[13] By Alexander Mackenzie.
From 1840 to 1848 Strathconon was almost entirely cleared of its
ancient inhabitants to make room for sheep and deer, as in other
places; and also for the purposes of extensive forest plantations. The
property was under trustees when the harsh proceedings were commenced
by the factor, Mr. Rose, a notorious Dingwall solicitor. He began by
taking away, first, the extensive hill-pasture, for generations held as
club-farms by the townships, thus reducing the people from a position
of comfort and independence; and secondly, as we saw done elsewhere,
finally evicting them from the arable portion of the strath, though
they were not a single penny in arrear of rent. Coirre-Bhuic and
Scard-Roy were first cleared, and given, respectively, as sheep-farms
to Mr. Brown, from Morayshire, and Colin Munro, from Dingwall. Mr.
Balfour, when he came of age, cleared Coire-Feola and Achadh-an-eas;
Carnach was similarly treated, while no fewer than twenty-seven
families were evicted from Glen-Meine alone. Baile-a-Mhuilinn and
Baile-na-Creige were cleared in 1844, no fewer than twenty-four
families from these townships removing to the neighbourhood of
Knock-farrel and Loch Ussie, above Dingwall, where they were provided
with holdings by the late John Hay Mackenzie of Cromartie, father of
the present Duchess of Sutherland, and where a few of themselves and
many of their descendants are now in fairly comfortable circumstances.
A great many more found shelter on various properties in the Black
Isle--some at Drynie Park, Maol-Bui; others at Kilcoy, Allangrange,
Cromarty, and the Aird.
It is computed that from four to five hundred souls were thus driven
from Strathconon, and cast adrift on the world, including a large
number of persons quite helpless, from old age, blindness, and other
infirmities. The scenes were much the same as we have described
in connection with other places. There is, however, one aspect of
the harshness and cruelty practised on the Strathconon people, not
applicable in many other cases, namely, that in most instances where
they settled down and reclaimed land, they were afterwards re-evicted,
and the lands brought into cultivation by themselves, taken from them,
without any compensation whatever, and given at enhanced rents to large
farmers. This is specially true of those who settled down in the Black
Isle, where they reclaimed a great deal of waste now making some of
the best farms in that district. Next after Mr. Rose of Dingwall,
the principal instrument in clearing Strathconon, was the late James
Gillanders of Highfield, already so well and unfavourably known to the
reader in connection with the evictions at Glencalvie and elsewhere.
It may be remarked that the Strathconon evictions are worthy of note
for the forcible illustration they furnish of how, by these arbitrary
and unexpected removals, hardships and ruin have frequently been
brought on families and communities who were at the time in contented
and comfortable circumstances. At one time, and previous to the earlier
evictions, perhaps no glen of its size in the Highlands had a larger
population than Strathconon. The club farm system, once so common
in the North, seems to have been peculiarly successful here. Hence
a large proportion of the people were well to do, but when suddenly
called upon to give up their hill pasture, and afterwards their arable
land, and in the absence of other suitable places to settle in, the
means they had very soon disappeared, and the trials and difficulties
of new conditions had to be encountered. As a rule, in most of these
Highland evictions, the evicted were lost sight of, they having either
emigrated to foreign lands or become absorbed in the ever-increasing
unemployed population of the large towns. In the case of Strathconon
it was different, as has been already stated; many of the families
evicted were allowed to settle on some of the wildest unreclaimed land
in the Black Isle. Their subsequent history there, and the excellent
agricultural condition into which they in after years brought their
small holdings, is a standing refutation of the charge so often made
against the Highland people, that they are lazy and incapable of
properly cultivating the land.