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1750c. 1750–1860 · Sutherland, Scottish Highlands

The Highland Clearances

The Emigrants statue at Helmsdale: a Highland family in bronze setting out from their glen
Photo: Dave Conner. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Highland landowners evicted tenant communities to make room for large sheep farms, most notoriously on the Sutherland estates between 1811 and 1821, when townships in Strathnaver were burned. Families were moved to poor coastal crofts or left for Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Ruined townships still mark the glens, and descendants of the emigrants come back to find them.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Rosal township, StrathnaverFoundations of a cleared township with interpretation boards along a trail.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Strathnaver Museum, BettyhillFormer church telling the story of the Strathnaver evictions.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Emigrants statue, HelmsdaleBronze family leaving their home, unveiled in 2007.Map ↗
  4. Site 4: Duke of Sutherland monument, Ben BhraggieHilltop statue of the first Duke, long a focus of protest.Map ↗

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Also in Inverness and Culloden

More from the 18th & 19th Century

Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.