Strathnaver Museum receives financial assistance

Sutherland based Strathnaver Museum (www.strathnavermuseum.org.uk), which is currently going through a refurbisment ahead of a relaunch in 2023, has received a loan of £600,000 from Scotland's richest man, Danish billionaire Anders Holch Polvsen. The loan will help to keep things ticking along whilst the museum overcomes a legal wrangle following the discovery that the deeds to the property remain in the names of the original community trustees and not that of Strathnaver Museum Ltd. 

The museum focusses on the history of the area, the Mackay clan, and the Highland Clearances (na Fudaichean) in the district.

For more on the story visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl0x83xe0zo and https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/4853068/anders-povlsen-loan-to-strathnaver-museum/. 

Donations towards the refurbishment project can be made via the museum's home page.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Sir Tom Devine interviewed on NVTV about the Clearances

There is a great interview by Barry Sheppard with Scottish historian Sir Tom Devine, in the History Now series hosted on Belfast's NVTV channel (www.nvtv.co.uk), concerning Sir Tom's recent book The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, published in 2018. 

In the interview Sir Tom looks, of course, at the story of the Highland Clearances, but also the Lowland Clearances in particular from the mid-18th century to the mid 19th. He notes the massive changes in the Lowlands over the course of a sixty year period to be one of the most widespread forms of social engineering in the whole of Europe. He also discusses 'Highlandism' and 'clearance by stealth' in the Lowlands, with the non-renewal of leases when their time was up, and along the way flags up some interesting nuggets of information, such as the fact that the potato blight which caused the Famine in Ireland from 1845-1852 actually lasted longer in Scotland's West Highlands (for a decade), leading to mass emigration from the region. 

The 30 minute episode is available at https://www.nvtv.co.uk/shows/history-now-tom-devine/, and is presented below for convenience.

The book is published by Penguin (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/305/305334/the-scottish-clearances/9780141985930.html) and is available from many outlets.  

Chris

My next 5 week Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers course starts November 2nd - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.