictitious drama. Malcolm’s avenging victory in battle over the old king occurred near Aberdeen, and Dunsinane and Birnam Wood (which are not far from Perth) had no connection with it at all.

During the Canmore dynasty a long process of feudalisation began. In the fifty years after the succession of King David I in 1124 many great Norman and Flemish nobles were invited into the country to this end, and the old Celtic clan system became confined to the wild Highlands and Islands. During much of this period Moray, then larger than today, was virtually an independent kingdom.

The Scots brought with them from Ireland strong elements of the ancient religious practices of that island, although already overlain with Christian interpretations. The basis of these traditions appears to have been a ‘cult of nature spirits, or of the life manifested in nature'[4] a feature which re-emerges strongly in modern  New Age thinking. A knowledge of the hero/Gods Fionn and Cuchualain and of the four quarterly festivals of Beltane, Lugnasadh,  Samhain and Imbolc has lingered in the folk memory to this day, yet even in the Gaeltacht they are for the most part echoes of a distant past rather than a genuinely living set of observances.

The Vikings
From the eighth century onwards the whole of Western Europe was subjected to incursions from Scandinavia. The Norsemen created strongholds for themselves in Shetland, Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland, and exerted continual pressure all along the west coast. Under Sigurd the Mighty, Moray fell to their influence for a while. Today they are largely remembered for their piratical behaviour; their early forays into the sparsely populated north met little resistance, but the growing pressure of numbers led to increasingly violent struggles. The Norsemen were not Christians, which added a religious element to the fray, and Iona was sacked several times. In the tenth century a number of fleeing monks were killed on the Traigh Bhan shore, and on one occasion the entire monastic community was put to the sword at ‘Martyr’s Bay’.

Vestiges of their culture remain with us, again principally in place names, although the Northern Isles still had a few native speakers of a Norse tongue in the eighteenth century, and Shetlanders at least retain a strong affinity to Scandinavia. Their threat to the integrity of the Scots kingdom was only finally repelled at the decisive battle of Largs in 1263.

Wars of Independence
The next great event in Scottish history was this struggle for power in northern Britain. It was a tempestuous time, and Edward 1st of England’s cruelties and attempts to subdue the Scots have lived long in the race memory. [5] Prior to the fourteenth century Scotland and England had co-existed together relatively peaceably and many nobles held lands on both sides of the border. However the deprivations of the next twenty years, left an indelible mark on Anglo-Scottish relations. Exploiting dynastic weaknesses, Edward’s armies quickly overwhelmed the divided Scot’s nobles. First William Wallace and then Robert the Bruce led guerrilla campaigns against the might of the English occupation. These efforts eventually culminated in the Battle of  Bannockburn near Stirling, won so decisively by Bruce and his Scottish army in 1314.

Morayshire played its part in these events. Edward of England came as far north as Lochindorb on one of his military expeditions. Daunted by his view of the mountains to the north, he turned to the lowlands ahead of him and burnt Forres, Kinloss, Elgin and Aberdeen before returning south.

Andrew de Moray was Wallace’s right-hand man although his role was cut short. He died of wounds received at another important Scottish military victory of this period at Stirling Brig.

Although a great national hero, Bruce was not a saint. He assassinated his great rival John Comyn in a confused incident at Greyfriars Church, Dumfries in 1306.  During the same incident Gordon Comyn of Altyre, an ancestor of the modern Gordon-Cumming family who still own the Altyre estate outside Forres, was killed by Roger de Kirkpatrick, Bruce’s accomplice.

The events at the mis-named Randolph’s  Leap on the River Findhorn also fall into this time. Thomas Randolph was created Earl of Moray with lands previously controlled by the Cummings, who set out to raid Darnaway Castle to avenge themselves. Randolph was forewarned, and laid an ambush in a deep ravine at Whitemire. Defeated in the ensuing battle Alistair Cumming’s men fled, and he escaped by leaping the narrow gorge.

An interesting result of these struggles was that English influence led to Robert Bruce, and by extension the Scottish people as a whole, being ex-communicated by the Pope for a short period. One consequence of this was the arrival of significant numbers of Templar knights on Scottish shores, seeking refuge from Papal persecution in Europe. A number of Templar graves have been found in Argyllshire.

After the wars were over the Scots nobles met to sign the Declaration of Arbroath. Its main purpose was to assert “So long as a hundred of us are left alive, we will never in any degree be subjected to the English. It is not for glory, riches or honour that we fight, but for liberty alone which no good man loses but with his life.”

A knowledge of these facts is no mere exercise in academia, for the events of this long distant epoch still play their part in the Scottish psyche. The notion of  a small freedom loving nation struggling and winning over the odds against a powerful and barbaric aggressor may be as much romance as truth, and have little to do with the modern political world, but the myths and legends have long since become at least as powerful as the history itself. Astonishing though it may seem to those coming from countries with shorter memories it is still common to see banners on the streets and sporting terraces of Scotland which prominently display simply the date ‘1314’.

