On this day: Highland clearances began

[Phil]

From today's "Hootsmon" - http://www.scotsman.com/news/on-this...egan-1-3341224 .

[tripleblessed]

Thanks for this post. Further down the page, a note on the 1956 opening of My Fair Lady, mentions that the title
is derived from the Cockney corruption of Mayfair, something few on this side of pond will have contemplated.This
forum is a constant source of education.

[McClef]

I have John Prebble's book, must dig it out again.

[jhockin]

The clearances: I was recently reading about them, and the article stated that they were a main contributing factor in the present day stat that there are 12 of Scots descent ,
Outside of Scotland, for each scot in Scotland.
Was also recently reading that the highlands continue to be depopulated.

[Downunder Kilt]

They may have begun in Sutherland on this day, but started in other places a fair bit earlier. http://www.scottishhistory.com/artic...nce_page1.html

[Machaggisnz]

My people were moved out of Sutherland and dispersed all over the world. There's a statue of the Duke of Sutherland "erected by his grateful tenants" up in the far north. The tradition in my family was for those of us who returned to Scotland to visit it when we went up north and "water" the statue, if you get my drift. My dad though took a different slant on the clearances. He left a dram on the statue because the Duke, while he booted the crofters off the land, had seen us take the journey to new lands of opportunity, to new freedoms and to a lifestyle we could never have known had we stayed. I can see his point.