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Set Adrift Upon the World: The Sutherland Clearances
They would be better dead, they said, than set adrift upon the world. But set adrift they were – thousands of them, their communities destroyed, their homes demolished and burned. Such were the Sutherland Clearances, an extraordinary episode, involving the deliberate depopulation of much of a Scottish county. In this book James Hunter tells the story of the Sutherland Clearances.
416 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2015
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152 people want to read
About the author
James Hunter
189 books40 followersJames Hunter was brought up in North Argyll. He was educated at Duror Primary School, Oban High School and Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities.
He was the first director of the Scottish Crofters Union which he helped to establish as a highly effective pressure group with a substantial membership right across the crofting areas.
A journalist, broadcaster and writer, Hunter has published a number of books about the Highlands and Islands. He has lectured in Britain and North America on Highland history and on Scottish environmental and land use issues, as well as making many radio and television programmes.
He was the first director of the Scottish Crofters Union which he helped to establish as a highly effective pressure group with a substantial membership right across the crofting areas.
A journalist, broadcaster and writer, Hunter has published a number of books about the Highlands and Islands. He has lectured in Britain and North America on Highland history and on Scottish environmental and land use issues, as well as making many radio and television programmes.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 15, 2023
By 1821, in a period of less than 10 years, between 150 and 200 distinct, individually named townships in Strathbrora, Strath of Kildonan and Strathnaver, were cleared to make way for just 8 large scale sheep farms. In just two of those years, thousands of people were ordered out of their homes - 704 families in 1819, 419 in 1820 - all in the name of improvement.
Yesterday, I visited Grummore and Grumbeg, two of these cleared villages. They sit on the banks of Loch Naver and their remains can still be clearly seen. It is a beautiful location. Compared to the living standards of the time, in industrial cities, for example. those living in the straths’ townships were not on the whole poor people. They owned livestock, often large herds of black cattle that grazed on shared land, and they grew crops. Rather than move to the tiny lots (not usually big enough for more than one cow) they were offered elsewhere, such as on the north coast where land had never been cultivated and they had to start from scratch clearing it and building a new home, many had the means to buy land in Caithness, the county to the north east, or to pay their way to Canada on one of the emigrant ships leaving from Cromarty. Yet Patrick Sellar, one of the sheep farmers responsible for not only loss of people’s homes but also for loss of life, described them as living in barbarous sloth and filth, a parcel of beggars who insisted on communicating in Gaelic, which he referred to as a barbarous jargon despite it having attained a written form well in advance of English, all in an effort to dehumanise them and justify his actions.
Henrietta (Henny) Munro returned to Grumbeg having been widowed when her soldier husband died. Her friends and neighbours built her a small cottage and gave her a cow. Donald Sage, a preacher who wrote an account of the clearances, recalled that everyone who got acquainted with old Henny Munro could only desire to do her a good turn were it merely for the warm….expressions of gratitude with which it was received. In May 1819, when the evicting party arrived at Grumbeg and she realised her home was about to be set on fire, Henny pleaded for her furniture - the coarsest and most valueless that could well be but still her earthly all. She first asked that, as her neighbours were so occupied with their own furniture, hers might be allowed to remain until they should be free to remove it for her. This request was curtly refused. She then besought [the evicting party] to allow a shepherd, who was present and offered his services for that purpose, to remove the furniture to his own residence on the opposite shore [of Loch Naver], to remain there until she could carry it away. This also was refused, and she was told with an oath that, if she did not take her trumpery off within half an hour, it would be burned. The poor widow … addressed herself to the work of dragging her chests, beds, [etc] … out at the door, and placing them at the gable end of her cottage. No sooner was her task accomplished than the torch was applied. The widow’s hut, built of very combustible material, speedily ignited…..The wind unfortunately blew in the direction of Henny’s furniture and the flame, lighting upon [the widow’s belongings] speedily reduced them to ashes.
