Scotland in the Enlightenment

The program looks at some of the buildings and paintings of eighteenth-century Scotland and discusses them in the context of society, politics and intellectual currents of the time, particularly in relation to the Enlightenment. It begins at Fort George, near Inverness, a barracks built as a defence against the Highlands, and then moves to Edinburgh and considers the building of the New Town in the late eighteenth century. This is seen in the context of Scottish aspirations to equality with the English following the parliamentary union of the two countries. The model village of Gifford is included as an example of rational town-planning by the Scottish aristocracy.

© 1998-2008 The Roland Collection & Pira Intl.