The Heather on Fire: A Tale of Highland Clearances

Looking at Sutherland fig 5 which is the quintessential clearance area, we also see a growing total top line population throughout the time of the Sutherland clearances Again peaking around , only entering a decline after the period of the clearances. In other words, there is not the slightest evidence that during the time of the clearances either Inverness, Caithness of Sutherland experienced any net decline in population; the decline started well after the time of the clearances.

Long-term population trends in Lochaber by parishes Turnock Looking at the paper from Turnock examining the detailed changes in the Lochaber area, we find that every area shows a rise in population from — except Glenelg and Morvern which show a small drop before they rise to the peak of There is no evidence for the mass clearances of the highlands which most accounts describe before However, if we look more closely at the figure 7 showing in detail the area of Glen Roy and Glen Spean to the north-east of Fort William, we see a general pattern of change.

The distribution shows very dense settlement spread uniformly along the lower reaches of the Spean and Glen Roy, thinning out in the upper parts of the glens where possibilities for agriculture were very limited. By , these smaller sites have shrunk many disappearing entirely by In contrast, the larger sites of have split dramatically into two groups: Looking at figure 8 we see the pattern is repeated in Knoydart.

Of the 15 large population centres in only 4 are still sizeable in and by only Inverie remains. This seems to reinforce the data showing a few large towns like Inverness and Wick growing at a time of general population decline. It seems that the main change during the latter 19 th century was a shift from small to large, from smaller settlement to larger county towns, and from smaller to growing centres in the lowlands. Is this what the writers are referring to? Not until did the population exodus from Argyllshire lead to a decline, not until in Sutherland and not till in Inverness, and Ross and Cromarty.

However there was a sharp divide in the experience of the NW mainland and Hebrides regions furthest from the lowlands and those areas closer: All areas of the highlands experienced net emigration, but the pull of the lowlands was greater in the areas that were closest. Although after the major clearance events, it is significantly earlier than highland regions. Devine , notes that the southern and eastern parishes grew least at around 12 to 14 percent, whilst the growth in the north west …. Moreover, between and 44 per cent of parishes in the south and east grew by less than 10 per cent while in the north west only 5 per cent did so.

In the same period, population rose by 53per cent in the north west but by only 7 per cent in the sourthern zone [Gray p. Devine backs this up by showing the source of migrants in lowland towns. Of the highland women marrying in Greenock between and , were born in Argyllshire, two in Inverness-shire and one in Ross-shire. In 1 in 26 of the highland born population of Greenock was born in Argyllshire compared to one in born in Inverness-shire and one in 3, born in Sutherland. The Paisley census was the first to list birth place of the population. If emigration were linked to rising population, limited food and employment as many suggest Gaskell , then the areas most likely to suffer would be those further from the lowland areas of employment and food production.

In contrast, it is those area closest to the employment opportunities in the growingly industrialised lowlands which experience migration strongest. The Tenures Abolition Act ended the feudal bond of military service; the Heritable Jurisdictions Act passed after the Jacobite rebellion removed the virtually sovereign power the chiefs held over their clan. The result was to break the old bond of loyalty between clansman and chief which not only created an obligation for the clansman to the chief but the chief to the clansman. In order to break the force of clanship, administration has always practised the political maxim, Divide et impera.

The legislature hath not only disarmed these mountaineers, but also deprived them of their antient garb, which contributed in a great measure to keep up their military spirit; and their slavish tenures are all dissolved by act of parliament; so that they are at present as free and independent of their chiefs, as the law can make them: In its place came a common law applied by civil jurisdiction rather than clan chiefs.

The result was to take the centre of economic life away from the clan. Indeed, the whole economy of the highlands changes from one of barter to one of accountants as walker shows by the active involvement of Edinburgh accountants in the highlands. According to Caird p. But in , the clusters of joint-tenants at Easter Lix had disappeared and the lands were absorbed in an adjoining sheep farm.

