Celebrating Scotland's Intrepid Female Explorer - Isobel Wylie Hutchison
- Michelle's Monologues
- Mar 20
- 4 min read
Edinburgh, once home to the Royal Overseas League headquarters (where Scottish explorers once stayed) and The Scottish Geographical Society (founded by Agnes Livingston Bruce the daughter of David Livingston), it may come as no surprise that one of Scotland's intrepid solo female explorers - Isobel Wylie Hutchison, Scottish Arctic traveler, filmmaker, and botanist also came from near Edinburgh.
Celebrating Scotland's Intrepid Female Explorer - Isobel Wylie Hutchison
About Isobel Wylie Hutchison
Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889 - 1982) published poetry and books describing her travels to Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands.
She lived a sheltered life at the family home - Carlowrie Castle. The Scots baronial mansion, a comfortable upper-middle class home built by her grandfather on the outskirts of Kirkliston. The third of five children of Thomas Hutchison, a wine merchant and keen plantsman/gardener, and his wife, Jeanie Wylie. As a young girl, it was said she had a talent for writing, cherished a secret ambition to be a poet, and gained a fascination of plants from her father.
Three deaths were to shatter Isobel’s youth. Her father died suddenly, shortly before her 11th birthday; and her two brothers when she was in her early twenties – one in a climbing accident in 1912, and the other during the First World War. Spurred on, in her mid-30s traveling, a career in film-making, poetry, and as a novelist began. A keen long-distance walker and hiker across mainland Scotland including a "stroll" of 100 miles from Blairgowrie to Fort Augustus! Then in 1924 across the Hebrides, and Shetland, and in 1925 achieved a solo trek of 250 miles across Iceland. Greenland was in her sights, at that time, travel there required a permit. With the backing of the Royal Horticultural Society for her study of native plant life, she made a valuable contribution to the understanding of plants and culture. Going on to give lectures and present her explorations in articles and books.
Isobel Wylie Hutchison's Travels (1927 - 1936)
Isobel's travel adventure to East Greenland in 1927, followed in 1928 by a year in Umanak, North Greenland. In the Arctic, filming the things she saw around her, the landscape and the wildflowers growing there, and the daily lives of the indigenous people. Including eskimos collecting ice for water and hunting seals from a kayak, the wildflowers of Umanak, and the Governor’s coffee party!
In 1934 setting out to Alaska from Vancouver, Canada on a coastal steamer to Skagway. From there her journey took her overland to Nome (located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea, it was home to the last great gold rush stampede in the early 1900's). Ending, with 120 miles by dog sled and returning by mail plane to Alberta.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Samples of the plant life were collected for the Royal Horticultural Society and the Natural History Museum. Some of the specimens are being stored at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh including; Rhododendron lapponicum collected by Isobel Wylie Hutchison in June 1929, Greenland, and also s specimen from the Rosaceae family collected in 1908. Which is held in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Isobel is one of 14,000 collectors represented in the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. One of the early women collectors that have made a significant impact on the collections.
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland, located on Chalmers Street, Edinburgh has over 12 million objects including 27 items related to Isobel Wylie Hutchison. On display, is a model umiaq (a large flat-bottomed boat used throughout the Arctic. In Greenland, umlaqs are crewed by women) commissioned by Isobel Wylie Hutchison c1927. As well as a photograph of an Inuit rock grave on the island of Sagdliarusek, opposite Umanak Island, North Greenland, taken by Miss Isobel Wylie Hutchison and a watercolour sketch depicting a Greenlandic scene: North America, Greenland, Nanortalik by Isobel Wylie Hutchison 1927. You can see them in the Living Land Gallery & Americas.
National Library of Scotland
The National Library of Scotland has several Treasures relating to Isobel Wylie Hutchison including diaries, letters, books, manuscripts, photographs, artwork, and films.
You can visit the Treasures exhibition at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh and find details of the archive of Isobel Wylie Hutchison on the Catalogue of Archives and Manuscript Collections, her films at our Moving Image Archive, and many of her published works in the catalogue.
I hope you have enjoyed reading and feel inspired to visit some or all of the above exhibits/locations relating to Isobel Wylie Hutchison, Scotland's intrepid solo female explorer.
"The earth is very wide, her treasure waits for you" -
Isobel Wylie Hutchison, North to the Rime-ringed Sun.
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