The Appin Murder
The Killing That Shook a Nation
Published on 1. July 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-78027-720-2 (ISBN)
Description
On a hillside near Ballachulish in the Scottish Highlands in May 1752 a rider is assassinated by a gunman. The murdered man is Colin Campbell, a government agent travelling to nearby Duror where he's evicting farm tenants to make way for his relatives. Campbell's killer evades capture, but Britain's rulers insist this challenge to their authority must result in a hanging. The sacrificial victim is James Stewart, who is organising resistance to Campbell's takeover of lands long held by his clan, the Appin Stewarts.
James is a veteran of the Highland uprising crushed in April 1746 at Culloden. In Duror he sees homes torched by troops using terror tactics against rebel Highlanders. The same brutal response to dissent means that James's corpse will for years hang from a towering gibbet and leave a community utterly ravaged.
Introducing this new and updated edition of his account of what came to be called the Appin Murder, historian James Hunter tells how his own Duror upbringing introduced him to the tragic story of James Stewart.
James is a veteran of the Highland uprising crushed in April 1746 at Culloden. In Duror he sees homes torched by troops using terror tactics against rebel Highlanders. The same brutal response to dissent means that James's corpse will for years hang from a towering gibbet and leave a community utterly ravaged.
Introducing this new and updated edition of his account of what came to be called the Appin Murder, historian James Hunter tells how his own Duror upbringing introduced him to the tragic story of James Stewart.
Reviews / Votes
'Hunter has left no stone unturned in his research... Hunter infuses his writing with a sense of urgency that drives the reader through the more expository sections towards the tragic, foregone conclusion' -- Kai Durkin * Dundee Courier, Book of the Week *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Birlinn General
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 188 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
280 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78027-720-2 (9781780277202)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2021
Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
€10.79
Available for download
Person
James Hunter is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Highlands and Islands. He has written extensively about the north of Scotland and about the region's worldwide diaspora. In the course of a varied career Hunter has been, among other things, director of the Scottish Crofters Union, chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and an award-winning journalist. His book Set Adrift upon the World (Birlinn 2016) was Saltire History Book of the Year in 2016.