Hello and welcome to Stories of Scotland, a podcast examining the history of this little chunk of the world, covered in Heather, Glens and Granite.

I'm Jenny, your avid steamship captain.

And I'm Annie, rapidly paddling away in a lifeboat. Probably wise. I failed my steamship test

with sinking colours. Oh no. So one of the most frequent questions we get asked by folks

is how we choose a subject for an episode.

And this episode is a really good example of us finding a wee tangent and setting sail with it.

So it began when I was reading one of the Scottish mountaineering journals from the late 1800s.

And the climbing group was standing at the top

of Dundaguya, taking in the views. Ah yes, Dundaguya is a corbett on the Isle of Moll. And if I recall,

the climbing group was a mix of men and women, and they were all speaking of their travel experiences in Scotland and abroad.

Yes, and one chap was looking out at the sea and said.

Now look down there, see that line of white-winged yachts between the mouth of the sound and Oban,

and even the steamers, I like them too.

They tell what we can do in this country.

And to be honest, when I read this, I was far more interested in the steamers than the people climbing the hill.

The whole article was a wee bit pompous and this quote reminded me of the

highland clearances and the steamerships that carried people away from their homes and over the

sea to what was at the time British colonies. I couldn't get this image out of my head, and I was much more

interested in the lives of these people than the fancy lives who were climbing the mountain.

So, I want us to go back to the 1850s and see just what those steamerships could do.

I'm going to give a warning for this episode

that some of this content may be difficult to listen to,

...