Important Events in Hebridean History
Clearance (with audio)
Main Article
Sadness is all that we have left now.
Cold is the hearth, with no one to tend it. Still is the quern, with no one to turn it. No cow left to be milked, no fleeces to be shorn and washed and dyed and spun and woven and fulled, and worn in bright colours in the warmth of the sun. No laughter at the bringing in of the peats, no singing at the harvest of the barley. No potatoes to lift, no wedding to dancing at, no more children to be born. No keening at the wake of one of our people taken too soon. Only weeds now where the corn grew on the lazybeds.
The rents went up and up, and we could not pay. Gone are all our neighbours. Soon we must go too, but where we will go, and how we will live, I do not know. Then the glen will be emptied, and the landlord will have his sheepfarm.
Chan eil an seo a-nis ach bròn.
Tha a' chagailt fuar, gun duine a' cur teine innte. Tha a' bhrà na tàmh, gun duine ga tionndadh. Chan eil bò air fhàgail ri bleoghan, chan eil clòimh ann a dh'fheumar bearradh no nighe no dath no sniomh no fighe no luadh, no a caitheamh mar aodach dathach ann am blàths na grèine. Chan eil gàireachdainn ann a' toirt dhachaigh na mònach, chan eil seinn aig foghar an eòrna. Chan eil buntàta rin togail, chan eil banais airson danns, chan eil clann gam breith. Chan eil caoineadh aig taigh-fhaire aon den chinneadh againn a thugadh air falbh an an-àm. Tha luibhean a' fàs an àite a' choirce air na feannagan.
Chaidh na màil na b' àirde agus na b' àirde, agus cha b' urrainn dhuinn am pàigheadh. Tha ar nàbaidhean uile air falbh. Chan fhada gus am feum sinne falbh cuideachd, ach càit an tèid sinn, agus ciamar a bhios sinn beò, chan aithne dhomh. An uair sin bidh an gleann air fhàsach, agus bidh e fo chaoraich aig an uachdaran.
Audio Interpretations
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Associated Locations
This event is associated with some locations in the Hebrides. For more details on these, see the list below, or go to the Interactive Explorer.
