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Changing Face Of The Highlands (Chapter Two)

© Simon Hill

The widespread consolidation and extension of sheep farming led to the mass clearances and forced emigrations of the 1840's and 1850's. These clearances became less and less frequent towards the end of the 1860's partly due to a fall in the profits to be made from sheepfarming. Consequently in the late 1860's and 1870's the situation for most crofters was more stable than ever before, and incomes were rising. However, the crofters still lacked real security in the eyes of the law in that they had no fixity of tenure, they received no compensation for improvements made to their housing (and in some cases the rent was actually increased because of improvements they had made), and they could not appeal to the court about high rents.

Throughout their history crofters were at constant risk of eviction, the landlord had the right to evict for little or no reason and it really wasn't until public and political opinion changed that it became difficult for landowners to evict tenants. It wasn't until 1886, with the passing of the Crofters Act, that crofters had real security of tenure. This fear of eviction discouraged the crofters from reporting greivances and increased their desperation to somehow find the rent money.

Although incomes were increasing this produced no long term security and despite improvement in living standards the Highlands still represented virtually the worst area in Britain in terms of incomes and housing. Many crofters still lived in black houses with an earth floor, turf roof and no windows. The family would sleep at one end and the livestock at the other. This level of hardship is difficult to imagine and would make even urban slums an attractive prospect by comparison. The combination of damp housing, low incomes and insanitary conditions meant health was generally poor. Crofters were faced with a situation of having to work in other industries every year because their land could not ultimately support them and until that issue was addressed there was not likely to be any real change in the precarious nature of Highland life.

Despite the major clearances being over by the 1870's the economic situation forced continued migration and emigration of the population. The strict control of subdivision by many Highland landowners meant that the land could not be divided among the children and would go in most cases to the first born son. The other children were forced to migrate in order to find employment, many went south to Scotland's major cities, particularly Glasgow where there were abundant employment opportunities. These migrants with links in the Highlands would later become avid supporters of the crofters demands and must have influenced those around them, helping create a great deal of sympathy and support for the crofters plight. In fact many of the Highlanders who moved south permanently to cities such as Glasgow later formed the leadership of the protesters in the Crofters Wars. The seasonal migration of crofters introduced them to life elsewhere in Scotland and although there was urban squalor they must have felt angered at the hardships they were forced to endure in the Highlands.

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