My wife and I rebuilt a croft in Caithness, one of a dozen ruins in the vicinity. Caithness planning department made it very obvious they didn't want any crofts on the land, I was in the planning office twice a week for a year, finding ways to get around their corruption, the planning guy said more than once if I paid the council 10,000 pound I could have my croft, I til then they would make life hard for me. I refused, rebuilt my croft but left my homeland in disgust. While there is that level of corruption in local council the highlands will not prosper. Dr James Alistair Cameron McKinnon
Black and white does the countryside no justice. Visiting from Australia in the late '70s , Scotland was amazing. The weather was sunny and warm, we must've bought Australia with us. The woman who ran the caravan park said it had been raining all year.
"9 million barren acres" - great way to start off the film. These are the beautiful highlands of Scotland, and certainly not barren. These are the hills and glens where thousands of people lived before the Clearances. What were they thinking?
Spend a night out in the open in most of those places in January and I think you'd describe them as barren too. I guess bracken does make a nice bed but not too much in the way of cover.
@@colinmaciver5187 Highland clearances were mainly landlords pushing out small farmers and making larger more efficient farms not hunting estates. The land wasn't forested in the main before or after. Though most of Scotland was heavily forested during Roman times apparently.
it's weird that he said it was thought the Highlands couldn't support cattle. Poor research, Rollo was an interesting fellow. Good shot of drot tracks' Great commentary on th e Hydro schemes
Yes, that white building is still there with Cattle Ranch still written on the walls of the building. I saw it only a month ago on my way between Inverness and Fort William. I saw some cattle in the area too. I'm not sure about the fencing though.
Barren?! The Highland clearances were still happening in the early 20th century. Tales of evictions by landlords in order to clear the land for sheep grazing. And the lack of opportunities for the youth is not accidental, it ensured depopulation.😔
I’m from the NW highlands and own a croft. We have cows though, not sheep. I love the smell of sheep dip! Going to the Black Isle Show is great - driving up to park and rolling down the pick-up windows to inhale a lovely gulp of sheep-dip scented air makes me very happy! Annoys the bejaysus outta my husband though!
