'M' aghan cri, coir, gradhach' -'My heifer beloved, kind and loving': Human-cattle interactions in the Scottish Gàidhealtachd c.1750-1960.

Cattle's vital role in Scottish Gaelic communities is vividly evidenced by their ubiquity in Gaelic cultural expression and well-established interactions such as milking, herding, and seasonal transhumance. However, these pivotal human-animal interactions are largely neglected in 'Improvement' and Highland Clearances scholarship. This adopts a top-down narrative, in which Gaels' 'traditional' way of life was obliterated by vast commercial sheep farms and community displacement. In foregrounding Gaelic voices, my research will challenge these mainstream paradigms and create a new perspective on this critical period of Scottish history by employing ideas from human-animal studies to explore interactions between Gaels and their cattle.