Romantic highlands with sheep or the end of
highland life?
(1780-1850): people living in the Highlands were moved off the good lands to make way for massive and very profitable sheep
farms, destroying a communal way of life dating back to the Picts! The
stereotypical and idillic portrayal on calendars of sheep grazing peacefully in
the romantic hills of the Highlands shows disrespect for the history of the most
authentic Scots. Many moved voluntarily to seek work in
the big factories or were recruited to
fight in the British forces extending or defending the Empire, but most were
forced to leave – their cottages were burned. Draconian laws were
introduced to uproot Highland culture by forbidding the tartan kilt, playing the
bagpipe, orgainizing Highland Games, etc (gradually repealed starting in
1792).