Surveying Scotland’s Urban Past: The Pre-Modern Burgh

Abstract

Since the early 20th century, much of the urban history of medieval and early modern Scotland has focused on the purpose behind, and functionality of, the pre‐modern burgh. As a result of contemporary urban concerns, in the 1970s scholars began to ask new questions of the surviving documentary sources and engage cartographic, geographical and archaeological evidence. As a result of newer interdisciplinary approaches to the field, the 1980s and 1990s witnessed a growing interest in pre‐modern burghs as more than trade hubs and administrative centres; they were increasingly seen as places where individuals lived, worked and prayed. But while this ‘urban aspect of local history’ received attention from urban historians of Scotland, very little research has been undertaken in the areas of urbanization, urban networks and urban hierarchies since two important articles were published in 1989 and 1992. This article surveys the development of the field of pre‐modern Scottish urban history and traces the impact made by other disciplines.

Review of periodical literature published in 2011

“…He used Hearth Tax records to analyse the (exempt) unoccupied dwellings in London and Middlesex in the years before the Great Fire of London. Falconer provides a historiography of work on the pre‐modern Burgh in Scotland. Shepherd also looks at an early modern Scottish town, using the case study of Strathbogie (now Huntly) in Aberdeenshire.…”