Forest Heritage Scotland webpages - Rosal

Date 2009

Event ID 588245

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/588245

Forest Heritage Scotland

The website text produced for Rosal webpages on the Forest Heritage Scotland website (www.forestheritagescotland.com).

Introduction: By fair means or foul

In a forestry clearing in upper Strathnaver lie the remains of Rosal township. Strathnaver was the scene of some of the most notorious events of the Highland Clearances.

In the early 19th century the Countess of Sutherland and her husband the Marquis of Stafford began a programme of 'improvements' to the Sutherland estates. This involved converting the great glens of the county into large sheep farms.

To achieve this they cleared out hundreds of small tenant farmers and resettled them in new villages on the coast. Here they were expected to learn new occupations such as fishing, cloth manufacture and brick-making. The tenants were rightly suspicious of their promised rosy new future, and were reluctant to move, but were given no choice.

In 1814 Patrick Sellar, an employee of the estate, obtained the lease of a sheep farm in Strathnaver, and began to clear the ground. He did so ruthlessly, sometimes burning houses to prevent tenants returning.

There were allegations that he caused the deaths of two old and sick tenants. In 1816 he was tried on charges of culpable homicide but was found not guilty, though history remembers his name as a symbol of a dark episode in Highland history.

People Story: Gloomy Memories

It is unknown whether they cleared Rosal in 1814. It may have survived until later less violent clearances in 1819.

Archaeological excavations of part of the township show no signs that the buildings burnt down. This may explain why a Donald MacLeod of Rosal was called to testify in support of Sellar at his trial.

Donald MacLeod may be the same person who later, in 1857, wrote letters for the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle telling of his memories of life in Sutherland. He called them 'Gloomy Memories'.

Personal accounts, at the time, claim that Sellar did undertake at least one violent eviction at Rosal, although it appears not to have gone to court.

Sellar demanded the removal of several old women. The people of Rosal ignored this demand. John MacKay testified that the evictors came and set fire to the house with the women in it. Rescuers save the women but the house burnt down in half an hour.

'I have never seen such an object in my lifetime, and I hopes in God I shall never see such another'

John MacKay (year unknown), translated from Gaelic

Evidence Story: Excavations at Rosal: what do they tell us?

The excavation at Rosal is one of the few undertaken to investigate the remains of a rural township for this period of Scottish history.

In 1962, Horace Fairhurst of Glasgow University surveyed the remains of the township and identified over seventy buildings, including houses, barns, outhouses and corn-drying kilns.

Fairhurst then excavated a sample of these buildings, including a house of a type known today as a byre-dwelling.

The byre dwelling was a long rectangular building, 26 metres long in total, built on a slope.

There were two rooms for the family living there to use; the main room had a central fire where the family would gather. At the lower end of the building there was the byre where the animals would stay. Their closeness to the family would have provided extra heat for the house.

Historical records mention Rosal as early as 1269. The excavations, however, only found remains for houses dating to around the 18th century. It did not discover evidence of any medieval houses. This could be because they built the later houses on the site of the old houses and re-used the same building materials.