The House of Stewart
Thus, despite the widespread changes in the organisation of society, unlike much of the rest of western Europe the emerging Scots culture was still rooted in its Celtic past, and only influenced, rather than dominated by Roman, Norse and Germanic invasions. Indeed it is likely that her national character was already forged largely in defensive opposition to these external threats. Maintaining Scotland’s independent place in Europe was to be the task of Bruce’s descendants for the next 300 years.

Robert Bruce’s daughter Marjory married Walter, the sixth hereditary High Steward of his country. Their son became in time King Robert II,  and so began the rule of the House of Stewart. For the most part however, Morayshire sensibly kept itself apart from what has been rather uncharitably described as the ‘long brawl’ of Scottish history. Nonetheless, times were not always as peaceful as the majority of the inhabitants would no doubt have liked.

In 1390 the infamous ‘Wolf of Badenoch’, slighted by attacks on his private life by the Bishop of Moray, charged down to the plains from his fastness at Lochindorb and burned Forres, and then later Elgin. His nickname implies an outlaw but he was in fact an Earl of the royal line. Such religious conflicts were to be-devil the Stewart dynasty.

In the mid sixteenth century, when the young Queen Mary returned to her native Scotland from France, where she had been married to the ill-fated Dauphin, she found the country in turmoil. John Knox was preaching the Calvinist doctrine, and the ordinary people, tired of corrupt bishops and prelates, lent him a sympathetic ear. Mary’s dramatic reign was brought to an early close largely because of her inept handling of this explosive situation.

The old saying that the Stewart dynasty ‘came with a lass and went with a lass’, is well known but technically inaccurate. Mary’s eventual exile, and her death at the hands of her cousin Elizabeth 1 of England only heralded the end of the Stewarts as a specifically Scottish royal line.

Union
When Elizabeth died in 1603, the succession brought  James VI of Scotland, the son of Queen Mary, to the throne of England as well – the ‘Union of the Crowns’. James promptly moved his court to London and so  symbolised the growing Anglicisation of Scots culture which  was beginning to make its mark across the country. James allegedly claimed that Nairn was the greatest city in Europe, on the grounds that the people at one end of the High Street (the Anglicised fishing folk) spoke a different language from those at the other end (the farming Gaelic speakers). The Gaelic could still be heard in rural Moray and Nairn until the nineteenth century, but now it is entirely confined to the west coast.

Over the years this union eventually brought a lasting peace between the two nations, but this was not the case at first. Soon Scotland was embroiled in the English Civil war and its aftermath. This is a complex period to understand, with several of the main characters changing sides, and confused loyalties to church, country and King splitting the nation. Moray’s main part in it all was to witness a battle at the village of Auldearn, won by the great general Montrose, and in 1650 to host the return from the continent of the exiled Charles II at Kingston near Garmouth. This was also an era of religious intolerance, and many an innocent Scotswoman was burned as a witch.

Nearly sixty years later in 1707 amidst some considerable controversy, which continues to this day, the Parliaments of England and Scotland were also merged. By statute however, Scotland continues to retain a separate legal, educational and church system.

Jacobites, Wordsmiths and Philosophers
The eighteenth century was hardly less war-like. In 1688 James VII was deposed for his Catholic sympathies in a bloodless coup which gave the throne to James’ daughter Mary, and her husband the Dutch nobleman William of Orange. James’s son and grandson fought back. The Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 are often portrayed as a national uprising of the Scots, but support for ‘Bonnie’ Prince Charlie was largely confined to the minority of Catholics and Highlanders. The people of  Elgin and Forres cheered their eventual defeat. Although proceeding triumphantly as far south as the midlands of England, his upland army soon melted away to tend the harvests. The prince spent a month in Elgin in the spring of 1746 before leading his remaining forces to the massacre at Culloden. It was the end of Stuart [6] claims to the Scottish throne, and the beginning of the end for the traditional clan system of the Highlands. The atmosphere of this doleful battleground remains strangely charged, as if some black cloud continues to hang over the place where so many men were slaughtered.

More happily, Findhorn Bay was the stage for a dramatic incident just prior to this massacre. Richard Warren, the Prince’s aide-de-camp somehow contrived to be picked up by a friendly French sailing vessel called Le Bien Trouve´, and although trapped in the Bay by patrolling British men-of-war, the larger ships could not enter the shallow waters to conclude his capture. One misty night the French brigantine escaped from their grasp and subsequently made it safely back to Dunkirk.

This century also saw the births of Robert Burns, Scotland’s great national poet, (whose health is toasted everywhere that Scots gather on the 25th of January), and that of Walter Scott. Scott’s star is now past its zenith, but he was the greatest European novelist of his day. It was also the time of the ‘Scottish Enlightenment’ that brought a galaxy of thinkers to the fore. The works of the economist Adam Smith and the philosopher David Hume and their colleagues, introduced this flowering of Scottish cultural and intellectual society to the attention of the whole of Europe, and set the tone for the political and  educational reforms of the following century.

