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The Seven Men of Knoydart was the name given, by the press at the time, to a group of land raiders who tried to appropriate land at Knoydart in 1948. [1] The name evoked the memory of the Seven Men of Moidart, the seven Jacobites who accompanied the Young Pretender on his voyage to Scotland in 1745. [2] Comprising seven ex-servicemen, their claim was to be the last land raid in Scotland. [3]
At the end of the 18th-century, a population of around 1,000 eked out a living on the Knoydart peninsula, through a mixture of crofting and fishing. [4] Depopulation of the area began in August 1853, when the recently widowed Josephine MacDonnell forced the eviction of some 330 people to Canada, on board the Sillery, to make way for sheep. [5] Depopulation of the area continued, with a series of further evictions as successive landowners ran the property as a hunting and shooting estate. [4]
By 1948, Knoydart was owned by Lord Brocket, who was controversial for his fascist activities before and during World War II. He was known as a Nazi sympathiser, and became a committed member of the Anglo-German Fellowship, using his estates to entertain supporters of Nazi Germany. [6]
On 9 November, [2] the seven men, Henry MacAskill, Archie MacDonald, Archie MacDougall, Jack MacHardy, Duncan McPhail, Sandy Macphee and William Quinnall, [7] made the land raid invoking the Land Settlement Act, which permitted returning servicemen to take over land which was under-used and farm it as their own. As veterans of the Second World War, they had been fighting to defend Britain against the fascist regimes in Germany and elsewhere. The seven men marked out 65 acres (26 hectares) of arable land and 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of hill land upon which to settle. [5]
The raid followed a pattern set by the Highland Land League some seventy years before, and was inspired by similar land raids at the end of the Great War, on Raasay and the Long Isle, when returning soldiers drew public attention to the misuse and mismanagement of land. [2]
Although the raiders had public opinion on their side, Lord Brocket succeeded in obtaining a court order to remove them. [5] The raiders' case was heard and rejected by a Court of Enquiry called by the government early in 1949. An appeal by the men to the Secretary of State for Scotland also failed. [2]
A cairn commemorating the land raid was erected at Inverie in 1991, by the Knoydart Land Raid Commemoration Committee. [8] The plaque reads:
In 1984 Philip Rhodes, a Surrey property dealer, acquired the estate. [10] He began selling off sections, bringing an end to the reign of absentee landlords in Knoydart. The last 17,000 acres were bought by the jute manufacturing company Titaghur, and when the company went into receivership the land was acquired by the Knoydart Foundation in a community buyout. [5]
North Uist is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
The Massacre of Glencoe took place in Glen Coe in the Highlands of Scotland on 13 February 1692. An estimated 30 members and associates of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by Scottish government forces, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II.
Knoydart is a peninsula in Lochaber, Highland, on the west coast of Scotland. Knoydart is sandwiched between Lochs Nevis and Hourn — often translated as "Loch Heaven" and "Loch Hell" respectively, although the somewhat poetic nature of these derivations is disputed. Forming the northern part of what is traditionally known as na Garbh-Chrìochan or "the Rough Bounds", because of its harsh terrain and remoteness, Knoydart is also referred to as "Britain's last wilderness". It is only accessible by boat, or by a 16-mile (26 km) walk through rough country, and the seven miles (11 km) of tarred road are not connected to the UK road system.
Al-Khisas, also known as Khisas or Khissas, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 31 kilometers (19 mi) northeast of Safed on a natural terrace about 100 meters (330 ft) wide that formed when Lake al-Hula receded. To the west of the village was a valley known as Wadi al-Hasibani through which ran the Hasbani River.
The island of Vatersay is the southernmost and westernmost inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the settlement of Caolas on the north coast of the island is the westernmost permanently inhabited place in Scotland. The main village, also called Vatersay, is in the south of the island.
Lord of the Isles or King of the Isles (Scottish Gaelic: Triath nan Eilean or Rìgh Innse Gall) is a title of Scottish nobility with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It began with Somerled in the 12th century and thereafter the title was held by a series of his descendants, the Norse-Gaelic rulers of the Isle of Man and Argyll and the islands of Scotland in the Middle Ages. They wielded sea-power with fleets of galleys (birlinns). Although they were, at times, nominal vassals of the kings of Norway, Ireland, or Scotland, the island chiefs remained functionally independent for many centuries. Their territory included much of Argyll, the Isles of Arran, Bute, Islay, the Isle of Man, Hebrides, Knoydart, Ardnamurchan, and the Kintyre peninsula. At their height they were the greatest landowners and most powerful lords after the kings of England and Scotland.
Monarch of the Glen is a British drama television series produced by Ecosse Films for BBC Scotland and broadcast on BBC One for seven series between February 2000 and October 2005 with 64 episodes in total.
Park, also known as South Lochs, is a huge area of land connected to the rest of Lewis only by a narrow neck between Loch Seaforth and Loch Erisort. This had a wall called Gàrradh an Tighearna built across it by the Earl of Seaforth in the early 17th century, the outline of which can still be seen.
Arthur Ronald Nall Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket KStJ was a prominent British Nazi sympathiser and Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
Clan MacDonell of Glengarry is a Scottish clan and is a branch of the larger Clan Donald. The clan takes its name from River Garry where the river Garry runs eastwards through Loch Garry to join the Great Glen about 16 miles (25 km) north of Fort William, Highland. The progenitor of the MacDonells of Glengarry is Reginald, 4th great-grandson of the warrior Somerled. The clan chief is traditionally designated as the "Son of Alexander's son".
Colonel Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, sometimes called by the Gaelic version of his name, Alastair or Alasdair, was clan chief of Clan MacDonell of Glengarry. As was customary for a laird, MacDonell was often called Glengarry after his principal estate.
Strathnaver or Strath Naver is the fertile strath of the River Naver, a famous salmon river that flows from Loch Naver to the north coast of Scotland. The term has a broader use as the name of an ancient province also known as the Mackay Country, once controlled by the Clan Mackay and extending over most of northwest Sutherland.
John Macnab is a 1925 adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan.
Culrain (Cul Raoin) is a small village in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland.
The Rough Bounds, in the Scottish Highlands, is the area of West Inverness-shire bounded by Loch Hourn, Loch Shiel, and Loch Moidart, consisting of the districts of Knoydart, North Morar, Arisaig and Moidart. The area is famous for its wildness and inaccessibility and remains very sparsely populated.
Camuscross is a small crofting township on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
The Highland Clearances were the forced evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860.
Coll is a farming settlement near Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Coll is situated on the B895, between Stornoway and New Tolsta, and is also within the parish of Stornoway.
A land raid was a form of political protest in rural Scotland, primarily in the Highlands.
Squatting in Scotland is criminalised by the Trespass Act 1865. Following the Highland Clearances, land raids occurred across rural Scotland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example in Vatersay and Knoydart. More recently there have been land occupations as both road protests and as part of the Occupy movement. Baile Hoose was occupied during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
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