The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords, and Rural Turmoil

by RICHARDS ERIC

• ISBN13: 9781841580401
• ISBN10: 1841580406
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Inc

Summary

Storm clouds always gather over the story of the Highland Clearances. The eviction of the Highlanders from the glens and straths of the Highlands and Islands of the north of Scotland still causes great historical dispute more than a century after the event. The Highland Clearances also generated a great deal of contemporary controversy and documentation. The record comes in diverse forms and with radically different provenances, offering excellent material for exercises in historical analysis and selection.

Author Biography

Eric Richards is Professor of History at Flinders University and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Table of Contents

Preface	x
The Distant Coronach
Suishnish in Skye in 1854	1	(2)
The rage	3	(2)
Definition	5	(2)
The rage maintained, 1770-2000	7	(4)
Landlords	11	(4)
Classic Highland Clearances: Glencalvie and Strathconan
Glencalvie	15	(7)
Strathconan	22	(10)
The Highland Clearances and Rural Revolution
Context	32	(1)
The great change in the nation	33	(1)
Before the clearances	34	(3)
Food supply	37	(1)
Paving the way	38	(5)
The pastoral problem	43	(2)
The population imperative	45	(4)
The dilemma	49	(3)
Parallels and Precedents
Beginnings	52	(1)
Parallels	53	(3)
British precursors	56	(2)
Uplands and Ireland	58	(2)
Within Scotland	60	(2)
Emigration	62	(5)
The Quiet March of the Sheep
Conquerors	67	(1)
Southern models	67	(4)
Sheep in the Highlands	71	(1)
Sheep breeds	72	(1)
The power of the landlords	73	(1)
Rents and the turnover of ownership	74	(1)
The progress of the sheep	75	(2)
The empire of sheep extended	77	(4)
Local sheep farmers	81	(1)
Beyond the Great Glen	82	(4)
The Insurrection of 1792
North of the Great Glen	86	(1)
Borderland	86	(2)
The new sheep farm at Kildermorie	88	(4)
The official story	92	(5)
Lord Adam Gordon's reaction	97	(2)
The press	99	(1)
Punishment	100	(5)
Aftermath and the Widening Sheep Empire
Defeat	105	(2)
Aftermath	107	(2)
Amelioration	109	(2)
A new century	111	(4)
Land Leviathans	115	(4)
Clearing Sutherland: Lairg, Assynt and Kildonan 1807-13
The statue	119	(2)
The perfect plan	121	(1)
Famine and progress	122	(3)
Impatience	125	(1)
Tender clearances	126	(1)
The new beginning	127	(2)
The second round	129	(2)
Calm clearances in Assynt, 1812	131	(1)
Turmoil in Kildonan and Clyne, 1812	131	(7)
Sensation in Strathnaver 1814-16
The factor-cum-sheep farmer	138	(1)
The Strathnaver clearances, 1814-15	139	(2)
Trouble with the people	141	(1)
Common elements	142	(1)
The indictment	143	(2)
Prejudice	145	(3)
Relief	148	(1)
End of a phase	149	(2)
Pause	151	(2)
The Greatest Clearances: Strathnaver and Kildonan in 1818-19
Preparations, 1816	153	(2)
1818	155	(5)
The summers of 1818 and 1819	160	(7)
The Last of the Sutherland Clearances
Mounting tension	167	(2)
Whitsun 1819-Whitsun 1820	169	(1)
The 1820 clearances	170	(3)
Smaller removals	173	(2)
Consequences	175	(4)
Rare voices	179	(5)
Sweeping the Highlands: The Middle Years - Lewis, Rum, Harris, Freswick and Strathaird (Skye)
Clearance by attrition and by stealth	184	(1)
The changed context	185	(4)
The Hebrides	189	(2)
The Island of Rum	191	(1)
Harris in 1841	192	(2)
The tenacity of the small tenantry	194	(1)
Sinclair of Freswick	195	(4)
Potato famine	199	(1)
The Strathaird evictions	200	(7)
Colonel Gordon, Barra and the Uists
Headlines	207	(1)
The reputation of Gordon of Cluny	208	(1)
A Hebridean investment	209	(3)
Clearance and famine on Barra	212	(3)
Internal refugees	215	(4)
Coerced emigration	219	(7)
Trouble in the Islands: The Macdonald Estates in North Uist, Benbecula and Skye
Famine relief	226	(2)
Lord Macdonald and Sollas	228	(2)
The moment of clearance	230	(5)
The Sollas trial	235	(2)
Boreraig and Suishnish in 1853	237	(4)
Islands of clearance	241	(3)
Frustrated Lairds and Bloody-Minded Crofters: Lewis, Durness and Coigach
Highland poverty	244	(3)
Rich and poor	247	(1)
Contrasting landlords	248	(4)
Coigach and the naked clearer	252	(6)
Landlords Unrestrained: Knoydart and Greenyards
Power and opinion	258	(1)
Macdonnell of Glengarry and Knoydart	259	(1)
Clearances and emigration	260	(3)
Corroboration	263	(3)
Poverty and wealth	266	(2)
`The slaughter at Greenyards': Spring 1854	268	(3)
The official account	271	(6)
Nervous Landlords, 1855-86
The landlords' fear	277	(2)
The decline of clearances	279	(1)
Riddell and the new elites	279	(2)
Carnegie and others	281	(3)
Shetland and Mull	284	(2)
Lesser clearances	286	(2)
Deer and a different bleating	288	(5)
The Crofters' First Triumph
Anarchy and triumph	293	(1)
Revolting crofters	294	(2)
Running the gauntlet	296	(2)
Napier 1884	298	(2)
Politics and crofters	300	(1)
The Act	301	(3)
Recidivism	304	(1)
The demand for land	305	(5)
The Highland Clearances: Answers and Questions
Rural flights	310	(3)
The clearance model and its variants	313	(5)
The landlords	318	(4)
A people adrift	322	(2)
Famine in Highland history	324	(1)
The Winners	325	(1)
Losers	326	(5)
Appendix	331	(6)
Bibliography	337	(34)
Index	371