A lunchtime lecture series, organised by the UHI Centre for History and billed as one of UHI Millennium Institute’s contributions to Scotland’s Year of Highland Culture, is shaping up to be a sell-out.

The free lectures, to be held next week at the UHI executive office in Ness Walk, Inverness, are among the many events constituting InvernessFest, a key component of Highland 2007.

Professor James Hunter, director of the UHI Centre for History and one of Scotland’s leading historians, said: “There is tremendous interest in the history of the Highlands and Islands and we have lined up five top-class speakers on some of the most fascinating themes, including the controversial clearances and Highland involvement in the slave trade.”

UHI events organiser Allane Hay said bookings were essential for the lectures. “We have about 120 seats on offer each day and more than half of them have already gone,” she added.

The five lectures, each of them starting at 12.30pm, commence on Monday, 23 July. The series features a mix of visiting academics and local speakers. Launching proceedings on Monday will be Professor Eric Richards of Flinders University, Adelaide. Although based in Australia, Professor Richards is a leading authority on the Sutherland clearances and has written a major biography of leading clearance “villain”, Patrick Sellar.

On Tuesday, there will be a grassroots perspective on the clearances from Rogart crofter John Macdonald, a keen local historian who has been making a detailed survey of cleared settlements in his locality – a survey so detailed that, when Mr Macdonald was contacted by a visiting American on an ancestor-hunting trip, he was able to take the American visitor to the precise spot where his forebears lived.

Wednesday’s lecturer is Dr Marjory Harper, reader in history at Aberdeen University and a leading authority on emigration from Scotland. She will be followed on Thursday by Dr David Alston, Cromarty historian and Highland councillor, who will report on his investigations into Highland involvement in the slave-trade. Among the buildings paid for from slavery’s proceeds, Dr Alston has discovered, was Inverness’s Royal Infirmary – now, of course, UHI headquarters and the place where he will be speaking.

The lecture series ends on Friday with Professor Hunter talking about the many Highland emigrants who merged into societies very different from their own – which is why, for instance, there are Native Americans in Montana whose ancestors include Glencoe’s MacDonald chiefs.

On hand all week will be Professor Hunter’s Centre for History colleague, Dr Karen Cullen, who is programme leader of the honours degree course in Scottish history which UHI launches in September. “This is an excellent way for us to get over to the public the many opportunities now opening up in UHI,” Dr Cullen said. “From this September, for the first time ever, people in the Highlands will be able to access in their own localities a history degree which will have the Highland past as one of its core themes.”

To round off the week, UHI is staging an open day at the executive office on Saturday, 28 July. The open day will feature not just UHI’s new history degree but all the many other courses and opportunities available in the UHI network of colleges, research and learning centres throughout the Highlands and Islands.

Bookings for the history lectures can be made with Paul Ellison at UHI on 01463 279344 or via email at paul.ellison@uhi.ac.uk
 
ENDS
 
Media contacts:
Professor James Hunter
T: 01463 741644 or 0777 456 3586
 
Glenda Johnson
UHI media and PR officer
T: 01463 279222
E: Glenda.johnson@uhi.ac.uk
 
 
Notes to editors
 
o UHI Millennium Institute (UHI) is a higher education institution comprising thirteen partner colleges and research institutions, two associated institutions and a network of over fifty outreach learning centres, located throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (including Moray and Perthshire).

o Currently over 6500 students are studying on undergraduate and postgraduate courses or undertaking postgraduate research with UHI.

o The UHI partner institutions are working together to achieve university status, as the University of the Highlands and Islands.