The Rhins of Galloway are today the very essence of rural
Scotland. A patchwork of rectangular fields, some arable, others pasture,
demarked by hedges and walls, interspersed with roads and lanes, their verges
covered in spring with wild flowers. Stand at almost any point and do a 360
degrees turn and you will see one or more neat farmsteads, with a trim,
whitewashed farmhouse and sturdy outbuildings. Plantations of evergreen trees
are plentiful. Every so often, you will pass through a small but
picturesque village, with mixed terraces of cottages and houses and the
occasional shop or hostelry, all distinctively Scottish in appearance.
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| A typical Rhins fieldscape, between Port Logan and New England Bay |
The Rhins has a timeless appearance, and much of its
landscape is at least two hundred years old. But go back another hundred years
and the Rhins would have looked very different. You would still have seen a
mixture of arable and pasture fields, but their appearance would have been
irregular and apparently random, and hedges and walls would have been scarce.
The crops would have been thinner on the ground and the animals smaller. There would have been extensive moorland and bogs, scarred
by peat digging. There were few if any roads, only muddy tracks, and trees were almost
non-existent. Where farmhouses now stand, there would have been scatters of
low, thatched cottages, and the villages had not yet been founded.
The changes to the landscape that began in the early
eighteenth century and were broadly completed by the mid-nineteenth century,
reflected the "improvement" movement: the Scottish version of the agricultural revolution that
transformed farming across Britain, leading to massively increased food production.
This in turn facilitated a dramatic increase in population and paved the way
for the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. Impovement reached all parts of Scotland, even such far-flung corners as the Rhins
of Galloway. In this article, I will outline how improvement changed the face
of Scotland, focusing specifically on how change came to the Rhins. I have
drawn on many sources in compiling this article, but in particular The Scottish Clearances: A History of the
Dispossessed by T.M. Devine (2018). For more focused information I have
used the General View of the Agricultureof Galloway, written in 1809 by Rev. Samuel Smith, minister of the parish
of Borgue – a clear and comprehensive account that was extensively used by
later historians of Galloway - and the First and Second Statistical Accounts of Rhins parishes.
The word “Clearances” in the title of Tom Devine’s book
suggests upheaval and the forcible removal of people. Those who know little
Scottish history will have heard of the “Highland Clearances” and may regard
them as barbaric acts of ethnic cleansing. We will briefly consider the myth
and reality of the highland clearances later. There was also displacement of
people in the lowlands of Scotland, however the process and outcomes of
agricultural change in the lowlands, including Galloway, was very different to that
in the highlands. While such change would undoubtedly have been difficult for
individuals, the overall outcomes were more benign, and in many cases led to an
enhanced quality of life.
Scotland before
Improvement
Prior to the beginning of improvement in the early
eighteenth century, the whole of Scotland was overwhelmingly rural and
agriculture was organised throughout both the lowlands and highlands in broadly
similar ways (by “the lowlands” we mean the area from the Borders up to Loch
Lomond, including Galloway, and the North-Eastern coastal areas of Fife and
Aberdeenshire. “The highlands” embraced the northern and western mountain areas
and the northern and western isles). Land was owned by Lairds who had considerable
control over those who lived and worked on their properties. There was a
hierarchy among the rural population, according to their occupation of land. Tenants directly rented land
from Lairds. Sometimes, larger tenants would let parts of their land to sub-tenants. Below them in the hierarchy
were cottars. These did not formally
rent land, but were granted an acre or two by a tenant as a smallholding, in
exchange for undertaking labouring work for the tenant at busy times, such as
harvest. Some cottars were also tradesmen, such as smiths, masons or shoemakers
(souters). Finally, there were farm
servants and labourers, who did not possess land but usually lodged with
the tenant farmer for whom they worked. Farm servants (male and female) were
often the children of sub-tenants and cottars, earning their keep before
acquiring some land of their own.
