Crofters' Protest 

During the nineteenth century, much of the Highlands was cleared of people to make way for sheep and deer. Some Highlanders headed for Glasgow and other lowland towns and cities. Others went abroad, to Canada, America, Australia or New Zealand. And those that stayed in the Highlands were crowded together in small areas of poor land near the coast.

As they tried to scrape a living out of their crofts, these Highlanders grew bitter and angry towards the landlords who owned the land. The landlords made their money out of sheep or from deer-stalking or grouse-shooting, not from crofters. Deer would eat the crofters' crops, and if the crofters kept dogs to protect their crops, the dogs would be shot by the landlord's gamekeeper. The crofters were not allowed to cut heather or rushes from the hills in case they disturbed the grouse, and so they could not repair the thatched roofs of their houses. They couldn't even complain to the local magistrate if the landlord broke the law, because the landlord often was the magistrate. Anger led to unrest. There were riots on Lewis in 1874. In 1882 things came to a head on Skye.

The Battle of Braes

Braes, the district of Skye running along the edge of the narrows of Raasay, was a typical crofting area. From May to September each year most of the young men left their crofts to work with the fishing fleets as they followed the herring round the coast of Scotland. 

The women looked after the crofts: a few acres of land with a few sheep, perhaps a cow or a pig or a horse, and a potato patch. For years the crofters' sheep had grazed on nearby Ben Lee. Then in 1882 the landlord suddenly denied them access. They tried to rent the land back from him, and when he refused they turned their sheep on to the hill anyway. 

The Sheriff of Inverness-shire ordered a strong force of 60 policemen from Glasgow to evict crofters, and at the crack of dawn one April morning this police force marched from Portree into Braes arrested six men and set off back to Portree. 

Outraged, hundreds of crofters from Braes and other settlements set off in pursuit. At one point they rained boulders from the top of a cliff onto the police on the road below. There were hand to hand fights, baton charges, split heads. Amazingly, no one was killed, but when the police finally reached Portree with five prisoners there were many injuries to be attended to. 

Feelings were running high among the crofters. More trouble flared up in Lewis, then in Glendale on Skye. Fences were pulled down, hay ricks were set ablaze. The newspapers had taken a big interest in the disturbances, and in the trial of the Braes men. The government began to panic, and sent warships and troops to Skye. But it was becoming obvious that crofters could not be put down by force, that something had to be done to solve their problems. The press, Church and public opinion in the Lowlands and in England always in the past had been hostile to the Highlanders. Now they started pushing for reforms, and in 1883 the government asked Lord Napier to lead an inquiry. His report revealed a shocking story. The Highlanders had faced, it said, 'a state of misery, wrong-doing, and of patient long-suffering, without parallel in the history of our country.' 

In 1885 the Highlanders put more pressure on government when they elected four crofters MPs in a general election. 

And so in 1886 the government passed Crofters' Act, which is sometimes called the Magna Carta of the West Highlands. It put a stop to forced evictions and took away the landlord's right to charge whatever rent he liked. The crofters had gained a victory, the first for many a long year. 

UPh

Exercises

Exercise 1:
Read the text. Underline 5 words which you do not understand. Using a dictionary find out what they mean. Write the meaning in English.

Exercise 2: 
Look at the words your partner has underlined. Ask your partner to explain the meanings in English. 

Exercise 3: 
Working with your partner decide what questions you would ask if you were a reporter at the scene of the riots. 

Your partner should try to answer as if he had been there.

Vocabulary

crofter   a farmer, usually with a cow, some sheep and a little fertile land 

headed for   set off

deer-stalking   hunting and shooting of deer 

thatched roofs   usually straw roofs, but in this part of Scotland they used heather and rushes from the bills 

Inverness-shire   shire, the old name for a region, in this case under control of Inverness

rained boulders   threw rocks down so that it was like rain 

baton charges   the police used a weapon called a baton - a short wooden stick

UPh