"Experience had taught us that the worst hardly ever happens, and if it does, it can usually be turned into a best." Katharine Stewart captures what it was really like trying to make a living out of a hill croft near Loch Ness 50 years ago. A couple and their young daughter, fresh from city life, immerse themselves in the practicalities of looking after sheep, cattle and hens, mending fences, baking bread and surviving the worst that Scottish winters can throw at them.  At times they find it a desperate struggle to get the work done and to make ends meet. Working as a tight family unit, they learn to cope, and in time grow to love their way of life and their little croft.

Croft in the Hills

Katharine Stewart

Melven Press

<p>From the author of the Highland classic A Croft in the Hills, this illustrated book celebrates one of mankind's oldest pleasures. Month by month we are taken through a year in the life of Katharine Stewart's garden. The circle of the seasons is luminously evoked as we are told of the practicalities of gardening, cooking, bee-keeping and wine-making. Peppered with warm, personal insights, good humour and a love of living things, the joy of nature has never sounded so rewarding.</p>

Garden In the Hills

Mercat Press

A collection of the best of the author's Country Diary columns, written for the Scotsman in the 1950s. They build up into a portrait of the crofting way of life.

The Crofting Way: Katharine Stewart's Years on the Land

The Story of Loch Ness

History

Europe

Luath Press Ltd.

<p>Katherine Stewart examines the ways of life of Highland women through the spoken, sung and written histories they have left behind. From the ancient druids to modern naturalists, farming girls to midwives, Women of the Highlands traces the lives of women through medieval times, during the Clearance years, and in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution. Individual stories intertwine with overall history to create a sense of Highland culture that is as intriguing as it is compelling.</p>

Women of the Highlands