Robin Patten

The natural world has always been central to Robin’s life. At an early age, she was out exploring the Montana backcountry, learning natural history through experience. She went on to earn a PhD in ecology from Colorado State University, and later expanded her graduate studies to include environmental history and cultural geography. This allowed Robin to explore and better understand the interactions between cultures and landscapes.

Scotland was the country that sparked Robin’s interest in environmental history, for it is a country where history is visibly written in the earth – an archive of the land. In the past two decades Robin has studied, volunteered, and traveled extensively throughout Scotland, always considering the relationships between time, people, and place in shaping the landscape. A Post-Graduate Diploma from Scotland’s Centre of Mountain Studies expanded her knowledge of Scotland’s cultural history, natural environment, and the interactions between the two.

Robin recently moved from the mountains of Montana to the high desert of southern Utah. She now resides in the small town of Bluff, surrounded by another landscape where the stories of the past people are visible in the surrounding canyons and mesas.