On whose orders were Patrick Sellar and others acting? On the orders of the landowners, the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford. He was a millionaire and she was the Countess of Sutherland, owner of the largest estate in Europe at that time. They would become the first Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. By turning their land into large scale, tenanted sheep farms, they could profit from higher rentals and lower management costs. They appeared to believe they were doing the small tenants a favour by removing them elsewhere. They knew those they were evicting wouldn’t be able to subsist on the new land they were given but decided that this was an opportunity for them to take up other occupations, such as fishing. All very well except that none had any experience of fishing and there were no harbours on the rocky, inhospitable north coast. Perhaps they were upset at the bad press their actions got, not just locally but also in London? Perhaps they were embarrassed at Patrick Sellar’s trial for culpable homicide owing to the death of a bed bound old woman who had to be carried out of her burning home by her daughter in law? Perhaps they didn’t believe the accounts they were being given of the inhumane treatment being meted out? Perhaps….but they did nothing to stop it. In fact, the Marchioness stayed down south for several years while the clearances were being carried out as her estate managers felt it would be unsafe for her to be in the area.
It’s all too easy to over simplify the story of the clearances. This is a dense book, widely researched and full of detailed information that can’t be summarised in a short review. It gives both sides of the story but anyone hearing it, including Lord Napier who conducted an enquiry into the clearances in 1883, can only rationally take one side. It’s a horror story and one that will never be forgotten or forgiven.
Yesterday, I visited Grummore and Grumbeg, two of these cleared villages. They sit on the banks of Loch Naver and their remains can still be clearly seen. It is a beautiful location. Compared to the living standards of the time, in industrial cities, for example. those living in the straths’ townships were not on the whole poor people. They owned livestock, often large herds of black cattle that grazed on shared land, and they grew crops. Rather than move to the tiny lots (not usually big enough for more than one cow) they were offered elsewhere, such as on the north coast where land had never been cultivated and they had to start from scratch clearing it and building a new home, many had the means to buy land in Caithness, the county to the north east, or to pay their way to Canada on one of the emigrant ships leaving from Cromarty. Yet Patrick Sellar, one of the sheep farmers responsible for not only loss of people’s homes but also for loss of life, described them as living in barbarous sloth and filth, a parcel of beggars who insisted on communicating in Gaelic, which he referred to as a barbarous jargon despite it having attained a written form well in advance of English, all in an effort to dehumanise them and justify his actions.
Henrietta (Henny) Munro returned to Grumbeg having been widowed when her soldier husband died. Her friends and neighbours built her a small cottage and gave her a cow. Donald Sage, a preacher who wrote an account of the clearances, recalled that everyone who got acquainted with old Henny Munro could only desire to do her a good turn were it merely for the warm….expressions of gratitude with which it was received. In May 1819, when the evicting party arrived at Grumbeg and she realised her home was about to be set on fire, Henny pleaded for her furniture - the coarsest and most valueless that could well be but still her earthly all. She first asked that, as her neighbours were so occupied with their own furniture, hers might be allowed to remain until they should be free to remove it for her. This request was curtly refused. She then besought [the evicting party] to allow a shepherd, who was present and offered his services for that purpose, to remove the furniture to his own residence on the opposite shore [of Loch Naver], to remain there until she could carry it away. This also was refused, and she was told with an oath that, if she did not take her trumpery off within half an hour, it would be burned. The poor widow … addressed herself to the work of dragging her chests, beds, [etc] … out at the door, and placing them at the gable end of her cottage. No sooner was her task accomplished than the torch was applied. The widow’s hut, built of very combustible material, speedily ignited…..The wind unfortunately blew in the direction of Henny’s furniture and the flame, lighting upon [the widow’s belongings] speedily reduced them to ashes.
On whose orders were Patrick Sellar and others acting? On the orders of the landowners, the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford. He was a millionaire and she was the Countess of Sutherland, owner of the largest estate in Europe at that time. They would become the first Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. By turning their land into large scale, tenanted sheep farms, they could profit from higher rentals and lower management costs. They appeared to believe they were doing the small tenants a favour by removing them elsewhere. They knew those they were evicting wouldn’t be able to subsist on the new land they were given but decided that this was an opportunity for them to take up other occupations, such as fishing. All very well except that none had any experience of fishing and there were no harbours on the rocky, inhospitable north coast. Perhaps they were upset at the bad press their actions got, not just locally but also in London? Perhaps they were embarrassed at Patrick Sellar’s trial for culpable homicide owing to the death of a bed bound old woman who had to be carried out of her burning home by her daughter in law? Perhaps they didn’t believe the accounts they were being given of the inhumane treatment being meted out? Perhaps….but they did nothing to stop it. In fact, the Marchioness stayed down south for several years while the clearances were being carried out as her estate managers felt it would be unsafe for her to be in the area.