The Recent Past
Four great 19th Century events deserve mention. First of all, the Highland Clearances, which drove many of the remaining Gaels from their homes to make way for sheep farming. It was the final nail in the coffin of the ancient Celtic culture on the Scottish mainland. Secondly, religion – the ‘Great Schism’ of the Church of  Scotland took place, dividing many highland parishes between the orthodox Kirk and the ‘Free Church’, which dared to oppose the landowners and demand election of ministers by the people, a right belatedly obtained by the Kirk only in 1874.

Thirdly, the Industrial Revolution brought the railways and the new commercial era. Scotland and the Scots developed a reputation for invention that few nations can match, having brought for example steam power, the telephone, television and penicillin to the attention of the world. The effects of industrialisation were more dramatic in the great cities of the south, and Moray is the happier for having absorbed its methods whilst avoiding its excesses. Further afield the Scots explorers Mungo Park and David Livingstone carved their names into the history of the growing British Empire. Forres-born Donald Smith, later ennobled as Lord Strathcona, played his part as Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, and as a driving force behind the construction of the Canadian -Pacific railway.

Closer to home a branch line of the main north railway was constructed from Kinloss to Findhorn. Although a short-lived experiment, the railway engineers have left a lasting mark on the peninsula, and their efforts are a testimony to the thriving commercial traffic the little port once witnessed. In Moray at this time whisky [7] distilling became an organised industry, and the first modern roads were constructed with crossings of the Spey and Findhorn. The ‘Sobieski Stuarts’, claiming to be Poles descended from the royal line [8], stayed briefly at Logie near Forres in 1829. This was also the year of the ‘muckle spate’ of the River Findhorn, which after a day of torrential rain rose over 12 metres at Dulsie Bridge, and flooded more than 20 square miles of the plain of Forres.

This is not the place for a lengthy discussion of  twentieth century history, but a number of events deserve mention. The most important event of the early years of the century was of course the First World War. It is well worth standing by the war memorial in Findhorn and pondering the long list of names, and the effects of such slaughter on a small and close-knit community. In the years thereafter Forres experienced a modest growth in prosperity, signified by a successful summer ‘Gala Week’ which regularly attracted 6,000 visitors, and in 1926 the Australian cricket team played the inaugural match on the new pitch at Grant Park. In 1934 Gordonstoun School near Elgin, later  to educate members of the British royal family, was founded. The Second World War brought more loss, and the airfields at Kinloss and Lossiemouth in its wake. The great concrete blocks on the beach between Findhorn and Burghead are another legacy of this period, their construction designed to forestall a sea-borne invasion.
Let us now turn to the place of Morayshire within the modern nation of Scotland.

Modern Moray
Political Situation
Briefly, there is a hierarchy of political power leading down from the British parliament in Westminster, to the Scottish Office in Edinburgh, which is an arm of the government of the day. Moray sends a single Member of Parliament to Westminster. There is no elected Scottish government of any kind, although there have been persistent attempts to re-instate one since the original Union. This debate can be seen played out in the parliamentary elections in Moray. In recent years, support has swung between the Conservative and Unionist party and the Scottish National Party (SNP), which is of course anti-Unionist.

The highest level of local government is that of the Region. Forres is in Grampian Region, which  is based in Aberdeen. On a second separate tier of local administration is Moray District, whose headquarters are in Elgin. The present British government intends to abolish the Regional Council and create  a unitary Moray authority for the provision of all local services.

Last in the chain are the Community Councils which provide valuable input into the District and Regional Council deliberations, but which have little decision making power of their own. There is one for Forres, and another for Findhorn and Kinloss.

At the other end of the spectrum there is the European Community or EC, which is becoming increasingly important as a supra-national form of government. Unlike many of their continental neighbours, the British as a whole remain somewhat suspicious of giving up elements of their political independence to this body. However, the current MEP for the Highlands and Islands constituency is the SNP’s Mrs. Winnie Ewing – ‘Madame Ecosse’ – and the Nationalist view is that it would be better for Scotland to seek its place as an independent partner in Europe and by-pass Westminster altogether.

Religious Life
The Church of Scotland, or Kirk, has an annual General Assembly in Edinburgh where the issues of the day are discussed under the gaze of the elected Moderator. The prominent ‘Church and Nation’ committee is also a regular contributor to public debate, and the well-known Iona Community participates in diverse activities including the Kirk’s international missionary work. The smaller ‘Free Church’ remains important in many Highland parishes and everywhere there is a smattering of non-conformist belief. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican presence in Scotland. Roman Catholicism is widespread, but only in the Central Belt are the adherents numerous. Many Catholics there are the descendants of Irish immigrants, but there are a few Hebridean islands where Knox’s Calvinist reformation never took hold. Other faiths are present in Scotland, but none are prominent in Moray.

Scotland’s patron saint is St. Andrew, whose protection is recalled on November 30th. The blue and white national flag or Saltire is flown in many places on that day, the white ‘X’ representing the shape of the cross on which the saint was martyred.

