Present Pasts
Author: Dr. Laurie Gourievidis, University of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Latest publication, ‘The Dynamics of Heritage’.
Few events in modern Scottish history have as strong a resonance as the Highland Clearances which have elicited images and emotions that have sustained artists, writers and politicians. They have now disappeared from living memory but their shadow hangs heavily, as they signify the culmination and transformation of this part of Scotland. They altered the map of the region, emptying its straths and thinning out its population. They also resulted in emigratory waves to colonial lands and they stand as a foundational event for those who set up new homes in foreign climes. Over time, many memorials have been erected in the Highlands and Islands - particularly those of the Land War period, but also emigrants.
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Glens with no Monuments
Alec Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, has played down the importance of monuments to the ancestors cleared out from the straths and glens of the Highlands of Scotland. The achievements and presence across the world of hundreds of thousands of emigrants is purported to be sufficient tribute to their memory. This attitude highlights the importance and significance of the few monuments that do exist, notably in Lamlash and Helmsdale, as described in the chapter from Laurie. In fairness, there seems to have developed quite a strong tourist infrastucture around some of the more accessible glens.
Glen Quaich
From the furthest point the River Quaich runs South East from the hills into Loch Freuchie. Along the shore line of Loch Freuchie there are several sites of ruined communities. These communities would have several houses, sometimes a mill and would have been home to perhaps 10 to 15 families.
Most of this development happened in the 18th century when the communities in Loch Tay were being vacated as a result of the new farming and tenancy agreements brought about by the Marquis of Breadalbane. The families however did not remain in Glen Quaich for long, many emigrating to Canada. In the early 1800s around three hundred crofters left the glen to resettle in Canada. After a three month voyage they colonised the Easthope area of Ontario and named their settlements Amulree and Glenquaich. Of the 3500 inhabitants once living along the Loch Tay and within the Glenquaich valley, only one hundred were left by 1850. That year the Second Marquis tried to raise a Fencible Regiment, as had his father so successfully in the eighteenth century. He found no recruits. An old man of Loch Tayside growled at him to “Put your red coats on the backs of the sheep that have replaced the men!”
Glen Brittle
Valley of the River Brittle which flows from the Cuillins in Skye, west and then south to enter Loch Brittle. The Glenbrittle Clearance was instigated by Kenneth MacAskill who was accused of taking people away against their will and under false pretences. John MacKenzie, factor of the estate, was asked for his version of the story and replied, “I believe they went of their own accord. It may or may not have been the case. I cannot say”.
Perhaps the most famous of Glenbrittle emigrants was Angus MacMillan who achieved fame and notoriety for the discovery of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia. He has also become something of a hate-figure amongst the Gunai-Kurnai aborigine tribe that he is accused of having almost wiped out of existence.
Glencalvie
In 1845 the people of Glencalvie were evicted from their homes by the Duke of Sutherland and took shelter in nearby Croick Church, one of the Parliamentary churches built in overcrowded parts of the Highlands in the 1820s. The words they scratched on windows can still be seen today.
Glen Clova
One of the Angus glens, to the north of Kirriemuir, through which the River South Esk runs. The 16th-century Clova Castle, a home of the Ogilvies, is a ruin. There is no record of tenantry being persecuted or evicted by their Ogilvie landlords, it was more a case of the Ogilvies being hunted out of the locale by their bitter enemies, the Campbells. This persecution was over a trifle and personal animosity, coupled with religious bigotry as the Ogilvies were a staunch Catholic clan, rather than the more obvious reason that should have prevailed, that Glencova occupied a strategic position as a gateway to the Highlands.
Glencoe
As part of an agreement with the Jacobite chiefs loyal to the exiled James, King William required an oath of allegiance. Alasdair MacIain, chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe, was prevented by bad weather and misunderstanding from taking the oath within the set time. This failure was used as an excuse for a savage primitive strike originally aimed at MacDonell of Glengarry. The MacDonalds of Glencoe became the new victims. Troops quartered in local homes for twelve days, enjoying their hospitality, turned one morning and murdered thirty eight of the clan, including the chief and some of his family.
