ABSTRACT
Accounts of the economic development of Scotland in the nineteenth century tend to highlight the spectacular growth of Clydeside shipbuilding and the heavy industries of the West of Scotland, or the continuing place of textiles in the Borders and Dundee, or the rise of fishing and the success of agriculture. But another sector which experienced dramatic and substantial growth was that of tourism, which became the backbone of a number of localities and on which their livelihood depended. This chapter seeks to examine in a Scottish context questions around the themes of what did the railways do for tourism, and tourism for the railways. What part did the railways play in the growth of Scottish tourism? Which types of tourist and forms of tourism benefited most – the working-class day tripper and excursionist, the middleclass holidaymaker, or the moneyed sportsman or health seeker? A closely related issue is which areas of Scotland benefited most from the railways’ contribution to the development of tourism and what part did the railway companies play in the promotion of tourism? A third is to ask what the railways took from tourism; was it as ‘splendidly profitable’1 as Acworth asserted of the August sporting traffic? And a final issue is what part tourism played in the formation of railway companies in Scotland, a card played to effect in some schemes throughout the century.
