Spring Snow On Mountains On Visit To Sutherland Northern Highlands Of Scotland

Tour Scotland Spring travel video, with Scottish music, of snow on the mountains on May visit to Sutherland in Northern Scottish Highlands. Sutherlandshire, Scottish Gaelic: Cataibh, borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, later combined into Ross and Cromarty, to the south and the Atlantic to the north and west. The name Sutherland dates from the era of Norwegian Viking rule and settlement over much of the Highlands and Islands, under the rule of the jarl of Orkney. Although it contains some of the northernmost land in the island of Great Britain, it was called Suðrland, southern land, from the standpoint of Orkney and Caithness. In Gaelic, the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich MhicAoidh or Dùthaich 'IcAoidh in the northeast, Asainte or Assynt in the west, and Cataibh in the east. Cataibh is also sometimes used to refer to the area as a whole. The inland landscape is rugged and very sparsely populated. Sutherland has many rugged mountains. Sutherland, like other parts of the Highlands, was affected by the Highland Clearances, the eviction of tenants from their homes and associated farmland in the 18th and 19th centuries century by the landowners. Typically, this was to make way for large sheep farms. The Sutherland Estate, consisting of about two thirds of the county, had the largest scale clearances that occurred in the Highlands, much of this being carried out in 1812, 1814 and between 1819 and 1820. In this last period, the largest of the three listed, 1,068 families were evicted: representing an estimated 5,400 people. This population was provided with resettlement in coastal areas, with employment available in fishing or other industries. However, many instead moved to farms in Caithness or left Scotland to emigrate to Canada, America or Australia. Clan Sutherland is a Highland Scottish clan whose traditional territory is the shire of Sutherland in the far north of Scotland. The chief of the clan was also the powerful Earl of Sutherland, however in the early 16th century this title passed through marriage to a younger son of the chief of Clan Gordon. The habitual enemies of Clan Sutherland were the Clan Sinclair of Caithness and the Clan Mackay and Clan McLeod to the west of Sutherland. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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