The Highland Clearances of Scotland (A Short Documentary)

[Music] foreign the highlands of Scotland known for their immense Beauty Legends of old and one of the last wild sparsely populated places in Europe the rugged terrain and wild weather may cause you to think that it's always been this way but there was a time when these lands weren't quite so empty so I am here in Argyle on a very dry day and the runes that you see behind me are the remains of an old crafting settlement by the name of aragonan this is one of many all across the highlands where people once lived and worked foreign [Music] under the Highland Clan system gave people the native right to rent and live on the land of their ancestors for many this meant living in crafting communities called townships the language spoken with Scottish garlic with kinship reigning at the heart of Gaelic culture days would be spent working on the craft in evenings and Gatherings of music dance and storytelling life would have been simple and hard but with a rich sense of Home and Community when the clan Chiefs began to see themselves more as landlords however things began to change the eviction was carried out forcibly by the land officers of Lord McDonald's estate the milk basins being poured outside and the cottage wrecked so that the people could not return [Music] the darkness saw a red glow opposite she asked what it was and her mother said in a grim voice they are putting fire to the day people have been put out [Music] throughout the 1800s around 150 000 thailanders were forced to move from their homes these were under the guise of improvements by wealthy landowners which is to say that they deemed sheep to be more profitable than tenants [Music] these evictions were ugly affairs with people being dragged out of their homes no matter whether they were frail or elderly and the Rifts being set Ablaze so that people couldn't return [Music] many people died during the clearances though here in aragonan they did put up a pretty famous fight and it took quite a few tries before they could get them all evicted it all came to the same in the end though a beautiful Community a Township left in Ruins abandoned but the question is for those who survived where did they end up some travel to the coast where they settled down as fishermen a far more dangerous and less stable occupation than their previous work some boarded ships to go to America and in particular Canada seeking solace in the New World others went to Australia and New Zealand responding to the demand for manual laborers still others were forced to move to lowland industrial cities such as Glasgow where they found work in factories and shipyards with the desolution of the clan system and all the evictions also came the diminishing of Gaelic culture and language as Highlanders were forced to adopt the language and culture and customs of the places that they moved to though garlic is currently an official language in Scotland it is an endangered one with just under 60 000 speakers however that is not all that there is to the story this is the Galaxy Center in Glasgow where garlic culture and language continues to be promoted Glasgow is the most populated and diverse City in Scotland and with a Heritage of Highlander migration it's no surprise that it's here that Gallup culture continues to thrive at the moment there is a five-year plan in place to make Glasgow the most gallic city in the world so it's mainly in the highlands and islands where Gaelic language is still Spoken Here in Glasgow there is steadily increasing attendance at a number of Gaelic schools gout culture also thrives in Glasgow and other parts of Scotland in the form of Folk Music Kelly dancing and literature which is really at the heart of the Scottish galic Renaissance overall the number of young speakers in both Scotland and Canada is steadily increasing year on year so it looks like there's a hope for a culture that though dispersed refuses to be destroyed [Music] thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: Pilgrim Kat

Views: 510,983

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Id: E4iXM67OIlQ

Length: 5min 47sec (347 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 22 2023