Scotland’s formal landscapes surveyed on General Roy’s military map of Scotland: Fid-Bau Portal

Scotland’s formal landscapes surveyed on General Roy’s military map of Scotland

Stewart, Margaret

Mature designed landscapes planted c. 1700 are visible on General Roy’s Great Map of Scotland (1747 to 1755). The Scottish formal style, or Scottish Historical Landscape as it is known, was developed by the landscapists Sir William Bruce and Alexander Edward, and by the outstanding designer John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, Secretary of State for Scotland and later leader the Jacobite Rising of 1715. Essentially French in form but with avenues directed on natural and historical sites, the Scottish style achieved unique characteristics. The essay argues that recognition of the style, which is long overdue, will enable its evaluation as a Scottish national historical resource. The study contributes to current research on the impact of French designing beyond the European centres, and it will help disentangle the Scottish style’s characteristics from the dominant historiographies of the Picturesque.

A selection of sites on Roy’s map were traced through nineteenth-century maps and compared with surviving contemporary mapping resources including aerial and satellite photographs. This enabled an evaluation Roy’s reliability for identifying these landscapes: instances of misplaced features and misaligned avenues were found. In addition, the digitisation of Roy for the National Library of Scotland’s website has distorted distances but the map’s geometry is generally sound.

The study disclosed unknown designed features such as splayed or perspectival avenues. Dice-style or quincuncial planting, panorama terraces and roundels have been noticed by other researchers but the study reveals them to be far more numerous than presently thought. Finally, a new type of landscape adapted to mountainous sites is described.