Between 1820 and 1840 the rate of evictions slowed down but this was when the Highlands became very popular with the English aristocracy and especially Queen Victoria. The tartan, which had virtually disappeared thanks to the Act of Proscription, was re-introduced in a bastardised form. Highland games and Highland dancing (which did not actually exist prior to then) became very popular amongst the landowners and wealthy English merchants and the traditional Highland culture became the "Brigadoon" type of romantic rubbish that most non-Scots still believe today.

Deer hunting became popular in the Highlands and islands amongst these Southern cultural invaders and soon even more people were being Cleared to make way for deer. By the mid-1800s the price of wool had fallen dramatically and the deer were seen as the new source of income for the landlords.

In Ross-shire, the 1851 yield for the estate had been 400 pounds per annum under sheep - by 1870, under deer, it had increased 15 times. By 1912 one fifth of the entire country of Scotland, 3,599,744 acres, was under deer forest. Ironically, now many of the well-established sheep farmers were being Cleared to make way for the new hydroelectric stations.

The crofters and estate workers were not allowed to hunt the deer no matter how starving and destitute they might be. Some brave people made a stand against this and the most famous of these incidents took place on the Isle of Lewis in 1887 and is known as "Ruaig an Fheidh" the Pairc Deer Raid which is commemorated in an eloquent poem composed in the Gaelic by Reverend Donald MacCallum. It reads in translation,

We rose early in the morning-compelled by hardship-
To bring down the deer from the heights with accurate aim.
We set out on the Tuesday with banners and weapons; the
Day was bright and favourable, as we'll all prove to you.

Each man with his gun loaded and ready climbed the high hills,
And when a bellowing stag was seen, it was struck down.
We killed them in their hundreds, we flayed them splendidly
And we ate them in an orderly way, with generous portions cunningly.

We are no plunderers, as is stated in lies; we are brave people being ruined by want.
We have waited many days and years without disorder, harassed by poverty,
Under the power of chamberlains and fools.
We got no thanks whatever, we were thralls without profit,
They were set upon banishing us completely like foxes.

Our wives and our children now suffer harship; their clothes are tattered,
And they are in need at every meal time.
Our country is a wilderness because of deer and sheep, and in spite of high rents, we'll not get
enough to satisfy one of us.
But praise the Lord who bestowed that hero upon us-
Donald MacRae of Alness is the honourable martyr.
Donald MacRae was the great stalwart who would not yield to
The villains, althought they put him painfully to the test eveyrwhere to the extent of their abilities.

You little old wife, full of pride (*), who claim that Lewis is yours, it belongs by property right to the majority who live in it.
And since we have now found a chieftain, we will not cease by
Day or night until we obtain the estate joyfully and honourably.

(* Lady Matheson - wife of Sir James Matherson, know as "MacDrug", who built Stornoway Castle on the profits he made from selling Chinese opium)

Written and published by the Highland Clearances Memorial Fund

Back to Highland Clearances Memorial Fund Series Main Page

Part One: Background
Part Two: Highland Portrait
Part Three: Bonnie Prince Charlie
Part Four: The Clearances
Part Five: The Improvements
Part Six: The Sutherland Estate
Part Seven: The People and the Church
Part Eight: US Slave-Owners
Part Nine: Queen Victoria and Red Deer
Part Ten: 1840-1880 Eyewitness Accounts
Part Eleven: Famine!
Part Twelve: Famine Immigration
Part Thirteen: Forced Eviction to the Cities
Part Fourteen: Changing Ways
Part Fifteen: Things Change Yet Remain The Same
Appendix A: Highland Clearances, Dates & Places
Appendix B: Bibliography