There was also an increased dependence on temporary migration. Seasonal migration by young adults at the bottom of the social ladder had been common in the 18th and early 19th century, but by the s in became equally common among crofting and rent-paying families. Whilst the pattern of population had changed in the highlands, a similar change had also been going on in the lowlands. The land was divided into medium and large sized estates and then carved up into individual farms. Just as the highlands had seen a move away from small to large holdings, so by sub-tenants had all but disappeared in the lowlands and the typical holding was acres for large farms employing six men.

Together with improved machinery, cropping and farm practices such as specialisation there was less need for permanent labour in the rural Lowlands. Whether cause or effect of the changes, farm labourers headed for the nearest town in search of work and accommodation. Knox Looking at Parry we see a similar pattern of settlement abandonment on the Lammermuir with increasing numbers after however see section 2.

Like the highlands, the rate of lowland rural depopulation increased after due to the introduction of labour-saving technology, such as the self-binding reaper, the potato digger. The output per man increased dramatically: And town life was better or as a ploughman from Dumfries put it to the Royal Commission on Labour put it:.

According to Ryder p. The rising population in the 18 th century and the lack of capital after the failed Darien scheme meant many lairds lacked capital for other improvement and so converted their estates into sheep-walks. Sheep farmers from the south were offering high rents and so some of the first people to be forced from the land were the tacksmen.

Sheep farms were more economically viable and so were favoured not only by landlords, but even by tenants as they permitted higher secure rents, but the large sheep farm involved new men from the south because, as Ryder says:. Also, the expense of the change meant that the landlord could not wait for the 2, sheep, regarded as being an economic flock, to build up, or for the local men to gain experience as shepherds Ryder However, the process of clearances were not necessarily the cause of regional depopulation. The sheep farms that replaced tenants also created economic opportunity in areas such as fishing and textile processing Gray and there was a marked increase in the population of a few small towns.

And the evidence does confirm that the introduction of sheep helped stem the tide of emigration from the highlands as there is a lack of correlation between the spread of sheep farming and population as shown by detailed local studies. For example of Gray shows that of 14 parishes which in the s had a ratio of sheep to population above the average in Argyllshire, 7 bucked the general decline and had an increase in population between and the s.

But of the 12 parishes with less than the average number of sheep relative to population, only 4 experienced a rise in population. It is therefore clear that sheep I. According to Dixon, the single biggest problem in understanding deserted settlements is the lack of excavations. Parry highlighted the lack of excavation of deserted settlements when he examined the abandonment of upland sites in Southern Scotland. Although he found a very similar pattern to that seen in the highlands with massive increase in abandonment in the 19 th century, he was unable to be sure of these figures, particularly the earlier one.

As the scenes of Calligarry shows, between when figure 11 was taken and when figure 12 was taken, there has been a virtually wiping away of the settlement. Changes to Calligarry Township Webb et al The situation was far worse for many lowland sites because the buildings were made of clay and turf and occupiers were in the habit of simply abandoning one house and building another when it needed replacement. In many cases the only certain evidence for settlements are those where broad rig cultivation can be identified. It is therefore unlikely that evidence of previous settlement would remain in areas of intensive ploughing whereas in areas of pasturage of cattle and sheep and upland areas where stone for building was freely available, the evidence of settlement would not only be more durable than turf and clay, but less prone to damage by ploughing.

However, in those areas where farming was restricted by royal forests such as Liddesdale and Jedburgh there are upstanding remains of rural settlements that are potentially medieval. However even given the problem with archaeological evidence of desertion, Dixon is able to conclude that the medieval pattern of lowland Scotland was a mixture of large and small row villages, manors and granges, but in the upland areas there are farmsteads and shielings.

In particular he finds that:. To date, excavations of village sites indicate that they were newly planned settlements of the 12 th century that underwent episodes of replanning, rebuilding, and late medieval desertion. Deserted upland landscapes are nothing new. Anderson et al show that there was an abrupt change in climate to wetter conditions between to BP.

