Economy

Estates

Agriculture

Estates

Fishing

Forfeited estates

Hunting

In Medieval times territorial claims to land in the Highlands were based more on custom and tradition than on feudal rights. By the 17th century, though, feudalism had taken root in highland society. Following the Battle of Culloden in 1746 the clan system collapsed and the ancient bonds that held clan chief and clansmen together were finally broken. Clan lands became the sole property of the chief to sell or let at will.

The Highland sporting estate
With the coming of the railway in the 19th century and the popularisation of game sports by Queen Victoria, large deer forests (up to 30,000 hectares) were established and shooting lodges built. The Highland sporting estate had appeared.

The 'Glorious Twelth' of August heralded the start of the shooting season and the 'lodge' accommodated wealthy industrialists and landed gentry. The 'glen' came to depend upon the estate for employment opportunities as gamekeepers, gillies, gardeners, handymen and house-staff. The shooting season's end in mid-October was marked by the 'Gillies Ball', after which the shooters returned south.

The decline of the sporting estate
Since the late 19th century estates have been affected by the creation of crofts, state afforestation programmes, hydro developments and tourism. Today, the highland estate is an extensive landed property usually managed through a factor. Arable and hill pasture support a farming community. Forestry and woodland management provide extra income for the estate as do its sporting rights. Deer stalking, grouse shooting and salmon fishing still attract wealthy and influential visitors, but far fewer estate workers are employed now.

Community buy-outs
Changes in legislation in the 1990s have opened the door to community buy-outs. North Assynt was the first community buy-out, followed by the island of Eigg among others. Even yet, though, 50% of the highlands remain in the possession of fewer than 100 proprietors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

If a book listed in the bibliography below is available from the Highland Libraries it will be indicated by a book icon -

Callander, Robin
A Pattern of Landownership in Scotland

Youngson, A. J.
After the Forty-Five

Whyte, I. D
Agriculture and Society in Seventeenth-Century Scotland

Argyll Estate Instructions

Devine, T.M.
Clanship to Crofters' War

Macinnes, Allan I
Clanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart

Great Britain
General view of the agriculture in the county of Inverness

Henderson, John
General view of the agriculture of the county of Caithness

Donaldson, James
General View of the Agriculture of the County of Nairn

MacDonald, James
General view of the agriculture of the Hebrides, or Western Isles of Scotland

Callander, Robin
How Scotland is Owned

Smith, Annette M.
Jacobite Estates of the Forty-Five

Armstrong, A. M
Land Ownership and Land Use in the Scottish Highlands

Gaskell, Philip
Morvern Transformed

Adam, Robert James
Papers on Sutherland Estate management, 1802-1816

Turnock, David
Patterns of Highland Development

Great Britain
Reports on the annexed estates, 1755-1769

Sanderson, Margaret H. B
Scottish Rural Society in the Sixteenth Century

Great Britain
Statistics of the annexed estates, 1755-1756

Devine, T. M.
The Great Highland Famine

Prebble,John
The Highland Clearances

Satterley, Glyn
The Highland Game

Hunter, James
The Making of the Crofting Community

Millman, R.
'The Marches of the Highland Estates'
Scottish Geographical Magazine 85,1969, pp 172-81

Wigan, Michael
The Scottish Highland Estate

Devine, T. M
The Transformation of Rural Scotland

Wightman, Andy
Who Owns Scotland

McEwen, John
Who Owns Scotland

Cameron, Ewan
Land for the People?

J. Hulbert, (ed.),
Land, Ownership and Use
Andrew Fletcher Society, Edinburgh -1986

Millman, R
'The Landed Estates of Northern Scotland'
Scottish Geographical Magazine 86, 1970, pp 186-203

Parry, M. L. and Slater, T.R. (eds)
The Making of the Scottish Countryside
London : Croom Helm (etc.), 1980 . - (Croom Helm historical geography series)

Cramb, Auslan
Who Owns Scotland Now?

Am Baile was established with initial funding from the New Opportunities Fund and is now funded by The Highland Council and managed as part of Highland Libraries.

Copyright Images may be downloaded from Am Baile for personal use, and for non-commercial educational purposes such as in a classroom or teaching environment, or for private research. For any other use of images, such as in a publication or on a publicly available website, copyright clearance must be obtained. Please contact us and we will refer you to the relevant copyright owner.

We believe we have the owner's permission to publish images we know are in copyright. If you think we have inadvertently used your copyright material without permission, please contact us.

Design and Technology by Precedent