The Local Economy
In simple terms the traditional economy of Moray is dominated by the ‘Four Fs’ namely fishing, farming, fermentation, and forestry, to which may be added tourism and the Ministry of Defence.
Several of the coastal towns are still dependent on the fishing industry, although this activity has been in decline in recent years. Farming continues to be the mainstay of the rural economy, and with 60% of the land under forest, Moray is the UK’s most wooded county. ‘Fermentation’ refers of course to the whisky industry. Although both Forres establishments are currently closed, distilling remains of great importance in many areas, particularly on Speyside.

Scottish tourism has ridden out the recent economic recession relatively well, but it has proven to be a fickle friend to Moray. When Forres Hydro a.k.a. [9] Cluny Hill College was the jewel in the crown of West Moray hotels, the area could be referred to as the ‘Scottish Riviera’ with only modest irony. The advent of cheap holidays abroad has changed all that. Other than the ‘whisky trail’ there are few large tourist attractions in the county, and much of the trade is passing. Although this is not good news for hoteliers, the relative quietude suits many residents.

In fact, it is the military presence which dominates the local economy. The air bases at Kinloss and Lossiemouth provide employment for just under five thousand men and women in a county whose total population is only 83,000. The ‘peace dividend’ is unlikely to bring immediate or direct benefits to the area, and announcements of impending military closures send shudders through the locale. It is over-easy for those of a liberal persuasion to accept the benefits of this military presence whilst disparaging it. RAF Kinloss provides fishery support, air/sea and mountain rescue services in addition to its traditional role, and many service personnel perform tasks which are genuinely dangerous. The role of the warrior may not suit everyone, but it is a legitimate spiritual path in many traditions. You may recall that Peter Caddy’s long service training greatly contributed to his leadership and organisational skills.

Economic benefits brought by the oil industry, whilst real are nothing like so dramatic as in the areas to the east and west of Moray. Unemployment in Forres, particularly amongst the young, is currently at very high levels.

Our own Community’s role in the economy is thus small, but certainly measurable. It has been estimated that the Foundation and NFD together contribute over £800,000 annually in direct inputs to the Moray Firth area, and the indirect and total Community impact is probably three to four times this figure in all.

Local Relations
The Foundation’s relationship with its neighbours may appear to some readers to be a rather specialised subject, having relevance only to those directly concerned. So far as many of the specific details are concerned this is of course true, but the difficulties involved in creating a meaningful dialogue and harmonious relationships between very different communities is a subject of wider import. It may be possible to discern from these particulars some ideas which are useful in other contexts.

The subject may be conveniently divided up into four parts, namely:
i) Findhorn and Kinloss
ii) Forres
iii) the Moray Firth area
iv) the rest of Scotland.

Let us treat them in reverse order. As we shall see, this will allow for an understanding of the issues as they appear at increasing levels of intensity. Note however that the suggestions offered here apply in all circumstances, not just in the context where they are placed in this text.

Scotland
The above narrative on Scottish history and culture, and a little common sense should be enough for anyone living in the Community to avoid too many faux pas. We are fortunate to be living in such a friendly and peaceable part of the world. There are alternative communities elsewhere in the western world that require wire fences and guarded gates to allow them to conduct their affairs safely. A few simple reminders are however in order.

1) Try to avoid using ‘England’ when you mean Britain, and especially if you mean ‘Scotland’.
2) Most Scots, and particularly those in rural areas, don’t like a fuss. If you come from a nation with a reputation for loudness or pomposity (German, English and American readers  take note) try to be sensitive to this.
3) Begin conversations with a reference to the weather. It is considered polite.
4) If you need help, ask for it. Local accents in west Moray are soft and easily understood. If you meet someone from the West [10] or rural Aberdeenshire, don’t pretend you understand. Nearly everyone in Scotland is perfectly capable of making themselves understood to someone with a poor grasp of English. If you don’t understand a word, the speaker is probably unconscious of your nationality. Better to request they speak more slowly than leave feigning a knowledge of what you have been asked to do.

The Moray Firth Area
Few people within 50 miles of Forres have not heard of the Foundation – which they will possibly refer to as ‘Findhorn’. For most this amounts to a cursory knowledge – something to do with a sacking from Forres Hydro over some missing spoons [11], faeries and elves at the  bottom of the garden, and a surprisingly tenacious bunch of ‘hippies’.

1) However, many locals recall stories from 30 years ago or more that contain a grain of truth. If someone refers to ‘yon chap who cut the trees down so the flying saucers could land’, don’t flatly contradict them. Such comments are usually a covert way of attempting to discover if you are as gullible as the speaker imagines. If you present an appearance of sanity and intelligence the conversation will quickly turn to latter day events (which are more accessible for the ordinary person anyway), and your encyclopaedic knowledge of building houses made out of whisky barrels may be profitably brought to play.
2) Don’t pretend that relations with the immediate locality of west Moray are a state-of-the-art object lesson in clear communication. Most people in this area have friends, colleagues or relatives who read the ‘Forres Gazette’.
3) Don’t assume the person is a Highlander, or even Scots. There is a good chance they are not, and unless you are very good at placing accents, knowing someone lives in Inverness is a very poor guide to their cultural background.
4) Read a local newspaper from time to time. Don’t believe everything you read.