However Tipping did not find evidence the uplands were abandoned but instead inferred a change from subsistence farming to pastoral. However climate change was not all bad. Bonsall et al show a link between warming of the climate by around 1C and a move to drier conditions with the introduction of cereal to Scotland around BC. Lamb in his wide ranging resume of the British Climate p. There are grounds for contending that the climate of Scotland. The hills were more covered with wood which skirted the arable ground [and] gave shelter to the crops. It was to the eleventh to thirteenth centuries that later writers looked back as the golden age in Scottish history; and, as in England, it turns out that the most catastrophic events in the later chapters of Scottish history Lamb, and fell close to the times of the worst climatie shocks reported elsewhere in Europe?

Walton when examining the relationship between climate and the famines in NE Scotland again highlights the s quoting Alexander Grain had to be imported although prohibited by an Act of and export was prohibited, but still there were wholesale deaths and depopulation.

The Truth about the Highland Clearances | Scottish Sceptic

Walton states the effects were harshest in the interior whereas Moray and Buchan had less intense frosts and suffered less and there was a high mortality rate. He goes on to say:. Of sixteen families that resided on the farm of Littertie, thirteen were extinguished. The extensive farms of Touchar, Greeness, Overhill and Burnside of Idoch, being entirely desolated, were converted into a sheep-walk by the Errol family to whom they then belonged. The inhabitants of the parish in general were diminished by death to one half, or as some affirm, to one fourth of the preceding number.

Until the year many farms in the Monquhitter district lay waste and even at that time the landlord found great difficulty in getting tenants. It was also said by some eighteenth century writers that the Seven Ill Years led to wholesale depopulation of many other interfluvial tracts of the low Buchan plateau. At that time most of this land was still moss and moor, but it retained in places the marks of the plough.

The famines of the s were widespread and Lamb p. As figure 13 shows, England in the s experienced the worst cold period in its recorded history. These observations suggest temperatures 1. Central England Temperature F since with highlighted in blue. From lamb Fig 1. The ill years occurred in the middle of a period of low sun activity which some Svensmark attribute to to a period of low solar activity that occurred between to known as the Maunder Minimum.

A similar period occurred from to Known as the Dalton Minimum and yet again we see a dip in the temperature albeit shallower and find authors like Woods referring to the climate in his paper: The lesson of the year is a simple and fundamental one. Major economic modifications were inevitable in Britain following the Napoleonic Wars. Through the working of numerous factors, living became more and more difficult in , especially for the relatively new masses in the industrial centres; yet the agricultural community could stand somewhat aloof from these difficulties because its produce was always needed.

As a result farmers went bankrupt and labourers in large numbers were deprived of work. In work by Carter et al we see in the pollen analysis a clear transition occurring around corresponding with the ill years and the cessation of ploughing has a terminus ante quem of given by the date at which Lour Park was created. Chronological synthesis of the documentary, archaeological and palynological interpretation for Lour Carter et al The evidence of famine and death in the s is impossible to deny, but it is not yet supported by the archaeological evidence from those such as Parry table 2 which although Parry states it is difficult to date early sites and that many 17 th century ones have been missed, there is apparently no massive abandonment around Far from illuminating events, the focus on clearances seems to to have created a false narrative which is completely at odds with the evidence.

Whilst some events can be portrayed as landlord oppression of their tenants, these are not unique to the highlands or to Scotland. If anything the highlands are more resilient with changes happening later and active support from landlords for tenants. In the mid 19 th century many landlords actively helped emigration from the NW region of Scotland. Devine tells us that during the s and s we see a series of clearance schemes with assisted emigration to Canada and Australia.

The tea magnate James Matheson who owned Lewis helped 1, people to emigrate between and Gordon of Cluny who owned most of Barra, South Uist and Benbecula took no fewer than 2, of his tenants to Canada between and , but only after a series of brutal evictions. But we must not forget that whilst the impact on the population was benign if not beneficial, there was a huge impact on the highland culture, a culture than many highlanders sought to protect:. The highland emigrants of this period apparently sought to perpetuate a familiar style of life in better surroundings.

Despite the distances involved in emigration, the world of the small farmer and fisherman on the Canadian islands was closer to that of the Hebridean crofter than a new life in the lowland towns. Highland emigrants from the north west were transplanting an entire society, an option not available to those who moved to the south.

