Paper short abstract:

The paper will consider the memorialisation of the period of the Highland Clearances, one of the most painful and controversial themes in modern Scottish history. It will bring to light the social, economic and political implications of the interpretation of this period by social groups and organisations concerned with the preservation of tangible and intangible heritage.

Paper long abstract:

The paper will consider the memorialisation of the period of the Highland Clearances, one of the most painful and controversial themes in modern Scottish history. The Clearances were part and parcel of the Improvement movement which, in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland, was synonymous with economic development including rationalisation of agriculture and industrialisation. In the Highlands and Islands, this meant a complete re-structuring of their economy with comprehensive agrarian reforms, but also severe social disruption as peasant communities were, often forcibly, removed from the land they occupied. The aim of this paper will be to explore the way in which the Clearances are interpreted locally in community-led museums and through heritage trails focusing on post-mediaeval archaeology and folk life. In the process the following aspects will be brought to light:

• The social implications of the re-telling of the history of the Clearances and their centrality in the construction of a sense of common experience and identity: a crofting identity.

• The economic use of the past in processes and discourses surrounding regional development and economic sustainability, in the case of the Clearances through the promotion of cultural and genealogical tourism.

• The ideological use of the past and pre-clearance life to uphold an alternative vision of land use and ownership. Intrinsically linked with the long-standing debate concerning land reform, the interpretation of folk life and of the Clearances as a major watershed act as powerful ideological and political stimuli for local communities and politically-motivated social groups.