West Moray
Everyone in West Moray knows about the Foundation, although few have or desire anything other than a casual knowledge. Most people are quite content to let us get on with our lives if we let them get on with theirs. A small number actively support our work, but the fact is that if the community is to be relevant to an international audience it must be observably different from mainstream culture. Inevitably this leads to a degree of suspicion.

1) A common gripe concerns the charitable status of the Foundation. Offering justifications based on the nature of the Foundation’s spiritual work will not endear you to the average local. Nor will pointing out that Gordonstoun School also has this status, but receives little or no criticism for it. Admit this is a generous tax break, express thanks to the UK government for providing it, and point out that there many businesses in the Community which pay their taxes like everyone else. This will surprise most people, and indeed few will believe it, but it’s worth a try.

You might also usefully examine your own attitudes to ‘charity’. The Foundation and Community are still largely dominated by those with a middle class background and the benefits of a tertiary education. The fact that the Foundation does excellent work which deserves support does not mean that it should seek to avoid its social responsibilities towards those who are less well off. To this end the Foundation has a policy of tithing, and is able to direct a small amount of money to local charitable causes. You might consider making an occasional personal contribution of time or money to such projects as well.

2) Many local people have a genuinely hard time understanding what the Foundation and Community do. The Foundation appears to produce nothing, not even a degree certificate. You might usefully discuss the Foundation’s work in bringing people with different cultural and religious backgrounds together in harmony. Recent events in the former Yugoslavia make the purpose of such work more obvious. Refer if you like to our outreach efforts in Eastern Europe and South Africa. Don’t bother trying to emphasise the value of ‘community’. Most genuine locals have lived in a community all their lives and have little empathy with individuals from alienated urban cultures.

If you do get involved in a heated discussion (which is highly unlikely – see point two under ‘Scotland’ above), ask for help. “What would you do to improve local relations?” is a perfectly legitimate question.

3) Be yourself. There is no point in putting on a spiritual act, or alternatively pretending to be an ‘ordinary’ person. The very fact that you have most likely travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles to be here without reason of a military career makes you different.

4) Above all, don’t be smug. Newer Community members sometimes imagine that they have recently embarked on an immensely important transformational process and world work. It is so, but remember this process is one which demands changes in you, not in everyone else, and it is certainly not designed to help you promote or advertise the Community. It is infuriating to be lectured on the glamorous achievements of the Foundation by someone whose communication skills suggest they would struggle to arrange a children’s party in a toy shop. A little humility goes along way.

5) The Community is world famous for its work with the nature kingdoms. This does not make you as an individual an authority. Local people who have lived with the changing seasons all their lives do not need to be told that every sunset glorifies God, and that the spring flowers are a miracle of  beauty and design.  Also, whatever your personal views, note that unlike the Irish, few Scots believe in the ‘little people’. And by the way, the geese come to Scotland for the winter, and fly north again in the summer, not the other way around.

6) Take an interest. Local people are  proud of their culture and roots. Don’t bore everyone by discussing the Community at length unless you are asked to do so. Ask about your interlocutors own work and life, fears and ambitions, successes and regrets. You may learn something worthwhile.

Findhorn Peninsula
It is a mistake to imagine that the Community is an isolated island in a sea of local uniformity. In the village of Findhorn there are four main resident groups.

a) RAF personnel both active and retired.
b) ‘White Settlers’ i.e. people who are not originally from the north east of Scotland but who have come there to live. Many are of retirement age.
c) Genuine locals who were born and brought up in the area.
d) Members of the Foundation and its associated Community .

In addition there are:
e) Holidaymakers. Many houses in Findhorn village are now second homes or let to visitors.

No-one has ever done a census but the groups are presented roughly in order of descending numbers. You will thus discern that a significant number of ‘locals’ are themselves incomers. The close proximity of such diverse communities has led to complex tensions, and in some cases, outright hostility. This is not solely confined to the Community’s relationship with the other groups, but the Foundation is an easy target.

This situation may be exacerbated by the fact that the present village is probably the third to bear the name, the first two having being swept away by time and tide. Fishing, once the mainstay of the village’s economy is now a leisure pursuit rather than a serious economic activity, the last commercial salmon nets having been closed in recent years. Subconsciously perhaps, a knowledge of the relative impermanence of certain traditions on the peninsula may add to local fears of a ‘Foundation take-over’.

Furthermore, the relatively high turnover of Foundation staff – the average length of stay is about four years – makes it hard for local people, of whatever stripe, to relate to a large organisation with a constantly changing set of faces at the helm. In such a complex milieu, ‘being nice’ is often an insufficient qualification for social acceptance.

