ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the rural setting from which some of Glasgow's immigrants come – the Highlands and Islands. It looks at the Isle of Skye where the author have carried out fieldwork, although material is drawn from other parts of the Islands too. The intention is to try to show how drinking is regarded by people actually living in the townships of the Highlands rather than to attempt to construct a general theory about alcohol consumption and abuse in which Highlanders are but one example. In the seventeenth century numerous Acts were passed by Scotland's Privy Council to try to curb 'the great and extraordinary excesses in drinking in wyne' amongst islanders, a habit which it was believed led to general barbarousness and the proclivity to steal from their Lowland neighbours.
