The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil

In the first documented study of one of Scotland’s most emotive subjects for many years, this book traces the origins of the Clearances from the 18th century to their culmination in the crofting legislation of the 1880s. This process of clearance was part of a wider European movement of rural depopulation, and Eric Richards describes the appalling conditions and treatment suffered by the Highland people. At the same time, however, he also illustrates how difficult the choices were that faced even the most benevolent landlords in the face of rapid economic change. The Clearances were the most rugged and painful of many attempted solutions to the problem of how to maintain a population on marginal and infertile land. In drawing attention away from the mythology to the hard facts of what actually happened, this book offers a balanced analysis of events which created a terrible scar on the Highland and Gaelic imagination, the historical legacy of which still lies unresolved in the 21st century.