Commercial landlordism and clearance in the Scottish Highlands : the case of Arichonan
Macinnes, Allan I.2007
Books, Manuscripts
This article deals with the disruption of a community of tenant farmers and day labourers in Knapdale in the mid-19th century. Such disruption was a common place occurence as land was increasingly valued for its commercial potential rather than for its communal use. On the one hand, this commercialising of land use has been regarded as an aspect of improvement or applied Enlightenment. On the other hand, the summary removal and relocation of communities has been castigated as the Highland Clearances. As this case study bears out, the clash of perspectives between improvement and clearance was not just a Scottish issue and must be set within an imperial context. For the landed family driving through commercialised land use on their Highland estates ran plantations in Jamaica, sheep-ranges in Australia and cattle-ranches in Canada. Indeed, the Malcolms of Poltalloch sought to introduce into the Scottish Highlands a managerial system that had proved lucrative in Empire, but which abrogated traditional ties between landlords and tenants and provoked local rioting that, in turn, strained community policing.
Main title:
Author:
Imprint:
c.2007
Collation:
pp. 47-64 ; 30 cm
Language:
English