Some might wonder why they should subsidise the lifestyles of born-again crofters on Ulva.
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The island's old farm will be divided into small plots, to qualify for government grants for crofters.
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Chef Scott Davies's slow food philosophy is embodied in the restaurant's hyper-seasonal ingredients, which he sources from local fishermen and crofters.
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This luxuriously rustic bed-and-breakfast occupies a pair of restored Hebridean crofters' cottages on a six-acre organic farm on the Isle of Skye.
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Under the 1886 legislation (the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act) protected crofters are members of a crofters' township, consisting of tenants of neighbouring crofts with a shared right to use common pasture. Since 1976 it has been legally possible for a crofter to acquire title to his croft, thus becoming an owner-occupier. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives crofters the right to buy their land.
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Another Crofters' Act was created in 1993 (the Crofters' (Scotland) Act 1993). The earlier Act established the first Crofting Commission, but its responsibilities were quite different from those of the newer Crofters Commission created in 1955. The Commission is based in Inverness. Crofts held subject to the provisions of the Crofters' Acts are in the administrative counties of Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, Inverness-shire and Argyll, in the north and west of Scotland.
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', crofting town near in the Isle of Skye The Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 () is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created legal definitions of crofting parish and crofter, granted security of land tenure to crofters and produced the first Crofters Commission, a land court which ruled on disputes between landlords and crofters. The same court ruled on whether parishes were or were not crofting parishes. In many respects the Act was modelled on the Irish Land Acts of 1870 and 1881. By granting the crofters security of tenure, the Act put an end to the Highland Clearances.
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40-42 The Assynt branch of the Scottish Crofters Union met on the 6 June 1992, to discuss the sale. There the crofters decided to attempt to raise enough money to buy the estate and run it themselves.MacAskill (1999) pp. 46-47 Assynt Crofters' Trust, a company limited by guarantee, was formed to make a bid for the land.
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The Crofters Commission regulates crofting in the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
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The Crofters' Party was established and elected five MPs in 1885. ' ('The people are stronger than the lord') was their best-known slogan. The government feared that the "Home Rule" movement would spread to the (Gaelic- speaking areas in Scotland) from Ireland. The Napier Commission interviewed crofters all over the and made careful study of the crofters' position, publishing its report in 1884.
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"Ursula Smith" Shetlopedia. Retrieved 12 October 2008.Schei (2006) pp. 16–17, 57 With the passing of the Crofters' Act in 1886 the Liberal prime minister William Gladstone emancipated crofters from the rule of the landlords.
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The modern Crofters Commission was established by the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1955. The name of the Commission changed to the Crofting Commission in 2012 following the coming into force of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.
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The earlier protests had been largely confined to Skye. In 1884 protest action was much more widespread, many thousands of crofters became members of the Highland Land League and among List of MPs elected in the 1885 United Kingdom general election there were Crofters' Party MPs elected by the constituencies of Argyllshire (Donald Horne Macfarlane), Inverness-shire (Charles Fraser-Mackintosh), Ross and Cromarty (Roderick Macdonald) and Caithness (Gavin Brown Clark). At Wick Burghs John Macdonald Cameron was also allied with the Crofters Party. A year later Parliament created the Crofters Act.
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As many crofters in the Scottish Highlands qualified as £10 occupiers, the Act empowered Scottish Gaels to take action against evictions and rent increases at the end of the Highland Clearances. Their votes led to the formation of the Crofters' Party and Highland Land League, and eventually the passage of the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, which addressed many of their grievances and put an end to the Highland Clearances.
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The Highland Land League eventually achieved land reform in the enactment of the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, but these could not bring economic viability and came too late, at a time when the land was already suffering from depopulation. However, the Crofters' Act put an end to the Clearances by granting security of tenure to crofters. However, the Crofters' Act did not grant security of tenure to cottars or break up large estates. As a result, the Scottish Highlands continues to have the most unequal distributions of land in Europe, with more than half of Scotland owned by fewer than 500 people.
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In 1869, gold was found in the Strath and was exploited by local crofters and outside prospectors until the enterprise became unprofitable. A following depression in the local economy caused crofters to resume gold digging, which by 1886 brought them into conflict with the Sutherland Estates.
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The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained most of their votes.
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Retrieved 2015-09-29.Crofters want mineral rights loophole closed, Herald Scotland, 2003-01-03. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
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Weisdale was the scene of a series of evictions of crofters in favour of large scale sheep farming in the 19th century. Approximately three hundred and eighteen crofters were evicted from the Weisdale valley in what is described as the clearances. Local author John J. Graham wrote two novels on this theme.
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The SCF is currently involved in activities to encourage the UK government to recognize crofters as indigenous people of Scotland. .
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Ross, David (5 July 2010) "The martyrs' legacy: crofters can now blow their own horn". Glasgow: The Herald. Led by John MacPherson, the crofters demanded the return of the common grazing land that had been taken from them. Taking direct action, they began grazing their cattle on this land, court orders for their removal notwithstanding.
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In 1958, three mainland mills interests formed a group called the ‘Independent Harris Tweed Producers Ltd’, they were: Argyll-shire Weaver’s of Oban, A.&J.; McNaughton of Pitlochry’ and Scottish Crofters Weavers of Aberdeen or Leith. McNaughton’s of Pitlochry was a traditional supplier of mainland yarn to Lewis small producers. Scottish Crofters Weavers Ltd.
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Police action in January 1883 proved ineffective and eventually a government official was sent to Skye on board the navy gunboat HMS Jackal to conduct negotiations. Five crofters including MacPherson agreed to stand in a token trial. They were sentenced to two months in jail and became known as the "Glendale martyrs", and are commemorated by a memorial in the village. It was also agreed that a Royal Commission, which became the Napier Commission, would be set up to investigate the crofters' grievances, which eventually resulted in the far-reaching Crofters Act of 1886.
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The Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 had established the first Crofters Commission, which acted as a land court which ruled on disputes between landlords and crofters. The largest land owner in the county was the Duke of Sutherland, who owned the Sutherland estate, comprising most of the county. To ensure the Duke's interest was represented on the new council all of the Sutherlands estates factors stood for election, along with James Gordon; the Assynt sub-factor. The estate anticipated defeat in the election having lost control of School and Poor boards in the early 1880s.
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The Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 established the Crofters' Commission and gave enhanced rights to crofters. This change of mood led to the idea that a railway serving the area was a social need, and in turn this led to the promotion of the Glasgow and North Western Railway. This 167 mile line, costed at £1,526,116, was to reach from Glasgow (Maryhill) to Inverness by way of Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe and Fort William. Fort William, although a small town, was the centre of a wide area.
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The Act was largely a result of crofters' agitation which had become well organised and very persistent in Skye and of growing support, throughout the Highlands, for the Crofters Party, which had gained five members of parliament in the general election of 1885. Agitation took the form of rent strikes (withholding rent payments) and occupying land which the landlords had reserved for hunting or sheep. The Act itself did not quell the agitation. In particular it was very weak in terms of enabling the Crofters Commission to resolve disputes about access to land.
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The crofters also believed that some of the portions would be directly administered by the owners, rather than a professional factor.One of the crofters stated It's a breach of trust, we believe, in the traditional relationship between the crofting tenants and the landlords. We want to retain the crofting lands as a complete unit MacAskill (1999) pp.
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Membership of the trust was open to crofters within the estate. The trust aimed to buy the estate and keep it under the control of the crofters, and to develop the area by initiating projects such as house building, job creation and tree planting.MacAskill (1999) pp. 56-60 Funding for the trust came from many sources.
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T.M. Devine, Clanship to Crofters' War, (Manchester ; Manchester Univ. Press, 1994)pp212-3 Murdoch's kilted figure became familiar in crofting townships as he urged crofters to organise and stand up for themselves. Affectionately known as Murchadh na Feilidh (Murdo the kilt), he encouraged the crofting population to set higher value on their country, race, lore and language.
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In the early 19th century, Lord MacDonald created a township of 40 small crofts, on average. The hill grazing was less than a tenth of the size of most other Sleat townships, with many more crofters. It is thought that the crofts were deliberately made too small to live on, forcing the crofters to fish during the herring boom.
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From time to time there were open uprisings and riots. In 1884 suffrage was extended to men owning land worth at least £10 or paying £10 in rent annually. This included many Highland crofters. At a political level the crofters wanted legal rights, so the ' ('Highland Land Law Reform Association') was established in 1885 in London.
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The Houghton portfolio includes the brands of Houghton Line Range, Houghton Crofters, Moondah Brook, Houghton Regional Range, Houghton Gladstone and Jack Mann.
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Film begins the founding of the Koskela croft in the 1880s and tells the story of the life of the people of the imaginary Pentinkulma village until about 1920. The central theme is the unstable position of crofters and their goal to improve their living conditions. The rural upper class, such as the priestly family, and the poor people, whose socio-economic status is weaker than that of crofters, also play an important role. The story of the film goes all the way to the end of the Finnish Civil War between the Red Guards (Crofters) and the Whites (Government).
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Crofters were expected to work in appalling conditions, and although some landlords worked to lessen the effects of the famine on their tenants, many landlords simply resorted to eviction. In particular, John Gordon of Cluny became the target of criticism in newspapers when many of his crofters were reduced to living on the streets of Inverness. Gordon resorted to hiring a fleet of ships and forcibly transporting his Hebridean crofters to Canada, where they were conveniently abandoned on Canadian authorities. Some more sympathetic landlords supplied a free passage to what was hoped to be a better life.
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Under pressure from the Highland Land League and public opinion a series of inquiries were held into the situation, leading to the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 which put an end to the clearances by granting security of tenure to crofters. However the act did not break up large estates, and Wester Ross continues to consist chiefly of large single-owner estates.
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Many portions of land that were left uncultivated as part of this practice were not tilled until the 19th century when economic pressure forced crofters to utilise all their land. The crofters were faced with a stark choice between paying large fines imposed by religious authorities, or by causing the supernatural death of their cattle by cultivating 'Good Man's Croft'.
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At the 1885 General election, his son Clarence succeeded him as Liberal candidate, but was defeated by Gavin Brown Clark, the Crofters' Party candidate.
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The riot was mentioned in a number of Scottish radical journals in the following years. The "Battle of the Braes" (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr a' Chumhaing) took place on Skye less than a decade later, in 1882, when crofters began a rent strike and confronted the Portree Sheriff's Officer sent to enforce eviction notices against them, forcing him to burn the documentation. This resulted in the deployment of around 50 police officers from Glasgow to the area, who were met by an angry mob of men, women and children armed with improvised weapons. The Crofters' War took place about ten years later, and led to the founding of the Napier Commission, which led to compromises being made on behalf of the crofters, and the reform of crofting in Scotland, beginning with the passing of the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886.
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Sawbridgeworth Town Football Club is an English football club based in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. The club are currently members of the and play at Crofters End.
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Crofters' Cottages, Onich, Inverness-shire are examples of vernacular architecture in Scotland Scottish Vernacular architecture is a form of vernacular architecture that uses local materials.
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The emergence of the group was owed to the Representation of the People Act 1884, which had reduced the property qualifications for voters. As a result many Crofters were able to vote for the first time in 1885. The Crofting Party worked in close collaboration with the Highland Land League, and opposed the lack of secure and tenure and the severely reduced access to land for crofters.
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The Commission is supported by around 60 staff led by a Chief Executive. The vision of the Commission is to be a guiding regulator that uses its powers to support the crofting system. Its purpose is to regulate the crofting system fairly and reasonably to protect it for future generations. The first Crofters Commission was established in 1886 by the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act.
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Despite its challenges, crofting is important to the Highlands and Islands. In 2014-15 there were 19,422 crofts, with 15,388 crofters. Some crofters have the tenancy of more than one croft, and in-croft absenteeism means that tenancies are held but crofts are not farmed. About 33,000 family members lived in crofting households, or around 10% of the population of the Highlands and Islands.
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Initially there was mixed support amongst the local crofters. In November 2018, the Melness Crofters Estate (MCE) voted on whether to continue discussions about the proposal. Twenty-seven votes were cast in favour, with eighteen against and one spoiled ballot. In September 2019, HIE began a formal public consultation phase, ahead of the formal application for planning consent, which was expected to be filed in December 2019.
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Portnalong () is a small village on north west of the Isle of Skye on the shore of Loch Harport. Portnalong is Gaelic for "harbour of the ships". It was founded by crofters from Lewis and Harris in 1921. Portnalong and Fiscavaig are both crofting townships in the North Talisker common grazings where 69 crofters hold in common the sheep stock club that manages that commons.
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Napier's report in 1884 recommended security of tenure for crofters paying rents of over £6 a year (of whom there were few) and voluntary emigration for the rest of the population. Napier's recommendations were at odds with the measures adopted in Ireland to resolve the Irish 'land question' and the subsequent Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 was more influenced by the Irish precedents than by the Napier Commission report. In the General Election of 1885, 5 Highland seats had elected 'Independent Liberal' MPs endorsed by the Highland Land League ("the Crofters' Party") and thereafter political considerations heavily influenced the Liberal approach to the problems of the crofting region.
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1885 UK general election in Scotland, showing the western Highlands and Caithness having elected MPs from the Crofters Party The Crofters' Party was the parliamentary arm of the Highland Land League. It managed to elect five MPs in the 1885 general election and a sixth the following year. The Highland Land League had started on the isle of Skye and in 1884 protest action was much more widespread with many thousands of crofters became members of the Highland Land League. A number of candidates stood with the Highland Land League's backing in the 1885 general election and in subsequent elections in the rest of the 19th century.
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Established under the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, this register allows crofters to register an interest in the crofting land. Registration is required in certain circumstances.
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In addition to the duty of residence tenants and owner occupier crofters are required to ensure the croft is cultivated, maintained and not neglected or misused.
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Auchtubh is a hamlet in the Stirling council area of Scotland, less than to the east of the village of Balquhidder. Auchtubh consisted of Croft's numbered 1 to 9 which were worked by Crofters raising sheep and cattle. The crofters helped each other with harvesting and other work. The last worked Croft was number 8 Auchtubh next to Coshnachie The crofter was Chrissie MacCrae who had sheep cows hens and geese.
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SCF is the charity dedicated to safeguarding crofting and its cultural heritage now and for generations to come. Established and run by crofters, SCF engages with agencies and government at a local, national and international level to influence policy on rural issues including sustaining rural populations, food production and environmental protection. It also provides a network of support to established, new, and aspiring crofters through training, mentoring and sharing of experience.
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"Marriages", The Times, 9 December 1938. They had two sons and three daughters. He worked running a centre which sold articles woven by crofters on the family's land.
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The duty of the court is to settle disputes, relating to agricultural tenancies and to crofts and crofters, by means of a written decision on the case that is reported in the Scottish Land Court Reports and other publications. The court maintains a close relationship with the Lands Tribunal for Scotland, although the duties of both the Land Court and Lands Tribunal are distinct they both share the same administrative office, and the Chairman of the Land Court is also President of the Lands Tribunal. The court does not adjudicate disputes concerning the ownership of land, or disputes between owners of adjoining land concerning the boundaries thereof, but its scope does include disputes between crofters on such matters. It does not deal with the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 regarding succession, the apportionment of common grazings, or decrofting an area of croft land—all of which are within the scope of the Crofters Commission.
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Brereton's next appointment was made by the third Duke of Sutherland and involved Brereton acting as the Duke's agent in encouraging crofters to take opportunities to resettle in Canada.
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The "Battle of the Braes" involved a demonstration against a lack of access to land and the serving of eviction notices. The incident involved numerous crofters and about 50 police officers. This event was instrumental in the creation of the Napier Commission, which reported in 1884 on the situation in the Highlands. Disturbances continued until the passing of the 1886 Crofters' Act and on one occasion 400 marines were deployed on Skye to maintain order.
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The Shetland goose has been used by crofters to graze pastures. This was to rid the grass of parasites, such as the liver fluke, to prepare it for grazing by sheep.
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Traditionally the strath was populated by tenant crofters, however in recent years there has been an increase in the number of new homes and restorations, after many decades of gradual decline.
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Who Owns Scotland. Retrieved 28 December 2012.MacPhail, Issie (2002) Land, Crofting and The Assynt Crofters Trust: A Post-Colonial Geography?. University of Wales/Academia.edu. p. 174. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
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In the early 1880s, in terms of gaining sympathetic public opinion, crofters were protesting very effectively, with rent strikes and land raids, about their lack of secure tenure of land and their severely reduced access to land. The government responded in 1883 with a commission of enquiry headed by Francis Napier, and the Napier Commission published recommendations in 1884. Napier's report fell a long way short of addressing crofters' demands, and it stimulated a new wave of protests.
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10 September 1999. Retrieved on 14 October 2007 When the war ended, the sudden re-availability of foreign mineral supplies led to an abrupt collapse in the demand for kelp-based products. The burning of kelp had also damaged the fertility of the land. As a result, the crofters of North Uist could no longer afford the rents; even though the landlords reduced the rents (e.g. in 1827 the rents were reduced by 20%) many crofters resorted to emigration.
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In 1951, MacPherson was appointed to the Commission of Enquiry into Crofting Conditions led by Sir Thomas Taylor (and therefore also known as the Taylor Commission). She argued for the nationalisation of all farms above 3,000 acres and against crofters being able to purchase their crofts, as she was a supporter of community ownership. The Commission published their report in 1954. This caused the establishment of the Crofters Commission (the statutory regulator for crofting in Scotland).
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191 The graveyard at the ruined church of Kilchattan documents the lives of past islanders, with quarriers, sailors and crofters side by side. Gravestones of note include those of Covenanter Alexander Campbell.
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Rev. Matthew Armour (12 April 1820 – 23 March 1903) was a radical Free Church of Scotland minister on the island of Sanday, Orkney, remembered to this day for supporting the island's crofters.
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The new board's principal task was supposed to be that of pressing forward with land reform in the Highlands and Islands. It was largely ineffective. By 1913 crofters were again staging land raids.
