People were forced out of the glens where they had lived for hundreds of years, and given small, useless bits of land by the sea. It was impossible to make a living by crofting on this marginal land; there was not enough grazing for sheep and cattle, and not much could be grown.

Here is a very special piece of art, made in embroidery by WHM Education Officer and textile artist Claire MacLeod. It shows the little strips of land on which the evicted crofters were expected to make a living

Traditional crofting practices such as ‘transhumance’ – moving the herds of animals to mountain pastures during the summer months – were now impossible. If you go for a walk anywhere in the hills of Scotland, you will come across the ruins of ‘sheilings’ – little stone houses where the crofters lived during the summer grazing.

The people toiled to make a living by kelp harvesting – collecting seaweed from out of the sea. Have you ever gone swimming off a beach here? The water’s freezing isn’t it!

It has been said that at the height of the clearances as many as 2,000 crofter cottages were burned each day, although exact figures are hard to come by. Cottages were burned to make them uninhabitable, to ensure the people never tried to return once the sheep had been moved in. Cottages were also ‘tumbled’ – destroyed.

They say the smoke on the Isle of Skye could be seen from 60 miles out to sea.

Now people were forced to emigrate. They were given notice to assemble on a certain date at a pier, told they had to leave most of their possessions behind, and get on a ship bound for the other side of the world. In some cases, landlords agreed to forgive all debt if tenants emigrated.

This famous painting is called The Last of the Clan. It shows the sorrow of the people being made to leave Scotland. They did not choose to leave.

Here is another called Lochaber No More, also very sad. Notice some of the objects are similar to ones we have in the museum.

It’s estimated that at least 200,000 Highlanders were forced off their land, with at least 70,000 of those forced to emigrate.

Where did they go? Many went to cities such as Glasgow, but also to Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand.

Many Highlanders ended up in Nova Scotia – New Scotland. There are still Gaelic speakers there today.

Why those places? The answer is closely linked to the British Empire.

The countries that welcomed exiled Scots had established settler colonies in these places. It is sad that Highlanders ended up displacing indigenous people in places where they settled.

There is evidence of Highlanders learning indigenous languages, and marriages between them and indigenous people. The Gaelic term for an English person “Sassenach” closely relates to the Algonquian word for white man “Saganash” and may have been adapted from Gaelic, indicating friendship and communication, even with Scots who ended up in the army. But, generally, colonialism was a disaster for native populations, and they are still very marginalised today.

This beautiful beaded purse in our museum’s collections was made by Iroquois Indian women, and shows trade with Scots, which may have been sent or brought back as a gift.

Research shows that during the Clearances, at least half of the West Highlands and Islands, or almost 10% of the land of Scotland, was sold to people who became rich from slavery. These lands were purchased with wealth from the slave trade, including money paid out by the British state compensating slaveowners for their “loss of property” after the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.So tens of thousands of Highlanders were evicted from their homes by people who bought their land with money gained from slavery. We have a slave token here in the museum which was found on an estate.

The descendants of Scots around the world is called the ‘diaspora’. As the diaspora grew, Highland culture spread all over the world. There are clan societies and Highland Games wherever Highlanders settled.

Many of the American tourists who come here in the summer have Highland roots, and so visiting Scotland really means a lot to them. Let’s be nice to them!

But what was lost when so many people were evicted from the glens? Gaelic was intrinsic to the crofting way of life, and the Clearances had a severe impact on Gaelic language and culture. It has been declining since those times, and it is only in recent years that huge efforts have been made to support and save it.

Some of you are attending Gaelic school, and I hope you continue to use your language throughout your life. Maybe you will have a career with Gaelic!

The landscape of the West Highlands has also changed dramatically. Lochaber glens were full of deciduous trees, and the treeline was two thirds of the way up the mountains. Nowadays, glens are quite barren, especially where they are used for hunting estates, and unnatural plantations of ‘Christmas trees’ – conifers such as non-native Sitka Spruce.

So, the descendants of the Clearances may be doing well today, but we must never forget that this event changed the character and culture of the Scottish Highlands forever.

Here are images of another of Claire’s artworks, titled Notes on Emigration.