I have incurred several personal and academic debts in the course of researching and writing this book.
My darling wife, Catherine, and all our family, have as usual been unstinting in their loving and patient support, even when their husband, father and grandfather drifted off yet again to reflect on some puzzling questions about the past.
Ideas for this book have been fashioned, rejected and refined over many years of teaching undergraduates and supervising doctoral students at three Scottish universities: Strathclyde, 1969–97; Aberdeen, 1998–2004; and Edinburgh, 2005–14. There is nothing like daily interaction with bright and committed students to enable thinking and rethinking on the essential issues of a historical project.
I also wish to extend warm thanks to members of my family, friends and colleagues who have given me practical assistance throughout the writing of the book: Professor Michael Anderson (University of Edinburgh), Noreen Devine, Kathryna Glennon, Sean Glennon, Dorothy Kidd (National Museums Scotland), Elizabeth Lyons, Gerry Lyons and James Patrick.
The research on the chapters on Lowland rural transformation and the history of famine in the Highlands depended to a very great extent on the impeccable work of two skilled research assistants, Willie Orr and Peter Clapham, both of whom are my former students. I acknowledge their invaluable contributions as well as the generous financial help of the UK Economic and Social Research Council for both of those projects.
This volume could not have been completed without the superb technical support and patient work of Margaret Begbie, on whose support I have long relied over the years and who has never failed me at any time. Professor Angela McCarthy of Otago University provided valuable advice and also read the proofs of the book with consummate care.
Three scholars from the disciplines of anthropology, economics and history very kindly sent me copies of their research theses. I am most grateful to Christine B. Anderson, ‘Uncovering and Recovering Cleared Galloway’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (2015); Catherine Douglas Shaw, ‘Enclosure and Agricultural Development in Scotland’, unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford (2009); and Alastair Livingston, ‘The Galloway Levellers’, unpublished M.Phil. thesis by research, University of Glasgow (2009).
I wish to thank Stuart A. Paterson for sending me his evocative poem ‘The fields that once were Home’ and for giving permission to reprint it in Chapter 5 of the book.
Warm thanks also go to Peter Aitchison and Andrew Cassell, formerly of BBC Scotland. Their fascinating radio programme ‘The Lowland Clearances’, transmitted in May and June 2003, was the first to raise the media profile of a subject long forgotten. It was also great fun working with Peter and Andrew in the great outdoors during the project.
I am grateful to the management and staffs of two important sites, Auchindrain Historic Township near Inveraray and the Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore, for information and guidance on their artefacts and buildings. For anyone interested in the issues covered in this book, both are ‘must see’ destinations.
The long list of sources in the Bibliography will confirm how much I have depended on the professional expertise of many archivists and librarians not only for making available material in their own care but also for facilitating access to manuscripts in private hands.
I have now worked with Simon Winder, my editor at Penguin, for nearly twenty years. Each of the five books on the history of Scotland, empire and diaspora which have been published during that time bears the imprint of his wise counsel, honest criticism and stimulating ideas. I could not have wished for a better editor. I also wish to thank him as a senior figure in a major international publishing house for his willingness to bring the history of the Scottish people to a global readership.
Simon’s patient and efficient editorial assistant, Ellen Davies, was immensely supportive and also found time to take on the role of part-time picture researcher for the book.
I have also been most fortunate in having a copy-editor for this book as scrupulous and thorough as Mark Handsley.
The staff at Penguin Random House have once again excelled in their consummate professionalism. I am especially grateful to Richard Duguid, Daisy Taylor, Louise Willder, Pen Vogler and Rebecca Lee for their support. No author could have asked for more.
My agent, Andrew Lownie, has been with me for as long as Simon. His prudent advice has been a constant feature over the years as have his faultless negotiating skills in contract after contract with publishers to our mutual benefit! I will always be greatly in Andrew’s debt.
Several scholars have built a new intellectual edifice over the past generation or so which allows a better understanding of Scottish rural history than hitherto. There are too many of them to mention by name here, but I do wish to thank all of these fellow labourers in the field for their many publications which are listed in the Bibliography. Without their work this book would not have been possible.
Some among them have also by their writings opened up routes to new insights and fresh perspectives. They include the late Eric Cregeen, Robert Dodgshon, the late Alexander Fenton, the late Malcolm Gray, James Hunter, Allan M. Macinnes, Andrew Mackillop, Marianne McLean, Donald Meek, the late Eric Richards, Christopher Smout, Ian Whyte and Charles Withers. I am very pleased to publicly acknowledge their stimulating and pathbreaking work.
This book is dedicated with warmth, respect and admiration to the memory of a great scholar and modest man, Malcolm Gray (1918–2008).
Tom Devine
Scoor House
Isle of Mull
July 2017