The Clearances
“Burned are our
homes, exile and death,
Scattered the
loyal men.” Skye Boat Song
The trouble started
1745
Bloody Culloden
Charles became Betty
Fled to Skye
Then to France
“The Butcher”
“Bloody Duke of Cumberland
The act of Proscription
1746
The Dress Act included
Their swords surrendered
Their Tartans banned
Lairds became landlords
With their rack-renting
The crofters from the land
The practice
Makes me think
Of today’s gas prices
Steadily rising
As my husband and I
Listen to Steve McDonald
No more the pipes
will play
I’ve tried to imagine
What it was like
For the crofters
To kneel by loved one’s graves
Knowing they’d never be back
That the English had burned
The house the crofters left behind
That if they’d be dead
If they hadn’t have run
Knowing their farm
Now supports sheep
I cannot blame the Scots
For being resentful
The men of Sutherland
For what they said
When a man came around
Asking if they would fight overseas
Defend their country
“We have no country to fight for!
You have robbed us of our country
And gave it to sheep.
Therefore,
Since you prefer sheep to men,
Let sheep defend you.”
But I am not bitter
Towards the Old Enemy
Were it not for the Clearances
My own ancestors, the MacPhersons
Through the Parsons line
And those of my husband
The Andersons
Would not have come here
From over the
ocean’s end
The pipes and the Tartans
They have risen again
And though Caledonia
Ill never be the same
Though her children have spread far
It sill flows through our veins
We are the children of the Gael
We are Scotland
the brave