u/Plantigraduate

I see many subs announcing a "no AI" rule. Are we nexts?
(yes, it's mostly a joke)

Hope I don't get shot as this is not "Inverness"-specific, but, close by anyway

I'm writing a novel where a big portion takes place in the Black Isle, 1700s, and keep wondering about stuff not in the usual websites. For example, I have this hamlet or toun of Strathfimble somewhere in the hills above Cromarty/Rosemarkie. What is the color of the soil like? what kind of crops are planted there nowadays?

Edited to add:
I am enormously grateful for all responses, even the less friendly ones.
My concern now is, I do sense a minority, but meaningful feel that I am not welcome in my intention.
I am all for liberty of opinion, but, let me say that I am surprised. You don't know me, you don't know what I'm writing about, yet you don't like that I'm trying?
Oh yes, I am ignorant, I have never been there, that's TRUE. That's why I'm asking you folks.

We can get along. Or not. I can't force you, and even if I could, why can't we? Pushing away someone (and downvoting. -17?) because he doesn't know what you know, because he was born elsewhere? Makes me sad. I apologize for choosing Cromarty as my location. Maybe it was a mistake.

I think it's a sweet place, despite not showing up in any tourist guide I've found so far.
Maybe some of you like it that way, that people don't want to go there. Leave you alone.

Then, there are others. Nice, nice people who do want to get along. Those are probably the majority, but they don't make a big noise, so I don't hear them too much. Well, I do want us to get along. But I really don't want any trouble, maybe I should just go make my story in the wide central Highlands and be done with it. Because I'm a coward, I probably will just invent a location. Too bad.

A principle of Game Theory, people can gain much, much more, if they cooperate, but it takes very few to break that cooperation. I get to live that right now. Not here to teach y'all anything, this is mostly a lesson for myself, about human nature. Is it also a lesson about Cromarty?

Hi. I want to be very careful not to fall into the "no research" rule, so this is a generic as I possibly can, and it's not directly related to my book content, I will just mention the general lines so you have a general idea, please don't shoot the noob.

I know that absolutely whatever I write will be seen as a problem by at least one of the many points of view, I'm prepared for that, I have learned that even a detail of loom technology makes some people irate, then nobody needs to imagine when I'm trying to work how Mi'kmaq people communicated and interacted with a 1770s settler family in Nova Scotia.

Being myself of Native ancestry (mostly Aymara, some Quechua, then a total mix of Europe), having lived and loved Aymara lands and people, follower of the beliefs of my Nation (we're majority Evangelical. Hey, that happens. But it shocks people in the US). I "can" understand how contradictory interpretations exist, I carry the blood of both a Native princess and the Spanish officer that was killing her brothers, and plenty commoners, no doubt.

I know I will fail in not offending some, but I feel that I must try. As with that silly technology thing, I might not listen to the loudest or currently dominant ideology. BTW, we should all be concerned of dominant ideologies, even our own, because the moment an ideology becomes "accepted" is when it gets its double-zero, if you know what I mean.

OK, so, there.

>Maybe practical advice would be specific people or organizations that care constructively about building a better understanding among the peoples, that I can communicate with, that can let me know if I'm getting out of order

It would seem that around that era there was some level of cooperation between some Mi'kmaq and the new settlers (mentioned regarding the arrival of the Hector to Pictou), even though just a few years earlier the French were provoking the Mi'kmaq to a proxy war... I would want my Scottish family to get along, cooperate, learn, share, but please do not respond about that here, as I am NOT "doing research" for my novel, but trying to find a permitted way to do find a validated respectful tone.

I am wondering how much of a "frontier town" Danzig was around the 1750s, as in, "anything goes."

• I assume Jews and "heretic" Christians were more tolerated there than in many other places in Europe, but I don't know, and would want to have a better knowledge. For example, refugee Hussites and the like. I believe the Huguenots even had a community at the time there?
• While slavery was outlawed in Poland at the time (or so I believe was the case), if a trader, or merchant ship captain stopped by with his slave, would that be tolerated?

Thank you!

Edited to add: I am looking for some historical basis, but my quest is for a fictional character's actions and motivations. When this becomes a movies (joking, not my intention at all) it will be a thriller, not a documentary.

