Old Photograph Ben Shieldaig Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of Ben Shieldaig rising above Loch Torridon, and the village of Shieldaig, Wester Ross, Scotland. This Scottish Highlands village was founded in 1800 with a view to training up seamen for war against Napoleon. After his, initial, defeat and exile to Elba, the community found itself a new role as a fishing village. Shieldaig did not escape the effects of the Highland Clearances. The village was part of the vast Applecross Estate and the community’s problems began when the estate changed hands from the MacKenzies of Applecross to the Duke of Leeds, whose wife was one of the family who had been responsible for the cruel Sutherland Clearances. The Duchess entrusted local matters to her gamekeeper, who, it soon became obvious, preferred sheep herds and sheep to mariners and sailors. Shieldaig fared badly in the next 30 years.



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