Scotland's formal landscapes surveyed on General Roy's military map of Scotland

Mature formal landscapes, planted c.1700, are visible on General Roy’s Great Map of Scotland (1747 to 1755). The Scottish formal style, or Scottish Historical Landscape as it is now known, was developed by Bruce, Edward and Mar. It was essentially French in form but in Scotland avenues were directed on natural and historical sites. The essay argues that recognition of the uniqueness of the style will enable re-evaluation of the Scottish style as a national historical resource, and contribute to current research examining the international impact of French formality.

A selection of sites on Roy’s map were compared with surviving landscape designs, nineteenth-century OS maps, aerial and satellite photographs in order to evaluate Roy’s reliability: instances of misplaced features and misaligned avenues were found. In addition, the digitisation of Roy for the National Library of Scotland’s website has distorted distances but the map’s geometry is generally sound. Roy, always requires corroboration from other sources, nevertheless it is an invaluable descriptive source.