Despite its (for the time) Hi-Tech modernistic architecture, the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938, was home to a very traditional type of building, that of the turf-roofed dwellings of the clachans of Highland Scotland. I featured a postcard contrasting the new with the old – the Tower of Empire overlooking Highland village cottages – here.

Clachan is Gaelic for a small settlement. A previous such village had been one of the hits of the Scottish National Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, in 1911 and the population of Glasgow was keen to see such an exhibit revived.

Three of Brian Gerald’s art-drawn postcards of the 1938 Exhibition focused solely on the Clachan. As well as cottages the Clachan featured a ruined castle, a loch, with a lovely stone bridge over a burn running into it, and the occasional bagpiper strolling about:-

One of the cottages did double duty as the Exhibition’s Post Office:-

A nice contrast of old and new at the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938 via another Brian Gerald drawn postcard.

The Clachan was a “traditional” Highland village. Like everything else at the 1938 Empire Exhibition it was in the shadow of Tait’s Tower of Empire.

When an Empire Exhibition in Glasgow was first suggested Glaswegians immediately asked that a clachan be one of the exhibits. This is because a previous clachan was one of the great successes at the Scottish National Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow in 1911.