The sense of national pride that wells up inside every Scot when they talk about the Highlands is tangible, and they have every right to be proud, because as the rains stop pouring and it’s grey shroud clears, what is left is undeniably one of the most beautifully wild places on Earth. In fact, even when the mist remains it is still a wondrous place, its rugged and mysterious charm enhanced by the romantic ideal of misty Glens and howling winds.
Scotland also has one of the smallest populations of any European country, combined with its relative size as it isn’t much smaller than its southerly neighbour yet having only about a tenth of its population. Most of which is found in the main central strip of cities such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, leaving most of the country practically empty. It is no wonder that it has become so popular with the English elite – snapping up second and third homes as a means of escaping England’s overpopulated cities. This is Europe’s final frontier, a true wilderness; one of the few places in an increasingly crowded continent that you can escape day to day life and hark back to a forgotten time.
About the only bad thing you can say about the Highlands is its lack of a truly dependable climate. Much like its neighbour, England, Highland weather is prone to sudden changes which are further exacerbated by its northerly latitude. Lets be honest, if you wanted to lie on a beach all day soaking up the sun you wouldn’t be travelling to Scotland anyway, much less the Highlands. Ironically, this makes the Scottish Highlands and surrounding Islands the perfect romantic break. It makes perfect sense – if the weathers poor then you’ll have more of an excuse to stay in bed. It could give a whole new meaning to the expression ‘Highland fling!’
As is too often the case with beautiful parts of the world, the landscape has a tragic and painful story to tell. The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are still haunted by the clearances of the 19th century; those years of state-sponsored genocide that followed in the wake of two successive failed Jacobite rebellions in the 18th century and which sealed the fate of the traditional Highland way of life. However, after two centuries of decline, Gaelic, the ancient language of the Highlands and Islands, has been making a comeback, thanks to financial help from the government agencies and the European Union. There has also been a resurgence of confidence in Gaelic culture, spurred on by the commercial success of Gaelic-language bands such as Runrig and Capercaillie. The Free Church of Scotland has played a crucial role too; a bastion of tradition in the Outer Hebrides, where religion still plays a vitally important role in the Islanders lives.
Life in the Highlands and Islands has changed dramatically for many people following the new Scottish Parliament’s most radical and far reaching legislation, The Land Reform of Scotland Act that was implemented in 2003. Among other things, the act gives crofters – small tenant farmers – the right to collectively purchase the land on which they live and work, whether or not the landowner wants to sell it. It also grants them fishing and mineral rights on and to the land. The act was not very well received by Scotland’s big estate owners, many of whom are incredibly angry at the prospect of giving up the rights to their land, however unfairly they gained it in the first place. Many have been painting the town red and branding it a form of Marxism while others have likened it to the reclamation of white-owned farms by Mugabe’s ‘War Veterans’ in Zimbabwe, modern day Rhodesia.
This bleating will not be echoed by most people as the majority see the intrinsic unfairness in the fact that a collective of 350 people own half of all the private land in the country. Indeed, some might see this is legal payback for the atrocities of The Highland Clearances. |
