Highland Potato Famine - History

History

In the mid-19th century, most crofters (tenant farmers) in the Highlands of Scotland were very dependent on potatoes as a source of food. The potato was perhaps the only crop that would provide enough food from such land areas. The land was generally of poor quality in exposed coastal locations. (See Highland Clearances.) Very similar conditions had developed in Ireland.

In the Highlands, in 1846, potato crops were blighted. Crops failed, and the following winter was especially cold and snowy. Similar crop failures began earlier in Ireland, but famine relief programmes were perhaps better organised and more effective in the Highlands and Islands. During 1847, Sir Edward Pine Coffin used naval vessels to distribute oatmeal and other supplies. Nonetheless, in Wick, Cromarty and Invergordon, there were protests about the export of grain from local harbours (this grain being privately owned). Troops were used to quell the protests. Crop failures continued into the 1850s, and famine relief programmes became semi-permanent operations.

Crofters were not simply given their oatmeal rations: they were expected to work for them, eight hours a day, six days a week. Relief programmes resulted in the building of destitution roads. Also, they produced projects with very little (if any) real value, and their administration was very bureaucratic, employing legions of clerks to ensure compliance with complex sets of rules. The daily ration was set at 24 ounces (680 g) per man, 12 oz (340 g) per woman and 8 oz (230 g) per child.

Some landlords worked to lessen the effects of the famine on their crofting tenants. Other landlords resorted to eviction. John Gordon of Cluny became the target of criticism in Scottish newspapers when many of his crofters were reduced to living on the streets of Inverness. Gordon hired a fleet of ships and forcibly transported his Hebridean crofters to Canada, where they were dumped on Canadian authorities. News of the famine led to the Scottish diaspora including Scottish-Americans to organise relief efforts.

On the Cromartie estates, the effects of the potato famine were more severe in the Western highlands around Ullapool.

During the ten years following 1847, from throughout the Highlands, over 16,000 crofters were shipped overseas to Canada and Australia. In 1857, potato crops were again growing without serious blight.