The Lowland Clearances were one of the results of the

Scottish Agricultural Revolution The Agricultural Revolution in Scotland was a series of changes in agricultural practice that began in the 17th century and continued in the 19th century. They began with the improvement of Scottish Lowlands farmland and the beginning of a transf ...

, which changed the traditional system of agriculture which had existed in

Lowland Scotland The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lo ...

in the seventeenth century. Thousands of

cottars The Cottars are a Canadian Celtic musical group from Cape Breton Island formed in 2000. The group's current members are Ciarán MacGillivray, Fiona MacGillivray, Bruce Timmins, and Claire Pettit. History The Cottars were founded in late 2000 w ...

and

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...

s from the southern counties (Lowlands) of Scotland migrated from farms and small holdings they had occupied to the new industrial centres of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

or abroad, or remaining upon land though adapting to the Scottish Agricultural Revolution.

History

As farmland became more commercialised in Scotland during the 18th century, land was often rented through auctions. This led to an inflation of rents that priced many tenants out of the market.bbc.co.uk: "Scotland's forgotten clearances" 16 May 2003
/ref> Furthermore, changes in agricultural practice meant the replacement of part-time labourer or subtenants (known as

cottar Cotter, cottier, cottar, or is the German or Scots term for a peasant farmer (formerly in the Scottish Highlands for example). Cotters occupied cottages and cultivated small land lots. The word ''cotter'' is often employed to translate th ...

s, cottagers, or bondsmen) with full-time agricultural labourers who lived either on the main farm or in rented accommodation in growing or newly founded villages. This led many contemporary writers and modern historians to associate the Agricultural Revolution with the disappearance of cottars and their way of life from many parts of the southern Scotland. Many small settlements were torn down, their occupants forced either to the new purpose-built villages built by the landowners such as

John Cockburn of Ormiston John Cockburn, (d. 1583) laird of Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland, was an early supporter of the Scottish Reformation. He was the eldest son of William Cockburn of Ormiston and Janet Somerville. John was usually called "Ormiston." During his lif ...

to house the displaced cottars on the outskirts of the new ranch-style farms, or to the new industrial centres of

or northern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In other areas, such as the southwest, landowners offered low rents and nearby employment to tenants they deemed to be respectable.Eric Richards, "Emigration from Scotland between the Wars: Opportunity of Exile?", ''International Migration Review'', Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 113-116. Autumn, 2000. Between 1760 and 1830, many tens of thousands of Lowland Scots

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

mainly within Lowland Scotland, with some taking advantage of the many new opportunities offered in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to own and farm their own land. Most chose to remain, by choice, some out of an inability to secure transatlantic passage, or because of obligations in Scotland.

Notes

References

External links

BBC Radio Scotland series

{{Nineteenth-century Scotland Forced migration Scottish emigration Scottish diaspora Enclosures 18th century in Scotland 19th century in Scotland History of agriculture in Scotland Scottish Lowlands

History

Notes

See also

References

Further reading

External links