A few weeks back, I posted a blurb on the Highland Clearances – and what a civil discussion it was. Here’s a similar subject regarding the ‘Lowland Clearances’, which are seemingly even less known about, myself included. I’ve summed it up rather quickly. Hopefully those who are more knowledgeable can supplement information.

The Lowland Clearances were one of the results of the agricultural & industrial revolutions, which abruptly altered a traditional agricultural system existing in Lowland Scotland for 100’s of years. Hundreds of thousands of tenant farmers from the southern counties of Scotland were removed from the farms & small holdings they had occupied, often for generations. Long established communities were flattened and an entire class of society was exterminated in just a few decades.

The absence of a clan system made a bit of a difference. Although the eradication of the population in the Lowlands was not nearly as brutal as in the Highlands, it was just as effective in de-populating the area. It was this practice-run in the Lowlands from 1760-1830 that laid the basis for the subsequent clearing of the glens. Some of the same players were involved in both.

As a result, many tens of thousands of Lowland Scots emigrated, taking advantage of opportunities in Canada and the United States to own their own land. Others chose to remain, either by choice, out of an inability to secure transatlantic passage, or because of obligations in Scotland.

Slainte yall,
steve