Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T00:39:53.959Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Land use in the Uists since 1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

J. B. Caird
J. B. Caird
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Dundee
Get access

Synopsis

Land use and land tenure in the Uists has evolved over the past two centuries fashioned by the possibilities offered by the varying qualities of soils and terrain and by economic circumstances, estate and government policies. At the end of the 18th century, estate surveys and plans provide a detailed account of the patterns of tenure and land use. The crofting system, created between 1814 and 1818, with the aim of improving agricultural standards and as a means of maintaining a labour force to manufacture kelp, led to an expansion of the cultivated area. In the middle of the 19th century, large farms displaced much of the population and resulted in congestion in the remaining crofting townships and very intensive use of the available land. Government intervention led to the settlement of crofters on the majority of the farms after 1890. Since the ‘agricultural revolution’ of the 1950s, if the number of active crofters and croft units and the area of cropped land has declined, the size of the effective croft units and their cattle stocks has increased, particularly in the more recently formed townships. Cereal cropping is now virtually confined to the machairs and most of the crofts are under permanent grass.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 77: The Natural Environment of the Outer Hebrides , 1979 , pp. 505 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bald, W., 1805a. The Island of South Uist, the Property of Ranald George MacDonald, Esq., of Clanranald. RHP 1040, Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Bald, W., 1805b. Plan of the Island of Benbecula, the Property of Ranald George MacDonald, Esq., of Clanranald. RHP 3028, Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Bald, W., 1805c. Plan of the Estate of Boisdale, the Property of Colonel Alexander MacDonald. RHP 3066, Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Blackadder, J., 1800. Survey and Valuation of Lord Macdonald's Estate. Bosville-Macdonald Family Papers, DDBM/27/3. Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull.Google Scholar
Blackadder, J., 1813. Report Relating to the Valuation of the Estate of North Uist with a reference to the Plans of the Crofts that were laid out on that Estate in Autumn 1813. GD1/797/1. Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Caird, J. B., 1972. Changes in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 1951-71. Geoforum, 12, 72, 5–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, A., 1812. Accot. of Charge and Discharge between the Right Honble. Lord MacDonald and Allan Cameron, his Lordship's Chamberlain of North Uist for Rents Crop 1812. GD 221/153/1/1, Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Clanranald Additional Papers, 1798. Box 2, No. 217, Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Clanranald Papers, 1827. Box 10, No. 97, Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Evidence Taken by Her Majesty's Commissioners of Enquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Edinburgh 1884.Google Scholar
Fairhurst, H., 1967–1968. Rosal, a deserted township. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., 100, 135–169.Google Scholar
General Register Office, 1871. Ennumerator's Book, North Uist, Census 1871.Google Scholar
Hunter, J., 1976. The Making of the Crofting Community. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
MacDonald, J., 1811. General View of the Agriculture of the Hebrides. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Miller, R., 1967. Land use by summer shielings. Scot. Stud., 11, 193–221.Google Scholar
Moisley, H. A., 1961. North Uist in 1799. Scott. Geogr. Mag., 77, 89–92.Google Scholar
North Uist, 1833–1834. Factory Accounts of North Uist. GD/221/108/12. Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Reid, R., 1799. Plan of the Island of North Uist belonging to Alexander Lord Macdonald. RHP 1306, Scottish Record Office.Google Scholar
Ritchie, W., 1967. The Machair of South Uist. Scott. Geogr. Mag. 83, 161–173.Google Scholar
Ritchie, W., 1971. The Beaches of Barra and the Uists. Department of Geography, Univ. of Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Ritchie, W., 1976. The meaning and definition of machair. Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb., 42, 431–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, J., 1799. An essay on kelp. Prize Essays & Trans. Highld Soc. Scotl., 1, 1–31.Google Scholar