The Scottish Renaissance (Scottish Gaelic: Ath-bheòthachadh na h-Alba; Scots: Scots Renaissance) was a literary movement from the early to mid-20th century. It is often seen as Scotland’s version of modernism. It is also called the Scottish literary renaissance, though its influence extended beyond literature to areas like music, visual arts, and politics. Important figures, such as Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, and other writers and artists of the movement, showed strong interest in modern philosophy and technology. They also used folk traditions and cared deeply about the survival of Scotland’s languages, which were declining.
This movement has been compared to similar efforts in other places, including the Irish Literary Revival, the Harlem Renaissance in the United States, the Bengal Renaissance in Kolkata, India, and the Jindyworobak Movement in Australia. These movements also focused on preserving indigenous folk traditions.
Beginnings
The term "Scottish Renaissance" became widely recognized in 1924 when the French poet and scholar Denis Saurat wrote an article titled "Le Groupe de la Renaissance Écossaise" for the Revue Anglo-Américaine. This term had been used earlier, though, by the knowledgeable Patrick Geddes and in a 1922 book review by Christopher Murray Grieve, who also wrote under the name Hugh MacDiarmid. In that review, Grieve predicted a "Scottish Renascence" that would be as powerful and fast as the Belgian Revival between 1880 and 1910. He mentioned figures like Lewis Spence and Marion Angus as part of this movement.
Earlier mentions of the term show how the Scottish Renaissance was linked to the Celtic Twilight and Celtic Revival movements of the late 1800s. These earlier movements helped revive a sense of cultural pride among Scots of the modernist era. However, while those earlier movements focused on sentimental and nostalgic ideas about Celtic culture, the modernist-influenced Renaissance aimed to revive Scottish culture by looking back to medieval poets like William Dunbar and Robert Henryson, as well as forward to modern writers such as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and D. H. Lawrence, or local figures like R. B. Cunninghame Graham.
At the start of the 20th century, new creative ideas began to appear in Scottish arts and writing. Writers like George Douglas Brown criticized the "Kailyard school," which had dominated Scottish literature by focusing on rural life in a satirical and realistic way, as seen in his novel The House with the Green Shutters (1901). Meanwhile, poets like Violet Jacob and Marion Angus quietly revived poetry in the Lowland Scottish dialect. Patrick Geddes continued his work on improving cities and planning communities, developing the idea of "Place – Work – Folk" to study how people and their environments connect. In visual art, John Duncan expanded his Symbolist paintings inspired by Celtic myths to include more collage techniques and focus on flat, two-dimensional images. In architecture and design, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Four created a unique style known as the "Glasgow style," giving Scotland its own modern design movement. While Scotland experienced a lot of creative activity in the early 1900s, there was no clear shared movement or strong national theme connecting all these efforts.
Literary renaissance
The Scottish Renaissance, a movement that changed Scottish literature, began with the work of Hugh MacDiarmid. Before he used his pen name, he was known as C. M. Grieve. Starting in 1920, Grieve published three short collections of poetry called Northern Numbers. These collections included works by other Scottish writers, such as John Buchan, Violet Jacob, Neil Munro, and Grieve himself. These collections, published each year from 1920 to 1922, along with Grieve’s founding of the Scottish Chapbook review in 1922, helped establish him as a key leader of the Scottish Renaissance movement he had predicted. By around 1925, MacDiarmid stopped writing in English and began using a special form of Scots called Lallans. This language mixed regional Scots dialects with words from Jamieson’s Dictionary of the Scottish Language, often following Standard English grammar. One of his famous poems was A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), which had a strong impact on the literary world at the time.
Other writers, such as Edwin Muir and William Soutar, followed MacDiarmid’s example and wrote in Lallans. These writers explored themes of identity, avoided old-fashioned ideas, and addressed social and political issues. After World War II, more writers, like Robert Garioch and Sydney Goodsir Smith, continued writing in Scots. Edwin Morgan, a poet from Glasgow, became known for translating works from many European languages. In 2004, he was named the first official national poet of Scotland, called the Makar, by the Scottish government. Alexander Gray, an academic and poet, is remembered for translating German and Danish ballads into Scots, including A Book of German Ballads and Folksongs Attempted in Scots (1932) and Four-and-Forty (1954).
