Clearances
INTRODUCTION
Few incidents in history have so affected Highland life and culture as the Highland Clearances. Defeat at Culloden and the final crushing of the Jacobite Rebellion led to the breakdown of the clan system. The ties of kinship that once held clan chief and clansmen together were cut. No longer was the land held in common, but was now a commodity to buy and sell and get gain from. Many landlords turned to sheep farming as a result and the folk in the glens were forcibly removed to make way for it.
The results of the Clearances are still to be seen in the ruined shielings in the glens and to be heard in Gaelic poetry and song. Even the politics of the Highlands & Islands are coloured by them.
Yet argument still rages as to the rights and wrongs of the Clearances. Were all landlords cruel? Did overpopulation and famine play a part? Did any good come out of suffering? Only the sources that remain of that dark time in Highland history can help unravel the truth.
CONTENTS
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