There were small, scattered market towns, but no English-style
villages and there were also few individual farmsteads. The bulk of the rural
population lived in small communities known as fermtouns. A fermtoun
included one or more tenant farmers, and also farm servants and cottars to
provide labour. Fermtouns varied greatly in size and composition. The
population of those on the Rhins ranged from ten to thirty adults (with added children). Some had a single tenant, who employed all the
other workers, while others had a number of tenants, who worked the land
co-operatively. In some cases, dwellings were centred in a small hamlet, while
in others, dwellings were spread around the extent of the fermtoun’s land.
All fermtouns were essentially mixed farms, with arable and
pasture in varying proportions. Some were subsistence farms, producing just
enough to feed the occupants and to provide rent in kind to the Laird, while
others produced a surplus for the market. They included three kinds of land. Infield was kept heavily manured (with
human and animal dung, carefully kept by householders in dunghills) and
produced successive crops of grain. Outfield
received minimal manure but was used for grain production until worn out, when
it was left fallow until it recovered. Pasture
and rough grazing supported the
farm’s livestock, which could also be kept on the arable land during fallow
periods. Fields were irregularly shaped and sized, with arable land scattered
around the more fertile parts of the farm. Sometimes, arable fields were farmed
using the “runrig” system, which comprised long strips of "rig and furrow", divided up among the
tenants and cottars. In Galloway, the main crops grown were oats and a form of
barley known as “bere”, which was sold to brewers for making malt. Fields were
rarely enclosed, except for a "head dyke" around the infield and much effort had to be made by the farm’s occupants to keep
livestock from straying onto crops, or land belonging to adjoining fermtouns.
In upland areas, livestock were driven in summer onto rougher ground further
from the centre, and workers spent the season in “shielings”, small camps sited
on the rough grazing from where they could guard their stock.
It could be an unsettled life. Leases were
generally short, often renewable annually. If a tenant moved on, the
sub-tenants, cottars and farm servants associated with him had to move as well.
Houses were basic. It was common for families to build their
own houses, with the help of relations and neighbours. The typical dwelling
was a single-roomed longhouse, with dry-stone walls lined with mud and a
thatched roof. While houses in the lowlands were generally better than in the
highlands, Samuel Smith reported that pre-improvement houses in Galloway had no
glass in the windows and no chimneys, smoke leaving the building where it
could. Floors were muddy and often damp and the family’s cow was accommodated at
one end of the building. If a family moved away, they regularly took the wooden
roof supports with them to use in a fresh dwelling.
It was not an efficient system of farming, and productivity
and income were low, leading to poor rental returns for landowners. It was
essentially a peasant economy and Scotland was overall a less affluent country
than England. With the Act of Union in 1707, new ideas in husbandry, already
being introduced in English farms, started to reach Scottish landowners, and in
the lowlands at least, the improvement movement started to gain traction.
Improvement in the
Lowlands
Improvement began earlier in the lowlands than in the
highlands, was generally carried out in an incremental way and mainly involved
the reorganisation of the mixed farming regime rather than a wholesale change in
its nature. This meant that, while individuals were certainly displaced, there
were not the sometimes drastic “clearances” that later shook the highlands. Improvement
was triggered by leading landowners, who had the power to impose change and the
capital to make the necessary investments. The motivation for improvement was
primarily to increase landowners’ income through being able to charge higher
rents on more productive farms. There was also the philosophical motivation,
derived from contemporary “enlightenment” thinking, for landowners to be seen
to be facilitating advances in the standard of living of those who lived on
their land. Some landowners undertook improvements to farms themselves, before
re-letting them to new tenants, while others facilitated tenants to make
improvements. A key aspect of this was the introduction of longer leases,
commonly nineteen years, which gave tenants a greater stake in the success of a
farm. A third option was for landowners and tenants to agree at the beginning
of a nineteen year lease on a joint improvement plan.