The Scottish Renaissance became more focused on novels, especially after the 1930s, when Hugh MacDiarmid lived in isolation in Shetland. At this time, the movement’s leadership shifted to the novelist Neil Gunn, who wrote in English rather than Scots. Gunn’s novels, such as The Grey Coast (1926), Highland River (1937), and The Green Isle of the Great Deep (1943), explored the Highlands and used creative storytelling. Other important writers linked to the movement included George Blake, A. J. Cronin, Eric Linklater, and Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Many female writers also contributed to the movement, including Catherine Carswell, Willa Muir, Nan Shepherd, and Naomi Mitchison. These women wrote about identity and social issues, though they did not all share the same style. A. J. Cronin, a doctor, wrote novels like Hatter's Castle (1931) and The Citadel (1937) that challenged old-fashioned traditions by showing the struggles of everyday people. George Blake wrote about the lives of working-class people in books like The Shipbuilders (1935). Eric Linklater wrote humorous stories, such as Juan in America (1931), and explored war in Private Angelo (1946). Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the pen name of James Leslie Mitchell, created the important novel trilogy A Scots Quair (1932–1934), which mixed Scots dialects with storytelling. Other works about working-class life included Major Operation (1936) by James Barke and Fernie Brae (1947) by J. F. Hendry.
At the same time, a revival of Gaelic poetry, called the Scottish Gaelic Renaissance, began. This movement was led by Sorley Maclean, a native of Skye who spoke Gaelic. His collection Dàin do Eimhir (1943) broke from old traditions and inspired new poets, such as George Campbell Hay, Derick Thomson, and Iain Crichton Smith. These writers focused on themes like exile, the survival of the Gaelic language, and living between cultures.
In the 1950s, a magazine called Jabberwock, created by students at the University of Edinburgh, became an important part of the Scottish Literary Renaissance.
Art
During the inter-war period, Scottish artists such as Stanley Cursiter (1887–1976), William McCance (1894–1970), William Johnstone (1897–1981), and J. D. Fergusson (1874–1961) helped shape a unique modern Scottish art style. Stanley Cursiter was influenced by the Celtic revival, post-impressionism, and Futurism, as shown in his paintings Rain on Princes Street (1913) and Regatta (1913). Later, he became a leading painter of the Orkney coastline, director of the National Gallery of Scotland, and proposed the creation of a National Gallery of Modern Art in 1930. Fergusson was among the few British artists who contributed to the development of modernism and likely influenced the ideas of poet Hugh MacDiarmid. His interest in machines is visible in works like Damaged Destroyer (1918). He worked with MacDiarmid on the journal Scottish Art and Letters, and MacDiarmid often used Fergusson’s writings in his own work.
William McCance began his career with bold post-impressionist paintings. After World War I, he moved to London with his wife, Agnes Miller Parker (1895–1980), and joined groups that included Fergusson, vorticist Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957), and composer Francis George Scott. Under these influences, McCance’s work became more abstract, as seen in Women on an Elevator (1925) and The Engineer and his Wife (1925). William Johnstone (1897–1981), a cousin of F. G. Scott, met MacDiarmid while studying in Edinburgh. He explored cubism, surrealism, and was inspired by American art through his wife, sculptor Flora Macdonald. Johnstone’s work moved toward abstraction, blending elements of landscape, poetry, and Celtic art. His most important work, A Point in Time (1929–38), has been called “one of the most important Scottish pictures of the century” by art historian Duncan Macmillan.
Other artists influenced by modernism included James McIntosh Patrick (1907–98) and Edward Baird (1904–49). Both studied in Glasgow but spent most of their careers in Dundee and Montrose, respectively. They were inspired by surrealism and the work of painter Pieter Bruegel, focusing on landscapes, as seen in McIntosh Patrick’s Traquair House (1938) and Baird’s The Birth of Venus (1934). Before becoming a painter, McIntosh Patrick gained fame as an etcher. Important figures in the field during the inter-war period included William Wilson (1905–72) and Ian Fleming (1906–94).
Drama
Playwrights from the Scottish Renaissance include Robert McLellan, Robert Kemp, and Alexander Reid. Much of McLellan's early work was first produced by the Curtain Theatre in Glasgow. His first success came in 1936 with Curtain's production of his comedy, Toom Byres, set during the time of the Border reivers. This was followed in 1937 by Jamie the Saxt, which features James VI in his prime. This production, with Duncan Macrae in the title role, is generally considered the one that helped establish McLellan as a respected comic dramatist in Scots. Another historical Scots comedy, The Bogle, was delayed by the Second World War and was eventually staged as Torwatletie by Glasgow Unity Theatre in 1946. A radio production of his verse play The Carlin Moth was broadcast the same year. McLellan wrote The Flouers o' Edinburgh (1947) expecting it to be produced by the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, but the play was rejected by James Bridie, who was concerned about its clearly showing Scottish pride in history. It was first performed by the Unity Players and later broadcast on radio in 1951. The play was produced by the Gateway Theatre Company in its 1954–55 season and again in August 1957 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.
