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MHG64474 - Memorial cairn - 'Battle of the Braes', Ollach, Skye

Summary

The memorial cairn for the 'Battle of the Braes', Ollach, Skye.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

The memorial cairn for the 'Battle of the Braes', Ollach, Skye.

The Highland Clearances began in the mid to late 18th century and continued intermittently into the 19th century. Landlords in the Highlands and Islands decided that there was a more profitable venture than accommodating crofters and so began evicting families who had worked the land for centuries to make way for sheep, as they believed they could make more money that way.

The ‘Land Wars’ of the late 1800s were instigated by the crofters who wanted the right to their own land officially recognised in the law – a right they had enjoyed under the clan system for centuries. It all came to a head in April of 1882, at what became known as ‘Blàr a’ Chumhaing’, or The Battle of the Braes, near Portree in Skye. Lord MacDonald decided to raise the rent levied on the people of Braes. With their lease almost up, they agreed to pay the new rate. Despite this, MacDonald refused to renew their lease.

The crofters decided to withhold their rent until the matter was resolved, with some of them continuing to graze their sheep on the land at Ben Lee where they had been forbidden. MacDonald tried to evict the crofters, involving law enforcement, but the attempt to clear the crofters off their land by the Sheriff’s Officer from Portree was in vain: they forced him to burn the summons papers.

Realising that this was going to be a harder task than expected, the Sheriff called in reinforcements from Glasgow: an additional fifty officers in total. The crofters were not prepared to give up their land without a fight, and so when the officers arrived from Glasgow on 19 April 1882, they were met with sticks and stones hurled at them by around a hundred or so locals. Vastly outnumbered, the police eventually retreated, but not before several people were injured. A handful of crofters were arrested and handed fines, but they garnered support in the media from across the country.

This confrontation between the local crofters and the police on 19 April 1882 led to the appointment of the Napier Commission (see also MHG64473 for the associated Ollach Mission Church) and ultimately the introduction of the Crofters’ Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, granting security of tenure to crofters. <1>

The memorial was erected in 1980. The inscription in both Gaelic and English reads:

"faisg air a'chàrn seo,
air an 9mh latha deug de'n ghislean 1882,
chriochnaich
an cath a chuir muinntir a’bhràighe
air sgàth tuath na gàidhealtachd”

“near this cairn,
on the 19th of April 1882,
ended
the Battle fought by the people of Braes
on behalf of the crofters of Gaeldom”

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NG 5218 3586 (5m by 5m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NG53NW
Geographical Area	SKYE AND LOCHALSH
Civil Parish	PORTREE

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