1) Never use ‘Findhorn’ when you mean the Foundation or Community.
2) If you are part of the Community but not the Foundation you may find your activities described as part of the latter. If appropriate point this out, but don’t press the matter. For most people the distinction is irrelevant.
3) Avoid hugging and kissing in public. It embarrasses. Never bathe nude in public places.
4) Successive Community Councils in Findhorn have sought (rightly in my view) to preserve the architectural character of the village. Should you purchase or rent a dwelling in the village, take heed of local planning regulations.
5) Don’t remove stones from the beach, or ‘back shore’ as it is often called. The Foundation used beach stones to decorate the roof of the Universal Hall in the seventies. Although done with the permission of the local estate owners this was met with a singularly poor reception locally. During the eighties large sums of public money were spent on protecting the village from the effects of coastal erosion. Even if you imagine the consequences of a few handfuls of missing stones will be negligible, it is an insensitive and unnecessary activity.
5) Take an interest, but don’t interfere. Some locals complain that the Foundation does not contribute enough to local activities. Others complain when Community members do.

Some of the difficulties local people have with the Community seem to stem back to the very early days, and in particular to the persona of Peter Caddy. On being asked ‘What is the relation of the Community to its greater environment?’ he replied –

‘First of all, I would like to point out the importance of obeying the laws of the land and the customs of the land which you are in. So in the area around here…. don’t go swimming naked on the beach or upset people in other ways. Flow with them. As Eileen’s guidance used to say, adapt, adjust, accommodate.
Some people seem to feel that it’s good to blow other people’s minds, as it were. Well, that doesn’t help at all. So don’t upset people by wearing clothing or behaving in a manner that’s going to make you stand out and draw adverse comments, etc.’[12]

As an ex-manager of a large local hotel he was certainly well aware of local sensitivities. Nonetheless, many of Peter’s comments, particularly on the subject of  the ‘vast city of  light’ that Eileen’s guidance predicted they were building, still rankle in the local memory.
From today’s perspectives, the challenges of creating an ecological showpiece on a 22 acre caravan park are so daunting that the vision of a ‘vast city’ perhaps appears an unnecessarily large ambition. Certainly, modest and continuing growth of the Community membership notwithstanding, the Foundation has no plans to purchase significant amounts of land on the Findhorn peninsula or anywhere else. Can the God who spoke through Eileen really be planning an influx of tens or hundreds of thousands of spiritual seekers to this small corner of Scotland? It seems highly unlikely.

Maybe the idea was intended to refer to large groups of invisible attendants. It is also true that the current Community occupies a relatively large geographical area, but with a very diffuse population. Furthermore, modern communication methods offer some astounding options, and it may be that the Foundation’s connection to the ‘Internet’ computer communication super-highway with its possibilities of distance learning, will in time lead to thousands of people participating in the work of the Community without causing undue stress to West Moray’s physical infrastructure. Perhaps we should anticipate a ‘virtual’ metropolis.
Whatever the future holds, the entire episode highlights the difficulties of distinguishing between metaphor and literal truth when considering channelled material of this nature.

The Foundation has also been accused of unfairly purloining the name ‘Findhorn’ which, it is alleged, should more properly refer only to the village. It is true that up until the end of the 1970s the Community fairly freely referred to itself as ‘Findhorn’, but policy has been to avoid that whenever possible for over a decade. Mistakes are occasionally made, and no doubt  a few exist within these pages, but the issue is not as simple as that.

Just as RAF personnel refer to ‘Kinloss’ when they mean the air base, and academics refer to ‘Cambridge’ when they mean the University, no-one has a monopoly on a name. In fact the derivation of the word ‘Findhorn’ is not absolutely clear. It may come from Invererne and mean ‘at the mouth of the river Erne’ or Fionn-Dearn, ‘the white river Dearn.’ Either way, although ‘Findhorn’ may not belong to the Foundation, the facts are that its headquarters are located by the Findhorn Bay, in the Community Council electoral ward of Findhorn, immediately adjacent to the historic village of Findhorn. Further confusion of this nature is frankly unavoidable.

It is no doubt extremely aggravating to be a resident of West Moray who happens to live in Findhorn to be mistaken for someone whose lifestyle you do not care for, but there is really very little the Foundation or Community can do about that except to be sensitive to such feelings and hope that perhaps one day, Scotland and the Scots will be proud to have been the birthplace of an extraordinary and lasting experiment in positive human values. In the meantime all that can be suggested is that we continue to try to find ways of reaching a mutual understanding.

Finally, this is perhaps the place to settle a minor wrong the New Age has perpetrated on Scotland. It has become commonplace to see the following inspirational quote attributed to a German gentleman called Goethe.

“Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of thing occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”

In fact these words were penned by W.H. Murray, a leading Scottish writer and mountaineer. Continued misappropriation of these thoughts can only fuel Scotland’s habitual sense of injustice, which surely her magnificent contribution to human endeavour does not merit.

A Meditation on the City of Light
Imagine yourself in the Sanctuary at the Park on a winter’s evening. Drawing on the meditational practice of more than three decades it is easy to envision one’s self bathed in a mystical glow of divine inspiration which surrounds this spot, and indeed overlights all the Community buildings on the caravan site. Picture the light as it shines from the Community Centre, Guest Lodge, Universal Hall, and all the individual dwellings where Community members meditate and ask for spiritual guidance.

