Resisting and Reversing the Highland Clearances

Module Leader: Dr Iain Robertson

Land has always been a major part of Highland life, culture and society. Dating from the 1880s, the Highland Land Wars are the most visible and important manifestation of tensions which grew up around access to land in the region across the nineteenth century.

Indicative Content

It is far from easy to establish exactly when the Highland Land Wars can be said to have begun and ended. This module will consider the implications of this as well as investigating the detail of the actual events and the various forms they took. In so doing our focus will always be on the period between 1874 and 1930 but the module will necessarily explore the origins of Highland land disturbances in order to set them in their proper context. Consideration will however also be given to the geography of protest, the social relations these events reveal and the land legislation of the second half of the twentieth century which can be understood as the final manifestation of the Land Wars. Finally, the module will turn to the historiography and interpretation both of these events and social protest more generally.

Coursework

• Essay – 40%
• Oral Presentation – 20%
• Primary Source Investigation and Analysis – 40%