2macstracks

Lewis – The Land Raiders Memorial

While we were on Lewis we went to see the Land Raiders Memorial and there is quite a story about it.
In 1844 Sir James Matheson bought the entire island of Lewis and cleared more than 500 families off the land by arranging their emigration to Canada and displacement to other parts of Lewis. In 1886 his widow converted her husband’s 42,000-acre sheep farm in Pairc into a sporting deer park. She refused to listen to pleas from the landless families of Pairc, who were desperate to return to their former villages.

In desperation on 22 November 1887, crofters marched into the Pairc deer forest and started killing deer. Royal Scots Guards were sent to Lewis in support of Lady Matheson. The raiders dispersed because they knew they couldn’t hold Pairc by force, and believed that they had raised awareness of their struggles. However, six of the leaders were arrested and sent for trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, but later acquitted.

It took a long time for meaningful reform to the Highland land laws, but the Pairc Deer Raid and similar efforts on the islands, eventually forced changes in the law and helped re-establish the rights of crofters. The Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, provided crofters with security of tenure.

Built in 1994, the Pairc Land Raiders monument is dedicated to the memory of the people of Lochs, who challenged their landlords. Lochs is the name given to the area where the deer park was created.

Inside the structure rocks are included from the crofts of each man arrested and also one each from the place where the Riot Act was read and the crofters campsite.

Somehow I missed stone No.1, Donald MacRae of Balallan.

Alex’ grandfather was a merchant and Post Master in Balallan until he left for World War 1 where he served with the Seaforth Highlanders and was killed in Belgium and his Granny operated the Post Office after that.