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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] [ failed verification ] Depopulation of the area continued, with a series of further evictions as successive landowners ran the property as a hunting and shooting estate. [4] [ failed verification ]
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 (6,900 hectares) 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]
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, 9 miles (14 km) west of Ballater and 50 miles (80 km) west of Aberdeen.
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.
Clan Robertson, is correctly known as Clan Donnachaidh ( Duncan ) (Scottish Gaelic: Clann Dhònnchaidh) is a Scottish clan. The principal surnames of the clan are Robertson, Reid and Duncan but there are also many other septs.
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Rùm, a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum, is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland, in the district of Lochaber. For much of the 20th century the name became Rhum, a spelling invented by the former owner, Sir George Bullough, because he did not relish the idea of having the title "Laird of Rum".
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.
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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, also known as Clan Ranald of Knoydart & Glengarry is a Highland 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.
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.
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John Macnab is a 1925 adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan.
Fuaigh Mòr is an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is off the west coast of Lewis near Great Bernera in Loch Ròg. It is 84 hectares and 67 metres at its highest point.
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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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