Original follows:

There are two very out-of-the-ordinary tartan plaids located in Antigonish county, dated late 1700s, early 1800s, and one more found in Scotland, that have a "Total Border." There is but little and contradictory data regarding their origin.

I am curious, how these tartans, unique in the world, came to be.

I'm into a kind of reenactment quest: I'm imagining and building the loom, and trying to figure out the weaver. I need help.

My homework, in a few lines: Mid to late 1700s, wearing tartan was prohibited in Scotland. Nuances, of course, but things were even harder for any weaver of tartan. Then, things have always been hard for anyone innovating, innovating is not common - of thousands of ancient tartans to have survived, only 3 show this different way of doing things.

Life was rough in the 1770s, much more so for immigrants in Nova Scotia. To be able to get back into weaving again, the weaver most likely would have had to build his own loom. Usually craftsmen stayed in their craft, seldom getting varied skills.

• The core question: How would a person with this profile (traditional, maybe family of weavers)have acquired the necessary skills to work wood, to be able to build a loom from scratch?

I would assume that tools to work wood would be available in any immigrant settlement anyway, so that in itself is not a problem.

Secondary, "nice to know" questions.
I want him to use a flying shuttle. By the 1770s, those were not much of an innovation, but probably not something that a Highlander weaver would learn about, just from family tradition.

• What kind of circumstances could have gotten a (young, probably) Highlands weaver to come into contact with the "cutting edge" technology of flying shuttles?

A final, basic question to close, and this is more about human nature so I don't know, probably nobody knows, but opinions from people that grok history of weaving are very, very welcome: how, why, where would the spark to innovate come?

As a craftsman, I know all too well that people are VERY set in their ways. Even today, innovation in ancient crafts is not quite welcome, even if it saves work, because we do things this way.

For someone to dare to do things different, in the 1770s... THIS is not speculative, in the sense that there might have been circumstances, that would have developed a mentality of innovation in an 18th century Highlander, like for example today we have STEM classes, etc.

(the Total Border is not really a great breakthrough in itself, yet those tartans have been described by whom I believe is the top tartan historian in our times, Peter E MacDonald, as something that represents the zenith of traditional tartan weaving skills.)

Thank you.

There are two very out-of-the-ordinary tartan plaids located in Antigonish county, dated late 1700s, early 1800s, and one more found in Scotland, to have a "Total Border." There is but little and contradictory data regarding their origin.

I am curious, how these tartans, unique in the world, came to be.

I'm into a kind of reenactment quest: I'm imagining and building the loom, and I'm trying to figure out the weaver. I need help.

My homework, in a few lines: Mid to late 1700s, wearing tartan was prohibited in Scotland. Nuances, of course, but things were different at that time, harder for any weaver of tartan. Things have always been hard for anyone innovating - of thousands of ancient tartans to have survived, only 3 show this different way of doing things.

Life was rough in the 1770s, much more so for immigrants in Nova Scotia. To be able to get back into weaving again, he most likely would have had to build his own loom.

• The core question: How would a person with this profile have acquired the necessary skills to work wood?

Craftsmen stayed in their craft, seldom getting varied skills. I would assume that tools to work wood would be available in any immigrant settlement anyway.

Secondary, "nice to know" questions.
I want him to use a flying shuttle. By the 1770s, those were not much of an innovation, but probably not something that a Highlander would learn about from family tradition.

• What kind of circumstances could have gotten a (young, probably) Highlands weaver to come into contact with flying shuttles?

A final, basic question to close, and this is more about human nature so I don't know, probably nobody knows, but opinions from people that grok history are very, very welcome: how, why, where would the spark to innovate come?

As a craftsman, I know all too well that people are VERY set in their ways. Even today, innovation in ancient crafts is not quite welcome, even if it saves work, because we do things this way. For someone to dare to do things different, in the 1770s... THIS is not speculative, in the sense that there might have been circumstances, that would have developed a mentality of innovation in an 18th century Highlander, like for example today we have STEM classes, etc.

• How would innovation (the act of creation) come about?

(the Total Border is not really a great breakthrough in itself, yet this works has been described by whom I believe is the top tartan historian in our times, Peter E MacDonald, represents the zenith of traditional tartan weaving skills.)

Thank you. Not just the rules, I'm very open to learn any time.