It’s all too easy to over simplify the story of the clearances. This is a dense book, widely researched and full of detailed information that can’t be summarised in a short review. It gives both sides of the story but anyone hearing it, including Lord Napier who conducted an enquiry into the clearances in 1883, can only rationally take one side. It’s a horror story and one that will never be forgotten or forgiven.
September 14, 2016
This study of the part of the Highland Clearances that took place on the Sutherland Estate in the first quarter of the 19th century makes for an important new book. James Hunter locates the Clearances, infamous for the role of Patrick Sellar and the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford (later the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland), not as part of an inevitable economic development, but as a brutal part of the class struggle in the Scottish Highlands between landowner and tenant.
As a consequence the author shows how the modern Scottish landscape, enjoyed by thousands of tourists every year, has been fundamentally shaped by this struggle. A landscape that resulted from centuries of farming, was in turn transformed by sheep farming and a later switch to grouse and deer. Thus the "natural" landscapes are not natural in the slightest, they are the result of centuries of human labour and the victory of a tiny number of landowners over thousands of farming families. The homes, schools and churches that were used by thousands of people now lie buried and forgotten with the soil itself tainted by the blood spilt during the evictions.
Full review on the blog: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
As a consequence the author shows how the modern Scottish landscape, enjoyed by thousands of tourists every year, has been fundamentally shaped by this struggle. A landscape that resulted from centuries of farming, was in turn transformed by sheep farming and a later switch to grouse and deer. Thus the "natural" landscapes are not natural in the slightest, they are the result of centuries of human labour and the victory of a tiny number of landowners over thousands of farming families. The homes, schools and churches that were used by thousands of people now lie buried and forgotten with the soil itself tainted by the blood spilt during the evictions.
Full review on the blog: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
June 21, 2022
I purchased a paperback copy of this book in May 2022 at the Brora Heritage Centre in Scotland. It was during this same visit that I learned, to my absolute horror, that my own family members (Donald MacKay and his wife Mary McKenzie, along with his sister Isabelle MacKay and her husband Adam MacDonald) were among those "cleared" in 1821 when the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, as they were later known, decided to evict thousands of tenant farmers to make room for grazing their sheep.
I had heard of the Highland Clearances before, but experienced the shock in a very visceral way after Dr. Nick Lindsay from the Heritage Centre drove me to the former site of the community of Ascoilemore where my family had once lived. I stood on the foundations of their home and gazed at the same river and mountains they saw every day, before sailing to Nova Scotia and beginning a new life in Canada.
This is not only an exhaustively researched book that draws on what surely must be every other published and oral source, but also brings to life the personal stories of the people who once lived there. Reading this book made me feel as if the events described took place just yesterday. In fact, the current Duke of Sutherland still owns the land and still lives on his estate at Dunrobin Castle a few miles down the road.
I had heard of the Highland Clearances before, but experienced the shock in a very visceral way after Dr. Nick Lindsay from the Heritage Centre drove me to the former site of the community of Ascoilemore where my family had once lived. I stood on the foundations of their home and gazed at the same river and mountains they saw every day, before sailing to Nova Scotia and beginning a new life in Canada.
This is not only an exhaustively researched book that draws on what surely must be every other published and oral source, but also brings to life the personal stories of the people who once lived there. Reading this book made me feel as if the events described took place just yesterday. In fact, the current Duke of Sutherland still owns the land and still lives on his estate at Dunrobin Castle a few miles down the road.
October 12, 2020
While this book no-doubt did tremendous service to the people of Scotland with outstanding scholarship, maturity, and humanism, this reader found the writing style akin to all those old jacket-less books published in the ‘60s and ‘70s we had to check out of the public library in the ‘80s to complete our high-school history class essays. A plug on the cover from The Herald claims “Hunter’s scholarship is breathtaking”; unfortunately, I could hardly keep my eyes open.
