The nineteenth century is the era when Scotland moved towards the modern era in the central belt with the growth of the cities and their industrialisation. the scottish highlands became the seat for a new romantic image of scotland that remains resonant today.

Ninteenth Century Scottish History Timeline

• 1800 Rich ironstone discovered in the Monklands area  
• 1800 Robert Owen takes over at New Lanark  
• 1802 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border published  
• 1803 Telford begins the Caledonian Canal  
• 1806 Appointed Clerk to the Court of Session  
• 1808 Marmion published  
• 1810 Lady of the Lake published  
• 1811 Scott buys Abbotsford  
• 1811 Scots settle Red River in Manitoba  
• 1811 John Rennie builds Waterloo Bridge in London  
• 1812 Henry Bell launches the Comet on the Clyde  
• 1814 Waverley written  
• 1815 John Loudon McAdam develops his surfaced roads  
• 1816 Old Mortality published  
• 1819 The Radical War  
• 1819 Queen Victoria born  
• 1819 Ivanhoe published  
• 1820 1820s - Start of fall in kelp prices sparks off widespread emigration  
• 1823 Robert Napier builds his first marine steam engine  
• 1823 Reduction of whisky duty makes commercial sales viable  
• 1826 Charlotte dies. Scott suffers financial collapse  
• 1827 John Brown born  
• 1828 James Neilson invents hot blast method of iron smelting  
• 1828 Burke and Hare tried  
• 1830 Glasgow's population reaches 200,000  
• 1830 1830s - Beginning of failure of potato crops  
• 1831 New patent whisky still helps large scale production  
• 1832 Reform Act introduced
• 1832 Firsy books on tartan published  
• 1834 First iron shipyard opened by Tod and MacGregor at Meadowside on the Clyde  
• 1834 Veto Act introduced  
• 1837 Victoria takes the throne  
• 1842 Ministers meet at the Edinburgh Convocation  
• 1842 She and Albert visit Scotland for the first time  
• 1843 The Disruption  
• 1844 Lewis bought by Sir James Matheson  
• 1846 Robert Lister first uses ether as an anaesthetic  
• 1846 Thomas Cook organises first Scottish tour  
• 1847 James Young Simpson discovers chloroform  
• 1847 Lease offered on Balmoral  
• 1848 Victoria first meets John Brown  
• 1848 The Queen first attends the Braemar Gathering  
• 1850 1850s - Clearances end when virtually everyone is evicted  
• 1850 Highland Estate Building. A period during which the scenery and romantic stories of and about the Highlands of Scotland led to a rapid expansion of travelling and sport. In order to facilitate this, many houses and estates were built. The tracks built for stalking are often still in use today and can be useful for hill approaches. This period of ?Balmoralism? (named after Queen Victoria?s Highland Castle) was made easier by the ?clearances?, when crofters were displaced to make way for more profitable sheep.  
• 1851 Paraffin Young patents his shale oil extraction process  
• 1852 Victoria and Albert buy Balmoral  
• 1856 James Keir Hardie born  
• 1856 Hugh Thomas Munro born in London. Munro born in London, at 27 Eaton Place. The eldest of a family of nine. His collecting habit starts early, with butterflies, birds? eggs, shells, fossils and so on. Goes to school in Crieff, Perthshire.  
• 1860 Glasgow's population reaches nearly 400,000  
• 1860 Joseph Lister begins his practical work on antiseptic surgery  
• 1860 Invention of breech loading shotgun makes Highland hunting easier  
• 1861 Prince Albert dies  
• 1863 Railway from Perth to Inverness completed  
• 1866 Gossip about an illicit relationship spreads  
• 1866 He starts work in the mines  
• 1873 Munro in Germany. Munro goes to Stuttgart to learn German. Starts climbing in the Alps.  
• 1875 Munro returns to London. Back in London, Munro studies business methods and enjoys the social life. He has a good ear for music and becomes an expert dancer. Goes to Europe as Aide-de-Camp to General the Honourable W. Fielding. Several years later develops pleurisy.  
• 1877 Large scale (six-inch) field survey of Scotland completed by O.S. The O.S. complete the six-inch maps, the basis for the one-inch series to follow.  
• 1878 Matheson dies  
• 1879 Hardie joins the Lanarkshire Miners' Union  
• 1880 Moves to Ayrshire  
• 1880 Railway reaches Tyndrum. The Oban Railway Line reaches Tyndrum, making it easier to reach many mountainous areas.  
• 1880 Munro in S. Africa. To improve his health, Munro goes to S. Africa, as Private Secretary to Sir George Colley, Governor of Natal. When the Basuto War breaks out volunteers for active service and carries despatches as a member of an irregular cavalry corps, Landrey's Horse. At end of war returns home to London, bringing with him Basuto and Zulu curios, antelope heads, a black boy, and a monkey.  
• 1882 Highland Land League formed  
• 1883 O.S. one-inch maps cover most of Scotland. Growth of walking clubs. In the 3rd quarter of this century, at least a dozen walking and rambling clubs were formed in the Lowlands of Scotland.  
• 1884 William Hesketh Lever makes his first trip to the Hebrides  
• 1884 Early listing of Scottish Mountains. Third Edition of 'The Highland Sportsman and Tourist' (Robert Hall) - Lists 236 heights of 3000ft or more. But it is not known for certain whether Munro saw this, or other early lists.  
• 1885 Munro tries politics. Munro, now living mainly at the family home in Forfarshire, at Lindertis, stands as Conservative candidate for Kirkcaldy Burghs. And gets heavily defeated. Continues to explore the Scottish hills.  
• 1888 Fights and loses Mid Lanark by-election  
• 1888 Scottish Labour Party formed  
• 1889 Formation of Scottish Mountaineering Club. March 1889, Glasgow. The SMC is constituted after correspondence in the ?Glasgow Herald? discussing the possibility of forming a ?Scottish Alpine Club?. There was already in Scotland a small nucleus of active and experienced mountaineers, but contact between them was spare. The SMC begin a Journal in 1890, initially published three times a year, and including a serially published guide to the Scottish Mountains. The first Editor, J.G. Stott, commissions Munro to draw up a list of Scottish mountains. Munro has to date climbed 42 tops.  
• 1891 An Comunn Gaidhealach - the Gaelic Society - founded to promote the Gaelic language  
• 1891 Munro?s Tables Published The famous tables are published for the first time in September, 1891, in the sixth issue of Volume 1 of the SMC Journal. They include 538 tops which exceed 3,000 feet in height; 283 are deemed to be separate mountains. Munro completed the list in five months of very hard work, using many field notes collected before and during its compilation. In a note to the Tables, Munro admits that he did not foresee the amount of work which would be required. Munro is 35.  
• 1892 Hardie elected as MP for West Ham South  
• 1892 Munro becomes 3rd President of SMC. As President he entertains his fellow members on Club Meets by playing the flute. He does not drink tea.  
• 1892 Marries general's daughter. Travels widely. He continues, while in Scotland, to work on the Tables, as he is not completely happy with the first edition. 1893 He dies at Abbotsford  
• 1893 John Brown dies  
• 1893 Independent Labour Party formed  
• 1894 West Highland Railway reaches Fort William  
• 1894 Scottish Labour Party wound up  
• 1895 Hardie loses West Ham  
• 1897 Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee