The
Highland Clearances were forced displacements of the population of the
Scottish HighlandsThe Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
during the 18th and 19th centuries. They led to mass emigration to the sea coast, the
Scottish LowlandsThe Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....
, and the North American colonies. The clearances were part of a process of agricultural change throughout the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(called
enclosureEnclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
elsewhere), but were particularly notorious as a result of the late timing, the lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants under
Scots lawScots law is the legal system of Scotland. It is considered a hybrid or mixed legal system as it traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. With English law and Northern Irish law it forms the legal system of the United Kingdom; it shares with the two other systems some...
, the abruptness of the change from the traditional
clan systemScottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...
, and the brutality of many evictions.
Background
The
enclosureEnclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
s that depopulated rural
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the
British Agricultural RevolutionBritish Agricultural Revolution describes a period of development in Britain between the 17th century and the end of the 19th century, which saw an epoch-making increase in agricultural productivity and net output. This in turn supported unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant...
started much earlier, during the
Tudor periodThe Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
, and similar developments in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
have lately been called the
Lowland ClearancesThe Lowland Clearances in Scotland were one of the results of the British Agricultural Revolution, which changed the traditional system of agriculture which had existed in Lowland Scotland in the seventeenth century...
by historians such as
Tom DevineThomas Martin "Tom" Devine OBE FRSE FRHistS FBA is a Scottish historian. His main research interest is the history of the Scottish nation since c.1600 and its global connections and impact....
. But in the Highlands the impact on a
GoidelicThe Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
(Scottish Gaelic)-speaking semi-feudal culture that still expected obligations of a chieftain to his clan led to vocal campaigning and a lingering bitterness among the descendants of those forced to emigrate or to remain in
croftingA croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer.- Etymology :...
townships on very small areas of poor farming land. Crofters became a source of virtually free labour to their landlords, being forced to work long hours in such work as harvesting and processing of
kelpKelps are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera....
.
From the late 16th century, laws required clan leaders to appear in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
regularly to provide bonds for the conduct of anyone in their territory. This created a tendency among
chiefsThe Scottish Gaelic word clann means children. In early times, and possibly even today, clan members believed themselves to descend from a common ancestor, the founder of the Scottish clan. From its perceived founder a clan takes its name. The clan chief is the representative of this founder, and...
to see themselves as landlords. The lesser clan-gentry increasingly took up droving, taking cattle along the old unpaved drove roads to sell in the Lowlands. This brought wealth and land ownership within the clan, though the Highlands continued to be overpopulated and poor.
The
Jacobite RisingThe Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...
s brought repeated British government efforts to curb the clans, culminating after the 1746
Battle of CullodenThe Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...
with brutal repression. The
Act of ProscriptionThe Act of Proscription was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which came into effect in Scotland on 1 August 1746. It was part of a series of efforts to assimilate the Scottish Highlands, ending their ability to revolt, and the first of the 'King's laws' which sought to crush the Clan...
of 1746 incorporating the Dress Act required all swords to be surrendered to the government and prohibited the wearing of
tartanTartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...
s or
kiltThe kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...
s. The
Tenures Abolition Act 1660The Tenures Abolition Act 1660 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of England passed in 1660. The long title of the Act was An act for taking away the Court of Wards and liveries, and tenures in capite, and by knights-service, and purveyance, and for settling a revenue upon his Majesty in...
ended the feudal bond of military service and the
Heritable Jurisdictions ActThe Heritable Jurisdictions Act, 1746 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1746. It abolished the traditional rights of jurisdiction afforded to a Scottish clan chief...
removed the virtually sovereign power the chiefs held over their clan. The extent of enforcement of the prohibitions varied and related to a clan's support of the government during the rebellion, but over all led to the destruction of the traditional
clan systemScottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...
and of the supportive social structures of small agricultural townships.
From about 1725, in the aftermath of the first Jacobite Rising, Highlanders had begun emigrating to the
AmericasThe Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
in increasing numbers. The
Disarming ActAfter the Jacobite Rising of 1715 ended it was evident that the most effective supporters of the Jacobites were Scottish clans in the Scottish Highlands and the Disarming Act attempted to remove this threat....
of 1746 and the Clan Act made ineffectual attempts to subdue the
Scottish HighlandsThe Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
, and eventually troops were sent in. Government
garrisonGarrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
s were built or extended in the
Great GlenThe Great Glen , also known as Glen Albyn or Glen More is a series of glens in Scotland running 100 kilometres from Inverness on the Moray Firth, to Fort William at the head of Loch Linnhe.The Great Glen follows a large geological fault known as the Great Glen Fault...
at Fort William, Kiliwhimin (later renamed
Fort AugustusFort Augustus is a settlement in the Scottish Highlands, at the south west end of Loch Ness. The village has a population of around 646 ; its economy is heavily reliant on tourism....
) and Fort George,
InvernessInverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
, as well as barracks at
RuthvenRuthven Barracks near Ruthven, Highland in Scotland are the smallest but best preserved of the four barracks built in 1719 after the 1715 Jacobite rising, set on an old castle mound. It comprises two large three-storey blocks occupying two sides of the enclosure each with two rooms per floor...
, Bernera and Inversnaid, linked to the south by the
Wade roads (constructed for Major-General
George WadeField Marshal George Wade served as a British military commander and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.-Early career:Wade, born in Kilavally, Westmeath in Ireland, was commissioned into the Earl of Bath's Regiment in 1690 and served in Flanders in 1692, during the Nine Years War, earning a...
). These had the effect of limiting organisational travel and choking off news and further isolated the clans. Nevertheless, conditions remained unsettled for the whole decade.
In 1725 General Wade raised the
independent companies of the
Black WatchThe Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....
as a militia force to keep peace in the unruly Highlands. This increased exodus of Highlanders to the Americas. Increasing demand in Britain for cattle and sheep and the creation of new breeds of sheep such as the black-faced, which could be reared in the mountainous country, allowed higher rents for landowners and chiefs to meet the costs of their aristocratic lifestyle. As a result, families living on a subsistence level were displaced, exacerbating the unsettled social climate. In 1792 tenant farmers from
StrathrusdaleStrathrusdale Glen in the Highlands of Scotland forming the western part of the area known as Ardross...
led a protest against the policy by driving over 6,000 sheep off the land surrounding
ArdrossArdross Rural area in the Highland region of Scotland, north of the nearest city, Inverness...
. This action was dealt with at the highest levels in government, with the Home Secretary
Henry DundasHenry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville PC and Baron Dunira was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He was the first Secretary of State for War and the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom....
getting involved. The Black Watch was mobilised; it halted the drive and brought the ringleaders to trial. They were found guilty, but later escaped custody and disappeared.
"Improvements"
What became known as the Clearances were considered by the landlords as necessary "improvements". They are thought to have been begun by Admiral
John RossSir John Lockhart-Ross, 6th Baronet , known as John Lockhart from 1721 to 1760, was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession, Seven Years' War, and the American War of Independence, and served for a time as a Member of Parliament.Lockhart was born into...
of Balnagowan Castle in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1762. MacLeod of
MacLeodMacLeod and McLeod are surnames in the English language. Variant forms of the names are Macleod and Mcleod.Generally, the names are considered to be Anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic MacLeòid, meaning "son of Leòd". However, in some cases the names can also be Anglicised forms of the Irish...
(i.e. the chief of MacLeod) began experimental work on Skye in 1732. Chiefs engaged
LowlandThe Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....
, or sometimes
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
,
factorsIn Scotland a factor is a person or firm charged with superintending or managing properties and estates -- sometimes where the owner or landlord is unable to or uninterested in attending to such details personally, or in tenements in which several owners of individual flats contribute to the...
with expertise in more profitable sheep farming, and they "encouraged", sometimes forcibly, the population to move off suitable land.
Year of the Sheep
Another wave of mass emigration came in 1792, known as the "Year of the Sheep" to Scottish Highlanders. The people were accommodated in poor crofts or small farms in coastal areas where farming could not sustain the communities and they were expected to take up fishing. In the village of
BadbeaBadbea is a former village by the cliff tops of the east coast of Caithness, Scotland, established during the Highland Clearances. Situated around north of Helmsdale, the village was settled in the 18th and 19th centuries by families evicted from their homes when the straths of Langwell, Ousdale...
in
CaithnessCaithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
the conditions were so harsh that, while the women worked, they had to tether their livestock and even their children to rocks or posts to prevent them being blown over the cliffs. Others were put directly onto emigration ships to
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
(Antigonish and Pictou counties and later
Cape BretonCape Breton County, officially, County Cape Breton, is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island.Taking its name from Cape Breton, the most easterly point of the island which was called after the Bretons of Brittany, this municipality has what is probably the oldest...
), the
KingstonKingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
area of
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and the Carolinas of the American colonies. There may have been a religious element in these forced removals since many Highlanders were Roman Catholic. This is reflected by the majority representation of Catholics in areas and towns of Nova Scotia such as Antigonish and Cape Breton. However almost all of the very large movement of Highland settlers to the
Cape FearCape Fear is a coastal plain and tidewater region of North Carolina centered about the city of Wilmington. The region takes its name from the adjacent Cape Fear headland, as does the Cape Fear River which flows through the region and empties into the Atlantic Ocean near the cape...
region of
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
were Presbyterian. (This is evidenced even today in the presence and extent of Presbyterian congregations and adherents in the region.)
Landlords' behaviour
In 1807 Elizabeth Gordon, 19th Countess of Sutherland, touring her inheritance with her husband
Lord StaffordGeorge Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland KG, PC , known as Viscount Trentham from 1758 to 1786, as Earl Gower from 1786 to 1803 and as The Marquess of Stafford from 1803 to 1833, was a British politician, diplomat, landowner and patron of the arts. He is estimated to have been the...
(later made
Duke of SutherlandDuke of Sutherland, derived from Sutherland in Scotland, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom held by the head of the Leveson-Gower family. It was created by William IV in 1833 for George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford...
), wrote that "he is seized as much as I am with the rage of improvements, and we both turn our attention with the greatest of energy to turnips". As well as turning land over to sheep farming, Stafford planned to invest in creating a
coalCoal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
-pit,
saltIn chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
pans, brick and tile works and
herringHerring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
fisheries. That year his agents began the evictions, and 90 families were forced to leave their crops in the ground and move their
cattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
,
furnitureFurniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
and timbers to the land they were offered 20 miles (32.2 km) away on the coast, living in the open until they had built themselves new houses. Stafford's first Commissioner, William Young, arrived in 1809, and soon engaged
Patrick SellarPatrick Sellar was a Scottish lawyer who is notorious for his role in the Highland Clearances.Born into a wealthy family in Moray in 1780 and died in Elgin in 1851. He is buried in Elgin Cathedral...
as his factor who pressed ahead with the process while acquiring sheep farming estates for himself.
Elsewhere, the flamboyant Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry portrayed himself as the last genuine specimen of the true Highland Chief while his tenants were subjected to a process of relentless eviction.
To landlords, "improvement" and "clearance" did not necessarily mean depopulation. At least until the 1820s, when there were steep falls in the price of
kelpKelps are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera....
, landlords wanted to create pools of cheap or virtually free labour, supplied by families subsisting in new
croftingA croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer.- Etymology :...
townships. Kelp collection and processing was a very profitable way of using this labour, and landlords petitioned successfully for legislation designed to stop emigration. This took the form of the
Passenger Vessels Act 1803In 1803, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Passenger Vessels Act. It was the first of many laws intended to regulate the transportation of immigrants and to protect emigrants on board ships from exploitation by transportation companies...
. Attitudes changed during the 1820s and, for many landlords, the potato famine which began in 1846 became another reason for encouraging or forcing emigration and depopulation.
Potato famine
As in Ireland, the potato crop failed in the mid nineteenth century, and a widespread outbreak of
choleraCholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
further weakened the Highland population. The ongoing clearance policy resulted in starvation, deaths, and a secondary clearance, when families either migrated voluntarily or were forcibly evicted. There were many deaths of children and old people. As there were few alternatives, people emigrated, joined the
British armyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, or moved to growing urban centres such as
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
,
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, and
DundeeDundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
in Lowland Scotland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne and
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
in the north of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In places some people were given economic incentives to move, but few historians dispute that in many instances landlords used violent methods.
Account by Donald McLeod
Donald McLeod, a Sutherland
crofterA croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer.- Etymology :...
, later wrote about the events he witnessed:
The consternation and confusion were extreme. Little or no time was given for the removal of persons or property; the people striving to remove the sick and the helpless before the fire should reach them; next, struggling to save the most valuable of their effects. The cries of the women and children, the roaring of the affrighted cattle, hunted at the same time by the yelling dogs of the shepherds amid the smoke and fire, altogether presented a scene that completely baffles description — it required to be seen to be believed.
A dense cloud of smoke enveloped the whole country by day, and even extended far out to sea. At night an awfully grand but terrific scene presented itself — all the houses in an extensive district in flames at once. I myself ascended a height about eleven o'clock in the evening, and counted two hundred and fifty blazing houses, many of the owners of which I personally knew, but whose present condition — whether in or out of the flames — I could not tell. The conflagration lasted six days, till the whole of the dwellings were reduced to ashes or smoking ruins. During one of these days a boat actually lost her way in the dense smoke as she approached the shore, but at night was enabled to reach a landing-place by the lurid light of the flames.
Accounts like those of McLeod and General David Stewart of Garth brought widespread condemnation and The
Highland Land LeagueThe first Highland Land League emerged as a distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s, with its power base in the country's Highlands and Islands. It was known also as the Highland Land Law Reform Association and the Crofters' Party...
eventually achieved land reform in the enactment of Crofting Acts, but these could not bring economic viability and came too late at a time when the land was already suffering from depopulation.
Second phase of the Clearances
It was only in the mid-nineteenth century that the second, more brutal phase of the Clearances began; this was well after the 1822
visit by George IVThe 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland was the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland since 1650. Government ministers had pressed the King to bring forward a proposed visit to Scotland, to divert him from diplomatic intrigue at the Congress of Verona.The visit increased his popularity...
, when lowlanders set aside their previous distrust and hatred of the Highlanders and identified with them as national symbols. However, the cumulative effect was particularly devastating to the cultural landscape of Scotland in a way that did not happen in other areas of Britain.
Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, Duchess of SutherlandElizabeth Sutherland Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland , also suo jure 19th Countess of Sutherland, was a Scottish peeress, best remembered for her involvement in the Highland Clearances....
, and her husband
George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of SutherlandGeorge Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland KG, PC , known as Viscount Trentham from 1758 to 1786, as Earl Gower from 1786 to 1803 and as The Marquess of Stafford from 1803 to 1833, was a British politician, diplomat, landowner and patron of the arts. He is estimated to have been the...
, conducted brutal clearances between 1811 and 1820. Evictions at the rate of 2,000 families in one day were not uncommon. Many starved and froze to death where their homes had once been. The Duchess of Sutherland, on seeing the starving tenants on her husband's estate, remarked in a letter to a friend in England, "Scotch people are of happier constitution and do not fatten like the larger breed of animals."
While the collapse of the clan system can be attributed more to economic factors and the repression that followed the
Battle of CullodenThe Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...
, the widespread evictions resulting from the Clearances severely affected the viability of the Highland population and culture. To this day, the population in the
Scottish HighlandsThe Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
is sparse and the culture is diluted, and there are many more sheep than people. Although the 1901 census did return 230,806 Gaelic speakers in Scotland, today this number has fallen to below 60,000. Counties of Scotland in which over 50% of the population spoke Gaelic as their native language in 1901, included Sutherland (71.75%), Ross and Cromarty (71.76%), Inverness (64.85%) and Argyll (54.35%). Small percentages of Gaelic speakers were recorded in counties such as Nairn, Bute, Perth and Caithness.
What the Clearances started, however, the First World War almost completed. A huge percentage of Scots were among the vast numbers killed, (Scotland lost over 147,000 men in World War One - 20% of Britain's losses while only being 10% of the total British population) and this greatly affected the remaining population of Gaelic speakers in Scotland.
The 1921 census, the first conducted after the end of the war, showed a significant decrease in the proportion of the population that spoke Gaelic. The percentage of Gaelic speakers in Argyll had fallen to well below 50% (34.56%), and the other counties mentioned above had experienced similar decreases. Sutherland's Gaelic-speaking population was now barely above 50%, while Inverness and Ross and Cromarty had fallen to 50.91% and 60.20%, respectively.
However, the Clearances did result in significant
emigrationEmigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
of Highlanders to
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and
AustralasiaAustralasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
— where today are found considerably more descendants of Highlanders than in Scotland itself.
One estimate for
Cape BretonCape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
,
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
has 25,000 Gaelic-speaking Scots arriving as immigrants between 1775 and 1850. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were an estimated 100,000 Gaelic speakers in Cape Breton, but because of economic migration to English-speaking areas and the lack of Gaelic education in the Nova Scotian school system, the numbers of Gaelic speakers fell dramatically. By the beginning of the 21st century, the number of native Gaelic speakers had fallen to well below 1,000.
Memorials to the Clearances
The highland clearances are still remembered especially in the areas affected by the forced emigration and hardship endured by the peoples of the Highlands and their descendants across the world.
Scotland
On 23 July 2007, the Scottish First Minister
Alex SalmondAlexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
unveiled a 10 ft-high bronze "Exiles" statue in
HelmsdaleHelmsdale is a village on the east coast of Sutherland, in the Highland council area of Scotland. The modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths as part of the Highland Clearances....
,
SutherlandSutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...
, which commemorates the people who were cleared from the area by landowners and left their homeland to begin new lives overseas. The statue, which depicts a family leaving their home, stands at the mouth of the
Strath of KildonanStrath of Kildonan, also known as Strath Ullie, is a strath in Sutherland, in the north of Scotland. It extends in a north-westerly direction from Helmsdale towards Kinbrace....
and was funded by Dennis Macleod, a Scottish-Canadian mining millionaire who also attended the ceremony.
Canada
An identical 10 ft-high bronze "Exiles" statue has also been set up on the banks of the
Red RiverThe Red River is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before continuing into Manitoba, Canada...
—the modern city of
WinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
was founded by those who left Scotland for Canada.
See also
- Scottish clan
Scottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...
- Lowland Clearances
The Lowland Clearances in Scotland were one of the results of the British Agricultural Revolution, which changed the traditional system of agriculture which had existed in Lowland Scotland in the seventeenth century...
- Clan MacDonnell of Glengarry
Clan MacDonell of Glengarry is a branch of Clan Donald taking its name from Glen Garry where the river Garry runs eastwards through Loch Garry to join the Great Glen about 16 miles north of Fort William...
- Highland Land League
The first Highland Land League emerged as a distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s, with its power base in the country's Highlands and Islands. It was known also as the Highland Land Law Reform Association and the Crofters' Party...
- Crofting
Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production unique to the Scottish Highlands, the Islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man....
- Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
- Scottish Canadian
Scottish Canadians are people of Scottish descent or heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and among the first to settle in Canada, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian culture since colonial times...
External links
Further reading (with bibliography)
- An overview of the Clearances, Alexander McKenzie, 1881.
- Gloomy Memories, Donald Macleod, 1857 (first-hand account of Sutherland clearances).
- "Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power", Alastair McIntosh, Aurum Press Ltd, 2004, ISBN 1854108026
- The Highland Clearances, John Prebble
John Edward Curtis Prebble, FRSL, OBE was an English/Canadian journalist, novelist, documentarian and historian. He is best known for his studies of Scottish history.-Early life:...
, Secker & Warburg, 1963
- The Highland Clearances, Eric Richards, Birlinn Books, 2000.
- A history of the Highland clearances. Vol.1, Agrarian transformation and the evictions 1746-1886", Eric Richards, Croom Helm, c1982, 085664496X
- The Strathnaver Trilogy, Ian Grimble. 3vols: Chief of MacKay, The Trial of Patrick Sellar, and The World of Rob Donn.
- The People of Glengarry. Highlanders in Transition, 1745-1820, Marianne McLean, McGill-Queen's University Press; 1993.
- Die Schottischen Clans im 18. Jahrhundert, Vom Wandel und Ende einer Hochlandgesellschaft am Rande Europas, A Personal Passion Play in Scottish History and Bibliography, Hubert Gebele, Regensburg 2003.
- The Making of the Crofting Community, James Hunter, John Donald Publishers Ltd; 2nd Revised edition edition (27 Jun 2000).
- Das Kapital
Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
, Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Charles H. Kerr & Company; 1906, Volume I, Part VIII, Chapter XXVI.
- Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
, The Modern Library Classics, Complete and Unabridged, 2000, Book III, Chapter IV