In some upland areas of the lowlands, improvement involved
abandoning traditional mixed farming in favour of extensive livestock farms. As
early as the 1680s, some upland areas of Galloway were cleared of fermtouns in
favour of large scale cattle ranches. In the 1720s this led to the only known
example of social unrest caused by agricultural change in the lowlands. A protest movement among locals developed that
became known as "The Levellers” (not to be confused with the similarly-named
radical movement that came to prominence during the English Civil War in the
1640s). These Levellers got their name from their practice of throwing down (or
levelling) the stone walls built to enclose fields in cattle-rearing areas.
Protests continued for a couple of years, reaching as far west as Wigtown, but
it is not known whether the Rhins were affected. The authorities exhibited
restraint in responding to the protesters and the movement fizzled
out within a couple of years. It is not clear what happened to all those
displaced from the land, but some left Galloway, heading either to the growing
towns and cities, or emigrating to the New World.
In much of the lowlands, however, mixed farming was
retained, but steps taken to increase its productivity. The main features of improvement
were as follows:
- · Phasing out multiple tenancies in favour of single tenancies on long leases, with the aim of putting farms in the charge of men with superior motivation and skill in husbandry.
- · Maximising the land that was under the control of the main tenant. This often meant taking land away from sub-tenants and cottars.
- · Enclosing fields to allow for better control of livestock (and the consequent reduction in the need for farm workers to watch over stock).
- · The introduction of calceous manures to supplement or replace the use of dung. Initially shell marl was used, and later this was replaced by imported lime.
- · The replacement of the heavy and inefficient Scots plough with improved ploughs and ploughing techniques.
- · The introduction of crop rotation regimes and the introduction of “green crops” such as turnips and potatoes, and “green manures” such as clover. As well as further fertilising the land, these provided enhanced feed for livestock, and potatoes supplemented rural dwellers’ diets.
- Later on, the introduction of drainage systems to further improve existing arable land, and to bring marshy land under cultivation.
Over time, these improvements drastically increased
productivity, farm incomes and rents paid to landowners. There were, however,
human costs attached. The consolidation of farms into single tenancies meant
that fermtouns were replaced by the individual farms that we see today. The
co-tenants and sub-tenants who were not skilled or lucky enough to become a
sole tenant of an improved farm had to leave to seek their fortunes elsewhere,
or to become landless labourers. This happened over a period of time, with leases
that were coming to an end not being renewed. Gradually, the cottages that made
up a fermtoun would be vacated and often demolished, to make way for more
arable land, leaving a single farmhouse and steading, rebuilt to up-to-date
specifications.
Farm servants and labourers continued to be housed within
the main farm, but cottars, who made up a considerable proportion of the
population, also lost their land and dwellings and had to leave. However, improved
mixed farming was, if anything, more labour intensive than old style husbandry,
and landowners did not want an exodus of workers from their lands. Thus were
born villages, sometimes planned, sometimes growing organically, to create
dormitories for much needed tradesmen and day labourers. Some also became
centres for rural industries, in particular textile production. Such villages
also carried marks of improvement, with better built houses, often sporting
slate roofs.
While individuals lost land and dwellings, agricultural
improvement in the mixed farming areas of the lowlands happened with very
little sign of protest or unrest. The main reasons for this appear to have
been, first, the gradual and incremental nature of the changes (and many
lowland families would have been used to regular moves, due to the brevity of
former leases), and second, the provision of alternative employment and
accommodation.
The Rhins before
Improvement
Old maps show that, like the rest of Scotland, the Rhins
were once covered with a scattering of fermtouns. Stranraer, as a Royal Burgh,
formed the nearest market town. Portpatrick was the next largest settlement,
and was a Burgh of Barony, allowing for a more restricted market, but there is
no evidence that one was ever held there. As late as the mid-eighteenth
century, Portpatrick village was said to comprise little more than a dozen houses,
with most of the inhabitants earning a living from the nascent port for Ireland,
serving as informal dockers and inn-keepers. The other villages on the Rhins
had not yet been established.
In 1684 a document was compiled entitled Parish Lists of Wigtownshire and Minnigaff.
This was a rough census put together by Episcopalian curates in each parish,
listing all parishioners over the age of twelve, with the aim of identifying non-conformists.
While few “irregulars” were found, the book offers a snapshot of the local
population at the end of the seventeenth century. Each parish list is divided
into fermtouns, and while unlikely to be wholly accurate it gives an idea of
the population of each. It also confirms the lack of sizeable villages other
than Stranraer and Portpatrick. The overall adult population was low, totals
for each Rhins parish (not including children) coming to:
Kirkcolm: 501
Leswalt: 459
Portpatrick: 254 (though only heads of household were
included)
Stonykirk: 625
Kirkmaiden: 621
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| The fermtouns of Portpatrick parish at the end of the 17th century. Many still exist as single-occupancy farms. |
The most detailed map of the period is William Roy’sMilitary Map of the Lowlands of Scotland, compiled 1752-1755. These were the
early years of improvement, but Roy’s map, while again not completely accurate,
depicts much of the Rhins in its pre-improvement state. The fermtouns are
shown, often with areas of runrig cultivation around the scattered clusters of
dwellings. There are few roads, and few depictions of enclosures, and even less
of woods or plantations.
 |
| A close-up of part of Portpatrick parish as depicted on Roy's 1752 map. While not completely accurate, it gives an idea of the pre-improvement landscape. There are no roads and few enclosures. Many fields contain swirls or lines of rig and furrow. Fermtouns are shown as small clumps of buildings (in red). |
There is little visible evidence today of how the Rhins
appeared prior to improvement – the changes since have been too profound. As
much of the Rhins is prime agricultural land, later landowners have been keen
to maximise its potential returns. Occasionally, one can see traces of rig and
furrow in fields that have been less extensively cultivated. All the old farm
buildings and cottages have been demolished and the stone reused, and the
fieldscape redrawn by enclosure and land reclamation. The only buildings that survive from
pre-improvement times are the ruined towerhouses that were the homes of the
local Lairds (Corsewall Castle; Galdenoch Castle, Dunskey Castle, etc), and
remains of former parish churches and chapels (such as Portpatrick Old Kirk and
Kirkbride, near Terally, Kirkmaiden parish).
For concrete evidence of the pre-enclosure landscape, we
must travel outside the Rhins to the moorland areas east of Loch Ryan. In the
moors near New Luce, areas of abandoned rig and furrow can be seen, as can the
remains of former farmsteads. An example of each can be found at Fauldinchie,
set on a north-facing slope overlooking the Cross Water of Luce (and just off
the Southern Upland Way). Here, the remains of two buildings and a corn kiln
can be seen, set in the middle of an area of land that had been cleared of
surface stones and surrounded by a ring-dyke. Aerial photographs show that the
land is covered by swirls of rig and furrow, in a pattern characteristic of
Galloway. A scatter of stones on the eastern edge of the ring-dyke is marked on
the first edition Ordnance Survey map as a “Sheep Ree”, an enclosure where
sheep were kept while being let out onto arable land to feed on stubble and
fertilise the land with manure. This, and the presence of the ring-dyke surrounding the field,
suggests that the land was once an area of infield and the buildings were
perhaps the dwellings of sub-tenants of the nearby fermtoun of Drangour (now
Dranigower farm). This is speculation however – no actual records relating to
the settlement exist. A different pattern of rig and furrow near to the sheep
ree may be the remains of “lazy beds”, used for growing potatoes to boost the
occupants’ diet.
 | |
| A diagram of the small settlement at Fauldinchie, New Luce parish, Two ruined buildings and a corn kiln stand in the middle of a field that is surrounded by a ring-dyke. Aerial photos show traces of rig and furrow across the field, laid out in swirls in the Galloway style. On the left, an area of more distinct rig and furrow may be "lazy beds" for growing potatoes. Next to it is the ramains of a structure that is named on the first edition ordnance survey map as a "sheep ree". The whole area may be a patch of "infield", farmed perhaps by a sub-tenant of the fermtoun of Drangour (now Dranigower farm). |
 | |
| One of the ruined buildings at Fauldinchie |
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| The remains of a cornkiln, Fauldinchie |
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| A small patch of rig and furrow can be seen just above the woodland on this picture, taken from the road between New Luce and Penwhirn reservoir |
 |
| Probable 'lazy beds' for growing potatoes at Fauldinchie |
Further afield still, near Carsphain, on the eastern edge of
the Galloway Forest Park, lies the remains of the fermtoun of Polmaddy. The
scatter of abandoned buildings has been surveyed and interpreted and the site
has helpful signs and an explanation board. There are a number of buildings,
including dwellings and farm steading, and also cornkilns, a mill and an inn.
The surrounding fields show signs of rig and furrow. Again, however, nothing is
known of its history.
 |
| The site of the fermtoun of Polmaddy, near Carsphain. |
Improvement reaches
the Rhins
As we saw above, William Roy’s Military Map of the Lowlands
(1752-1755) depicts the Rhins at the beginning of the main phase of
improvement. While some areas are bare of walls or hedges, others show the
regular geometric shapes of enclosed fields. The land is still scattered with fermtouns,
and inside the fields are depictions of rig and furrow, but change is on the
way.
 |
| Another excerpt from Roy's map shows the north of Kirkcolm parish. While we still see scatteed fermtouns, and rig and furrow in some of the fields, straight red lines demark new enclosures - the first visible signs of improvement. |
The improvement movement in the lowlands gathered pace from
the middle of the eighteenth century. Change was led by some of the leading
landowners (or, more often, by their factors, who were sometimes described as
“Superintendents of Improvements”). Early adopters among Rhins landowners were
the second Earl of Stair (who found some of his tenants resistive to new ideas,
such as cultivating turnips), and the fifth Earl of Galloway. The latter owned
much of Kirkcolm parish and it is unsurprising that Roy’s map shows a considerable area of
that parish as having already been enclosed. Later in the eighteenth century,
the seventh Earl of Galloway pursued a policy of taking possession of fermtouns
as tenants’ leases expired, undertaking improvements himself and then
re-letting them as single tenancy farms on 21-year leases at a much higher rent.
The progress of improvement can be followed by examining the First and Second Statistical Accounts of
Rhins parishes, compiled by Kirk ministers in the early 1790s and late 1830s.
The 1791-2 accounts for the Rhins parishes show that improvement was already well
underway. In Kirkcolm, the minister reported that improvement was led by the principal landowners, including the Earl of Galloway, tenants finding the
capital investment too great. The economy of the parish was
improving: grain exports had increased six-fold over the past twenty years, and
rentals had doubled over the past seven years. Like all other ministers, he
espoused the value of new fertilisers, especially lime imported from Whitehaven
or Ireland, but also shell marl. He also reported on the foundation in the past
three years of the first village in the parish, initially known as Steuarton (the
family name of the Earls of Galloway), later Kirkcolm village. Occupants of the
new houses were tradesmen, or the new class of agricultural day labourers. Most
were likely to have been former cottars, displaced from their smallholdings on
the fermtouns.
The minister of Leswalt parish in 1791 also reported the
expansion of villages (Clayhole and Hillhead, both now suburbs of Stranraer).
Improvement was underway, but the moorland in the west of the parish was
proving difficult - transporting lime there was challenging as there were no
roads at that time. The main resident landowner, Sir Stair Agnew of Lochnaw Castle
had undertaken considerable improvements of the land around his dwelling,
including forming plantations of trees. The improvement of the “home farms”,
that supplied the country houses of the prominent local lairds, was repeated
across the Rhins.
 |
| A classic post-improvement Rhins farmstead, at Miekle Larbrax, Leswalt parish. |
The minister of Portpatrick focused on another aspect of
improvement: the development of the town of Portpatrick and its harbour by the
lairds of Dunskey, Sir James Hunter-Blair and his successors. In Stonykirk, it
was reported that more grain was exported from the parish than from any other
in Western Galloway and the value of fertilising arable land with lime or sea
weed was again highlighted. Finally, the pattern was repeated in Kirkmaiden,
with tenant farmers being praised for making improvements. It was also reported
that farm servants’ wages had risen by a third in the previous few years –
labour throughout the Rhins was at a premium and the local population was
reinforced during the early nineteenth century by numbers of Irish labourers.