Glen Derry
(Gaelic Gleann Doire) Valley in the Cairngorms of the Derry Burn which flows south to join the Lui Water at Derry Lodge. On 15 September 1726, a letter from Lord Grange to James Farquharson of Balmoral, who was Factor and Forester of the estate at the time, instructed him to eject the people from Glen Lui after their harvest is over. The reason for this clearance was to make timber extraction from the glen easier. The Glen appears to have been finally cleared again by 1777 and the tenancies had reverted to the landowner, Earl Fife.
Glen Dessary
Valley of the River Dessary which flows southeast from Garbh Chioch Mhor, to join the River Pean just to the west of the head of Loch Arkaig. The village of Glendessary is near the foot of the Glen. The Duke of Gordon had sympathy for his tenants but the opposite was the case on the Lochiel Estate where the management of the affairs of the long-absentee Cameron of Lochiel were handled by the deeply unpleasant Ewan Cameron of Fassifern and his son Duncan. The tenants on Loch Arkaig were removed in the early 1800s by Cameron and were relocated to small crofts on the shores of Loch Eil and Loch Linnhe. By 1820, many of the crofts could not provide a living and this forced tenants to leave for Canada.
Glen Docherty
Valley that runs from a point 5 miles west of Achnasheen northwest to Kinlochewe. The area was sold in 1831 to Colonel McBarnet who made his wealth in the West Indies. The tenant farmers were cleared to allow sheep farming and by 1859 all tenants were resettled at Annat.
Glenelg
(Gaelic Gleann Eilg) Village in a remote Highland peninsula, lying across the Sound of Sleat from Skye. A ferry crosses to Kylerhea, following a route once popular with cattle drovers.
In 1849 more than five hundred tenants left Glenelg. They had petitioned the proprietor, Mr. Baillie of Dochfour, to help them to emigrate. Mr. Baillie intimated that a sum of £3000 would be required to land those willing to emigrate to Quebec. This sum included passage money, free rations, a month’s sustenance after the arrival of the party in Canada, and some clothing for the more destitute. Ultimately, the proprietor offered the sum of £2000, while the Highland Destitution Committee promised £500.
Glen Etive
(Gaelic Gleann Eite) Mountainous valley of the River Etive, running southwest from Glen Coe to Loch Etive.
Glen Etive met the same fate as the other glens in the Breadalbane Estate as pointed out by Mr P Alister in his letter to the Marquis in 1851:
“Is it true that in Glenetive there is not a single tenant now? From every thing that I have heard, I believe that your lordship has done more to exterminate the Scottish peasantry than any man now living; and perhaps you ought to be ranked next to the Marquis of Stafford in the uneviable clearing celebrities. If I have over-estimated the clearances at 500 families, please to correct me.”
Glen Garry
(Inverness-shire) Valley of the River Garry which flows east from Loch Quoich to Loch Garry. It belonged to the MacDonnells of Glengarry. Their chief raised a regiment, the Glengarry Fencibles, in 1774. Between 1802 and 1804 many of the Glengarry Fencibles emigrated to Glengarry County, Ontario, where the regiment was re-formed and fought against the American invaders in the war of 1812.
Glen Lyon (Gaelic Gleann Liobhunn) Perthshire valley of the River Lyon which flows eastwards from Loch Lyon to join the Tay between Aberfeldy and Kenmore.
Reminiscences of Duncan Campbell 1910
” Emigration would have proceeded briskly from 1760 onwards had it not been discouraged by landlords who found the fighting manhood on their estates a valuable asset; and when not positively prohibited, emigration was impeded in various ways by the Government, now alive to the value of Highlands and Isles as a nursery of soldiers and sailors. But after Waterloo, Glenylon, Fortingall and Breadalbane, Rannoch, Strathearn and Balquidder, sent off swarms to Canada, the United States, and the West Indies. A large swarm from Breadalbane, Lochearnhead, and Balquidder went off to Nova Scotia about 1828, and got Gaelic-speaking ministers to follow them”.
Glen Ogle
(Gaelic Gleann Oguil) Leads 7 miles northwest wards from Lochearnhead, following the course of the River Ogle.
Some more considered research suggests that the emptying of the glens in certain cases, such as Glen Ogle, should not be blamed on villainous landlords but was a natural product of the Agrarian Revolution in the Lowlands of Scotland:
” After the Rising in 1745, the old way of life began to change with the organisation of peaceful conditions within the Highlands and with the penetration of new ideas as the Agrarian Revolution progressed in the Lowlands. As an immediate reaction, population in the glens increased considerably, at least until the early decades of the nineteenth century, but in time the elimination of the old group farms, the coming of the sheep farmers, the evictions and the attraction of the growing industrial centres in the south and of the developing colonies, all led to a decline. This had become general by the end of the century, and acute in the districts which had been earliest affected”.
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Glen Orchy
(Gaelic Gleann Urchaidh) Valley which carries the River Orchy from Bridge of Orchy to the head of Loch Awe. The Campbells of Glenorchy, later to became Earls of Breadalbane, were blamed for most of the depopulation:
” By this nobleman’s mania for evictions, the population of Glenorchy was reduced from 1806 in 1831 to 831 in 1841, or by nearly a thousand souls in the short space of ten years! Some clans, who were rather numerous and powerful, have disappeared altogether; others, viz., the Downies, Macnabs, Macnicols, and Fletchers, have nearly ceased to exist. The Macgregors, at one time lords of the soil, have totally disappeared; not one of the name is to be found among the population. The Macintyres, at once time extremely numerous, are likewise greatly reduced.”
Glen Roy
(Gaelic Gleann Ruaidh) Valley of the River Roy which flows south to join the River Spean at Roy Bridge.
Mary Cameron’s Account of Their Eviction:
Bʼe sin latha na bochdainn do dhʼiomadh aon, an là anns an do dhealaich MacCailein ri oighreachd a shinnsir ʻs an àite ʻs andʼfʼhuair mise mo thogail.
[that was the most lamentable day for many, the day MacCailein (The Campbell) let go his ancestral estate and the place that I was reared]
Chanʻeil an diugh ach an aon smùid o thigh aʼ bhuachaille Ghallda, far an robh roimhe so dà theaghlach dheug a chòmhnuidh.
[Today there is only one trail of smoke and that is from the house of the English herdsman, where there used to be twelve families]
Cʼuin a dhì-chuimhnicheas mise ciùcharan bochd nam pàisdean, ag ionndrainn aʼ bhainne nach robh na bʼ fhaide rʼa thoirt doibh? Cʼuin a dhì-chuimhnicheas mi ʻn sealladh mu dheireadh a fhuair mi de na gabhair, aʼ miogadaich air bile nan creag, mar gu-m biodh iad gʼam fhuran gu dol gʼam bleodhan.
[When will I ever forget the fretting of the babies for their milk, or of the sight of the goats gambolling on the crags and waiting for me to milk them?]
Thàinig latha na h-imrich; bha na maoir ʻn a chois, agus fiù aon oidhche na bʼ fhaide cha robh ri ʻfhaotainn de dhʼfhasgadh tighe. Bʼ éigin falbh. Oʼn a dhʼfhairtlich oirnn bothan ʻfhaotainn ʻs an dùthaich, cha robh againn ach aʼ Ghalldachd a thoirt fʼar ceann.
[Faced with the bailiffs, we were not given even one more night and we were forced to leave right away for the Lowlands]
Bha na tighean cheana ʻg an rùsgadh; bha mèilich nan caorach-mòrʼ air aʼ bheinn – fead aʼ bhuachaille Ghallda, agus tathunn a chuid con air an uchdaich.
[The house were already being de-thatched; the sheep were noisily mewing on the hills to the shepherd's whistle and the chasing from the dogs].
Bha ʻn t-seana bhean, mo mhàthair-cheile, ʻs an àm sin beò, ʻn a cripleach lag, aosda; thog Seumas i ann an cliabh air a dhruim; lean misʼ e, le Iain beag ʻn a naoidhein air mo chìch, agus thusa nach maireann, a Dhòmhnuill ghaolaich, ʻad loireanach beag aʼ coiseachd le dʼ phiuthair ri mʼ thoabh.
[Seumas carried my aged, weak and now deceased mother-in-law in a creel on his back; I followed behind with little Iain suckling at my breast; and you, beloved Donald (may you rest in peace), toddled with your sister by my side]
An latha ʻdhʼfhàg sinn an t-Aoineadh-mòr shaoil mi gu-n sgàineadh mo
chridhe; bhithinn ceart, ar leam, na-m faigheadh mo dheòir sileadh, ach faochadh air an dòigh so cha dʼ fhuair mi. Shuidh sinn greis air Cnoc-nan-càrn, aʼ gabhail an tseallaidh mu dheireadh de ʻn àite ʻs an dʼ fhuair sinn ar nàrach.
[I thought my heart would break the day we left Annamore; I would be fine if I could let my tears fall but I have not found that relief].
Glen Shiel (Gaelic Gleann Seile) Valley running southeastwards from Loch Duich to Loch Cluanie, between the Five Sisters of Kintail and the Saddle. A battle took place here in 1719 Risings.
Justification from Aeneas MacDonnell, Evicting Agent:
“These people had to be removed to Moidart because of the congested state of the estate. It was impossible for the people to subsist, but to assist them to emigrate, and we were assisted by the resident Catholic clergyman of that time, Rev. Ronald Rankine, who followed them to Australia. It is a source of grief to me to my dying day that I had anything whatsoever to do with that emigration but God knows I cannot understand how it could have been averted. Many of the people have succeeded well and are well-to-do. If they had remained, they would have been impoverished and they would have impoverished the few that are still on the estate”.
Glen Shira
(Gaelic Gleann Siora) Valley of the River Shira which flows southwestwards into Loch Fyne north of Inveraray.
Commercial Landlordism in Lochgilphead:
” A selective strategy of threatening people with removal was oppressive and inhumane. It also went against the managerial interests of the landlord in retaining the confidence and attachment of the tenantry that remained to carry out improvements. Even so, all long leases were dispensed with in favour of annual lets at increased rents which had to be paid in advance rather than after the first harvest as was customary. Long-leases at high rents were permitted only for farms with no more than one tenant that engaged in commercial pastoralism or slate quarrying”. Farmers and day labourers evicted were paid restricted rates of compensation whether relocated to villages or removed entirely”.
Glen Urquhart
” The Chisholm was in bad health so the management of the estate fell into the hands of his hard-hearted wife. In 1801, no less than seven hundred and ninety nine took ship at Fort William from Glen Urquhart and the neighbouring districts for Pictou, Nova Scotia. Altogether, no less than five thousand three hundred and ninety were driven out of these Highland glens, a very large portion by this daughter of the notorious Marsali Bhinneach ‘High-and-Mighty Marjorie’”.
Other Glens
Glenalmond, Glencarron, Glencoul, Glencreran, Glencroe, Glencross, Glencul, Glendale, Glendarnel, Glendaruel, Glendelvine, Glendhu, Glenfernisdale, Glenfinart, Glenfinglas, Glengarry, Glenlean, Glenmore, Glenmoriston, Glenranza, Glenroy, Glenstrathfarrer, Glentruim.
Glen Affric
(Gaelic Gleann Afraig) The forested valley of the River Affric which flows northeast through Loch Affric to join the River Glass near Cannich. Glen Affric was part of the Clan Chisholm lands from the 15th to the mid 19th centuries. From the 1780s many Highland glens saw the forced removal of men, women and children by their own Clan chiefs as the introduction of sheep was deemed a more economic use of the land. On a happier note, the Glenaffric Area in modern times seems to have revived and has a strong sense of community.
Glenaffric Clearances: Poem (translation in link) by Donald Chisholm, evicted as part of the Clearances.
Bha mi og ann a Strathglass,
`S bha mi `n duil nach rachainn as,
Ach bho`n chaidh na suinn fo lic
Nis gabhaidh mi `n ratreuta.
[I was once young in Strathglass and I never thought I would leave it. But since our young stalwarts have been placed under the slabs, I will now take my retreat].
Ged a tha mo choiseachd trom
Togaidh mi m`aigneadh le fonn;
`S `n uair a theid mi air an long,
Co chuireas rium geall-reise?
[Though I am now leaden-footed, I will lift my spirits with song. But from when I embark on the ship, who can say how much longer I might live?]
An tacharan seo th’air ar ceann
Sigiot e dhaoine s tha iad gann;
S fhearr leis caoraich chuir am fang
No fir an camp fo fheileadh.
[The blaggart who ruled over us has scattered the men and they are now so scarce. He preferred sheep in their fanks to men encamped and in their kilts]