Above all, they were intent on obtaining land and re-establishing themselves in the status they had lost in the highlands. Moreover, even when the economic opportunity for improvement via emigration presented itself, the populace often preferred to remain.

Crofters -- Scotland -- Highlands -- Fiction

The strong social and cultural bonds remained despite the economic advantages presented by emigration. In essence, therefore, the north-west highlands and islands was still a peasant society and the inhabitants had the tenacious attachment to land characteristic of all such societies. It was this which caused them to emigrate across the world to seek a reinstatement upon land and to cling to minute crofts rather than move in large numbers to an alien life in the towns of the south. What was it that created such a relatively prosperous area of the NW highlands.

Before there was an expansion of the Herring fishery, kelp manufacturing and cattle prices rose steadily during the Napoleonic wars and military service was available for the young men. New crops, particularly potatoes and new breeds such as black faced sheep suitable for mountainous country increased agricultural output. Even after , when military employment ceased, when cattle prices slumped, when there were rent arrears, evictions and landlord bankruptcies,the fact was that the population continued increasing thus showing that highland farming was prosperous Whilst there were some bad landlords, it is difficult to believe that the aim of evictions was the politically portrayed expulsion of population which modern narratives attempt to force onto the events.

Instead the evidence supports the view of a resettlement of population to provide a specialism of labour creating a more economically beneficial system for the benefit of both landlord and tenant. In according to Devine 3, individuals were removed of which 2, were resettled on the estate, moved to adjoining properties; migrated to neighbouring counties; 83 emigrated and the estate administration was unable to trace 57 Richards p. According to Flinn, the potato famine of the s provided an incentives for landlords in the western isles and NW mainland to rid their estates of what they increasingly saw as a redundant population.

Cameron indicates that between and about 16, persons were assisted to cross the Atlantic from the north-west highlands. These are not the acts of heartless landlords. Emigration did occur, but the evidence in Sutherland with only 2. But a stronger reason to suspect the popular accounts such as the year of the sheep in is that there is a lack of correlation between the spread of sheep farming and population as shown by Gray who if anything shows that the introduction of sheep was reducing the rate of population decline.

In other words the improvements in the agriculture in this area was having net beneficial effects and preventing population decrease. Whilst the Sutherland clearances were clearly brutal, the real question we must ask is whether they were unusual for the time? As late as George Sims was writing of very similar scenes clearing London slums:. After notice had been served upon them some began at once to look about for other accommodation.

But the larger number, because it is the nature of the slum dwellers to live only for to-day and to trust to luck for to-morrow, did nothing. At last came the pinch. The roof, the doors, and the windows were removed while she it is generally a woman still remained crouching in a corner of the miserable room which contained the chair, the table, the bed, the frying pan, and the tub that were her furniture.

Eventually the position became dangerous. When bricks and plaster began to fall in showers about her, and the point of the pickaxe came through the wall against which she was leaning, then at last she scrambled for her belongings and went out unto the street, where a little crowd of onlookers and fellow sufferers welcomed her sympathetically. I have seen families sitting homeless on their goods, which were piled on the streets. If Sutherland is evidence of mass genocide in the highlands is such an account as that above evidence of genocide in London?

Could an account of families having their houses torn down around them and being turfed out onto the street explain the massive clearance of London? London grew before, during and after the slum clearances, so why are accounts in Sutherland that differ little from other contemporary texts taken as evidence of genocide? How can those who so readily highlight the evictions on the Sutherland estate fail to compare this to similar clearances in the 18 th century like the London slums. Particularly when as stated, of the 3, individuals removed in , 2, were resettled on the estate and only 83 emigrated.

The idea that landlords systematically forced people into emigration is hard to square with e. Even on St Kilda we find that the landlords are hardly enthusiastic to see their tenants leave:. In one-third of the population of St Kilda snapped up the opportunity to emigrate to Port Phillip Melbourne ; they were accompanied as far as the Broomielaw in Glasgow by their distraught landlord who pleaded with them to stay, and wept tears on their departure. Whilst these events were undoubted displays of landlord power pitted against the wishes of those removed, we should perhaps draw parallels to modern events such as the closure of Scottish Iron, Coal and other industries and those bitter struggles.

All change is to some extent opposed by at least some of those involved, and if we focus on the high profile instances of strife without trying to see the bigger picture we may be forgiven if e. So, we must be able to justify rather than accept the common consensus as portrayed by Fergus Ewing MSP:. There were certainly regional differences, but if anything the greatest discrepancy in growth was in the areas closest to the lowlands and not those typically related in the clearance narratives such as Skye and Knoydart.

This certainly is not the holocaust of popular portrayal. Estimates put the number of Tasmanian aborigines before British colonisation in at 3,—15,, in due to disease and warfare there were approximately remaining Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas: They were reduced to fewer than 10, people [Robertson, Ronald G ]. And lest we forget, in it is estimated some , Jews lived in Germany.

By this time, mass deportations had left fewer than 20, Jews in Germany. The truth is that as a region , there were no highland clearances before the mid 19 th century and that the evidence available suggests that the improvements actually stemmed emigration from the highlands rather than accelerated it. Whilst there is evidence that smaller settlements suffered more than larger ones, the strongest driver appears to be economic pull from the lowlands and foreign territories rather than clearance evictions or improvements.

The evictions which occurred, whilst brutal by our standards, were not out of character with the time. Indeed, if anything the landlords showed incredible care for their tenants and concern for their welfare — if for no other reason than that their own economic prosperity relied on the abundant supply of labourers. Wikipedia lists events up until the actions of Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, and her husband who conducted brutal clearances between and True the census shows a larger than usual decrease, but as the figures show the slightly higher decline in this period is part of a general post trend.

Even if the figure of Walker can be taken as Monolingual speakers of Gaelic rather than bi-lingual as drawn below, the story seems to be more one of steady decline rather than precipitous fall. Above table fig 19 shows numbers of Gaelic speakers taken from MacAulay and s plotted below fig However, MacAudley makes some rash assumptions about the and figures as being monolingual, which do not make sense when it was plotted as there would be a sudden precipitous fall between and which is not explained.

This did not exclude speaking English. The Gaelic language is most generally spoken in this district. The greater number of the people speak English, but not in general with so much ease and fluency as they speak Gaelic. Many of the old people understand no English. However, it should not be forgotten that the figure included monolingual Gaelic speakers and excluded those who could speak Gaelic but did not do so habitually. But whether or not the result is taken as monolingual or bilingual, there was clearly a massive decline in Gaelic speaking in Scotland in the 20th century.

Custer was not a Scot: Everyone with a Scots sounding name in the US seems to be descended from someone who was oppressed by the evil British. To come to the point at once, I beg to say that I have not the least belief in the Noble Savage. I consider him a prodigious nuisance, and an enormous superstition. His calling rum fire- water, and me a pale face, wholly fail to reconcile me to him.

I call him a savage, and I call a savage a something highly desirable to be civilised off the face of the earth. I think a mere gent which I take to be the lowest form of civilisation better than a howling, whistling, clucking, stamping, jumping, tearing savage. Yielding to whichsoever of these agreeable eccentricities, he is a savage — cruel, false, thievish, murderous; addicted more or less to grease, entrails, and beastly customs; a wild animal with the questionable gift of boasting; a conceited, tiresome, bloodthirsty, monotonous humbug.

Yet it is extraordinary to observe how some people will talk about him, as they talk about the good old times; how they will regret his disappearance, … they will either be determined to believe, or will suffer themselves to be persuaded into believing, that he is something which their five senses tell them he is not. Why is his views on Victorian London so vividly remembered, but not his views on the noble savage? This is part of a fabricated history. The fact is that people did not move to places like New Lanark founded because of evil oppression by British, English, lowlanders, climate or even green tentacled aliens.

