I'm Bruce Fummey, and today I want to talk to you about land justice in Scotland, and specifically
justice for men who'd fought for Britain against Hitler, and then found themselves pitted against a
British aristocrat who'd supported the Nazis. If I'm honest, it's also a self-indulgent excuse to
take you from Mallaig on a boat to one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland, and no not the big one
to the Isle of Skye, but on a smaller one to part of Scotland that you can only access by sea, Knoydart.
If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then why not click the
subscribe button at the bottom right hand side of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
Knoydart is a sixty thousand acre peninsula between two sea lochs; Loch Nevis and Loch Hourn, four Munros,
stunning scenery, and a village called Inverie. Surrounded by mountains, there's no link to the
mainland UK road network, so the only way in is by boat. Now the first time I visited was
in 2009, when I was lucky enough to be asked to perform my stand-up show about the Jacobites in
their village hall. Incidentally, you can buy a copy of that show performed in Perth
Theatre in my shop www.scotlandhistorytours.co.uk/shop I'm just saying.
The population of Knoydart's around 100. Of course a couple hundred years ago it was ten times
that. Then came the familiar history of Highland depopulation of the 19th Century.
Eventually people started to fight back. Now I've made a series of three videos on the Skye
Crofters Wars, and I'll leave a link to those videos at the end, but the end of
those Crofters Wars is where today's story starts. This was the time of the land raids.
Landowners hadn't just replaced people in small holdings with sheep,
Victorian Highland estates had been given over to hunting, shooting and fishing. Some had been left
largely uncared for. Knoydart experienced all three, but I'm getting ahead of myself. What were
land raids? In the period from roughly 1880 to 1920, several times in the Highlands and Islands, tenants,
cottars and crofters, acted in a concerted group to occupy land, or some estate or other. These events,
they weren't all the same. We're talking about a 40-year time period in different locations, with
varying sets of circumstances. One time on Lewis, the occupied land that had been farmed, it was now set
aside for deer hunting. On Vatersay, they targeted land left unused by an absentee landlady. In other
places the spark was different still, but the motivation was always land and justice. Some land
raids were essentially publicity stunts, to raise awareness of the plight and poverty of tenants.
Other times there were more resilient and determined takeovers, where people pegged
out land, planted crops, and stood their ground. They even went to prison for their convictions.
There were instances, where the women of the area, took the lead in an aggressive campaign of
intimidation, that would have brought violent retribution if men had acted. In many cases
the injustice of the situation was undeniable, and over time the Government introduced reforms,
which were never quite adequate. Then came 1914 and a war to end all wars.
Those whose sacrifice had been just short of the ultimate one, came back to a land fit for heroes.
The Government passed the Land Settlement Act. This allowed Government to acquire land and allocate it to
those very heroes that the land was fit for. This was what they would have called Post-war Britain,
but what we call, the Inter War Years. Now I'm going to pick up the stories Archie McDougall wrote
in his little book 'Knoydart, the Last Scottish Land Raid'. He was the last survivor of the
seven men of Knoydart, who took part in this land raid. Ironically, his grandfather was one of the
first shepherds to arrive on a sheep farm created, when 500 people from here were forcibly shipped
to Cape Breton. Archie recounts positive memories growing up here in Knoydart; of houses built for
estate workers, a large staff in the mansion house, 11 gardeners, a crew to run the yacht, and the
annual Ghillies Ball, to which everyone was invited. Then in the 30s the estate passed into the hands
of an Eton and Oxford educated millionaire brewer from down south called Lord Brocket.
Does that feel like a plot point in the story? That's right the layoffs started; gardens were
left to deteriorate, private no entry notices were put up, and all Lord Brocket seemed to be
concerned with was shooting deer. One time, when the previous owner of the estate turned up, they were
shooed away and told to get off his property. I'm not talking about one of the plebs from the estate,
I'm talking about another toff! Now it's the late 1930s, so you can imagine the
global political climate at the time. Oh did I say that Lord Brocket was a Conservative
MP for Liverpool Wavertree, and he was also involved with the Anglo-German Fellowship.
He was a Nazi. No he was a proper Nazi. There's a grainy picture of him meeting Hitler.
On one occasion, he said to an old shepherd who hadn't appropriately thanked him, that
if he'd been Himmler, he would have had him put up against the wall and shot. After the war
returning soldiers were given their old jobs back, but here on the Knoydart Estate, there were layoffs
and replacements brought in from outside. Seven local men were anxious about their future, in
Knoydart, where the population had dropped from 1500 to 80 in a century, and usable houses lay empty.
Father Macpherson, the Parish Priest, submitted a development plan to Government. He proposed
that the population of the estate be increased once again to 500 people, and the estate be actively
farmed, to aid post-war food production in a period of shortage, and national rationing. Brocket
blocked the plan, saying that in fact, he would reduce the number of crofters,
cattle and sheep. Surely the post-war Labour Government that gave us the NHS, would do
the right thing, in the face of a Tory Nazi? Write to the Secretary of State for Scotland, but nothing
In the face of inaction, action was required. This called for the old tactics of land raid.
On Tuesday, November the 9th, 1948, Sandy MacPhee, Duncan McPhail, Henry Macaskill, Jack Machardy, Archie
MacDonald and William Quinn, marched through the village, led by Father Macpherson, and they staked
out 65 acres of arable land, just at the back of the village. From Inverie House, Brocket petitioned
the Court of Session for an Interim Interdict. He also ordered that the land raiders were to be
allowed no farm implements. No supplies were to be allowed in the estate motor launch. He would
starve them out. If he'd been Himmler, he would have had them put up against the wall and shot!
Fortunately, Mr Lennon, who owned the Marine Hotel in Mallaig, ran a launch
and he made sure that they got everything that they needed. Now come further up the street with me.
This is the West Highland Hotel in Mallaig. On December the 22nd, 1948, the case between
Lord Brocket, and the seven men of Knoydart, was heard here. Now the seven men had a strong case;
the Department of Agriculture survey had found that there was room for improvement in the estate,
and Lord Brocket should consider a land resettlement program. Brocket didn't deign
to hear evidence himself. His solicitor made excuses of ill health and claimed that the problem
wasn't one of depopulation and underutilised land, but that the Priest, Father Macpherson had stirred
up trouble. This was an issue of troublesome Catholics v cooperative Protestants in the estate.
The fact that the seven were a mix of both faiths, and Archie McDougall in his book had never heard
of such a thing made no difference, and Brocket was aided by the national press parroting his argument.
The decision was made in favour of the Nazi sympathising, Lord Brocket, and against the
Nazi fighting, ex-servicemen. An appeal was made to the Secretary of State for Scotland, who said
that he'd visited Knoydart, but in fact he'd only sailed up Loch Nevis on a Government ship
and looked through binoculars. Sometimes, a land fit for heroes isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Years passed, and in 1984 a Surrey property dealer acquired the estate
and sold off sections, so that there was no longer a single absentee landlord in Knoydart. In 1991 the
Knoydart Land Raid Commemoration Committee erected this cairn, in honour of the seven men of Knoydart.
Six years later, the Knoydart Foundation was formed, and in March 1999, the community bought out the
estate. Archie McDougall, who wrote this book, died in the November. The last of the seven men of Knoydart,
lived to see this estate owned by the community. If you want to see where land
raids all started, then you can watch my videos on the Skye Crofters' Wars by clicking the link
here. In the meantime, tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.