It’s kinda funny, but about this time last year we were in Scotland, hiking the West Highland Way, and seeing just about everything between Edinburgh, Fort William, and Inverness—and wondering if we should just relocate to Kinlochlevin. Now, in 2020, with the US flirting with self-destruction, we wonder even more—if Scotland can win its independence from the not-so-united UK). When we came home my girlfriend had her suitcase stuffed with booze, while mine was stuffed with books. This title was one of them. Regrets abound.
It’s kinda funny, but about this time last year we were in Scotland, hiking the West Highland Way, and seeing just about everything between Edinburgh, Fort William, and Inverness—and wondering if we should just relocate to Kinlochlevin. Now, in 2020, with the US flirting with self-destruction, we wonder even more—if Scotland can win its independence from the not-so-united UK). When we came home my girlfriend had her suitcase stuffed with booze, while mine was stuffed with books. This title was one of them. Regrets abound.
June 3, 2017
Too detailed if the reader wants an overview of the Highland Clearances (see www.scottishhistory.com/articles/high...). The book is a painstakingly researched account of the individual people involved in the clearance over 20 years of the Sutherland estate in northern Scotland, to raise sheep. The perpetrators of course sold it as bettering the lot of the Highlanders who were forcibly displaced and offered small 3 acre crofts on the wind swept coasts. Their descriptions of the Highlanders would be quite familiar today as they compare with the stereotypes assigned to First Nations, Blacks and Latinos.
Rather than accept abject poverty and slow starvation on the crofts, many of the Highlanders took advantage of opportunities to move to Canada. The Selkirk Settlement, Glengarry County in Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island) can trace ancestors to those Scots who were "set adrift upon the world".
Needs more detailed maps and a glossary of terms for the uninitiated.
Rather than accept abject poverty and slow starvation on the crofts, many of the Highlanders took advantage of opportunities to move to Canada. The Selkirk Settlement, Glengarry County in Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island) can trace ancestors to those Scots who were "set adrift upon the world".
Needs more detailed maps and a glossary of terms for the uninitiated.
Read
February 23, 2021Humbling history of my ancestors struggle with the cruelty of the clearances. I commend it to anyone who has an interest in Scotland. It will make your blood boil but also make you very proud of what we endured and went on to create.
October 2, 2017
In the summer of 2016, I went on my first car trip around the Scottish Highlands. It was then that I came across a very peculiar statue, near the village of Golspie, of the first duke of Sutherland. A quick Google search quickly horrified me, as I first started learning about the Highland Clearances, a political phenomenon that took over large swathes of Scotland in the 19th century, resulting in death, destitution, and massive exodus of emigrants that left Scotland in desperate search of a life that had been stolen from them.
Set Adrift Upon the World is an extremely well-researched and in-depth analysis of the Highland Clearances, with a particular focus on Sutherland. However, Iif you're only looking for an introduction or for a general overview of the Highland Clearances, this may not be the book for you: it's very dense and detailed, and thoroughly presents much of the historic evidence that survived. It's a very academic read, and whilst it should still be an enjoyable read for everyone, just know what to expect.
As a History graduate, I appreciate the painstakingly researched content that James Hunter presents us with. This does not mean that his writing is neutral - no historian is. Hunter is very much on the side of the evicted families, and rightly points out the cruelty and injustice which they suffered. But this doesn't take away from the quality of the book in any way: Hunter often questions the accounts from the Clearances, from both victims and perpetrators, and can be critical of both.
This is a fascinating book, if at times a depressing read for the sheer amount of injustice that you are faced with. Historically, it doesn't get more thorough and enlightening than this - James Hunter succeeded in making sure that, no matter what his personal views may be, he is not pushing them down on the reader, but merely presenting them alongside diverging opinions.
The Highland Clearances have left an enduring legacy in Scotland, and across the world, by the arrival of thousands of Scottish refugees that sought a way to survive, after everything had been stripped away from them. This book is testament to the resolve of those folks, and puts the injustice they suffered out in the open for all the world to see, and perhaps better understand, the dire circumstances that lead someone to leave their homeland in search of a life.
Set Adrift Upon the World is an extremely well-researched and in-depth analysis of the Highland Clearances, with a particular focus on Sutherland. However, Iif you're only looking for an introduction or for a general overview of the Highland Clearances, this may not be the book for you: it's very dense and detailed, and thoroughly presents much of the historic evidence that survived. It's a very academic read, and whilst it should still be an enjoyable read for everyone, just know what to expect.
