The growing Scottish Highland presence in the Caribbean after 1750 was indicative of two things. On the one hand there was a British imperial agenda intent on promoting economic development and security in the Caribbean. On the other there was a domestic agenda, with a focus on introducing the sweeping changes to Highland society that would complete the process of Highland pacification. There was also, however, a deep concern for the socio-economic and cultural survival of the Highlands which encouraged countless Highlanders to engage in myriad imperial pursuits. This article links the global with the local by considering the rise of charitable enterprise in the Scottish Highlands, one of Britain's most vulnerable regions. In considering the establishment of the region's first hospital, the Northern Infirmary at Inverness, and three academies at Fortrose, Tain and Inverness, it establishes the Scottish Highlands’ intrinsic link with the Caribbean's plantation economy.

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This article investigates the relationship between nationalism, unionism and Catholicism between 1850 and 1930 and proposes that ideas about the Scottish nation and national identity had a strong connection with the re-emergence and development of Catholicism. The presence of a large Irish-born and Irish-descended Catholic population meant that although there was a peripheral sensitivity to Ireland and an intellectual curiosity with Home Rule, indigenous Catholics remained deeply committed to the Scottish nation within the British state. A majority of Catholics in Scotland saw themselves as loyal British subjects, as nation builders and as the ambassadors of an imperial ideal. Understanding how Catholic identity was defined and how far this influenced, or was influenced by, the construction of a national identity is critical for achieving an understanding of the complexities of nationalism in Scotland. The parallels that exist between Catholicism's position on the periphery of Scottish society and Scotland's status within Britain is an overarching theme in this article that focuses on a period of intense national self-reflection and identity construction.

This article considers the role played by Irish and Catholic surgeons in the Royal Navy during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ireland's significant links with imperial medicine has thrown up important questions about the extent to which religiosity, national identity and loyalty were incorporated and understood within the context of imperial defence and public health reform. A case study of two brothers from Belfast, Richard and Frederick McClement, and some of their Irish medical colleagues, bring these issues into sharper focus. For many of these ambitious young professionals medical training was a way out of Ireland, but as front-line surgeons working in dangerous environments, they did much to change perceptions of those traditionally perceived as socially and religiously peripheral. The pragmatic loyalism they displayed ensured a stronger relationship between Ireland's middle class and the British state.

Evidence of how history and culture have been or should be harnessed to promote sustainability in remote and rural communities is mounting. To be sustainable, development must come from within, it must serve future generations as well as those in the present and it must attend to the vitality of culture, society, the economy and the environment. Historical research has an important contribution to make to sustainability, especially if undertaken collaboratively, by challenging and transcending the boundaries between disciplines and between the professional researchers, communities and organisations which serve and work with them. The Sustainable Development Goals’ motto is ‘leaving no one behind’, and for the 17 Goals to be met, there must be a dramatic reshaping of the ways in which we interact with each other and with the environment. Enquiry into the past is a crucial part of enabling communities, in all their shapes and sizes, to develop in sustainable ways. This article considers the rural world and posits that historical enquiry has the potential to deliver insights into the world in which we live in ways that allow us to overcome the negative legacies of the past and to inform the planning of more positive and progressive futures. It draws upon the work undertaken with the Landscapes and Lifescapes project, a large partnership exploring the historic links between the Scottish Highlands and the Caribbean, to demonstrate how better understandings of the character and consequences of previous development might inform future development in ways that seek to tackle injustices and change unsustainable ways of living. What we show is how taking charge of and reinterpreting the past is intrinsic to allowing the truth (or truths) of the present situation to be brought to the surface and understood, and of providing a more solid platform for overcoming persistent injustices.