Writing Drover

About writing Drover

Ever since I read Kidnapped, I’d always wanted to write a story set among the glens and bens of the Scottish Highlands but the trigger came from a most unlikely source – my mother-in-law, God rest her soul. She had a friend whose father had been a drover, saved his money, bought a pub and never touched a drop afterwards. It seemed unlike the kind of tramp image we had been given and I did some research. Much to my surprise I found the Drover was trusted all the way from the Moray Firth or the Western Isles to the markets near Falkirk or Glasgow and Fergus Findlay came to life. The ideal time for some strife was either just after the 1745 Rebellion and the Massacre at Glencoe or after Waterloo and the time of the Highland Clearances. I chose the later and was able to include Bernard Cornwell and his hero Sharpe’s favourite Baker Rifle – there was no Help for Heroes so the Highlands had its share of discharged soldiers and vagabonds.
The droves started in all parts of the Highlands, from Wester Ross to the Moray Firth and, if they were making for Glasgow to supply the emigrant ships making for Canada, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa they passed down the Great Glen to Fort Willaim, down past Loch Lomond and on to Dunbarton and Glasgow, often along the route of the West Highland Railway. Like the later cowboys of the Wild West they faced rustlers (rievers), flooded rivers, lightening storms and problems with their companions. The trails were peppered with stopovers where the herd could be ‘corralled’ and the drover’s crew let loose for a dram.
It was fun to write.
Sullatober