Land raid facts for kids
A land raid was a special kind of protest in rural Scotland, especially in the Highlands. People would try to take back land they believed was unfairly taken from their families a long time ago.
What Were Land Raids?
A land raid was a way for people in rural Scotland, especially in the Highlands, to protest. They would threaten to take over, or actually take over, land. They felt this land had been unfairly taken from their families in the past. Landowners and the law saw these protests as a type of squatting, which means living on land without permission.
Land raids were very common in the Hebrides, which are islands off the west coast of Scotland. But some important cases also happened on the mainland, like in Wester Ross and Sutherland. Examples include a raid in Coll, Lewis in 1888 and the famous Raasay Raiders in 1921.
The Vatersay Land Raid
In 1906, a group of men from the island of Barra who did not own land crossed over to Vatersay. Vatersay was a very fertile island. It was run as one big farm, but its owner, Lady Emily Gordon Cathcart, had only visited it once in 54 years.
The men, who were cottars (small farmers), refused to leave the land they had occupied. Lady Cathcart took ten of them to court in 1908. The judge said the owner had not done her duty to look after the land properly. However, he still decided that the men should face consequences.
In 1909, a group called the Congested Districts Board bought the island. They then divided Vatersay into 58 smaller plots of land called crofts. This allowed many families to have their own small farms.
The Seven Men of Knoydart
Another famous land raid happened in 1948. This involved a group known as the Seven Men of Knoydart. These men were soldiers returning home after World War II. They tried to take over land belonging to a landowner named Lord Brocket. Their attempt was not successful.
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