By the time of the second Statistical Account in the late
1830s, change had proceeded inexorably. All parishes had experienced a
considerable increase in population, which would reach a peak in the 1850s. Existing
roads had been improved and new ones built. Enclosure and the use of lime
fertiliser was almost universal, and the focus of further improvement was on
the use of drainage to improve existing arable land and to bring new areas
under cultivation – the brick and tile works at Terally in Kirkmaiden parish
was set up to supply drainage tiles to local farms. Villages had expanded in
size and new ones created at Sandhead and Port Logan. The latter was
established as a planned village and harbour by the Laird of Logan to compete
with Portpatrick for the trade in Irish cattle.
 |
| The remains of the kiln at Terally Brick and Tile Works, one of many that could once be found across Galloway, making bricks for buildings and tiles for field draingage. |
 |
| New roads on the Rhins tended to be as straight as possible, with spacious verges bordered by hedges |
A couple of ministers gave details of crop rotations that
had been introduced as an aspect of improvement, a typical sequence being:
Years 1 and 2: Oats; Year 3: Potatoes or Turnips; Year 4: Barley, Oats or
Wheat; Year 5: Hay or Pasture. The presence of wheat was in itself an
innovation and it slowly replaced bere as a cash crop on the Rhins. Another
innovation was the growth of dairy farming with Ayrshire cows, particularly in
Kirkcolm and Kirkmaiden parishes. At the same time, some areas remained
susceptible to further improvement. In Portpatrick, the minister complained
that not all areas had been improved, one constraint being that a significant
portion of the land was subject to “entail”, which legally determined the
succession of inheritance and prevented Lairds from selling their estates to more
enthusiastic improvers. In Kirkmaiden, the minister reported that many
farmhouses and steadings were sub-standard and in some places the practice of
renewing leases annually still prevailed, meaning that tenants had no incentive
to make improvements, though he predicted that the situation would soon improve.
All in all, however, the message from the Statistical
Accounts was one of steadily increasing agricultural prosperity on the Rhins,
reflected in increased output; the transformation of the landscape
through enclosure, fertilisers and drainage; the introduction of new crops and
livestock; new and improved roads, farmsteads and villages, and higher returns
for landowners and farmers, and wages for farm servants and labourers. While
housing and food were still basic by modern standards, and life was still hard,
the lot of the majority of people on the Rhins was better than at any previous
time.
Improvement in the
Highlands of Scotland
Our account of agricultural change on the Rhins broadly
matches that of the rest of the Scottish lowlands. To complete the picture, we
will briefly consider the different, and somewhat more drastic history of change in the
Scottish highlands. In the eighteenth century, the land in the highlands was
organised in the same way as in the lowlands, with fermtouns devoted to mixed
farming, and a largely peasant economy. Improvement came later than in the lowlands, due to the conservatism
and relative poverty of the Lairds (who within living memory had been clan
chiefs), and went through two broadly distinct phases.
The first phase began in the late eighteenth century. By
this time, it was becoming clear that the fermtouns were no longer economically
sustainable, and the only way that landowners could maximise income (and service their often considerable debts) was to
convert much of their land to large scale sheep farms. These required far less
labour than the small mixed farms, and so many highlanders had to leave their
homes in the fermtouns, which were then abandoned. At this stage, however,
landowners did not want to lose the inhabitants of their land completely, as they
saw them as labour for alternative income-generating industries, including
fishing and kelp burning (to manufacture fertiliser) and whisky distilling.
Many families were therefore required to move to crofts that were established
in coastal areas. Crofts were smallholdings, but were deliberately too small to
sustain a family, forcing them to work for the Lairds in new and unfamiliar
occupations.
In contrast to the lowlands, change in the highlands often
happened precipitously and sometimes Lairds and their representatives acted with
little concern for those “cleared” from the land. Particularly notorious was
Patrick Sellar, estate manager to the Countess of Sutherland, owner of much of
that county. Sellar, an Edinburgh lawyer, held racist views about the
fundamental inferiority of the Gaels and drove them from their homes with the
threat or actuality of violence, destroying dwellings by burning to prevent
return. Sellar eventually stood trial at Inverness High Court on charges of
“culpable homicide, oppression and real injury”. While he was eventually
acquitted, both his and the Countess of Sutherland’s reputations were severely damaged.
The second phase of highland clearance occurred in the 1840s
and 1850s. By this time, economic difficulties were becoming acute again. The
fishing and kelp burning industries were failing and many highlanders were
scratching a subsistence living from their sparse crofts. They relied on
growing potatoes, which became their main source of food. Then in the md-1840s,
the potato blight that devastated Ireland reached Scotland. In Ireland, over a
million people died of starvation or related disease, but deaths in the
highlands of Scotland were minimised by the relatively small number of people
affected, and by the more proactive efforts by landowners, churches and
authorities to provide relief. The crisis did, however, catalyse a renewed
drive to reorganise agriculture in the highlands, by extending sheep farming
into the areas occupied by crofters. Official policy became to encourage, and
if necessary force, highlanders from the crofting community to emigrate to
North America and elsewhere, and many did so.
This over-simplified account of agricultural change in the
highlands does at least serve to highlight the contrasts between the lowland
and highland experience. In the lowlands, change happened sooner, mixed farming
generally continued and, while families were certainly dispossessed, the
overall outcome was that most stayed in the areas they had been living in, and
maintained a similar, and sometimes better way of life. In the highlands,
change was more likely to be forced on people, to involve a more drastic alteration
of circumstances and sometimes a poorer outcome – or at least the rigours of emigration
to a different continent.
Conclusion
By the 1850s, the landscape and economy of the Rhins of
Galloway had been transformed, and the local population was at the highest it
has ever been. But nothing stays still for long. By the 1880s, British
agriculture was in a state of depression, due largely to the influx of cheap
imports from abroad. On the Rhins, the changing economic circumstances led to
the abandonment of marginal arable land to pasture and accelerated growth of
dairying, and drove the first nails into the coffin of the local landed gentry, whose
wealth and position depended on rental returns from the land. Then in the
twentieth century another agricultural revolution swept the country, this time
driven by technology and machinery, chemicals and scientific breeding regimes
to improve crops and livestock. The numbers who worked on the land plummeted,
as did the population of the Rhins, despite the partial offset of employment in
the tourist industry. The Rhins of Galloway retains its bucolic landscape, but
the practice of husbandry there has changed for ever, and will doubtless
continue to change in the future.
Sources Used
Roy Military Survey and 19th Century Ordnance Survey maps available from the National Library of Scotland Map Images
Devine T (2018) The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed. London: Penguin
Foyster E & Whatley C (eds) (2010) A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 – 1800. Edinburgh University Press.
Griffiths T & Morton G (eds) (2010) A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1800 – 1900. Edinburgh University Press.
Sources Used
Roy Military Survey and 19th Century Ordnance Survey maps available from the National Library of Scotland Map Images
Devine T (2018) The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed. London: Penguin
Foyster E & Whatley C (eds) (2010) A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 – 1800. Edinburgh University Press.
Griffiths T & Morton G (eds) (2010) A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1800 – 1900. Edinburgh University Press.
McCullough A
(2000) Galloway: A Land Apart.
Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd.
Smith S (1813) General View of the Agriculture of Wigtonshire. Google ebook.
Scot W (1916) Parish Lists of Wigtownshire and Minnigaff, 1684. Smith S (1813) General View of the Agriculture of Wigtonshire. Google ebook.
