Crofters, Landlords and the Public Conscience, 1855–1886

The high-pitched publicity given to the clearances at Coigach, Knoydart, Suishnish and Greenyards, all within a few years, helped to focus attention sharply on the Highlands, the plight of its people, and the behaviour of its landlords. But the most powerful consideration in the lowering in the level of conflict in the Highlands during these years was the decline of clearances. The period from Greenyards to the Napier Commission inquiry was, therefore, a time of sporadic clearances, of mainly invisible pressure on the people to ease them out of the region. The structural change which transformed the society and economy of the Scottish Highlands continued after 1855, though usually in a less dramatic fashion. It would be a mistake to believe that the crofter legislation of 1886 brought much sunshine into the relations between the owners and occupiers of the Highlands. The impact of the Napier Commission and the Crofter Act was to alter the basis of landlord-tenant relations.