On a Highland tour intended to soothe agitated spirits, Mrs. Bethune Baliol encounters, amid scenery of stark and startling beauty, the forbidding figure of Elspat MacTavish, living in punishing style in a decrepit and solitary hut. Her curiosity piqued, she learns the tragic tale of the once beautiful and happy wife of the heroic MacTavish Mhor, brought to ruin by her own fierce patriotism and jealous passions.


Taken from Chronicles of the Canongate, the first work published by Scott under his own name, The Highland Widow has been said to have established the form of the short story. Written with the boldness characteristic of the famed 'Author of Waverley,' it sees Scott examining issues of national pride and personal failings.