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In 1891 Lady Cathcart commissioned Old Tom Morris to design a golf course at Askernish on South Uist. She included a clause in the crofters tenancy agreements retaining the right to allow golf to be played on the land. Lady Cathcart never lived in the highlands and is thought to have visited only once; she took ten Vatersay crofters to court in 1908 after they refused to vacate their cottages. They were sentenced to serve two months imprisonment but released two weeks early.
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Tenants and owner-occupier crofters are required to comply with a range of duties specified in sections 5AA to 5C and 19C of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 as amended. There is a duty to be ordinarily resident within 32km of the croft. If the croft is the sole dwelling and the crofter's family are resident while the croft is away this would probably be accepted as ordinarily resident. Other circumstances involving other places of residence would require to be assessed individually.
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In 1901 around 19% of the population of Tarskavaig could only speak Gaelic. By the time of the 2001 census, 54% of the population of Tarskavaig spoke Gaelic, compared to an average of 31% for Skye. Regardless of all the improvements in land ownership brought about by the Crofters' Holdings Act (Scotland) of 1886 traditional crofting continued its decline into the 20th century. Increasingly the crofters had to derive substantial income from employment outside the village in order to keep the crofts functioning.
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The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF), which was formerly called the Scottish Crofting Foundation (itself formerly called the Scottish Crofters Union), is an organisation of crofting communities in the highlands and islands of Scotland. The SCF is the only member-led organisation dedicated to promoting crofting and is the largest association of small-scale food producers in the UK. Its mission is to safeguard and promote the rights, livelihoods and culture of crofters and their communities. Its magazine is called The Crofter.
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It was a powerful and enduring belief > which lived on long after the military rationale of clanship itself had > disappeared and tribal chiefs had shed their ancient responsibilities and > become commercial landlords. Land agitation in Scotland began because of the "Home Rule" movement in Ireland and information and opinions of this movement brought by fishermen to the Outer Hebrides. Believing that they were the rightful owners of the land, crofters used rent strikes and what came to be known as land raids: crofter occupations of land to which crofters believed they should have access for common grazing or for new crofts, but which landlords had given over to sheep farming and hunting parks (called deer forests). The strife grew more intense; the landlords hired warships for protection from the crofters.
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Crop failures continued into the 1850s and famine relief programmes became semi-permanent operations. During the ten years following 1847, from throughout the Highlands, over 16,000 crofters were shipped overseas to Canada and Australia.
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A husmann in Norway was a type of crofter. In the book, Skappel distinguished between crofters who received some land in exchange for work, often on short-term contracts, and crofters who received land in exchange for rent, often on lifetime contracts. Skappel's theory has been discussed as late as around 2000, but has been found (by historian Ståle Dyrvik) models to lack important complexity. Other prominent works by Skappel include Hedemarkens amt 1814–1914 and Ringsaker Sparebank 1847–1927, but he mostly published in journals.
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As a parliamentary force, it was dissipated by the Crofters' Act of 1886 and by the way the Liberal Party was seen to adopt Land League objectives. The Land League also used direct action protest tactics and the use of these tactics was to reappear in the early 20th century. The protests included rent strikes and land occupations (which came to be known as land raids) by crofters, cottars and squatters. Perhaps the Land League's best known slogan was Is treasa tuath na tighearna.
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In the 21st century, crofting is found predominantly in the rural Western and Northern isles and in the coastal fringes of the western and northern Scottish mainland. The Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 provided for security of tenure, a key issue as most crofters remain tenants. The Act encouraged tenants to improve the land under their control, as it ensured that the control could be transferred within families and passed to future generations. Croft work was hard, back-breaking work which yielded a subsistence living.
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The class of tacksmen was most prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Highland Clearances destroyed the tacksman system – perhaps more thoroughly than they did the crofters – and many tacksmen emigrated to the New World.
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While on his way home from grazing sheep, the man killed a seal. That night, all of the man's sheep disappeared, however, the other crofters, who had not killed a seal, did not lose their sheep.
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Sir Matthew Campbell (23 May 1907 – 7 March 1998) was a senior British civil servant and Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland. He was highly instrumental in the establishment of the Crofters Commission.
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Consequently, there was growing resentment amongst the crofting communities. In 1882 there were failures of both the potato and cereal harvests in the Hebrides (because of blight and wind damage, respectively); this led to widespread destitution in 1883. There was also unrest among the crofters and formation of a Highland Land League which took its inspiration from the Irish Land League. The Gladstone Government set up the Napier Commission (a "Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands" under Lord Napier ) to identify remedies.
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Landlords turned most of the land over to use as sheep farms and hunting parks called deer forests. In addition, in the 1880s, the Highlands and Islands were recently ravaged by the potato famine of the mid 19th century. The 1880s were also a time, however, of growing democracy and of government which was increasingly responsive to public opinion, particularly after the electoral reform Act of 1884. As many crofters in the Scottish Highlands newly qualified as £10 occupiers, the Act empowered Scottish Gaels to form the Crofters' Party and Highland Land League.
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The Act applied to croft tenure in an area which is now recognisable as a definition of the Highlands and Islands: that of the ancient counties of Argyll, Inverness- shire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland. (The name is used now as a name for an electoral area of the Scottish Parliament: please see Highlands and Islands). The Act granted security of tenure of existing crofts and established the first Crofters Commission (The same name was given to a different body in 1955).Commission website today The Crofters Commission had rent-fixing powers.
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Meanwhile, in Glasgow, in 1909, a second Highland Land League was formed as a political party. This organisation was a broadly left-wing group that sought the restoration of deer forests to public ownership, abolition of plural farms and the nationalisation of the land. Also they resolved to resolutely defend crofters facing eviction by their landlords and they supported home rule for Scotland. During the First World War (1914 to 1918) politicians made lavish promises about reform which would follow the war, and of course many crofters lost their lives in the war itself.
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It argued for the devolution of Scottish business to Edinburgh to make Westminster more efficient and it was taken for granted that the union was vital to the progress and improvement of Scotland. Meanwhile, Scottish Highland crofters took inspiration from the Irish Land League set up to campaign for land reform in Ireland and defend the interests of Irish tenant farmers. Highlanders in turn founded the Highland Land League. The efforts for land reform in the Highlands expanded into a parliamentary arm of the movement, the Crofters Party.
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Service in the Army was also attractive to young men from Highlands, who sent pay home and retired there with their army pensions.Malcolm Gray, The Highland Economy, 1750–1850 (Edinburgh, 1957). The prosperity ended after 1815, and long-run negative factors began to undermine the economic position of the poor tenant farmers or "crofters," as they were called. The adoption by the landowners of a market orientation in the century after 1750 dissolved the traditional social and economic structure of the north-west Highlands and Hebrides Islands, causing great disruption for the crofters.
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The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and creating a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained most of their votes.
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The crofters were poor, but they were used to an independent life style that was both long established and deeply ingrained in their psyche. Nevertheless, Leverhulme planned to entice them into becoming carbon copies of his Lancashire artisans by offering them an attractive alternative to their meagre smallholdings. He didn't actively oppose the crofter's way of life, but neither did he support it as some thought he, as their patron, ought to have done. And when the crofters learned about the money that was being expended on other projects, they began to resent his lack of support for them.
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The estate was purchased by Scandinavian Property Services Limited. Three years later, the company went into liquidation. The North Lochinver Estate was divided into seven lots and put up for sale.. Reproduced in MacAskill (1999) Pages 47-48MacAskill (1999) p. 47 The sale was handled by an Edinburgh based estate agent, John Clegg and Co.MacAskill (1999) pp. 38-41 The proposed break-up of the estate was a cause of concern for the crofters as the boundaries of the lots cut across grazing land, creating the possibility of some crofters having to deal with more than one landlord.
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Rents were generally reduced and 50% or more of outstanding arrears were cancelled. The Act failed however to address the issue of severely limited access to land, and crofters renewed their protest actions. At the same time there was a shift in the political climate: William Gladstone's Liberal government fell from power; the new Conservative government was much less sympathetic to the plight of crofters and much more willing to use troops to quell protests. The Liberal Party appeared to adopt and champion Land League objectives and, as a distinct parliamentary force, the Land League fragmented during the 1890s.
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He was returned unopposed in 1886, but opposing Home Rule for Ireland, he joined the Liberal Unionist Party, and lost the support of the local Highland Land League. The League backed Liberal Party candidate Donald MacGregor at the 1892 election, who unseated Fraser-Mackintosh. He was then the only Gaelic-speaking member of the Commons and became known as the 'Member for the Highlands'. One of five members of the Napier Commission, set up in 1883, to investigate the crofters' situation; he was the driving force behind the establishment of the Crofters' Commission and for promoting the use of Gaelic in Highland schools.
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The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence began on the Isle of Skye when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quieted when the government stepped in passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas.
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Traditionally the strath was populated by tenant crofters, however in recent years there has been an increase in the number of new homes and restorations, after many decades of gradual decline. Strathy runs to the east of the main strath of Strathrusdale.
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During the Highland Land League, song was a key mode of spreading information to local Gaelic speaking communities in Skye, many of whom were not literate in Gaelic. Furthermore her poetry now provides a significant body of evidence about the crofters' uprisings.
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Joseph Henderson (1832-1908) was a Scottish landscape painter, genre painter, portrait painter and marine painter. His genre was particularly painting working men such as shepherds, crofters, pedlars, cobblers, fishermen and farm labourers. However he also painted Scottish country and coastal scenery.
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Robert of Holy Island (or Robert de Insula; died 1283) was a medieval Bishop of Durham. Robert was the son of crofters and was a native of the island of Lindisfarne.Moorman Church Life p. 25 He had a brother, Henry, who became Robert's executor.
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He was born in 1891 one of eight children to John Little (Ewan Beag) MacRury (b.1843) and his wife, Betsy MacDonald, crofters from North Uist. He graduated MA from Glasgow University in 1915. He first appears as minister of the Free Church in Shiskine.
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Mr Innes's name is still revered in Bernera today. His most famous quotation from the trial was "Oppressed as they are I, as a stranger, cannot but admire them. Had Mr Munro, instead of being Chamberlain of The Lews, been an Agent in either Connaught or Munster, he would long ago have licked the dust he has for years made the poor men of this island swallow". The Bernera court case of 1874 is the first documented victory for Highland crofters and correctly holds its place as the opening shot of the crofters fight-back which led to the Napier Commission and land reform.
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He is also known for his efforts towards economic and social development in the Highlands. In 1907 he had been the principal speaker at a meeting of the Crofters' and Cottars' Association held in Oban and spoke out about depopulation was affecting the Highlands. He was co-founder of the Highland Development League. In 1936 he wrote a pamphlet entitled the “New Deal” in which he made suggestions towards a policy for development of the Highlands. This led to the Highland Economic Committee to issue a report in November 1938 but Grant had concerns that many smallholders and crofters wouldn’t qualify for a ploughing scheme that the Government had proposed.
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This energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords, preparing them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence began on the Isle of Skye when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quieted when the government stepped in passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. In 1885, three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, leading to explicit security for the Scottish smallholders; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and creating a Crofting Commission.
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The crofters should have power to sell the > right of tenancy, with a pre-emption in favour of the landlord if he chose > to exercise it. He would like farmers to have greater freedom of > cultivation, the only condition being that they did not impoverish the land. > He would favour the passing of a Land Purchase Bill, by which Government > would advance money to tenants and crofters to enable them to become the > owners of the soil they tilled. He was in favour of elective county boards, > with powers to improve harbours and to look after the sanitary condition of > villages and rural districts.
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He believed that the economic system was flawed, with neither the estate nor the crofters able to make a decent income from the resources available. This was a widely held view among post-clearance factors, so explaining their support of emigration programs from the congested districts.
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Retrieved 2014-02-16. It was one of the sites from which crofters embarked on ships to locations such as America and Australia during the Highland Clearances.Scullomie, Ports and harbours of the UK. Retrieved 2014-02-16. The Rabbit Islands are offshore around to the north.
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Locals said that innocent people had been labelled "thieves" and "peasants". It was later discovered that the gravel had been removed by a builder working on behalf of one of the crofters.Watson, Rachel (4 October 2013) "Anger as laird blames crofters in gravel dispute". Glasgow. The Herald.
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He was re-elected (by a narrow margin) at the 1892 general elections as a Liberal/Crofters candidate, holding it until a further defeat in 1895. He was knighted in the 1894 New Year Honours. Macfarlane married Mary Isabella Bagshawe in 1857 in India. She predeceased him in 1887.
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Traditionally the land belonged to the manors. There were many crofts in Mäntsälä and new legislation in 1918 enabled the crofters to claim the land for themselves. In the 1920s the manors were still a sizable land owner in the parish. Mäntsälä is especially known for the Mäntsälä rebellion.
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The Red Guards controlled the area to the south, including nearly all the major towns and industrial centres, along with the largest estates and farms with the highest numbers of crofters and tenant farmers. The White Army controlled the area to the north, which was predominantly agrarian and contained small or medium- sized farms and tenant farmers. The number of crofters was lower and they held a better social status than those in the south. Enclaves of the opposing forces existed on both sides of the front line: within the White area lay the industrial towns of Varkaus, Kuopio, Oulu, Raahe, Kemi and Tornio; within the Red area lay Porvoo, Kirkkonummi and Uusikaupunki.
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The trade with the North German towns lasted until the 1707 Act of Union prohibited the German merchants from trading with Shetland. Shetland then went into an economic depression as the Scottish and local traders were not as skilled in trading with salted fish. However, some local merchant-lairds took up where the German merchants had left off, and fitted out their own ships to export fish from Shetland to the Continent. For the independent farmers of Shetland this had negative consequences, as they now had to fish for these merchant-lairds.Visit.Shetland.org history page With the passing of the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 the Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone emancipated crofters from the rule of the landlords.
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Entering the civil service in 1928, Campbell was to hold posts in the Inland Revenue and the Admiralty (1935), before being appointed Principal, Department of Agriculture for Scotland (1938–43), Assistant Secretary (1943–53), Under- Secretary (1953-58), and latterly, the last Secretary of the Department of Agriculture for Scotland (1958-1962), becoming in 1962 the first Secretary of the new Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland, a position he held ‘till his retirement in 1968. From 1951 to 1954 Campbell served as Secretary of the Taylor Committee, on which recommendation the Crofters' Commission for Scotland was established and Campbell was to be highly instrumental in taking forward the recommendations and work of the Crofters’ Commission.
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Lewis was relatively prosperous right up until World War I, which put an end to the herring trade with Russia and Eastern Europe, and in spite of the clearances the increasing population put pressure on land. There were numerous requests to resettle Stiomrabhaigh all of which were resisted by the landowners and it was not until 1921 when Lord Leverhulme abandoned his ambitious plan for Lewis that crofters returned to the township. Even the resettlement was marked with tragedy as two young men were drowned while transporting household goods from Calbost. These settlers were never officially recognized as crofters by the government; they received no help and no road was built to the township.
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This caused the trust to adopt a more aggressive stance. They threatened to use right-to-buy provisions of crofting law to buy the crofts.MacAskill (1999) pp. 92-131 This option, requiring legal action, would be expensive and time-consuming; and would deny the crofters complete control of the estate.
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William Gladstone tried to pass a new law granting crofters more rights, but it was voted down in May 1885. Gladstone left his post in 1885 but the other parties created a new government. Gladstone returned to power in January 1886, and the act was finally passed 25 June 1886.
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The school was founded by Matilda Adlercreutz, the lady of Raala Manor. The lady found it important that the manor's workers, laborers, and crofters, and above all their children, received instruction and education. In the first fall, 41 students enrolled in the school. In 1900 the school was donated to the municipality.
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A' Mhòine () is a peninsula in the Highlands, Scotland. The peninsula is bounded to the west by Loch Eriboll, and to the east by the Kyle of Tongue. The A838 road crosses the peninsula on an east–west axis. Much of the peninsula is owned by Melness Estate on behalf of 59 crofters.
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Bloak was a hamlet or clachan in East Ayrshire, Parish of Stewarton, Scotland. The habitation was situated between Auchentiber and Stewarton on the B778. It was originally built as a row of housing for crofters and farm workers. A small school remained open for some years after the hamlet ceased to exist.
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After hearing James expressing his and other local tenants' views, General Burroughs evicted James and another local man, James Grieve, along with their families. Details of this and other incidents can be found in William P.L. Thomson's book "The Little General and The Rousay Crofters". () However, there is significant evidence that the two men who were evicted were not legal tenants of Traill and had both refused legal tenancies when offered, furthermore when the crofters were unable to make their own way to Mainland Orkney to give evidence at the Commission General Traill-Burroughs had them taken on his own boat to enable them to raise their grievances. Burroughs was appointed a Vice-Lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland on 17 January 1900.
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Crofting law allows crofters to force their landlord to sell, at a low price, their croft houses; the in-bye land (land which formed an integral part of the croft); and a share of the local common grazing land, provided it was adjacent to the croft and had been fenced off. However, the landlord would retain mineral, salmon fishing and hunting rights (except for limited rights for crofters to shoot deer who were damaging crops or grazing land). MacAskill (1999) pp. 206-207 The option was therefore kept in reserve in order to make the estate less attractive to other potential bidders--compulsory purchase of the crofts would force the new landowners to sell much of their newly acquired land for a fraction of its value.
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Davitt was a frequent visitor to Scotland, and became closely associated with the crofters' struggles in the Highlands and Islands. He urged the Irish immigrant population to integrate into the politics of their adopted country and in particular the infant Labour movement. Davitt worked closely with John Ferguson, the Irish leader in Glasgow who had been involved in the Crofters' War agitation by Highland tenant farmers in the early 1880s and later in the Irish-Radical political alliance that was the forerunner of the Scottish Labour Party. Michael Daniel Jones and E. Pan Jones brought Davitt to Wales in 1886 to campaign for land reforms, although Davitt's radicalism made him unpopular among would-be reformers, who thought the movement ought to be managed by Welsh people.
