← Back to the front page

40 Animals that Changed History

Tim Flight November 5, 2019 26 min

Medieval Dogs - Dog — King John of England with his dogs, England, c.1307-27. British Library

11. The Highland Clearances were caused by sheep

Romantic ruins of abandoned crofts such as this one are all that remain of many farming communities in Scotland after the Highland Clearances. Urban Ghosts Media

Between the mid-18^th and mid-19^th century, thousands of Scottish people were forced from their ancestral homes by heartless aristocrats. Some resisted: officials burned their homes or physically chased them with vicious dogs. Many fled to America; most who stayed on their new, infertile lands starved to death. So why did this disgraceful episode happen? Simple: sheep. After the Agricultural Revolution, small, individual farms no longer had economic value. The new way saw vast areas of land dedicated to raising huge flocks of sheep for their wool. Effectively, sheep had more rights than people in the eyes of greedy landowners.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk