Published Books

With an initial focus on the Highlands & Islands, my books are both personal and in-depth accounts of places I have known, loved and studied for decades.

I have known Assynt since I was nine and lived here for longer than anywhere else; the Parish shaped my life. Its landscape is spectacular, but also important; its geology is remarkable, its archaeology rich and diverse, its range of habitat types extraordinary. Life this far north is hard, but its people are not.

Under the Radiant Hill : Life and Land in the Remotest Highlands (Birlinn 2023)

Sagas of Salt and Stone: Orkney Unwrapped (Saraband 2018)

The islands of Orkney have the power to bewitch, and I have been in thrall for almost a lifetime. Here I take you on a personal voyage of adventure and discovery, looking at the archipelago, its nature, history and people - from its great cliffs and seabird colonies to the astonishing ancient monuments which dot its fertile landscapes..

Some view the magnificent Highlands and Islands as wild and ancient, but much of what we see was created by the Victorians. In a blend of memoir, history and natural history, I explore the huge impact of the Victorians on land and people, an impact which endures to this day. Castles in the Mist was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish History Book of the Year 2016. 

Castles in the Mist: The Victorian Transformation of the Highlands. (Saraband 2016) 

North and West is not a tourist guide, far less a gazetteer. It is a carefully-selected, easy-to-read introduction to the age-long processes, natural and human-induced, which have shaped this varied area. It celebrates the beauty of this land, while looking at current land-use and the pros and cons of development.

North and West: Exploring the North and West Highlands and Islands of Scotland. (Scottish Cultural Press 2003). 

TESTIMONIALS

  • Anna Ritchie, OBE; Archaeologist and Author

    On Sagas of Salt & Stone - “You will feel after reading this book that you too have explored Orkney with one of Robin’s groups, privileged to see the Orkney landscape through his eyes and with his understanding”

  • Undiscovered Scotland

    On Castles in the Mist - “Essential reading…If you think you know about Scotland , then this book will probably make you think again, for there is much here that is thought-provoking and more than a little that is surprising. The Highlands and Islands have changed far more profoundly than most of us realise. Which more than anything else is what makes this such an important book”.

  • Northwords Now

    On Castles in the Mist - “A fascinating blend of history and natural history, an account of a landscape and how it came to be the way it is…….thoughtful, informed……refreshing”.

  • Undiscovered Scotland

    On Sagas of Salt & Stone - “Magical…The lovely style of the author’s writing…brings his subjects to life with a lightness of touch and thoughtfulness that succeeds in being both accessible and thought provoking.”

  • Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Publishing

    “Your passion for the place is communicated in what is often luminous writing. It is beautifully written, often very moving and is a real hymn to the place and what it can mean”.

  • Alison Averis, Native Woodland Discussion Group

    “ The vivid descriptive writing constructs the world of Assynt around the reader, so that you can smell the heather and bog-myrtle and seaweed and peat-smoke; hear the calls of greenshank and diver; see the glitter of sunlight on birch leaves”.