What were the Highland Clearances

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Q.� How did it all start

A.� After the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745-46 (click here for a feature on the Young Pretender), the victorious English forced Scotland's highland clans to disband. They weren't even allowed to gather, wear their tartan, or play bagpipes. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act (1747) forced Highland landowners either to accept all English jurisdiction or forfeit their lands. Many Highland landowners and Clan chiefs moved to the lowlands or London. Robbed of their warlike raison d'etre, they got a taste of the rich life. They had the land, but now needed the money.

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Q.� The root of the evil

A.� Quite. The lairds searched for ways to make more profit. They 'improved' their land by introducing sheep farming - far more efficient than the old crofting system. In the process, many of them brutally evicted people whose families had lived on the land for many generations.

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Q.� So how long did this go on

A.� For more than a century. First to implement the clearances was Sir John Lockhart-Ross, who in 1762 brought sheep to his Balnagowan estate, raised tenants' rents, put up fences and brought in Lowlander shepherds. Twenty years later, Donald Cameron of Lochiel began clearing his family lands, which spanned from Loch Leven to Loch Arkaig. By 1791 it was reported that more than 6,400 people had emigrated from the Inverness and Ross areas. In 1801 the emigrant ship The Sarah sailed from Fort William to Pictou, Canada. It was carrying 700 people, 50 of whom died on the gruelling journey.

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Q.� But this must have been having a terrible effect on the Highlands, too

A.� Yes. It was full of sheep, but few people. Landowners found there was nobody to work for them any more and in 1803 an act was passed limiting the number of emigrations - trapping many tenants in poverty.

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Q.� The clearances themselves ... they were brutal affairs

A.� Often, yes. Take the example of Patrick Sellar,�the factor [estate manager] for Lord and Lady Stafford, in Strathnaver. In 1814 he ordered the area to be burned in preparation for planting grass for the incoming sheep. The tenants were given no time to remove their belongings or ailing relatives, and two died when their houses caught fire. He was arrested for 'willfull fire-raising ... most aggravated circumstances of cruelty, if not murder'. The jury - of landowners and merchants - cleared him.

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Q.� Any first-hand accounts

A.� Stonemason Donald Macleod's family was cleared from their home while he was away in Wick in 1830: 'A party of eight men ... entered my dwelling (at) about 3 o'clock, just as the family were rising from dinner. The party allowed no time for parley, but having put out the family with violence, proceeded to fling out the furniture, bedding and other effects in quick time, and after extinguishing the fire, proceeded to nail up the doors and windows in the face of the helpless woman...'

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Q.� And when did it all end

A.� Clearances were still being carried out in late Victorian times. In 1854 Highland landowners were asked to gather troops from their tenants to fight the Crimean War. Most of the Highlanders refused, one telling his laird: 'Should the Czar of Russia take possession of these lands, we couldn't expect worse treatment at his hands than we have experienced in the hands of your family for the last 50 years.' It was only in 1976 that crofters were legally allowed to buy their own farms.

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Q.� So it hasn't ended

A.� No. In 1999 the Scottish Parliament was formed and immediately pledged to address land reform, land ownership, and rural affairs issues. But much of Scotland is still owned by absent landlords.

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By Steve Cunningham

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