Battle of the Braes: A Fight For Crofters' Rights

With the 140th Anniversary of the Battle of the Braes, Jenny and Annie set out to try to understand this crucial fight for land reform in Scotland. 

We look back to March 1882, when crofters of the Braes area of Skye tried to petition Lord MacDonald to let them have common grazing on the hill of Ben Lee. Lord MacDonald refuses this request, condemning the future of this crofting community into further poverty.

Standing up for their rights, the crofters protest through a rent strike. This leads to the Battle of the Braes, a violent moment in Scotland’s complicated history with land. 

We consider how land is at the heart of economic and cultural survival for the Highlands and Islands communities, and why we should never forget the Battle of the Braes. 

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With thanks to Iona Fyfe for recording the song ‘Battle o the Braes.’

Find Iona Fyfe at https://ionafyfe.com/ 

This is the second episode of our new series, Radical Mountain Women, funded by the Royal Society of Literature. Some of the music you heard in this episode was beautifully played by Nicky Murray and Chloe Rodgers.

References:

Andy Wightman, The Poor Had No Lawyers: Who Owns Scotland and How They Got It, Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2015

‘Battle o the Braes,’ Brechin Advertiser, May 1882

Crofting Commission: https://www.crofting.scotland.gov.uk/

Ewen A. Cameron and Andrew Newby, ‘Alas, Skyemen are imitating the Irish’: A note on Alexander Nicolson's ‘Little Leaflet’ concerning the Crofters' Agitation.The Innes Review, 2004

‘Furious Attack On and By the Police,’ Dundee Courier, April 1882

James R Coul, Crofters’ Common Grazings in Scotland, The Agricultural History Review, British Agricultural History Society, 1968

John MacGrath, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil, Bloomsbury, 2017

Màiri Mhòr Nan Òran, Òran Beinn Lì, 1887

‘The Land Agitation in Skye,’ Inverness Courier, April 1882

‘The Revolt in Skye: Furious Fighting Between the Police and the People, Painful Scenes, Arrests of Crofters,’ Dundee Evening Telegraph, April 1882

We used digital transcripts of the Napier Commission documents, available here: https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/centre-for-history/research/research-alliances/the-napier-commission/