Reconsidering the Scottish Town

Abstract

This paper suggests that we have misunderstood the evolution of the premodern Scottish town as the consequence, first, of assuming that English yardsticks were always appropriate to their analysis; and second, of failing to seeing the reality of the Scottish town behind the propaganda of the Enlightenment. This paper suggests prototypical features for the evolution of Scottish towns, and then examines them against Tain and Whithorn. 1