“The Highland Diaspora and its Antipodean Outliers”

The dispersal of Scottish Highlanders from their ancestral homes to countries across the globe is a central theme in modern Highland history. By the mid 19th century, Highlanders were to be found in every part of the “Anglosphere” - not only in the south of Scotland and England, but also in India, North America and the Antipodes. There were well-known concentrations of Highlanders in eastern Canada (in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, and Prince Edward Island); there were other groups in the Carolinas, in the New York colony, and in Upper Canada, in Red River and beyond. There were fascinating pockets of Highlanders in the Falkland Islands and even in continental Europe, sometimes employed as navvies. There were large concentrations in the British armies. In Australasia also there were identifiable groups of Highlanders - in New England, in the south-east of South Australia, in Gippsland and the Western District of Victoria, a few in Western Australia and some in tropical Queensland. And, of course, in New Zealand Highlanders flourished in several places but most famously at Waipu in the North Island. There was a sense of dispersion as well as of concentration.