Posts Tagged ‘Highland Clearances’
Researching the Highlands inspires magical paintings
Faithful readers will know that I have been researching a book about the Highland Clearances. It is called Flight of the Highlanders: Canada’s First Refugees. And it will be published next autumn by Patrick Crean Editions / HarperCollins Canada. But this post is not about that. This is a post about Sheena Fraser McGoogan, with…
Read MoreVoyage around Scotland inspires Celtic Life spread on the Highland Clearances
The October issue of Celtic Life International features a gorgeous 3-page spread on the 1853 Highland Clearances at Knoydart. The writer — that would be moi — turned up in the vicinity by great good fortune while sailing with Adventure Canada earlier this year. A version of the article, which begins roughly as below, will…
Read MoreThe ‘most hated man in Scotland’ is killing my buzz in the Islands
In the mid-19th century, he was “the most hated man in Scotland.” For sure he had competition, but Colonel John Gordon lived in a fabulous castle (see below) and was also known as Scotland’s “richest commoner.” Here in the Highlands and Islands, Gordon’s ghost has been killing my buzz. That’s not because he was wealthy, but…
Read MoreStumbling across a Highland Clearance site is my idea of a good time
Did I mention my interest in Scottish-Canadian connections? Today we stumbled on the ruins of a tacksman’s house in Upper Bornish Clearance Village. This brought us face to face with a well-documented Highland Clearance that sent thousands to Canada. We were rambling around on South Uist, roughly ten kilometres north of Lochboisdale, where the ferry…
Read MoreBonnie Prince Charlie points the way forward for the 21st century
They call this The Prince’s Shore. It’s on the tiny island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, linked to South Uist by a two-lane causeway and to the Isle of Barra by ferry. This is where, on July 23, 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie first set foot on Scottish soil. A hubristic twit with an astonishing…
Read MoreA cairn marks site of the most famous of all Highland Clearances
The pointing arrow said 3.2 kilometres. Already we had driven 5.7 kilometres along a winding, pot-holed, one-lane road that hugged the side of the small mountain. Happily, we had encountered no vehicles, no cyclists — in fact, nothing but recalcitrant sheep who frequently stood defiant in the middle of the road until we beeped our…
Read MoreDunrobin Castle is the most politically incorrect edifice in the UK
Here we have the splendiferous Dunrobin Castle, the most politically incorrect edifice in all of the United Kingdom. In the early to mid-1800s, the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland ordered (though they did not personally orchestrate) the infamous Sutherland Clearances. This entailed forcibly evicting thousands of tenant farmers from the lands of their forefathers. Many…
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