Scots Local History [25min]

Puzzled by the past and don't know who to ask? 1) Host Mark Stephen fulfilled a long-held ambition this week and had a personal guided tour of one of Britain’s great fortresses -- Fort George. It's on a magnificent peninsular east of Inverness -- the site itself creates a strong defence against attack both from the sea and from land. The Fort was never attacked but was designed to repel all comers! When work on the fortress started, the idea was to quell the Highlands after the Jacobite uprising but, as work continued, a new threat emerged from possible invasion from France. The Fort is still used as a garrison, but it is also under the care of Historic Scotland. 2) The Highland Clearances are a familiar tale for many Scots, but perhaps less well known is the story of Patrick Sellar, the Duchess of Sutherland's factor and the man responsible for many of the evictions. Sellar was brought to trial in 1816 in Inverness for his role in the Clearances but set free by a jury of fellow landowners. Professor Jim Hunter of the University of the Highlands and Islands told Mark about Patrick Sellar and explained Sellar's rationale for what he was doing. 3) "Past Lives" history doctor, Louise Yeoman, took us back to the days of manual phone exchanges with reminiscences from the Portree exchange and tales of the occasional operator listening in to phone calls. 4) Local Inverness historian Sheila McKay took Mark to the banks of the Ness to tell him about the great flood that swept through the city in 1849. Sheila told how the flood destroyed one of the town's bridges and forced residents from their homes. She also described how one Highlander believed the flood was God's retribution after a theatre company had visited the town.