Robert Kemp started translating existing dramatic works into Scots. His play Let Wives Tak Tent, a version of Molière’s L’École des femmes, was first produced at the Gateway Theatre in 1948, with Duncan Macrae in the lead role. In the same year, his adaptation of David Lyndsay’s Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis was staged at the Church of Scotland’s Assembly Hall as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. Along with Lennox Milne and Tom Fleming, Kemp founded the Gateway Theatre Company in 1953, taking on the roles of Chairman and resident playwright. His adaptation of John Galt’s novel The Entail, titled The Laird o' Grippy, was staged at the Gateway in 1955, with John Laurie in the title role.
While McLellan’s most successful plays were set in the distant past, Alexander Reid preferred a half-mythic setting. His two best-known plays are The Lass wi' the Muckle Mou (1950), which is based on the legend of Thomas the Rhymer, and The Warld's Wonder (1953), about the mathematician and reputed magician Michael Scot. The Lass wi' the Muckle Mou was first staged at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre in November 1950. It was later adapted as a television drama and first broadcast by the BBC on October 6, 1953. The Warld's Wonder was produced at the Gateway in the autumn of 1958.
Victor Carin, who became director of productions at the Gateway in 1963, helped expand Scottish theatre’s collection of translated works. His translation of Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid, titled The Hypochonriack, was performed by the Gateway Company during his first season in that role. His second translation, The Servant o' Twa Maisters, adapted from Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, was the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company’s first production in 1965.
Sydney Goodsir Smith’s most successful contribution to the drama of the Scottish Renaissance was The Wallace. It was first broadcast on radio by the BBC in a production by Finlay J. MacDonald on November 30, 1959. The play was first staged at the Kirk’s Assembly Hall in a production by Peter Potter as part of the 1960 Edinburgh International Festival. The play was later revived by the Scottish Theatre Company in 1985.
Music and dance
Francis George Scott (1880–1958), a former teacher of the poet MacDiarmid, introduced ideas from the Scottish Renaissance into classical music by setting several of the poet's works to music. Ronald Stevenson (b. 1938), born in Lancashire, worked with Scott and both used a method of composing called the twelve-tone technique. Stevenson created a musical style inspired by Scottish traditions, writing concertos for piano (1966 and 1972) and adapting songs from Scottish Renaissance poets like MacDiarmid, Sorley Maclean, and William Soutar. The influence of composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) appeared in Stevenson’s large-scale piano piece Passacaglia on DSCH (1963), named after the initials of Shostakovich’s name in musical notes.
Robin Orr (1909–2006) and Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913–1983) were inspired by modernist styles and Scottish musical patterns. Modernist influences are also found in the work of Erik Chisholm (1904–1965), such as his Pibroch Piano Concerto (1930), Straloch Suite for Orchestra (1933), and Sonata An Riobhan Dearg (1939). In 1928, Chisholm helped start the Scottish Ballet Society (later called the Celtic Ballet) with choreographer Margaret Morris, who was long associated with artist J. D. Fergusson. Together, they created ballets like The Forsaken Mermaid (1940). Chisholm also helped establish the Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music, bringing important composers to Glasgow to perform their works.
Decline and influence
Although many people involved in the Scottish Renaissance lived into the 1970s and beyond, the most important changes of this movement had ended by the 1960s. At that time, other movements, often from outside Scotland, began to take over.
A well-known conflict happened in 1962 at the Edinburgh Writers Festival. Hugh MacDiarmid criticized Alexander Trocchi, a younger Scottish writer, by calling him "cosmopolitan scum." Trocchi responded by saying that his writing was influenced by themes like "sodomy." This event is often viewed as a disagreement between older and younger writers. However, it is less commonly known that MacDiarmid and Trocchi later exchanged letters and became friends. Both men were known for causing controversy.
The Scottish Renaissance also influenced the Scottish independence movement. The Scottish National Party’s beginnings are closely tied to this cultural revival.
Additionally, the revival of Scotland’s two native languages was partly inspired by the Renaissance.
Major figures
Other people linked to the Scottish Renaissance, who were not mentioned before, are listed below.
Note: These individuals were not all part of the first group of Scottish Renaissance writers and artists who appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. However, most became connected to the movement in some way through relationships with people like Gunn or MacDiarmid, even if they joined later.
People usually thought of as coming after the Renaissance but who were still deeply influenced by it: