Following on:

3. Highland Discourse - When viewing the photos and how they may be viewed in the core/periphery and status discourses another angle becomes quite clear. The juxtaposition of the large, highly decorated homes on private estates vs the small, isolated workers or tenant cottages provides a stark contrast.

On both Fairburn and Redcastle estates the occupants and builders of the large homes were vast landowners. This can be seen from the remains of the lands owned today by these estates. While the houses themselves have begun to crumble (frequently due to money/taxation issues) the estates still remain large landowners. Money is still made for the estate owners by farming and more importantly, fishing, hunting and occasionally renewable energy rights.

The ruined smaller properties are often mixed in amongst other inhabited properties rented from the estate. They are still frequently in the marginal areas and while the occupants may access the land for walking, they are not entitled to fish or hunt on the estate without payment or permission.

Thus the Highland discourse of landed estates, insecure tenancies and lack of access to subsistence hunting/fishing can be viewed from the time of the earlier buildings straight through to the modern period.