The Sutherland Estate, c.1860-1914: aristocratic decline, estate management and land reform

Abstract

The Sutherland estate in the north of Scotland was one of the most famous, or infamous, of all Highland estates. Its vast size (at 1.1 million acres it covered nearly the whole county of Sutherland) and the wealth and policies of the family that owned it, the dukes of Sutherland, has singled it out for much comment. Despite its high profile, only limited use has been made of the principal source for its study: the huge collection of estate records deposited in the National Library of Scotland and Staffordshire County Record Office. Historians of late nineteenth century Highland history have instead tended to rely on newspaper and other published accounts for material on the Sutherland estate. An exception to this rule has been Eric Richards, who has examined the records of the estate for the period 1800 to 1855, covering the great Sutherland clearances and the Highland famineThe Sutherland estate has always attracted comment, and many of the views expressed were informed by both the reputation of the ducal family, both good and bad, and the Sutherland clearances of 1809-21. This has to some extent disguised or distorted important debates in the period of study, such as the moral record of the administration of the estate. This debate was in turn tied to the wider discussion of land reform in the Highlands and the rights of property, both of the crofter and the landlord, much of which was expressed during the Crofters War (1882-86) and long after.The present study tries to set the Sutherland estate into its Highland context, politically, financially and organisationally. Of course, the ducal family's vast fortune, independent from the Sutherland estate, sets them apart from most other Highland landowners and allowed for a more experimental approach in addressing the 'Highland Problem.' In the 1860s, the family invested in the railways in Sutherland, in the 1870s in land reclamation and in 1884 and 1894 attempted, unsuccessfully, their own land resettlement schemes for the crofters. By looking at the papers of the Cromartie, Macdonald and Sinclair of Ulbster estate papers, the present study can demonstrate that this capital expenditure was highly unusual in a Highland context and tries to address its consequences.In many ways, however, the Sutherland estate had much in common with its neighbours. This thesis looks at the ranked series of relationships that made the estate function; that between the crofters and the estate, and that between the members of the estate management itself. It has been found that in many cases over the whole period under study, these relationships were fraught with difficulty and disagreement, to the extent of occasionally breaking down completely. The commonly held contemporary view that the Sutherland estate was powerful and monolithic is an essentially false one. The central narrative of the estate between 1860 and 1914 is one of decline, like that of many other Highland estates; financially, politically, territorially and as a result, in the estate's once iron grip over the Sutherland crofters.