Between 1812 and 1819, thousands of people were evicted from their holdings and dwellings to make room for sheep. Few subjects under the realm of Scottish history hold so much controversy and blood-feeling as the Sutherland Clearances.

Remote and undeveloped, a land of moor and mountain, with tiny patches of arable land like islands in a vast sea of heather, the county of Sutherland is located in the far north of Scotland. Once the land of the powerful and dominating clan Mackay, most of the people still carried the name at a time when the clan system had suffered a death.

Below are three accounts of the tenant evictions in 1819, written by people who knew Sutherland well at the time.

James Loch was a lawyer from the south who became commissioner of the whole of Sutherland Estates. Planning to improve the lands under his control, he moved thousands of people from their homes to the north coast, and created large sheep farms. He was definitely the 'landlords man' and his opinions are pretty obvious in these writings:

The men being impatient of regular and constant work, all the heavy labour was abandoned to the women, who were employed, occasionally, even in dragging the harrow to cover the seed. To build their hut, or to get in peats for fuel, the men were ever ready to assist; but most of their time, when not in persuit of game, or illegal distillation, was spent in indolence and sloth. They were contented with the most simple and poorest fare. They deemed no comfort worth the possession which was to be purchased at the price of regular work. The cattle which they reared on the mountains, and from the sale of which they depended for the payment of their rents, were of the poorest description.

The coast of Sutherland abounds with many different kinds of fish, not only sufficient for the consumption of the country but affording a supply for more distant markets, when cured and salted. It seemed as if it had been pointed out by Nature that the system for this remote district was to convert the mountainous districts into sheep-walks, and to remove the inhabitants to the coast.

The people who were to be removed were to hold their farms, during the last year of their occupation, rent-free on condition of their settling in their new lots without delay; and it was ordered that the moss fir belonging to their huts should be purchased from them because it would have been impossible for them to have carried it off. Some of the people, however, reappeared and constructed new, or repaired their old turf huts, and reoccupied their former possessions. This rendered a second ejectment necessary and, to prevent the possibility of its repitition, the only course which could be persued was to collect and burn the timber. This simple and necessary act has been falsified in every possible way. The most positive and direct denial is given to every account in which it has been attempted to apply these proceedings the character of cruelty and oppression.

The whole of the population from Altnaharra to Invernaver have been settled on the sea shore, as near to the various creeks as it is possible to arrange.These people have begun to cultivate their lots with much industry. Many of them have with great boldness taken to catch cod and ling.They have become as expert boatmen as any in the world.
James Loch
An account of the improvements of the estates of the Marquess of Stafford in Sutherland,1820
Pages 51, 63-64, 86, 99-100