Sheep
- Sheep Subsidies
- Depredation
- Highland Farming
- Highland Sheep
- Highland History
For many people the Highlands are synonymous with sheep and sporting estates.
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Highland History
...but very very briefly
& relevant to wolves
 The emptiness of the Highlands. Vicinity of Pitlochry. Courtesy John Butler's Landscape Photography |
How The Highlands Got Sheep & Emptiness In 1745 several Highland clans rose against the Government in London. Their aim was to crown Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) as king in place of George ll. But they were finally defeated at Culloden Moor, near Inverness, in 1746. The clans paid severe penalties including expulsion from the hinterland to the coast to live on undersized unproductive farms (ie crofts). Many Highlanders emigrated to North America and Australasia. The hinterland was given over to a few farming tenants who paid their landlords a much higher rent for the land than the people they displaced. The tenants stocked the land with vast numbers of sheep to provide meat and wool for the cities in the south. But many farmers went bust when undercut by meat and wool from Australia and New Zealand. A lot of the hinterland was then divided into sporting estates, grouse moors and deer forests* for the aristocracy and rich industrialists. It was only then, in Victorian times, that the Highlands became a popular and romantic place to visit. So the picture we see today is mainly a deserted hinterland of large estates with a scattering of crofting villages around the coast. In recent years a few National Nature Reserves have arrived on scene. * What is a deer 'forest'? It is a large area for shooting deer. No trees grow there; they have been cleared. Examine the top picture.
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