The story of the present condition of the Geidhes!-: the Gaidhlig speaking people of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland - is generally told through the use of one of two narrative themes: 'improvement' and 'clearance'. In this thesis I build instead on academic research into a third theme, 'colonisation', which has been less explored than the other two, but which, I argue, may encompass them. Unlike previous academic work on Highland colonisation, which proceeds largely from disciplinary perspectives, I am grounding my research in being a Geidttee'. Because of this orientation I adopt an autoethnographic approach for my work and draw extensively on the work of scholars from cultures that have undergone colonisation and who position themselves as 'indigenous researchers'. As I also draw insights and concepts from other disciplines, particularly from human ecology, my work can be thought of as transdisciplinary. I show two sets of parallels between the cultural experiences described by indigenous scholars and those of the Gaidheal. The first lies in those scholars' accounts of cultural and psychological experiences of colonisation, and their consequences - an analysis which has led indigenous scholars to write about 'colonisation of the mind'. (Thiong'o 1986) The second set of parallels lies in accounts that indigenous peoples give about the nature of their relationships with their lands, and beliefs, attitudes and values that such relationships have produced. Following an in-depth discussion of these parallels, I develop a critical perspective on the colonisation of the Gaidheal from the 13th until the late 19th centuries, concentrating in particular on examining testimonies of members of the Highland gentry to government commissions into the state of the Highlands and Islands at the end of the nineteenth century. My analysis concludes that these testimonies can be used as evidence for the colonisation of their/our minds.

This thesis explores the' civilizing' of the far north of Scotland - defined as the shires of Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness as well as the Outer Hebrides - between 1560 and 1640. 'Civilizing' was part of the broader concept of State formation and integration. The thesis begins with an examination of the context for the relationships between these outlying territories and communities and the institutional authorities in Edinburgh and London, which identifies the multipolarity of power in its location and sources and disentangles the dynamics of clan interaction. It unravels a 'civilizing' model which mixes top-down institutional pressures and discipline and bottom-up self-regulating forces by means of agency and intra- peripheral means and factors. The study then elaborates a typology of clan violence and qualifies the high level of violence traditionally ascribed to Gaeldom. The fourth section delineates legislative and executive measures to remove, control, or channel the excesses of clan violence and underlines the cooperation between the centre and the periphery. The next section analyses the relationships of the far-northern society with the Church. Through social discipline, the Church's 'civilizing' efforts complemented those of the State. A more complex and hybrid faith developed in the locality with an element of individual liberty and the hierarchization of priorities. The [mal chapter disentangles the cultural web of the far- northern image and identity of the so-called barbarians. Central institutions activated this template to justify their actions. The far northerners did so, mutatis mutandis, to adjust their business with the central authorities and to suit their local needs. Besides, cultural fragmentation shatters the view of the area as a monobloc. An active participation of the clan elite in cultural production and consumption uncovers their integration into the wider Scottish and British society and an engagement of a number of far northerners with 'civility'.