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From 1840 to 1848
Strathconon was almost entirely cleared of its ancient inhabitants to
make room for sheep and deer, as in other places; and also for the
purposes of extensive forest plantations. The property was under
trustees when the harsh proceedings were commenced by the factor, Mr.
Rose, a notorious Dingwall solicitor. He began by taking away, first,
the extensive hill-pasture, for generations held as club-farms by the
townships, thus reducing the people from a position of comfort and
independence ; and secondly, as we saw done elsewhere, finally evicting
them from the arable portion of the strath, though they were not a
single penny in arrear of rent. Coirre-Bhuic and Scard-Roy were first
cleared, and given, respectively, as sheep-farms to Mr. Brown, from
Morayshire, and Colin Munro, from Dingwall. Mr. Balfour, when he came of
age, cleared Coire-Feola and Achadhan-eas ; Carnach was similarly
treated, while no fewer than twenty-seven families were evicted from
GlenMeine alone. Baile-a-Mhuilinn and Baile-na-Creige were cleared in
1844, no fewer than twenty-four families from these townships removing
to the neighbourhood of Knock-farrel and Loch Ussie, above Dingwall,
where they were provided with holdings by the late John Hay Mackenzie of
Cromartie, father of the present Duchess of Sutherland, and where a few
of themselves and many of their descendants are now in fairly
comfortable circumstances. A great many more found shelter on various
properties in the Black Isle---some at Drynie Park, lraol-Bui; others at
Kilcoy, Allangrange, Cromarty, and the Aird.
It is computed that from
four to five hundred souls were thus driven from Strathconon, and cast
adrift on the world, including a large number of persons quite helpless,
from old age, blindness, and other infirmities. The scenes were much the
same as we have described in connection with other places. There is,
however, one apect of the harshness and cruelty practised on the
Strathconon people, not applicable in many other cases, namely, that in
most instances where they settled down and reclaimed land, they were
afterwards re-evicted, and the lands brought into cultivation by
themselves, taken from them, without any compensation whatever, and
given at enhanced rents to large farmers. This is specially true of
those who settled down in the Black Isle, where they reclaimed a great
deal of waste now making some of the best farms in that district. Next
after Mr. Rose of Dingwall, the principal instrument in clearing
Strathconon, was the late James Gillanders of Highfield, already so well
and unfavourably known to the reader in connection with the evictions at
Glencalvie and elsewhere.
It may be remarked that
the Strathconon evictions are worthy of note for the forcible
illustration they furnish of how, by these arbitrary and unexpected
removals, hardships and ruin have frequently been brought on families
and communities who were at the time in contented and comfortable
circumstances. At one time, and previous to the earlier evictions,
perhaps no glen of its size in the Highlands had a larger population
than Strathconon. The club farm system, once so common in the North,
seems to have been peculiarly successful here. Hence a large proportion
of the people were well to do, but when suddenly called upon to give up
their hill pasture, and afterwards their arable land, and in the absence
of other suitable places to settle in, the means they had very soon
disappeared, and the trials and difficulties of new conditions had to be
encountered. As a rule, in most of these Highland evictions, the evicted
were lost sight of, they having either emigrated to foreign lands or
become absorbed in the ever-increasing unemployed population of the
large towns. In the case of Strathconon it was different, as has been
already stated; many of the families evicted were allowed to settle on
some of the wildest unreclaimed land in the Black Isle. Their subsequent
history there, and the excellent agricultural condition into which they
in after years brought their small holdings, is a standing refutation of
the charge so often made against the Highland people, that they are lazy
and incapable of properly cultivating the land. |
