In the space of the two centuries tackled by Travels to Terra Incognita, the Scottish Highlands were transformed in the minds of outsiders from a lawless peripheral zone to a sublime wilderness. The region was also transformed culturally, economically and politically, with the clan system crumbling, Gaelic language declining and both being dealt savage blows by legislation enacted after the failure of the final Jacobite Rebellion in 1746. Furthermore, the Scottish Enlightenment contributed to a wave of scientific and philosophical inquiry into the state of humanity, and interest in ‘the north’. As a result, the Scottish Highlands and Islands hosted a constant stream of visitors: tourists, scientists, proto-sociologists, ethnologists, sportsmen and others.

Martin Rackwitz has identified and analysed well over one hundred such tours. Some are well known and others rather more obscure. The author does not shrink, for example, from quoting Samuel Johnson, but his linguistic ability allows him to examine writing which has hitherto lain relatively untouched, such as the works of Pierre Nicholas Chantreau or Emilie Harmes. Thus, in the style of a north European PhD thesis, Travels to Terra Incognita represents a vast amount of scholarship, with copious amounts of information contained in its pages, and even more in the voluminous footnotes. In spite of a subtitle suggesting that the work covers the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the opening three sections, approximately a quarter of the overall text, set the scene with an examination of the mapping, images (including the impact of fictitious and satirical accounts) and travel accounts in the Scottish Highlands prior to 1611. Importantly, Rackwitz notes that the Highlands had by the turn of the eighteenth century become established in travellers' minds as being, alongside Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen and other peripheral territories, home to the ‘northern savage.’ This construction, of a primeval society, of a people shaped by, effectively a part of, a sublime landscape, underpinned much of the writing featured in later decades.

Rather than a chronological trawl through the accounts, the book proceeds thematically, having identified the main preoccupations of the various travellers in the region. The methodology employed, examining the changes in Highland society through the lens of the travellers, is interesting and useful, and Rackwitz remains aware at all times of the prejudices and context of the authors used. The later sections deal with images of Highland society, and demonstrate the gap which often existed between the visitors' preconceptions and what they discovered upon arrival in the region. Various aspects of the Highland economy are also covered, from vital props such as cattle and fisheries, sheep and potatoes, to activities which were slightly more curious for the visitor, such as fowling and the use of querns. Alongside sections on estate management, the philosophical arguments behind ‘improvement’ form a large proportion of the didactic element in this travel writing.

The book's accompanying CD presents short biographies of the various travellers noted by Rackwitz, and details the routes they took. The high definition scans of the routes, presented in a pdf format, allow the reader to zoom in on specific locations, and the actual routes taken are depicted in colour. It is extremely pleasing to observe that the author's efforts in annotating these maps have been supported by the publishers, the result being ‘bonus material’ (without a prohibitive hike in the price) which stands as an important contribution to the study of the Scottish Highlands. It demonstrates the value of an author fully conversant with the large body of secondary literature available in German and other languages on the subject of travel in the Highlands and Islands, and indeed the wider travel writing genre, and able to synthesise a vast quantity of material in a clear and methodical manner.