Widening our field of vision we can see his light reaching out to touch the radiance surrounding nearby properties such as Cullerne, Minton, Station House, and a handful of other properties in the nearby village. Rising into the night sky you can see this formation stretching out to greet the great Angel of Cluny and its partners which overlight Newbold House, Drumduan, and other places in the town of Forres.

This hub of luminosity is in itself connected, both metaphorically upward towards the heavens and the inspiration of yet greater divine beings, and also horizontally, out into the forests surrounding the town where Community activities add their own unique contribution to the dance of light.

This constellation has tendrils stretching further afield – away in the darkness of the night is Glen Affric where the dreams of the tree planters add a sparkle , and out on the Atlantic shore there are Erraid and Iona.

We are now beyond any concept of a human city, but travelling a national and international highway, for the gleam of small centres to the south are just over the horizon. Beyond that are Glastonbury, London, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia – the Planetary Network of the New Age.

These images will be familiar to most of you, but let us now return our awareness to the smaller scale of Morayshire. With a little change in our focus we can surely see that the Community’s contribution to the glow of angelic inspiration is but a single hue in a multi-coloured and multi-dimensional inner landscape. In every town and village there are churches, quiet good deeds, and the simple prayers of children. Everywhere there is the compassion of those working in the medical profession, the hope of teachers, the strength of those involved in law enforcement, the building of solid family virtues, and the religious practices of a hundred different denominations and faiths. From this perspective the City of Light is not a few strands of hope in an ocean of darkness, but a great and complex web of inspiration which lends comfort and offers vision to those struggling to find a way out of the remaining pockets of gloom and twilight.

Not everyone may use the same metaphors as ourselves, but all these activities are surely  part of the City of Light too. If our task is one which sometimes claims a little more attention in the global media, that should not be thought of as a measure of its quality. As we return our awareness to the humble timber framed building at the centre of the Foundation’s work let us keep in mind that we are neither as individuals nor as a Community alone in our hope for a better world, and that there are many people in the local area who are willing to hear what we have to say, if we are similarly willing to listen to them.

Footnotes

[1] Nonetheless, there are many other parts of the east cost with grassy links. It was such places that inspired the game of golf.

[2] It is pronounced with a hard ‘C’ as in Keltic. Pronunciations with a soft ‘C’ (seltic) refer to a Glasgow based football team.

[3] The original story may be 9th century. This extract is from Diede Remembers a Scottish Glen’ by an unknown Irish author of the 14th century, translated by T.F. O’Rahilly in Measgra Danta, Cork, 1927, and quoted in A Celtic Miscellany, K.H. Jackson; Penguin; 1971.

[4] J.A. MacCulloch, op. cit. page 3

[5] Edward Plantaganet was of course of Norman origin, and a descendant of William ‘the Conqueror’ who seized the English crown in 1066. What is not commonly understood is that the Norman dukedom was strongly influenced by Danes who had previously annexed part of norther France. This invasion of England was thus to a degree an extension of the Viking raids on the whole of Britain. Fortunately for the Scots they too had absorbed some of this Norman mettle, although through conscious policy rather than conquest. Robert the Bruce, for example, was also a direct descendant of a Norman nobleman who came over with William.

[6] This spelling of Stewart was assumed by the royal family in the time of Mary.

[7] From the Gaelic uisge beatha — water of life’.

[8] These outrageous charlatans were in fact two English brothers, surnamed Allen. Before their exposure they held a kind of Jacobite court for a while at Eilean Aigas near Beauly.

[9] Short for hydropathic. There are a number of such hotels in Scotland some still offering healing waters. The holding tank at Cluny is on the hill behind what is now the sauna, but the source of the supply was the mains, not a natural spring.

[10] The West’ refers to the Glasgow conurbation. The Atlantic seaboard is known as the ‘west coast’.

[11] Peter, Eileen and Dorothy were of course dismissed from the Trossachs Hotel, not Cluny Hill, and no reasons were ever given — see Section 2.

[12] These words were spoken nearly 20 years ago, Although the principle remains, certainly things have changed since then, and there is no reason to suppose the youth of Forres today is any more or any less in the cultural fast lane than their metropolitan peers. As early as 1960 the Beatles (or Silver Beetles as they were then called) toured Scotland including a gig at Forres Town Hall. According to ‘The Scotsman’ of 12.3.94 ‘They were paid a pittance and their finances were so precarious they did a runner from the Royal Hotel.’

Reading list

George Bain; The River Findhorn From Source to Sea; Nairnshire Telegraph; 1911.

Robert Burns; Poems: Selected and Edited by Beattie and Meikle; Penguin; 1977. There are other collections of equal quality.

Nora Chadwick; The Celts; Pelican; 1970

Martin Cook; The Birds of Moray and Nairn; Mercat Press; 1992. A comprehensive guide to all avian species to be found in these counties. In the early eighties I observed a chough perched on the fence between Pineridge and the Bichan’s farm. There are no authenticated records of this colourful member of the crow family in Moray, so you may guess how I feel.

Ian K. Dawson; The Findhorn Railway; Oakwood Press; Undated.

Ronald Ferguson; George MacLeod: Founder of the Iona Community; Collins; 1990. Required reading for anyone who imagines that the Church of Scotland belongs in the Jurassic. Especially interesting are MacLeod’s struggles with the establishment of his day which echo many of our own difficulties. He also had his ‘miracle’ stories. See for example page 183. “In September 1940, when the incendiary bombs were raining on London, it looked as if the re-building [of Iona Abbey] might have to be stopped because of lack of timber. Then the deck cargo of a Swedish ship, carrying wood from Canada, had to be jettisoned. The timber floated all the way to Mull, directly opposite Iona – all the right length. “Whenever I pray”, said the beleaguered Dr. MacLeod, “I find that the co-incidences multiply.”

Findhorn: A Scottish Village; Findhorn Press; 1981. A short history and guide to the traditional settlement.

Di Francis; My Highland Kellas Cats; Jonathan Cape; 1993

Alasdair  Gray; Lanark: A Life in 4 Books; Picador; 1991. If you find Scott’s style too inaccessible, try this surreal masterpiece instead.

Neil Gunn; The Silver Darlings; Faber; 1969. A tale of the herring fishers who lived on the northern coasts visible from the beach at Findhorn.

Christopher Harvie; No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Scotland 1914-80; Edward Arnold; 1981

Michael Havers, Edward Grayson, and Peter Shankland; The Royal Baccarat Scandal; Souvenir; 1988. Alas for the Gordon-Cumming family whose ill-luck re-appeared in 1890 when Sir William was accused of cheating at cards in the presence of The Prince of Wales. A cause celebre in Victorian society.

T.D. Lauder; An Account of the Great Floods of August 1829; J. McGillivary; 1873
Fionn MacColla; And The Cock Crew; Souvenir; 1977. Although appalled by the treatment of his countrymen and women in the Clearances, Neil Gunn was essentially an optimist. MacColla’s dark tale has a very different slant.

Hugh MacDiarmid; Selected Poems: Selected and Edited by Craig and Manson; Penguin; 1970. Arguably Scotland’s finest 20th Century poet. Like Burns he chose a deliberately archaic style which makes his work hard going for the non-native.

Charles McKean; The District of Moray: An Illustrated Architectural Guide; Scottish Academic Press; 1987. A fascinating compendium of architectural heritage, themes, and oddities. Brodie Castle, the Crown and Anchor, Drumduan, the Universal Hall, and Forres Academy  all have their place. Cluny Hill College is described as ‘suitably exotic’.

Caitlin Matthews; The Elements of the Celtic Tradition; Element; 1991

J.A. MacCulloch; The Religion of the Ancient Celts; ; Constable 1991. First published in 1911.

W.H. Murray; The Islands of Western Scotland; Eyre Methuen; 1973

Donald Omand; The Moray Book; Paul Harris; 1976

Stuart Piggott; The Druids; Pelican; 1974

John Prebble; The Lion in the North; Penguin ; 1973. Probably the most readable Scottish history in print. Prebble has produced a fine selection of more specific histories including: Glen Coe; Penguin; 1966
Culloden; Penguin; 1967
The Highland Clearances; Penguin; 1963

Sinclair Ross; The Culbin Sands: Fact and Fiction; University of Aberdeen; 1992

Sir Walter Scott; Ivanhoe; Everyman; 1983

W.D.H. Sellar (editor); Moray: Province and People; Scottish Society for Northern Studies; 1993

Andrew Sinclair; The Sword and the Grail; Century; 1993. Although somewhat elliptical in style this book is well worth persevering with. It concerns two fascinating Scottish historical mysteries – the founding of a Scottish colony in Nova Scotia 90 years before Columbus voyaged to the Americas, and the role of the Knights Templar in providing a crucial link between more ancient Gnostic traditions and the emergence of Scottish Freemasonry. Watch out for the brief appearance of ex-Community member Marianna Lines who played a part in the detective work.

Robert Louis Stevenson; Treasure Island; Canongate 1988
Kidnapped; Canongate; 1988. David Balfour, the hero of this tale was marooned for a while on the Isle of Erraid. Stevenson’s father was involved in the construction of the nearby lighthouses, and the young Robert Louis knew the island well. He was eventually to become Scotland’s greatest nineteenth century novelist.

Elizabeth Sutherland; Ravens and Black Rain: The Story of Second Sight; Constable; 1985.

Kenny Taylor; Local Heroes; BBC Wildlife Magazine; May 1992. An article about the dolphins of the Moray Firth.

Nigel Tranter; Robert the Bruce; (Three volumes), Coronet; 1972.
Montrose; Coronet; 1972. This prolific author has produced a novel covering most important aspects of Scottish history. His romanticised style does not appeal to everyone, but his research into the known facts is apparently meticulous.