They moved to the industrial cities by choice: They moved because working in a factory, however bad it may seem to us today, was far better than the upland countryside we townies now see as an idyllic retreat. The life in a factory was far better than the dirty grimy countryside from which these factory workers were desperate to escape. The factories gave them the opportunity to better themselves. For any who have been taught the history of Scouting, that countryside was the very birthplace of Scouting. This was not an isolated social phenomena. In particular Seton wrote a manual which he sent to Baden Powell which clearly was inspirational: This was a general movement:.

The countryside is good, the town is bad, the clansman is a noble savage, those improving the lot of the Scots through factories are bad … even oppressive. This rewriting of history was there right at the time of the first accounts when the Reverend Donald refers to the highlanders as aborigine:. It was a very short time previous to my residence in Mr. This consisted in the ejection from their minutely-divided farms of several hundreds of the Sutherlandshire aborigines, who had from time immemorial been in possession of their mountain tenements.

Macquarrie Costumes of the Clans of Scotland. The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, R. It is therefore an obvious trap to believe that just as the indigenous people of Australia, the Americas, Africa, etc. Much of the uplands of Scotland have always been a wilderness, however there have been periods when they have seen more people than now. The bronze age was such a period when a warmer climate allowed viable agriculture on the higher slopes and we see numerous examples of hut circles throughout Scotland. Climate clearly continued to influence the highlands as shown by the abandonment of Daintoun and evidence that around a quarter of the highland population died in the s.

Indeed, given the suggestion that the situation in Scotland was twice to threes times worst than England, and that England had the worst period of cold on record, it is hard to believe that there is so little evidence of abandoned villages at this time. All we can say, is that further research is necessary to fully understand the role of climate at this time.

Whilst many evictions were brutal, in comparison to those in other areas like London, many Highland landlords appear to be almost the paradigm of virtue for their time. Not only did they provide alternative accommodation on their estates, but in some cases they paid the families to emigrate although perhaps out of self interest to secure labourers for their own expanding estates abroad.

But we cannot underestimate the traditional clan bond that encouraged a more benign attitude to the tenants in Scotland than was found in similar slum clearances in London. A better understanding of the distribution and chronology of clearance can only be obtained through detailed and widespread excavation. The irony of the highland clearances is that many of the actions of the clan chiefs which should have been seen as beneficial caused their actions to be recorded and portrayed so badly. They helped establish schools, brought in ministers for the church, courts were established such as that which tried Patrick Sellar.

There was a general opening up of the highlands to the view of the world outside so that the slum clearances in the highlands which were typical of the time were recorded not only by visiting outsiders but by those involved. They result is that we have a record of what appears to be typical behaviour of the period which now is used to condemn highland landlords.

In Donald MacLeod finally found a champion when the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle published 21 of his letters, which helped to transform Lowland public opinion on the clearances. At this point, the Sutherlands received some literary support from an unexpected quarter. In England and the lowlands this movement was marked by a change in distribution, in Scotland, because the urban centres naturally congregated in the valleys where transportation links and building land was best, this change in distribution is marked by a change from upland to lowland.

But the evidence does not show a general decline in population until after Only then does the growing economic pull of the large cities like Glasgow and the growing economies of the British colonies attract the population due to higher wages. The new economy of the 18th century highlands was now inter-clan based. Local towns began springing up, goods and services were no longer at the beck and call of the clan leader, but could be secured by travelling to local centres of trade. The result was that the guild and market structures that had long existed in the lowlands sprung up in the highlands in towns creating a pull for workers to move out of the relatively economically disadvantaged valleys.

Whilst the evidence shows that growing economic prosperity elsewhere pulled population away from the highlands and that neither the clearances nor the improvements were to blame for large scale depopulation of the area, they did have local effects: But the popular narrative of the clearances is false. Yet it is almost as if the facts do not matter when it comes to this history. Some wish to portray Scotland and particularly the Clansmen in the image of the noble savage: The real story of Scotland in this period is not that of the oppressed noble savage of the clearances but people like James Watt who invented the steam engine in But what is it that every museum and book of the period remembers?

The oppressed noble savage!