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Ten of these houses are original nineteenth-century crofters' cottages, or rebuilds, while the remaining nine are of more recent construction in a variety of styles. In the landscape around them are a number of the ruined traces of earlier dwellings and barns, the unmortared blackhouses of the crofters who were first cleared to the coast from more arable homelands in the interior. By the 1960s the resident population had fallen to around a dozen people, although within living memory Clashnessie had an inn, a post office, and a shop. The ruins of the community mill, of the kind with a horizontally mounted water-wheel, can still be seen at the side of the burn which runs down from the waterfall.
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In the third part the community is dominated by the whites, the victors of the Civil War. In Koskela, however, matters improve as crofters are liberated and Koskela becomes an independent farm. Things turn for the worse at the outbreak of the Second World War. Again Koskela pays a heavy price, losing three sons.
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The ruined chapel on Eynhallow The island's main attraction is Eynhallow Church dating from the twelfth century or earlier, and perhaps originally part of a monastery. The site is maintained by Historic Scotland. In 1841 the island had a population of 26. It has been uninhabited since the landowner cleared crofters away in 1851.
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He also established the University of the Highlands, crofters' rights to buy their land, promoted the Gaelic language and commissioned the restoration of the Great Hall at Stirling Castle. Forsyth was re-elected in 1987 and 1992 with small majorities of less than a thousand, but lost his seat in 1997 United Kingdom general election.
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Life on the Edge, Northern Scotland - Cape Wrath to Orkney, Coast, BBC. Retrieved 2013-02-06. Land to the north of Keoldale is used by the Keoldale Sheep Stock Club, a joint farm run by crofters in the Durness area. Beaches along the shore of the kyle are backed by narrow machair with few dunes.
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In turn, The Crown appointed property managers or factors to oversee the estates. In 1754 James Small was appointed factor of the forfeited Robertsons of Straun estates, near Kinloch Rannoch. As factor, Small provided for disbanded soldiers to become crofters. He gave advice for the building of roads and bridges, the planning of schools and the erection of churches.
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Today Kauniainen is situated several kilometres from the sea.Jaana af Hällström (2006): Grankulla 1906–2006 Kauniainen – Den sista i sitt slag. Gummerus, Jyväskylä In the beginning of the 20th century Kauniainen only consisted of a few crofters' holdings at the outskirts of larger farms in Espoo. The name of the place, Grankulla, was known as the more dialectal Gränkull.
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During the 1600s the population again reached the same level as in 1300. During the 1500s the area had about 6000 inhabitants. No census was taken before 1665 and population figures are based on estimates. This resulted in a temporary improvement for the lower classes as crofters became scarce and the poor were able to rent the better farms.
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Robert McGregor RSA (1847–1922) was a Scottish landscape painter, genre painter, portrait painter and marine painter. His genre was particularly painting working men such as fishermen, shepherds, crofters, pedlars, and farm labourers. However he also painted Scottish, French and Dutch country and coastal scenery. He usually signed his work in the right hand bottom corner.
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Upon graduating from the University of Edinburgh, she travelled to Glasgow and married Duncan MacPherson. Duncan was the son of crofters who lived up the road from the MacLean's holiday home on Skye. He was a seaman but returned to his family home during the harvest time. Their relationship first began when Margaret was a teenager.
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The union was primarily a union for agricultural workers and crofters and so it cannot be seen as a direct precedent for Norway's later labour movements. In November, the government dismissed the petition. The union's national conference, in February 1851, sought a revolution. Although Thrane managed to stop it, the authorities seized the opportunity to have him arrested.
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Crofting has sustained rural communities in some of the remotest and most fragile areas in Western Europe. Crofting provides sustainable livelihoods, fresh local produce, a secure homestead and vibrant communities. Small-scale eco-friendly systems, as practiced by crofters, is an alternative to industrial agriculture. Most of the UK’s High Nature Value farming is found in the crofting areas.
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Until the late eighteenth century, the domesticated sheep throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands belonged to a type called the Scottish Dunface or Old Scottish Shortwool, which was probably similar to the sheep kept in the whole of northern and western Europe up to the Iron Age. A local variety of Dunface was kept on the two main St Kilda islands of Boreray and Hirta by the crofters of the islands, who lived on Hirta, the largest island of the archipelago. Modern breeds descended from the Dunface include the Boreray and also the North Ronaldsay and the Shetland. In the mid- eighteenth century the crofters' sheep were described as being "of the smallest kind", with short, coarse wool, and all having horns – usually one pair, but often two pairs.
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In the early 1880s, long-term deprivation and scarceness of land drove several communities on the West of Scotland to carry out acts of civil disobedience – rent-strikes and land-raids - collectively termed ‘The Crofters’ War’. This also resulted in the formation of the Highland Land League and a political party named The Crofters Party which returned several members to the Westminster Parliament. In the investigations which were set up in the aftermath of these events, principally driven by the Napier Commission of 1883, it was acknowledged that the people of the west Highlands and Islands had a justifiable grievance. In an effort to alleviate conditions, proposals were made, firstly, to reform the laws of land- ownership, and secondly, to develop the fisheries by opening up markets in the British cities.
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The large Canadian sailing ship Black Watch was wrecked on Fair Isle in 1877. Croft houses Fair Isle was bought by the National Trust for Scotland in 1954 from George Waterston, the founder of the bird observatory. The population has decreased steadily from about 400 in 1900. There are currently around 55 permanent residents on the island, the majority of whom are crofters.
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Helliar Holm's beaches were used to dry both herring and cod after they had been salted. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which led to cheaper sources of soda ash becoming available from continental Europe, the kelp industry collapsed by 1830. This collapse helped fuel agricultural reform, as crofters accustomed to earning a second income had to now earn more from farming.
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School pupils have carried out an energy audit, helped to plant more than 600 trees close to the school and carried out energy saving campaigns.For example, the children designed an owl that fits over light switches, reminding people to turn out lights. Shapinsay pupils have also won an award from the Scottish Crofters Commission for producing a booklet on crofting on the island.
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Sawbridgeworth Town, a non-league football club, plays at Crofters End. Sawbridgeworth Cricket Club field five senior sides on a Saturday and seven colts sides, from ages nine to fifteen. The 1st XI plays in the Home Counties Premier Cricket League, and the other league sides play in the Hertfordshire Cricket League. The main ground is Town Fields, situated behind Bell Street.
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Roderick Macdonald, MD, FRCS (1840–1894) was a Scottish doctor and a Crofters Party politician. As a coroner he presided over the inquest of one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders. Macdonald was the son of Angus Macdonald, a house carpenter, of Fairy Bridge, Skye. He was educated at the Free Church Normal School, Glasgow, and at Glasgow University.
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Tenant crofters couldn't pay rents, over-population put demands on all resources, and as with other many Landlords and Highland Clan Chiefs, found themselves in financial difficulties. It was during this period that the region was affected with the Highland Clearances resulting in the mass depopulation of the Highlands of Scotland. The Estate was sold to George Rainy Esquire in around 1843.
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Of particular note was the splintering of the Liberal representation in Scotland. Some 7 MPs were returned as Independent Liberals, with Edinburgh in particular seeing 3 of its 4 constituencies return Independent Liberals. In the western Highlands the Crofters Party emerged as the dominant force, taking four constituencies. The Independent Liberal MP elected for the Wick Burghs also aligned with the group.
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In the Highlands many that remained were now crofters, living on very small rented farms with indefinite tenure used to raise various crops and animals. For these families kelping, fishing, spinning of linen and military service became important sources of additional revenue.M. J. Daunton, Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700–1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), , p. 85.
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Scots have long and historic ties with the province of Quebec. The early Scots who arrived in the province were crofters and fishermen. When the Don de Dieu sailed up the St. Lawrence River during the first wave of colonization of French Canada, it was piloted by a Scot, Abraham Martin. The first British governor of Quebec was also a Scot, James Murray.
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The history of the adjacent parish of Fowlis shows that some land holdings in the area were as small as 13 or 14 acres. In the course of the eighteenth century they were swept away by the development of large estates. Of Fowlis it was said that > as the process of amalgamation proceeded, the houses of the crofters, &c.;, > were cast down.
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Foula has a population of 38 people, living in Hametun and Ham. Islanders previously made a living from fishing – first for whitefish, then lobster. Today, most islanders are crofters with income from sheep farming and birdwatching tourism. A hidden reef, the 'Hoevdi Grund' or the Shaalds o' Foula, lies just over east of Foula between the island and the Shetland mainland.
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In 1889 he served on the Royal Commission on the Highlands and Islands and was involved in paving the way for the Crofters Commission. Through the 1880s and 1890s he rented the habitable sections of Bothwell Castle from the Earl of Home. In 1910, he has two listed addresses: 115 Wellington Street in Glasgow and Carstairs House.Glasgow Post Office directory 1910-11.
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She then became actively involved in the Crofters' War and the Highland land issue, which provided the themes of some of her best known songs. She is known to have been present at Highland Land League meetings and to have been actively involved with campaigners such as Alexander Mackenzie and her friend Charles Fraser-Mackintosh in the run up to the Napier Commission of 1883-4 and the Crofters Act of 1886. In one of her songs of this period, ‘'Nuair chaidh na ceithir ùr oirre’’ Mairi describes a crossing of Strome Ferry with Fraser-Mackintosh, Alexander Mackenzie (Clach na Cùdainn), his son and Kenneth MacDonald to gather support for the land struggle. ‘’Clach’’ tells her that the boat will sink if she gets on board with the rest as she weighs in at 17 stone (108 kg).
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After three crofters were singled out and arrested hundreds of Bernera men marched on Lews Castle, Stornoway with pipers at their head. They demanded an audience with Sir James Matheson himself. Matheson who was somewhat aged at the time disowned Donald Munro, who came to be dismissed in 1875. The prisoners themselves were acquitted following the brilliant performance of the Inverness lawyer Charles Innes.
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9; Issue 57574; col A Church And Nation He was the first Gaelic-speaking moderator since 1948 when Rev Dr Alexander Macdonald held the position. He expressed concerns about support for crofters and the importance of developing the Western parts of the Highlands. He died on 9 January 1984. The Very Rev Thomas Murchison Churchman and Gaelic scholar The Times Thursday, Jan 26, 1984; pg.
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In general terms, the transformation of the Highlands resulted in two different types of rural economy. In the southern and eastern part of the region, as land was enclosed, it was let to fewer tenants, with larger individual holdings. These larger units employed farm servants and labourers and also provided work for cottars and crofters. This workforce included former tenants from the old system.
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The Clique identified as followers of William Hogarth and David Wilkie. Phillip's own career was to follow that of fellow-Scot Wilkie very closely, beginning with carefully detailed paintings depicting the lives of Scottish crofters. He moved on to much more broadly painted scenes of Spanish life influenced by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Diego Velázquez. Phillip's early works tended to depict pious Scots families.
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The Lone Shieling sheep crofter hut, or "bothran". Lone Shieling trail sign. The Lone Shieling is a Scottish-style sheep crofters hut (also known as a bothran or shieling) located in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia. Built in 1942, it is one of the earliest structures in the park and is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building (ID 4627) due to its historical and architectural significance.
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The Crofting Commission () took the place of the Crofters Commission () on 1 April 2012 as the statutory regulator for crofting in Scotland. Based in Inverness, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The Commission comprises six Crofting Commissioners elected from geographic areas in the crofting counties, and three Commissioners appointed by the Scottish Government. The Convener is appointed from among Commission members.
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Four weeks later these events were repeated when six constables took on the women again, but with no more success, leaving the land-lord extremely frustrated. The crofters of Coigach had held out for more than two years and eventually the estate managers and the land-lord gave up in trying to resettle them. Coigach was a rare victory for the people over the landlord.
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The manor also had a brick factory, a sawmill and a flourmill. The brick factory was located at Tiilinmäki (Brick Hill) and the flourmill in the rapids of Mätäjoki in Pitäjänmäki. In 1815 the middle part of the manor house got its present look. During this time the manor had one hind and five to seven maids, but the bulk of the work was done by crofters.
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Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock.
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Some crofters came up the Weidale Voe by boat as far as they could and then walked the short distance to the mill. In 1936 it was bought by a local farmer (Tony Anderson) and was converted into a slaughter house and butcher shop. The slaughter house was in the basement(where the cafe is now). The ground floor was used for the butcher shop.
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During the Highland Clearances, the crofters had no official rights to the land; until 1886, it was legal to evict any crofter at the landlord's convenience. The Land Wars commenced in Scotland in 1874 with the successful legal case of the Bernera Riot on the island of Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides. The crofters wanted recognition of their traditional rights to the land that they had enjoyed under the clan system from the Middle Ages. Through political and economic development the gentry began to take an alternate perspective on their tenantry: > The cultural force of ' [heritage] was pervasive in Gaeldom and was central > to the social cohesion of the clan because it articulated the expectations > of the masses that the ruling family had the responsibility to act as their > protectors and guarantee secure possession of land in return for allegiance, > military service, tribute and rental.
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The building was the parish church of Ness, and became a ruin in 1829. According to Ronald Black, Swainbost was re-settled during the Highland Clearances in 1842. The island's Anglo-Scottish landlord had expected the crofters evicted from Uig to emigrate and only reluctantly granted them land at Swainbost to avert the threat of violence. Ronald Black (1998), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, page 757.
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The National Farmers' Union of Scotland is an organisation that promotes and protects the interests of the country's farming industry. It was formed in 1913, and has approximately 10,000 members who are farmers, crofters and others involved in Scottish agriculture. The union stood a candidate in the 1918 Ross by-election, T. Preece; he took 35.4% of the votes cast, but was not elected. The current president is Andrew McCornick.
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After some years they went to Kelviå as crofters. Restlessness led them to a crofter's holding at Haga at Vetil parsonage. They went to Luoma farm the following year, and in 1850 the family moved to Haapasalo, to the side of the village that borders on Halsua, the crown residence. From that time Haapasalo began to use the name Haapasalo at the initiative of Zachris Topelius in 1853.
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The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional subject and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The politically powerless poor crofters embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800,Divine, The Scottish Nation. and the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order.
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"Smile In Your Sleep", sometimes known as "Hush, Hush, Time To Be Sleeping" (Scots: "Hush, Hush, Time Tae Be Sleepin") is a Scottish folk song and lament written by Jim McLean and set to the tune of the Gaelic air, "Chi Mi Na Mòrbheanna" (literally "I will see the great mountains", or "The Mist Covered Mountain"). It follows the experiences of crofters during the Highland Clearances through eviction and emigration.
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In 1890, a lighthouse was built at Stroma's northern tip, Langaton Point. It was only operational for six years before being replaced, and very little is now known about the structure. The unmanned lighthouse originally housed a Trotter- Lindberg lamp which burned petroleum spirit or lythene. The fuel supply was stored in cisterns near the lantern, which was regularly recharged at least fortnightly by the local fishermen or crofters.
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Many that remained were now crofters, living on very small rented farms with indefinite tenure used to raise various crops and animals. For these families kelping, fishing, spinning of linen and military service became important sources of additional revenue.M. J. Daunton, Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700–1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), , p. 85. Scotland suffered its last major subsistence crisis,T.
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Laid is a remote, linear crofting township scattered along the A838 road on the western shore of the sea loch, Loch Eriboll in Sutherland in the northern Scottish Highlands.Setback for Laid crofters' grazing plan, The Guardian, 1999-10-24. Retrieved 2015-09-29.Gittings B, Munro D Laid, The Gazetteer for Scotland, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh and The Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
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Crofting households represented around 30% those in the rural areas of the Highlands, and up to 65% of households in Shetland, the Western Isles and Skye. There were 770,000 hectares under crofting tenure, roughly 25% of the agricultural land area in the Crofting Counties. Crofters held around 20% of all beef cattle (120,000 head) and 45% of breeding ewes (1.5 million sheep).. Crofting is regulated by the Crofting Commission.
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He was a member of the Congested Districts Board, and in May 1906 he was appointed to the Royal Commission On Registration Of Title In Scotland. Kennedy became a King's Counsel in October 1906. In January 1907, he became Sheriff of Renfrew and Bute. In April 1908 he was appointed as a chairman of the Crofters' Commission, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Sir David Brand.
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The result was an increase in single females from 18% to about 25%. Those selected to emigrate with the Society were the poorest from each community. The majority were not crofters, but cottars and squatters. Many had to be provided with clothing in order to leave their homes. Only in 1853 were better off applicants accepted, due to a shortage of those willing to emigrate in that year.
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The Sjønstå farm was royal property, and its owners were tenants of the state. In 1800 the farm was divided into two equally sized portions and sold. The first farm was called Nergård ('lower farm'), and the skipper and landowner Christen Ellingsen from the inner Leivset farm in Fauske obtained the deed in 1801. Neither he nor the subsequent owners ever stayed on the farm, but instead leased it to crofters.
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Services to Skye and Lewis improved when the Dingwall and Skye Railway reached Stromeferry in 1870 and began steamer services from a pier there. More generally, better steamships and more frequent services eventually allowed better communication, and the recovery of fishing and cattle-rearing and the greater ease of temporary migration for seasonal work eventually allowed the crofting economy to move from self- sufficiency to one in which enough cash was generated to allow the purchase of imported grain. In the 1880s, the technical issue of how to avoid future famines or seasons of destitution in the Highlands became submerged in the political question of how to address the grievances of crofters and cottars (agricultural labourers without land). Landlords had taken to heart McNeill's comments on the need to prevent uncontrolled population growth in crofting areas by preventing sub-division or multiple occupancy of crofts; they had taken much less notice of his view that crofters should be granted secure leases.
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"In the beginning there were the swamp, the hoe – and Jussi", book starts, when the story opens with Jussi, a farm hand from Häme, clearing marshland to create a croft, which will later be called Koskela. In the first part of the book tension mounts between crofters and land owners. Jussi's son Akseli becomes an active socialist. At the same time the upper classes are concerned with language strife and Finland's relationship with Russia.
