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The Highland Clearances - An Introduction

by Steve Blamires

Deer hunting became popular in the Highlands and Islands amongst these Southern cultural invaders and soon even more people were being Cleared to make way for the deer. By the mid 1800's the price of wool had fallen dramatically and the deer were seen as the new source of income for the landlords. In Ross-shire the 1851 yield for the estate had been 400 pounds per annum under sheep - by 1870, under deer, it had increased 15 times. By 1912 one fifth of the entire country of Scotland, 3,599,744 acres, was under deer forest. Ironically now many established sheep farmers were being Cleared to make way for deer. In the 20th century many sheep and deer in turn were Cleared to make way for the new hydro-electric stations.

To make matters worse the crofters and estate workers were not allowed to hunt the deer no matter how starving and destitute they might be. Some brave people made a stand against this, more out of desperation and survival than as a political statement. The most famous of these incidents took place on the Isle of Lewis in 1887 and is known as "Ruaig an Fheidh" the Pairc Deer Riad which is commemorated in an eloquent poem composed in the Gaelic by Reverend Donald MacCallum. It reads in translation,

"We rose early in the morning - compelled by hardship - to bring down the deer from the heights with accurate aim. We set out the Tuesday with banners and weapons; the day was bright and favourable, as we'll all prove to you."

"Each man with his gun loaded and ready climbed the high hills, and when a bellowing stag was seen, it was struck down. We killed them in their hundreds, we flayed them splendidly and we ate them in an orderly way, with generous portions cunningly."

"We are no plunderers, as it is stated in lies; we are brave people being ruined by want."

"We've waited many days and years without disorder, harrassed by poverty, under the power of chamberlains and fools. We got no thanks whatever, we were thralls without profit, they were set upon banishing us completely like foxes."

"Our wives and children now suffer hardship; their clothes are tattered, and they are in need at every meal time. Our country is a wilderness because of deer and sheep, and in spite of high rents, we'll not get enough to satisfy one of us."

"But praise the Lord who bestowed that hero upon us - Donald MacRae of Alness is the honourable martyr. Donald MacRae was the great stalwart who would not yield to the villains, although they put him painfully to the test everywhere to the extent of their abilities."

"You little old wife, full of pride(*), who claim that Lewis is yours; it belongs by property right to the majority who live in it. And since we have now found a chieftain, we will not cease by day or night until we obtain the estate joyfully and honourably."

(* - Lady Matheson - wife of Sir James Matheson, known as "MacDrug", who built Stornoway Castle on the profits he made from selling Chinese opium.)

Between 1840 and 1880 over 40,000 people were Cleared from the Isle of Skye alone. Many islands and mainland rural areas were completely depopulated to make way for deer and sheep. See the lists at the end of this narrative for details. The indigenous people naturally started to become extremely wary of their landlords and their motives, and, in respone, the landlords and their agents became very cunning. On the islands of Barra, Benbecula, and South Uist people were called to meetings in the village halls by their landlord, Gordon of Cluny, on the pretext of discussing fair rents. The people were threatened with a two pound fine (a huge sum of money for subsistence crofters) if they did not attend the 'meetings'. When they got to the meeting places they were tied hand and foot, thrown into ships and sent to America with nothing at all other than the clothes they were wearing at the time. It is difficult for us today to imagine such a thing being possible but a quote from an eye-witness Barra woman, Catriona Ni Phee (Catherine MacPhee) graphically describes this terrible scene - "Many a thing I have seen in my own day and generation. Many a thing. O Mary Mother of the black sorrow. I have seen the townships swept, and the holdings being made of them. The people being driven out of the countryside to the streets of Glasgow and to the wilds of Canada, such as them that did not die of hunger and plague and smallpox while going across the ocean. I have seen the women putting the children in the carts which were being sent from Benbecula and the Iochdar to Loch Boisdale, while their husbands lay bound in the pen and were weeping beside them, without power to give them a helping hand, though the women themselves were crying aloud and their little children wailing like to break their hearts. I have seen the big strong men, the champions of the countryside, the stalwarts of the world, being bound on Loch Boisdale quay and cast into the ships as would be done to a batch of horses or cattle in the boat. The bailiffs and the constable and the policemen gathered behind them in pursuit of them. The God of life and He only knows all the loathsome work of men on that day."

Another eye-witness of this dreadful event said, "The people were seized and dragged on board. Men who resisted were felled with truncheons and handcuffed; those who escaped including some who swam ashore from the ship, were chased by the police and press gangs." and another commented, "One morning, during the transportation season, we were suddenly awakened by the screams of a young woman who had been recaptured in an adjoining house, she having escaped after her first capture. We all rushed to the door and saw the broken-hearted creature, with dishevelled hair and swollen face, dragged way by two constables and a ground officer. Instrumental in these events was Rev. H. Beaton who gained a black name in the memory of the migrants." Another report, "I saw a man who was caught and tied and knocked down by a kick despite the fact he was trying to bury his four dead children before being sent to America." Another said, "Were you to see the racing and chasing of policemen, constables and ground officers pursuing the outlawed natives you would think, only for their colour, that you had been by some miracle transported to the banks of the Gambia on the slave coast of Africa."

In 1836 famine swept the Highlands and Islands and the people were forced to claim Poor Relief. Only those with a certificate of destitution obtained from their parish minister were eligible for relief. The next year when the crofters went to pay their rents they were told they had to pay for the food they had been given the previous year. Despite these cruel tricks and deceptions by those who were supposed to be looking after them the crofters never resorted to theft in order to maintain themselves. This was partly because of their unshakeable Celtic sense of honour and right but also because they knew that being charged with theft was exactly the sort of excuse the landlords were looking for in order to justify evicting them. During a period of over 200 years there had only ever been three convictions on the Sutherland estate - and all of those were for excise offences.

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