After the 1745/6 Battle of Culloden, many changes were afoot.

 Many people were migrating into the factory towns of the lowlands, whereas in the past

 they had grown their own food, they now needed to purchase food.

 With this growing market to sell to, the ‘landowners’ could now make large profits

 from farming their land more efficiently.

 People became interested in new ways of farming – crop rotation, land drainage,

 new farm machines – to grow more food and increase profit.

Highland landowners, had shared the land with their clansfolk – now they were introducing

 new farming ideas to make more money for themselves.

 Factors or managers were employed to oversee the farm work and tacksmen were no longer needed.

It was not long before the proprietors of the great estates understood that the way

 to realise much larger amounts of cash from their lands was to get rid of their people.

Sir John Sinclair born in Thurso in 1754, became first president of the Board of Agriculture

 and founded the British Wool Society.

On his estates, Sinclair initiated many changes in agricultural methods,

 such as field enclosure, crop rotation and - the one that had the greatest effect on

 the Highlands - the introduction of the ‘Cheviot sheep’ in his Langwell estate in Caithness in 1792.

Afterwards, people called 1792 ‘Bliadhna nan Caorach’ – (The Year of the Sheep).

The Cheviot’s large size, its hardiness and tolerance of Highland conditions,

and its production of great quantities of high-quality wool and meat, meant that volume

 sheep-farming suddenly became immensely, more profitable for them . . .

 Also, sheep were not a ‘liability’ to the landlord - unlike people,

 they were not dependent upon crops and did not seek the support of the laird when crops failed.

The ‘death-knell’ was sounded for the traditional way of life for tens of thousands of people

 across the Highlands and Islands

At Langwell, Sinclair ‘evicted’ 80 families to create a sheep farm.
 Many of those cleared were placed in the clifftop village of Badbea.

The Clearances, one of the saddest times in all the history of the Highlands, had truly begun.