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Portrait of Alexander Macmillan Alexander MacMillan (; 3 October 1818 – 25 January 1896), born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, was a cofounder, in 1843, with his brother Daniel, of Macmillan Publishers. His family were crofters from the Isle of Arran.History Alexander was the partner who developed the literary reputation of the company while Daniel took charge of the business and commercial side. Originally called Macmillan & Co., the firm started as a successful bookshop in Cambridge.
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In 1880 he received the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh University. In 1883 Nicolson was one of the Napier Commission on the condition of the crofters. He was appointed to the Commission as an expert on Gaelic culture, rather than the law. The Commission's report made recommendations not only on land matters but also on education, where it suggested that the "Educational use of Gaelic should not only be permitted but enjoined".
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Arnol () is a small village typical of many settlements of the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Arnol is within the parish of Barvas, and is situated on the A858. Once a thriving township with over forty crofts, it now has a population of about 100 and supports a much lower number of active crofters. It is the location of the Blackhouse Museum, owned by Historic Environment Scotland.
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It is also grown in Shetland, Caithness and on a very small scale by a few crofters on some of the Western Isles, i.e. North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Islay and Barra. It is probably Britain's oldest cereal in continuous commercial cultivation. Bere is a landrace adapted to growing on soils of a low pH and to a short growing season with long hours of daylight, as found in the high latitudes of northern Scotland.
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Retrieved 27.12.2006 Mingulay is less than a third of the distance from "The Long Island" that Hirta is, yet a 19th-century visitor commented that the former was "much more primitive than St Kilda, especially as regards the cottars' and crofters' houses",Harvie-Brown, J.A. and Buckley, T.E. (1888) A Vertebrate Fauna of the Outer Hebrides. Edinburgh. suggesting that the lack of a permanent landing was of greater import than sheer distance.
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Several people were injured and five men were arrested. Small fines were imposed in court, but it was clear that law and order could only be enforced with military assistance. After the Battle of the Braes, the unrest spread to Glendale, Skye. The rebellion led to the Napier Commission and ultimately the Crofters Act of 1886, which brought security of tenure and the right to hand a croft on to their heirs.
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It was only during hard times that the people of the Scottish Isles would kill seals to make use of their skin and blubber. It was thought that the killing of a seal would result in misfortune for the perpetuator. Ernest Marwick recounts the tale of crofters who brought their sheep to graze upon a small group of holms within the Orkney Islands. During the summer, a man placed seven sheep on the largest holm.
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Landowners were now without rents from their destitute tenants and were expected by the government to provide famine relief to them. Fortunately many Highland estates now had new owners after hereditary landlords had been compelled to sell due to their debts. These had the funds to support their tenants in the short term, and most did so. Estates that had introduced sheep farming tenants also had the income to assist their crofters.
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There were different opinions about the Act. On the one hand crofters complained that the Act did not go far enough, because they were not granted automatic right to fertile land for expansion of their small crofts. Worse, the Act did not delineate the position of cotters, who had never had land. After a while, they saw that the Commission was willing to protect their rights, especially with regard to rent security.
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The area, in total, is . of freshwater and moorland, with some croftland, was owned by Scottish Natural Heritage (bought in 1958); acquired in 1962 under a management agreement with the owners South Uist Estates and the crofters occupying and managing the croftland/grazings. In 2018 the SNH land was transferred to the local community-owned company Storas Uibhist. There are buffer zones extending to north and south of the zone, under similar schemes.
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It is a popular hobby to attempt to climb them all. Rhys Jones then visits the nearby village of Skerra, and hitches a lift via the Royal Mail's post bus. He arrives at Loch Naver, a barren area that was once occupied but was emptied during the Highland Clearances, after which an estimated 150,000 people had been forcibly removed from their homes. However, there are still around 17,500 crofters, most of whom are tenants of landowners.
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William Baird and Company signed a deed to purchase the estate of the Island of Raasay on 28 December 1910. The sale completed on 15 May 1911. In May 1921, a group of crofters from Rona landed on Raasay and attempted to re-occupy their ancestral land. These so-called "Raasay Raiders" were arrested, tried and given prison sentences, but public support for them was strong and they were eventually freed and allowed to remain on Raasay.
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Penelope Niven, Carl Sandburg: A Biography (1991). Eric Johannesson examines the background of 72 writers in "Crofters' Boys and Black Sheep: on the Social Background of Swedish-American Writers." Swedish- American Historical Quarterly 1992 43(3): 170-178. The harsh experiences of the frontier were subjects for novelists and story tellers, Of interest revealing the immigrant experience are the novels of Lillian Budd (1897–1989), especially April Snow (1951), Land of Strangers (1953), and April Harvest (1959).
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To assist this strategy, the crofters enclosed and divided an area of common grazing land, an action which would give them the option of buying the common land as well as the crofts themselves. Pressure was also exerted on the main creditor of Scandinavian Property Services, the Swedish Östgöta Enskilda Bank, as the trust wrote telling them of their proposed strategy. On 4 December 1992, the trust submitted a final bid of £300,000. This was accepted after four days.
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The emblem of the Highland Land Law Reform Association The first Highland Land League () emerged as a distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s, with its power base in the country's Highlands and Islands. It was known also as the Highland Land Law Reform Association and the Crofters' Party. It was consciously modelled on the Irish Land League. The Highland Land League was successful in getting Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in 1885 (in the 1885 general election).
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It has various exhibitions each year, and is open throughout the year. In 2010 camping on the machair at the airport was banned due to erosion; this prompted crofters to provide areas on their crofts for visiting tourists. Boat trips to the neighbouring island of Mingulay are available during the summer season, and island-hopping plane trips are also available. A distillery is planned to be built in Borve, on the west side of the island.
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Weir's brother, John Weir became the secretary of the Fife and Kinross Miners' Association."Election intelligence", Manchester Guardian, 20 June 1889 He unsuccessfully contested the Falkirk Burghs constituency in 1885, when he got a derisory vote. He was elected for Ross and Cromarty as one of five Crofters' Party MPs in 1892, transferring his allegiance to the mainstream Liberal Party in 1895.Drummond, Andrew (2020), A Quite Impossible Proposal: How Not to Build a Railway, Birlinn, p.
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It consists of a line of whitewashed cottages, originally built to house crofters evicted in the Highland Clearances. Rhunasoul is the final populated settlement at the end of the minor road. Achintraid and Rhunasoul are noted for the extensive views of the Applecross peninsula, with the Corbetts of Sgurr a' Chaorachain and Beinn Bhàn and the pass of the Bealach na Ba being particularly prominent. East of Kishorn are two small Marilyns: An Sgurr and Bad a' Chreamha.
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Spending the time in opposition he spoke in the Commons in favour of measures to ameliorate poverty. Crofters were hard-bitten in the far north of Scotland by the clearances, unemployment, and low wages. He was the Honorary Secretary of the Transvaal Independence Committee, for which he wrote the pamphlet The Transvaal and Bechuanaland.The Transvaal and Bechuanaland, Gavin Brown Clark, in the World Digital Library For the 1900 general election he was replaced as Liberal candidate and defeated.
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Enclosure displaced the run rig system and free pasture. The resulting Lowland Clearances saw hundreds of thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from central and southern Scotland forcibly removed. The later Highland Clearances saw the displacement of much of the population of the Highlands as lands were enclosed for sheep farming. Those that remained many were now crofters, living on very small, rented farms with indefinite tenure, dependent on kelping, fishing, spinning of linen and military service.
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An Tuil, page 740. According to John A. Macpherson, "He took up the craft of a stone-mason, as many crofters were building new houses, and he was a diligent worker and good walker, often walking twenty miles to the site of a new house. Between the two world wars he built more than thirty houses, and there is hardly a township in Uist without evidence of his skills."Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, Edited by Fred Macauley (1995), page xvii.
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Bragar () is a village on the west side of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, from the island's only town, Stornoway. Bragar is within the parish of Barvas, and is situated on the A858 between Carloway and Barvas. Residents are mainly Gaelic speaking, and many work as crofters. The village's best-known landmark is a whalebone arch, made in 1921 from the jawbone of an blue whale which was beached on the shore the year before.
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Crovie was established by families (crofters) who had been moved off the land to make room for the landowners' sheep. Here, they operated fishing boats for the local landlord and gradually acquired their own craft instead. The fishing industry declined in the 20th century before ceasing altogether with the storm of 1953, which washed away a number of structures and forced the residents to flee. Since then most of the buildings have been turned into holiday lets.
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While there, he noticed poor Scottish crofters who were being displaced by their landlords. Seeing their plight, he investigated ways he could help them find new land in the then British colonies. In 1794, on the death of his brother Basil, Thomas became Lord Daer. After his father's death in 1799, Douglas, the last surviving son (two brothers died in infancy, two died of tuberculosis and two died of yellow fever), became the 5th Earl of Selkirk.
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Northern gannet (Morus bassanus) The Flannan Isles provide nesting for a population of seabirds, including Atlantic puffins, northern fulmars, European storm-petrels, Leach's petrels, common shag and black-legged kittiwakes. There is a gannetry on Roaireim. From the late Middle Ages on, Lewismen regularly raided these nests for eggs, birds and feathers. There is a population of Arctic hares, brought to the islands by the lighthouse keepers, and crofters from Bernera graze sheep on the most fertile islands.
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Due to the crofters law of 1918 and the land reform law of 1945 the estate was split into more than 1500 homes and small farms. The rest of the estate was transferred to the ownership of the Finnish state in 1918. In 1928 the Department of Finnish Plant Breeding from Tikkurila and in 1957 the observatory from Pasila were transferred to the Jokioinen estate. A notable tourist attraction in the region is the Jokioinen Museum Railway.
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In 1800 there were three red deer on the island, later replaced by goats and then by a small herd of black cattle. Subsequently, the summer grazing was used for sheep by crofters from Iona, but in 1997 all livestock was removed. This has led to a regeneration of the island's vegetation. The island support a diverse range of plants, with species such as common heather, kidney vetch, common-bird's-foot trefoil, wild thyme and tormentil all found.
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Tarskavaig (Tarsgabhaig in Scottish Gaelic) is a crofting village on the West coast of Sleat on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It sits in a glen which meets Tarskavaig Bay and lies opposite the Isles of Eigg, Rum and Canna. It is often said that Tarskavaig has the best view of the Cuillin in Skye. Tarskavaig is a traditional crofting village with a high number of Gaelic speakers, several families with children, and active crofters.
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In March 1912, Kennedy was appointed as the first chairman of the Scottish Land Court, with the rank of a Lord of Session and the judicial title of Lord Kennedy. The Land Court was established under the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911. Some of its duties had been transferred from the Crofters Commission. The court regarded with great suspicion by landowners, because the 1911 Act had extended of security of tenure to tenant farmers in all of Scotland.
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Meanwhile, the remaining sheep on Boreray were left to become feral; these became the only survivors of the crofters' sheep, and one of the few surviving descendants of the Dunface. This means that they are the original, unmodified sheep that used to be farmed on the island. In the 1970s half a dozen of them were exported to form the basis of a breeding population on the mainland, but the majority of Borerays still remain on the island.
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Charles Guernier was born on 26 April 1870 in Saint-Malo, Ille-et-Vilaine. Guernier grew up in Saint-Malo, then was admitted to the University of Rennes. He studied Law, and obtained his doctorate in 1897 with a thesis on Scottish crofters. He lectured at the Faculty of Law in the University of Paris, then taught a course on Political Economy and History of Economic Doctrines in the Faculty of Law of the University of Lyon.
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Port Renfrew has been the home of the First Nations of Canada since time immemorial. The Pacheedaht First Nation, meaning "People of the Sea Foam", have traditional village sites in and around the main town centre. Originally named Port San Juan, the original settlers changed the name to honour Lord Renfrew who planned to settle crofters there. The name change was due to mail being sent to the San Juan Islands instead of Port San Juan.
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The first permanent settlers were Highland Scots from the Parish of Clyne, Sutherland, Scotland, who first broke the forest in 1820. They were former crofters on the Sutherland Estate who were removed as part of an agricultural improvement scheme. The settlement became part of the Earltown district with inhabitants sharing a common culture, origin and language as the people of the whole district. Agriculture and lumbering were the main occupations with several waterpowered sawmills once operating in the area.
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Weisdale Mill was built in 1855 and was Shetland's largest corn mill. The Weisdale Mill was a busy working mill for many years until the early 1930s. Crofters and farmers came from some considerable distance to get their oats and corn ground into meal and flour. With very little in the way of transport people walked long distances with their crops which then had to be left at the mill and collected at a later date.
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This photo of Hugh Gilzean-Reid appeared in Page's Magazine, August 1902. Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid (11 August 1836 – 5 November 1911) was a Scottish journalist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1886. Reid was the son of the Hugh Reid and his wife Christian Gilzean who was descended from a long line of Highland crofters. He was primarily self-educated and later studied for the non-conformist ministry, and passed examinations in classics and theology.
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Others were sent to small farms in coastal areas, where farming could not sustain the population, and they were expected to take up fishing as a new trade. In the village of Badbea in Caithness, the weather conditions were so harsh that, while the women worked, they had to tether their livestock and their children to rocks or posts to prevent them being blown over the cliffs. Other crofters were transported directly to emigration ships, bound for North America or Australia.
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Known as the Paisley Sisters after the town where they had trained, the fabric woven by them was of a remarkably higher quality than that produced by untrained crofters. In 1846, the Countess commissioned the sisters to weave lengths of tweed with the Murray family tartan. She sent the finished fabric to be made up into jackets for the gamekeepers and ghillies on her estate. Being hardwearing and water resistant, the new clothing was highly suited to life on the Dunmores' estate.
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"Tursachan", the Callanish VIII megalithic monument on Great Bernera overlooks the bridge from Lewis The main settlement on the island is Breaclete (Scottish Gaelic: Breacleit), home to a small museum. Bernera is also known for its Iron Age (or possibly Pictish) settlement at Bostadh, discovered in 1992 and now covered by sand to preserve it. A replica Iron Age house matching those now buried is sited nearby. The island was also the location of the Bernera Riot, where crofters resisted the Highland clearances.
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Quite often, these were decreed as fideicommisses. Those nobles who possessed farmlands did not work in them, but usually maintained a manorial lifestyle: paid servants and farmhands, bigger or smaller, as well as villeins, crofters, rent farmers and tenants in lease, did the agricultural work, sometimes paying their rents by performing work, sometimes in products, and rarely in cash. Serfdom however never existed in Finland. However, there were also impoverished noble families and poor members of the otherwise affluent nobility.
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Black Fox of Lorne is a 1956 children's historical novel written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli. This Newbery Honor Book is about tenth- century Viking twins who shipwreck on the Scottish coast and seek to avenge the death of their father. They encounter loyal clansmen at war, kindly shepherds, power-hungry lairds, and staunch crofters. Author Marguerite de Angeli had earlier won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature for her 1949 novel The Door in the Wall.
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Toronto: National Heritage Books. . pp. 60–61. Those immigrants who arrived after 1759 were mainly Highland farmers who had been forced off their crofts (rented land) during the Highland and Lowland Clearances to make way for sheep grazing due to the British Agricultural Revolution. Others came as a result of famine. In 1846, potato crops were blighted by the same fungal disease responsible for the Great Irish Famine, and most Highland crofters were very dependent on potatoes as a source of food.
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This right had previously existed only in the seven crofting counties of Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, Inverness-shire and Argyll, where it was created by the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886. The landowners' hostility was reflected in the newspapers. In 1914 The Scotsman called it "the new tyrants of the countryside", and Blackwood's Magazine labelled it as the "Agrarian Star Chamber". The Court was also criticised by the Court of Session when it heard appeals, reproaching Kennedy's "rhetorical indulgence".
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The Goodman's Croft was a superstition common in 16th and 17th century Great Britain, particularly in Scotland. It was also known as the Guideman's Grunde, Halyman's Croft, Goodman's Fauld, Gi'en Rig, Deevil's Craft, Clooties Craft, and the Black Faulie. The practice consisted of leaving a portion of cultivable land untilled and devoting it to a supernatural being in the hopes of placating it and ensuring good fortune. Many crofters left patches of land untilled to ensure that their livelihood would thrive.
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However, by owning their own land, crofters lost the right to CCAGS (Crofting Counties Agricultural Grant Scheme). In the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 the right of purchase was given to community organizations even against the will of landowners, to advance social and economic development. The Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 granted equality between tenants and landowners, especially with regard to grants and obligations and clarified the details of residency requirements. Now, tenants or owners must live within of the croft.
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The Scottish croft is a small agricultural landholding of a type which has been subject to special legislation applying to the Highland region of Scotland since 1886. The legislation was largely a response to the complaints and demands of tenant families who were victims of the Highland Clearances. The modern crofters or tenants appear very little in evidence before the beginning of the 18th century. They were tenants at will underneath the tacksman and wadsetters, but practically their tenure was secure enough.
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Kirkibost was 'cleared' of its tenants in 1823 and the 1850 mapping clearly shows roofless ruins on each parcel of land. The township was however re-settled in 1878 following the Bernera Riot four years earlier using exactly the same division boundaries set out in 1805. The Parliament of the United Kingdom created the Crofters' Act 1886, after the Highland Land League had gained seats in that parliament. The government was then Liberal, with William Ewart Gladstone as Prime Minister.
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Boreraig, lying in a green and fertile glen, sheltered and south-facing, is a fine example of a traditional, pre-crofting baile or township. It was forcibly cleared by the agents of Lord MacDonald to make way for sheep in 1853. Many of the inhabitants, mainly crofters, emigrated after they were evicted. The Scottish census reveals that, by 1851, in the parish of Strath, Shire of Inverness, approximately one hundred and twenty men, women and children lived in Boreraig's 22 households.
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The paper's priorities are summarised in the Gaelic slogan on its masthead: "' – The Land, the Language, the People". It is a slogan borrowed from the Highland Land League which, in the late 19th century, fought crucial battles to win security of tenure for crofters. The land issue is at the heart of the Free Press's politics. The paper perceives a fundamental conflict of interest in private landlordism (which persists to the present), and this is reflected in many of the most celebrated stories which it has reported.
