The Uttermost Part of the Earth: Islands on the edge ... and in the centre of the North Atlantic

This article examines the changing dichotomies of cultural identities that have historically been part of how the Scottish Northern islands are represented within these British, European and Nordic `mental maps¿. The islands are today part of the modern British archipelago, both a British and European region, but, culturally, also at the crossroads between yet two `other¿ cultural identities: the Nordic and Scottish, with a correspondingly intercultural identity.
A critical study of the construction of particular Northern historiographies at the centre of this article contributes (i) to the study of island nations and narratives of nationalism(s) by exploring the flexible nature of `British¿ identity within the historical and political narratives of Britain¿s northernmost islands; and adds (ii) to existing research on island research and border studies by providing a discursive analysis of regional island historiographies within past and present British and Scottish society.