Scots travelling in the 18th and 19th centuries could encounter all kinds of hardship and hazard. As well as ordinary illness and injury, there were riding and coach accidents, shipwrecks and even assault and robbery. While some travellers needing medical attention were treated by local doctors, others, including John Royston, sought hospital care. John was a sailor on the brig Mary, one of many ships that sailed from Aberdeen and Peterhead to Greenland and the Davis Straits, to take part in ...

An account of No. 8080 Private John William Milne 1st Volunteer Service Company, Gordon Highlanders South Africa, 1900 "All is quiet before the dawn, except the soft zephyrs that stir the veldt in its sleep, and the hoarse croak! croak! of the frogs down below. The sentry on duty is alive to the situation as he gazes into the impenetrable gloom, grasps his steel tipped rifle, the blood thrilling through his veins, and dim visions begin to float before his eyes. Such are the feelings of a sold...

This is the way that a chapter in many a Scots life would have ended and a new one abroad would have begun - travelling on a ship to a new country. Places like America, Australia and New Zealand offered many Scots an escape from poverty, and a fresh start with the promise of new opportunities and the chance to make their fortune. Elspet Jane Niddrie's story is not a typical one, even though her new life started with a steamship journey that had been taken by many thousands of people before her....

In 19th century Aberdeenshire, the life of the agricultural labourer was hard and uncertain, hired for a six-month term at a feeing market at whatever wage he could negotiate. A hired labourer had no control over his own destiny or the work he was hired to do. Whether or not he was kept on after the initial term was a decision for the farmer, meaning that travel between farms was a regular feature of a labourer's life. One such agricultural labourer was Alex Mitchell, who worked on 14 differe...