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The end of war reintroduced competition from Spanish barilla, a cheaper and richer product. This, combined with the reduction of duty on the foreign import, and the discovery that cheaper alkali could be extracted from common salt, destroyed the seasonal employment of an estimated 25 to 40 thousand crofters. There was little prospect of alternative employment; the only possibility was fishing, which was also in decline at the same time. The overall population of the Western Isles had grown by 80 percent between 1755 and 1821.
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It has frequently been asserted that Gaels reacted to the Clearances with apathy and a near-total absence of active resistance from the crofting population. However, upon closer examination this view is at best an oversimplification. Michael Lynch suggests that there were more than 50 major acts of resistance to clearance. Even before the Crofters' War of the 1880s, Gaelic communities had staved off or even averted removals by accosting law enforcement officials and destroying eviction notices, such as in Coigach, Ross-shire, 1852–3.
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They set out, building a ship for the voyage, known as the Ark. Though they initially set out for Ohio, a storm forced them to come ashore at St. Ann's on Cape Breton Island. They were the first Scots to arrive, but were soon followed by boatloads of others, from the Hebrides as well as the mainland. Soon he was surrounded by Gaelic speaking Presbyterian crofters and fishers, and their modest womenfolk who with their God-fearing ways kept the Sabbath holy and packed his church.
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Harris Tweed weaver, c. 1960 For centuries, the islanders of Lewis and Harris, the Uists, Benbecula and Barra wove cloth known as - literally, "big cloth" in Scottish Gaelic - by hand. Originally woven by crofters, this cloth was woven for personal and practical uses and was ideal protection against the often cold climate of northern Scotland. The cloth was also used for trade or barter, eventually becoming a form of currency amongst islanders; it was not unusual for rents to be paid in blankets or lengths of .
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Fowlis grew up on North Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides, in a Gaelic-speaking community. Her mother was a Gaelic-speaking islander from a family of fishermen and crofters which originated on the remote island of Heisgeir, while her father hailed originally from Pitlochry on mainland Scotland. Her parents ran a hotel for many years on North Uist. She moved with her parents to Ross-shire on the mainland when she was 15 years old after her father took a new job.
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Therefore, they turned to money rents, displaced farmers to raise sheep, and downplayed the traditional patriarchal relationship that had historically sustained the clans. A new group appeared, the crofters, emerging for the first time in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were poor families living on "crofts" or very small rented farms used to raise potatoes, with kelping,The burning of seaweed ("kelp") makes alkali used in the making of glass. fishing, and spinning of linen, and military service, as important sources of revenue.
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He experimented freely and produced semi-abstract images.Holland Cotter Photography Review The Camera in the Raj, Seducing and Upsetting New York Times Friday, December 1, 2000 At the 1880 general election Macfarlane was elected as a Home Rule Member of Parliament for Carlow County. The Carlow constituency lost one of its two seats under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and at the 1885 general election Macfarlane stood instead for the Crofters Party in Argyllshire. He won the seat, but lost it in 1886.
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From 1961 to 1984, she served as Secretary of the Skye Labour Party. She was part of a group known as the "Highland Luxemburgists" (that included Brian Wilson and Allan Campbell McLean), who attempted each year at the party conference to pass a resolution to bring the crofts back into common ownership. However, the Labour Party leadership ignored the resolution and supported right of crofters to purchase their land. In 1991, at the age of 83, she stopped canvassing door-to-door for the party at elections.
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The later Highland Clearances saw the forced displacement much of the population of the Highland as lands were enclosed for sheep farming. Those that remained many were now crofters, living on very small rented farms. In the twentieth century Scottish agriculture became susceptible to world markets. There were dramatic price rises in the First World War, but a slump in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by more rises in World War II. In 1947 annual price reviews were introduced in an attempt to stabilise the market.
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Not every adult's occupation was recorded, but where the census taker kept a record, he described most individuals as crofters, agricultural labourers, or farm servants. Among them he also recorded a few weavers, a fisherman, and a house carpenter. Croft tenancy records dating back to 1823, now held by the Clan Donald Centre at the Armadale Museum of the Isles in Sleat on the Isle of Skye, indicate that the twenty two households were spread across ten landholdings, each of . Many of the inhabitants were related.
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He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ross-shire in 1881, and continued when that office was replaced by the Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty in 1891 through the operation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. He served on the Napier Commission on the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in 1883 and 1884. He was chairman of the Ross-shire County Council from 1889. He was also a promoter of the Loch Maree and Aultbea Railway.
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His factor in the Scourie district (Evander McIver) worked both to persuade the landlord to subsidise emigration and to encourage the tenantry to accept the assistance offered. Whilst the second Duke of Sutherland effectively forbade eviction to achieve this, the influence of favourable reports from previous emigrants, coupled with the level of destitution in the community acted as a stimulus for people to leave. Extreme poverty acted as a barrier to emigration - emphasising the importance of financial assistance from the landlord. The crofting areas lost about a third of their population between the early 1840s and the late 1850s; losses were higher in the Hebrides and remoter areas of the mainland such as Ardnamurchan with over 40% of inhabitants being evicted by 1856 Some landlords contributed towards 'assisted' emigration (under which over 16,000 crofters were shipped overseas to Canada and Australia), others encouraged their tenants to move by taking a harder line on rent arrears, turf-cutting rights and other practices on which tenants had traditionally been allowed some leeway, but - since crofters had no security of tenure - landlords could simply evict their superfluous tenants.
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Professor Meek writes that the songs of Mairi Mhòr show the influence that The Highlander had on the opinions of ordinary Highland people, even thought the paper was mainly in English.Dòmhnall Eachann Meek, Mairi Mhòr nan Oran ; Taghadh de a h-Orain (Edinburgh : Scottish Academic Press, 1998) p40 Murdoch believed that a vicious system of land ownership was at the root of all ills in the Highlands and this could only be changed by the crofters or peasants taking the lead and standing up for themselves in a campaign for land reform. In common with other campaigners for Highland land reform Murdoch maintained that the crofters had an inalienable right to the land which, they asserted, had belonged to the clan as a whole and had not been the personal property of chief.James Hunter, The Making of the Crofting Community, (Edinburgh : John Donald,1976) p129 &157-159 He argued that a sustained attack on the Gaelic language and culture had all but destroyed the self-confidence and morale of the indigenous Highlanders and that this needed to be reversed as part of the land reform campaign.
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The Congested Districts Board (Scotland) was set up by the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act, 1897 for the purpose of administering the sums made available by the British Government for the improvement of congested districts in the Highlands and Islands. Formally titled the Congested Districts (Scotland) Commissioners, the Board consisted of the Secretary for Scotland, the Under- Secretary for Scotland, the Chairman (or Convenor) of the Local Government Board for Scotland, the Chairman of the Fishery Board for Scotland, the Chairman of the Crofters' Commission, and up to three other people nominated by the Secretary for ScotlandCongested Districts (Scotland) Act, 1897, section 1 The main aims of the Board were to aid and develop agriculture (for instance, by distributing seed potatoes and seed oats, and supplying stud animals); the fishing industry (for instance, by improving lighthouses, piers and harbours); and home industries such as spinning and weaving. It was also intended to improve roads and bridges, and aid the migration of crofters to other parts of Scotland. The Board was modeled on the Congested Districts Board for Ireland (the CDB), which had been officially established by The Rt Hon.
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Rhys Jones visits one who led the formation of a trust that eventually enabled 100 crofters to buy back of land. Suilven is the next peak to be climbed, but because of its remote location, Rhys Jones rests overnight in a bothy beforehand. The presenter then travels to the Isle of Skye, where he participates in a Céilidh before investigating the Cuillin, which have been put up for sale by their owner, the Clan MacLeod. Finally, Rhys Jones ascends Bruach na Frìthe, one of the principal summits on the Black Cuillin ridge.
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The few, but hugely important, successful instances of organised resistance to the evictions feature. It lists political resistance to the evictions such as the Land Leagues of the 1880s, which are contrasted with the Victorian landed gentry's passion for stag hunting; this and the sheep industry now having taken over many millions of acres. The land raids by crofters in the early 20th century are mentioned. The play briefly mentions the modern day (1974) exploitation of the Highlands by the tourist industry then makes political comparisons between the past and 1974.
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The husband would know who was being signalled by the shape of the window in which the candle was lit. In reality, most of the dispossessed crofters moved away to other parts of the island in protest against their eviction, and the houses remained empty for two years, during which time they were known as "hungry row". The village formerly housed a hotel, the Catacol Bay Hotel, which permanently closed in September 2018. The surrounding area has grassy hills, moorland and patches of woodland in the steep-sided gullies.
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Rhodes chose Cloud to complete Tracy's term as auditor and in 1966, Cloud was elected to the position and served in that office from 1967 to 1971. In 1970, Cloud was nominated for Governor of Ohio as incumbent Jim Rhodes was term-limited. He defeated Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens in the primary, but lost to Democrat John J. Gilligan. That year the Ohio Republican Party was caught up in the "Crofters" scandal where the Republican state treasurer, John Herbert, had invested state money in improper investments with a big campaign contributor.
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During the unsettled times of the late nineteenth century, when the local crofters sought land reform, this area played an important part in the struggle. After the Battle of the Braes in 1882, the unrest spread to Glendale. The landlords refused to allow the local population to collect wood from the shore for heating, and they had to use straw to thatch the houses as they were forbidden to cut rushes. Land was in short supply as the holdings had been sub-divided 40 years earlier to provide for those cleared from better land.
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In 2008, Halls left his home in Bristol for Applecross on the west coast of Scotland for the first of the three BBC Great Escape series, Monty Halls' Great Escape, where he tried to recreate the life of crofters for six months. In 2009 Halls then left for the Outer Hebrides to live and work as a nature warden on North Uist for six months. 2010 saw Monty live for six months in Connemara working with Irish Whale & Dolphin Conservation Group (IWDG). All of these series featured his dog, Reuben.
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Traditional crofting practice, which involves summer agriculture using seaweed together with dung from winter grazing animals as natural fertiliser, has, over time, bound together and stabilised the land. The machair is ploughed in rotation, giving a patchwork of crops and fallow of different ages which supports a wide range of flowers. Berneray has a particularly fine machair, a result of careful husbandry by the island's crofters, helped by the absence of rabbits. The youth hostel on Berneray The youth hostel on Berneray is part of the Gatliff Hebridean Hostels Trust.
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The tiny hamlet at the east end of Loch Rannoch, now known as Kinloch Rannoch, was enlarged and settled, mainly by soldiers being discharged from the army, but also by displaced crofters. A wide range of agricultural and other improvement works were undertaken across the estates, including drainage, road making and bridge building. Slowly peace and prosperity were brought to Rannoch. Flax and potatoes were introduced, mills built and spinning and weaving taught; a mason, joiner and wheelwright passed on their skills; a shoemaker and a tailor set up business.
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He was the sixth baronet of Cathcart, succeeding to the title in 1878. The Cathcart family seat was Killochan Castle near Girvan in Ayrshire but the couple lived mainly in Titness Park, Sunninghill, Berkshire. Known for her stance against Catholicism, she played a leading role in the Highland Clearances as she continued the clearances initiated by her father-in-law. Many crofters on her lands were re-settled to the North West territories of Regina and Wapella in Canada, possibly due to the shares she held in the Canadian Pacific Railway.
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Camuscross Community Steering Group was set up in February 2007 to develop various projects for community benefits. It is working on affordable house sites, a network of heritage paths with interpretation, and hoping to build a local shop and cafe. The group has been researching local history and has collected a number of place names from local people. It publishes a newsletter called An Lianag – after the name of the green in the middle of the village, which is where the crofters traditionally met to discuss township matters.
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The most important theme of the novel is independence, what it means and what it is worth giving up in order to achieve it. Bjartur is a stubborn man, often callous to the point of cruelty in his refusal to swerve from his ideals. Though undoubtedly a principled man, his attitude leads to the death and alienation of those around him. There are strong economic themes, a discussion of the co-operative movement in Iceland and the exploitation of crofters like Bjartur by Danish merchants and rich Icelanders like Jón the Bailiff.
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Crofters were employed in enterprises such as fishing (Ullapool in the north of Wester Ross was built by the British Fishing Society in the 1780-90s) and kelping (the collection and processing of kelp to create products such as soda ash).Wester Ross Biosphere Reserve Application. p. 40. In the later stages of the clearances the driver ceased to be industrial enterprises, but simply to clear the land for sheep farming, and later deer forests. At this point emigration was often the only option to those removed from their homes.
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Gillies was born in the Galloway region of Scotland in 1865, but grew up in London. He was interested in Scottish History from an early age and at the age of seventeen he became friend to John Murdoch who was then the editor of The Highlander. Gillies became as enthusiastic for the rights of crofters in the Scottish highlands and joined the Highland Land League. He was at this stage enthusiastic for some form of home rule for Scotland within the United Kingdom but grew to support Scottish independence instead.
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Sir Donald Horne Macfarlane (July 1830 – 2 June 1904) was a Scottish merchant who entered politics and became a Member of Parliament (MP), firstly as a Home Rule League MP in Ireland and then as Liberal and Crofters Party MP in Scotland. Macfarlane was born in Scotland, the youngest son of Allan Macfarlane, J.P., of Caithness and his wife Margaret Horne.Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886 He became an East Indies merchant as a tea trader and indigo plantation owner. While in India he was a passionate amateur photographer.
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Each township manages poorer-quality hill ground as common grazing for cattle and sheep. Land use in the crofting counties is constrained by climate, soils and topography. Since the late 20th century, the government has classified virtually all of the agriculture land in the Highlands and Islands as Severely Disadvantaged, under the terms of Less Favoured Area (LFA) Directive, yet these areas still receive the lowest LFA payments. Most crofters cannot survive economically by crofting agriculture alone, and they pursue a number of other activities to earn their livelihood.
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The crofts created by clearance were not intended to support all the needs of those who lived there, and consequently were restricted in size to a few acres of arable land with a surrounding shared grazing. Landlords intended their crofting tenants to work in various industries, such as fishing or kelp. A contemporary estimate was that a crofter needed to carry out 200 days work away from his croft in order to avoid destitution. In the second half of the 19th century, many crofters provided a substantial migrant workforce, especially for lowland farms.
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The Battle of the Braes is celebrated by a monument and a folk song and in 2012 various legal dignitaries paid a special visit to the site to commemorate the centenary of the Scottish Land Court. The court's chair, Lord McGhie led a party, including Lord Bracadale and Sheriff Roddy John MacLeod who were both born on Skye, past the church where the first witnesses to the court gave evidence in 1912. The party was expected to acknowledge that the court "stands on the shoulders" of the crofters of the Braes who resisted eviction.
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He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1874 or 1877, and in 1898 he was appointed as lecturer on private international law at the University of Edinburgh. From 1901 to 1907 he was Professor of Civil and Scots Law at the University of Aberdeen. His interest in the plight of crofters led him to be the Liberal Party candidate for Inverness-shire at the 1895 general election. He achieved a swing of 4.8% from the Conservatives, but fell 100 votes short of defeating the sitting Conservative MP James Evan Bruce Baillie.
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At that time there were about a thousand of these sheep on Hirta and about four hundred on Boreray. In the late nineteenth century the crofters' sheep were cross-bred with Scottish Blackface sheep, which by then had replaced the Dunface throughout mainland Scotland. Before the evacuation of the St Kildian inhabitants, these sheep were farmed. However, when the St Kilda archipelago's human inhabitants were evacuated in 1930, the sheep of Hirta were also removed and in 1932 they were replaced by Soays, which still live there as well as on Soay itself.
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Crofts not in use may be granted to new tenants. Looking back in history, Hunter believes that the Act established an old-fashioned order, with a place for the tenantry quite different than as in Ireland where crofters could buy their land under "Home Rule" acts. The Act was neither effective in the development of crofting communities nor did it encompass the political and social beliefs of those communities. But according to Wightman, the Act paved the road to further land development in Scotland, although it did not affect areas outside the .
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This system became increasingly common during the 19th century, attracted much public critique in the 20th century, and was abolished from November 1, 1945 through a collective bargaining agreement. These agricultural laborers were generally viewed as being on the lowest rungs of Swedish society, worse off than crofters. Their lives were described by prominent Swedish novelists and writers such as Ivar Lo-Johansson, Jan Fridegård and Moa Martinson, making a considerable impact on the public debate in the decades following common suffrage. Counties with the largest shares of noble tax-exempted land possession.
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Shetland was the last surviving locality for a type of domestic pig known as the "grice". Small in size yet ferocious, this domesticated breed of pig fell out of favour with crofters during the 19th century; sometime between the middle of the 19th centuryShetland pig is not so appealing as the pony and the 1920s, the breed became extinct. Note that Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland. In addition to the Shetland Islands, the grice had once been found throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, as well as in Ireland.
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Thus, by the beginning of 1919, the positions taken up by those involved were fairly well defined. Robert Munro, himself a Highlander, believed passionately in the reinstatement of the crofts and he also felt strongly that the Imperial Parliament at Westminster was unlikely to tolerate any departure from the implementation of land reform, but he saw no reason why Lewis should not have Leverhulme's industrial schemes as well as more crofts. Leverhulme refused to budge, believing that the break-up of his farms would lead to seriously inefficient, probably unsustainable, and ultimately abandoned smallholdings as crofters moved away in search of better incomes.
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Over the 18th century, Highland society had changed greatly. On the eastern fringes of the Highlands, most arable land was divided into family farms with employing crofters (with some land held in their own right, insufficient on its own to give them an adequate living) and cottars (farm workers with no land of their own, sometimes sub-let a small patch of land by their employer or a crofter). The economy had become assimilated to that of the Lowlands, whose proximity allowed and encouraged a diverse agriculture. Proximity to the Lowlands had also led to a steady drain of population from these areas.
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The major reasons for rising political tensions among Finns were the autocratic rule of the Russian czar and the undemocratic class system of the estates of the realm. The latter system originated in the regime of the Swedish Empire that preceded Russian governance and divided the Finnish people economically, socially and politically. Finland's population grew rapidly in the nineteenth century (from 860,000 in 1810 to 3,130,000 in 1917), and a class of agrarian and industrial workers, as well as crofters, emerged over the period. The Industrial Revolution was rapid in Finland, though it started later than in the rest of Western Europe.
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In July 2013, the Sunday Herald reported that there were "persistent rumours" of funding problems within Yes Scotland, and suggested that these were related to Jacqueline Caldwell and Susan Stewart leaving the campaign organisation. The organisation "shared out" the women's responsibilities between other employees instead of replacing them. Throughout 2013, Yes Scotland launched specially targeted campaign groups like Veterans for Independence, Farming for Yes, and Crofters for Yes. In August 2013, the chief executive of Better Together, Blair MacDougall, accused figures within Yes Scotland of "copy[ing]" his campaign's slogan "best of both worlds" to "reassure voters over independence".
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The island was the location of the Bernera Riot of 1874, when crofters resisted the Highland clearances. This was a peasant revolt and subsequent legal case which resulted in a victory for oppressed small-tenants against the heavy-handed evictions and treatment by Donald Munro, the factor of Sir James Matheson. The islanders refused to agree to remove their stock in favour of expanding sporting estates, and were in turn threatened with a military visit. This did not occur, but even more eviction notices were handed out, and the visitors were pelted with clods of earth.
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Dr Gavin Brown Clark (1846 – 5 July 1930) was the MP for Caithness from 1885 to 1900. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, the University of Edinburgh and King's College London, graduating in Medicine.‘CLARK, Gavin Brown’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007 An active campaigner for social reform issues against an official Liberal candidate, he joined the Crofters Party parliamentary group and gave general support to the Liberal Party, while in opposition. He was re-elected as the official Liberal candidate in 1886, 1892 and 1895.
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When Alexander Murray, 6th Earl of Dunmore, inherited the North Harris Estate from his father in 1836, production of tweed in Outer Hebrides was still entirely manual. Wool was washed in soft, peaty water before being dyed using dyestuffs derived from local plants and lichens. It was then processed and spun, before being hand woven by the crofters in their cottages. Traditional island tweed was characterised by the flecks of colour achieved through the use of natural dyes, including the lichen known as "crottle" (Parmelia saxatilis and Parmelia omphalodes), which gave the fabric deep red or purple-brown and rusty orange colours respectively.
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C. R. Warren, Managing Scotland's Environment (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002), , p. 90. As part of an attempt to mitigate the depopulation and commercialisation of Scottish farming, the Crofting Act of 1976 made it easier for crofters to buy their farms, but most were insufficient to support a family, and many small farmers turned to fish farming and tourism to supplement their incomes. A dual farm structure has emerged with agriculture divided between large commercial farms and small pluralised and diversified holdings. Scotland has the highest average farm size in the European Union, almost ten times the average.
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Arable and fallow machair is threatened by changes to the way the land is managed, where the original system of crofts is under threat from a reduction in the number of crofters and the use of "modern" techniques. Changes to the Common Agricultural Policy, where production was decoupled from subsidies, reduced the amount of grazing taking place in many crofting areas, and led some areas to be undergrazed or abandoned. A lack of native seed increases the need for fertilizers and herbicides. Rising sea levels caused by global warming also pose a threat to low-lying coastal areas, leading to increased erosion.
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In 2012 Lord McGhie will lead a special visit to the site of the Battle of the Braes on Skye to commemorate the centenary of the court's founding. The party will include Lord Bracadale, who was born on the island. The group will pass the church in Camustianaviag where the first witnesses to the court gave evidence in 1912, and is expected to acknowledge that the court "stands on the shoulders" of the crofters of the Braes who resisted eviction in 1882.Ross, David (23 April 2012) "Judges visit island crime scene to mark centenary of land court". Glasgow.
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However, soon after the creation of these smaller tenancies (crofts), foreign mineral supplies were re-introduced, as the Napoleonic Wars had ended. The kelp price crashed, and crofters struggled to avoid destitution. In 1821, several families emigrated to Nova Scotia to escape the poverty; they settled on a high plateau near the coast of the Northumberland Strait, which they named Eigg Mountain. The laird, his income also having collapsed, planned to recover his position by evicting tenants from Cleadale, and using the land for sheep farming; however, in 1827 he found someone willing to purchase Eigg, and cancelled the planned eviction.
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Carradale (, ) is a village on the east side of Kintyre, overlooking the Kilbrannan Sound and the west coast of the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, approximately from Campbeltown. To the north of Carradale is the coastal peak known as Torr Mor; nearby are the hamlet of Dippen and Dippen Bay. Population: 1,350~ (2009) In the 17th and 18th centuries there were small communities of crofters and fishermen working in and around Carradale. The introduction of steam ships transformed Kintyre and from the 1830s until the Second World War daily steamers went from Campbeltown to Glasgow, calling at Carradale.
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John David Herbert (September 8, 1930 - March 27, 2017) was an American lawyer who served two terms as the 40th Ohio State Treasurer from 1963 to 1971. A Republican, he was the son of Thomas J. Herbert, who was Governor of Ohio from 1947 to 1949. In 1970, Herbert won the Republican nomination for Ohio Attorney General, but lost because of his connections to the "Crofters" scandal in which Republicans were accused of steering state investments to campaign contributors. The scandal brought down nearly the entire Republican ticket in 1970 and helped to elect John J. Gilligan to a single term as governor.
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In the event, unlike the highly successful Irish Parliamentary Party, the new political party proved short- lived and was soon co-opted by the Liberal Party, but not before helping secure key concessions from the Liberals, which resulted in the rights of crofters becoming enshrined in law. Not all Scots saw common cause with Irish nationalism - the widely popular Scottish Unionist Association that emerged in 1912 from a merger of the Scottish Conservatives and Liberal Unionists referred to the Irish Union of 1801, while the union between Scotland and England was taken for granted and largely unthreatened.
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Alasdair Allan, MSP for the Western Isles, said independence could have a positive impact on the isles, as "crofters and farmers could expect a substantial uplift in agricultural and rural development funding via the Common Agricultural Policy if Scotland were an independent member state of the EU". In July 2013, the Scottish government made the Lerwick Declaration, indicating an interest in devolving power to Scotland's islands. By November, it had committed to devolving further powers to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles in the event of independence. Steven Heddle called for legislation to that effect to be introduced regardless of the referendum result.
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In 1951 she attempted to sell the island herself, but without success until 1955 when a local crofters' syndicate called the Barra Head Isles Sheepstock Company completed the purchase. The advent of motor boats made stocking the islands considerably easier and the company's ownership continued for the next forty years. In 2000 Mingulay was acquired by the National Trust for Scotland through a bequest by J. M. Fawcitt "to provide an area of natural beauty in memory of her parents and the courage of her late brother, Bernard.""Mingulay, Berneray And Pabbay" National Trust for Scotland.
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The National Trust for Scotland purchased the island in 2000 from a local crofters' syndicate called the Barra Head Isles Sheepstock Company who had owned the island since 1955. The NTS were able to acquire it through a bequest by Miss J. M. Fawcitt “to provide an area of natural beauty in memory of her parents and the courage of her late brother, Bernard.” In 2009 the NTS removed all the sheep from the island, citing the difficulties of maintaining the flock in such a remote location.Ross, John (5 June 2009) "No use bleating, we're clearing out". Edinburgh.
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Anne Martin is an international artist who has performed in Ireland, Australia, Canada and India. She also provided the soundtrack for the 2016 film shot by crofters from the Isle of Skye 'Grazing on the Edge'. Anne Martin was one of the original founders of the Ceol on the Croft festival, a two-day music festival, which took place in Kilmuir on the Isle of Skye for two years running in 2014 and 2015. In 2017, Anne Martin collaborated with Jason Singh to create Ceumannan – Footsteps 2 as part of a project commissioned by Atlas Arts.
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At the end of his term as acting Viceroy of India, Napier returned to the United Kingdom and acted as the President of the Social Science Association during its meetings at Plymouth and Glasgow in October 1874. During this time, Napier also served in the London School Board. Lord Napier was the chairman of the Napier Commission (the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands) which was appointed in 1883 and reported in 1884. Napier died in Florence, Italy on 19 December 1898 at the age of 79.
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It was by and large a conservative-minded organisation, and unsuccessfully opposed measures such as the Scottish Land Reform Act, which had been designed to give greater rights to tenant farmers and crofters. According to its 2004 accounts, the party's membership was formally "limited to the two founders, Jim Crawford and Richard Malbon plus a very small number of supporters who are not actually members of the Party". The Countryside Party stood in the Scottish Parliament 2003 election for the Highlands and Islands electoral region. It polled 1,768 votes (1.05% of the vote in the area).
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There remained considerable tracts of the west Highland area without useful transport routes, and social conditions were identified as being unacceptable. A government commissionThe Napier Commission, The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the conditions of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. appointed in March 1883, examined the plight of smallholders in the Highlands, and their investigation showed that above all transport was a pressing need.As well as proposals on land tenure, the urged improved communication by post, telegraph, roads, steam vessels and railways, citing the precedent of state support for the Wade Military Roads and the Caledonian Canal.
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At the 1885 general election, Cameron was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wick Burghs as an independent liberal, defeating the sitting Liberal MP John Pender. A committed land reformer, he had been nominated by the Wick Radical Workingmen's Association and supported by the Highland Law Reform Association and appears to have been sympathetic to the Crofters Party.Allan W. MacColl Land, Faith and the Crofting Community Edinburgh University Press 2006 He served as a Liberal Party MP and held the seat until his defeat at the 1892 general election by Pender, who was by then a Liberal Unionist.
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To this should be added an unknown, but significant number, who paid their own fares to emigrate, and a further unknown number assisted by the Colonial Land and Emigration commission. Crofts at Borreraig on the island of Skye The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional subject and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The politically powerless poor crofters embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800 and the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order.
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The courts could suspend recent possession orders, could suspend the execution of an order for possession for up to twelve months and could impose certain conditions and terms. There were a few exceptions (e.g., tenancies the following Acts applied to: Small Landholders (Scotland) Acts 1886-1931, Tenancy of Shops (Scotland) Act 1949, Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1949, Crofters (Scotland) Acts 1955-1961). Nothing affected the operation of the Small Tenements Recovery Act 1838 (which included brothels and premises acquired for defence purposes) or the Pluralities Act 1838 or the Lecturers and Parish Clerks Act 1844 (ecclesiastical property).
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This stretch of road is one of several to be known as the Destitution Road. It was built during the Highland Potato Famine of 1846-1847, to provide employment for crofters in exchange for oatmeal rations. Beyond Dundonnell, the A832 enters the Dundonnell Gorge and begins climbing alongside several waterfalls on the Dundonnell River. The road leaves the top of the gorge at Fain Bridge and continues across the open moors to the summit at an altitude of 332 metres (1089 ft), surrounded by the towering peaks of An Teallach, Sgurr nan Clach Geala and Beinn Dearg.
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In 1869 gold had been found in the Strath of Kildonan resulting in an influx of outside prospectors and the establishment of a company for exploitation; the financial returns were not favourable and digging was abandoned. However, in 1886, following a downturn in the local economy, villagers and crofters petitioned the Duke though Commissioner Kemball for permission to continue searching for gold; permission was not given, and the estate threatened government action if it carried-on. Following further unauthorised digging the estate took steps to stop it."The Sutherland Gold Fields"; The Glasgow Herald, 6 March 1888.
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Manitoba's tartan. Manitoba's official tartan was designed in 1962 by Hugh Kirkwood Rankine, and officially adopted by the province in "The Coat of Arms, Emblems and the Manitoba Tartan Act", which received Royal Assent on May 1 of that year. The red in the design originates from the Red River Colony, founded in 1812 by the Earl of Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, and crofters from the Scottish Highlands, and the blue was taken from the Clan Douglas tartan. In addition, the green lines represent the varying cultures and races that make up Manitoban society, and the gold represents Manitoba's agricultural history.
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He was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Wavertree at a by-election in 1931, and was a close associate of Neville Chamberlain. After his father died, Nall-Cain was required to leave the House of Commons as he was elevated to the House of Lords. Brocket inherited two grand houses: Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire and Bramshill Park, in Hampshire. In the 1930s, he bought the Knoydart estate in Lochaber, Scotland, and became an infamous absentee landlord, opposing the rights of crofters and dismissing and evicting workers, preferring the estate for shooting and fishing.
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The Bernera Riot occurred in 1874, on the island of Great Bernera, in Scotland in response to the Highland Clearances. The use of the term 'Bernera Riot' correctly relates to the court case which exposed the maltreatment of the peasant classes in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and exposed the corruption that was inherent in the landowning class. The 'riot' was not fought in the streets or in the fields but in the Scots Lawcourts. It is notable as the first successful legal challenge to nineteenth century Landlordism in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and was the catalyst for future resistance in what became known as the Crofters War.
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Although these developments brought tangible benefits to the people of Lewis, Leverhulme's plans did not suit everyone, and this anomaly created severe obstacles for his ambitious plans for the Western Isles. Typically, Leverhulme's business strategies were comprehensive and meticulously set out. His plans for the island called for a reliable workforce, but although the inhabitants of Stornoway were generally well educated and hard working, they were for the most part regularly employed and well paid. The largely Gaelic speaking crofters, on the other hand, were mainly subsistence farmers and many of them were squatters; and it was this section of the population that Leverhulme hoped to develop and recruit.
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Ranged against this at least ostensibly reasonable prediction was the formidable influence wielded by prospective crofters away fighting in France, as well as by supporters of the Highland League which was politically dedicated to land reform. In early March 1919, men started to takeover Leverhulme's farms on Lewis. They drove off the farmers' livestock, demolished boundary walls, and staked out six-acre plots: by the summer sixteen out of the twenty-two farms on the island had been affected. Expecting Leverhulme's approval, the raiders were taken aback when he voiced his complete condemnation of their actions and asked them to withdraw from his land.
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The origins of the Carmina Gadelica can be traced to ‘Grazing and Agrestic Customs of the Outer Hebrides’, the second appendix Alexander Carmichael contributed to the Report of the Napier Commission in 1884.Carmichael, Alexander. "Grazing and agrestic customs of the Outer Hebrides", Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry into the Conditions of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1884), pp. 451–82. Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier, had requested Carmichael to compose a piece on traditional Hebridean land customs based on the chapter on the subject that he had written for the third volume of William Forbes Skene’s Celtic Scotland.
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Both red and roe deer inhabit the area: the red deer live on the central upland area of the reserve throughout the year, whilst roe deer can be seen at the edges of the surrounding forests. There is also a population of feral goats that may be descended from animals abandoned by crofters during the 18th and 19th centuries. Seventeen species of butterfly and over 120 species of moth have been recorded at Cairnsmore of Fleet, including the small pearl-bordered fritillary, large heath moth, broad–bordered white underwing and argent and sable. Other notable invertebrate species found include the nationally notable golden green ground beetle.
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After the war the words of politicians did not translate into immediate action, but crofters returning from the war were in no mood to accept government inaction. Land raids began again. To set this Scottish Highland political radicalism in context, the 1916 Easter Rising was recent history in Ireland, as were the Liberal February Revolution and the Communist October Revolution in Russia, not to mention the socialist Kiel mutiny, which helped end the First World War and bring about the German Revolution. With these other events in mind, the Highland Land League, although radical, were positively gentle in their politics compared to radicals in other countries around the same time.
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Of those that remained many were now crofters: poor families living on "crofts"—very small rented farms with indefinite tenure used to raise various crops and animals, with kelping, fishing, spinning of linen and military service as important sources of revenue.M. J. Daunton, Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700–1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), , p. 85. Many lived in blackhouses with double thickness walls about high, made of local stone and packed with rubble and earth and thatched with reeds. They were unfaced inside and were usually warmed by a peat fire on a slab floor, the smoke from which gave them their name.
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First, the kelp trade collapsed in the years immediately following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Those working in the kelp trade were crofters, with not enough land to make a living, or cottars, the very poorest in society with the least access to land on which to grow food. Without alternative employment, which was not available, destitution was inevitable. The landlords (or in some cases the trustees of their bankrupt estates) no longer tried to retain their tenants on their land, either encouraging or assisting emigration, or, in the more desperate circumstances, virtually compelling those in substantial rent arrears to accept an assisted passage (i.e.
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John Macleod, sometimes John Macleod of Gartymore, (8 August 1862 - 1 April 1931) was MP for Sutherland, representing the Crofters Party (allied to the Liberals). Macleod was born at Helmsdale in 1862 (though he often stated 1863 in later life), the son of John and Ann McLeod.Birth certificate His father was a fish-curer. He trained in Glasgow as an analytical chemist, then after further study in London worked for a Welsh gold-mining company at Gwynfynydd and Glasdir. They sent him to Sutherland in around 1882 to investigate the potential for gold mines at Kildonan, where there had been a minor gold rush in the late 1860s.
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John o' Groat Journal, 26 October 1894 Following this, Macleod was returned unopposed as the Crofters/Liberal candidate. At the 1895 general election he was returned with 65% of the vote, a comfortable majority over the Liberal Unionist candidate, though slightly reduced from Sutherland's 72% in 1886 and 17% in 1892. In the 1900 general election, however, he was defeated by the Liberal Unionist Frederick Leveson-Gower, a relative of the Duke of Sutherland, taking only 38% of the vote. After leaving Parliament, he appears to have remained in London, where he is found working as a journalist in the 1901 and 1911 censuses.
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Formerly a tiny hamlet, Kinloch Rannoch was enlarged and settled, under the direction of James Small, formerly an Ensign in Lord Loudoun's Regiment, mainly by soldiers discharged from the army, but also by displaced crofters. Small had been appointed by the Commissioners for the Forfeited Estates to run the Rannoch estates, which had been seized from the clan chieftains who had supported the Jacobites following the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Local roads and bridges were improved, enabling soldiers at Rannoch Barracks to move more freely around the district. The Soldiers' Trenches were dug on nearby Rannoch Moor in an unsuccessful attempt to create better quality agricultural land.