And where is that steam engine? It is dumped round the back of Kinneil House beside the roofless cottage where James watt lived covered in graffiti. It is as if Scotland does not want to admit that Scotsmen like James Watt led the world and it was they who were attracting the highlanders away from the uplands — not by whinging about oppression, but by creating a vibrant economy based on great thinkers like Hume and Smith and engineers like Watt.

Yet where are we now? After decades of emigration, we are led by whinging politicians whose first act in power is to seek an apology for mythical genocide apparently seeking to blame the economic problems of modern Scotland on the clearances rather than their own inability to understand the ingredients that are necessary to create a vibrant economy utilising the engineering skills that once made Scotland great.

Whether or not Scotland goes for independence, any government policy needs to be based on a real understanding of the ingredients that create success. From an archaeological viewpoint, deserted settlements are a time capsule from a period in history, a culture and a landscape for which few records exist. That lens paints a picture of a clansmen in the Noble savage tradition as a victim.

In doing so, it portrays Scotland as an oppressed backward country: The real truth is that many of the highlanders who emigrated were themselves responsible for oppression of indigenous peoples throughout the world. Is that the reason for this obsession with repression? Is it some kind of guilt complex by home-coming Scots trying to claim that they were the victims and not the indigenous peoples they forced of their own lands?

Just as we should not deny the reality of genocides such as the Jews, indigenous Americans or Aborigines, it is equally wrong to portray events that were not genocide as such because such assertions only seek to question the authenticity of genuine oppression. The highland clearances were probably no more notable in their time than the clearances of the Gypsies of Dale farm. Such rent evictions were common; what was new was the wealth of commentators who felt they had a right to comment.

This in itself marked a change in economics: But by pandering to this myth we are hiding a far more important reality: Only since has there been significant population decline. It is important that we understand the reasons for this decline, as only via such self knowledge can we hope to revive the Scottish economy.

The real story is that only after the improvements and clearances did the bulk of people leave Scotland …. Dig to find the real truth of the deserted settlements: Inverness Population 7 Fig 4: Caithness Population 7 Fig 5: Long-term population trends in Lochaber by parishes Turnock 8 Fig 7: Turnock 8 Fig 8: The distribution of population and land use in Knoydart Glenelg parish in , and Turnock 9 Fig 9: Perthshire Population 9 Fig Argyll Population 9 Fig Chronological synthesis of the documentary, archaeological and palynological interpretation for Lour Carter et al 16 Fig Scottish Gaelic Speakers 21 Fig Mel Gibson, Braveheart 22 Fig McIan 24 Fig Journal of Archaeological Science , 35, pp.

Journal of Scottish Historical Studies , 31, pp. Anon German Jews during the Holocaust, [Internet]. European Journal of Archaeology , 5 1 , pp.

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5. Catalog Record: The heather on fire: a tale of the Highland | Hathi Trust Digital Library?
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Scottish Geographical Magazine , 80, pp. The Holocene , 7 4 , pp. The Scottish Historical Review , 62 , pp. The Economic History Review , 32 3 , pp. The Economic History Review , 46 4 , pp. John Donald Publishers Ltd. A Highland Parish in the Nineteenth Century. The Geographical Journal , 4 , pp. Transactions of the Banffshire Field Club Banffshire Field Club, p. History of the Highland Clearances: Scottish Geographical Magazine , 92, pp. Climatic trends and anomalies in Europe The Sutherland Fortune in the Industrial Revolution. University of Toronto Press.

The Agricultural History Review , 16 2 , pp. Scottish Parliament Motion: Benjamin west Death wolfe noble savage. Drawn up from the communications of the ministers of the different parishes. Tobias The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. Space Science Reviews , 93 1 , pp. Scottish Geographical Magazine , 85, pp. Series B, Human Geography , 49 1 , pp. Critical Perspectives on Accounting , 14, pp. Scottish Geographical Magazine , 68, pp.

Wikipedia Aboriginal Tasmanians — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Internet]. Wikipedia Battle of the Little Bighorn [Internet]. Buffalo Bills Wild West Show, Wikipedia George Armstrong Custe [Internet]. Wikipedia Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Internet]. Scottish Geographical Magazine , 81, pp. And why were all these sheep needed? It was because the textile towns were booming — largely because people who used to farm the uplands had moved to their nearest town to gain from the growing prosperity of that time.

Oops … apologies my reply appears to be a reply to a different post. I would, in that light, be interested in seeing how population moved in the islands — this may show the same pattern in a more extreme way. Many of the islands, even out to St Kilda, held significant populations more than 4,BC, at a time when mainland Scotland was devoid of almost any major settlements. This could happen partly because, due to weather, the islands were not overgrown with forest but also because sea transport was far easier than land, roads being non-existent, yet now St Kilda is uninhabited and Jura has a population of , probably less than it had when Troy was built.

Which in turn suggests the possible utility of the Scottish Tunnel Project for reversing a real clearance which has taken place not under the rule of lairds but of politicians since It should be being treated as equivalent. No academic would get funding for a project that did not show the Scots as a victim of English oppression.

I think your explanation of the reason for the views of academics who specialise in the Highland Clearances is a close miss of its target. These people tend to write books on the subject and give lectures.

The Truth about the Highland Clearances

The people who pay good money for both are those who believe the Highland Clearances to be an important piece of Scottish history when poor gaels were mistreated by evil landlords missing the fact that the landlords were either also gaels or had bought from gaels who had gone bankrupt. If those with an interest in the subject believed the Scots were making a big fuss about nothing, then I think that is what the vast majority of the historians would be saying about the clearances. Whenever I hear tales of weeping women being cleared from their highland homes, I think of the time I walked into my place of work as a female colleague was leaving in tears — she had just been made redundant.

Whilst there is a difference in scale, both events were overwhelmingly upsetting at the time. To go back to my main point above, a close reading of Eric Richards and book makes clear that, in the main text, he often dodges any conclusion that suggests that many believe events to be less severe than folklore holds — though the closing chapter does somewhat make this point. Their fortunes varied from generation to generation as they were either farmers or farm workers depending upon which member of the family frittered the money away or earned it.

They certainly all did better than the very distant line that were wiped out by a neighbouring clan. Tell us about mother and how brave she was.

Faither lifted three-year-old Kirstie onto his knee, and began. Green sprouts of heather were pushing their way up between the rocks on the steep hills overlooking the glen through which our Calvie River ran, clear and fine. The men were in the hills looking after the few Highland cattle that were yet ours, but the women were to home when a lad from a neighboring glen brought word Sheriff Taylor was coming to order us all to leave our lands.

Land we paid rent fer every month, as the laws said, to an Englishman, Major Charles Robertson, himself stationed with his regiment in Australia. English called us savages. They wanted us gone from our cottages so they could fill Highland hills and glens with fancy Cheviot sheep, and with red deer fer English gentlemen to hunt. So when word came, the women of Glencalvie, one or more from each of its eighteen families, went to meet Sheriff Taylor. Yer mother, the brave Kirsten, my own dear wife, was one of those women, despite being heavy with you, Kirstie. I saw it all.

Ye all walked the path toward the east end of the valley; a path so steep cattle sometimes stumbled along it. And ye women confronted Sheriff Taylor and three of his men just beyond the boundary of Glencalvie. And once the papers were burned and the men let go the women turned and headed down the slope to their homes. Until one of those cowardly men looked after them and fired a gun, and Mary Mathieson fell to the ground, shot in the ba. He looked at Rab and then down at Kirstie, in his lap.

In there were more of them, and they were fiercer. They burned our homes and drove us out of Glencalvie forever. We are going to Edinburgh. My great-grandmother was Scottish. I remember when I was very young and we lived in her summer camp, she had an invitation in her dresser to the dedication of a Robert Burns statue. So hard to believe but apparently true. Oh, so looking forward to this one, Lea. My ancestors on two lines came to the colonies because of the Highland Clearances. Thank you for writing the story. Like Liked by 1 person. I love your historical novels.

I will look forward to this one because I have Scottish heritage — the Bruce family. The highland ways have been preserved in Cape Breton…the music, stories, and recipes.