| Rosal | |
|---|---|
 Site of the Rosal Township | |
  Rosal Location within the Highland council area | |
| Council area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Rosal was a township in Strathnaver, Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands that was deserted after its residents were evicted during the Highland Clearances of the early 19th Century.
Rosal consists of approximately 80 acres (32 ha), enclosed by a ring dyke on the east side the River Naver, across a bridge from Syre. [1] Written records of the settlement go back to 1269, [2] [3] but an iron age souterrain was found in the middle of the town, suggesting that it had been occupied for much longer. [4]
Before the clearance it was the largest of 49 townships in Strathnaver. [1] An archeological survey conducted in 1962 found the remains of 70 buildings including longhouses, byre dwellings, barns, outhouses and corn-drying kilns. [5] [3]
In 1813 Patrick Sellar, a factor (land manager) to Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, obtained the lease for a "new sheep farm" which consisted of many townships in Strathnaver, and the existing tenants were told that they would have to leave their homes and the farmland that provided their livelihood.
The residents did organise a competing bid for the tenancy, but they were not successful. [6]
Rosal became completely deserted by 1818. [4]
Rosal is well known in part because one of the evicted residents, Donald MacLeod, who wrote a series of letters about his experiences to the Edinburgh Chronicle newspaper in 1840, which were published as a book titled Gloomy Memories. [7] [8] A cairn was built across the river from Rosal in memory of MacLeod known as the Gloomy Memories Memorial. [9]
In 1962, Horace Fairhurst, an archeologist from Glasgow University conducted an excavation at Rosal, [3] three years later in 1965 the site was declared a historic monument. [10] It is currently owned and maintained by Forestry and Land Scotland, [11] and is a tourist attraction with wooden walkways erected for visitors. [1]
North Uist is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
Sutherland is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire to the south and the Atlantic to the north and west. Like its southern neighbour Ross-shire, Sutherland has some of the most dramatic scenery in Europe, especially on its western fringe where the mountains meet the sea. These include high sea cliffs and very old mountains composed of Precambrian and Cambrian rocks.
The first Highland Land League emerged as a distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s, with its power base in the country's Highlands and Islands. It was known also as the Highland Land Law Reform Association and the Crofters' Party. It was consciously modelled on the Irish Land League.
Clan Mackay is an ancient and once-powerful Highland Scottish clan from the far North of the Scottish Highlands, but with roots in the old Kingdom of Moray.
Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock. In the 21st century, crofting is found predominantly in the rural Western and Northern Isles and in the coastal fringes of the western and northern Scottish mainland.
Sollas is a small crofting township on the northern coast of the island of North Uist, Scotland.
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.
Coigach is a peninsula north of Ullapool, in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The area consists of a traditional crofting and fishing community of a couple of hundred houses located between mountain and shore on a peninsula looking over the Summer Isles and the sea. The main settlement is Achiltibuie. Like its northerly neighbour, Assynt in Sutherland, Coigach has mountains which rise sharply from quiet, lochan-studded moorland, and a highly indented rocky coast with many islands, bays and headlands. The highest summit is Ben Mor Coigach at 743 metres; the distinctive profile of Stac Pollaidh is the other main peak within Coigach. The scenic qualities of Coigach, along with neighbouring Assynt, have led to the area being designated as the Assynt-Coigach National Scenic Area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland.
Elizabeth Sutherland Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, also suo jure19th Countess of Sutherland, was a Scottish noblewoman who married into the Leveson-Gower family, best remembered for her involvement in the Highland Clearances.
The Battle of Torran Dubh also known as the Battle of Torran-dow or the Battle of Torran Du was a Scottish clan battle that was fought in 1517 in Sutherland, in the Scottish Highlands.
Borgie is a hamlet in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland. Historically it was part of the 12,600-acre (5,100-hectare) Tongue estate with shooting rights, and it contains the Borgie Lodge, now a bed and breakfast. Borgie is noted for its salmon, which are caught in the nearby River Borgie.
Patrick Sellar (1780–1851) was a Scottish lawyer, factor and sheep farmer. He had a prominent and controversial role in the Highland clearances as factor on the Sutherland Estate, a particularly large landholding in the Scottish highlands.
Camustianavaig is a crofting township on the island of Skye in Scotland. It is located on the shores of the Sound of Raasay, 5 kilometres southeast of Portree. The Lòn Bàn watercourse flows from Loch Fada to "An Eas Mhòr" below which it is named "Allt Ósglan" and discharges into the sea at Camas Tianabhaig. The stream forms the boundary between the township and Conordan to the south. Ósglan itself is the land on the right bank of Allt Ósglan.
Syre is a small settlement, located within Strath Naver, Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands.
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.
The Battle of Leckmelm was a Scottish clan battle that took place in 1586, in the Scottish Highlands. It was fought between the Clan Gunn against the Clan Sutherland, Mackays of Aberach and the MacLeods of Assynt.
Angus Du Mackay, 7th of Strathnaver was the seventh chief of the Clan Mackay, a Highland Scottish clan. He is recorded in the 15th-century Scottish chronicle, Scotichronicon, as Enneas-en-Imprissi meaning Angus the Absolute due to his power of commanding 4000 men.
The Independent Highland Companies were irregular militia raised from the Scottish clans of the Scottish Highlands by order of the British government between 1603 and 1760 in order to help keep the peace and enforce the law in the Highlands and were recognized as such by the government. The officers of the Independent Highland Companies were commissioned as officers of the British Army but the Independent Companies were not recognized as official regiments of the line of the army. The Independent Highland Companies were the progenitors of the Highland Regiments of the British Army that began when ten Independent Highland Companies were embodied to form the Earl of Crawford's Highland Regiment that was numbered the 43rd Regiment of Foot in 1739.
Donald Mackay, 11th of Strathnaver, was the eleventh chief of the ancient Clan Mackay, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands.
Strathnaver Museum is located in Bettyhill, Sutherland, Scotland. It is a fully accredited volunteer-run independent museum which first opened in 1976. It explores the history of north west Sutherland through the context of the Highland Clearances. The Clan Mackay Centre is located on the 1st floor of the main museum building.