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Ancient stone structures testify to the presence of Stroma's earliest residents, while a Norse presence around 900–1,000 years ago is recorded in the Orkneyinga Saga. It has been politically united with Caithness since at least the 15th century. Although Stroma lies only a few miles off the Scottish coast, the savage weather and ferociously strong tides of the Pentland Firth meant that the island's inhabitants were very isolated, causing them to be largely self- sufficient, trading agricultural produce and fish with the mainlanders. Most of the islanders were fishermen and crofters; some also worked as maritime pilots to guide vessels through the treacherous waters of the Pentland Firth.
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This organisation was a broadly left-wing group that sought the restoration of deer forests to public ownership, abolition of plural farms and the nationalisation of the land. Also they resolved to resolutely defend crofters facing eviction by their landlords and they supported home rule for Scotland. During the First World War (1914 to 1918) politicians made lavish promises about reform which would follow the war, and of course many croftsmen lost their lives in the war itself. After the war the words of politicians did not translate into action, but croftmen returning from the war were in no mood to accept government inaction.
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Born 6 August 1820, on Forres High Street, in Moray, Scotland, he was the second son of Alexander Smith (1786–1841) and his wife Barbara Stuart, daughter of Donald Stuart (b.c.1740) of Leanchoil, Upper Strathspey, descended from Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany.Genealogy of the Stuart family His father, whose family had lived at Archiestown Cottage as crofters at Knockando, became a saddler at Forres after trying his hand at farming and soldiering. Donald was also a first cousin of the successful and notably philanthropic Grant brothers of Manchester, who were reputedly immortalised as the "Cheeryble Brothers" in Charles Dickens' book, Nicholas Nickleby.
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An opponent of devolution, which he believed would work to the disadvantage of Scotland's more peripheral areas, in 1978 he was chairman of the "Labour Vote No Campaign", which called for a "no" vote in the 1979 Scottish devolution referendum on whether to have a Scottish Assembly. Wilson was part of a group known as the "Highland Luxemburgists" (that included Margaret Hope MacPherson and Allan Campbell McLean), who attempted each year at the party conference to pass a resolution to bring the crofts back into common ownership. However, the Labour Party leadership ignored the resolution and supported right of crofters to purchase their land.
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South Row, Roose A modern expansion of Roosecote is the Holbeck or Yarlside estate which has some early twentieth century housing but has mainly been developed and expanded from the 1960s onwards by building on land of the Holker estate. The area is bound by Yarlside Road to the west and Leece Lane to the south. Streets named after trees predominate throughout. There is a dairy works in Roose and historically there were several farms in the area, Roosecote farm is still active, and Roose Farm is now a private dwelling, and another, which is now part of Holbeck, was converted into the Crofters pub in the 1980s.
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This trade expanded during the early 19th century, due to the demands of the new industrial cities and the British armed forces for cattle for beef.Wester Ross Biosphere Reserve Application. p. 39. The clan structure began to break down in the 18th century, as clan chiefs came to see themselves as landlords, and the small tenant farmers had no legal answer to a landlord who wished to have them removed. During the late 18th and 19th centuries, the Highland Clearances saw tenants being forcibly moved to become crofters, a system under which their labour would be available when required by their landlords: they would be workers first and farmers second.
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Huyton has many public houses including The Huyton Park Hotel, The Stanley Arms (named after Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby), The Crofters, Seel Arms, Queens Arms, Oak Tree, The Old Bank, Longview Social Club and The Swan. The former Wheatsheaf/Rose And Crown reopened as The Barker's Brewery on 23 January 2011, as part of the Wetherspoon chain of pubs. Several former landmark pubs have been demolished for new projects since the late 1990s: The Dovecot, Bluebell Inn, Farmers Arms, Hillside, Eagle and Child, The Quarry Inn and The Quiet Man. In January 2012, the Longview Social Club was destroyed by a fire on the premises.
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Local primary schools are Garstang Community Primary School, Garstang St Thomas Church of England School and SS Mary and Michael Catholic School. The local secondary school is Garstang Community Academy which does not offer sixth form courses; pupils have to travel to Lancaster, Preston or Blackpool and further to sit A-Level courses. The town has seven public houses: The Farmers Arms, the Crown, the Eagle and Child, the King's Arms, the Royal Oak, the Wheatsheaf, Th'Owd Tithe Barn, with the Bellflower (formerly the Flag) in Nateby and Crofters Tavern in Cabus. It has three restaurants: Pipers, Ken Ma and the Great Season, the latter two being Chinese restaurants.
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The establishment of the Crofters' Commission followed this disaster, and social concern at the plight of the West Highland population was not diminished by the failure of the G&NWR; scheme. In October 1887 public opinion in Fort William begun to be mobilised when the Provost N B MacKenzie publicly argued for a Glasgow to Fort William line. Efforts were made to secure the support of the North British Railway and in February 1888 this was given, provided that the Government contributed £300,000 to the scheme. The North British guaranteed £150,000 if local subscriptions were inadequate, as well as guaranteeing 4.5% on the shares (by a complicated formula).
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James Hunter CBE (born 1948) is a historian of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In 2005 he founded the Centre for History in Dornoch as part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, and served as the head of the Centre between 2005–2010. Hunter has held a number of additional posts: he was the director of the Scottish Crofters Union (1985–1990), Chairman of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust (2004–2007) and Chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (1998–2004), the Inverness-based development and training agency for the North of Scotland. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007.
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Captain Ernest Edmund "Ted" Fresson had great experience of flying in Scotland, gained by doing several years of pleasure flights for the public, flying from any available fields near populated areas and drawing large crowds. Fresson saw that air services would dramatically reduce the time it took to travel by ship from the mainland to the Northern Isles and to travel between them, and also avoid the often rough conditions at sea. They would appeal to a very wide range of customers, from businessmen and the military to tourists, crofters and ”fisher lassies”. The public demand encouraged him to form Highland Airways in April 1933, and he became managing director.
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The Garve and Ullapool Railway Act, 1890, of the Westminster Parliament received Royal Assent on 14 August 1890. In the papers relating to this Act, the proprietors of the proposed railway were named as : Lady Mary Matheson of the Lews (widow of James Matheson, 1st Baronet, and owner of the Isle of Lewis and most of Ullapool); Donald Matheson; Major Duncan Matheson; John Arthur Fowler (Sir John’s son); and Major James Houston; and the directors were named all of these except for Lady Matheson. Sir John Fowler was to be Consulting Engineer. The Crofters Party MP for Ross & Cromarty, Dr Roderick Macdonald, also backed the scheme.
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In the 1880s Mackenzie became actively involved in the Highland land issue and campaigned for security of tenure for crofters. In Nuair Chaidh na Ceithir Ùr Oirre, Màiri Mhòr nan Òran describes going with him, Charles Fraser-Mackintosh and others to elicit the support of Mrs. MacRae of Stromeferry for their cause and affectionately tells how "the Clach" discouraged 17-stone Màiri from getting into a rowing boat with the others.Dómhnall Eachann Meek, Mairi Mhór Nan Oran,(Glaschu : Comann Litreachas Gaidhlig na h-Alba,1998) 186-9 First published in 1883, MacKenzie's History of the Highland Clearances has remained in print to the present times.
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He joined the Democratic Federation and served on its executive from at least 1883, working with Joseph Lane and William Morris to oppose H. M. Hyndman's nationalism and authoritarianism. They appeared to succeed at the organisations 1884 conference, at which it declared itself to be a socialist organisation, renamed itself as the "Social Democratic Federation" (SDF), and Scheu won election as president. After the 1884 conference, Scheu returned to work in Edinburgh. There, John Lincoln Mahon persuaded Scheu that the SDF would not succeed unless it linked up with the crofters' movement, and so the pair formed the Scottish Land and Labour League, intending that it would affiliate to the SDF.
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This caused a fear of eviction, to the extent that, at the time of the crofters' war, a speaker at a land reform meeting said "I am ashamed to confess it now that I trembled more before the factor than I did before the Lord of Lords". Factors were generally despised by the communities in which they lived, even after the clearances had ceased. The gaelic-speaking tenants would blame the factor for unpopular policies, but often would not criticise the landowner whose instructions he was following. This tied in with the peasantry clinging to the old values of Highland life, such as ', something that was steadily abandoned by the ruling classes as their estates became commercialised.
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Barra was a particularly hard case and in due course a cause celebre; it had been prosperous, but the hereditary McNeill proprietor had set up a kelp works which had drawn in outsiders; the works had proved uneconomic and to meet its losses the crofters' rents had been raised to unsustainable levels. The kelp works were abandoned, but the high rents retained.letter from Dr Alexander Macleod (factor for Barra and S Uist until 1847) printed as 'The poverty of the people is beyond description' wrote their parish priest in 1830. Despite the high rents, McNeill went bankrupt and his trustees in bankruptcy seized and sold most of the islanders' livestock (their main source of income) to pay rent arrears.
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Mallaig has extensive distance learning facilities, allowing the local population access to all forms of education from leisure classes to university degrees through Lochaber College and the UHI Millennium Institute. The college is one of the most successful of its kind in Britain, with over 8% of the local population accessing its facilities. The college has published a PDF version of the 19th century Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands report. Recently the Learning Centre has opened a marine-specific vocational centre and is at the forefront of developing Marine Certification courses for fishermen, as well as being a RYA certified centre.
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One of many abandoned buildings on Uist The 7th baronet's heir, Godfrey MacDonald (the 4th Baron of Slate) had replaced the emigrants with sheep.A History of the Highland Clearances: Agrarian Transformation and the Evictions 1746–1886, Eric Richards, 1982, Taylor & Francis, p. 420 Having turned a massive profit from this, he chose to preside over one of the most notable mass evictions of the Highland Clearances.The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784–1855, Lucille Campey, 2005, National Heritage Books (Toronto), p. 122 In 1849, he attempted to evict 603 crofters from Sollas, rioting broke out and women being evicted apparently even threw rocks at the police officers who had been sent to quell the riot.
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Lower down the social scale, gardening for many crofters and agricultural labourers was focused around a small area near their house, in Shetland, and to a lesser extent in Orkney, it was often a small drystone enclosure known as a planticrue, which was particularly used for the growing of cabbages, and in the lowlands it was a kailyard,R. A. Doghson, "Everyday structures, rhythms and spaces of the Scottish countryside", in E. A. Foyster and C. A. Whatley, eds, A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 to 1800 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010), , pp. 32, 42 and 57.A. Ritchie and J. N. G. Ritchie, Scotland: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), , p. 233.
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Strathbungo developed as a crofters and miners village in the early 18th century. By the end of that century, over 35 families were living in the village and weaving had become the principal occupation. 1859 and 1860 are the dates of the feuing dispositions granted by Sir John Maxwell of Pollok to the builder John McIntyre and quarrier William Stevenson for the development of the new Strathbungo. 1-10 Moray Place was the first block to be built in the new Strathbungo, to the designs of Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson that set the path for Stratbungo to develop as a residential suburb of Glasgow, linked by the Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston Direct Railway.
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He gained his medical degree in 1902 and served a year as House Surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital, then spent three years in England and on the Continent, and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (F.R.C.S), which he gained despite needing to practice his profession while he studied. While in London he met Janet Catherine "Netta" MacIntyre, a daughter of Patrick B. MacIntyre of Findon, Roseshire of Crofters Commission fame. Janet had trained as a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital in London, and was appointed sister-in-charge of the Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses (now Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery), attached to that hospital.
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A permanent procurator fiscal, Donald Macmillan, had replaced his temporary predecessor, and Gledhill wrote to him to try and have the remaining cases heard under customs legislation. Macmillan told him to establish what the customs commissioners wanted, and at the end of October, Gledhill had been told by his superiors not to press for the punitive charges, but to allow charges of theft; he also asked to be kept informed of any further prosecutions involving four crofters who were found with stashes of whisky on their land. Macmillan wrote back that two of the cases had been dismissed by his predecessor and the remaining two defendants had gone to sea. Neither were prosecuted when they returned.
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The herds of cattle, mainly native Highland or crosses, were large, many of them supplying the London market. Pigs were reared, though in smaller numbers than formerly, most generally by the crofters. As of 1911 about were devoted to deer forests, a greater area than in any other county in Scotland, among the largest being Achnashellach with , Fannich with , Kinlochluichart with , Braemore with , Inchbae with and Dundonnell with . At one time the area under wood must have been remarkable, if we accept the common derivation of the word "Ross" as from the Old Irish ros, a wood, and there was until recent times a considerable extent of native woodland, principally pine, oak, ash and alder.
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In 1803, Lord Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, who was sympathetic to the plight of the dispossessed crofters (tenant farmers in the Highlands), brought 800 colonists to Prince Edward Island. In 1811, he founded the Red River Colony as a Scottish colonization project on an area of 300,000 square kilometres (120,000 sq mi) in what would later be the province of Manitoba — land that was granted by the Hudson's Bay Company, in what is referred to as the Selkirk Concession. Prince Edward Island (PEI) was also heavily influenced by Scottish Gaelic settlers. One prominent settler in PEI was John MacDonald of Glenaladale, who conceived the idea of sending Gaels to Nova Scotia on a grand scale after Culloden.
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An ironworks in Raschau is mentioned for the first time in 1401. In the time of the Reformation came the first sources giving a glimpse of the villagers, and so in 1531, history records, besides 30 landowners, nine crofters and cottagers whose family names are still to be found in the village, among them Teubner, Neubert and Ficker. The 17th century in Raschau was shaped by two catastrophes, the Thirty Years' War and the plague, which last beset the village in 1680. In the time following this, Raschau developed itself quite well; besides the flourishing mining industry at the lodes around the community, there was also lace tatting and the population swelled considerably.
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He was known locally as 'the little general' as he was a man of short stature and the poet Edwin Muir recalled in a memoir of his childhood seeing the little general walking around his estates. Throughout the 19th century, Rousay landlords demanded higher rents from crofters, many of whom were moved in a series of clearances to the far side of Rousay, ordered by previous landowner George William Traill. There is a misconception that Frederick Traill-Burroughs continued this attitude towards his tenants. For example, James Leonard was elected chairman of the tenants' committee, which gave evidence against General Burroughs to Lord Napier, as well as the Royal Commission, when they came to Rousay, in order to discuss tenants' concerns.
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Highland factors played an influential role during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were the implementers and, often, designers of the improvement programs that gave rise to the first phase of the Highland clearances, they managed famine relief, including during the Highland potato famine, they organised evictions and 'assisted passages' during the second phase of the clearances, they gave evidence to government enquiries such as the Napier Commission and they were the object of much of the protest during the crofters' war in the 1880s. In the 17th century, Highland landowners with large estates typically used a family member to carry out the management. This was essentially a role of maintenance: collecting rents, negotiating leases (tacks) and dealing with the ordinary population of the estate.
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After the introduction of watermills at Milton Farm, South Uist, in the early nineteenth century, the tenants continued to hand-grind their grain with querns. As this was considered undesirable, the landlord had the querns broken; similar episodes were recorded in Skye and Tiree. After the Disruption of 1843, many Gaelic-speaking areas deserted the Church of Scotland in favour of the Presbyterian Free Church, which refused to take money from landlords and was often overtly critical of them. Richards describes three attempts at large- scale resistance before the Crofters' War: the Year of the Sheep, protests against Patrick Sellar's clearance of Strathnaver in 1812–4, and the "Dudgeonite agitation" in Easter Ross in 1819–20, sparked by a local tacksman's organization of an emigration fund.
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Their study also assessed people's attitudes towards the idea of releasing wolves into the wild. While the public were generally positive, people living in rural areas were more sensitive, though they were open to the idea provided that they would be reimbursed for livestock losses. Richard Morley, of the Wolves and Humans Foundation (formerly the Wolf Society of Great Britain), forecast in 2007 that public support for wolf reintroduction would grow over the next 15 years, though he criticised previous talks as being too "simple or romantic". He stated that although wolves would be good for tourism, farmers and crofters had serious concerns about the effect that wolves could have on their livestock, particularly sheep, that had to be acknowledged.
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Cottage on the road to Skerray harbour The Skerray economy, historically based on crofting and fishing, saw dramatic changes in its population, which fell from 500 in 1926 to around 100 by the 1980s. In the late 19th century, the North Sea Pilot noted that, "At Skerray, Isle Roan, and Torrisdale, 25 boats and 120 men and boys are employed in the fisheries." Skerray has been a crofting community, though with the decline of crofting in this area, dwellings are expected to be converted to holiday homes. A five-year Scottish National Heritage research project that began in 1994 gave some of Skerry's crofters the opportunity to participate in an agricultural and environmental management study in exchange for annual payments.
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Werner Friedrich Theodor Kissling (or Kißling) (11 April 1895, Breslau, Germany - 3 February 1988, Dumfries, Scotland) was an amateur ethnographer and amateur photographer. He left a rich legacy of photographs and film of the traditional customs and crafts of various world communities, a legacy, which today, now forms a remarkable, valuable record of ‘ways of life’, which have now vanished. The communities that he studied include, the crofters of Eriskay and South Uist, Scotland, the farmers and fisherfolk of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, the Māori of New Zealand, and the craftsmen of North Yorkshire, England. Kissling was an intriguing figure, who, though born into an aristocratic, land-owning family, managed to ‘dispose’ of his multimillion- pound inheritance and die penniless in a Dumfries old folk's home.
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The Scottish Land Court is a Scottish court of law based in Edinburgh with subject-matter jurisdiction covering disputes between landlords and tenants relating to agricultural tenancies, and matters related to crofts and crofters. The Scottish Land Court is both a trial court and an appeal court; hearings at first-instance are often heard by a Divisional Court of one of the Agricultural Members advised by the Principal Clerk. Decisions of the Divisional Court can be appealed to the Full Court, which will consist of at least one legally qualified judicial member and the remaining Agricultural Member. Some cases are heard at first-instance by the Full Court, and these cases may be appealed to the Inner House of the Court of Session.
