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Highland Clearances Essay

Decent Essays

Scottish Society 1789 – 1918

Highland Clearances The highland clearances is the historical action and event that caused the removal and relocation of the population from their own home place in Highlands. It was a gradual process with different patterns at different periods and different locations. It took place from middle of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century.
In the 17th century Scotland was divided into two distinct cultures, one of them being Highlands where people were living in clans ruling by the chiefs and speaking their own language - Gaelic. As for the act of Jacobite proscription it lead to the breakage of the clan system which lead the chiefs becoming Landlords. As new agriculture, economic and social ‘improvement’ …show more content…

This was seen as the crofter’s battle against the landowners. Before the clan system was system was proscribed after 2745 Jacobite Rebellion, tilling rights as well as grazing rights were held communally. As the natives of Skye were unhappy with the landlord’s oppression they reduced to pay rent on their crofts until landowners agree to return their traditional grazing rights. As the huge storms took place they were losing their income. In 19th century the Napier Commission helped crofters to obtain security to obtain security of tenure, fixed rents, the rights to compensation for improvements and the right to inherit or assign crofts in the Crofters Act of 1886. As one of the primary sources “Protest by the Skye Land League against emigration, 1889, stated 'we have thousands of acres of land at home under sheep and deer which if properly and economically used would be an immediate relief to those who have been the victims of rack-renting, oppression and eviction.'. As for this the Napier commission, they agreed on the fair and proper rent price for the crofters which lead to the end of the clearances. (Anon.,

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