The Highland Clearances, forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands in the 18th century, lead to mass emigration to the coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and abroad.
It is part of a process of agricultural change throughout the United Kingdom, but is particularly notorious due to the late timing, the lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants under Scots law, the abruptness of the change from the clan system and the brutality of many of the evictions.
