In this chapter we will explore the argument that Scotland, and Scottish history, are made up of ‘wilful fragments’, episodic moments which are geared to ‘heritage’. The chapter has the following aims to:

• show why ‘heritage’ has such a hold in Scotland.
• examine the strain of cultural pessimism in Scottish intellectual life.
•  analyse the dominant cultural formations which shape how we ‘read’ Scotland.
• argue that these debates focus around questions of nationhood.
• explain how Scotland’s dreamscape has become the depository of arguments about modernity.