ON Friday I was working in Strathconon, an undoubtedly beautiful glen, somewhere I had never been before. Alas, it is also the location of some of the most inhuman clearances effected against the people of Scotland, ever.
I started to think of what might have been had the landowner not cleared the people and had instead assisted them improve their lot, not just in Strathconon but throughout the Highlands. In this glen, as in many glens, work was not always available for the population so many of the inhabitants went in search of work throughout Scotland, finding seasonal employment at fishing from harbours in Caithness or at harvest time in the east of the country.
More long-term employment was found as navvies building the railways in the east of Scotland as well as in the Central Belt and Borders, though this didn’t last for too many years and the Highlander soon found themselves back home with very little chance of improving his or her lot.
Small black cattle, poor ground and growing families put a strain on their ability to make ends meet and pay their rent. Often the “club farm” system was overburdened by too many people occupying the farm, having so little income they were unable to meet their rent when due. What if a little investment had been made by the landowner? What if more arable land had been afforded to the tenant farmer? Instead of sheep farms and deer parks, could we have had improved land? Could we have had growing townships? Could we today be settled in an inclusive, wealthy, happy, Highland environment?
The clearances in Strathconon happened between 1840 and 1848, with many people being forcibly removed to the Black Isle, Knockfarrel, Loch Ussie, Drynie Park, where they became productive and gainful tenants of these communities. Some were removed from the Highlands completely, seeking work in Glasgow and the Central Belt, some even being removed to cross to the new world.
Today, it’s around 171 years since the Strathconon clearances and not much has changed since. The population has never really recovered, and a large part of today’s population are not native to the Glen, but may be described as incomers. Not that these incomers should be discriminated against, but it highlights further the poor development of economics in the Highlands, if not in Scotland as a whole, since these clearances took place and before. Game fishing, deer parks and sheep dominate the Glen, as well as two dams providing Hydro electric power to the National Grid.
The two dams provide a couple of large lochs where the estates in the Glen charge people to fish them. The estates charge people to hunt for deer. The few crofters who occupy the Glen don’t see much return on the sheep they raise or the wool they produce. Large tracts of forestry also cover the hillsides of Strathconon, and lumber lorries thunder down the single-track road where once tenant farmers drove their black cattle to market at Dingwall or Inverness.
It’s been 312 years since Westminster became the Parliament for the whole of the UK. Where England’s population and economy has exploded, our population has been artificially curtailed and our economy hasn’t achieved its potential. Scottish natural resources provide massive revenues to the UK Exchequer but Scotland receives very little investment in comparison to London or the south-east of England.
Scotland and its representatives are treated as insignificant and as a thorn in the side of the Westminster establishment. The will of the Scottish people while acknowledged by Westminster is not just ignored but denied by the Westminster Government, who are quick to spin their own take on what is best for the people of Scotland. Time is past now for quiet acceptance of that which the UK Government deems is for the good of Scotland. It is time now for the sovereign people of Scotland to decide what is good for Scotland.
While Scotland has no actual financial national debt, I would suggest that Scotland has a debt to the those who went before us, those of Strathconon, Strathnaver and every community that was affected by the clearances. We have a moral debt to take control of our own affairs and make Scotland the country it should have been 171 years ago.
Billy Maclean
Glenmoriston
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