Battle of the Braes

Battle of the Braes: last stand against the Clearances

by

BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Skye, 1882

The last major battle on British soil led to the destruction of the Highland way of life.

FOLLOWING the Jacobite’s devastating defeat at Culloden in 1746, the Highland way of life came under increasing scrutiny. The threat was at first political, as the government imposed restrictions on their cultural customs and language. However, the gravest threat was economic, and one that eventually changed the Highland landscape.

After Culloden, the Highland population grew rapidly and by 1850 had increased by 50 per cent. While the Highlanders had more mouths to feed, the landlords - often clan chiefs and therefore kinsmen - wanted to exploit the land for profit.

The old road south from Portree to Sligachan in Skye, near the area known as The Braes, with the Cuillins in the backround.

Highlanders had survived for centuries by crofting - living off a stretch of land for which they paid rent to their landlords. The farmers and land owners supplemented this meagre income with the lucrative kelp trade - seaweed, used in glassmaking, bleach and soap during the Napoleonic wars. But peace with France in 1815 ended this industry and the landlords turned their attention to sheep grazing, which required evicting their kinsmen from the crofts.

In 1882, the crofters of Skye refused to pay rent to Lord MacDonald until their animal grazing rights were returned. The Lord turned to the law to evict the crofters, and in April a sheriff's officer was sent to issue an ejection summons to the crofters. The angry crofters forced the officer to burn the document, and the Sheriff of Inverness requested assistance from the Glasgow constabulary to enforce the law.

Fifty policemen were sent and arrived at the Braes, a district near Portree on Skye. The crofters were surprised at first, but soon around a hundred men, women and children met the policemen armed with sticks and stones. Several people were injured; five men were arrested and fines were imposed on some at Inverness court. This confrontation became known as the Battle of the Braes. Its claim to be the last land battle fought on British shores is an exaggeration – it was more of a land dispute than any pitched battle.

It became clear after the struggle that the Highlanders would not be evicted without military assistance. The confrontation received widespread publicity, sympathetic to the Highlanders, from journalists who had travelled with the policemen to Skye. Parliament, unwilling to use the army to force the crofters to comply and pushed by public sentiment, passed a series of measures granting the crofters more security in their tenure. The confrontation is celebrated with a monument on Skye and through Scottish folk songs.