The district of Braes is not just the part covered by the photos but, according to Derek Cooper, encompasses the whole area from Tianavaig Bay, just south of Portree down to the area at the north eastern end of Loch Slicachan where these photos were taken.
In 1882 the community played a significant part in the reform of Scottish land law and was the site of the last battle on British soil. The crofters had been refused grazing rights on the slopes of Ben Lee, the mountain to the west of Peinchorran and on the northern shores of Loch Sligachan. The crofters decided to protest by letting their sheep graze there anyway and by refusing to pay any rent until their grievances were accepted.
As usual, the authorities tried to bully their way out of trouble and the leaders of the crofters were threatened with eviction from their homes. When the sheriff's officer went to enforce the eviction, he was met by an angry mob who forced him to burn his papers and then sent him packing.
The establishment refused to compromise and the Chief Constable of Inverness was ordered to send a force of fifty policemen to enforce the will of the establishment. However, when it reached Braes it was met my a force of about a hundred local people armed with sticks, stones and agricultural implements. A pitched battle occurred. Although a group of crofters were imprisoned and subsequently fined in Inverness, the police got a comprehensive good hiding.
Passions were running so high that the government of the day dispatched warships, and marines were landed at Uig. By this time, public opinion realised that things were getting silly. Eventually, and as a direct result of the Battle of the Braes, Gladstone set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the grievances of the crofters and land reform took place. (see also the Boreraig page.)
It is interesting to compare official attitudes then with official attitudes now.
Even today, the British Government is arrogant and insensitive to opinion. Also the police complaints system is so loaded in favour of the police that, frankly, civil action or civil disobedience still remain the most effective way to get things done.
If this sounds like revolutionary anarchist talk, then consider recent events in the UK. The Irish Catholics have, in the pursuance of often legitimate grievances, waged a bloody terrorist war against the English, with inexcusable atrocities on both sides. They are now in government and at the negotiating table.
The poll tax riots saw the end of Margaret Thatcher.
Contrast this with the lack of success of the farmers' and hauliers' fuel protest in the year 2000 and, to take one of many other examples, the injustice perpetrated on those who wished to pursue pistol shooting as a sport when handguns were banned in the UK. These latter groups conducted their protests within the law and got nowhere.
Was the United States content to put up with British insensitivity as a colonial outpost, and did that great nation achieve its independence as a result of a cosy fireside chat, over tea and cakes, with the British establishment?
The message seems to be that violence works. It is sad. It is wrong and I do not condone it, but when I look at British history, I have difficulty faulting my own conclusions.
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Copyright © Gareth Boote 2000