The emptying of the glens
The Sutherland Clearances stand as the most infamous chapter of the Highland Clearances — the systematic eviction of thousands of people from their ancestral homes to make way for sheep. Between 1811 and 1820, the Countess of Sutherland and her husband the Marquess of Stafford, one of the wealthiest men in Britain, oversaw the removal of an estimated 15,000 people from the interior of Sutherland to cramped coastal settlements or emigrant ships.
The evictions were carried out by the estate factor Patrick Sellar, whose name became synonymous with cruelty. Sellar supervised the burning of homes while elderly and infirm tenants were still inside. In 1816, he was tried for culpable homicide after an elderly woman, Margaret Mackay, died in the burning of her home at Strathnaver. Sellar was acquitted by a jury of his fellow landowners, a verdict that outraged public opinion but surprised no one. The law served the interests of property, not of people.
The cleared tenants were moved to small plots on the coast, where they were expected to become fishermen — a trade most of them knew nothing about. Others were forced onto emigrant ships bound for Canada and Australia. The Gaelic-speaking communities of Strathnaver, Kildonan, and the interior of Sutherland were destroyed. Villages that had existed for centuries vanished. The landscape that visitors see today in much of Sutherland — empty, treeless moorland — is not a natural wilderness but the product of deliberate depopulation.
A memorial statue known as the Mannie stands above Helmsdale, looking out over the Strath of Kildonan where the clearances were most brutal. The ruins of cleared townships can still be found throughout Sutherland, their stone walls slowly disappearing into the heather. The Strathnaver Museum at Bettyhill tells the story of the clearances with devastating simplicity. For many visitors to the Highlands, understanding the Clearances transforms the landscape from picturesque emptiness into a landscape of loss — and makes the beauty of the glens all the more haunting.