As a History graduate, I appreciate the painstakingly researched content that James Hunter presents us with. This does not mean that his writing is neutral - no historian is. Hunter is very much on the side of the evicted families, and rightly points out the cruelty and injustice which they suffered. But this doesn't take away from the quality of the book in any way: Hunter often questions the accounts from the Clearances, from both victims and perpetrators, and can be critical of both.
This is a fascinating book, if at times a depressing read for the sheer amount of injustice that you are faced with. Historically, it doesn't get more thorough and enlightening than this - James Hunter succeeded in making sure that, no matter what his personal views may be, he is not pushing them down on the reader, but merely presenting them alongside diverging opinions.
The Highland Clearances have left an enduring legacy in Scotland, and across the world, by the arrival of thousands of Scottish refugees that sought a way to survive, after everything had been stripped away from them. This book is testament to the resolve of those folks, and puts the injustice they suffered out in the open for all the world to see, and perhaps better understand, the dire circumstances that lead someone to leave their homeland in search of a life.
April 25, 2020
This was a difficult, challenging and troubling read for me. In 1994 i went on a University sub aqua trip to the far north of Sutherland. We rented a holiday house, at some point we needed tools for a broken compressor and i went to ask a neighbour (typical crofter looking house, with various repair projects ongoing). I had some conversations with the crofter, Alex MacKay, over the next few days. He told me the story of the Sutherland clearances, how his family came to be in that place. How people were moved to even more inhospitable Islands in the bay where they had to drag their boats up cliffs. How the male population of that island were mostly killed in the First World War and that the island had to be evacuated afterwards. How when he was a child they ate seals to survive. So i knew the basic story of the Sutherland clearances but this book excellently fills in the historical context and the political reasons why it happened. Reading this book makes me question the nature of power in the UK, how it is still concentrated in so few hands, it makes me realise how this concentration of power corrupts individuals in positions of unaccountable power and destroys societies, and still does to this day. Alex told me he was one of only 3 Gaelic speaking people in his village, people stopped speaking our language, young people answered in English when he spoke Gaelic. Since the 90s, we have a Scottish parliament but has power and the value given to local people making decisions in their own interest and in their own language changed fundamentally in Scotland? I would say not so far, it’s still a work in progress. I think this book should be on a reading list for anyone interested in fundamentally reforming Scottish local government, and bringing life back to depopulated areas.
June 11, 2017
Man's inhumanity to man
An excellent book which brings to life some of the characters involved and makes it seem as if it happened only recently.
Because of vested interests,the pace of change in Highland land ownership has been glacial but hopefully we will begin to see that pick up.
Scotland needs people,not sheep.
An excellent book which brings to life some of the characters involved and makes it seem as if it happened only recently.
Because of vested interests,the pace of change in Highland land ownership has been glacial but hopefully we will begin to see that pick up.
Scotland needs people,not sheep.
February 4, 2020
Fascinating
This is a fascinating book written in a beautiful prose style that kept me gripped throughout. The author has done a huge amount of research. His writing allows the reader to get as close to all those involved as is possible for a period so long ago.
This is a fascinating book written in a beautiful prose style that kept me gripped throughout. The author has done a huge amount of research. His writing allows the reader to get as close to all those involved as is possible for a period so long ago.
February 12, 2024
Excellent scholarship, wonderful stories, and yet lost in the telling. I give it 3 and a half stars, and I wish I could give it more. If this were re written for brevity and focused storytelling, I believe it would reach far more people.
December 24, 2016
As the name suggests this book provides a fascinating insight into the clearances that took place in the early 1800's in the name of improvement Sutherland. It also provides information on those people who chose to emigrate to Canada and the hardships they faced on arrival.
I knew very little about this period in our history and have never been to Sutherland but am now really keen to see Strathbrora, Strathnaver and the Strath of Kildonan.
Really glad that I read this having put it down while we were on holiday as I only have this in hardback edition.
I knew very little about this period in our history and have never been to Sutherland but am now really keen to see Strathbrora, Strathnaver and the Strath of Kildonan.
Really glad that I read this having put it down while we were on holiday as I only have this in hardback edition.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews