AUTHOR’S NOTEThe cruelty of Highland Chieftains will never be forgotten or forgiven.
So that they might lease their Glens and braes to sheep farmers from the Lowlands and the English, the Chieftains cleared the crofts of men, women and children, using Police and soldiers if necessary.
Starting in 1785 in Sutherland, the last eviction took place in 1854 in Ross-shire. The early Clearances were almost always from the land to the coast simply because at the time when wool prices were rising the prices for kelp were rising too. Kelping was labour intensive and could soak up the excess population created by the evictions. Fishing was also put forward as a means by which the dispossessed Highlanders could earn money, but for many moved to the coast life was hard. They had to adjust to a new li
