Editing Scottish Highlands (section)

== History ==

=== Culture ===
[[File:Scottish clan map.png|thumb|Map of [[Scottish clan|Scottish Highland clans]] and lowland families]]
[[File:John Frederick Lewis - Highland Hospitality - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Highland Hospitality'', painted by [[John Frederick Lewis]], 1832]]
[[File:Battle of Alma Sutherland highlanders.png|thumb|[[Battle of Alma]], [[93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot|Sutherland Highlanders]]]]
[[File:Stalking in the Highlands - James Giles - ABDAG002225.jpg|thumb|right|Stalking in the Highlands by [[James Giles (painter)|James Giles]], 1853]]
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the [[Scottish Lowlands|Lowlands]] in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the ''{{lang|gd|[[Gàidhealtachd]]}}'',<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Martin Ball |title=The Celtic Languages |last2=James Fife |publisher=Routledge |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-415-01035-1 |page=136}}</ref> because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to [[The Hebrides]]. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. [[Scottish English]] (in its [[Highland English|Highland form]]) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Charles Jones |title=The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7486-0754-9 |pages=566–67}}</ref> Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the [[Grampian Mountains|Grampians]] in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern [[Caithness]], Orkney and [[Shetland]], from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Highland Line |url=http://ladysue.webs.com/thescotsirish.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808033552/http://ladysue.webs.com/thescotsirish.htm |archive-date=8 August 2017 |access-date=8 March 2013 |publisher=Sue & Marilyn}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Geography of the Clans of Scotland |url=http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/geog/ |access-date=8 March 2013 |publisher=Electricscotland.com}}</ref>

Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the [[Scottish clan|clan]]. Scottish kings, particularly [[James VI and I|James VI]], saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. Some Lowlands commentators viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish", ''Erse''. Following the [[Union of the Crowns]], James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the [[Statutes of Iona]] which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by [[Scottish Agricultural Revolution|agricultural improvement]] that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved [[Highland clearances|clearance]] of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in [[crofting]] communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".<ref name="Dodgshon">{{Cite book |last=Dodgshon |first=Robert A. |title=From Chiefs to Landlords: Social and Economic Change in the Western Highlands and Islands, c. 1493–1820 |date=1998 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=0-7486-1034-0 |location=Edinburgh}}</ref>{{rp|105–07}}<ref name="Devine 1994">{{Cite book |last=Devine |first=T M |title=Clanship to Crofters' War: The social transformation of the Scottish Highlands |date=1994 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-9076-9 |edition=2013}}</ref>{{rp|1–17, 110–18}}<ref name="Devine 2018">{{Cite book |last=Devine |first=T M |title=The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600–1900 |date=2018 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-241-30410-5 |location=London}}</ref>{{rp|37–46, 65–73, 132}}

Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the [[Jacobite rising of 1745]] the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the [[Scottish clan|clan system]], including [[Disarming Act|bans on the bearing of arms]] and the wearing of [[tartan]], and limitations on the activities of the [[Scottish Episcopal Church]]. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783) and [[Napoleonic Wars]] (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the [[kilt]] were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe.<ref name="Roberts2002pp193-4">{{Cite book |last=John Lenox Roberts |url=https://archive.org/details/jacobitewars00robe |title=The Jacobite Wars: Scotland and the Military Campaigns of 1715 and 1745 |publisher=Polygon at Edinburgh |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-902930-29-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/jacobitewars00robe/page/n209 193]–95 |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="Sievers2007">{{Cite book |last=Marco Sievers |title=The Highland Myth as an Invented Tradition of 18th and 19th Century and Its Significance for the Image of Scotland |publisher=GRIN Verlag |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-638-81651-9 |pages=22–25}}</ref> The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the [[Ossian]] cycle,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Deidre Dawson |title=Scotland and France in the Enlightenment |last2=Pierre Morère |publisher=Bucknell University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8387-5526-6 |pages=75–76}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=William Ferguson |title=The Identity of the Scottish Nation: An Historic Quest |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7486-1071-6 |page=227}}</ref> and further popularised by the works of [[Walter Scott]]. His "staging" of the [[visit of King George IV to Scotland]] in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Norman C Milne |title=Scottish Culture and Traditions |publisher=Paragon Publishing |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-899820-79-5 |page=138}}</ref> This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of [[Balmoral Castle|Balmoral]] as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".<ref name="Sievers2007" />

=== Economy ===
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West.<ref name="Richards 2013" />{{rp|415–16}} Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of [[oatmeal|meal]] into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century.{{r|Richards 2013|p=48–49}} Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West, was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, [[run rig]] based, communal farming that existed before [[Scottish Agricultural Revolution|agricultural improvement]] was introduced into the region.{{efn|It has been estimated that only 9% of the land in the Highlands is suitable for cultivation.{{r|Devine 2018|p=18}}}} Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed [[Scotch whisky#History|whisky]] that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way.{{r|Devine 2018|p=24}} The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.<ref name="Devine 1994" />{{rp|119–34}}

Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, [[Factor (Scotland)|factors]], land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of [[Adam Smith]] were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities.{{r|Devine 2018|p=141}} Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land.<ref name="Richards 1985">{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=Eric |title=A History of the Highland Clearances, Volume 2: Emigration, Protest, Reasons |date=1985 |publisher=Croom Helm Ltd. |isbn=978-0-7099-2259-9 |location=Beckenham, Kent and Sydney, Australia}}</ref>{{rp|417}}  In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, [[enclosure]] of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as [[turnip]]s), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the [[Highland clearances]], of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.<ref name="Devine 1995">{{Cite book |last=Devine |first=T M |title=The Great Highland Famine: Hunger, Emigration and the Scottish Highlands in the Nineteenth Century |date=1995 |publisher=Birlinn Limited |isbn=1-904607-42-X |location=Edinburgh}}</ref>{{rp|1–12}}

In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created [[crofting]] communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.{{r|Devine 1995|p=1–12}}

When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected.<ref name="Lynch">{{Cite book |last=Lynch |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/scotlandnewhisto0000lync |title=Scotland, a New History |date=1991 |publisher=Pimlico |isbn=978-0-7126-9893-1 |edition=1992 |location=London |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|370–71}} This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, [[potato blight]] arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the [[Highland potato famine|famine]] struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. [[Tom Devine|T M Devine]] points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms.{{r|Devine 1995|p=93–95}} Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.{{r|Devine 1995|p=146–66}}

The unequal [[concentration of land ownership]] remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas Martin Devine |url=https://archive.org/details/scottishnation170000devi |title=The Scottish Nation |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-670-88811-5 |chapter=Chapter 18 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the [[Highland Land League]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=James Hunter |year=1974 |title=The Emergence of the Crofting Community: The Religious Contribution 1798–1843 |journal=Scottish Studies |volume=18 |pages=95–116}}</ref>
Violence erupted, starting on the [[Isle of Skye]], when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the [[Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886]] to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ian Bradley |date=December 1987 |title='Having and Holding' – The Highland Land War of the 1880s |url=http://www.historytoday.com/ian-bradley/having-and-holding-highland-land-war-1880s |journal=History Today |volume=37 |issue=12 |pages=23–28 |access-date=8 March 2013}}</ref> This contrasted with the [[Irish Land War]] underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] gained their votes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ewen A. Cameron |date=June 2005 |title=Communication or Separation? Reactions to Irish Land Agitation and Legislation in the Highlands of Scotland, c. 1870–1910 |journal=English Historical Review |volume=120 |issue=487 |pages=633–66 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cei124}}</ref>

==== Whisky production ====
[[File:Distillery from the pier - geograph.org.uk - 1302806.jpg|thumb|Oban distillery from the pier]]
[[File:Scotch regions.svg|right|thumb|The regions of Scotch whisky]]
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except [[Islay]], as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Highland Distilleries – Whisky Tours, Tastings & Map |url=https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/food-drink/whisky/distilleries/highland/ |website=www.visitscotland.com}}</ref> According to one source, the top five are [[The Macallan distillery | Macallan]], [[Glenfiddich distillery | Glenfiddich]], [[Aberlour distillery | Aberlour]], [[Glenfarclas distillery | Glenfarclas]], and [[Balvenie distillery | Balvenie]]. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions.<ref name="manofmany.com">{{Cite news |last=Osborn |first=Jacob |date=13 August 2019 |title=A Comprehensive Guide to Scotland's Whisky Regions |work=Man of Many |url=https://manofmany.com/lifestyle/drinks/guide-to-scotland-whisky-regions}}</ref> [[Speyside single malt]] whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.<ref name="manofmany.com" />

According to ''Visit Scotland'', Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Whisky Distilleries in the Highlands |url=https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/food-drink/whisky/distilleries/highland/ |access-date=25 August 2021 |website=VisitScotland}}</ref> Another review<ref name="manofmany.com" /> states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".

=== Religion ===
[[File:Loch Long.jpg|thumb|[[Loch Long]]]]
The [[Scottish Reformation]] achieved partial success in the Highlands. [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of [[Franciscan]] missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]]. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as [[Moidart]] and [[Morar]] on the mainland and [[South Uist]] and [[Barra]] in the southern Outer Hebrides.
The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the [[Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge|SSPCK]] missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the [[Battle of Culloden]] in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=George Robb |year=1990 |title=Popular Religion and the Christianisation of the Highlands in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries |journal=Journal of Religious History |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=18–34 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9809.1990.tb00647.x}}</ref>

For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the [[Church of Scotland]]. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern [[Outer Hebrides]] islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant [[Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)|Free Church of Scotland]] or the [[Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland]]. The [[Outer Hebrides]] have been described as the last bastion of [[Calvinism]] in Britain<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gerard Seenan |date=10 April 2006 |title=Fury at ferry crossing on Sabbath |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/apr/10/religion.world |access-date=8 March 2013 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either [[Church of Scotland|The Kirk]] or the [[Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)|Free Church of Scotland]]. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cook |first=James |date=29 March 2011 |title=Battle looms in Outer Hebrides over Sabbath opening |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-12847619 |access-date=3 June 2014}}</ref>