The Story of The Clearances

The period of The Clearances in nineteenth century Scotland, when people were cleared
off the land for profit, was a terrible episode in Scottish history. In the eighteenth century the
Highlanders the people who lived in the mountainous areas and islands along the west coast of
Scotland had their own culture, language and customs, which were different from those of the
people in the south of Scotland an in England. Highlanders wore tartan, played the bagpipes and
spoke Gaelic. They lived on small cattle farms called crofts, for which they paid rent to their
landlords, many of whom were English.
Just before the beginning of the nineteenth century, the demand for wool, and therefore
for sheep, rose dramatically. Sheep need a lot of open space and grass and it soon became clear
that the small crofts of the Highland farmers were stopping the landlords from rearing sheep and
making money. So they started to move the crofters off their land and out of their ancient family
homes in order to make room for large sheep farms. This process, which lasted from 1780 until
1850, became known as the Clearances.
At the height of the Clearances, as many as 2,000 homes were burnt in a day. Some
tenant farmers were rehoused in areas far from their original homes, but many were forced to
emigrate to the United States or Canada with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing
Emigration reached its peak between the years 1825 and 1838 when Nova Scotia
received 22,000 Highlanders. The conditions on the emigrant ships were appalling. Three out of
every twenty emigrants died on board.
Eventually, after almost eighty years of oppression, the Highlanders made a stand. There
were riots and strikes, and in 1886 the Crofters Act was passed by Parliament in London. This
gave the Highlanders some basic land rights; however, it was not until; 1976 that the crofters
were eventually given the right to buy their crofts, rather than rent them.

Exercise 7a, page 85

Skim read the text and choose the correct answer.
1. This is an account of a bad period/a good period in Scottish history.
2. The Clearances took place from 1780-1850/from 1825-1838.
3. The people who suffered were the Highland farmers/the landlords.
4. The landlords wanted the land for cattle/sheep.
5. Many of the Highland farmers had to leave the country/move south.
6. Their treatment was cruel/fair.

Exercise 7c, page 85 homework

Answer the questions.
1. How were Scottish Highlanders different from other British people?
2. How did they make their living?
3. Why did the landlords want to rear sheep?
4. Why did the Highlanders have to move?
5. What happened to many of the Highlanders homes?
6. Where did many people emigrate to?
7. When did the Clearances reach their highest point?
8. How did the Highlanders protest?