Calling Scotland’s hutters….

I'm currently comparing the hut/cabin traditions of Norway and Scotland for a PhD jointly supervised by Strathclyde and Oslo Universities. I found a great summary of research online -- "Huts and Hutters in Scotland" -- commissioned by the (then) Scottish Executive in 1999 – which reported that 650-700 huts existed in Scotland that year. But the full report listing the exact sites was nowhere to be found. I contacted the Scottish Government who had no copy or even information about the mystery man who'd produced the survey. Then the Sunday Post came to the rescue! I wrote a piece in my regular column asking for information about present and past hut sites in Scotland – and was flooded with responses. One of them noted she'd been asked the same thing ten years ago by a Scottish government researcher….and she remembered his name. Back of the net! Happily there is only one Hugh Gentleman in the Edinburgh phone book and after locating and contacting Hugh I arranged with the (present) Scottish Government to release his previously unpublished research material. I was sent to a PDF with some information redacted to comply with current Data Protection legislation and I've been given permission to make the PDF available on this website.

So, 13 years after he trudged round Scotland carefully gathering information on huts and cabins – a sadly overlooked part of Scotland's social heritage -- you can finally see Hugh's report and details of (probably) all the huts in Scotland by downloading the document here. Download Huts and Hutters in Scotland - 1999 draft research materials. I'm really grateful to Hugh and the Government for making the full report available – it means neither I nor the newly established Hutters Federation have to spend time and resources reproducing the snapshot of huts and cabins Hugh created in 1999. Hopefully the public can now "community edit" this information – letting me know of any changes to the 1999 survey – we know for example that sites at Rascarrel and Barry Downs have sadly closed – so we can create a reasonably accurate picture of current sites and hut numbers in Scotland today. Please feel free to access the Google Map depicted above and report any updates, amendments or omissions. Clearly a new update document won't have the same double-checked rigour of Hugh's original. So the government has offered the material in PDF format and asked that it be referenced as "Research Consultancy Services. 1999. Huts and Hutters in Scotland 1999 draft research report material retained by Research Consultancy Services. Released by Research Consultancy Services via Scottish Government in response to a Freedom of Information request in May 2012 by Lesley Riddoch." In plain English, please dinnae tamper with Hugh's original – send me any updates at lesley@feistyproductions.co.uk and I'll create a new 2012 document. This post may become hard to find as newer columns and podcasts are posted. But there is a permanent link to all this information on the right hand side of my main website home page www.lesleyriddoch.com/huts-in-scotland-research.html. Have a shufty.

Comments

[ed iglehart]

Excellent work, Lass!
xxx

[Nick J]

Lesley, I've just started listening to the podcast. You and Chris are talking about the constitution convention meeting the other week. (yes, it was good, I've watched the video) and it's interesting to hear the background to the meeting and the lack of female voices on the original panel - glad that was sorted.

However, I though you were a wee bit unfair on Elliot Bulmer. I know you disagreed with him, but I didn't get the impression that he said a constitution should be written by experts and only experts or professionals. I took what he said to mean that to have ordinary citizens involved is fine and to have a constitutional expert for guidance or answering questions is useful. He also stated that his proposals were just that, they were suggestions, a framework if you like. He also stated that his book was not 'THE' model constitution but 'A' model constitution.