Abstract

'Give us land and plenty of it': the ideological basis to land and landscape in the Scottish Highlands Charles Withers INTRODUCTION geography of rural opposition dating from at least the mid-sixteenth century (Charlesworth 1980, On 9 January 1888, a crowd of 1,000 persons, 1983a, 1983b, 1984; Mingay 1989; Stevenson 1979; marching in line abreast with pipes playing and flags Stevenson & Quinault 1974; Wells 1979, 1981, 1988). flying, descended on the farms of Aignish and Like many other events in Scotland, the Aignish Melbost on the Eye peninsula of the island of Lewis land raid was motivated by a claim to the rightful in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. They were met by a occupance of lands that, once arable, had been given force of Royal Marines, Royal Scots soldiers, and over to sheep farms or deer forests. On 13 January local police. Neither side was put out at finding the 1888, this legitimising belief amongst Lewis crofters others there: the authorities had been in a state of to what they regarded as the inalienability of their readiness since at least 29 December 1887 when the land was the basis of a statement issued to the crofters and cottars had declared