The Riots happened in 1841 and by 1842, all of the inhabitants of the village were gone. These were part of the clearances, which is a big thing in Scotland and can best be summed up by the landed gentry were having a hard time paying their bills so they evicted all their tenant farmers in order to graze sheep on the land - pushing the farmers to the coast.
At Durness, the sheriff was sent to give eviction notices and the cowarderly sheriff waited until all of the men were gone cutting thatch to serve this notice, which said they had to be out in 48 hours. The women were annoyed, so they tackled the sheriff and held his hand over a fire until the writ burned - thereby making it impossible to serve them - clever huh?
He came back a couple of days later to try again and again they kicked his butt, and this time they booted him out of the village without his mackintosh - harsh treatment in Scotland.
This was all very scandalous, and there were threats hurled both direction, but when the sheriff tried to raise a party to force the action - no one would join him.
So diplomacy prevailed and the villagers were given a year to find another place to live, which they did, and the land was given over to the sheep.
Got to love those tough Scots...the country side does remind you of Alaska in some places..stark and beautiful..Smoo cave how lovely is that?
ReplyDeleteThat's a happy fat sheep.. maybe.PG???": I am Woman Hear Me Roar......".hey I wonder if the ladies were singing that while they ousted that nasty sheriff...probably not since it wasn't written yet. But it would have been right-on.
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