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He described seeing the bones of adults and children in family groups with the charred remains of their straw mattresses and small household objects still in Massacre Cave; Sir Walter Scott was so appalled and moved on hearing about this, that he started a fund for a Christian burial, which resulted in their removal. The remains of Lower Grulin Sandavore kirk In 1847, the financial woes of the crofters were compounded when the Highland Potato Famine struck. Dr. MacPherson decided that now was the time to evict his tenants, and replace them with sheep, the price of wool having recently undergone substantial increases. In 1853, the whole of the village of Gruilin – fourteen families – were forced to leave Eigg; Brae was cleared in 1858.
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During the course of its existence, Take the High Road went through some major changes and face lifts. Perhaps the most noticeable was the renovation of Blair's store: at first, everything was kept behind the counter as was once common practice; in series two, soon after Brian Blair was released from prison, it was transformed into a walk-around store. A few themes in Take the High Road were broadly in line with Scottish culture – for example, the relationships between crofters like Dougal Lachlan, villagers like storekeeper Isabel Blair, the "lady laird" Elizabeth Cunningham and the estate factor, originally Alan McIntyre. The Protestant religion was a recurring traditional theme and the series highlighted the remoteness of the village and estate.
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They worked with James Small, an older brother of Major-General John Small and formerly an Ensign in Lord Loudoun's Regiment, who had been appointed by the Commissioners for the Forfeited Estates to run the Rannoch estates, which had been seized from the clan chieftains who had supported the Jacobites. The tiny hamlet at the east end of Loch Rannoch, now known as Kinloch Rannoch, was enlarged and settled, mainly by soldiers being discharged from the army, but also by displaced crofters. A wide range of agricultural and other improvement works were undertaken across the estates, including drainage, road making and bridge building. The Soldier's Trenches on Rannoch Moor as seen from the West Highland Line date from this period.
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The trilogy by Väinö Linna affected history research. While many Finns accepted Part II as "the historical truth" for the events of 1918, historians identified the book's distortions: the role of crofters is overemphasised and the role of social liberals and other moderate non-socialists is neglected, but this has not diminished the high value of the trilogy in Finnish literature. , , , , Väinö Linna's trilogy turned the general tide, and after it, several books were written mainly from the Red viewpoint: The Tampere-trilogy by Erkki Lepokorpi in 1977; Juhani Syrjä's "Juho 18" in 1998; "The Command" () by Leena Lander in 2003; and "Sandra" by Heidi Köngäs in 2017. Kjell Westö's epic novel "Where We Once Went" (), published in 2006, deals with the period of 1915–1930 from both the Red and the White sides.
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The Kyle of Lochalsh Line was featured in Eddie McConnell's lyrical documentary The Line to Skye (1973) with commentary by Scottish writer William McIlvanney, commissioned as part of Ross & Cromarty's campaign to keep the line open at a time when it was threatened with closure. The film follows the train from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, describing the communities, landscape and wildlife along its route, while contrasting the frustration of motorists with the relaxation of the journey by rail. In Stephen Durrell's 1939 documentary West of Inverness, the importance of the Kyle of Lochalsh line to the crofters of the West Highlands is demonstrated through its role of transporting passengers, mail, parcels, food and livestock to and from their communities. The film shows the LMS steam locomotives that operated the line at this time.
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In Lapua, Laihia and Mustasaari, not only farmhands, but also house-owners and crofters were banned from having free days. At worst, parish discipline even led to group criminalisation of young people, as was the case in Kauhava and Vähäkyrö in the 1770s and 1780s, in Vöyri in the 1820s and 1830s, and in the greater parishes of Laihia and Lapua a couple of decades later. Parish discipline was implemented as group punishments, and they were only taken to court in certain parishes in southern Ostrobothnia, not elsewhere in Finland – except for a few possible exceptions. All in all, troublemaking was based on the background of a long-term crisis caused by a radical socio-economic change, which triggered youth violence due to the parish discipline managed and maintained by authorities.
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In the central parishes of both Finnish and Swedish-speaking southern Ostrobothnia, those who defended parish laws and regulations particularly directed their aims for power towards young working population, such as house- owners’, crofters’ and independent workers’ children, as well as soldiers and servants, who were in a socially subordinate position. Hundreds of them were fined for violations against parish discipline during the last three decades under the Swedish reign, so it was at the same time the first large-scale youth problem in the Finnish society that we know of. On the local level, order was maintained by masters and, as trustees, mainly village aldermen and lay members of the courts, whose duty was to inform authorities of any violations against rules. Aldermen were sometimes even fined for neglecting their order maintaining duties.
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Hunter (2000) p. 212 The position was exacerbated by the failure of the islands' kelp industry that thrived from the 18th century until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815Hunter (2000) pp. 247, 262Duncan, P. J. "The Industries of Argyll: Tradition and Improvement" in Omand (2006) pp. 157–58 and large scale emigration became endemic.Hunter (2000) p. 280 As , a Gaelic poet from South Uist, wrote for his countrymen who were obliged to leave the Hebrides in the late 18th century, emigration was the only alternative to "sinking into slavery" as the Gaels had been unfairly dispossessed by rapacious landlords. In the 1880s, the "Battle of the Braes" involved a demonstration against unfair land regulation and eviction, stimulating the calling of the Napier Commission. Disturbances continued until the passing of the 1886 Crofters' Act.
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By the end of the 18th century, the spinning of wool yarn from local raw materials had become a staple industry for crofters. Finished handmade cloth was exported to the Scottish mainland and traded, along with other commodities produced by the Islanders, such as goat and deer skins. The lichen Parmelia saxatilis, a lichen known as "crottle", gave a deep red colour and distinctive scent to older Harris Tweed fabrics As the Industrial Revolution reached Scotland, mainland manufacturers developed mechanised weaving methods, with weavers in the Outer Hebrides retaining their traditional processes. The islanders of Lewis and Harris had long been known for the quality of their handwoven fabrics, but up to the middle of the nineteenth century, this fabric was produced mainly for either home use or for trade and barter at the local market.
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He was considered as a potential candidate for the UK Parliament seat of West Fife on several occasions: at the 1889 West Fife by-election, when the local Liberal Association instead selected Augustine Birrell;"Election intelligence", Manchester Guardian, 20 June 1889 at the 1900 general election, when he decided against putting his name forward as the union was divided on its merits;"Election intelligence", Manchester Guardian, 5 August 1900 and finally in 1907, when the Scottish Miners' agreed they would sponsor his candidature at the next general election through the Scottish Workers' Representation Committee, but this did not occur as he died before it took place."Scotch miners' candidates", Manchester Guardian, 23 July 1907 Weir's brother, James Galloway Weir, was well known as a campaigner for Scottish Home Rule and for crofters' rights, who became a Liberal Member of Parliament.
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During the late 18th century, great change swept the Highlands when landowners realised that more income could be generated by clearing areas farmed by tenant crofters to make way for sheep. Termed the Highland Clearances, this coincided with a period of great unrest and social upheaval in Europe which unsettled the authorities in Britain. Strathrusdale became the focus of the clearance policy in 1792 when on the 27th of July the inhabitants of the strath gathered for a wedding in the area where a plot was devised to drive away all the sheep, and by implication all the sheep-farmers. This issue had arose when in May, 1792, the brothers Captain Allan and Alexander Cameron who were leasing the neighboring lands of Kildermorie from Hector Munro, 8th laird of Novar had driven away the cattle belonging to the Strathrusdale people.
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It went on to spin its small turbine manufacturer out into a subsidiary called Britwind, which, in collaboration with a local company, offered free electricity to crofters in return for installing a small turbine, keeping any excess power generated. In March 2015, Ecotricity announced it had refinanced its existing wind farms with the aim of using the extra capital to expand production to 100 megawatts by November 2016. In 2016 Ecotricity had approximately a 25% shareholding stake in competitor Good Energy, which has been sustained to 2020. In the 2017/2018 financial year the company had a turnover of £176 million, with a gross profit of £55 million and a Loss on ordinary activities before tax of £4.9 million, but after charges and revaluation of investments had a "Total comprehensive (loss) for the year" of £9.5 million.
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Whereas most glens are formed naturally, it was a conscious effort by the owners to provide part of the attraction to the Victorian visitor by being able to inspect a wide variety of trees, something which is still evident today. At the beach there were bowling and croquet greens, a mill, crofters' cottages and a bridge accessing the Howstrake Holiday Camp which was on the adjacent headland. At the point where the pack-horse road (now a footpath) crosses the railway line there is an old lime kiln from which the intermediate railway station also takes its name. "Little Isabella" water wheel About 60 yards below the "Little Isabella" wheel, still visible, is the ruin of the base of the refreshment kiosk, just across the stream by the old bandstand,(rebuilt on the site,but much smaller).
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Parliament should therefore authorise loans to assist immigration as they had formerly loans to assist improvements in the distressed areas. With the population reduced, the area could be made more resilient against future crises by giving crofters greater security of tenure (so giving them some incentive for agricultural improvement), by instruction in agriculture and the management of stock, and by better education. "Increased and improved means of education would tend to enlighten the people and to fit them for seeking their livelihood in distant places, as well as tend to break the bonds that now confine them to their native localities", but education should not simply be in the "three Rs"; it should also seek to excite a desire for knowledge in which respect education in the Highlands was currently deficient. This led to the creation by January 1852 of the Highland and Island Emigration Society by Trevelyan and McNeill .
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In a meeting of the island councils in March 2013, leaders of the three local authorities discussed their future in the event of Scottish independence, including whether the islands could demand and achieve autonomous status within either Scotland or the rest of the UK. Among the scenarios proposed were achieving either Crown Dependency status or self- government modelled after the Faroe Islands, in association with either Scotland or the UK. Steven Heddle, Orkney's council leader, described pursuing Crown Dependency status as the least likely option, as it would threaten funding from the EU, which is essential for local farmers. Alasdair Allan, MSP for the Western Isles, said independence could have a positive impact on the isles, as "crofters and farmers could expect a substantial uplift in agricultural and rural development funding via the Common Agricultural Policy if Scotland were an independent member state of the EU".
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In the 21st century, land reform in Scotland has focused on the abolition and modernisation of Scotland's antiquated feudal land tenure system, security of tenure for crofters and decentralisation of Scotland's highly concentrated private land ownership. Scotland's land reform is distinct from other contemporary land reforms in its focus on community land ownership , with the Land Reform (Scotland) Acts of 2003 and 2016 establishing the Community Right to Buy, allowing rural and urban communities first right of refusal to purchase local land when it comes up for sale. Crofting communities are granted a similar Right to Buy though they do not require a willing seller to buy out local crofting land. Under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, Scottish ministers can grant a compulsory sale order for vacant or derelict private land or land which, if owned by the local community, could further sustainable development.
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By the time the Scottish Office was formed in 1885, a number of institutions of government existed exclusively for Scotland: the Board of Supervision for Poor Relief which had been established in 1828, the Fishery Board which had been limited to Scotland in 1849, the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy (established in 1857), the Scotch Education Department (established in 1872), and the Prisons Commission, created in 1877. In 1886, a Crofters Commission was established, and lasted until 1911. In 1894, the Board of Supervision for Poor Relief became the Local Government Board for Scotland, and three years later a Congested Districts Board was established and lasted until 1911. To these were added the Scottish Board of Agriculture in 1912, the Highlands and Islands Medical Services Board the following year, and the Scottish Insurance Commissioners in 1911.James G. Kellas, The Scottish Political System, 4th ed.
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After moving to Glasgow as a teenager to find work as a compositor, McHugh found himself in a city with various possibilities for developing his education as a social reformer. The Irish who had fled to the city in such numbers after the Great Famine were finally starting to organise themselves politically. Native Scots of all classes, especially those Gaels who had come from the Highlands as a result either of the Clearances or the region’s own famine in the 1840s, were contemplating the conditions in which the working classes of Glasgow, and other towns in Scotland, were forced to live. As a member of the Glasgow Home Rule Association, and then the secretary of the Glasgow branch of the Irish Land League, McHugh was singled out as a speaker and organiser of ability, and was chosen to lead a Land League mission to the Scottish Highlands in order to direct the nascent crofters’ agitation along radical lines.
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Despite the name the Harris tweed industry is today focused in Lewis with the major finishing mills in Shawbost and Stornoway. Every length of cloth produced is stamped with the official Orb symbol, trademarked by the Harris Tweed Association in 1909, when Harris Tweed was defined as "hand-spun, hand-woven and dyed by the crofters and cottars in the Outer Hebrides"; Machine-spinning and vat dyeing have since replaced hand methods, and only weaving is now conducted in the home, under the governance of the Harris Tweed Authority, established by an Act of Parliament in 1993. Harris Tweed is now defined as "hand woven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the islands of Harris, Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra and their several purtenances (The Outer Hebrides) and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides."Harris Tweed Authority, "Fabric History", retrieved 21 May 2007.
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While working there, he attended a public meeting of the Napier Commission and became active in the land reform movement.The dates given for Macleod's early career are somewhat confusing, as his biography in the Highland News outlines a period of training in Glasgow, "close on four years" working for the Tharsis Sulphur & Copper Company (in Glasgow?), a period of training in London, and work in Wales before going to Sutherland in 1883 - when he was 21. Other evidence places him in Sutherland as early as the summer of 1881, when he was living with his aunt at the time of the 1881 census, and working with a local miner in 1880-81. Through the 1880s, he campaigned for the Highland Land League, and was one of the founders of the Sutherland county branch of the movement. He was the campaign agent for Angus Sutherland in the 1885 and 1886 general elections, when Sutherland was elected as the Crofters candidate for the county.
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Both Glasgow and Greenock had sizeable Gaelic-speaking communities at the time. It is thought that she probably sang at many of these ceilidhs as there is evidence of her frequently doing so after she retired to Skye in 1882. By this time she had acquired a reputation for her songs and her championing of the crofters in the increasingly heated debate over land rights. She sang at the first ever National Mòd in Oban in 1892 but did not win a medal.Dòmhnall Eachainn Meek,“Màiri Mhòr nan Òran : Taghadh de a h-Òrain” (Dùn Eideann : Comann Litreachas Gàidhlig na h-Alba, 1998)pp27-28 &30Somhairle Mac Gill-eain, "Ris a' Bhruaithaich The Criticism and Prose Writing of Sorley MacLean" (Stornoway : Acair, 1985)251Photograph of Mairi Mhor with her spinning whorl On returning to Skye she lived with a friend, Mrs MacRae of Os, until Lachlann MacDonald, laird of Sgèabost provided her with a rent free cottage.
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From the first his professorial lectures were conspicuous for the unconventional enthusiasm with which he endeavoured to revivify the study of the classics; and his growing reputation, added to the attention excited by a translation of Aeschylus which he published in 1850, led to his appointment in 1852 to the professorship of Greek at Edinburgh University, in succession to George Dunbar, a post which he continued to hold for thirty years. He was somewhat erratic in his methods, but his lectures were a triumph of influential personality. A journey to Greece in 1853 prompted his essay On the Living Language of the Greeks, a favorite theme of his, especially in his later years; he adopted for himself a modern Greek pronunciation, and before his death he endowed a travelling scholarship to enable students to learn Greek at Athens. Scottish nationality was another source of enthusiasm with him; and in this connection he displayed real sympathy with highland home life and the grievances of the crofters.
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The royal cypher – a problem for Home and the Scottish Office Throughout Churchill's second term as Prime Minister (1951–1955) Home remained at the Scottish Office, although both Eden at the Foreign Office and Lord Salisbury at the Commonwealth Relations Office invited him to join their ministerial teams. Among the Scottish matters with which he dealt were hydro-electric projects, hill farming, sea transport, road transport, forestry, and the welfare of crofters in the Highlands and the Western Isles. These matters went largely unreported in the British press, but the question of the royal cypher on Post Office pillar boxes became front-page news. Because Elizabeth I of England was never queen of Scotland, some nationalists maintained when Elizabeth II came to the British throne in 1952 that in Scotland she should be styled "Elizabeth I". Churchill said in the House of Commons that considering the "greatness and splendour of Scotland", and the contribution of the Scots to British and world history, "they ought to keep their silliest people in order".
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Charles Fraser-Mackintosh (, 1828 – 25 January 1901) was a Scottish lawyer, land developer, author and Liberal and Crofters Party politician. He was a significant champion of the Scottish Gaelic language in Victorian Britain. Fraser-Mackintosh was the son of Alexander Fraser, of Dochnalurg, Inverness, and his wife Marjory Mackintosh. He assumed the additional surname of Mackintosh by royal licence 1857.Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886 He trained as a lawyer and became a councillor in Inverness. He was heavily involved in land and development in the town and was chairman of the Anglo- American Land Mortgage and Agency Co. Using money he made from the construction of Union Street, he bought and laid out the Drummond estate (1863), which had previously belonged to Fraser-Mackintosh's great-great uncle Provost Phineas Mackintosh and Ballifeary estates (1860s).Am Baile Highland History and Culture Fraser-Mackintosh was also a captain in the Inverness- shire Rifle Volunteers from 1860 and a J.P. for Inverness-shire. As a lawyer, he had access to many rare manuscripts and documents, and these formed the basis for his own published works on Scottish history.
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Also important is Carmichael's two written testimonies to the Napier Commission of 1883 into the condition of Scottish crofters. All five volumes of Napier have now been scanned and placed online by Lochaber College, and an extract PDF, containing just the Carmichael material with its ethnographic account, is online at the external link below. In the Napier material that in some of the "old hymns" cited, Carmichael specifies "close translation", and not so with others. A folklorist with an approach to living tradition such as that of the late Hamish Henderson (also of the University of Edinburgh) on seeing such specification might have surmised that in some cases, where "close translation" was not specified, Carmichael allowed himself to enter into the tradition by allowing it to flow via his own interpretation of what he heard ... and that as an indigenous West Highland himself (from Lismore) this could be considered as being eminently appropriate - depending on how one views the rigidity or fluidity of a folk tradition..His person collection of artefacts was gifted by his family to The West Highland Museum where it is on display.
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