The brutality of the Highland Clearances forms some of the most painful historical memories both within Scotland today and much of the modern Scottish diaspora. Known in Gaelic as ‘Fuadach nan Gàidheal’ (‘The Expulsion of the Gael’), the Clearances were the mass forcible evictions of Highland tenants from their ancient clan lands by those in whom they had previously placed their trust. The reason was the lucrative profitability of sheep farming, achieved through an exercise in ethnic cleansing.

Following the Jacobite campaigns of the early 18th century, the Highland clan system was heavily persecuted, with many of the Gaelic speaking Highlanders having supported the attempts to restore the Stuarts to the throne. As the clan system was ripped apart in the aftermath, the chiefs began to view themselves ever more as landlords, and to rely more on the rents payable by their tenants. Inspired by successful agricultural developments in the Lowlands, many chiefs soon began to conspire to ‘improve’ their own lands to generate more profit, at the expense of their former clansmen. One of the first major clearances happened in Glengarry in 1785, when 500 tenants were evicted to the Canadian province of Ontario (see case study). As the changes were implemented across the Highlands, the tacksmen of the old feudal clan system, who had acted as middle men between their chiefs and the inhabitants, soon found their positions becoming obsolete. Many emigrated and encouraged their own former tenants to follow, forming settlements to which many of those who were later cleared would soon join.

Soon landlords across the Highlands, particularly in Sutherland, were aggressively clearing their lands of tenants to make way for sheep, and with state support. Between 1811 and 1820, homes were torched on the Duke of Sutherland’s estates, and at one stage, some 2000 people a day were being cleared from their homes – many were employed on new coastal fishing village developments, and some fled to the main cities to seek work, such as Glasgow and Dundee, but many had no choice but to emigrate. In Easter Ross in 1845, 88 people evicted from Glencalvie sought shelter in Croick churchyard. Graffiti scratched into the church window states Glencalvie the wicked generation, their plight believed to be a judgement from God. It was not until 1886 that the first security of tenure was finally granted to the few remaining tenants and crofters, following the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act.

There is a growing wealth of information available to those wishing to pursue their evicted ancestors’ stories. The Am Baile website has many digitised Clearances-related holdings from Highland libraries, as well as a newspaper catalogue listing many contemporary titles, while the British Newspaper Archive contains many accounts of the evictions – several Scottish titles from this can also be freely accessed via the British Library 19th Century Newspaper Collection, accessible through many subscribing local libraries. The Scotsman newspaper is also digitised and available online from 1817 onwards. To understand the dramatic changes in many Highland parishes caused by the Clearances, you can consult the free to access Statistical Accounts of Scotland, which carry contemporary descriptions of individual parishes, as reported by Church of Scotland ministers in the 1790s and again in the mid-1830s to mid-1840s.

A useful online resource is the Clearances website with thousands of stories that can be searched by parish name, a person’s name, or by topics such as vessels’ names. The site includes detailed descriptions of abandoned Highland settlements, and detailed passenger lists from the emigrant vessels, with many articles on what became of those forced overseas. For estate records, the National Records of Scotland has an online catalogue listing its holdings, while holdings of local archives can be accessed via the Scottish Archive Network. For the Sutherland estates, where some of the worst atrocities occurred, many papers are available. The Timespan Museum at Helmsdale is also worth visiting.

Many of those who were evicted found new lives in Canada, and the main national archive in the country, Library and Archives Canada, has a website at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca, which hosts many records such as censuses and early land petitions. The Ontario Genealogical Society can equally help with research enquiries, and has many provincial branches, while FamilySearch has many vital records freely accessible. If your Highland ancestors migrated to Australia, the National Archives of Australia site hosts various resources, while the National Library of Australia hosts a guide at for all Australian state libraries and archives, as well as various useful databases. The library’s impressive Trove facility trove.nla.gov.au is also worth searching, particularly for free newspaper content from 1803 onwards. The vital records for those who were evicted but remained in Scotland are accessible at scotlandspeople .